Chapter 2 - Heavenly Path Sect, Outer Sect

Rather than immediately heading to the Heavenly Path Sect, the Lord Immortal first visited another two villages on his return to the mountain. The first village was even smaller than Lightstone village, so only two children, each with low talent, were taken away.

The second village was far different. This was a village located only a few miles from the foot of Heavenly Path Mountain, the headquarters of the Heavenly Path Sect. Thousands of mortals resided in this place, so it was no surprise that nearly twenty children were taken. Surprisingly though, there were only three with moderate talent, and nobody who was assessed above this level. Everyone took a second look at Elia, realising that she must be somewhat special. The unexpected attention made the young girl blush, but she soon felt ashamed by her happiness as Yaan’s still-grim expression reminded her of the happenings in Lightstone Village.

With almost thirty children squashed together, the small carriage now felt somewhat cramped. Some kids were forced to sit on the floor or even to stand as they travelled along the bumpy roads. Normally, children would complain about these kinds of conditions, especially since they were forced to endure for hours on end without food or water, but the atmosphere was instead silent and stifling.

Despite their apparent talent for cultivating to become Immortals, they couldn’t feel too much joy towards this prospect. After all, they were just children and had always heavily relied upon their parents and families until now. To suddenly be ripped away from every adult they knew was a massive shock.

Clunk!

Finally, they had arrived. The rear door swung open and the daylight filled their eyes. Yaan squinted until he could see properly, but his mood immediately dropped on seeing the Lord Immortal.

“We’re here, get out.” The old man instructed. The thirty children obediently scurried out from the wooden carriage and were met with the sight of yet another village. However, this was clearly no ordinary village, since it lay at the foot of Heavenly Path Mountain.

The robed man didn’t wait for them, instead walking towards the village purposefully and opening the gate separating the village from the outside world. He didn’t open the gate with his hand, but shocked all of the children once again as he casually waved his hand from a distance, somehow causing it to fling open.

Compared to the Lord Immortal, their destination was far less impressive. This settlement was protected only by a wooden fence, it didn’t seem to be anything special.

Yaan glanced back as he followed the crowd, then felt chilled as he saw that behind them lay the dark forest. He knew this forest well, since it was the same forest surrounding Lightstone village, preventing the common folk from ever leaving their birthplace.

This forest was dangerous, home to wild beasts the likes of which mortals could not hope to defeat. He turned around and tried to forget about the forest, instead heading into the village ahead.

The children looked around curiously. It seemed like this was their final destination and perhaps their new home, so they were naturally apprehensive, but also a bit excited. They were able to see people in this village, coming in and out of the simply built wooden huts. They appeared to be doing some sort of work on the strange looking farm patches scattered throughout the village.

It looked like an ordinary village, aside from the obvious issue that all of the residents were quite young. That said, Yaan felt like something was off with this place…

“Xinti!” The children jumped in fright as the robed man suddenly yelled out with a booming voice. His voice was louder than any human voice should be, yet he had hardly opened his mouth to produce this staggering volume.

A few moments passed by as nothing happened, before a chubby looking young man came running from the centre of the village.

“Greeting, Elder Sun!”

“Hm. These are the new arrivals, have them settle in.” After saying this, the robed man waved his hand, signalling for the children to walk across to the chubby man who was wearing a flattering expression. As always, his commands were impossible to disobey, his invisible pressure forced them all to walk onwards like a herd of sheep.

“Wait, not you Elia.” The elder stopped Elia before she could move. She looked up to him in surprise with a questioning look.

“This village is no place for a high grade talent. You will be coming with me.”

“Oh…ok then…” She looked concerned, helplessly turning to the others from Lightstone village. Of course, there was nothing that anyone could do. Yaan and the others could only sigh, leaving Elia feeling hopeless and alone.

‘Damnit!’ Yaan gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. He had resolved himself to protect the other children from the village, but when it came down to it, what could he really do?

Nothing! He was powerless, completely unable to help!

The Lord Immortal…no, Elder Sun, departed without waiting around for long. The chubby man named Xinti wore a flattering expression the entire time, until the elder finally disappeared.

At this point, his entire demeanour changed.

“My name is Xinti, but you trash will all call me Lord Xinti, got that?” He puffed up his chest and looked down at them arrogantly as he spoke. Everyone felt speechless that he could act so pompously after the subservient act he put on in front of the elder, but they didn’t say anything.

This was because Xinti exuded a similar aura to that of the tax collector who visited their villages once every year. He was clearly weaker than Elder Sun, but he was certainly more powerful than any normal man.

