“It’s here”, leader of the pursuers said. His name was Fulin and he was relatively experienced tracker. “I saw light coming from here. Fire, I believe. Something just burned here. Search the area!”

Kaden had left enough mess in the area and so it didn’t take long for the place of his advancement to be found.

“These fires were definitely caused by someone”, Fulin said and looked at the burns with a frown. “It’s human for sure. Not a beast.”

Some of his soldiers looked at him curiously.

“Someone cultivated here”, Fulin added. “There are burnt spots placed in rough circle and a bit of residue. The remnant at the volcano was a fiery one. A lot of fire based materials were taken out and collected from bodies, even if the saint heretics sabotaged the entrance. I think these were Fire Stones. Someone used them directly to cultivate here.”

“Wouldn’t that make them burn from inside out?” Asked one of the soldiers.

“There is no corpse, but a lot of fire seems to have leaked out”, Fulin continued. “We weren’t even far behind. Someone able to use Fire Stones in this way and quickly, without preparations, is very good with fire. Remember that by the time we reach him. I am actually more worried about his cultivation level. If he is at Formation stage, the rest of you will have to do team work while I tie him down myself.”

Soon after they found Kaden’s tracks. The direction where he was going was not difficult to guess. He would be trying to return to Saint Empire and there would be generally one direction to do so.

---

Kaden was not going at full speed. He was trying to get better sense of what he had just gained. Unfortunately he was stuck behind enemy lines and trying flashy spells was not a good idea.

He had already got a very good idea about how to further his magic cultivation to even greater degree. Since Kaden had connected his core and internal formation, he could make them work together. His internal formation could function just like humans normally and refine mana he needs. What if he created yet another loop around his core? One that takes already existing mana in his core as it comes out and refines it to mana types he needed, like fire, and then send it back?

With such method, he could refine his core to great purity over long period of time. This would just take what he had already, make it better and then put it back. Therefore one could say it would not increase quantity of his mana, but would increase quality. The already existing portions of his mana system handled the gathering part already at acceptable levels, though he could probably improve it too.

Kaden felt that now after he had reached Formation stage, he had reached an important step. He could now truly feed himself. Find some fire mana? His internal formation could do that for him. Little at a time, but still. Things like Fire Stones were still extremely useful, but he had limited amount. Good boost, but not something he could rely on.

His future cultivation path seemed clear. Enrich his core with right type of mana. This should get him to evolve once again to Lower Cari stage.

As for his human side, that he knew already. Grow the internal formation to reach everywhere, increase mana quality. Once that is complete, one can start to solidify all that mana everywhere in their bodies. In away, make entire body a mana channel. Mana will have a direct connection everywhere and not have to follow any path. Amount of mana would also far exceed what could be stored in just the channels.

Both of these paths seemed to involve enrichment of mana. Evolving core would also mean his body mana amount increases. This likely matches perfectly the intent of internal formation to spread mana evenly everywhere in your body.

The two paths were not that different and seemed to converge.

Kaden’s deep thoughts were interrupted suddenly. He felt the sudden and urgent need to move aside!

*Krakchooom!*

A tree exploded next to him into splinters as a lightning bolt struck it.

“Shit!” Kaden cursed and looked behind him. Pursuers! “I am in better condition now than before! I can defeat this group!”

Kaden counted six at Channel Opening and their leader seemed to be at Formation stage and also probably the source of the lightning bolt. This was very clear by how his body was crackling with electricity. Lightning was powerful, but the more power you wanted to use, the more you had to charge each strike. Knowing this, Kaden realized he could not allow the leader to charge up any more powerfull strikes and turned to attack him.

“What the hell is that?” Shouted one of the soldiers from Sacronan.

“Looks like our opponent is a mutant”, the leader, Fulin, said. “Knowing those heretics, they might even be creating mutants intentionally. Disgusting!”

Kaden decided to try eliminating the true danger first, even if he did see the weaklings moving to surround him.

*CHOOM*

Kaden’s Fire Beam shot almost immdiately. He realized it took far shorter time to charge it up and the burden it gave was much less. He would be able to use it again sooner, if he wanted to!

Fulin was struck by it, but he shielded himself with some kind of layer made from the lightning. Still, he was knocked backwards as if he was hit by a hammer. Even with the shield there was red glowing area on his armor afterwards.

“He is a fire user, all right”, Fulin shouted loudly. “Remember preparations!”

Kaden frowned. He realized they must have found his cultivation spot and determined what kind of mana he used.

“Oh well, I can always tear them apart”, Kaden thought to himself as he charged towards Fulin. “I do have a few things I’ll try before I go full brute force.”

In fact, Kaden kind of wanted to try out his new abilities. This group only had one Formation stage expert. Even if that one used lightning mana, it was still only one. The Channel Opening pests might be able to work something, if they truly worked together, but Kaden was not planning on allowing them to.

He was very familiar how people were hunted. He had done this exact thing before, but on the pursuer side, back at the Saint Empire. Could it be this team was some kind of elite team? From their behavior they were experienced, but they did not seem of the same quality as Verdict, for example.

Kaden unleashed a few ordinary fire balls towards Fulin one after another seemingly to disturb him and prevent him from charging more lightning bolts, but this was only to conceal his true actions. His ability to gather and control mana had grown and thus he was able to construct formations with greater ease. Even during combat!

