Boot made his way to his residence. Some of the stronger cultivators still made fun of him for having large feet, but the rest respected him because he was growing in strength fast.
He entered his residence and sat down cross-legged.
"I need to make progress fast. I want the Sect Master to acknowledge me and make me his direct disciple. I will have the entire sect bowing down and praising me," he murmured, then closed his eyes about to meditate.
Before he could fully concentrate, he snapped his eyes open.
"Wait, the air is not right."
He turned around in shock and saw Omari already in the air heading right at him.
"Damn it, how did this brat get in here?" he thought, dodging to the left.
Omari slashed his sword, ripping through Boot's right hand.
"Ahhhh! Ngrrr!!"
Boot groaned in pain. "If I had been a bit too late, that would have been it for me."
Omari skidded to a halt and instantly charged at Boot again.
"You damn rat, do you honestly think you can kill me?" Boot yelled.
He lifted his left arm while Omari was charging at him. A puddle of water formed on the ground, and as soon as Omari stepped on it, water blasted upwards, slamming him into the ceiling.
He coughed out a mouthful of blood, falling to the ground. A light blue glow shone in Boot's eyes, and he extended his left arm. A whip made of water materialized. He quickly swung, and Omari rolled on the ground dodging, quickly getting to his feet.
Without wasting any time, Omari turned around and bolted. His plan to kill Boot had already failed. Facing him even with one arm would be suicide.
"At least I got what I wanted," he spoke, looking at the token he had stolen from Boot when he cut off his arm.
"You're not getting away from me that easily!" Boot yelled, swinging his water whip. Omari got hit in the back.
He groaned in pain; the force of the whip gave him a boost in speed. He jumped out the window and vanished into the bushes.
"How dare you embarrass me like this! How will the others see me? How Dare You disrupt my RISE!!!" Boot yelled, his anger rising. His remaining hand shook and his heartbeat increased.
Outside, other cultivators came running to see the commotion.
Memories of how he was bullied because of his huge feet ran rampant in his mind.
"This shame, how will I ever wash it away? A senior brother who got his hand chopped off by a mere slave!"
Haaaahhhhhhh!!!!
He screamed. Water started to gather around him, swirling around his room like a violent tornado, then it exploded into ice. Shards of ice shot out from his room, and an ice arm grew where his right arm had been chopped off.
Outside his house, the students who came to see the commotion jumped backwards, dodging and blocking ice shards, then Boot's residence started freezing from the bottom going up.
"What was that?" one of the white-robed cultivators asked.
Boot's door shattered like glass and he walked out, cold air instantly enveloping the entire area.
---
In the mines, three yellow-robed cultivators found the bodies of their fellow brothers and Yufan's body.
"You two go find the escaped miner and be on guard; he's obviously dangerous. I'll head back and notify the others."
They nodded at each other and went their separate ways.
"A miner escaped! Find him! He killed two of our brothers! Find the escaped miner!"
Before long, yellow-robed cultivators in the mines became more ruthless, lashing out at the miners. Some were raging in the caves looking for Omari.
Above the Sect, a figure appeared. Bluish-grey energy exploded in waves, covering the entire Sect.
The yellow and white-robed cultivators all bowed down.
"Greetings to the Sect Master!!"
They yelled in unison.
Four white-robed cultivators appeared. One of them was Mo Jie with a green token hanging on his robe. The other was a female, Xia Rou, with a pink token on her robe. She looked at Mo Jie, and a beautiful smile spread on her lips. The other two were males: one with a purple token on his robe, Bai Zhentian. He had short white hair, and the other with a red token and fiery red hair was Caspian.
The four bowed down slightly. "Students greet teacher."
Ghost Step, the Sect Master, nodded slightly, and before he spoke, he noticed Boot.
"Hmmm... his element has evolved and he still has more potential," the Sect Leader thought.
"You... from today onwards, you are my direct disciple. I expect great things from you."
Boot bowed down. "Student greets his teacher."
Ghost Step nodded slightly, and his face turned serious, focusing on the matter at hand.
"Someone entered the Sect's forbidden zone. Find him and make sure he suffers a horrible death. Sect secrets cannot be told to outsiders. Those who dare look down on the Celestial Gate Sect, show no mercy. Kill!!!" His voice vibrated throughout the whole sect.
All the students who could fight in the sect took off to investigate and find the culprit.
Ghost Step vanished like a blur into the forbidden area of the sect to make sure everything was still the same and undisturbed.
He stood over the phoenix, quickly releasing his spirit sense and looked through the entire cave. He stopped, and with a wave of his hand, a jade token on the ground flew to him.
"Ngrrr! A mere slave managed to do this." He sensed the spiritual energy in the cave. "So... he managed to break through to the Spiritualist using this cave's qi. I will make sure you suffer a horrible death for not knowing your place."
