Book 2. The Grand Gathering. Chapter 22. The difference in Strength.
“Hoo…” Zhira nodded lightly, acknowledging Siana’s talent. She wasn’t just any simple little girl after all! Unlike most people thought, Rudford apparently didn’t take her in as a disciple only because he wanted to do a favor to her brother. “Her Qi even surged to the sixth mortal realm, is it because of this sword?” he wondered calmly, the death of one guy at the eighth mortal realm not bothering him in the slightest. People below the Realm of Heroes were of little importance to their family, especially trashes who practiced mere mid-level martial arts like those ones. As long as they weren’t dying in thousands, it didn’t matter if they lived or died.
“You have one minute before your body starts breaking down! Hurry up!” Seira called out, fueling Siana with even more energy and forcefully raising her cultivation level to the seventh mortal realm. Siana’s Qi, previously neutral in nature had changed to the fire-element ‘Crimson Blood’… but due to her Qi paths and body not having been refined for it, her own Qi was steadily hurting her internally. Her strength has risen for a short period of time, but this boost had its price. She had sixty seconds to settle the fight and run away… or else she would become so exhausted that even a toddler would be able to beat her.
Siana clenched her hands, grabbing the hilt of her blood-red longsword with both of them. She didn’t follow up with another attack after killing the first man and was seemingly letting the remaining six men retreat and prepare. But rather it would be more accurate to say that she couldn’t follow up with another attack. Although her strength has risen greatly, she was pale-faced, looking as if she could collapse at any moment.
Even during the sixty seconds period, pain resulting from the usage of Forbidden Art was immense. Each cell of Siana’s body was screaming, tortured by the forcefully uplifted quality and quantity of her Qi. Every part of her body was being assaulted by the strength of Crimson Blood despite Siana having not attained a proper foundation. The pain was so great that Siana needed to make use of all her mental strength to even stay conscious.
“This bitch, what the bloody hell?!” Masi yelled, enraged and frightened. He hadn’t been cautious of Siana at all and was already planning to approach her and laugh in her face. Had she waited a few more seconds… she would have been right next to him and most likely, he would have ended up killed along with his subordinate! “Those bastards don’t seem to care either. Damn!” Masi cursed wordlessly, seeing as the black-cloaked experts chose to spectate the scene without lifting a finger.
“Capture her!” Masi shouted at his men and drew a sword himself. With their master stepping in to fight alongside them, the remaining six regained some of their confidence. Including Masi, they had seven combatants at the seventh mortal realm. Previously, the strongest of them had been taken by surprise. What’s more, as they saw it the girl was already suffering some kind of backlash from suddenly unleashing strength beyond her limits.
The six subordinates of Masi even started wondering why they got so scared a moment before. True, they felt a powerful murderous intent emanating from the crimson longsword, but its wielder seemed to be in a rather sorry state.
The bravest one of Masi’s subordinates ridiculed his fear to the point of walking up to Siana, having convinced himself that she wasn’t capable of fighting anymore. The man was always proud and enjoyed dominating others; generally those much weaker than himself. He didn’t have it in him to admit he was scared of a little girl. Thus, he acted more to convince himself of his superiority rather than to carefully subdue Siana.
Had the unlucky man sensed Siana’s cultivation base rising, first to the sixth, then to the seventh mortal realm, had he felt the vast energy coursing through her body, he probably wouldn’t have been so careless. Regrettably, people would often make stupid decisions during high-stress situations. Decisions which ultimately would lead to their demise.
Siana frowned, trying to concentrate on her surroundings. Without thinking, she swept with her longsword, cutting horizontally at the man who was approaching her. The man at the seventh mortal realm was surprised by the speed with which the longsword came at him but still managed to put up a guard. The two blades collided… and with a light ‘kachink’ sound the longsword sliced cleanly through the other blade, then split the man’s body into two messy, bloody halves at the chest area.
With little to no time to comprehend what had happened, the man died while still on his legs. His corpse fell to the ground, internals falling out of both parts of his body and along with liters of blood creating a puddle of gore on the courtyard.
“Hahaha, Wolf do you still think she is so bad?” one of the black-cloaked men joked, laughing heartily.
