A glowing white projectile soars through the air at high speeds. It doesn’t produce any sound, it doesn’t arc as it travels, almost as if it isn’t affected by gravity.

It finds its target - a small deer. Probably one that still hadn’t reached maturity. It pierces the deer’s head, right where its brain is, producing a perfectly circular hole in the skull.

*thud*

It falls down on the grass and snow covered soil, blood slowly leaving its body.

Footsteps are heard as the one behind the shot approaches.

‘Full Qi shots are damn tiring man, that was like a fifth of all my energy.’

Kenki makes his way through the foliage, inwardly grumbling to himself. He kicks some of the melting snow for no important reason, only for enjoyment. It crunches pleasantly under his foot.

‘Well, I better enjoy it while it still lasts. Another week of this weather and the snow will melt completely.’ With a sigh he takes the rope that had been strapped to his hip. He ties it around the hind legs of the dead deer and uses it to hang the corpse over a branch.

For good measure he makes a cut in the neck, this way he can bleed it out faster.

While he waits with his arms crossed he contemplates on how to surpass his current hurdle.

‘There’s something that I’m doing wrong. I don’t know what though, Dongmei has hinted at my mistakes but she doesn’t dare speak about them. I’ve tried reducing the energy, didn’t work. Neither did my attempt at making the arrows hollow, they just collapse in on themselves the moment I let the arrow go. I tried going in the opposite direction and overcharging them with energy in blind hopes that something would happen but no, they just explode.’ He shakes his head. Extending an arm out he manifests a gaseous blob of white energy in the palm of his hand, its size somewhere in between a golf ball and a tennis ball.

He folds it, stretches it, molds it like clay in his hands, trying to replicate what Dongmei had demonstrated to him, minutes pass like so.

“Another failure.” He chuckles bitterly “Well, I doubt that brute forcing it is going to work. It’s what I’ve been doing for the last month.” He tries to reabsorb the orb of Qi, managing to recover about fifty percent of what he’d put in. The rest has either already dissipated into the surrounding air or is converted into heat. A surprising amount is lost as it travels through his body, though Dongmei has assured him that it will get better as his body adapts to its new capabilities.

The deer carcass had long stopped bleeding, all that’s left is the occasional drop of the red liquid dripping out. Ken unties the rope around its legs and hauls the deer on his shoulders. Even with his new cultivator powers the whole thing is right on the edge of being too heavy.

With unsteady steps he heads off back to Northern River Village, eyes darting left and right for any threats.

======================================

"I'll give you a gold and twenty-four silver for this one." Says Jorlan, the son of the village butcher. His brown eyes are focused on the weighing scale the deer is hung on.

"Sounds good." Ken nods as he hears the price, doing the math in his head.

'He's not trying to cheat me of even a single silver… Well, I guess it's pretty obvious that I'm a cultivator now, he wouldn't want to mess with me. Also it would also be a pretty big slap in the face since I consider him a friend.'

Ken is quite well acquainted with Jorlan, considering that his father often brings sheep here to be butchered for meat. And the fact that Jorlan's father is Isamu's brother.

In other words, they're first cousins! Only separated by a bit more than three years. Kenki is currently ten years old, almost eleven, and Jorlan is fourteen.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

'I know I shouldn't suspect my own cousin, but after the deal with Goro… yeah'

He terminates that train of thought pretty quickly, not wanting to think about it.

"I'll go grab your coins, be here in a little bit."

"Alright." Ken nods as he goes to untie the deer from the scales. Considering how closely related the two of them are, compounded with their friendship, Ken has no trouble helping out in the shop from time to time.

He hauls the carcass over to the room where the butcheries take place, his wooden geta produce crisp taps as he walks on the solid stone floor.

His work done, he goes back. Only to see Jorlan there, waiting for him.

"Are you coming over for the execution?" Ken's cousin inquires as he hands him the pouch full of coins, one which Ken promptly stores.

"There's an execution today?"

"Not only a single execution, there are two" Jorlan does a 'V' sign with his fingers. "Apparently they murdered someone so now they're going to get their heads chopped off" Jorlan clarifies as he heads to the front door, his excitement evident from the sparkle in his eyes. "How have you not heard about it? At most we get one of these every two or three years, but now there's two executions one right after the other!"

Ken looks at the young man while bearing a complicated and indecipherable expression. A bead of sweat rolls down his brow.