He placed a few around while everyone were more concerned about dealing with his attacks. Kaden only basically had to gather the mana in himself, concentrate on a spot nearby with the structure in mind and the formation would invisibly form unless someone specifically sensed the area carefully. Usually he would have to have stopped for a moment and concentrate to maintain control. Now it was easy.

Kaden reached close range to Fulin and unleashed his core fully. Power spread through his body far easier than before. Fulin was surprised by Kaden’s sudden powerup, but due to experience he was able to defend. Kaden also noticed being near Fulin, made him feel like hair stand up and once he tried to strike, some amount of lightning jumped to him.

“How annoying”, Kaden cursed as he receive a few minor burns from the lightning.

*KAFOOOSH*

Something happened among the approaching Channel Opening stage soldiers. Suddenly a pillar of flame burst from the ground. The soldier barely had the moment to scream as the powerful stream of fire basically carved the flesh off from his body, charring him all the way to the bone. It took only a moment until the pillar disapeared and a blackened skeleton with most of its flesh charred off, fell to the ground.

“You can all die”, Kaden said with a sneer.

Kaden had a lot of ideas he could do with formations, but until now he had basically had to have a moment of peace so he could make them. Now he could use them already in combat. The ones he just used, would only kill weaklings at Channel Opening, but would not be enough for Formation stage. He assumed that would only give roughly similar burns, if he scored a direct hit with an ordinary fire ball.

“Everyone be careful!” Fulin shouted with grimace. “He must have scattered these traps all around! If you sense any mark it for others, if you cannot destroy it!”

“Hahaha”, Kaden laughed and leaped at Fulin with this talons ready to tear him. “Its useless! Once you are dead, I will tear out their entrails as a warning to anyone else after me!”

“Degenerate heretic!” Fulin shouted and avoided Kaden’s strike. “Gods will reject you, mutant!”

“Your pathetic gods won’t help you here”, Kaden shouted and closed in on to close combat again. He had decided to ignore the lightning leaking from Fulin.

Behind him a few more formations were triggered. One of them after being noticed and another burned a soldier who only got partially out of the area.

“Hehe”, Kaden sneered again. “Perhaps if you had caught me earlier, I would have more problems, but now you are mere target dummies for me!”

Kaden created more formations and prepared to deliver a deadly strike.

“More formations?” Fulin said as he realized Kaden was not any beginner with formations. He literally watched Kaden generate several formations on the spot. “He is a formation master! Remain careful and do not rush in and he will eventually exhaust himself!”

Thats what would work on normal formation master. Kaden had a core, which was an extremely dense reservoir of mana. He would last far longer than his opponents. The time required to exhaust him is far longer than any human would usually have. There was no way Kaden would give them such time!

The formations he had just created started to trigger in chain. It was not fire or other explosions this time, it was merely burst of mana. Its purpose was to cause a local disruption and weaken Fulin. As for Kaden himself, the mana was his own and would have minimal effect on him.

“Die!” Kaden shouted and slashed sideways with his talons.

Fulin received deep wounds, but didn’t die. Just significant injuries once his defenses suddenly were disrupted. That annoying lightning was also diminished greatly allowing Kaden to attack.

“Shit!” Fulin shouted. “This mutant is dangerous! Escape if you can and send information back. We need stronger team. I will hold him back for a moment and then rejoin!”

Kaden frowned. He didn’t want more pursuers! He would be chased all the time if that happened! Kaden started blasting more attacks on the soldiers at Channel Opening to kill them as they were starting to scatter away.

“No you don’t!” Fulin shouted and rushed at Kaden, preventing him from killing the soldiers. He launched a lightning bolt at Kaden.

“Fool!” Kaden screamed. He charged up his mana armor and prepared to be hit. The bolt of lightning struck him and then coursed through him leaving electrical burns. “You will only prolong their deaths!”

He had received yet another injury and felt numbness. It was time to stop playing around and kill the man.

Kaden had already released his core and now he activated his plume too. He then screeched and charged at Fulin.

“Shit!” Fulin noticed Kaden’s another power up. He then shot a few weaker lightning bolts at him. “You go against natural order set by gods! You saints are heretics!”

“Just shut up and die!” Kaden screamed and released a Flame Burst to dull the lightning bolts. They still struck him, but he tanked the hits with his armor and received only minor damage this time. This allowed him to strike Fulin again at the same place where the last hit had landed.

This time Kaden was able to tear open the same wounds some more. Fulin took steps back, but Kaden ferociously leaped on him and started ripping him apart. Soon Kaden was covered in blood and pieces of flesh.

Once he was certain Fulin was dead, he left after the escaped Channel Opening soldiers. He didn’t want them to escape and deliver information about him!

With his eyes, he could see some and he quickly rushed after them. They were at Channel Opening and they could provide no resistance alone.

Kaden killed them one by one, but after each, it became difficult to find another. It was a forest and he could not see through trees nor did his senses reach far enough.

He counted that one had escaped by the time he could no longer find any more.

Kaden roared in rage!

There was nothing he could do. If he really tried to find the last one, he would waste time in the area and not even necessarily find anything. He returned only to pick Fulin until he escaped at full speed. He had to get far enough and move carefully.