Martial research master

He managed to reach the guy before he could go up the stairs. Li Meng decided to lead with a sword attack. The assassin was too busy to defend against the incoming sword, that he failed to escape. Li Meng continued his attacks until he managed to push the assassin back to the first floor.

He wanted to avoid the smoke which filled half of the room. He couldn't give a favourable environment to a capable assassin like this one. He decided to rotate the sword sideways, which forced the assassin to defend horizontally leaving his upper body unguarded. 

LI meng took advantage of this and used a thunderous palm strike on the left shoulder. The defence was laying a huge burden on the assassin's arm, and the thunder strike to the jointed, forced him to drop his sword, as half the arm suddenly lost its sensation. The figure jumped backwards to create some distance, but Li Meng didn't let him have a breather.

He used the sword to slice towards his right arm, and as the assassin tried to lean backwards to avoid the strike, the left arm was once again exposed, which became prey to Li Meng's palm strikes. Another two sets of attacks to the same region resulted in breaking the arm and made it unusable.

The assassin couldn't help but cry out of pain, but he remained rational to read the situation. He was at a disadvantage. His left arm was no longer functioning and he had lost his weapon. He had to flee the scene if he wanted to preserve his life. The only way to do this was to use a set of smoke bombs.

He needed to grab an opportunity to unleash another set of smoke bombs towards Li Meng. Li Meng continued his attacks. This time he aimed to cripple the legs of the assassin so he couldn't move around. He sliced towards the abdomen, which the assassin avoided by turning sideways while exposing his right leg.

Li Meng used his body cultivation to strikje a powerful blow to the right leg joint.

'Crack" A cracking sound was heard from the assassin's leg as he wailed in enormous pain. Tow of his limbs was crippled by Li Meng. He had no choice but to use his crippled arm to try and distract Li meng with a faint attack, and while Li Meng tried to avoid it, he saw the man reaching into his clothes and taking out two more pouches.

The man then dropped them directly on the floor nearby, releasing a huge storm of smoke that blinded Li Meng for a second. Li Meng asked the Keeper to find his location, but he suddenly felt an attack approaching from above. He raised his sword to guard against it and was pushed back a little in the process.

"Where is he?"

"He is gone, boy. I have to say. These are a skilled group of men. They managed to judge the situation so accurately and even managed to escape from you. They must have been trained by a high-level master to have learnt such absurd battle skills."

"Their battle experience is also immense. It is much higher than you. Although you could easily overwhelm him in terms of strength, his battle instincts are much more polished than yours. He knew that the situation was in your favour and didn't think twice before sacrificing his arm to escape."

"Just what are their origin. They shouldn't be students of thunder academy. I never heard of there being someone so skilled at the king level, much less a whole group of them. Also, he said that they are not the only ones, which means there are more to come who are at least on the same level as the man before."

"Let's hope that your senior brother managed to capture some of them. Only they could answer these question of yours."

Li meng nodded his head and rushed to the third floor. He could see extensive damage caused to the second floor and the stairs which lead to above. He climbed up the stairs, to find the third floor in an utter mess with all the walls and rooms destroyed. Only a single table remained with a man sitting beside it. There ewer two figure lying on the ground beside the table.

"You managed to complete the task brother." The man was none other than Ren Wang.

"I let two of them escaped. But both of them are severely injured, with one missing two of  his limbs." 

"that is higher than the result I expected from you. You managed to kill the other 6 and injure the other two who were at the peak of Qi King level. You even had one of them lose two of his limbs. You have proven your strength. I declare you to have passed the first test. You can officially attend the second job."

"That was a test to observe my strength." Li Meng expected this situation. It was quite obvious, but he still acted aloof.

"The second task is no small matter. It is highly dangerous even if you manage to break through the peak of Qi King."

"Where is the location of the task?"

"The location is within the bone-grave swamp near the water mist village." Li Meng had heard a lot about water mist village. It was a great cultivation ground for the water element practitioners. It was one of the marked locations where he could find water element resources to practice in.

