As Jin took the blade out, he looked at his surroundings calmly. After a few moments, he breathed a sigh of relief. It seems like there wasn't anyone watching on the sidelines. Then, he looked at the guy who gave him so much trouble. He was glad to have found this group.

He could have probably one-shot this spiritual warrior with the ambush but he didn't do so. He wanted to gauge the difference in realm. He had a few sparring sessions with Soo-Hyun but the girl was always holding back and probably didn't know how to truly use her new powers. It wasn't a good enough sample.

This guy was a good one. He fought for his life so gave it his all. It's fortunate that he was a youth and lacked experience. This fight proved that Jin's worries weren't unfounded. A spiritual warrior was certainly different. He didn't feel like the man himself was much stronger than him, body-wise. Sure, there was a gap due to him being in a higher stage but that was it. Jin was used to use his advanced techniques to fight higher stages opponents.

What had frightened him slightly were the outburst of power shown by the guy. The power of his charge was unlike what should have been possible. It seemed like he would have to reevaluate the weight of spiritual energy use during battles even at the lowest of spiritual realms.

The fact that his sword couldn't deviate the other's spear was more shocking. It didn't feel like he was repulsed by strength but something else. It had felt weird. And now, because of this, he had a spear in his body. And it was getting incredibly painful.

He took it out of his body and took off his robe. He took the fire-lightning tool from his pouch and cauterized both wounds. All the while screaming in pain. Of course it hurts to burn oneself. It didn't matter if one had experienced it before. Pain was pain. You don't get used to pain.

He couldn't get used to it either. He was experienced but that was a different matter altogether. He was forced to endure in the end. Once he finished, he was sweating buckets. He had to sit for a while, concentrating on his breathing, in order not to pass out.

Still, he would no longer bleed and there were not much risks of infection left. He proceeded to cut the robe of his foe to produce a makeshift bandage before putting his own robe back on. There was an hole in it now but it was fine. It wasn't that big and wouldn't be detrimental to his stealth.

As he looked at the corpse, he once again felt the reality of the danger he was in. Spiritual warriors were truly different. If not for this guy being an inexperienced spear user, he might have died. If this guy had been smart enough to let go of the spear and dodge away... The issue of the battle would have been vastly different.

Getting away with only this wound was fortunate.

But he couldn't remain here. Cultivators aside, the blood might attract beasts. While he would be able to dispatch them, he didn't want to risk it. He had been wounded and the process of burning himself did take a lot of stamina out of him.

As such, he proceeded to loot the pouch of the guy and checked if he had anything else on his person. He didn't. As for the pouch, there wasn't much in it. Only the plate and a few coins along with some rations... Next he approached the two followers of the guy. One had already died while the other was trying to get away using the remaining strength he had to crawl.

Needless to say, even if Jin didn't make a move, the guy would go nowhere. His crawling wasn't moving him more than militers at a time. He would die soon even if left alone. But Jin killed him with a stab of his sword, leaving the sword in the body.

As he checked them, he could only sigh at the poor bastards. They had nothing at all. He could only grab the plates. He picked their spears and took back the swords he had launched. As for the sword he fought with, he left it beyond. Blood might have decreased its sharpness.

He left the scene of his killing and looked for a cozy area to rest. He wasn't foolish enough to keep fighting right after this. He needed to rest first and he would.

It was only at night that he woke up and climbed down from the tree he had napped in after making sure there was no one close-by. Since he was refreshed and no longer tired, he decided to move on. The wound still hurt but he could make do with this.

He walked silently for some time until he met another group...

Three days later, he was nearing the middle of the area and decided to take extra caution. it was likely that he would meet people from the other side from here on out. Worst case, he would end up in group fights. It was a must to stay low until he crossed that maximum danger area.

Once he was on the other side, it would become trickier mentally but less physically dangerous compared to the middle area. The biggest hurdle would be to dodge the group fights that were probably happening all over this particular part of the Area 27.

Meanwhile, at this time, in the mountains on the North-West Side, there was a Prince of the Empire. It was the one everyone had no idea where he had been and what he did. Prince Theorurin Jun-Ho was overlooking the fruits of his hard work of the past months. A giant dam. He turned to look at one of his counsellors and asked: " Are the trenches built? " to which the counsellor nodded and detailed: " As you ordered. Once the dam breaks, the water will flow exactly where we want it to "

The Prince grinned as he nodded and gave the command: "Good. It is time then, break the dam"