“Shut it, Snake. How could I have known she could use Forbidden Arts?” Wold rebuked, annoyed by his colleague. He very much would have liked to go and punch Snake in his conceited face, but the cold stare of his leader stopped him in his tracks. “Gotta guard the way out, right? I get it, I get it, so stop staring at me like that…” he grumbled quietly but didn’t dare to say these words out loud.
The five remaining subordinates of Masi all took a step back, none willing to try and subdue the ten years old monstrosity of a girl in front of them.
“Surround her and attack all at once!” Masi barked at his men, beginning to circle around Siana. By now, he didn’t care about capturing Siana alive. His only goal was to save his face! After all, if his men were beaten by a ten years old girl… he would become a laughingstock of the whole Clan! Again! First Laien, then his little sister…! Was he cursed to be shamed by those siblings at each step of his life?!
“Hmph, if you want me not to hurt her then do something about it instead of just watching!” the thought crossed Masi’s mind as he briefly looked at Zhira. The man seemed to have more or less understood just from the look in his eyes, but he only smirked and shrugged his shoulders, making it obvious that he didn’t give a crap about aiding Masi in solving the situation at hand.
“Master told me to use you as scapegoats or get rid of you. I guess that since an occasion presented itself, I can save some effort. No need to dirty my hands with the trash…” Zhira laughed in his heart. However the story had ‘happened’ in reality didn’t matter. Would Siana kill them, or would his subordinates do it later… the final result would be the same. On the other hand, how amusing it was to watch a human trash unwittingly and happily heading to its own end? “Haha, maybe I shouldn’t criticize my subordinates’ sense of humor anymore…” Zhira thought in amusement, the corners of his lips rising upwards a little bit.
Zhira wasn’t worried about Siana’s safety at all. He knew Masi and his men practiced only mid-level martial arts while Siana wielded the top-level Arts of the Red Dragon School. Whether she was using them with the assistance of a Forbidden Art or through her own insights was of no importance. A low-level Art competing with a top-level Art? One might as well try to shatter a rock by throwing eggs at it and he would still have a better chance to succeed.
Siana shivered, unchangingly struggling to remain conscious. Thankfully, the pain she was experiencing was steadily lessening, but it was maybe only since she was growing numb to it. With each passing second, bit by bit it was becoming more bearable.
“This girl…” Seira murmured, sensing the change which was occurring within Siana’s body. “Just how ridiculous is this girl’s potential? To be assimilating the false Red Dragon Arts into her own knowledge, and all of that instinctually…!” Seira looked at the six men surrounding Siana. She felt their fear and hesitation and couldn’t help but smile to herself. Those short moments gifted to Siana through their lack of decisiveness proved to be priceless.
Suddenly, a blood-red Qi surrounded Siana and gently encompassed her body, forming a thick protective layer around it. At the same time, Siana visibly relaxed; she took a deep breath. Shortly afterward, colors returned to her face while her aura also strengthened by half a level, entering the late stages of the seventh mortal realm.
“Quick, you made your breakthrough so get outta here before those martial masters start going after you for real!” Seira reminded with a quick shout, seeing as Siana got absorbed in enjoying the painless state and the increased strength she wielded.
Perhaps out of desperation, but it was at this time that Masi ordered his remaining men to attack. What didn’t escape the attention of the many black-cloaked men observing the fight was that Masi didn’t step forward with his men; obviously, he was too scared of Siana now that an armor of blood-red Qi appeared around her body.
Siana smiled slightly. As the five men were approaching, she felt as if everything was happening really slowly. The split second was long enough for her to make the decision and realize… that she had no qualms about killing those men. In the past, she used to worry about the day when she would take one’s life for the first time, but unexpectedly… she didn’t feel anything special now that she did.
Accompanied by the grim satisfaction, Siana confidently faced the man charging at her from the front. She took a step forward and cleaved with her longsword from high up; the man attempted to block and move away, but he was far too slow to accomplish that. The blade shattered his weapon and cleanly split him into two ideal, bloody halves of gore.
Compared to the hundreds of disciples Siana had sparred with in the Red Dragon School, an opponent who couldn’t even use any proper techniques and whose most powerful attack was to swing his sword crudely was less than a joke; he was a disgrace to all martial practitioners who were at the same cultivation level as him!
