The pain went past Mingliang's limit. His legs trembled, and he fell on to his knees. The snake saw it and hissed in anger. Her anger made her forgot her fear for the kris. The snake blindly charged toward the man in black. Her jaw was wide open, while her eyes locked on the opponent.

The snake didn't see, the man in black grinning evilly. He secretly hid the kris under his body, hid it from the snake's sight. From his angle, Mingliang saw the man's sinister plan. He knew that man only pretended to be weak. The man in black wanted to trick the snake and used the kris to subdue her.

“No!!!”, Mingliang bit his tongue. The pain woke him up and for a moment cleared the pain that clouding his mind.

The taste of blood, metallic and salty, filled his mouth. Mingliang collected it in his mouth, took a deep breath and then spat it out. The blood sprayed, forming a red fog before him. His hands moved faster than ever before. He drew the life energy contained in the blood and used it to evolve his array above the man in black.

The man in black was staring at the snake. He didn't notice Mingliang's moves. He thought Mingliang already disabled under his spell. But when the array above him changed, a deep sense of crisis arose from his heart. He turned his eyes to Mingliang. The sneer in his face coagulated. For the first time, his face showed fears.

“No...no.... no... it can't be... no....”, his mind buzzed with dread.

“Mountain Tai! Crush!!!”, with all his strength, Mingliang shouted and swung his hand downward.

Tons of weight hammered the man down. This time, the man in black didn't have the strength to bear the pressure. He fell flat on his face. At the same time, the snake's jaws reached his body.

“Kacha!” blood splashed everywhere. The snake's jaw crushed the man's bone. The bone seemed as fragile as a dried twig. Her anger, the snake's showed her wild and cruel nature.

Arms, legs, and halves of the torsos were torn apart. If that was not worse enough, as the soul separated from the body, the snake slurped it all in one breath. Only when the man in black thoroughly died, the snake calmed down. She returned to her small size and fluttered toward Mingliang.

The snake anxiously tried to communicate with Mingliang. She saw Mingliang's pale face and trembling hands.

'I'm alright. I just need a bit of rest.' Mingliang calmed the snake down.

He used to think that he was psychologically tougher than other people, which probably true. But at the moment, he didn't feel strong at all. The scene when the snake tore apart the man in black, kept on replaying in his mind. Although he knew that it was either them or the man in black who died, it still took time for him to calm his heart.

He sat down and slowly controlled his mind and emotion. When he was calmed down, Mingliang took out the bronze medal. He drew a gathering energy rune on the floor and placed the medal.

The bronze medal quickly drew and absorbed the residual energy that's left from the old array.

'How I should clean this mess? Should I call the police? Maybe I can pretend to find the house in this condition?', Mingliang looked around him, at the splattered blood and the separated body.

'Oh... shit, should I bury him? …. okay maybe I should...', Mingliang looked to the backyard outside, wild plants and shrubbery thickly grew in the abandoned garden.

He went to the abandoned garden and searched for a place to bury the body. He saw a dried fish pond. He went to the pond and checked it. It was about knee-deep. He didn't need to dig a hole. After he threw the body there, he just had to fill the pond.

'Watch the entrance, prevents people from coming in. Just scare them, don't hurt them and inform me if someone is trying to enter the house', Mingliang asked the snake through his mind.

The snake seemed to feel relieved when she saw Mingliang got back on his feet and started giving orders. She showed her feeling by dancing above Mingliang's head before she left toward the house entrance. Mingliang chuckled when he saw the snake's enthusiasm.

His face turned to grim again when he saw the man in black's body. Sighing, Mingliang started to move them into the pond. It took a while, and he needed some break in between. The smell, the gore, he hadn't got used to it, and he was glad he was not used to it. He did all the work in less than ten minutes. During the whole process, Mingliang mentally created a distance between what he did and his self.

The next work was physically hard but mentally easy, he had to move soil from a raised garden bed to the pond. Fortunately, it was loam and easy to dig.

When he finished all the work, it was getting dark. Fortunately, with the reputation of the house, there weren't many people who came to look around the house. Mingliang took a look at his bloody and dirty clothes. He hesitated for a moment.

Finally, he picked up his phone and called Sari.

“Hi... yea... uh... Listen, I need your help. Could you come to this address...” Mingliang gave Sari the address and asked her to bring clean clothes for him.

“I'll explain later...”

“Yeah... sorry, but it's really urgent. But if you...”