'I keep forgetting that people here treat executions as a family gathering. They're so entertainment starved that even something as morbid as an execution is treated like so.'

'I'm fairly certain that peasants from the dark ages acted in the exact same manner. There are a lot of parallels between this place and Earth.' Ken steels his gaze, reminded of what the execution means.

The two men that are about to be killed are, of course, Goro's accomplices. People that he'd personally captured, both as a small act of revenge and because Dongmei wished to test out how he'd deal with human opponents, how easily he could maneuver through the laws that had been taught to him. Their execution means that his days in Northern River Village are numbered. For the next few months at least, maybe years.

With nothing better to do, Ken follows after Jorlan to do some family-friendly execution watching. By the time they arrive there's already a small crowd gathered, a hundred or so people. Men, women, children and the elderly, everyone. And more people are coming with every passing minute.

"I'm gonna go grab something to eat, see you around Ken" Jorlan pats his cousin on the back as he eyes one of the food stalls nearby.

Kenki waves out a goodbye before searching for a secluded area. Once he's certain that there's nobody around to snoop on him, he manifests a ball of the white energy.

By the looks of things it's going to be a while until the execution officially starts. He sure as hell isn't going to spend that time idling about, bored out of his mind.

====================

It isn't until an hour later that there's a development. Village head Turan approaches, behind him two men are being dragged over, both of them wearing black bags over their heads, completely obscuring their vision.

Turan slowly climbs unto the wooden stage the boards creaking under his feet. The platform is normally used during celebrations and to hold speeches, but it has its other uses as well…

All of a sudden the cacophony of noises produced by the hundreds of gathered villagers stops. All eyes are turned to him.

Kenki notices how the two men behind Turan are drunkenly swaying, only held up by their handlers. He reckons that they've been plastered with alcohol so that the execution goes smoothly.

Turning to face the crowd, Turan and Kenki make brief eye contact. Out of everyone in the village Turan and Dongmei are the only other people who know the real story behind what actually happened.

Taking a deep breath, Turan begins his speech.

"Men and women of Northern River village, on this day we stand in the shadow of tragedy, facing the consequences of a heinous act that has shattered the peace we hold dear. These two men, Hotaru and Makumoto, by their own hands have brought forth great sorrow to one of our own." He sweeps his hands over the two offenders as he speaks. Ken notices that they don't show any outwards reaction to what is being said.

"May the punishment they face serve as a stern reminder that our village will not tolerate such actions. Let the solemn weight of this moment guide us to unity and compassion, as we strive to rebuild from the ashes left behind by this unspeakable crime."

"These men stand condemned for the gravest of offenses – they robbed a hunter of the village of his possessions, took his life, and callously set ablaze the home that once sheltered him. For these three offenses –robbery, murder and arson, they are sentenced to death through beheading"

'...'

"Bring out the breaking wheel!" One of the villagers next to Kenki throws out a bloodthirsty yell that pierces through the silence.

"What is this!? They don't deserve such an honorable and painless death!" Another one calls out.

"At least have him hanged!" Says a third.

From there on it degenerates down into an absolute mess of shouting and insults. No fight breaks out. In a way, people acting this way is to be expected. It happens every time there is an execution.

A person dressed in black from top to bottom takes the stage. His clothing is baggy and covers every inch of his skin, on his face a mask is attached. One that reminds Kenki of Aku from Samurai Jack.

Execution is seen as very dirty work, one that would ruin a man's reputation overnight, but nevertheless it's work that must be done. The overly concealing clothing is necessary for keeping the executioner anonymous.

The two criminals still show no reaction, Ken is beginning to think that they've had their ears plugged. Or worse, but it's not like it matters at this point.

The first one to go is Hotaru. A tall but lanky man, having exactly the build that you'd expect a criminal to have. He's lowered on the chopping block, the executioner lifts his axe, takes aim, and swings it down onto the man's neck. There's a spurt of blood and then it's over. The head rolls over and falls off the wooden stage.

'They really couldn't afford to get a basket?' Ken grumbles as he turns to leave, suddenly not in the mood to watch.

'If they're getting the capital punishment it means that Master Dongmei has finally finished interrogating them. I don't really know why she needed two months to do something so simple… I should ask her, it's not related to the heavens so she'd be happy to tell me."

Breaking out of the crowd, he heads over to the cultivator's mansion.