Chapter 4

“Hah…shit.”

Kusan jumped down into the dense forest and landed heavily on the ground after two hours of jumping around, his energy was drained and without the energy, he can’t move any further using his legs. He would have to either drag his body along the ground or find some method of being able to advance.

Judging from the scenery that Kusan saw, he could tell that he was only a quarter of the way back to the Dojo.

‘To think that it took me 2 hours to just cover a quarter of the distance, if this keeps up, it will very much takes me 8 hours.

That isn’t enough time for me.’

Normally Kusan would have used some healing pills to close the wounds, however as a result of the battle with the assassins, they were smashed and this left only the two pills he used previously to be the only ones left out of all the pills he brought with him. Especially the most important blood-clotting powder that could have stopped the blood flowing out of his thighs was also destroyed.

Before he relaxed, he scanned his surrounding to get an idea of how dangerous the forest area is to him. The forest didn’t help answer his answer, not that he was looking at them but for the faunas that inhabited the area as it could indicate the level of danger he has landed himself in the forest.

The monster forest is split into 4 different areas called the ‘Rims’ that each ‘Rim’ strength varies, this is noticeable by fact that the closer one ‘Rim’ is to the centre of the forest, the higher the difficulty level of the monsters and beasts they have.

The first and considered the most easiest place to hunt is the ‘Outer Rim’, this place is composed mostly of 1st-3rd ranked monsters that are located at the outer reach of the forest and it covers the most land out of the four ‘Rim’. Next is the ‘Inner Rim’, composed of 4th-6th ranked monsters and is not only located behind the ‘Outer Rim’, it is also closer to the centre of the forest.

Third is the ‘Outer Core Rim’, this area is the second most dangerous area and only the elite warriors dare to traverse such area. The land is occupied by 7th-9th ranked beasts, from this one could tell just how deadly the area is, especially the 9th ranked beasts. One must know that the power of a 9th rank is unrivalled under the heavens, especially if it is from monsters as they have enough strength to rival even the immortal Saints.

From this, one can see just how deadly the forest and power it possessed. Finally the last but not least, the rumoured ‘Inner Core Rim’, it is believed to be composed of Saint Monsters and Beasts. Even if the area is the smallest out of all four ‘Rims’ it is the most powerful and deadly area of them all.

It is considered a rumour as nobody has ever ventured further than the ‘Outer Core’, as the only record of the ‘Inner Core Rim’ is from 7,000 years ago from a powerful and exalted Saint who was said to have discovered the centre of the forest and was written down in history as the only person to have discovered such a thing. However, due to the fact that nobody has advanced further than the ‘Outer Core’, naturally people started to believe that the Saint was telling a lie and over time with no success in view.

It turned from fact to rumours, to legend to myth in the passage of time.

‘Judging by that beast over there, I am in the ‘Inner Rim’.’

Kusan stared at a beast that looked like a large black rabbit the size of a bear, with a white diamond shape in the middle of its forehead. The rabbit is 300 metres away from Kusan in the forest, however although it was far, considering that Kusan was a newly 7th ranked warrior that with each rank will grant natural bodily powers like heighten sight that he used to see the rabbit as clear as day despite the vast distance that a normal person would have trouble trying to see.

He could tell that the rabbit was a 5th rank magical beast and so Kusan, breathed a sigh of relief that he has entered the 5th ranked area of the ‘Inner Rim’. If it was the 6th ranked area, he would be greatly worried because there is a chance he may encounter a 7th ranked monster that may have strayed to the 6th ranked area.

With his current condition, there is no way that he can fight a 7th ranked monster with only one arm and no movement. However, fighting 5th ranked monsters is a different story as they are leagues apart from a 7th ranked monster and so it is easier to deal with them than 7th ranked monsters.

Having sense the danger level being low, Kusan breathed a sigh of relief as he sluggishly put himself into a lotus position. He left behind drag marks on the dirt as he moved his dead legs into position and with the deathly silence that he found himself in, he couldn’t help but be secretly anxious. With only an approximate 4 hours left before the pain comes back, he knew he couldn’t make it back to the Dojo and so decided to mediate for two hours before resuming his journey back home.

