After reading the last chapter in Zhi’s book, the world around Seph morphed again.
He now had an overtop view of a battlefield.
A scar of fate appeared under him. It was a black slash in the face of reality. Weirdly, there were no living monsters to be seen.
Seph looked around and found Scorn’s entire team present, but there was an extra individual that was moving too fast for his eyes to follow. Seph still tried his best.
He carried an ornate one-handed sword that was extremely well made. And was wearing a sleek black attire that hugged his body, and a pointy hat that had the shape of a triangle in front and from the back.
Seph couldn’t see his face from his point of view.
The dark swordsman moved like lightning towards the Scarlet General, and landed a hit that shattered a tower shield he was carrying and even landed on his shoulder cutting into it deep.
In the blink of an eye, the dark swordsman reached Dante and struck him with his sword. Dante defended with his gourd in panic, but the gourd showed cracks all over after that single hit.
Dante immediately used some skill that made his body turn into a black substance that got sucked into the gourd, and he appeared in a different place entirely on the furthest point of the battlefield.
His gourd remained behind, though. Seph thought the gourd looked exactly like the one he used. He wondered if it’s the same one.
The swordsman was about to land a hit on the gourd to smash it, thinking that Dante was hiding inside, but the Skeleton Lord showed up and blocked the hit with his bone shield, which got smashed immediately.
The swordsman was ruthless and didn’t stop there. His second hit completely decapitated the Skeleton Lord, whose body fell limp.
In the next second, the swordsman appeared in front of Scorn, who was flying towards him.
He attacked him with his sword, but Scorn defended with his dragon wings. They had very tough bones that would have blocked any other hit, but not this one.
The sword slashed Scorn’s right wing in half.
Before the swordsman could land another hit to potentially finish Scorn off, the transparent body of the Ghost Commander appeared suddenly in front of him. In the blink of an eye, he zapped through the body of the dark swordsman.
The swordsman got electrocuted and paralyzed immediately.
Seph was almost at the same height as them, and could finally see the face of the dark swordsman since he stopped moving.
He had the eyes of a beast, scary yellow eyes that had a vertical slit pupil in the middle.
They were panicking right now, but you could tell how intelligent this creature was.
The high collar of his black shirt covered the bottom half of his face.
The upper half appeared to be covered in fur, like that of a cat. It was still hard to determine what this creature was, though.
Suddenly, a blinding scarlet comet shot from where the Scarlet General was, and he appeared next to the dark swordsman carrying a long lance that was now lodged in the creature’s stomach.
A second later, a purple portal appeared behind the black swordsman, and from within came a bone sword clutched by a bony hand that repeatedly stabbed the dark swordsman in the chest.
Seph looked over to where the Skeleton Lord used to be and found a similar portal with the Skeleton Lord standing beside it, his skull back on his shoulders.
The Ghost Commander zapped himself through the body of the swordsman again to make sure he remained paralyzed.
From the furthest spot of the battlefield, many small black balls rose in the air and they shot with the speed of a bullet towards the dark swordsman.
Dante screamed, “YOU RUINED MY FAVORITE WEAPON, YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE!”
Seph thought, man this guy is the coward of this group. He didn’t even come closer after he found the group had paralyzed and hurt their opponent.
The dark swordsman’s body got peppered with bullets, but none of them passed through. They lodged themselves halfway into his flesh, and the rot was spreading.
The swordsman snapped out of his paralysis, and the Ghost Commander suddenly stepped away. The purple portal closed up, and the Scarlet General dropped to the ground.
The way was clear for the dark swordsman to wreak havoc again, if not for the rushing body of Scorn who was carrying a one-handed sword of his own that he used to decapitate the dark swordsman ending the fight immediately.
A few swirls of energy under the scar of fate cleared up and revealed a few treasure chests at the same time.
Seph guessed those were the rewards for the high level scar of fate they just finished.
Scorn descended on the ground, his body missing half a wing.
He gave his friends half a smile before saying, “Too close for comfort. Who knew core creation level scars of fate could be this tough, eh?”
The Ghost Commander replied, “You all owe me your lives. Maybe I should be the one who gets all the loot.”
Dante, who had come back into proximity to his friends after the dark swordsman got decapitated, the same way he left, as the black substance came out of his gourd, forming his body again.
