Aile heard the leader of the group say with wide eyes, "4th stage of cultivation!" before falling back for the last time. They never thought that he was at the 4th stage, and have not seen his face on the royal side, they considered him some kid gaining experience. As for the armour of the royal side, they never paid enough attention to it as their eyes and minds were attracted to Hazel.
Aile had to injure the other two before they can retaliate and he decided to take out the poisonous dagger hidden in his arm. He planned to wound the remaining two in their stupor with its concoction of different poisons when he noticed both of them going for their weapon. Since he could not injure both of them as he did not have enough time to do that before they could get ready. Aile used the dagger as a projectile and launched it, as it span in the air and hit the remaining lanky one in his liver.
Swish
Ahhh
Allowing the poison to take effect quickly after destroying the organ responsible for detoxifying. Not that it would have had a chance to detoxify such a poison in the first place.
Aile had to jump back as the last remaining member started to swing the sword that had a split head resembling a pitchfork. By now he was consumed by unadulterous rage, swinging his unusual sword without rhyme rhythm or consistency like a mad man.
A mad man was what he looked like with his red eyes shouting and crying as his spit and drool spewed out of him in his violent-mindless outburst. It seems that they were very close, their imminent death had affected him too much. His moves being too easy to read at this point. The advantage of thinking before acting that human had compared to the beasts was lost on him. Aile without a weapon could easily dodge and land a few punches and kicks from time to time and not having the tenacity of beasts he was on the losing side. Unfortunately for Aile, the blade and dagger were jabbed into the two soon to be dead comrades of him that were behind him. Aile could not take his weapons and use them to get rid of this mindless puppet sooner. Aile was also wary of the lanky one hit by the poisonous dagger, as it will take some more time before the poison fully incapacitates him.
After a few round and kicking his knee for the tenth time in a row made him stagger and fall down. He would not be able to move nimbly anymore. So Aile went to the leader who had his blade stuck out of him perpendicularly ready to be used.
Before the mindless one could get back up and limp to him, Aile removed the blade out of the leader's torso, as he coughed out for possibly the last time and blood fountained out of him. Aile did not want to make people's death torturous and hard. But then he remembered them have thoughts about Hazel. So he lifted the blade out of him and made him watch as he swung it below his waist, turning him to a eunuch and sending him off as a result of a heart attack.
Aile was not done, it was one down and two to go and with the blade in his hand again the process became much simpler. The next to go was the one that was poisoned. He tried to fight back and stop his struggle to prevent the spread of the poison. But his movements enabled the spread of the toxins that had been held back by his previous effort. Being restricted more due to the venom after a few dodges, he turned to a eunuch, before getting decapitated. The last one who's fragile mind could not bear the gruesome end of his friends and was possibly brain dead already was given the same treatment.
The spirit girl, who was not seen by the three appeared for the cleanup, absorbing them and getting more corporeal, as they headed deeper into the tomb after.
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As they moved to the centre of the tomb, they faced a lot more traps. Fortunately, they could easily avoid them with the help of the spirit girl, as she pointed out their locations to them.
Halfway in the trip, they met a group of solo cultivators. As they were not used to working together, they became easy prey for Aile. They could not achieve synergy while fighting as a group, and their energy output was useless. Aile knocked them out, and the girl spirit absorbed two of them and made Aile carry the remaining two.
Skipping and cheering after she managed to convey the first message to Aile without talking, telling him to carry two with him, the little spirit girl became lively. Soon they reached the central location, which was more gloomy similar to the things that had held Hazel's soul.
The energy in here was somewhat evil in nature, and it tried to latch on the little girl. As a soul form, she could not defend properly, and in the end, she was stung by the dark wiggling energy. It started to absorb her as she slowly but surely started to become incorporeal.
The dark energy acted like a small leach, slowly absorbing her very being. It was trying to act as a parasite slowly leeching life out of her.
Surprisingly when Aile tried to free her, she shook her head. With that, they walked into the dark evil energy as they arrived at a small house which had a huge concentration of this energy. The soul orb at his soul was slightly resonating as it had detected another meal, but it was not pushing Aile to absorb. The little girl became merry and dashed towards the room. She phased right through the door.
Soon after, the door to the room opened, and Aile saw a humanoid figure made solely of darkness. It moved its hand and made a sign, the dark energy that seemed like dew on the terrain of the mountain connected with each other and formed a glossy dark floor. It only took a few seconds for this to happen.
The humanoid figure moved his hands again, and the dark energy formed large walls to the sky. Like a wave in the sea, the walls collapsed inward, each side met at the centre forming a large inclosure with Aile and the humanoid figure at its centre.
Aile and Hazel were ready to fight, only Aile did not make any move. This is because he did not detect any hostility, and his eyes of fate were not triggered.
However, he was not too worried he could absorb this dark coating into the soul orb or cut it with the light element. Before any of that, he drew two-spirit light-gathering runes one on his hand and another on Hazel's.
As the dark dome formed around them, the two runes were done and the lack of light did not affect them.
Normal runes would fail in an environment devoid of light. However, spirit runes could transmute any energy to another on a small scale. With that, the runes rotated and slowly absorbed the dark-energy of the environment and turned them into a beacon, allowing Aile and Hazel to see in the void of darkness.
Although there was an escape path, it did not mean they would succeed. Just now, Aile realized that there was a large gap between him and that humanoid person covered in darkness in strength. With two simple moves, it managed to create an incredibly large dome of dark energy. This meant that they are at the mercy of this creature. Were they baited? that was unlikely with such a power level it could easily lunch a successful sneak attack. But it did not, so at the very least it did not have any hostile reaction at the moment.
Aile and Hazel were not without an escape path if putting everything in line and taking Hazel's prowess into account.
Aile was positive of their escape chances, but they will be drained of energy. Leaving the tomb weakened in front of White Clan, royals, and the greedy solo cultivators were the least desirable choice for them.
As such, Aile first choice was to find out the reason for the humanoid figure's reason for acting this way. Thus, he waited and did not let Hazel's hand go, the only thing that could actually make him lose his reasoning was if something happens to her. If she was safe, he would find a way and think clearly.
However, unexpectedly the humanoid figure bowed in front of them and said, "Thank you for saving her. No living person has come here since a very long time, if she had not absorbed anything in a year, she would have dissipated. She tells me that you two are looking for something. Can I help you?"