Chapter 24: Weak

Forest, Jade Empire

 -Pss-

An abundant amount of blood spurted from the gaping wound as Kai pulled out the knife and landed on the ground. Omar attempted to utter his last words but a surge of blood clogged his damaged throat, resulting in a slur of incomprehensible gurgle. He hopelessly pressed his hands against the fatal injury. His eyes flashed with a final glint of regret before glazing over and he ultimately collapsed.

“Omar is dead…”

“The boy actually killed Omar.”

Horrified whispers escaped the mouths of the bandits that stayed conscious despite the pain. Deaf to their fear, Kai stared intensely at the dying Omar, watching his life gradually fade away. The sensation of penetrating his soft fragile flesh, to decisively execute him, lingered from the tip of his fingers to the depths of his heart. A familiar hollow feeling resounded inside his chest.  

 I promised not to… after all of the deaths, I promised not to but I still did it. I’ve killed again…

“Tha-thank you”, the young girl timidly started, “but who are you?”

Conflicted with his thoughts, Kai did not hear the girl’s question and remained unresponsive to his surroundings. The girl patiently waited for an answer but seeing the motionless Kai, she assumed the volume of her voice was insufficient. Taking a deep breath, she prepared to repeat her question with louder volume.

“W-”

The moment the first letter rolled off her tongue, a large silhouette dropped from the air and loudly landed in between the girl and Kai.

 -Boom-

The silhouette stood on two feet and revealed itself to be a tall rugged man. He donned a uniform like that of a soldier and strapped a flashy long sword around his waist. Cold sweat perspired from his forehead and panic overtook his hardened face as he noticed the corpse besides the girl. He hurriedly rushed to the corpses side and collapsed to his knees. Bending over slightly, he placed his hands on his kneecaps and bowed his head.

“I’m sorry I’m late master…”, he apologized with a shaky tone. His trembling hands curled into fists. The pressure he applied punctured his skin causing blood to seep through his clenched fingers.

“Sir Randy”, the girl murmured.

Still on his knees, the man turned to face the girl.

“My lady…” he began, his voice tainted with remorse, “How did this happen? Who did this?”

The girl sorrowfully gazed at her blood stained hands before lifting her head up, training her eyes on Omar’s corpse. Randy followed the girl’s gaze but instead of viewing Omar’s corpse, he laid eyes on Kai who stood in front of the corpse. He analyzed his body and trailed down to the knives in his hand, at the fresh blood dripping down the tip of their blades.

Jumping to conclusions, he instantly assumed Kai was the perpetrator and released his killing intent. His remorseful eyes quickly blazed with anger as the aura relentlessly permeated the enclosing atmosphere. Thick strands of Ki protruded from his skin, overlapping and enhancing the pressure in the air.

Sensing no imminent threat from Randy when he arrived, Kai had completely ignored him but the impending danger he presently emitted provoked his instincts and he immediately spun around. He felt the intense pressure from his Ki and prepared to release his killing intent but the lingering sensation of killing Omar caused him to falter. The hesitation affected his killing intent and he was unable to properly release it.

 -Crack-

As the ground below Randy cracked from his pressure, the girl bravely bolted ahead, stood between him and Kai, and widely spread apart her arms. The sudden actions of the girl startled Randy and flames of his anger were instantly extinguished.

“My lady why are you protecting him?”, he asked, confusion evident on his face.

“He protected me”, the girl defended, “and he killed the man that killed father.”

“He what?”

Snapping his eyes back on Kai, he concentrated and carefully examined his surroundings. Numerous men were clustered across the ground. Some he recognized as his own men and the others he figured, from their clothes and random weapons, were bandits. He frowned angrily and narrowed his eyes at the sight of his dead men but his eyes instantly widened at the condition of the fallen bandits.

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The bandits were all alive but they were either unconscious, gazing at Kai with fearful eyes, or crawling away from him with their hands. He scrutinized the injuries on their bodies and confirmed they were all similarly inflicted on their legs. His astonishment further grew as he realized the injuries cleanly prevented each of them from moving their legs.

Narrowing his vision, he saw Omar’s corpse surrounded by a shallow pool of blood from behind Kai’s small body frame. His bulging eyes were frozen from death and his body ravaged with minor wounds. Blood steadily flowed from his opened mouth, along the side of his face, and merged with the pool of blood around him.

Discerning Omar’s clothes from the blood, Randy was nearly certain that he was their leader. This boy did all of this?, he thought incredulously. Understanding that he was hasty in his actions, he immediately receded his killing intent and Ki, then cautiously walked towards Kai.

Kai recognized that Randy was no longer threateningly approaching him but readily kept his fighting stance. His Essence revolved inside him, ready to be channeled in an instant.

Halting a few meters away from him, Randy formed a fist with his left hand and clapped it onto an open palm from his right hand. Maintaining the respective gesture he followed with a slight bow.

“I apologize for my previous actions and would like to sincerely thank you for protecting my lady.”

Acknowledging his apology and appreciation, Kai relaxed his body and nodded in response.

“What is your name young hero?”, Randy inquired. “What are you doing in this forest?”

Having accepted Randy as a safe existence, his thoughts unconsciously returned to Omar’s and paid no attention to the inquiry given to him. He turned and mindlessly walked towards the forest.

Randy was not insulted by the cold shoulder but rather further intrigued in Kai’s mystique. Leaping into the air, he traveled a great distance and landed in front of Kai.