“This place is called Zong village, it is part of the outer sect of the Heavenly Path Sect. The rules in this village are simple. If you want to eat then you need to work! If you disobey me, or annoy me in any way, I’ll beat you down like the talentless trash you are! Let me tell you now, I’m an esteemed Qi Gathering realm Qi master, something you trash can only dream of!”

Hearing all of this, Falca couldn’t hold himself back.

“Aren’t we supposed to be learning to become Immortals here?”

“You dare to interrupt this Lord, brat?!” Xinti’s expression darkened, but after a moment, a sadistic smile plastered his chubby cheeks.

Suddenly, his body moved at a speed incomprehensible for his overweight stature. His figure blurred past the children until he arrived before Falca in an instant.

Bang!

Falca span around multiple times as Xinti’s palm slapped across his face. He slammed into the floor and rolled across the dusty ground, leaving a trail of splattered blood. He began crying and clutched his head as his disfigured face throbbed painfully.

Xinti just laughed and watched on whilst the boy pulled himself up without daring to raise his head.

“Anyone else feel like speaking over me? Huh? No, of course not. Because you’re all cowardly trash!”

Everyone went silent. Some of the young village residents looked over at Falca’s pitiful state, but they didn’t appear to be surprised in the least.

“Anyway, it’s true that you can earn the chance to cultivate here. If you earn enough through hard work and slog, then it’s possible to buy a cultivation technique.”

They were once again left speechless. If he was going to answer Falca’s question anyway, why did he slap him so hard that the boy’s skin was ripped from his face?!

“Hehehe, that said, good luck earning enough for that.” Xinti laughed evilly, sending chills down Yaan’s spine.

After saying some more arrogant words and confirming that everyone was respecting his authority now, Xinti assigned the children to their housing and jobs.

Yaan soon discovered that his initial uneasy feeling was not just him being paranoid, he was right to feel wary of this village. Xinti wasn’t joking around when he told them that they needed to work if they wanted to eat. They weren’t even provided with a complimentary meal on arrival, nor any time to settle in. Yaan and the others needed to immediately begin working on their assigned jobs, just so they could earn enough money to buy food.

As for Yaan himself, he was assigned the lumber job. This job consisted of chopping down 100 year old oak trees, then cutting the felled trees into lumber and dragging the lumber to a processing centre.

These 100 year old oak trees were extremely durable and the material was often used in basic medicinal pills and treasures for the higher ranking sect members. Cutting this wood was arduous and took hours of hard work.

By the time Yaan finished his first day of work, his hands were cracked and bleeding from holding the wooden axe handle. His muscles ached so badly just from swinging the oversized axe, a tool that was clearly not designed for a small child.

He worked all through the night, driven entirely by his hunger and fear for his life should he stop.

He spent another hour dragging all the wood back to the processing centre. For his troubles, Xinti payed him a sum of 3 bronze coins. Since Yaan didn’t yet understand the currency in this place, he didn’t think much of it and accepted the payment without complaint.

He wasn’t so accepting after discovering that this could only afford him two small potatoes. He had worked for nearly 20 hours straight and only earned two damned potatoes!

He of course complained to Xinti about this.

“So what? If you want to eat more then work harder.” Xinti was far from understanding, not caring about his plight at all.

“But how can I survive on just this? I already worked as hard as I could!” Yaan protested.

“I don’t care. Go away before I beat you.” Xinti began to sound irritated and waved his hand dismissively.

“But-”

Bang!

The second Yaan disobeyed Xinti’s order, the fatty lashed out and struck him in the stomach. Yaan flew back and slammed into the door, then tumbled outside and rolled through the dust like a rag doll. His stomach ached and was badly bruised, he felt like that strike must have inflicted some unseen damage to his organs.

Yaan stood up and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. He grimaced and clutched his stomach as he painfully hobbled away. Tears welled up in his eyes, but even after forcing himself not to cry, that feeling of hopelessness and rage resurfaced within his heart.

“Damnit…”

He hated it. Yaan felt aggrieved, this was all too unfair! His family were unjustly massacred and he was then ripped from his home village, forced to work as a slave for the sect that was responsible for their deaths, just in order to survive. How was this fair? How could something like this happen to him?!

Unfortunately, Yaan could only admit that this was his reality.

He had no ability to resist, no right to complain, no option but to work. He had no time for anything except for working and sleeping. The one short moment of pleasure he relished each day was when he bit down into the potatoes, appeasing the relentless pain in his stomach for a brief period of time.

Day in, day out, he worked. He chopped lumber with the axe, his mind filled only with the need to eat and the desire to survive.

It wasn’t just Yaan, everyone in this village was worked to the point of breaking. The girls were slightly better off, since they were allowed to pick herbs on account of their weaker physiques. The boys though, were almost all forced to work hard labor.

