“Text, can you tell me more about the technique?” I asked.
“ANSWER: Soul Technique: Lesser Demon Will Binding Contract. This technique can be used by a cultivator once they have reached the Nascent soul realm as subjugating a demon requires at least a one level difference in realm. This technique relies on the cultivator using their soul to form a binding contract with a lesser demon. When this technique is activated, neither party may take any hostile actions towards the other until the technique’s effect has ended. The terms of a will binding contract will be decided by the cultivator, though the lesser demon will have some say in them.” Text said.
“So I can use this contract to make the demon be my friend forever?!” I asked.
“ANSWER: ... yes.” Text said, though that pause at the beginning was weird.
I pumped my fist in the air and decided that I would take the demon ring with me with the plan of getting to the nascent soul realm and making the demon my friend!
I took the box and opened it. I plucked the ring back up and ignored the pleas of the demon to release him. I willed the ring to go into the storage ring but found it wouldn’t go inside. No matter what I tried, the demon ring wouldn’t go in.
“Text, why can’t I put the demon ring inside the storage ring?”
“ANSWER: Living creatures cannot be put into a storage space. The demon ring is a living creature locked into a ring, thus it is exempt from storage.” Text said.
I guess that made sense. I stored a few of the wolves' bodies in the storage ring so I’d be able to have something to cook when I stopped for the night. Now, what to do with the demon ring? I can’t put it in the storage ring. Should I wear it? Surely the corruption won’t be that fast.
“Text, how fast can the demon’s corruption be?”
“ANSWER: The time it would take the demon’s influence to corrupt the user’s mind is largely dependent on the demon’s personal strength. For a lesser demon, the corruption could take a few years. For a greater demon it could be as short as a few months.” Text said. That was good to know. Based on the technique stored with the demon ring, I was working under the assumption that this demon sealed in the ring was a lesser demon. Could I trust that though? Better not. I would make sure to ask Zi Fu for advice when I got out of the hidden realm.
“Text, can’t I just seal the demon until I’m ready to use the nascent soul technique? I asked?
“ANSWER: Yes. The demon suppressing mantra technique is similar to a sealing technique, though its power wanes over time until the demon suppressing mantra is undone. Once the mantra’s effect elapses, the demon could then be forced into subordination using the Lesser Demon Will Binding Contract.” Text said.
“Oh that’s easy, then we should just do that!” I said.
“Wait wait wait! Please don’t use that whatever technique on me. I promise I won’t corrode your will and I’ll behave! Please don’t do whatever you’re planning on doing.” The demon pleaded with me.
I frowned at the ring, could I really trust the demon? He was promising to behave. I guess It couldn’t hurt, and if I noticed he was trying to corrode my will then I could always seal him then. Maybe I could convince him to be a friend without the technique by talking to him? I agreed with not using the demon suppressing mantra on the demon for the time being, as long as he behaved himself.
I put on the ring and began walking out of the cavern, following the exit I had found during my fight with the horde of wolves. I walked for a few minutes in relative silence, the demon being awfully quiet before making it out into the fresh air again. The cavern let out from a wall of stone just like I had seen and followed when running from Fan Chen’s group. I hoped I wouldn’t run into them again during the competition.
Shimmer stretched and spent some time basking in the moonlight while I took stock of my supplies. Five each of healing pill and qi restoration pills. Five sets of elemental qi gathering pills of each type. A new storage ring, all of the beast cores within the ring. A canteen of water, some food rations, a spare set of clothes, and my sect token. I considered putting my spare items into the storage ring, but the idea of my food and water being in the same space as a bunch of dead wolves made me queasy.
It was late at night and I decided I needed to get some sleep. I made my way into the jungle and climbed one of the larger trees. I used one of the nearby vines to secure myself to the tree and fell asleep.
