Ja Fiat’s Hanfu also had layers of enchantments that affected perception skills. It was like a stealth field that warped Qi. The Qi acted as a mirror, reflecting and camouflaging her Realm. It was compelling enough that my perception skill, even when focused on the enchantments, could not pierce the illusion.

I had never come across this type of enchantment before, but I could certainly understand when it might be useful. I would discuss the technique with Pling. She was a new affiliate Clan member, part of the slew of Cultivators that Clement had managed to entice to join, and a Master ranked Enchanter.

Pling was a member of one of the dozens of Houses that had agreed to set up a minor branch offshoot under the auspices of Clan Frost. These Houses were still affiliated with Clement’s former House, House Metawin, but as a subsidiary House.

Pling’s House, House Tawin, a minor House for House Metawin, had been given a mandate to branch off and establish a presence on Onkei. I was certain House Metawin was using this opportunity as a test. They would see how the Kingdom developed and if there were enough resources available to invest in establishing a Sect or Clan.

I examined the charm that Ja Fiat had been reaching for with frustration. The resources she had available just continued to grow. The trinket was an escape talisman, one that would have allowed her to flee through the earth, hiding her Qi and her presence as she ran.

I was lucky to have stopped her and fortunate that this world hadn’t developed escape tokens that activated when I severed her hand. So far, there were no escape tokens that allowed for a teleport in some random direction. I didn’t know how difficult something like that would be, but it was another thing to add to my growing list of research potentials.

I didn’t think for a second that someone hadn’t found a way to teleport, but those secrets were probably restricted. I hadn’t been powerful enough before, but maybe now that I had reached the Nascent Soul Realm, some of those secrets could be revealed.

Xui had finished freeing the children and had moved to deal with Ja Fiat. The metal that he had softened began spooling out, wrapping her in wire threads he extruded from what he had gathered.

With her more thoroughly imprisoned, I turned my attention back to the altar and the secrets Ja Fiat had stored within that alcove. Secrets that were so horrific that she had been desperate to flee before I could unearth them.

My anger, which had already been greater than any time I could remember- in either life- soared to a new height when I found the skeletons of toddlers. I doubted we would ever discover who they had been or if their families still lived, but three children, probably not even two years old, had been sealed in metal.

The metal had been poured hot and allowed to cool to encase each child. The obscene statues were then twisted; each section was a psychedelic mishmash of madness and nightmare. Each child's facial expressions had been meticulously saved so that looking into the faces of those children was like stepping back in time and seeing the vile ritual that had encased each in a sarcophagus of eternal torment.

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And that torment was not a reflection of the past. I, and the rest of the Cultivators that had followed me, could feel the spiritual link that existed between the children and the altar. They had been trapped like flies in amber and, like the children we had freed in the other room, still clung to the briefest thread of life.

There would be no saving them. The ritual binding them to their fate may have been something I had never encountered before, but I had enough knowledge to know a focus when I discovered one.

This display of barbarism was a sacrifice of honor, an arrogance so perverted that any hint of morality had been stripped from Ja Fiat as she bound her Qi, her Cultivation, and her life force to the foci she had crafted.

The foci could be cleansed, and the demonic taint cleared, but for the children, nothing could be done to save them. They were too far gone. They had been molded by blood, flesh, and bone to serve Ja Fiat in her demented quest for power.

It was hard to destroy a person’s ability to cultivate. It's hard but not impossible. As long as you were strong enough, knowledgeable enough about the Elven body, and determined enough, it could be done.

And in my rage, I struck to do just that.

Pinpricks of precise Qi flooded Ja Fiat’s body. Qi that I began to burrow through her meridians and channels. I enhanced that Qi with my lightning affinity so that every path was cauterized.

I continued my destruction slowly enough that she would feel what I was doing. I wanted her to suffer, and the burning pain of having her cultivation ripped from her was the least I owed to those who had suffered and fallen victim to her vile practices.

I flooded every meridian with the power of my Nascent Soul Realm, forcing them to burst as I overloaded them. I shattered the crystal matrix that she had been gifted to protect her Dantian, the advancement that our people had discovered to guard against just the very thing I was engaged in.

Once her matrix was destroyed, I isolated her Dantian. She would always be able to feel the Qi the organ held, but it would always be just out of reach. For as long as she lived, and I hadn’t decided yet if she would live past questioning, she would know that her cultivation was still there. An itch that she would never be able to scratch.

Her body would begin to lose the benefits of having reached the Qi Gathering Realm. It would be a slow process. She would live, but eventually, her body would slowly revert, and she would become barely more potent than a normal non-cultivator.

It would be a slow and painful descent as she fell from Heaven’s grasp. But she had already made the decision to deny the Heavens by embracing demonic and Cultist techniques.

Her screaming echoed throughout the room; the walls enchanted to muffle those screams worked to muffle those sounds. I took no pleasure from what I had done, but I was honest enough to acknowledge that it hadn’t bothered me either.

Ja Fiat's intent was clear: she would practice her vile techniques, and her next victim would be my sister.

Nothing I did could restore the lives that had been destroyed here. I could offer no solace to the families of those slain or the children who were even now clinging desperately to life as Na fought against death itself to keep them tethered. But I could work to ensure that nothing like this ever happened in my Kingdom again.

It would be the work of a lifetime. And I knew I would encounter failures and setbacks. But if I was to build Onkei into a shining beacon of hope, then rooting out this vile evil was not only necessary, it was a quest worth embracing.