Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 33. I Refuse!
Black Lion wasn’t even frustrated anymore by Shade not remembering his name. He sighed inwardly and bowed towards Shade from afar, then sent men out to relay the newest orders.
It subsequently didn’t take long at all for the grassland to be swarmed tens of thousands of bandits returning from all over the Forest of Dreams. The Forest of Dreams was a mysterious place, but it wasn’t all that large of an area; in just under an hour, the majority of the fifty thousand bandits were already back. In addition to them, there were even ten thousand new arrivals that came during the night. If their numbers continued swelling up like that, then in a few more days they really would reach one hundred thousand.
Those latecomers arriving at the plains would be greeted by a peculiar right. Not only was the atmosphere in the camp festive and hundreds of bonfires had been lit all over the place, but in the middle of the grassland, a strange black stone altar had been erected. It wasn’t there before, but now about the ten-meter-high mound of smooth black stone laid there. On top of it was a black stone altar, to those who were unfamiliar with torture chambers seeming like a very uncomfortable bed. Lastly, an unconscious man in rugs had been chained to the altar.
“So it’s like that.” The realization slowly dwelled upon those who were arriving late. The Great Chieftains were known for their… rather unique personalities. Prophet was obsessed with money and as long as you did business with him, he would treat you well. Sky Wolf was the very archetype of a brutal mercenary who respected strength above anything else. Lion King was the closest one to the image of an ‘overlord’ one could have had, while Nefirie was… a madwoman that was completely unpredictable and unreasonable. As for Shade, he was the one of darkness; the greatest assassin known to the Anarchic Lands, if not to the whole south of the continent.
Many of those bandits were looking forward to having fun and even more of them joined the betting in hopes of earning some easy money. However, especially those higher ranked bandit leaders were interested in the torture methods the Shadows would display above anything else. In this profession getting out valuable information from the unwilling often brought enormous benefits; just the chance to observe the master torturers under Shade in action was almost invaluable to them.
“Join the betting! Under one hour the returns are 1:4! Over 12 hours they are 1:100! Try your lucky star and get rich!” one of the Shadows that was particularly well-versed in business and trading kept shouting loudly, enticing quite a few hesitant people to bet a few gold coins against the odds. Although each and every bandit would usually bet a dozen gold coins or so at most, if they got at least half of them to participate the pool would accumulate to a staggering quarter a million gold coins!
As organizers, they would already be taking a thirty percent cut for themselves, not to mention they were extremely familiar with the torture methods that would be employed. Naturally, most of the rewards would also end up going into the pockets of their members. It wouldn’t be too much on the individual basis, but if everything went well then most of them could earn one crystal coin. It wasn’t a large sum of money, but it wasn’t a small one either. It was a very good amount considering the minuscule amount of work they needed to put into earning it.
“Mm, it should be okay to begin already,” the number twenty-eight mused while looking around. The pace at which the new bets were coming had slowed down considerably. Those who were interested would have more than enough time to bet and if he started now, those who were still unsure might grit teeth and part with some gold coins. If he waited until all bets came, then those hesitant ones would have already resolved themselves not to join; and that was a loss of money for him.
The number twenty-eight took out a small vial of translucent liquid from his interspatial ring and uncorked it carefully. He pressed onto Uluan’s chin with a finger and opened his mouth, then dropped just one drop of liquid into Uluan’s throat. “That should do it,” he said to himself and backed off. As he and his men had agreed upon earlier, he wouldn’t be the first one to interrogate Uluan. They needed to make this last at least two or three hours, or else there would be no fun and they also wouldn’t earn as much money from the bets.
“Our sleeping princess is waking up,” Shade commented in a merry, leisure tone of his. Indeed, Uluan twitched the moment his consciousness returned, though it would take him at least a minute to fully return to his senses. “Hey~ can you hear me?” Shade asked playfully, pecking Uluan’s forehead with his index finger.
“Ugh…” Uluan groaned, having trouble with gathering any thoughts. He opened his eyes, but all he could see was a blur. “Where am I? What am I doing here?” he attempted to recall, all the while feeling as if his head was about to crack apart. He could tell it was loud around him and felt someone poking his forehead, but at the moment this wasn’t what he was concerned about.
