Isaac’s eye’s constricted as he watched Relic slowly rise. “I-impossible! That was my strongest attack, how did you survive?!”
“You shrouded your weapon with Qi, making it unstable.” Relic got up. Aside from some blood falling from his mouth, it seemed like he was not injured at all. “When you hit your goon, the Qi had already dispersed into his body and was only able to cause superficial damage on me. Had you had an actual cultivator weapon and was capable on directly interjecting your Qi into it, then I may have been greatly injured.”
Isaac grinded his teeth and red veins could be seen in his eyes.
“WHAT DO YOU KNOW. YOU’RE JUST A MORTAL!!!”
Rage was seething out of his teeth but relic look unconcerned.
Isaac quickly calmed his demeanor as he just remembered something. A malicious smile suddenly crept upon his face.
“Little boy, aren’t you wondering why I didn’t order all of my men to attack you?” he said with a sneer.
Relic only ignored him as he assessed the state of his weapons. They were practically shattered and had just barely able to maintain the shape of the sword.
A bulging vein appeared on top of Isaacs head as he snapped his finger. “Bring out the girl. Let’s make this brat regret having ever been born.”
However, as he snapped his finger he realized there was no response. He looked behind him where his 10 men should have dealt with the girl and the spirit beast while he distracted Relic.
What he saw was all 10 of his men lying of the floor with large giant holes in their chests. A sudden smell of blood pervaded his nose which made all his hairs stand up.
Isaacs shook violently, trying to process everything that happened. Wasn’t this spirit beast supposed to have an injured neck? He looked into Jiro’s eyes which showed the face of his men’s murderer. It was the face of a spirit beast that cared not for any humans and merely looked at them as food.
Isaac staggered a few steps back, unsure what to do.
Jiro moved forward a bit and came before a bloodied spear. He picked it up with his feet claws and, using all of his strength, threw it at Relic. The spear blew right past Isaac, so fast that Isaac couldn’t even react quick enough to dodge it. Had the spear been aimed at him he would have died right then and there.
Relic took a step to the right and caught the spear in his hands. He looked on at the spear in his hands and shook his head in disappointment. “This will have to do.” He muttered.
He practiced piercing through the air, showing the elegance and movement of a true spear master, before stopping and looking at Isaac.
“Let’s go for round two.” Relic charged towards the pale looking Isaac.
“K-Kill Him!” Isaac ordered.
The remaining 4 men didn’t know what to do. On one side was the ferocious spirit beast which took out 10 of their men without making a sound. On the other hand was an insane kid which had the strength to parry against 5 men attacking him all at once.
“If it’s between that beast and the kid, I rather go for the kid!” one of them shouted. They nodded in agreement and took up their weapons, charging towards Relic.
Relic made no attempt to dodge any of their attacks like before. He extended his spear and shouted: “Three prong cascading strike.”
His spear shot through the air so fast it looked like there were three spears striking at the same time.
In an instant, three men all had a hole in their neck. Blood spurted out as they collapsed to the floor dead.
The last man looked into Relic’s cold piercing eyes. He immediately dropped his weapon and ran to the right, away from both Relic and Jiro. However, Jiro quickly took to the skies and disposed of him quickly before returning to Hana’s side.
Relic casually walked towards Isaac. Every step Relic took made Isaac’s heart beat faster.
Isaac was truly frightened. He had done many evil deeds in his life but never had he expected things to turn out like this. Cultivators were generally too busy to take care of lowly criminals like him and regular mortals just couldn’t do anything to him. It was truly a perfect life. Yet, as he looked at the boy walking towards him, it was as if he saw the grim reaper himself.
The intense pressure he felt coming from Relic made him momentarily insane and he took his weapon up as he screamed to the top of his lungs. “YOUR JUST A MORTAL, YOU CAN’T KILL ME!!!”
He lifted his weapon up only to have it casually swatted away by Relic’s spear.
Puchi!
Next, his legs were pierced and he dropped to the floor.
Finally, Relic held the spear to the neck of Isaac.
“N-no, please, I will do anything. I’ll follow you around, you can order me like a dog if you want!”
Isaac was immediately reduced to less than a human as he barked for his life.
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Relic remained unresponsive, merely keeping his spear at Isaac’s throat.
After a few moments, Relic finally spoke: “Who sent you?”
“M-master, we were approached by a merchant while we were performing our daily robberies. He told us there were a couple of kids and an injured spirit peacock beast in this town and that he would pay us top dollar if we would give him the Spirit beast. He even offered us a 1000 gold coin advance.” He responded respectfully.
“What was his name?”
“He called himself, Merchant Jack Cornwell!”
“I see”
“Then…” Isaac felt like he just may live through this. However, his hopes were quickly shattered.
Puchi!
The spear immediately pierced through his throat and he died in an instant.
…
By the end of it, only three figures remained standing on the corpse ridden street.
Relic made his way to Hana. His clothes were stained in blood and he reeked of death. His eyes showed a calm which shouldn’t exist having killed so many people.
Tears ran like an endless stream down her face. Her hands were firmly clenched onto her clothes and her lips were quivering as she bit down. Her entire body shook violently, barely able to even stand up straight. It looked as if a simple gust of wind would knock her to the ground with ease.
The little boy in front of her did not seem like her brother, but a demon.