*** Jia
Right before the formation master was going to stop showing us the events of the competition for the night he switched over to the opening in a cliff face where a bedraggled and exhausted looking Astra padded out. I nearly screamed in joy in seeing her safe and sound. Shimmer was by her side and neither of the pair looked injured. I know she took in some healing pills, but I was glad to see she was alright.
I looked over to the other representative families and they both had looks of anger and disappointment on their faces. Serves them right. I still kept one eye on the Peng family, but It was time to go back and go to sleep. I’d be able to see Astra more tomorrow.
*** Astra
Multiple times through the night I was awoken by the sounds of screaming people. I thought it was an attack at first, but when no danger came for me, I calmed down and was able to fall back asleep, but I couldn't shake the screams out of my mind so my sleep was fitful. When I awoke the next morning, I stretched and climbed down the tree with Shimmer following me down, she was much more agile than I gave her credit for. I yawned while I stretched during my morning routine, stretching and moving my body in various ways to limber myself up. Shimmer joined me and cutely contorted her body to follow my lead. Once I finished, I considered my next steps in the hidden realm.
I had collected quite a lot of monster cores yesterday so I wasn’t too concerned about the competition itself, but it would be safer if I continued looking for treasures and found some more. I still needed to look for a spirit nourishing ginseng as well.
Once I was ready, I picked a random direction that looked interesting and made my way through the jungle. It didn’t take long before finding my first medicinal herb. I had only been traveling for about an hour when text popped up in my vision.
“*DING* Medicinal herb located.” I looked around and found a small plant to my right highlighted in my vision.
The plant was small with blue petals that seemed to give off an icy qi. I reached out to touch the plant but as my hand got closer, its qi rejected my attempts to disturb the plant. My hand was buffeted with icy qi and I recoiled. I observed the plant for some time before taking out my dagger of fire and water and my dagger of wind and earth.
Using both of the daggers, I cut through the qi and cut the plant off at its roots. It would injure the plant and reduce its efficacy as a medicinal herb, but without the correct spirit root I would be hard pressed to harvest it properly. I asked Text to tell me what the plant was and then stored it in my storage ring.
“*DING* Analysis complete: Plant identified as a five thousand year old glacial frostblossom. This flower typically grows in extremely cold climates. It has powerful icy qi and its medicinal properties can be brought out in full effect by an alchemist of at least the soul rank. It can also be used in poultices to help reduce fever.” Text said.
It wasn’t particularly cold here so maybe this hidden realm was somewhat special to allow this type of plant to grow here? Judging by its age, the hidden realm must have been closed for at least five thousand years. That was promising!.
I spent the remainder of the day finding a few more multi-thousand year old medicinal herbs, but no ginseng yet. I didn’t run into any other cultivators. Just like the previous night, my restless sleep was accompanied by screams.
I spent the next few days of the competition the same way. Finding various treasures hidden in the jungle or within caves in the cliff face. Most of what I found were minor treasures, but I was excited to be able to use them to create a new technique, though I already had one of each of the primary technique types.
If I was counting the days correctly it was now the last day of the competition. I had found roughly twenty treasures and medicinal herbs over the last few days, but I hadn’t found anything today. It was probably going to be hard to find any more with all of the other participants in the hidden realm. I had gotten lucky, being able to hide from any teams I encountered, but I was starting to think it was strange I hadn’t run into more teams.
I was walking through the jungle, Shimmer off hunting some small animal she had seen when I felt a massive influx of qi coalescing nearby. I went to investigate, and what I saw when I broke through the jungle into a small clearing astounded me. I could feel the qi flowing from the surrounding environment and into a small plant at the center of the clearing.
The plant itself was just a few green leaves at the top. I looked around the clearing, trying to detect anybody nearby but couldn’t sense anything. Many of the medicinal herbs I had found were guarded by tier two or tier three demon beasts. I didn’t see a demon beast nearby but that just made me more alert.