Before the other four swords could reach her, Siana took another step and pivoted her other foot. She sent out a wide slash while turning around… and unleashed the Dragon’s Claw technique. The blood-red Qi surged and the powerful martial art directly turned the four men along with the horrified Masi into nothing but mincemeat, sending the scattered bits and pieces of their bodies flying to the side as if a gigantic human had squashed a bunch of bugs.
The quality of their martial arts… the quality of their weapons… the battle experience, their battle potential and their natural talent! All of those were simply too far apart for Masi and his servants to be of any challenge to the current Siana. The girl had never liked to be in the center of attention and she only now achieved the sixth mortal realm, so he had been hidden in her big brother’s shadow. However… her talent wasn’t any less than his!
Having dealt with the closest nuisances in a fashion which made even the black-cloaked men a bit flabbergasted Siana turned quickly and leaped into the air, shattering the ground with the sheer force of her jump. The Crimson Blood… now that she mastered it, she learned how to use the first levels of both Dragon’s Body and Dragon’s Force Arts in mere seconds!
Truth to be told, if she had a few hours to meditate in calm, it wouldn’t be impossible to reach the second level of all of those Arts! With nothing disturbing her mind, she could make a proper use of her heaven-defying martial talent!
“Wolf!” Zhira barked impatiently. Instantly, Wolf disappeared, transforming into a blurred shadow. Before Siana could land on the nearby rooftop, he appeared at her side and casually struck with his palm, aiming at her neck with the intention of knocking the girl out.
However, Wolf quickly pulled back and in the nick of time dodged the incoming sword. For a split second, he stared at Siana, wondering how was she able to keep up with his movements. The shock didn’t last long though as he swiftly spun his body mid-air and kicked Siana’s stomach, sending her flying all the way back to the courtyard like an arrow.
Although previously Siana managed to react on instinct and respond with one blow… there was just no way for her to follow the movements of an agile expert at the second Realm of Heroes. Her armor of Qi might have absorbed most of the force, but it shattered as a result and the clash with the ground robbed her of her consciousness.
Wolf jumped down the building and looked at his boss, wondering if he had any more orders for him. From the looks of it, he did not.
“Escaped with your life, Wolfie?” Snake asked with a laugh. “What are you…” Wolf frowned, but then he felt a thin line of fluid flowing down his neck. He raised his hand and touched it, sensing light pain around the area. “What the…?” Seeing his palm covered in blood, Wolf involuntarily trembled. Indeed, just like Zhira said his defenses were below average; he relied on his speed and agility not to get hit.
To be a few centimeters away from being killed by a ten years old girl… It was an unpleasant experience. What’s more, to be made aware of that by Snake made it only worse.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“The show is over, clean up the place. Bring the girls upstairs,” Zhira spoke loudly, directing his words to the random few of the dozens of regular black-cloaked men who were guarding the area. He also gave Wolf and Snake a cold glance, knowing the two were about to start bickering with each other. He was tired of their endless fighting and didn’t want to listen to another of their stupid arguments. Now that the fun part had ended he needed to get the job done just like his Master wanted him to.
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“Young Master Laien,” Johan spoke quietly and shook Laien’s shoulder gently. He really didn’t want to enter the room where the youths were sleeping, but the messenger insisted this letter was of utmost importance and that Laien needed to receive it right away.
“What is it…?” Laien sat down and glanced at the old butler. He saw the sealed letter sealed with the sigil of the Valius family and sighed, then received it.
“If you need anything from me, young master, I will be waiting outside for the next ten minutes,” Johan said in a low voice, ready to personally carry out any orders of Laien in apology for waking him up. He raised himself up from crouching position, bowed lightly and left the room quietly.
“What is this about at this hour…?” Laien yawned and ripped the letter open. The night was relatively light, so with his eyesight, he didn’t need to turn any lights on; he intended to skim through the lines and go back to sleep… but as he was reading the few words written there, his heart skipped a beat. He hastily pulled the whole letter out and along with it, a black gold interspatial ring fell out of the envelope.
Laien grabbed the interspatial ring and overwrote the original ownership with his spiritual energy, to his terror confirming that the content of this ring… was nearly identical to that of his own! It really was Siana’s interspatial ring!
