4 First Blood

Ling Tian walked the streets and eventually saw more and more people, looking back at the state of the previous part of the city, he realized he was in the slums before. He shook his head and approached an old man who walked with a stick, he put on a fake smile on his face and asked, "Excuse me, Where can I find an Inn? Also, Where can sell this sword?"

The old man took a good look at him and sneered, "A beggar like you doesn't belong here, go away."

The old man then turned around and walked away, ignoring him.

Ling Tian's jaws nearly hit the ground, 'What the? Okay, maybe the old man had a bad day, let's try again.'

He approached a middle-aged man who was carrying a bunch of wood on his back, he asked the same questions and got the same answer!

A few veins appeared on his forehead as his eyes grew slightly dark, 'What's up with these people? Aren't beggars people too? Since they want to play like this then I will play along...'.

He silently left as he continued thinking, 'It seems there is heavy discrimination in this world as well...'

He walked for a while and reached the middle parts of the city, He gawked as he didn't expect so much difference between the parts of the city. The lower parts looked dirty and ancient, the middle parts, however, looked very clean; The walls were decorated and many mansions and great buildings were visible on the sides of the streets, people wore luxurious robes and barely spared him a glance as if he didn't exist.

His gawking was interrupted by a guard who looked at him with ill intent, he was twice his size and very buff looking.

Ling Tian looked at the guard with wide eyes, 'Is he a human or a gorilla? He looks like a mass of muscle that had grown limbs and such.'

The people on the streets slowly gathered and formed a circle around the two of them, all this time Ling Tian was looking at the guard with curiosity while the guard tried to intimidate him to no avail.

"Beggar, Get the fu*k out of here or I will kill you! Dogs aren't meant to step foot on this street!" The guard violently shouted and stepped closer to Ling Tian trying to intimidate him with his superior height and size.

Meanwhile, Ling Tian's face froze, 'Is this actually happening?! It seems all cultivation worlds have idiots like these...'

The guard saw his frozen face and thought he was stiff from fear, he snickered, "Get Lost dog."

Ling Tian's eyes grew cold as his face became expressionless, "Insult me one more time and you will die." He had his own pride.

Inside, however, he was panicking a little, 'Am I stronger or weaker than him? What do I do if he has a background, things like this usually lead to endless feuds! Can I really kill him? I have never killed anyone! I shouldn't have come to this part of the city...'

The guard's eyes widened and the growing audience began laughing. "Haha, I like this one. He has pride at least."

"What's the point? They all die in the end..."

"A beggar dares to come here, I want to see him die. Dogs belong with dogs..."

The Guard heard them and smiled, however, anger was visible in his eyes, "Nice joke, however, this joke cost you your life; Blame your bad luck for this..." the Guard took out a mace and grinned at Ling Tian maniacally.

The illumination in the street was mainly due to the fire that burned on top of the walls because the sky was covered with black clouds, the guard looked extra intimidating due to that.

Ling Tian had never been in a situation like this, being belittled by an audience and someone so big looking at him with killing intent, his heart began beating faster and sweat appeared on his face but at the same time, he felt immense anger inside.

The guard jumped at him suddenly and lifted his mace, on his face a cruel smile, the ground trembled a bit due to the guard's great weight. Ling Tian saw the attack but to his surprise, it wasn't as fast as he expected; It was actually slow enough for him to track the guard's movement. He stepped back and easily dodged the mace which hit the ground and caused the ground to tremble a little.

The wind of the attack hit his face which shocked him, 'Just how much force did that carry?!'

The Guard felt humiliated as the audience laughed since the little beggar had dodged his attack. He decided to swiftly attack again to take back his pride.

Meanwhile, Ling Tian saw the guard dash toward him again, mace in hand and face ugly. He wanted to dodge again but he saw an opening, 'This bastard, Let me punch him with all of my power and see what happens; If he tanks it, I am running away.'

He suddenly jumped, to his surprise he jumped more than he intended to, he had jumped nearly 2 meters; The guard's mace passed below his feet by a hair's breadth since he was going to attack him from above, he kicked the guard in the head lightly and the guard's balance broke which caused him to stumble forward.

Ling Tian landed on the ground and immediately turned and dashed towards the guard with all the speed he could muster, not caring about falling on the ground or the aftermath; He closed his eyes that brief moment for maximum concentration and clenched his right hand into a fist and with a battle-cry punched with all he had. He felt his punch connected with the guard's back and then nothing. He only felt a weak force resisting his fist that helped him balance to not fall on the ground. A loud wheezing sound of violent air and wind reached his ears and he felt the waves on his skin.

He opened his eyes with a frown and froze in shock. The front of his body that faced the back of the guard was covered in red especially his right hand, it was dripping with blood. Guts, organs, and pieces of flesh and bones were scattered in front of him, not just of one person but several.

The part of the audience that stood in the direction of his punch was missing and only a bloody mist was in the air. Further away, the wall was cracked and he could see the armor of the guard embedded in different places of the wall, all dripping with blood, one piece that was the one he had directly attacked had exploded into a thousand pieces. 'Is this how One-punch man feels?!'

A metallic scent reached his nose; The sounds of the previously laughing audience screaming in terror; His eyes widened as he looked at his right hand dripping with blood. 'Did I just kill several people?!'

He saw the ground, it was covered in body parts and blood in a shockwave shape all the way to the wall in the distance. He entered a daze, the audience frantically ran away in terror. A garrison of guards who were looking on silently from afar began running towards him.

The commander looked at his squad and said grimly, "We have a cultivator on hand, go alarm the City lord..." One of his men nodded and ran towards a certain direction.

The commander approached Ling Tian and noticed he was in a daze, 'The perfect chance! If I can land a surprise strike, I might be able to kill him and get a lot of credit.'

He dashed towards him and brandished the spear he had in a thrust with all his power.

The spear instantly reached his back and connected with his body, a mocking smile appeared on the face of the commander, 'So what if he is a cultivator? He will die all the same.' His train of thought stopped as a massive rebound force originating from his spear hit his hands and blew him back.

'WHAT?!' he heard the sound of his arm's bones breaking and spit a mouthful of blood. 'How?!'

Ling Tian woke up from his daze when he felt something sharp hit him in the back. He turned around to see a spear piercing his back, he panicked a little and grasped it and took it out, to his surprise it only hurt a little, he realized it had only pierced his skin a little. It hadn't even been able to pierce his muscles. He looked and saw the culprit on the ground screaming in pain with his arms twisted in all the wrong ways.

He looked at his body and fell into thought, 'I killed people... I feel disgusted and a little guilty but it isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. The smell sucks and the sight is vomit-worthy but I have seen such sights before when butchers killed animals... How fickle and fragile human life is... I shouldn't feel anything, I was going to be on the ground like them If I hadn't cultivated a little. This is my new reality, I must get used to it!'

He clenched his fist and resolved and determination appeared in his dark eyes, his face that had been covered with dirt before, now covered with blood, turned cold.

'I refuse to die again... I refuse to feel that pain, I will live to achieve the highest peak of life and become immortal!'

He turned and saw a whole garrison of troops heading his way, the commander used to be ahead because he wanted to land a surprise attack on him.

Ling Tian hesitated for a moment and began running away, 'I am really strong but I don't know many people there are and how many cultivators could be there stronger than me, I don't want to die... It's the best I retreat and farm EP.'

He slowly increased his pace and his speed became very fast, he ran as fast as a speeding car and accelerated even more as he left them in the dust. The sword that he carried all this time, was left on the ground. He had forgotten all about it in the fight due to nervousness and panic. He ran so fast that he left footsteps on the ground due to the intense force of his legs running.