“Great, great, you really save me today.”

“I'll explain it once you got here...”

“Okay, I got it, I owe you big time.”

“Sure.. sure... Thanks”

Mingliang looked around and found nothing to clean himself. He finally gave up and wiped all the dirt on his hand, on his pants. He planned to throw them away anyway. He returned to the small building and found his bronze medal completely absorbed all the residual of energy in there. He picked it up and put it back to his pocket when he noticed something is off.

He quietly focused all of his senses, trying to find out what it could be.

After a while, he realized, there was a thin trace of energy left in the room. It was so weak that he barely sensed it. Mingliang took out his bronze medal and directly absorbed it clean. He wanted to make sure that no spiritual energy was left around the house, and attracted ghosts or demons. It didn't take a long time to clean the building.

Once again he focused on his sense, to make sure nothing was left.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

He examined it, and the result surprised him. To make sure he checked again. This time he observed the phenomenon longer because it was his first time stumbled upon the strange phenomenon.

He was deeply absorbed in what he was doing. Suddenly, he heard a girl screamed and cursed.

'Oh shit, I forgot to tell her.', Mingliang realized he didn't tell the snake anything about Sari.

Quickly he called the snake back and ran to the house entrance to greet Sari. The sky was dark. With no lighting worked, the house was in complete darkness. Mingliang saw Sari's silhouette, at the entrance. Half crouching with both of her two hands on guard before her body.

“Hey..wait..arghh!”

Mingliang was running to her. He wanted to apologize for the snake. But when Sari saw someone charged in, she leaped forward, closed the distance and punched him right in the solar plexus. It stunned him on his track. She then grabbed his hand and threw him to the floor. She quickly twisted his arm and locked his wrist. As if it was not enough, she pressed his elbow with her knee.

“Aww ouch ouch.... aiyaaaa... It's me, it's me, it's me...”, Mingliang was screaming in pain, his wrist and elbow felt like they were going to break into pieces.

“Mingliang!?”, Sari recognized his voice but didn't even relieve the pressure on his joints.

“Yes, it's me, it's me. For God sake. Let me go, please let me go. Buddhas have mercy. You're killing me!”, Mingliang was calling in pain, begging for mercy.

“Haha, well, you got yourself to blame for that, asking people to come at some creepy house and then charging at me like that. Hey, is this house really haunted?”, Sari let him go and laughed. The truth was, she felt safer now, that she knew Mingliang was here with her.

“Oww.... huff.... you're really a nasty one.”, Mingliang sat up. He massaged his joints and catching up his breath.

“Oh yeah...? Is that how you say thanks?”, Sari dangled a plastic bag before Mingliang.

“Okay... right... you're right. Thank you very much, my princes, in the shining armor and sorry for scaring you like that. I heard you screaming, so I hastily ran to greet you.”, Mingliang put his best adorable expression and even blinked his eyes.

“Hah! Silly jerk!”, Sari hit him with the plastic bag.

“But hey, you are really dirty, and what's that smell? That's smell like...”, She noticed something was off.

“Hmm... let's go inside first. I'll tell you what happened. And by the way, uh... please introduce... how should we call you?” Mingliang summoned the snake to show herself, and now he just realized he didn't know what the snake's name was.

Sari put her hand on her mouth in surprise. Her eyes opened wide. The snake mentally rolled her eyes. Mingliang was standing awkwardly. Sari was looking at the snake. It was showing herself in its miniature size, fluttering near Mingliang's shoulder. It took several seconds before it dawned on her, and she understood what or who scared her back then.

“Black Jade, how about that? Do you like that name?”, Mingliang didn't notice the change in Sari's expression. He was thinking a name for the snake instead. The snake, nodded her head enthusiastically, pleased with the name.

“You bastard!”, without any warning, Sari exploded and kicked Mingliang's thigh.

“Arrggh!... aw aw aw... What's that for?”, Mingliang felt his thigh was going to explode. He was limping on one of his feet.

“Dare to ask again?”, Sari crossed her arm and raised her eyebrows.

“Uhm... yea yea yea...”, her glaring eyes scared Mingliang to give up. Through their spiritual connection, he sensed the snake laughing. If Black Jade had legs, she would be jumping in joy. Now, she was just dancing and circling above Mingliang's head.

“What adorable little snake.”, Black Jade caught Sari's attention.