“My men…” he remembered the scenes as if through a thick layer of mist. They had been all tired, but he pushed his subordinates to continue. They had successfully routed another group of bandits… when… when… “Dead? All of them…?” he thought weakly, wishing that his memories were cheating him. However, after a few more seconds passed he was already sure; this scene from his memory of many black-cloaked men instantly killing his subordinates was true. Then the fact that he was still alive could mean only one thing; he had been captured.
“Wakey-wakey~” Shade urged, seeing that Uluan was returning to his senses and his eyes were beginning to regain their focus. “Can you hear me?” he asked a few seconds later and poked Uluan’s cheek. “Oh, how scary!” he said with a chuckle when Uluan glanced at him with killing intent surging in his eyes.
“You can probably figure out why you are here,” Shade said lightheartedly, caring little for the clamor the bandits around were making. “We have a few questions for you, so if you answer us obediently I promise on my honor that I will kill you instantly,” he said while smirking under his black mask. His words might have seemed sarcastic, but he meant them wholeheartedly!
“Scum,” Uluan growled, his voice still hoarse from waking up. He tensed his body and attempted to stand up, but he soon discovered that he had been tightly bound to whatever he was lying on. He couldn’t move his hands, legs, waist or torso by even a bit. He glanced downwards and saw the thick steel shackles on his upper chest. “Something like that…!” he attempted to gather his Qi and break free, then die fighting, but to his shock discovered that even while using all the strength he could muster, he couldn’t do anything to those shackles and to whatever he was bound to.
“It’s pointless to struggle,” Shade said cheerfully. “With the poison coursing through your body, you can’t muster much more than half of your original strength. And even if you could use it all, I’ve never seen anyone below the fourth Realm of Heroes do as much as crack this altar,” he explained happily, enjoying very much the stubborn and hateful look Uluan was giving him.
“Do what you want, I’m not telling you anything!” Uluan shouted with the help of Qi, his voice spreading throughout most of the plains. Although it was fairly loud here, no one was using Qi to speak; if everyone tried to shout over the other person with Qi then they would all soon go deaf.
“Sure, sure,” Shade said with a laugh, his voice carrying quite far as the tens of thousands of bandits began quieting down. “Just don’t think about biting your tongue off, okay? We can easily keep you alive through that and will have trouble speaking when you want to,” he warned lightheartedly, taking a fair amount of pleasure from the changing expression on Uluan’s face. He hated the stubborn, expressionless prisoners the most; they were no fun to torture at all.
“And just to be safe,” Shade said with a scary smile, one which however couldn’t be seen under his mask. He raised his hand high above Uluan’s stomach, released some grey mist from his interspatial ring which almost instantly formed into a pure black steel stake. He poured some darkness Qi into the stake, then struck straight down and pierced Uluan’s abdomen through!
The thousands of bandits paled at the sight of Shade ruthlessly crippling Uluan’s Qi Origin, but many more of them simply smirked or even laughed out loud. It was a bit dangerous not to cripple the prisoner’s cultivation base before he woke up, but this way he would be left regretting he hadn’t committed suicide while he still could! This kind of mental pressure would cause him to break under torture much more quickly.
Uluan coughed once, blood flowing from the sides of his mouth. He didn’t groan or cry out though; if those outsiders thought they could break him and make him betray the village, they would better think twice! No matter what they did to him, he wouldn’t give in! If he did, then he would have no face to stand before his ancestors in the afterlife.
“How brave! Beautiful!” Shade exclaimed loudly, raising his spread hands high as if he was a troubadour in some kind of stage play. “We’d like to know how to get past the Forest of Dreams,” he said merrily and jerked Uluan’s head to the side so the man looked at him properly. “Feel free to start speaking whenever, okay? I will certainly abide by my promise after we’ll have checked if you weren’t lying,” he said casually, the next second blocking the blood and saliva Uluan spit at him with a few strands of darkness-element Qi.