“Laien, what happened?” Yin, who had been half-asleep was instantly awoken by the great stress paired up with an incredible fury he sensed from Laien through their spiritual link.
“I have no time to explain, I need to go alone, now. Tell everyone not to follow me or they will kill Siana!” Laien uttered quietly as fast as he could, then ran up to the window, opened it and jumped outside, heading straight to the southernmost district of the Two Weeks City.
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The lines of the letter once again surfaced in Laien’s thoughts. “Immediately head to the southernmost district of the Two Weeks City. If you aren’t alone, then we will immediately kill your sister and flee.”
Overcome with fear for Siana’s life, Laien abandoned all reasoning and followed the letter’s instructions. Approaching the situation reasonably, with logic? Deducing that the ones behind Siana’s abduction were probably people of the Cail family who were interfering with their school? Betting on the conclusion that they wouldn’t do anything to Siana since Rudford’s response would be to eradicate their whole family? When Siana’s life was actually placed in jeopardy he became incapable of doing any of those things.
Rushing through the rooftops at top speed, Laien started wondering what he had he done wrong to get Siana involved in all of this. Did he not take enough precaution? Was living half-normally too extravagant of a wish and he should have locked himself and his sister away under Rudford’s cloak? Should he not have gotten involved in the struggle for power between the Royals so easily?
“This letter from the afternoon… wasn’t it warning me exactly about that, just in more vague words?” Laien grit his teeth so hard they seemed to be about to crack. He shouldn’t have allowed Siana to go back to the Red Dragon School alone! She returned there safely, but now she somehow ended up being kidnapped! If something happened to her… he would never forgive himself!
A few hundred meters away, an unnoticeable blur of shadows followed Laien; and it wasn’t the only one. However, he was hiding his presence not only from Laien but also from the other shadows. “He really headed out to save his little sister… what do I do? Master Genzie is with Fohan and Luren, I have no time to inform him. What would be the best course of action…?” Garoth kept thinking, but couldn’t make a choice. Zhira must have threatened Laien with something for him to come rushing out like this so he couldn’t arbitrarily take actions and inform the Great Masters on their side.
“If only we had more capable subordinates, with how many people Zhira placed around the city I’m about the only one who can move unnoticed and that’s only when I’m keeping a distance from their main encampment,” he complained silently and sighed inwardly. “There’s a chance he told his friends in the Royal Palace what is going on… I will take my chances and ask them to let me in,” he decided in the end and turned around, hurrying back to where he came from.
The distance of a few kilometers didn’t take Laien long to cross. A little over sixty seconds had passed when he entered the outer perimeter of the shut-off district. He focused and encompassed the area of thirty, forty meters around him with his aura which he had strengthened thanks to mixing it with the essence of the Aspect of Awareness. Although his insights in this Aspect weren’t great by any means, he was still able to use it to enhance his aura to a considerable degree.
Suddenly, he noticed someone’s presence. Although he couldn’t see the person with his eyes, he didn’t hesitate at all. After withdrawing his white spear and grabbing it with his right hand he abruptly changed the direction he was moving in, thus catching the random black-cloaked man completely off-guard. With a simple and accurate thrust, he pierced through the concealed man’s chest with his spear, delivering the lethal blow.
From under the black cloak, the eyes filled with disbelief and unwillingness stared at Laien. The man, having relied too heavily on his excellent camouflage had died just like that, without putting up any resistance. His years of effort to reach the ninth mortal realm were all laid to waste in a single moment at the hands of a kid. The man wanted to cry out, to yell and curse at the Heavens about this injustice, but death denied him of even this much.
As Laien pulled out his spear from the seemingly empty space in front of him, the corpse of the black-cloaked man emerged from within the darkness. The lifeless body fell down from the building, releasing many strands of darkness-element Qi as the technique covering his body started dissipating.
Laien didn’t watch the body’s fall. He rushed forward with haste, set on finding his little sister as fast as possible. Overcome with worry, he did not think about the awaiting danger. All he wanted to do was to find Siana. He knew that rushing in like that was stupid and risky, but he couldn’t not do it.