How to get back to the Dojo with only one arm? That is something he hasn’t found an answer to and that is something he doesn’t intend to keep at, as he formulated plans in his mind while he meditated to regain his energy.  

‘Tame a monster? No, that’s not possible without the scroll.

Burn all my energy in dashing? Doubt I can make it further than halfway.

Crawl along?.......’

Ideas after ideas formed inside Kusan’s mind; one after another they were thrown aside. No matter what ideas he came up with, nothing was conceivable at his current level. Slowly his mind hit a dead end, without any other ideas, he decided to relax his mind first and think up plans later on.

Slowly faint blue smoke materialised from thin air and then gently wrapped around Kusan’s body without touching him. It hovered just 1 centimetre from his body, it flowed along with the wind direction yet it didn’t disperse or break apart.

The blue smoke was precisely the energy Kusan urgently needed, how it was blue is from his magic element. He had an abundant amount of magic power and so he wanted to convert it into energy.

The process wasn’t easy as it sounded, firstly to convert magic into energy, they need slowly pour in a little bit of energy inside the magic pool and mix it in. However, it is impossible to do so inside the body as the two power sources are separated by their respective channels. So for Kusan to attempt this, he has to pour the magic outside and control the magic the entire time or else the magic will disperse and that’ll mean that he just wasted magic for no reason.

He did just that and that is what the blue smoke surrounding him is, his water magic. He then poured just a minuscule amount of energy that he managed to cultivate inside his energy core, into the magic smoke.

A tiny white stream, thin as a wire, undetectable from a normal person’s eye, came pouring out from his hands. Slowly it streaked through the air, with it occasionally flicking, almost on the verge of breaking from just a slight wind pressure. But it endured the wind resistance as it dissipated from a solid liquid form into smoke as it merged with the magical smoke.

This process required a delicate and strong mind to keep the energy in its smoke form, similar to how he is keeping the magical smoke under his control or else both will disperse the moment he stops or loses control over them.

Another big issue regarding this process is how to mix it in; it wasn’t simple as pouring a food colouring into the water and it’ll just magically turn into the colour of the food colouring. Even if that was possible, the energy and magic would immediately attack each other and whoever possess the more amount of power will naturally win. In this case, the magic will automatically win considering it dwarfed the energy by an extremely large margin.

So to make it work, Kusan had to will the magic to be dormant and docile. It is hard for him as the magic is chaotic like an untamed beast, with the channels inside Kusan being the only thing that could tame the magic. The magical channel possessed something special that no mortal knows, to control the magic and thereby allowed the magician to use it.  

It would normally be impossible for magician to be able to make the magic inside them docile once it is outside their channels. However, for Kusan, he knew how to do so since he was taught by Master Kenji who taught him how to convert magic into energy and likewise backwards to, as it was commonly known to be impossible for anyone to do so.

Even Kusan knew it was impossible, so for that reason he asked Master Kenji how it was possible before he took up the chance to be taught this technique. He got his answer when Kenji a few words that told him everything.

“Only mortals do not know it.”

Kusan looked at Kenji weirdly before he realised what he was talking about. Having realised what he meant, Kusan no longer hesitated and asked to be taught it.

So from the lesson that took him six months to even successfully master it, he then willed the magical channels to pour out the air traveling through them as he noticed that when air passed through it, it attains the special power the channel possessed. So along with the special air, he made it surround a small part of the blue smoke which in turns makes them docile. Thereby, making the energy is on the offensive while the magic hovered in the air to be eaten like food before a hungry beast.

Owing to how small the energy smoke was, it didn’t immediately have any visible effect on the magic. However, if one used heighten sight or a magic that amplifies views. They could see the blue smoke, upon contact with the white smoke, greedily devoured the blue smoke like nothing. Similar to how adding a cordial into clear water will automatically make the water changed into the colour the cordial possessed.

So like the cordial, it instantly turned white and it rapidly spread into the surrounding magic that was untainted by the energy and surrounded by the special air. From this, Kusan has successfully started the converting. Despite the benefit, his brain was slowly weakening as time passed on.