“As if I’m telling you anything, you fucking pieces of garbage dog shit!” Uluan yelled in his rage, but this time couldn’t even enhance his voice with Qi; there was quite some leftover energy in his body, but after his Qi Origin had been thoroughly destroyed by Shade, he couldn’t control it at all. He was even worse off than someone at the first mortal realm; he wouldn’t be able to do as much as take anything out an interspatial ring. His life as a martial artist was definitely over, but since he was going to die anyway it didn’t matter any longer.
“Huuh,” Shade smiled contentedly. It was no fun if the prisoner broke down easily, or even before the torture started. Such things happened fairly often so he was happy to see that Uluan was a man of character. Destroying him would be that much more worthwhile. “How about we start with something easier? Two boys, about twelve years old. One with black hair and black eyes, the other with green hair and green eyes. They were in your village, in the so-called ‘Sacred Temple’ or something like that. True or false?” he asked
Uluan snorted and closed his eyes. He wouldn’t listen to those people or respond to them in any way. They could go ahead and torture him for as long as they wanted, sooner or later they would give up and kill him.
“Anyone wants to volunteer to be first?” Shade looked around asked, strengthening his voice with his Qi. Before letting his Shadows try, he wouldn’t mind seeing what those bandits here could do. If an especially talented torturer happened to be amongst them he would even recruit him into the ranks of Shadows and help him reach the Realm of Heroes.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“Just to be clear, if you don’t know what you are doing don’t raise your hand~ Unless you want me to kill you~” Shade added in a playful tone, extinguishing the enthusiasm of those brutes who loved causing people to feel pain. They were good at what they were doing and knew how to cause pain to another, but now that they thought about it they probably didn’t live up to Shade’s standards. They wouldn’t recklessly risk their lives just to show off for little gain.
“Great Chieftain, allow me,” one of the newly arrived bandit bosses spoke up and clasped his hands. Judging from his attitude and mannerism he was almost certainly a high-ranked subordinate of the Lion King. People there always paid an unnatural amount of attention to martial code; they were less like bandits and more like a pseudo-kingdom organization.
“Good, what are you called?” Shade asked, encouraging the man with first strands of white in his hair to come onto the mound with a gesture of his hand.
“Death Reaper, Great Chieftain,” the man answered respectfully and after walking up to the altar, clasped his hands again and bowed before Shade.
“What a fitting name,” Shade chuckled in amusement. This man was likely one of the few Lion King sent here to watch over the developing situation. A bit curious, he stretched his aura and checked the man’s cultivation; it was at the peak of the second Realm of Heroes. Not bad! As for the man himself, he didn’t notice that Shade had probed him at all.
“If you can make him answer the first question in under an hour, I will give you a present,” Shade promised with a smile and took a few steps backs, moving playfully and randomly, in a very child-like manner. Were it someone else acting like that the bandits would have immediately begun laughing and ridiculing such a person, but since it was Shade none of them dared to do as much as think of doing so.
Death Reaper smiled calmly and clasped his hands for the third time. What he was most interested in were the instruments and methods Shadows used to torture people. He wouldn’t be so brash as to ask what the reward would be, but he certainly hoped it would have something to do with his skill set of an elite torturer.
“Should we begin then?” Death Reaper glanced at Uluan. “Do you remember the question or do I need to repeat it? Two boys, one black hair and black eyes, the other one green hair and black eyes. Are they in the Sacred Temple of your village?” he asked calmly, then smiled when Uluan failed to respond in any way. He already expected to be ignored. He smiled to wryly; just for how long would Uluan be able to keep up this act before he started begging for death? He couldn’t wait to check.
“Have you ever heard about acupuncture?” Death Reaper asked casually, taking out a long, thin needle from his interspatial ring. “Probably not. It can be used to aid the process of healing, to unblock clogged Qi paths or even to remove poisons. However, if you don’t slide the needle into the acupuncture point correctly and instead force it in from the wrong side…” he paused for a bit and with a slight smile on his lips, slid the needle into a point just below Uluan’s bare knee.
Uluan was prepared for a surge of pain to come, but to his surprise, he only felt the tingling from a needle going into his flesh. He smirked, unable to resist opening his eyes. “It looks like something went wrong, huh?” he asked with a sarcastic smile. It looked like this ‘Death Reaper’ was all talk and no skill.