I approached the plant in the middle of the clearing slowly, keeping a sharp eye on my surroundings. When I was nearing it, I heard a rustle in the bushes nearby. I whirled around, facing the danger as a snow white fox jumped out from the brush. I let out a sigh of relief upon seeing Shimmer. Just then, Shimmer yowled and, trusting her warning, I dodged out of the way of a rock thrown at me. I turned around, swords manifested and looked into the trees on the opposite side of the clearing.
I didn’t see anything and narrowed my eyes. Just then another rock, this time from my right, whizzed past my head as I leaned backward. I looked to my right and barely caught sight of movement within the trees. I sent the one floating sword into the trees and heard a yowl of pain. The sword flew back to me, but it cost me more qi than I expected due to the additional weight. Skewered on the sword was what looked to be a demon beast that looked like a monkey. Its limp body slid off the sword in front of me and fell to the ground with a thud.
I looked back to the plant in the center of the clearing and it was still absorbing a massive amount of qi from the surroundings. I watched it for a short amount of time until the flood of qi turned into a trickle, and then stopped altogether before walking up to the plant and pulling it out of the ground. The main body of the plant was completely underground. It was pale, fleshy, and had smallish roots at its bottom. I tasked Text with identifying the plant and stored it in my storage ring just as I heard a voice from behind me.
“You!? How are you here? You died to that monster within the cave!” Fan Chen said from behind me. I whirled around and saw the same group of cultivators I had fought on the first day within the hidden realm. I recognized the ones I had knocked out and they were giving me particularly venomous glares.
Before they could surround me and entangle me in a battle, I looked down at Shimmer and turned around and ran. Shimmer followed after me as a sputtering Fan Chen ordered his goons to attack me. I didn’t know how long we had left in the hidden realm, but if I could last until the competition ended and we were all forcibly pulled from the hidden realm, or the realm closed, then I wouldn’t have to fight the entire group of cultivators.
I ran through the jungle, dodging attacks flung at me from the cultivators. One particularly dangerous feeling slice of qi flew directly at me in a neat arc. I dodged out of the way and it sliced through a tree and continued on through the jungle cutting down multiple trees before exploding in a flash of light.
I wasn’t able to shake off my pursuers and infused my body with qi. I supplemented my body cultivation by coalescing my qi daggers and sped off through the jungle. Sometime during my flight I was aware of text appearing in my vision, but pushed it to the side. I didn’t have time to focus on what the herb I had picked up was. The sounds of the pursuing cultivators died down as I ran, but after a minute I realized I had made a mistake. I had noticed the cliff face getting closer on both the left and right sides, but hadn’t expected them to converge so quickly. I ended up face to face with a wall of stone higher than I could ever hope to climb.
I quickly made a decision and ran to the right, Shimmer following in tow. I ran for a minute before a cultivator jumped out of the nearby brush, ambushing me. They were one of Fan Chen’s group and I recognized him as one of the cultivators I had knocked out when they chased me on the first day.
He struck out at me with fury in his eyes, going for the kill immediately. I ducked the slice aimed for my neck and dashed into the guard of the sword wielder.
Before I could strike out at him, the ground at my feet turned to mud ruining my stance and causing my strike to go wide. I coated the bottoms of my feet with qi and regained my footing. I used soft steps on the halcyonic sea to step behind the cultivator striking out low with my daggers. He dodged forward, knowing my tactics and launched projectiles of earth at me.
I dodged the projectiles, not wanting to waste qi on Shimmer’s shields. I couldn’t continuously use soft steps on the halcyonic sea or I’d waste too much qi so I reengaged the cultivator in close quarters combat. After a few exchanges of blows I realized that without the element of surprise, my daggers wouldn’t be an effective tool for attacking this cultivator. I threw my daggers at the cultivator’s face which caused him to flinch as I dissipated them.