Like an old friend, the snake fluttered toward Sari and rubbed her head on her cheek. When he saw Black Jade was acting friendly with Sari, Mingliang grumbled, “Traitor...”

She heard Mingliang grumbled, it made her happy and forgot her previous anger, and Mingliang smiled when he saw that. He gestured with his head, for Sari to follow him into the house. When he saw Black Jade was following them, he mentally sent a command for Black Jade to return to the entrance. He chuckled when he sensed Black Jade was grumbling when he sent her back.

Once they got inside the house, Mingliang told Sari about what just happened. It shocked her, for quite some time she couldn't say a word. Her face was pale. Mingliang felt her hand trembled when she handed the plastic bag. Mingliang took the clean clothes and left her to change clothes.

When he came back, Sari grabbed his hand, “Is that for real? You just killed a man?”

“What do you think?”, he asked back.

Sari closely observed his expression, ”You nuts..... Oh... God... you... you... How could you?”

Mingliang shrugged his shoulder, “I'm just as shock as you, you know. It's so absurd and surreal.”

“And it all happen here?” Sari looked around the places around her. They were standing near the pond.

“No, it happened in that small building. I bury the body there though.”, Mingliang pointed at the pond behind Sari.

Sari slowly turned her head and looked at the pond. She didn't realize that it was a pond, but after Mingliang told her, now she can saw the traces. She felt the hair on her neck raised. Sari stared at him in disbelief and then punched his shoulder.

“Ouch!”

“How could you!? Oh... damn... What should I do now? What should we do now?”, she was rambling incoherently.

“Sorry, but I have no one else I could trust.”, Mingliang apologetically tried to calm her down.

Sari slouched and sighed. She felt all her body weak, “Oh... God...”

Mingliang carefully and gently held her hand, “Listen, you don't have to worry about me. At worst, I go to jail. It doesn't affect much of my life. This house is famous as a haunted house, I don't think people would go in and goes so far until they find the body.”

“What should we do with your clothes?”, Sari weakly asked.

“I'll burn them. I need you to go home now. You have too much mixed up in this already.”

Sari's face was getting cloudy. Mingliang hastily added, “Think of your mother. I'm alone in this world. There is Somad, but he survives the street, he can survive even if I'm jailed. You're different.”

With conflicted feeling, Sari was standing in there, trying to make a decision, but finally gave in, “Alright, I'll go now. You be careful. I can't help you, but promise me, try your best, don't get caught.”

“Uhm..”, Mingliang nodded and ensured her with his gesture.

He waited until Sari left the house then he began to burn his bloodied clothes. Watching the fire burned, Mingliang slowly accepted the fact that he just killed a man. He no longer tried to defend his innocence. Sari's supports and beliefs in him, helped him to overcome his anxiety.

'I did what I did because that's who I am. I'm still the same person, before and after I did that. I don't know about right or wrong, but if I can turn back time, I'll still do the same.'

'This is who I am.'

And just like his clothes burnt to ashes, all the doubts, and burdens in his heart, were blown away.

After he made sure, he burned the clothes to ashes. He returned to the small building, where he left his previous observation.

When he returned to the small building, he surprised to find the energy was back in the building again. Back then, he had cleaned the small building. He was missing something. It wasn't the array because he had cleaned it up. The metallic smell of blood was thick in the room, but his mind ignored it. He carefully investigated each inch and corner.

Slowly Mingliang traced the energy to its source. There was a spot within the room. It came from that spot. Mingliang closed his eyes. His spiritual sense dived in that spot. He just touched the boundary and quickly drew his spiritual sense back.

'That array... it summons Black Jade from the other dimension? And cause a leak? Some crack on the border between two dimensions?', Mingliang was squatting before the spot where the energy leaked out.

What he saw there, terrified him. It was entirely a different universe. He sensed powerful and evil beings, were living on the other side. Black Jade was strong, much stronger than him, but there she was at the bottom of the ladder.

'… what should I do? How I seal it?... but why should I seal it? If I leave it like this, I can cultivate the energy for myself... but what if more demons come out of it', he hesitated and couldn't decide.

'But I don't even know how to seal it...yea... that's right. I don't even know how to seal it. Until I know how to seal it, I can absorb the energy to cultivate myself.', Mingliang felt like he found the light. He could cultivate here, at least until he learned how to seal the crack.

He cleaned the spot, and then sat there in the lotus position and started to absorb the energy. Faintly he sensed a big crisis was coming, but he tried to ignore it.