The orange fiery glow on the phoenix started to diminish, becoming dimmer by the second.
Ghost Step quickly sat cross-legged in the air.
"I will not let you die just yet. You still have a big role to play in my plan, beast."
"I built this sect within a few decades with the help of the flame stones you produce. Imagine how big and strong it will be in a few centuries."
With a few hand signs, the jade tokens on the miners began to glow intensely, and white energy started to get sucked from their bodies. Some grew old and died on the spot, and some only passed out, to wake up a few hours later.
The life force sucked from the miners appeared on the gate and flew into the body of the phoenix. The orange glow on the phoenix came back to normal and stabilized. Ghost Step sat down and started to cultivate. A trail of golden energy emerged from the body of the phoenix and went into Ghost Step's body.
In the sect, Boot flew into the air.
"Find the slave Omari Siwang at all costs! Rip his body to shreds! Make sure he suffers a brutal death!" Boot ordered, releasing waves of cold energy throughout the courtyard. He waved his hand, and pictures of Omari flew into the hands of the students. The other normal white-robed shook in fear.
"Yes, senior brother," they agreed.
"The one who kills him and brings his body to my feet will be rewarded greatly."
"Yes, senior brother!" the students yelled and flew on their swords to find Omari.
---
Omari had used Boot's Celestial Gate Sect identification token to leave the sect.
He was already a few miles away, but he wasn't safe yet. His ear twitched as he heard the Celestial Gate Sect disciples yelling and flying towards him. They were only a few miles behind him, catching up fast.
He pulled out a flying sword and hopped on it and flew for a few meters, trying his best to keep his balance. When he increased his speed, he started wobbling on the sword, his feet shaking, and fell to the ground.
When he fell, he rolled, kicked up, and landed on his feet, quickly sprinting forward. Orange spiritual energy flared around his body, and his speed increased rapidly.
"I'm wasting way too much energy.... at this rate I'll run out. If I get caught in that state, there's no fighting back. I'll just get slaughtered like a pig."
While still planning, four yellow-robed cultivators appeared.
They jumped off their flying swords and landed on the ground, surrounding Omari.
"It's good that we came to find you first. If we make you suffer and then kill you, maybe the Sect Master will lessen our punishment for letting a slave enter the forbidden area."
One of the yellow-robed cultivators spoke, then charged at Omari with his flying sword. He slashed, aiming to decapitate Omari, but Omari dodged down, gathering qi in his right hand, and slammed it into the cultivator's stomach with a brutal punch.
Before he could follow up with another attack, the second yellow-robed cultivator appeared in front of Omari as fast as the wind. He thrust his sword forward, stabbing Omari in the right side of the chest. Before the sword could go any deeper, Omari kicked the cultivator in the stomach, pushing himself away and pulling out the sword.
Without giving Omari time to catch his breath, the third cultivator and the fourth attacked at the same time. One kicked Omari's legs, tripping him, and the other raised his leg into the air and brought it down from the heavens, slamming it into Omari's face. Blood gushed out from Omari's nose and his mouth as he groaned in pain.
The cultivators jumped back and all sent their flying swords at Omari at the same time, trying to finish him while he was on the ground.
"I won't die that easily!!" Omari screamed, gathering qi into his body. He quickly lifted his hands into the air, forming an orange barrier around himself. The swords stabbed the barrier but only made it halfway through before stopping, barely missing Omari by mere inches.
---
Back at the Sect, three yellow-robed cultivators lifted the bodies of Yufan and their dead brothers. They flew to the back of the sect where there was a huge pit filled with the bodies of thousands of dead miners. The pit was huge and deep. Bodies piled on bodies, and a disgusting smell of rotting flesh filled the entire area.
They threw Yufan and the bodies of their brothers in, turned around, and left. A few minutes after they were gone, Yufan's fingers twitched and his eyes snapped open. He started coughing, which soon turned into crazy laughter.
His gaze turned and landed on a pile of failed stamina pills. He crawled in the huge pit, climbing over bodies on his knees toward the pills. Once he got there, he started to devour them, chewing and swallowing as fast as he could.
After devouring half of the pile, he stopped and froze there for a few seconds.
A cough escaped him, followed by a guttural cough while he puked a mouthful of blood.
His body dropped, and he started rolling on top of dead bodies, screaming and laughing in pain. Spiritual energy started to seep out of his body as he screamed in crazed laughter, and once it was all out, he rushed to the pills, running on all fours, and started eating, shoving them down his throat again.
After a while of laughing like a maniac and devouring failed products, a wave of spiritual energy exploded from his body as he finished his breakthrough into the Spiritualist realm.
He stood up, giggling, barefoot, still wearing the dirty rags worn by the miners.
"We will surely meet again soon, best friend. Heh heh heh. Ha ha ha ha hahahahahaha!" His crazed laughter echoed.