I coalesced two of my qi swords, not wanting to waste the qi on the floating qi sword, and re-engaged. While his swordplay was better than mine, my speed outclassed his and I was quickly overwhelming him with my superior body cultivation. He weaved in projectiles to his swordplay, which helped his situation, but it wasn’t enough. He was putting up a good defense, however; I attacked him from a direction he wasn’t expecting, causing him to stumble and I capitalized on the new opportunity. With a vicious blow I disarmed him and hit him with the flat of my blade in the temple, knocking him out.
He fell to the ground with a thud and in the newly quiet clearing I could hear the sounds of approaching cultivators making their way through the nearby brush. They must have been attracted by the sounds of our fight. I figured I could use this as an opportunity to ambush some of the unsuspecting Sword Dao Palace disciples, and hid in a nearby tree. I dissipated Shimmer as she would find it difficult to make it up into the tree with me in time.
A pair of Sword Dao Palace disciples appeared in the clearing not long after my ascent into the tree. They checked on their comrade, then looked around, wary of an ambush. They never looked up though, which gave me the perfect opportunity to attack them.
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I landed roughly on the first disciple forcing him to the ground. I launched myself at the other disciple, my sneak attack buying me a precious few seconds to attack. She couldn’t put up a proper defense in time and shouted as I hit her in the temple with the pommel of my dagger, dropping her to the ground in a heap. I knocked out the disciple who was just making his way up from his place on the ground when a voice sounded out in my head.
“Great job, now finish them all off and let me out of this ring!” The demon sealed within the ring I now wore on my hand said. He had been quiet during the last few days while I was searching for treasures, but I guess he couldn’t hold his tongue forever. It was nice to have some kind of interaction, even if it was a demon.
“I’m not going to kill them. This is just a competition, and I don’t want to get on the Sword Dao Palace’s bad side, at least not more than I already am.” I told the demon.
“But you will release me, yes?” He asked, hopefully.
“No, I won’t be releasing you either, sorry.” I told him.
He went back to being quiet which was perfect timing as another group of disciples were probably on their way.
I again climbed the nearby tree and waited for my prey. Three were down, seven were left. I heard a scream from a distance to my right, it reminded me of the screams that had accompanied my sleepless nights lately.
Another scream resounded through the jungle, closer now. I shivered involuntarily at the pure terror I could sense within the screams. My attention was drawn to the group of three disciples of Sword Dao Palace currently checking on their fellow disciples on the ground. Finding them alive, they spread out, searching for the assailant.
Even closer now, another guttural scream resounded through the jungle. The three disciples looked in the direction of the scream, drawing their swords.
I struck then, jumping down and landing on one of the disciples. He fell to the ground and I knocked him out before launching myself at the closest disciple.
“It’s her!” The woman was able to shout before I engaged her.
She was barely able to unsheathe her sword before I struck out at her. I was easily overpowering her when a gout of flame hit me in the back. I yelped, mostly from the surprise of the attack. My body training realm cultivation protected me from the worst of the blast, but it still hurt. I used soft steps on the halcyonic sea to appear behind the woman and knocked her out while she was unprepared.
The last disciple held his sword in front of himself, ready to engage with me. He summoned a few fireballs floating over his shoulder, ready to launch at me. I held my swords to the side, ensuring the sword of water and fire was in my right hand.
I charged the disciple, and he launched his gouts of flames at me. I dodged two of the gouts and absorbed the last into my qi sword. I slashed at him with both of my swords, and he easily deflected my attack. I flooded my body with qi and struck out with both of my swords in an overhand strike. He blocked with his sword, but the strength of the blow sent him down to one knee. Now that his movements were hampered I used soft steps on the halcyonic sea to step behind him and knock him out.
He was unable to defend due to the awkward position he found himself in on one knee. I was feeling a bit tired now. Taking out six of the disciples by myself was no easy task. Another scream sounded out, this time close enough that whatever was causing the screams would be close enough to find me. I was about to run away when I realized something. If what was coming was a monster, then the disciples I had knocked out would have no way to defend themselves.