He spoke out and said, “No way in hell. That piece of shit ruined my favorite weapon. I need my part of the loot to get a replacement.”
The guttural hellish sound of the Skeleton Lord answered him, “Relax you ninny, the commander is just joking. Where were you during the fight when we were all getting thrashed by that mysterious devil, by the way?”
Dante’s eyes became wide, and he said defensively, “I was fighting like the rest of you. What do you mean where was I?! Watch what you are insinuating, you sack of bones.”
The Scarlet General finally spoke and said, “Enough of your rough jokes, everyone. I don’t want to be separating you fighting children again, today.”
All three looked offended, but before they could speak up, Scorn spoke again, “My friends, this is the last scar of fate we had to beat before finally going after our goal of storming the capital. We have waited long for this moment. You have all proven yourself very loyal to me and dedicated to my goal, and for that I am ever thankful to all of you for your support and your comradery. After we meditate, we will reach the next stage of cultivation, and we will be on par with the empire’s best.”
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Scorn stopped and looked at all his friends closely to see how they felt about his words. “It will be a tough war for sure, but we will come out on top. I have the utmost confidence in all your abilities. So, let us, for the last time, meditate together and reach new heights as Yin cultivators.”
Each of Scorn’s friends nodded at him before he sat down to meditate. Once he closed his eyes and started meditating deeply, he felt a sudden sharp pain in his chest.
He opened his eyes and saw the Scarlet General in front of him with a one-handed scarlet sword that he used to stab him in the chest.
Scorn looked at him in disbelief, but before he could say anything, he felt another sharp pain in his back, and his entire body was electrocuted and paralyzed.
Seph, from his overtop view, screamed “NO!” but no one could hear him.
The Ghost Commander was standing behind Scorn with a transparent sword that he had stabbed him with.
Instead of panicking, Scorn closed his eyes.
Next, the Skeleton Lord stepped up after the other two looked at him, and stabbed Scorn with a bone sword.
And finally, tentatively, Dante stepped forward and stabbed Scorn with a sword made of his black substance.
The Scarlet General then spoke, “We are very sorry, Scorn, but we couldn’t fight your war anymore. Fighting the empire is a very dangerous war, even for us. They have strong enough cultivators that will fight for their cause, and they can pay the rest of the cultivators to defend them. Our chances weren’t good. We probably would have all died fighting them, and wouldn’t have even gotten to the emperor’s doorstep. You want to destroy the empire, and leave multitudes of people to fend for themselves with no ruling government to set their affairs in order. Pulling the rug from under the feet of the empire will leave the mortals in civil wars for 200 years at least, before new borders become clear. But even if we destroyed the empire, was that going to be enough for the Scorn of Amoria? I heard you say many times you want to burn it all down before deciding if we deserve to continue existing. We don’t want to take part in ending civilization. We’re very sorry, my friend, but it had to be done.”
***
image [https://imgur.com/GCoiLPW.jpg]
Weeks ago, the emperor of Solea was sitting on his throne carrying the twin diary of Zhi Zixin.
He was alone and speaking to himself, “So you are dead now, my friend, but even in your death you serve your emperor one last time, giving me the information I need to beat Scorn once and for all. A battle with Scorn’s warriors is dangerous for the empire. We can probably come out on top, more than a 60% chance if I am a gambling man, but it will be a costly war even if we win. The only solution I see is to give each of his warriors what they desire most. Hell, even more than they desire, to end this war before it even begins. That Scarlet General sounds awfully familiar. I think he probably is one of my very own that got turned against me. I’ll send an official ambassador to make a deal with him after I order the court magician to track his movements. Once we find a certain time where the Scarlet General is isolated, we will reach out to him and convince him to switch sides, or even become his own man and not answer to us or Scorn again.”
***
image [https://imgur.com/GCoiLPW.jpg]
A week later, The scarlet General was in a brothel, where he liked to go to let off some steam.
The lighting was dark enough so that no one could recognize the differences that Yin cultivators have from humans.
He wasn’t wearing any of his conjured scarlet armor.
You would think he is just another pervy old man in search of a good time, but the ambassador of the emperor knew better.
He was sitting close to the general, and between them was a pretty woman.
The ambassador was waiting for his chance to make a good impression on the general, and once the general ran out of liquor, he got his chance.
“Another amphora on me, for the powerful gentleman and his lovely company,” the ambassador shouted.