“I apologize if I asked too many question but may I at least know who you are?”

He lowered his head to meet Kai’s eyes and recognized a familiar hollowness in his eyes. Being a hardened veteran on fights and death, he instantly recognized the conflicted tension that occasionally followed the taste of murdering for the first time. Steadily reaching out with his hand, he placed it on Kai’s shoulder.

“The strong will always prey on the weak. That golden rule has existed since the dawn of time. If you were any weaker than him, you and my lady would be dead. What you did today was righteous and just. You shouldn’t feel guilty about killing scoundrels like the bandits”, he lectured.

Kai endlessly heard of the common saying in his past life so Randy’s monotonous version did little for his conflicted thoughts. Softly shrugging off his caring hand, he prepared to resume walking towards the forest.

Randy saw that his advice was ineffective and sighed. He lifted his left hand and removed a ring from his pinky finger. He bent over to Kai, gently took his hand, and placed the ring on his open palm before helping him curl his fingers to firmly grip it.

“If you wish to remain silent, I will not question you further. Please take this ring as a small token of appreciation for saving my lady’s life. Show the ring to any city lord or important figure in Tao Empire and they will surely assist you.”

Kai blankly stared at his closed fist that held the ring. He instinctively nodded once more then resumed his steady pace into the forest. Randy and the girl watched as his shadowy figure disappear behind the boundless trees.

“Thank you…”, the girl whispered her final thanks.

Her words faded into the morning breeze as it comfortably flowed through the forest. The breeze strongly blew behind Kai but his heavy steps resisted its gentle push. He looked up at the morning sun with a melancholic gleam in his eyes.  

Tightening his right hand into a fist, he suddenly channeled Essence to his hand and pounded a tree besides him with the side of his fist.

 -Bang-

Flakes of bark shattered from the fresh imprint on the tree and the breeze dispersed them into the air.

 Weak! I am too weak! I killed because I am weak; I couldn’t protect Teresa and the others because I am weak; The bandits imposed themselves upon me because I am weak! I was satisfied when I made [Shadow Two Steps] and defeated the wolf but those feats are not good enough. I have to become stronger. Much stronger!

His eyes burned with new-found resolve as his mind circulated with numerous thoughts. Opening his palm, he indifferently wore the ring on his index finger.

 I will not waste any more time. My first goal will be becoming a Baron then I will rescue Teresa and the others. If being an Initial Baron isn’t good enough, then I will become a Peak Baron. If being a Peak Baron isn’t good enough then I will become a Lord! I will become however strong I need to be so that I never have to kill again…

Clearing his mind, he erased all unnecessary thoughts and focused solely on cultivating. He leaped onto a nearby secure branch, sat down, and immediately closed his eyes. He drowned out the whistling of the wind and the rustling of the leaves. The only sound that remained was his light and consistent heartbeat as he paid no attention to anything except for the bright specks of Qi and Ki.

The luminous sun descended over Kai as time passed and the bright blue sky darkened. Long hours became days and days grouped into weeks. Living by his new resolution, each day only consisted of calm cultivating and strenuous physical training. The exemption to those constrictions were when he required food or water, in which he would hunt a beast or fetch water from the closest river.

As he continued to live in the self-applied conditions, his sense of time eventually slipped away. His days became more efficient through repetition and time seemingly passed by at a rapid rate. The short weeks unknowingly joined into months and before he stopped to think, nearly a year went by.

During that day, Kai sat in the center of a small isolated field of grass. His eyes were shut tight and his eyebrows were scrunched up in rigid concentration. Through the vision of his Sixth, he sensed an illusionary wall against his face. Unknowing to the amount of months that passed, he finally arrived at the breakthrough on becoming a Mid Novice!

 Break for me!

Sharpening his concentration and Sixth to their peaks, multiple cracks developed on the wall and it shattered in a nostalgic manner. The familiar feeling washed over Kai and he felt the capacity of his dantian slowly increasing before reaching a limit. Qi and Ki churned into Essence and filled in the new empty void in his dantian as he continued cultivating.

 Before my limit was ten minutes but now it seems to be about twenty minutes…

During an ambiguous day in the past months, Kai was curious on the temporal limit of the amount of Essence his dantian could contain. As a means to quench his curiosity, he unrestrainedly released the energy and carefully calculated the time that passed. When the last bit of the energy escaped his dantian, he recorded the limit to be roughly ten minutes.

 Twice the amount! If I sparingly use it as usual then the twenty minutes may last me an hour or more.

Acknowledging the extent of his improvement, he readily returned to cultivating but the moment he closed his eyes, a grumble reverberated from his stomach.

 I’m hungry already? I could’ve sworn I had just eaten breakfast not too long ago.

He reluctantly ceased cultivating, stood up, and silently made his way past the trees. Not long into his search for food, he saw the small figure of a rabbit. Like most other species he came across that were similar to the ones in his past life, the rabbit was more ferocious. Threatening fangs extended from the jaws of its mouth and it was far from an adorable embraceable pet as it trudged the ground with its sharp claws.

 That rabbit will do.

Bending his knees, he prepared to jump at the rabbit but halted when he heard the rustling of a nearby bush.

 What?

From the corner of his eye as he turned towards the sound, he saw a blurry figure emerge from the bush. Without warning, the figure pounced at him!