I warred within myself on what I should do. If the remaining three disciples including Fan Chen showed up, it might be a difficult fight I might not win. On the other hand, could I live with myself if these disciples died just because Fan Chen had a problem with me?
“Just leave them! Save yourself. I still need you alive to release me from this stupid ring!” The demon said in my head.
If anything, the demon did help me make a decision. I stood my ground, facing the direction the screams had come from. I quickly took one qi gathering pill of each type, my last ones I was saving for an emergency. I wasn’t paying enough attention to my surroundings, however; because I only barely managed to dodge an attack of wind qi that flew at me. I was punished for my lack of alertness with a cut across my cheek.
There, standing to my right was an out of breath Fan Chen. He looked down to the unconscious cultivators at my feet and looked livid.
“You’ll pay for killing so many disciples of Sword Dao Palace, woman!” He yelled at me.
I couldn’t protest his words because he launched another slice of wind qi at me. If I was a normal human I would have been sliced clean in half by the attack. I may have the advantage over Fan Chen in a straight up fight, but the amount of qi I had already used to fight the other disciples was significant. I couldn’t be assured of winning in a long drawn out fight either, luckily Fan Chen’s anger clouded his mind.
He rushed at me, sword drawn, and slashed down trying to cut me in half diagonally. I blocked the sword with one of my qi swords and stabbed out at his stomach, looking to hamper his movements with a non-lethal injury.
He moved to the side and my stab missed him by a few inches. I turned my sword to the side, trying to disarm him, but he pulled his sword back and my sword slid across his blade ineffectually. He cut at me over and over with his sword and I dodged or parried his blows. He was starting to push me back due to his skill with the sword. His movements were unnaturally fast which made me think he was using a movement technique to increase his speed.
I was already flooding my body with my qi, but It was difficult to keep up with a wind qi cultivator’s speed. The previous qi usage was enough to hamper my agility, and the gathering qi from the pills was not enough to supplement my reserves, and didn’t help my body qi at all. In his anger he overreached with one of his strikes and I was able to beat him backwards some. I cut at him horizontally with my sword and he jumped backward, making space. I was breathing heavily now, but before I could re-engage Fan Chen he spoke up.
“Why won’t you just die, girl!” He asked. He held his sword in front of him and I could see his full body tense, but before he could launch himself at me, he was engulfed in a deep purple flame. He screamed out a horrible scream that reminded me of the screams I had been hearing all day. I watch in horror as his screams intensified as he was immolated in front of me.
I used my sword of fire and water and tried to extinguish the flames from a distance, but the only thing I managed to do was flail my sword around and waste my qi. Before long, Fan Chen’s lifeless, charred corpse fell to the ground, the purple flames on his body still licking at the air.
“Finally, I’ve found both of you. I’ve been looking all over for you.” A deep voice said from the jungle behind where Fan Chen had been standing.
I peered into the jungle, but couldn’t make out the figure’s form until they walked into the light. My eyes went wide as I looked at the Peng family’s representative. He was still wearing the same clothes he had been wearing that first day we went into the hidden realm, but emblazoned on the chest of his robes was a purple lotus flower with two horns coming out of it. The horns were covered in purple fire, just like the fire that had immolated Fan Chen.
“You’re the Peng family’s representative. Why did you kill Fan Chen? You could have just knocked him out, was it really necessary to kill him?” I asked the man. I reached into my bag and pulled out a qi restoration pill, quickly downing it.
“Take whatever pills you want. You were dead when you entered this hidden realm. I’ve already killed most of the Sword Dao Palace disciples, now I only have you and that pile of disciples over there. It’ll be easier if you just let me kill you.” He said.
“You should let him kill you, I think he’ll release me from this horrid prison.” The demon in the ring told me. I ignored the demon and summoned Shimmer. I would need the help of her shields to combat that weird purple fire.
