Chapter 11: Mother Knows Best

From Fei’s perspective.

The smoke from the bright crimson flames intoxicated the air as the ashes of the fallen fluttered through the sky. I was but a little girl when this happened. My home burnt to the ground, my family slaughtered. A single man stood among the piles of corpses as a red moon shone on him. That incident was known as the Crimson Moon Massacre. And the man responsible, Tenshi, better known as the legendary assassin, Relic.

—-----

It has been 13 years since then. In my 13 years I have experienced trials and tribulations in order to get revenge. I was shocked to have found he had grown a soft heart when I was dispatched to capture his son 4 years ago. However, the man before me was not soft-hearted.

“You guys are seriously pissing me off now.” Relic said.

I turned my gaze to John. Our eyes locked. ‘We need to go now!’

John understood what I was trying to say, even if I didn’t say it out loud. I grabbed Chi from the ground and bolted away. John winded up his axe and went to slam the Eccel kid.

“Now now. Let’s not involve children in this. We’re all adults now, aren’t we?” Relic said cockishly as he blocked the blow from John. It made me sick to my stomach that a man had such hypocrisy.

Relic slashed the air and John’s Seguri was cut into two. John didn’t even get to use his ability. From my knowledge, when a Seguri was broken, it needed either time or an immense Qi source, and concentration.

I was holding Chi as I saw Relic obliterate my big brother. I needed to help. But how? My Cultivation wasn’t strong enough. I didn’t have any Qi. ‘God damn it! If only I had… power…’

That was when it clicked. I saw the wood of Ysggradil in Chi’s hand. I apologised a thousand times in my mind to Chi before taking it. I just needed to unlock the Seguri's ability. They said the Spiritual Beast you want most will appear when you first conjure it. However, I didn’t know what exactly had been conjured since I wasn’t its first user.

“Is that… so it was you guys that took it.” Relic turned his glare to me as he saw me picking up the stick. In an instant, he closed our 20 meter distance. It wasn't that weird to close a distance like this fast. What was outstanding was that I didn't notice it. However, time stood still afterwards.

The entire world shattered as I found myself in an empty void.

—---------

"Who are you." The voice sounded. Its volume boomed throughout the echo-ing void.

"Give me power.”

“You’re pretty bold. Are you sure you’re able to conjure me properly? I take up a lot of Aether, Mana, Qi or whatever you people call it. Unlike the boy before, yours is shallow. You’d reach your limit in an instant.”

“That won’t matter. According to what Chi told me, we don’t need to give qi specifically right? You guys take body parts right? I have 4 limbs, 2 eyes, and a lot of bones.”

“You amuse me. But I don’t like taking body parts. Too much work.”

—------

The world reconstructed itself in an instant. I found myself at the tip of the assassin’s blade. The moment I stepped back, he was already behind me.

“Run as much as you want. You’ll never get far.”

‘What do I do?’ I racked my head to think a way out this predicament. I needed a distraction to grab them and run.

“Hey!” A voice shouted. I looked over to see Chi standing up. The situation had gotten even worse.

‘What are you doing?!’ I glared at Chi.

‘Trust me. You wanted a distraction right? We can take him down.’ Chi said, or so I think. Our understanding of each other by the expressions we make with our eyes were enough to be considered telepathy. “First your son dies and then you get someone who looks just like him? Actually, maybe you just like little boys.”

“The fuck are you on about.” Relic said coldly. It looked like his words were getting to him. I dashed towards Relic, not wasting Chi’s opportunity.

“I heard your mother also liked little boys. Your entire family history is just full of-” Relic swung his katana. In that moment, I saw it. His emotions.

—-------

Since young, I always had the ability to discern people, not just by strength but by character too. ‘The eyes don’t lie’ is a phrase I stuck by. But the way I see it is by the shape of the color they exude. When people feel emotion, the amygdala processes it. During the process, they give off a tiny bit of mana. My brain picks up on these mana signals and interprets them as images.

I was introduced to the emotion known as ‘Rage’ when Relic massacred my village.

“你为什么这样对我？[Nǐ wèishéme zhèyàng duì wǒ?] (Why are you doing this to me?)” I cried out as I stared at the merciless killer. He glared at me with cold eyes. The raging fire still burning as screams echoed through the night. Rubble and debris everywhere.

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“因为我是父亲. [Yīnwèi wǒ shì fùqīn.] (Because I’m a father)” He spoke briefly. He made small steps towards me and then put his hand on my head. He crouched to my ear level. Suddenly, a hand reached down from the rubble and grabbed Relic’s leg.

“不是我的女儿. 请. 她没有做错任何事. [Bùshì wǒ de nǚ'ér. Qǐng. Tā méiyǒu zuò cuò rènhé shì.] (Not my daughter, please. She didn’t do anything wrong).” My mother came out. She pleaded with the man, grabbing his leg with both her hands. He turned to her. “Don’t involve her.”

“Okay.” He said before stabbing at my mother’s head. Her red blood splattered onto my face as her body collapsed. However, I only saw a smile on her face.

