Sam became aware of Amari's presence a few moments later, extending his Worldsense. It was more of an instinctual reaction than anything else, prompted by his highly advanced senses, but as soon as he did so, he noticed the E Ranker mirroring his stride.

He continued walking, but in his mind's eye, he followed his pursuer. In the ethereal world of the Dao, the figure was nothing but a collection of various Daos, dominated by the Seed that marked it as an E Ranker. Following a path of Perception, the Dao was weak in combat, but seemed to be adapted towards pursuit. Pursuit like the one that its wielder was currently engaged in.

Sam wended his way through a crowd of F Rankers, using a fraction of his aura to move them out of the way. All around him, the faint hum of conversation rang out, only cut off in his direct vicinity. Normally, he ignored the tide of information provided by his advanced senses, but now he let it loose.

The scent of a thousand perfumes, the feel of tiny breezes conducted even through his armor. A world of sensory information assaulted him, but one above all he paid attention to. Sound. A tapestry of fears, worries and a few flashes of joy were parsed by his mind in an instant. Instantly, he built a better picture of what was going on here.

The Worldsea might have been under the dominion of a single sovereign, but Elvras was only a Peak E Ranker, having been stuck on the cusp of D Rank for decades. He was not powerful enough to hold true sway over a world this size, not like a D Ranker could. Creeping incursions of ill intent had poisoned his domain, from rebellions to the most pressing of all, the Dreamer cultists.

Their headquarters was on the other end of the Worldsea, on the second largest island on the planet. Their leader called herself Slumber, a powerful illusionist. It was a path that Sam had little experience with, and indeed, one that he could not parse from the musings of F Rankers. However, he did get enough of an idea from the conversations. She used a warped concept of Life elemental energy and Daos of that path to interfere with the workings of the sapient mind. Her followers used a different path, one that revolved around more physical illusions than mental ones.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

At that moment, Sam turned into an alleyway, still watching his tail as they followed. Once he was about fifty feet down, he teleported away, hovering in the air far enough above the city that no F Ranker could have spotted him without knowing that he was there. Planes of reflective Dao energy covered him like a mirror.

Taking inspiration from his insights into the nature of teleportation, Sam narrowed down the cone of searching Dao energy that made up his Worldsense skill, locking it onto his follower, miles below. As soon as they ducked into the alley, he teleported once more, appearing behind them.

"Who are you?" Sam said mildly. The other person was revealed as a smaller woman as she turned. Oddly, she had an arm protruding from her backside like a tail, but Sam had seen far stranger things. Instead, he waited for her response.

He received it, in the form of a bullet of charged mana from her gun. Sam didn't even blink, not that he needed to, and reached out. Without using his Dao, mana or elemental power, he caught the projectile with his physical might alone. Then he crushed the bullet, a snap ringing out as it detonated within the iron grip of his hand.

Sam reached up, and removed his helmet, just so the woman could see his face. He frowned. "You took it upon yourself to follow me without even knowing what I was capable of?" As sparks flared around his fingers, the last of the projectile vanishing, he took a step forwards. The air around him whooshed as he pushed his way through it, appearing faster than the alien woman could react. "Explain yourself, or I might have to do something we'll both regret."

"You don't really fit your Daos," the woman replied, not exactly the answer Sam had expected. "Most Vengeance cultivators are the kill first ask questions later type."

Sam sighed, and fixed the alien with a sharp glare. "One more chance."

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