The man flung his hand out toward the group of cultivators lying unconscious on the ground. A small black and purple flame left his hand and meandered toward the group. I sent a mental command to Shimmer and a shield of water qi sprouted up to protect the cultivators. The small flame impacted the shield and an explosion of heat and light engulfed the small clearing. I covered my face, the heat of the explosion too much for me to bear even with my viscera trained in fire qi.
When the dust settled from the explosion, I looked at the man with shock on my face. How could such a small flame have such a powerful impact? I looked to Shimmer to see her normally pristine snow-white coat covered in soot.
“Can’t you see my power, girl? You can’t protect those cultivators forever. I’ll run you out of qi before you can even dream of protecting them!” He said before launching another two black and purple flames at the group of cultivators. I had Shimmer pour more qi into the shields this time and used soft steps on the halcyonic sea to step behind the cultivator. I needed to end this.
He anticipated I would appear behind him so by the time I struck out with my swords, a wall of purple flame was already up to meet me. My qi swords cut through the flame, but he had already dodged out of the way. The flames ate into my qi swords, reducing them in size and eating away at my qi itself.
“What is this freaky purple flame anyways?” I asked the cultivator. He smirked at me.
“It’s no wonder you don’t know what these are. You seem fairly young. I don’t see why I have an obligation to explain anything to a dead woman though.” He said, a smirk playing along his lips.
I was getting angry.
“Text, what is this stuff?” I asked under my breath.
“ANSWER: Demonic flames. When a fire cultivator makes a contract with a demon, they gain the ability to control demonic flames. These flames hunger for any and all sources of qi, burning the qi away until nothing remains.” Text answered. My blood froze. A contract with a demon? That didn’t sound good.
I jumped back from the black and purple flames and watched in horror as the black flames broke through Shimmer’s shields and engulfed two of the unconscious cultivators in black flame. They woke up and their screams would probably continue to haunt me in the future. I used soft steps on the halcyonic sea to step between the cultivator and the rest of the unconscious disciples.
Luckily the screams of the two disciples who had died woke up the first disciple I knocked out. When he came to I looked back at him and yelled out a warning, telling him to take his fellow disciples away and to safety. He protested at first, but when the next black and purple fire bolt exploded against Shimmer’s water shield, he stopped his protests and began dragging his fellow disciples away.
I turned back to the demonic cultivator and tried to come up with a plan to combat the power I was seeing from the man. I stopped holding back and used my full body training realm cultivation in conjunction with my spirit cultivation. I activated halcyonic maelstrom and launched a halcyonic abyssal cutter at the cultivator. If he was trying to kill me, I had no choice but to defend myself.
I used soft steps on the halcyonic sea and moved right behind the cultivator. His reaction was slowed down immensely by halcyonic maelstrom and he didn’t have the physical ability to outspeed me. I cut him in a large arc across his back in a vicious slash that should end the fight immediately. At the same time as I slashed him my halcyonic abyssal cutter slammed into him and cut him from the front.
Instead of a spray of blood; however, purple flames exploded from the cuts, reaching out and licking against my skin. It caressed my body and left deep scorches in my skin where it touched me. I hissed in pain. I jumped back and watched in muted horror as his skin knitted itself back together. When the flesh was restored, he rolled his shoulders and looked at me with malice in his eyes.
“That hurt. Maybe I need to take you a little more seriously, girl.” He said.
I blinked and when I opened my eyes he was standing in front of me. I tried to jump away, but he reached out and grabbed me by the neck. I struggled in his grasp and stabbed into his chest over and over with my qi swords. The blows seemed ineffectual against him and only resulted in more gouts of purple flame burning me. I reached up and tried to stab his face but he dodged the blow. He pulled one of his arms back, the hand coated in the purple and black flames.
He launched his arm forward and luckily Shimmer hit him with her qi beam just then, the force from the blow launched him backward and left me gasping on the ground. I caught my breath, but before I could stand up, I noticed the cultivator was already standing over me.