Since young, he always had been an emotional person. Even now he was just a youngster who was incapable of keeping his emotions in check. He remembered the threat of those people to kill Siana if he didn’t come alone… but it didn’t make him not attack the first person he found when it came to it. His goal was to get to Siana, save her and run away! Getting taken captive along with her wasn’t an option! All he needed to was this little bit of time when those people wouldn’t expect an attack from him since after all, he had come alone just like they told him to.
As he was drawing closer to the center of the southernmost district, slowly a change began occurring in Laien’s aura. Laien himself wasn’t aware of the change since the thoughts about Siana occupied his whole attention… but despite his nervousness, he suddenly felt how a changed occurred inside him. The fear of having the person most important him placed in danger… the hatred for those who did such a thing… these two emotions converged into one and caused the foundation of the Aspect of wrath to be completed!
For a long time, the Aspect of Tranquility was the unconditionally dominating within Laien’s soul. However, now that the Aspect of Wrath started growing more distinct and since the anger Laien was going through was incredibly great, the old killing intent once again filled Laien’s aura and burst forth from his body without him being aware of anything.
The bloodlust spread far, quickly reaching the insides of the large storage house…
“What the hell is that?” Wolf cursed and instantly took out his sword, the killing intent he sensed causing him to go down with cold sweat.
It wasn’t only him who reacted in this manner though as his three companions and Zhira all tensed up and withdrew their weapons.
“Careful,” Zhira roused his Qi, preparing to battle in advance. Even with all his experience, he had never felt a murderous aura as vicious, as powerful and cold as this one. It was boundless, it was everywhere, pressing at his consciousness and threatening to crush him under its thumb. “What kind of expert is coming? Rudford? Or the guardian of the seventh Prince, Injar?” Zhira trembled from anger. Did his scouts fail to deliver the information in time? Did that boy ignore the threat and ask for help? If so, then they were screwed!
“I hate this mission so much! Master, what were you thinking assigning me to do something so unreasonable? Break them up or force them to back down without hurting anyone important? That’s the Great Martial Schools and the most powerful active wielder of the Heavenly Flame we are dealing with!” Zhira thought restlessly, considering a full withdrawal. Even their whole family wouldn’t be enough to kill someone like Rudford or Injar, not to speak of his own personal forces! They would be decimated!
“Too late?” Zhira froze for a split second when one of the wooden walls shattered, broken in by a strike of a weapon accompanied by… an outburst of spiritual energy? “That’s this kid? It’s his killing intent?!” Zhira’s eyes went wide with disbelief. He was sure this kind of murderous aura could belong only to a supreme martial master, but it had been one of this brat?! Even if the boy was a genius, this was unreasonable! This should have been impossible!
Laien swept the room his gaze and apart from confirming that the five men weren’t yet attacking him, found Siana lying down on a piece of material about ten meters away from the men. He jumped to her side and glanced at her for the shortest of seconds, then sighed with relief. His little sister didn’t appear to be wounded, she was only slightly pale and wasn’t conscious, but it was that.
“This kid?” the four subordinates of Zhira questioned all at once, their feeling about the terrifying killing intent being the same as their leaders. Yet, now that this murderous aura suddenly went up and vanished, they couldn’t help but be confused about whether they weren’t seeing things a moment ago.
“Wolf, take care of the boy. Remember not to damage him,” Zhira ordered, regaining his calm the quickest out of everyone.
Wolf eyed his captain, reluctant to subjugate the youngster alone. He remembered how Zhira warned him about Laien’s offensive capabilities what along with that intense killing intent was more than enough to make him cautious. Knowing the objective of their mission, he realized that talking with the youth was pointless; at the very least when it was him guarding his little sister and not them having her under the blade. He could technically try to talk the boy into surrendering… but negotiating was never his forte to begin with. In the end, he could only choose to use force.
As he was about to attack, Wolf remembered about the small cut on his neck, left there by the little sister of this youngster. He tried to deem it as unreasonable, but his instinct was telling him not to use his movement technique to attack. Despite providing a great boost in speed, the Shadow Step always created a momentary, split-second opening in his defense. The nature of the Shadow Step made it impossible to accurately grasp the ‘outside world’ when moving through the shadows. At the exact moment one would emerge from the darkness, during less than one-hundredth of the second he would be completely defenseless.