Considering he endured a fight with the snake, life and death fight with three top notch assassins, guiding the energy to control his limbs that couldn’t be used normally and the strenuous task of pumping magic into his damaged body parts to lessen the pain. Coupled with the fact that he is controlling the magic, energy and the special air all at the same time while mediating to rapidly cultivate energy inside himself, all pushed his mind to the limit.

It is surprising to see that after all that his mind has gone through or is currently undergoing, he hasn’t faint from exertion as the mind is fragile and can only do so much. Only that Kusan is still awake due to his unwillingness to faint because he knew he is doomed the moment he takes a ‘small’ nap and his strong desire to live.

An extremely small dot of white smoke appeared in the blue smoke that was clearly visible from a normal person’s eyesight. Soon the white dot expanded beyond being labelled a dot and it turned into a small patch. The speed of the white smoke absorption increased in response to its size and it rapidly expanded to a size equal to the blue smoke.

The half blue and white smoke created a sense of calm and oneness with the world, as if like a Buddha in a lotus position as the smokes made him glow with lustre. Unfortunately there was no one to admire Kusan’s current state with only monsters and magical beasts as his companions inside the forest.

Kusan opened his eyes the moment the last blue surviving smoke died out to the white smoke, now he is surrounded by white smoke. He looked around and did a stern nod at his accomplishment.

He then closed his eyes; suddenly the white smoke swirled around in the air before it diverged into his chest as if though an invisible vortex is there. Rapidly the white smoke lessened in the size and density before it stopped with the white smoke retaining a quarter of its size before his body started to leak out another batch of blue smoke.

Different from before when the situation was that the blue smoke was millions of times larger than the white so it took a while for the white smoke to completely dominate the blue smoke. The blue smoke was leaking out from his chest and with no choice, had to advance through the white smoke screen positioned in front of his chest.

After the first process of converting magic into energy, Kusan found it easier by making the blue smoke travel through the white screen which in turns converts them into white. This was only obtained after some experiments on how to drastically cut down time on Kusan’s part as although the technique was good, it was too time consuming and this was how he came about the screen.

The white smoke screen acted like fire and the blue smoke was woods, every time the woods pass into the fire, instead of passing through it was devoured as it fuelled and thereby expands the fire beyond its initial size.  

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And so the process of converting magic into energy was now simply easier for Kusan and so lessen the strain on his mind or else if he had continued, no matter how tenacious he was, there was no doubt his mind would have failed him before he realised it.

An hour and half later, Kusan stopped the process as he found that his magic was exhausted and therefore there was no more fuel for his energy.

He sighed as he only managed to fill about 25% of his total energy capacity. He wanted more in case he encountered some more assassins along his route back. Although this was purely based on his feeling, but one cannot dismiss Kusan for being cautious as assassins tend to not leave anything unfinished.

He looked around and mused at the fact that no monsters dared trend towards him no closer than 150 metres distance from him before dismissing him and going on with their daily nature life.

‘Not much of a plan but it does conserve my energy for emergency use and it only requires me to use only my one arm. Thereby lessening the consummation of my energy; however whether the river is also under watch.’

Kusan had finally found a feasible yet a painful way to reach the Dojo with the least amount of energy consumed. But in exchange for conserving energy, he has to sacrifice time and time is something that cannot be taken lightly. As the pain will slowly escalate as time passed, thereby worsening his condition and this trip will test his level of endurance and the will to live.

The plan was to make a boat, then sail down the small river that he knew leads to a small Dojo gateway stationed at the bottom of the mountain. From there, he could request the red robed ‘Dragons’ to take him back to the Medicinal Hall to recuperate.

‘Time to start.’

Time was ticking for Kusan and having recuperate as much as he could during the past hour and half, he knew he had to make the most of his time before the pain comes crashing down on him.

Without a word, he disappeared from his spot and out into the forest.

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Inside a deep and immeasurable

tig..  tig..  tig..  tig..  tig..

The sounds of footsteps resonated inside a dark eerie hallway, a figure was seen inside and the source of the footsteps.