This wasn’t new to the general. Sometimes people felt so good in the brothel that they just became generous and started buying wine for the surrounding people.
He raised his last glass to the ambassador without saying a word.
The woman that was sitting with the general excused herself to the washroom, and the ambassador found it a chance to make something happen.
He promised the whore that was with him ten gold if she could convince the other one to suggest to the general that they all sit together.
True enough, not ten minutes later, both couples were sitting together.
“Glad to make your acquaintance, sir,” said the ambassador once they got together.
“Likewise, my generous friend, so what is it you do?” The general didn’t really care for the ambassador at all. His escort convinced him by saying that the other man was feeble and she will convince the other woman to join them if they sit together, leaving the poor man without company.
“I am an ambassador for powerful people. I facilitate certain contracts for them and recruit additional forces for their cause. They trust my judgment completely and have given me complete authority to make very generous offers to those who would join them,” the ambassador said emphatically, trying to play at the natural greed of humankind. Greed that if we were deprived of, we wouldn’t ever strive to better our lives and our place in this world. Greed that without, we would have probably remained in the safety of our farms and grown our own food and lived peaceful lives forever.
The general became alert after hearing these words because he figured out something was up. He expanded his spiritual sense to cover the entire brothel and “saw” no danger. He expanded it further and everything was still very peaceful and safe.
He relaxed and thought to hear out the ambassador, to learn what he had to say.
“Oh! That’s very interesting. You must be well off then to have all these powers,” the general said.
“Yes, I am doing very well, but that’s not even 1% of how good the people who I deal with will be when they accept to deal with me.”
“So, what if I may ask, is your new mission?” The general knew this was an offer for him, and he was interested enough to hear it. He didn’t think that he would even consider accepting.
“My employer sent me to make a deal with a general of an opposing force. Our only ask is for that general to abandon his force. What we offer is nothing short of whatever they might need.”
“What if the general doesn’t want for anything?”
“We all want something. Some of us want more freedom to not be under the yoke of our masters anymore, to be our own masters. While others are tired of serving an army and want their own army, or even their own kingdom. Some of us don’t want to work for the legacy of another anymore and want to create our own legacy, our own lineage. Some of us want riches to set us up for life. There is always a way, especially if it’s for a just cause. And what’s more just than to stop the annihilation of a nation and to save hundreds of millions of people from the chaos of civil war that is bound to happen if there is no powerful ruler to govern the lands?” The ambassador finished his speech, but he knew he had his hooks in already. Now they learn if the general will take the bait.
The general stared at the ambassador, pondering his words.
He remained silent for five minutes, considering all possibilities in his brain, before saying, “What if the general wants everything you offered? His own sovereign kingdom, an army, riches, a lineage?”
“If that’s what he desires, I have the power to make it a reality,” said the ambassador confidently.
“And what is it that your employer asks of this general?”
“Complete support in whatever action he takes against a certain Amorian. It could be as big as the general’s aid in killing him, or it could be as little as the general’s refrain from joining the upcoming war. Either way, we will compensate the general just the same. And his life will never be in danger. If it comes to killing the adversary, the general will have the aid of all his friends to make it happen. We don’t intend to stop at making a deal with the general. We will reach out to all the others.” The ambassador spoke confidently. All pretenses have been abandoned. They both know exactly what these words entail now.
“I accept. I’ll choose my kingdom, but I’ll not answer to the empire after the deed is done. You will pay me a kingdom’s ransom, and I’ll only help in the killing if you convince every single officer of the Amorian’s group. Otherwise, all you’ll get from me is my guarantee to not take part in the upcoming war.” The General stopped for a second before remembering something. “Oh! And there is an individual that served in the imperial army, that got dishonorably discharged and killed for a crime he didn’t perpetrate. I want a full pardon for his name and for the empire to honor his legacy.”
Seph was still watching, and he felt like he was the subject of betrayal upon hearing the words of the Scarlet General. But this was all in the past. This was all done. Scorn failed because his friends turned on him.
“We accept your conditions General, I have to ask you one last question though. Which one is Scorn? We know the composition of your army, we know some of you by name, but we don’t know which one is Scorn.”
The Scarlet General was silent for a few seconds, like he was abandoning the last shred of loyalty he had for his old Master before saying, “He is the one with the dragon wings.”