His captain had beaten him in the past by making use of this flaw, making what he had considered to be his strongest move look like a suicidal joke. Someone with fast enough reaction time and well-developed Battle Sense could react to the great speed of the Shadow Steps and thus, kill its user when he was most vulnerable. That was another reason why Zhira claimed his defense to be lacing; his strongest technique had this one fatal weakness.
Cursing himself for being scared of a kid, Wolf attacked frontally and slashed with his sword, covering it with his of the darkness-element Qi. He didn’t use nor did he know any special offensive techniques, but he did put his full strength of a martial master of the second rank into the blow. Since he wasn’t allowed to kill Laien, he aimed at the white spear in the youth’s hands, intending to first knock it to the side and the disarm the boy.
Yet, to Wolf’s astonishment, Laien reacted perfectly in time and met his slash with a swipe of his spear. It was the first time Wolf was seeing someone who was merely a martial practitioner of the fifth rank keeping up with his movements, but he still felt confident in his superior strength… until an unnaturally powerful icy aura engulfed Laien’s spear just before their two weapons clashed.
Steel met steel, Qi met spiritual energy… the two forces collided, then accompanied by a rather small outburst of remnant energy the clash caused both Wolf and Laien to be pushed back by two steps.
“Equal to me? How is this possible?” Wolf was thoroughly shocked, though not more than Zhira and the other three. It was one thing to be a match for a trash-tried martial master of the first rank who had gotten to that level through a mid-level martial art and entirely different thing to match someone who trained in a top-level martial art and had reached the second Realm of Heroes! It would already be inconvincible for anyone in the mortal realm to accomplish such a feat, but for a kid who was at the fifth rank as a martial practitioner and seventh as a spiritual practitioner… that was unheard of!
“On par?” Zhira raised his eyebrows in awe. Although Wolf attacked simplistically, this kid still met him head-on and didn’t lose any ground! “His insights into the Secrets must be ridiculously high. Master, even if the price was high, we still should have eliminated him two years ago. Now… we have no other choice but to bargain,” he mused regretfully, somewhat unwilling to be placed in such a compromising situation.
“No matter, I will just overwhelm him with sheer force. He is bound to be using more energy to meet each of my attacks… wait, what is…?” Wolf tried to reason with himself, but a strange cracking sound interrupted his train of thoughts. He frowned and glanced at the blade of his sword… which then gave out a very loud ‘crack’ and shattered completely.
“What for Laima and Ulthuar?!” Wolf quickly took out another sword, but no longer thought about attacking Laien head on. What just shattered was a high-grade sword! It got broken after one exchange! Just how ridiculous was this ice-element energy? And what in the world was this white spear made of to be able to easily withstand this kind of destructive power flowing through it?
“Tch, damn kid!” Wolf cursed out loud, losing his patience. He wasn’t about to ask for help, he had trained his whole life! He wouldn’t lose to a single kid! He merged into the darkness and executed the Shadow Step movement Art, moving towards Laien at great speed.
“That mother…” Zhira wanted to shout, but even he wasn’t fast enough to prevent what was going to happen from becoming reality. He could only look as Wolf began materializing behind Laien, only to skewered by a bunch of sharp spikes of ice and killed instantly.
However, how could Wolf be blamed for his choice? Even if Laien was incredibly talented, he shouldn’t have been able to react properly to this kind of movement technique. The unlucky for Wolf thing was that Laien had just fought against a user of a lightning-element movement technique which was superior to even his Shadow Step! The second unlucky thing for him was that Laien had gained the basic understanding of the Aspect of Awareness during his fight with Yin. As long as he was keeping his aura spread out, it would require Rudford-like levels of speed to catch him off-guard.
Thanks to the Goddess of fate and the God of lies though, not all of Zhira’s subordinates appeared to be as stupid as Wolf had proved to be. Snake used this brief moment to similarly use Shadow Step, appeared right at Siana’s side and grab her, then execute the movement technique for the second time and reappear a few meters in front of Laien right afterward.
“Just try to surge your energy and I will cut her head off,” he threatened, holding the blade of his sword to Siana’s throat while holding her by the hair.