The footsteps sounded weird but the feeling it brought was by no means any normal feeling. As the footsteps gave any who heard it, a feeling that it was the footsteps of death closing in on them and if one concentrate their ears within the sounds of the steps. One could swear they could hear cries of pain, torment and utter suffering beyond imagination.

Just from the footstep alone, one could imagine just how deadly the owner of the footsteps resounding in the hallway was. When the mysterious figure exited from the pitch-black hallway as it as it bathed under a faint glow like the moon, but the strange thing is that the source of the moonlight is actually from a small stone. The small stone bathed the gigantic dome in moonlight that the figure just entered.

The giant dome was unremarkable. There were no ornaments, patterns or engravings of any kind that could distinguish this mighty 100 metre wide and 50 metre high dome. Except for the small glowing stone and an extremely large chair that that was 30 metres width and height. There was an equally large skeleton on the chair; it was as if the chair was made for the skeleton considering its skeletal size.

In front of the chair, were 10 pitch-black hallways with the third on the left having the purple figure coming out from it.

Even so, just the size alone brought alone an oppressive and inferior feeling to anybody who walked in, due to the sheer size of the dome. As the size of a place is an indication of the occupant’s size and in some cases, power.

The unknown figure that exited the hallway was revealed to be clad fully in a blackish purple robe. The figure emanated a heart-shaking evil aura that could make any normal person suffocate just from the invisible oppressive aura alone.

This mysterious figure makes one think, is this figure even a living being? To be able to give off such malicious and terrifying feeling, not just from aura alone but also from the sound of its footsteps too.

“Master……I come…”

A low yet deep shrill voice came from the purple figure; the voice was something mixed between a woman and a man voices so it was impossible to discern the gender of the figure.

The limp and stationary skeleton that was slouched over the large chair awoke with red blood eyes that appeared in it eye socket, like a person who woke up from a deep sleep except it’s a skeleton. Its deep blood eyes glowed intensely as it bathed the purple figure, like a machine probing the figure.

In the next moment, 9 figures of varying sizes exited from their respective 9 black hallways. Each clad in the exact same attire as the first arrival did, deep purple robe that completely covered their entire body.

“Master” in a synchronized manner, all 9 of them knelt like a servant and acknowledged the unmoving skeleton.

After the acknowledgement, all ten stood up straight in front of the giant skeleton like soldiers before their general and raised their arms. They maintained a distance of a metre between each other so as not to interfere with their next movements.  

Next, an intense and ghastly black magic poured out from their hands still hidden under the robe, within the black magic there was a number of either hidden, ferocious and anguish faces mixed all in. The faces all screamed in agony or in anger as they tried to escape the dreaded black magic that imprisoned them.

Noises of curses, taunts and many myriad of emotions were directed from the imprisoned souls to their captures, the purple robes. However, no matter how much they tried to shout or scream, the volume of their voices never went higher than a passing whisper.

The black magic flowed in the air before it swiftly smashed into the skeleton. All the souls seeing this thought this was their chance to escape when they smashed into the bones. Without waiting, they all bite, gouge, cut, ram and all sorts of attack onto the bone but their attacks did not even faze the very bone they were ganging up on, much less a mark that at least shows that they have made finally made a breakthrough.

While they were incessantly attacking the bones with their very being and full concentration, none noticed that their fellow prisoners were being sucked into the bone they were attacking until it was too late as they only noticed it when they themselves were the ones being sucked in.

The bones absorbed the black magic and the multitude of souls that occasionally came out mixed in the magic. The scene of the magic absorption was similar to pouring water into a dried up sponge that didn’t immediately turned soft despite the large gallons of magic and souls being poured inside.

The red glowing eyes flickered and then looked at the ceiling, as if it knew what was going to happen, the ceiling shuddered the moment he looked. A few small loose rocks dropped down and shattered upon impacts as it littered the ground with dusty rocks.

The ten robed didn’t notice as they were too busy pouring magic into the skeleton. Whereas the skeleton eyes glowed intensely while staring at the ceiling and then his glowing eyes narrowed down to be shaped like a sword within his eye socket. Despite their being no skin on the skeleton to emphasis the alertness that the skeleton showed, it was still enough with the black deathly aura that he emitted coupled with his sharp piercing blood eyes to show his wariness.