“Then it will hurt, a lot,” Death Reaper finished with a content look on his face and pushed the needle another tenth of a centimeter in.
The smirk instantly disappeared from Uluan’s face as a wave of pain like he had never felt before in his life began radiating from under his right knee. He grit his teeth and tried to bear with it, but he couldn’t help groaning and trembling; what in the world had this man done to him?!
“Feel free to begin talking whenever you wish,” Death Reaper said with a smile. “There are still seventy-one main points left. Well, seventy,” he said as he swept the rug away from over the right side of Uluan’s waist and pierced his skin with another needle.
Uluan didn’t cry out this time either, but mute tears began flowing from his eyes. He could handle any kind of pain… but the thought of the hell awaiting him still was enough to cause him to despair.
“Pretty skillful,” Shade praised, happy that Death Reaper wasn’t one of those brutes who thought that simply whacking away at a man’s flesh could be called torture. He would definitely have Death Reaper exchange some knowledge with the torture masters under his command in a few weeks.
“Amateur,” the number twenty-eight snorted disdainfully, refusing to admit that Death Reaper had the necessary ability to be a top-grade torturer. “Don’t you dare to start speaking before it’s my turn,” he murmured to himself, looking at Uluan with an angry look on his face.
---
“Uluan was captured…” the High Priest said with a mixture of helplessness and anger. “Given their numbers, it’s pretty much certain that those bandits are being led by a Great Chieftain; maybe even more than one. What should I do? They are most likely after those two boys. Screw that green-haired one, but we need that black-haired kid to complete the seal!” The High Priest shook his head. There was no way he would be able to ward off tens of thousands of bandits for long enough. With those numbers invading the forest the most he could manage would be around half a day, then the formation would naturally lose effectiveness and after a few hours of him releasing the control over it would completely break down.
“The only good thing is that they all retreated… the eclipse is still five days away, but the crimson moon will already partially appear two days from now. It won’t be optimal, but it should be good enough for the ritual. After we are done we will try to negotiate with the Great Chieftain that is leading those bandits,” the High Priest decided quickly. To be honest, despite this situation being very dangerous, it wasn’t complicated at all. There were only a few choices available to him and it wasn’t hard to decide which of them was the best.
“It would be best if Uluan could keep them occupied for five and a half days, but they will probably just kill him before that time. He won’t tell them anything, but they will grow impatient… they might even start trying to force their way in again. I should hurry up and speak with those boys,” he mused quietly, standing up from the floor.
“There is no point in calling Kalan back down. I might as well go and talk with those outsiders myself. Before the time is due we need to gain as many benefits from them as possible,” he thought briefly, nodded to himself and headed over to the lakeside.
---
“High Priest?” Yin was a bit surprised to see the man here. The six-year-old had just gone to see how Marie was doing; little needed to be said that she was still wasted after the night of drinking. She was suffering a lot after having overdone the drinking considering the most she had had before was a small glass of wine to dinner from time to time.
“You are aware of the bandits, aren’t you?” the High Priest asked, to what Yin nodded. “Good, then let us shed all pretense. Those chasing after you number in tens of thousands, they have already killed over one hundred men of our village. They captured Uluan and retreated; if we are lucky we have four or five days, if unlucky then two days, maybe even one day before they start attacking again. With how many of them are, we I won’t be able to hold them off for more than half a day when they begin pouring into the forest again,” he explained, expecting to see this green-haired outsider boy to grow nervous… but instead, he ended up being confused as Yin kept his calm.
“Do you understand the situation you are in?” the High Priest asked, his normal amiable tone changing into an impatient one. “We are the only thing keeping an army of tens of thousands away from you. You will do what we ask you for, or else we will give you away to those bandits!” he threatened, fully intending to reap all the benefits from those two before it was too late. So what if Yin could tell he had bad intentions towards them? By this point, it didn’t matter!
“Laien will be done in two more days. We will figure out what do to after when he wakes up,” Yin said calmly and shook his head when the look on the High Priest’s face turned ugly. “You can’t begin your ritual early anyway from what I’ve heard. You need to wait for the eclipse. Wait two days, then we can talk. If you help protect us from those thugs until Laien’s breakthrough is finished we will repay you accordingly,” he stated, reminding himself that buying time for Laien to finish was the top priority at the moment.
