One Wish to Own the World

"Kid, are you telling me that Sixth Elder has enough free time to take her son to a distant spot in the forest two days in a row? I don't believe it!"

"I never said my mom took me here, I'm here by myself."

"Then scram. Even if your parents are powerful, you can't bully everyone else in the sect. When you enter the inner sect as a disciple, you can start competing for resources."

The man already doubted Ken's identity. The only reason he didn't just beat him was the token, which made him unwilling to take the risk of hurting the real kid of the sixth elder.

"So you're part of the inner sect? What's your rank?"

"I see you're quite knowledgeable about the sect for your age. I'm Ron, ranked 223 in the inner sect."

"That's amazing, Big Brother Ron! What's your cultivation stage?"

Ken walked toward the man while playing on his ego.

"Haha, Little Brother, I'm at the top of the Soul Strengthening Stage. Do you know what it means?"

"No, but it sounds powerful!"

"It is, I'll soon get to the next-"

*Wishhh*

The whistle Ken had listened to so many times in the past day echoed in the open space once more. Ken stood right in front of Ron with his sword piercing through the latter's right eye.

Ron had a look of disbelief in his eyes. The movement was too fast for him to follow, and he wasn't even prepared for it. All he knew was that he suddenly felt a sharp pain and a pulse of foreign Qi being injected into his brain, causing a massive Qi deviation and making him collapse to the ground.

"…W-why did you kill me?"

He asked the boy standing above him. He was so shocked that he didn't even know what question to ask. How was the child so strong? What reason did he have to kill him?

Ken just shrugged back and answered with an uncaring voice.

"I just felt that I could finally master this dashing technique if I attacked. I've practiced it for a few hours now."

Ken himself had trouble understanding why he did that. He already decided not to kill others for practice, yet when he saw Ron and felt the chance to understand his art swiftly by attacking, he didn't stop himself from taking the chance.

"That's… all?"

Ron had difficulties accepting death for such minor reasons. He was aggrieved and wanted justice.

"It's illegal killing disciples in the sect…"

His consciousness was fading slowly until he fell into a deep sleep never to return. Ken looked at him with cold eyes and thought of how to take care of the mess.

"You could've lived if you weren't interrupting the wrong person's training in the wrong place at the wrong time. But thank you for helping me master this move and donating your body to science."

Ken delivered a short eulogy before making a larger cut in the corpse's throat to make his blood spill. He then just grabbed its foot and threw it powerfully into the forest, where beasts will make sure to eat the free meat when they get attracted to the scent of blood.

To his surprise, he could think clearly and rationally. He wasn't overwhelmed by his first kill, nor felt bad about it. A touch of bitterness seeped in as he came to the realization of his unsettling indifference toward the heinous act he had just committed.

He sighed as he acknowledged his inability to force himself to feel remorse, prompting him to swiftly shift his focus back to refining his techniques.

'I will call this move 'One Step', it seems to fit it well. Ah, this is the feeling of killing someone. No wonder I had difficulties mastering my killing moves without attacking someone first. I lacked the intent to kill.'

Next, Ken practiced a movement technique that allowed him to move freely rather than just step forward. This technique was much slower than One Step but powerful, nonetheless.

After attacking and killing a human, he could visualize the technique's execution more easily, which was the main reason why he had killed Ron. His next move, 'Cloud Running', allowed him to move quickly and silently in long smooth movements rather than the short one-time movement that characterized One Step.

Only at the end of the day he mastered it to the basic mastery level, and he still had to practice using it in real combat to properly use it.

He learned two more moves, and the first was 'Snake Thrust' as he called it. It was a thrusting attack with his flexible sword that moved like a snake, making it nigh impossible for the enemy to predict the attack and counter it.

The second had the unimpressive name 'Slash' which was a sharp slash of his sword when it's in solid form.

When he practiced those techniques, he would practice first the movements required, then stand in the open to master the technique. He would close his eyes and use his perfect memory to relive the moment he chose to attack Ron.

He stood a few meters away from him, full of the intent to kill Ron and use his new technique. He killed Ron over and over again in his mind with the different techniques, until he mastered them all.

'Let's go and try killing some beasts. In the forest's outskirts, there shouldn't be any beasts above the fourth rank, and even those are rare.'

He entered the woods and went deeper into the forest. He was still in the forest's Outer Zone, so he didn't worry about meeting stronger beasts. With his perfect memory and high intelligence, he also didn't have a reason to fear getting lost in the forest.

He wasn't sure how to hunt beasts, but he just kept his vigilance high, so he'd feel any beast in his surroundings. Thanks to his powerful soul, it would be impossible to sneak up on him unless the beast was highly proficient in hiding its killing intent.

Even if it was, it would be hard to hide from Ken's physical senses with the way he maximized his gains from the first stage, and even then, with all his meridians awakened and his powerful dantian, he would feel any movement of Qi around him.

Overall, it wasn't easy to sneak up on him. He was still walking inside the forest when he suddenly heard a rustling in the bushes. He placed his hand on his belt and stopped walking. He stood still and concentrated on his surroundings.

*Woosh*

Another rustling came from him behind him and he sensed the Qi moving as well as a thick killing intent toward him.

*Wishhh*

It was his sword's whistle as he turned around and performed his Flash Unwind technique. He felt his sword penetrates a skull and he sent a strong pulse of Qi into the beast's head.

He was pushed back by the powerful momentum of the beast and was sent flying back, landing on his back with the beast on top of him.

"Argh, that hurts."

He pushed the beast's carcass to the side and checked it out. It was a large feline animal that reminded him of a panther from his previous world, but it wasn't exactly that. Besides, he could slap a normal panther to death with his current strength without any technique.

However, it was a panther, just not a normal one. It was a third-rank beast called 'Panther Lurker' known for its ambushes in the forest.

Next, he found a boar. The boar charged at him without any surprise element, and Ken just used his Cloud Running to move to the side at the last moment and beheaded the boar with a slash.

He kept hunting third-rank beasts and lower for a while as he got used to using his techniques in real combat, and his techniques' execution improved after every fight.

*SCREEEE*

Ken was running in the forest using his Cloud Running while a large bird followed him from the sky, diving every few seconds to catch him.

Every time the bird dived, he would quickly use One Step and appear a few meters ahead, making the bird's claws miss him by a meter or two.

'Damn, it's a fourth-rank beast. This is going to be tough.'

All the third-rank beasts in his way already ran away as soon as they heard the bird's screams. Every time the beast flew back up, he would use this chance to jump and use his Slash skill, yet it only left superficial cuts on the bird. He wasn't sure if his Qi could outlast the bird's stamina and vitality.

'This won't do, my Snake Thrust is only meant for a precise attack on a vital spot, but for that, I'd need to be able to cut through its flesh and reach the organs.'

Ken kept running simulations of the attack in his head, yet none of them could pierce the bird's flesh deep enough to kill it without leaving Ken at its claws' mercy.

'A damn bird tries to stand in my way?'

He visioned all the times he used his technique on the other animals before, the way it would pierce through their flesh and even their bones. His killing intent toward the bird that kept chasing him rose to a new level when he felt he was getting at something.

The bird was adjusting to his One Step technique, and every time the gap between its attack and Ken would decrease as it adapted. This time, Ken still used Cloud Running and just jumped upward, surprising the bird that kept trying to counter the One Step movement.

With a sharp whistle, the sword coiled and strengthened, adding to its swing, and penetrated the bird's flesh. The sword's wriggles inside the flesh added another layer of damage to the bird, making it suffer from Qi deviations in multiple places.