He again pulled his arm back, ready to strike me with the black demonic flames. I knew there was no way I was going to be able to handle that attack. Before he could strike out at me; however, a sword sprouted from his chest, skewering the man.
Behind him stood a disciple of Sword Dao Palace. He had blazing red hair tied up behind his head with a long trailing section reaching down to his waist. He had a pretty face more suited to being on a woman than a man. He withdrew his sword and the flesh immediately began knitting itself back together. The demonic cultivator struck out with his palm, trying to immolate the new arrival.
They exchanged a flurry of blows, the Sword Dao Palace disciple clearly being a body cultivator, and much more skilled in the sword than any of the disciples I had seen so far.
The demonic cultivator fought with renewed fervor, disregarding his own body’s safety during the fight.
“Yes! Struggle more! Feed me more of your qi! The longer we fight, the stronger I will become!” The demonic cultivator yelled out.
The Sword Dao Palace disciple bisected the man horizontally through the stomach, but it barely fazed the demonic cultivator.
I remembered something from my final engagement with the man and hazarded a suggestion to help the disciple.
“Go for the head!” I shouted out to the disciple. He didn’t make any indication of hearing me, but the demonic cultivator sneered back at me.
“No, don’t tell him that!” The demon in my ring said.
“Stay out of this, girl!” The demonic cultivator said before launching another globule of purple fire qi at me. Shimmer jumped in front of me bringing up a threefold water shield to protect me from the blow. It exploded against two of the shields, the last shield holding up against the blast.
The Sword Dao Palace disciple increased the speed of his attacks, but I noticed that one out of every few slashes were aimed at the head of the demonic cultivator. Neither cultivator said a word as they fought for well over a minute, trading blows and deflections. I needed to do something to turn the tide of the battle.
I launched my sword of fire and water at the cultivator and sliced clean through both of his legs. This caused his movements to falter and his attention was drawn away from his fight for a moment. That proved to be his downfall, however; as the red haired swordsman made use of the opening he was given and struck out faster than I could follow. The sword cut through the demonic cultivator’s head horizontally. This time, instead of flames being produced from the wound, the normal blood I expected came flowing out.
The demonic cultivator’s body slumped to the ground and the Sword Dao Palace disciple sheathed his sword. He walked over to me and held out a hand to help me up.
“You’re not going to try and fight me for my treasures?” I asked the disciple. He shook his head.
“Killing a demonic cultivator is enough reward for me. I’ve collected plenty of treasures from this hidden realm, and stealing them from another cultivator would leave a bad taste in my mouth.” He said before walking away back into the jungle.
I blinked a few times. Well that guy was really cool! Though I wish he had given me his name. I got up from the ground, taking a look at the situation nearby. I walked up to the demonic cultivator’s body, but when I reached down to rifle through his clothes, his body dissipated into motes of ash. I picked up his robes and grabbed all of the treasures from inside. I stored them into the storage ring along with the clothes and moved over to the two cultivators who had died while I was protecting them.
I felt a hole open up in my stomach when I looked at them. It was partially my fault they had died. I knew it wasn’t really my fault but it didn’t help my melancholic mood. I took the time to bury the disciples who had died, including Fan Chen. I took their jade sect tokens to return them to someone from Sword Dao Palace.
Once I finished my grim task, I sat down on the ground. I felt numb. I had killed before. It was necessary at the time, but seeing such wanton killing by the demonic cultivator shook me somewhat. Tears came unbidden to my eyes and I wiped them away. Shimmer came over and laid in my lap, licking my cheeks with her rough tongue.
“Oh get over it. So some ants died, who cares.” The voice of the demon sounded out through my head. I looked down at the ring and sneered.
“I’ll make you apologize for saying that.” I told the demon. He remained silent in response.
The demon reminded me I still had a notification from Text. I brought up the notification that was blinking away in the corner of my vision.
“*DING* Analysis complete. Medicinal herb is a ten-thousand year old spirit nourishing ginseng.” Text read.