“Did you see all of that?” Relic spoke solemnly.
She nodded slowly.
“And?”
Her lips quivered as she spoke, “I-I know… cultivator’s risk their lives every day. The lives of others are meaningless when pursuing the path of immortality and power.” It didn’t take a genius to understand that Relic was trying to test her. Even at such a young age, Hana understood the differences between cultivators and regular mortals. Once someone became a cultivator, regular laws no longer applied and they would do anything in order to reach their goals.
Hearing the answer Relic carried a soft smile and returned back to his normal self. “No, life is a precious thing and when you have the power to do so, you should try your best to help those in need.”
Hana looked at her brother in confusion.
“I didn’t tell you to witness what I did in order for you to think life was an unimportant concept when it comes to cultivation. In fact, I believe life is one of the most precious miracles that have ever existed in this world. This world runs through the lives of everyone and everything that inhabits it.”
Relic placed his hands on Hana’s shoulders. “Hana, I was worried you wanted to enter the world of cultivation for the wrong reasons. Cultivation is not just adventures and fighting to be stronger. It is a way of life and you are constantly putting your life at risk. If all you want from cultivating is adventure then I can give you that, but there is no reason for you to step onto the jagged path of cultivation. The road of immortality is paved with the death of many. Many have aspired to reach the apex but instead were used as stepping stones for the truly strong.”
Relic words seemed to throw her mind in a state of confusion.
Did she really want to be a cultivator merely because she wanted to go out on adventures? If it was, would she then turn into her brother, a merciless killer?
As an internal struggle was raging in Hana’s mind, she suddenly saw a small red winged spirit beast flying through the sky. It flew high in the sky, through the pure white clouds and chirped happily as it went on its way.
She suddenly remembered her days of past, where she was taking care of her brother. She loved her brother but in the end, it felt like she was chained here. If her brother never recovered would she have stayed here forever?
As the red winged spirit beast left her vision, she stopped trembling and she gained a look of determination. At that moment, she truly knew what she wished for.
“Hana, I will ask you this one last time. Do you really want to be a cultivator?”
“YES!”
….
After the battle, the three cleaned up the bodies on the street. Relic had Jiro take care of the bodies by disposing them off the mountain. As for the blood stain ground, there was nothing they could do about it.
As much as Relic wanted to take care of that merchant who hired the thugs to attack them, he decided against it. The mayor was probably keeping a close eye on him and if he did something as outrageous as killing someone in broad daylight, he would probably be punished. He could only sigh and wait for a more opportune time to get his revenge.
Shortly after, they headed off to a bath house to clean off. Unfortunately, there was no place for spirit beasts to clean off so Jiro was forced find a water source somewhere else to groom himself.
Once they were clean, they all met back up and Hana got on top of Jiro where she immediately dived into his feathers. Jiro could only shiver when he felt her tiny hands grabbing all over him. However, she soon fell asleep on top of his body with a smile on her face.
“It’s been a long day.” Relic stroked her head as she slept soundlessly.
The sun began to set as they made their way back to the Astor’s residence.
….
Relic and Jiro walked side by side on a dimly lit street. There were few people left on the street as most have already gone back home.
“(I want to know…)” Jiro suddenly spoke.
“(What is it?)” Relic replied.
“(Does the treaty ever break between the beast and human territories?)”
Relic had a gleam in his eyes. (Does this mean you believe what I’ve said?)”
Jiro nodded, “(If I don’t then I don’t know how else to explain everything you have done and known.)”
“(Mn, but why are asking such a random question?)”
“(It’s just…)” Jiro had a harden look on his face. “(I’m just curious)”
Relic thought for a moment before suddenly remembering a story he heard. “(I wasn’t here at the time, but I did hear about a time when all a war between The spirit beast kings and the human cultivators almost erupted.) ”
He thought it was weird for Jiro to bring up such a question, but as he was his partner now, he decided to tell him what he wanted to know.
Relic began narrating a story, in which, one day, one of the seven beast kings attacked a city which resided at the border of the human territories. The lives of millions were instantly gone and that beast king burned the entire city to the ground.
The beast king had planned to continue on his rampage but was quickly stopped by the other 6 beast kings. A battle ensued and the rogue beast king and his generals all fell in battle.
Shortly after, immortal cultivators arrived and the beast kings were forced to pay remunerations if they didn’t want an all-out war….
“(In the end, every desolate region suffered tremendous losses because of that one beast king. However, thankfully they were able to resolve the issue before a full out war between the two sides.)” Relic praised.
Jiro’s blood began to boil as he heard Relic’s tale.
“T-Those traitors! They would sell out their own kind in order to stay in the graces of these pathetic humans?!” Jiro was infuriated. He knew exactly which beast king it was that started out that attack. His hatred for humans seemed to have ignited in that moment and a murderous intent radiated out.
“(Humans and Spirit beasts… they’re not so different in the end. We all yearn for the same things and we all live for the sake of our own goals. I hope someday, we can all live together without the prejudice we have for one another. Don’t you agree, Jiro?)” Relic smiled.
Jiro murderous intent suddenly vanished and he became a loss for words. Those few words had utterly made Jiro stump for words.
Jiro didn’t reply, and only followed the odd little boy as they made their way back home on this dimly lit street.