86 The First of Many Old Grudges (2/2)

For the first time, Daniel started to think that his Karmic System might be more detrimental to his perception of good and bad than it would be useful.

He relied too much on the its ability to read people's karma, and that had to stop. After a few minutes of thinking, Daniel came to the decision of checking a person's karma only after forming his own opinion on them.

His ability to read karma would then become one of the details that contributed to his opinion, instead of being the whole base on which his opinion of a person's character formed.

Thanks to this way of thinking, Daniel had come to appreciate Ligart's natural talent of distinguishing between good and bad people even more.

With only a day missing before the appointed time, Daniel decided to stroll around the city and relax. But before he could even leave the square, he felt his ki being erased from one of his ki flags.

In the blink of an eye, Daniel had disappeared from where he was standing, and had appeared in mid air right above a busy street.

In this busy street, Ligart was lying on the ground while covered in bruises while surrounded by a group of cultivators. Most of these cultivators were at the peak of the fifth rank, while the remaining ten, were at various stages of the sixth rank of cultivation.

Daniel recognized these people as part of a group which belonged to the mercenary horde. They hadn't learned the specific name of this group, but Daniel remembered that he had killed at least two of their members.

The group was surrounding Ligart and looked like they were waiting for somebody else to arrive. Some of them presented light injuries, clearly caused by Ligart's attempt to fight back.

Daniel quietly observed the situation from above a building's roof.

Surely enough, a middle aged man dressed in a similar attire to the one the rest were wearing, approached the site at high speed. He then stopped at the edge of the group, which split in order to let him through.

”He is not the one who killed your son, but one of the killer's group.” Said one of the injured young men while looking hatefully at Ligart.

Daniel was really surprised to see that the middle aged man was at the early seventh rank of martial cultivation.

This man looked at Ligart and said ”You.. you are coming with me. After spending a few days together, you'll tell me everything about where to find the rest of your group of vermins..” His tone was vicious and filled with repressed killing intent.

The man approached the injured Ligart, and just as he was about to knock him out, a voice thatcame from up in the sky stopped him.

”Okay, that's enough..” Said Daniel while walking down an invisible flight of stairs.

”IT'S HIM!” Shouted the injured young man. ”That's the one who killed your son! I've seen it with my own eyes!”

After hearing the young man's words, the man immediately unsheathed his sword and pounced at Daniel. The whole action took an instant to play, but when the man expected to feel the edge of his sword pierce through Daniel's flesh, he instead heard the familiar sound of the edge of his sword split the air in two.

A light blue ki attack kept going in the air after the slashing motion, cutting straight through the building behind Daniel, and coming out from the other side.

After a moment of surprise, the man turned around in order to find Daniel. Which was currently sitting next to Ligart, with one of his hands pressed against the latter's shoulder.

Clear and milky white essence could be clearly seen seeping into Ligart's skin and slowly closing his wounds.

”You are too impulsive for your age.. Let's talk.” Said Daniel with a neutral voice.

The man showed a face filled with a rage deeper than ever. He then said with a vicious voice ”YOU! You have killed my boy.. There is nothing you can say to apologize for what you've done!.. I must have your head before the sun sets, or I will never be able to feel like a man again!” His eyes were getting watery from how deep his rage towards Daniel, and his sadness towards the loss of his son were.

”All those whom I've killed had already initiated an attack that, had I not avoided, would have killed me instead. I never meant to apologize..” Responded Daniel in a matter-of-fact tone. He then said ”I am not responsible for the loss I've caused by killing someone who tried to kill me.. But by solving this matter with words, I might prevent the rest of your family from feeling that kind of loss once again.”

Daniel words were true. During the battle in the rocky forest he hadn't killed anyone who didn't attempt to take his life, or one of his friend's lives. The reason was simple.. He did not like to kill.

The man seemed to have calmed down on the outside, but those who knew him, knew that he was only focusing on the battle. He looked at Daniel and barked ”Enough talking.”

He then pounced at Daniel with such a speed, that it looked like he had teleported.

His sword was high up in the air, and just as he was about to slash downwards, a dozen of small rocky spikes burst out from the ground and attempted to pierce his body.

A shield suddenly appeared on his left arm, which he used to defend himself from Daniel's attack.

The shield was a high level weapon, and was made with very tough materials, but they could do nothing against Daniel's comprehension of earth essence.

The tips of the spikes suddenly turned into diamonds, which easily perforated the shield.

About to be impaled, the man stepped over the internal part of the shield, and jumped high up in the air.

Just as he was about to land on the ground and attempt another attack, an enormous rocky hand burst out from underground, and caught the man in the air.

The man immediately tried to struggle, and at first he managed to free his arms by overpowering Daniel's spiritual essence.

When it seemed like the man was about to free himself, he felt the rock that was keeping him in place turn into sand. After only a seconds, the sand had become so fine that it could be mistaken for dust.

It was at this moment that the man started to feel the moisture increase inside it.

Slowly, water filtered into the sand bit by bit. This went on until the dusty clump of fine sand became saturated with water and turned into a floating clump of quicksand.

Without a solid surface on which he could make lever on, the man pointlessly tried to swim out of the quicksand. ”YOU BASTARD! LET ME OUT OF HERE!” Shouted the man furiously.

Daniel wanted to finish this quickly, so he changed the air composition around the man's head into one devoid of oxygen, and making him faint after a bit more than five minutes.

Once out cold, Daniel dropped him on the ground, and teleported away with Ligart.