The High Priest’s face twitched. No one had ever spoken to him in this way before! Ever! Who was this outsider kid thinking he was…?! Yet, he had a point. They needed two more days until the ritual could begin; just barely. If this black-haired one needed two days then, then it was perfect.
Taking a deep breath, the High Priest brought up in his usual friendly tone. “How did your last night with Marie go? Has everything went well?” he inquired, in the end valuing the new powerful blood that could come into their clan quite highly.
“It was okay,” Yin said with a shrug of his shoulders, not explaining in detail.
“Would you mind if I sent a few more girl down here tonight then? Or maybe women?” the High Priest asked straightforwardly. It wasn’t certain the baby would be made after one time; it was best to have this boy do it with many partners to raise the chance of pregnancy.
“I would mind,” Yin said with a snort. He had been thinking about this problem for the past day and he figured one thing out; he wouldn’t meet this demand under no circumstance.
“What?” The question escaped the High Priest’s mouth before he could bite his tongue. Did this outsider just refuse him?
“I’m not going to do it,” Yin said strongly, his expression grim. “If you want to force me with threats, then go ahead. I’m confident I can kill you before you do anything to Laien,” he warned, allowing his killing intent and the aura he had been suppressing to surge out.
The High Priest wanted to reprimand Yin at first, but all the words got stuck in his throat when he sensed Yin’s murderous aura. This boy… as unbelievable as it was, he was stronger than him with a cultivation base merely in the eighth mortal realm! “How can Qi of a martial practitioner be so powerful?” he asked himself, failing to comprehend the power of Aspects and of a Principle which Yin had merged into his Qi in order to scare him away.
“You say so,” the High Priest spoke up after a brief while, having collected his thoughts. “But what are you going to do if we just let the bandits in? You killing me will be equivalent to that, so don’t even try,” he asked confidently and snorted a little. This boy was way too arrogant!
“If you let them in, your village is done for too,” Yin said with a slight smile on his lips. Did this man believe common thugs of the Anarchic Lands wouldn’t take all the villagers as slaves after robbing everything they could? Now that was some wishful thinking.
The High Priest wanted to respond, but he didn’t know what to say. Yin was right! Even though the bandits were looking for him and his friend, the mere fact they were here was putting the whole village in the same boat!
“I told you, wait for Laien to finish,” Yin said once again. “We will talk after that and in the end, I and Laien will ride out of the forest on our horses and flee. The bandits should give up on getting in and pursue us instead. You will have enough time to leave this place with your people since the curse will be broken,” he explained, weighing his words carefully.
“Oh? So you do intend to help?” the High Priest inquired. Had Yin not been saying to wait until his friend woke up before deciding anything this whole time?
“What else can we do?” Yin asked with a sigh. There was only one path left for him to take; It was a dangerous one, but not a deadly. As long as it wasn’t too unreasonable, he wouldn’t mind challenging himself with Laien. After all, he would never grow if all he did was cultivate in seclusion.
“Fine, we have a deal. Two days!” the High Priest said contentedly, turned around and went back to his sanctuary. They might not gain the bloodlines of those outsides, but as long as they removed the curse it would be fine. “Thankfully, this kid finally broke under the pressure and conceded the most important point. Maybe it was good that he was so against having sex with our women. He will now convince his friend to help with the ritual,” the thought crossed the High Priest’s mind. Everything was becoming rather risky, but as long as they completed the Divine Seal then it would all have been worth it.
“Looks like he bought it,” Yin thought to himself, rather relieved that his spontaneous decision to lead the High Priest astray worked out. It was a bit similar to what his grandfather would forget who he was and would begin asking for unreasonable things. “Two days…” he said quietly and glanced at Laien. Truly, no matter where he went with him it always would end up being dangerous. Was Laien some kind of magnet for trouble?
“Let’s hope Uluan won’t speak before two days are over though…” Yin grimaced. The High Priest seemed to be sure Uluan wouldn’t betray the village, but no one could know how it would turn out in reality; only time would show.