"The Bone-grave swamp is something unknown to me."

"It is one of the forbidden grounds within the central plains which requires one to have a cultivation base of intermediate Qi King to even approach the location. "

"And my task is within the swamp."

"Yes. Let's first discuss what the Bone-grave swamp is all about. The reason for its to be dangerous location is because of the environment within it. It is a location with extremely high poison miasma. The whole area is filled with deadly poison mist. Just like the water mist village is a heaven for the water element, the Bone-grave swamp is a heaven of posion, or hell would be a better term to describe it."

"It is a location which is scoured by the top masters in search of poison born treasures, or poison arts users, an alchemist who need to find some materials also venture within their depth. It is said that it is a natural treasure trove filled with many poisonous resources."

"Why is it a forbidden zone then? Wouldn't it be a heaven for alchemist and poison master to practice in?"

"It is to some extent, but even QI Monarchs have died inside of it. Not just any Qi Monarch, high-grade Qi Monarchs. Is it enough for it to be termed as a forbidden zone. Records are stating that even Qi Dominators have died inside of it. No one had managed to venture to the deepest part of the swamp yet."

"Given your cultivation, your mission is far from the core region. You are just going to enter a little deep within the swamp and stay there for some time collecting herbs and practising cultivation.  Your thunder cultivation is quite good, and there are certain things within the swamp which could help your thunder energy purify and become even stronger."

Reng Wang took out a message token which was filled with the details. There were a huge number of herbs mentioned within the slip along with their pictures, descriptions, possible region to find them, as well as a brief description of what they could do.

"The reward for the first mission was something good, but you no longer need it, hence I will search for something more suitable for you. Meanwhile, the reward for this mission is quite generous. Only by completing this mission ould, you can reach the minimum qualification to attend the third task."

"I will not be interfering in your mission anymore. Every single enemy that thunder child send towards you will be reaching you unhindered. You need to survive on your own starting from now. It will be the survival race of the fittest. Also, the dangerous thing about the swamp is not its poison, it's the people within it."

"You must have seen the situation in Taiwan mountains, where bandit runs wild. The swamp is ten times more heinous than this. The posion masters who live tee are mostly ruthless serial killers and exterminators, some of whom are beyond even my level. You need to come out of there alive, and return to the academy."

Li Meng was shocked by the news. He didn't expect the second task to be so dangerous. But with danger came opportunity. There was something he wanted to practice for a long time but wasn't able to. He wanted to gain the body immune to poisons, and this swamp seemed to be the perfect location for that.

"Do you accept the mission?" Ren Wang asked.

"I accept." Li meng took the message token and kept it in his ring.

"I will meet you in the academy then. The time limit is a half-year at most. If you can't return within that time, you will be marked as to have failed your mission.". Li meng nodded. The journey was going to take a long time and he had to search for so many herbs. There were many hidden enemies and more to come. He needed to be prepared.

"I will take my leave then." Ren Wang nodded and got immersed in his wine. Li Meng got up and left.

...............…..

After Li Meng was gone for a long time, Ren Wang was still sitting at the table, when the owner who was previously injured by the assassin entered the room.

"Why didn't you tell him the truth?" The owner's voice was different from before. It sounded young and powerful.

"I didn't expect him to have broken through the advanced realm. The second task was for him to enter the advanced realm which he had completed. It is only fair to have sent him to attend the third task."

"I am asking about the lie which you said."

"You need to say words of motivation to younglings. That is the best push for them to improve upon."

'Are we not going to protect him in the journey. Master asked us o do so."

"A tiger can't grow wings in a shelter. He needs to fight his way to the top. He needs to pile up a huge amount of corpses for that." Ren Wang lifted his cup. " Come on elder brother, you know my style. You shouldn't be so grim about the situation. Our junior brother is quite powerful. He will be successful."

The owner turned out to be Li Meng's third senior brother.