“You’re lucky. Not a lot of parents would put themselves out there for their child.” He walked away, leaving me with the corpse of my beloved mother. With blood soaked hands I cried out and swore vengeance.

—------------

Motherhood. When a baby is birthed, that baby undergoes a great amount of change for the first few years. But so does the mother. When a mother’s child is in danger, they would risk their life to save them. There are no lengths they won’t go to. If asked what they were thinking when their child was in danger, all their answers would be the same. Save them at any cost. It was a motherly instinct.

I blocked Relic’s attack with the stick as it let out a bright light. The piece of wood used to block Relic’s attack transformed into a blue sword with a small hilt. A Jian.

I had never used swords before so I don’t know if this was like a default setting or the Seguri telling me that swords are best for me. I didn’t bother clarifying with the opponent currently in front of me. I swung outwards, pushing Relic back. Relic was about to go in for another swing before a voice caused both of us to lose focus.

“What are you doing?!” The Eccel kid shouted while holding his head. I could only assume he was talking to Relic for almost killing Chi. Something I would never forgive. However, the emotion of frustration he felt sent me back to the past.

—-------

“What are you doing?” The boy asked out loud. That boy was Chi. And I could read his emotions as confusion, worry and frustration.

Chi was a boy that I befriended since we were both survivors of the massacre. We were both from the orphanage and looked down upon by children in our school and pitied by the adults.

In the land of cultivation, there was something called a 生死对决 or Life and Death Duel. Honor is valued over life itself. Even children have pride to protect. I had just beaten an upperclassman that insulted Chi’s inept ability in a duel and now I was going to kill them.

Like the name suggests, you stake your honor which is the same as staking your life.

“善有善报，恶有恶报 (Karma’s a bitch)” I said as I swung my sword. Chi however stopped my blade and got his hand injured.

I dropped my blade and tended to Chi’s hand. When both participants drop their blades before someone dies, the match is considered a draw and over.

“Are you okay? Did you hurt yourself?”

“No. It’s fine. I just didn’t want to see Big sis dirty her hands.” Chi chuckled. Chi couldn’t speak Chinese fluently so I conversed in English with him. However, the stadium was not pleased with my choice.

Everyone boo-ed at me. They started calling me hateful comments. Despite this, the boy that I had beaten said nothing. He simply bowed down.

“I’m sorry!” He apologised, leaving the stadium in shock. Had he no shame? To bow to an opponent that humiliated him?

That shameless boy was John.

—-------

My focus faltered with my memory but I didn’t falter. I decided engaging again was far too dangerous. I should take this opportunity to run since I knew about his ‘Divine Eye’.

With haste, I grabbed John and Chi, and bolted to safety. Relic was too preoccupied with whatever was going on with the Eccel boy to pay attention. I went to a nearby forest with a high density of Qi to cloak our Cultivation level.

I sat them down and started to tend to their wounds. The most critically injured was John. However I knew he would rather me treat Chi before even starting on him. After tending to both of them, I sat them down somewhere and meditated. I wanted to talk with my new fully formed Seguri.

—------

“Why did you accept me?”

“Because I felt bored. And I thought your goal was surface level revenge. But after rifling through your memories, that wasn’t the case.”

“You searched my memories?!” I questioned being flustered.

“Not all of it. You don’t have to be embarrassed about spending 1 hour a day on managing your appearance.”

“So what made you change your mind?”

“You gave up. On revenge.”

“What do you mean?”

“Your ability. It told you how evil your parents were, right? Your mother was the worst of them all.”

I gritted my teeth in his reply.

“But yet, she threw herself away to guarantee your safety. I believe you have an idiom for that.”

“虎毒不食子.”

“Even bad people will never harm their own children.”

“So what do you want from me?”

“Nothing much. Giving up your lifelong dream is one of the requirements necessary to reach that stage. The amount of people that passed that stage are lesser than the fingers on my paws.”

“Paws?”

“Oh right. Let me introduce myself, partner. I’m Curiosity.”

A cat walked by. There was no way that menacing figure I saw at first was just a cat. I pinched its cheeks, causing it to claw at me.

“Don’t pick me up. Anyways, your brothers are still waiting for you.”

—--------

Reality was put together as I saw Chi and John rise. Both were heavily injured.

“Alright guys we have to get that kid again.” Chi said.

“How?” John asked. “If you didn’t notice, Relic was there.”

“I noticed, idiot. But maybe if we tried-”

“If you tried?” A man wearing a suit came from behind. “Tried what exactly?”

“Spectre! What are you doing here?” I jumped up. Chi just kept quiet and looked down while John stared at Spectre.

“I was just around. It looks like you failed. Well, Relic is too high for your skill level. But there’s another task for you I have to give personally.” Spectre took out a piece of paper from his left suit pocket. I opened it.

“Wait? Are you sure we’re ready for this?” I said reading the map.

“Of course. After all, you three are the only ones that can do it. You must get it. Excalibur.”