The shaking stopped, however that wasn’t the end as the next moment a flash came piercing out from within the area of the shaking and streaked through the air towards the skeleton with astonishing speed.

The skeleton not any slower than the blinding light shot out two red beams from his glowing eyes to meet the light.

Two blood red beams and one white beam created a small shockwave that shook the very foundation of the dome from the collision. The explosion blew away everything except the ten robed figures and the skeleton who still sat in the same stationary position despite the massive chair having been incinerated from the after-effects.

The ten robed stopped pouring magic once the explosion blew out and surrounded the skeleton like a pair of loyal bodyguards as they all stared at the small hole where the surprise attack came out.

The skeleton didn’t dawdle around as it stood up and spoke in a deep male voice that could make the robed voice from before pale in comparison in terms of deadliness.

“So….you have……found me”

While talking, out of thin air, phantom green armours appeared all over the skeleton with 20 swords hovering behind it. The robed men seeing this, also followed suit and their robe were covered in a faint green aura.

A calm and humane voice that could give the people a serene feeling echoed in the dome, however it worsened the dome as it was hanging in the balance by a thread. So when the voice spoke, the dome couldn’t take it anymore and started to cave in.

Large rocks, half the size of the skeleton came descending upon him. Even so, the ten robes didn’t move in to defend their master from it and so it crashed onto the skeleton. But the skeleton was unfazed and instead of slicing through the rocks behind the ones that smashed onto him. He simply just flew through the countless rocks smashing down on him.

The ten robes followed behind and they were soon greeted by a tired sun, illuminating the late sky in red.

But that wasn’t the most eye-catching thing they saw. In the sky were a swarm of men and woman with half in green patterned robes and the other half wearing normal attires. To be able to fly without any noticeable sign of using magic is a testament to this army that surrounded the giant skeleton when he arrived out in the open, an army of Saints.

Despite the vast difference in numbers and the fact that each individual was a Saint, which is considered a mighty existence that rarely gathers in great bunch, much less an army of five thousand Saints. The skeleton didn’t even show any signs of agitation, horror or any emotion that showed that he feared the mighty army.

He hovered over the area that should have been the ground, unfortunately it was gone as it sunk down to fill in the dome, flanked by ten purple robes; he looked up and scanned the sky. He saw faces laced with anger, indignation and a small hint of fear.

A man hovered in front and surprisingly enough, it was Master Kenji of the ‘Dragon Dojo’.

His face was covered in veins which displayed his emotion when he stared at the giant skeleton. However, having been a veteran warrior, Kenji knew better than to let his emotion be the controlling force behind him. So with some difficulty he managed to curb his anger as he fiercely glared at the skeleton while thinking up plans to take him down.

“To think the man we have been hunting for 300 years has been hiding in the forest behind my Dojo.”

His talk elicited a chuckle from the skeleton as he crossed his arms.

“I believe this is your last soul.

It’s time we finish this once and for all.”

Kenji put his hand out in the air and suddenly a guandao appeared in his hands. The blade part of the glaive was silver with a green dragon etched on it, red 2 metre pole with a moon silver tassel at the other end. The weapon was also covered in a blue aura.

Not only him, all the people in the army of Saints withdrawn their weapons. Creating sounds of metal scraping, whooshing sounds from Saints swinging their weapons and the beating of two weapons, like the clang of two iron rods all dominating the ground and air with sounds within five kilometres area.

The entire sound booming out was liken to that of a forge, but multiplied by a hundred, enough to be heard from afar.

As if by tacit understanding between the two sides, they all rushed to attack. However, unlike everyone and the ten robes chanting magic, sending out sword energy that had the power to slice a mountain in half or shooting projectiles that gleamed with Death at each other. The skeleton stood there and looked at his chest, where a mysterious black hole appeared while millions of danger that could end his life closing in on him with blinding speeds.

When every Saint saw this, they couldn’t help but show a bit of fear before they changed their target from the skeleton to the black hole that appeared. While they were busy initiating their second attack before their first attack has landed on the skeleton, a mighty earth shattering roar erupted as if from everywhere.

ROOOAAARRR