Drawing water from a far away well, chopping lumber, processing the wood, digging trenches, building new housing, and so on.

Despite arriving together and vowing to look out for one another, the children from Lightstone village hardly had this luxury. They were all caught up in their own work and any free moment was spent either resting or eating.

Like this, a month passed by.

Yaan’s skill with the axe improved, as had his efficiency in downing trees and dragging back the wood. He became more adept at identifying the correct trees, so didn’t need to venture too far into the dangerous woods to locate them.

The dark forest was dangerous, but the outskirts close to the village were said to be safe enough.

Eventually, he managed to increase his earnings to five bronze coins each day. For this he could buy three potatoes each day, whilst saving one coin away. Despite his seemingly hopeless situation, Yaan hadn’t given up on hope. He refused to resign himself to living out the rest of his days in this dreadful village, so he decided to save up for a cultivation technique. Only with a cultivation technique could he become a Qi master, only with such a technique could he gain enough power to protect himself!

If he just kept his head down and work hard, Yaan was sure that he would be able to afford the unknown price of the cultivation technique eventually.

Unfortunately, today's events seemed to spit in the face of his plans.

As Yaan returned from his work, a bag of lumber in tow, he noticed a group of people crowded around a certain area. Curious about the commotion, Yaan walked over to the crowd and asked someone what was going on.

“A girl died.” The boy he asked sighed regretfully. “She was too young for this work and couldn’t afford to eat, nobody helped her so she died from starvation.”

Yaan’s eyes widened in shock. He knew that the Zong village was a harsh place, but to allow someone to starve to death? Could something like this really happen?

Just as he was pondering this, Yaan froze. He caught a glimpse of the corpse of the girl, causing his hands to tremble in disbelief.

“Out of my way!” His exhaustion seemed to be swept away in that moment as he pushed his way through the crowd. Some people grunted in discontent, but others looked at him pitifully. It was obvious that Yaan knew the deceased.

“Una…”

The girl was actually Una, the five year old girl from Lightstone village. Yaan dropped to his knees and stared at her thin, emaciated corpse.

Someone he knew had died once more. He wasn’t exactly close to Una, but Lightstone village was a tight knit community where everyone was at least familiar with one another.

“I was supposed to take care of her. This is my fault. I failed. My fault. I failed…”

Yaan was not the one to speak these words. He looked up, only now realising that Falca was also kneeling down besides her corpse whilst muttering to himself dully. Besides him, the final boy from their village, Jash, stood there with a dazed expression, as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

Falca kept on muttering about how it was all his fault. Yaan wanted to comfort him, but stopped himself. He realised that truthfully, they were all to blame.

Una was just a small 5 year old girl, unable to tolerate this type of labor. Xinti hadn’t accounted for her small and weak stature, assigning her an impossible task. They should have been looking out for and supporting her, yet she had instead suffered in solitude and died alone.

Yaan had promised himself that he wouldn’t cry again after his family’s demise, but the tears began to flow uncontrollably as he was reminded once again of that horrific day. First his family and now Una, it felt like one by one, they were all going to die…

“Hey, what’s going on?!” Xinti’s annoying but familiar voice thundered from just outside the crowd. Everyone moved out of his way fearfully, presenting him with a passageway towards the centre.

He didn’t walk closer to Una’s corpse, but just stared and frowned from a distance.

“Oh, so someone died. Whoever disposes of it will be paid 1 bronze coin.” His words left Yaan stumped. Could a human being really be so cold hearted?

Actually, Yaan was all too aware that people could truly be this way, that Elder Sun was even worse after all.

“You, you, you cold hearted bastard!” Falca jumped up and pointed at Xinti with a shaking finger. Yaan was startled by the sudden outburst and quickly turned towards the older boy with wide eyes. The burning anger on his face was blatantly visible, as if he had forgotten all about Xinti’s authority, or perhaps just no longer cared.

“Falca, don’t!” Jash grabbed onto his shirt and tugged pleadingly. He didn’t want to see anyone else get hurt today. Unfortunately for Jash, one’s wishes rarely came true.

Bang!

“You were the one that I beat before, were you not? I thought you’d learned your lesson, but it seems I was too merciful. Hmph, you know what…”

After punching Falca square in the jaw and shattering the bone, Xinti stood over the now shivering boy with a cold grin.

“I think that I’ll make an example of you.”

Bang!

His fist fell down once again and collided with Falca’s head. The young boy choked out a mouthful of blood, staining Xinti’s previously clean white robe.

“Pig, you dare get your filth on my clothes?! Haha, good, good!” Terrifyingly, Xinti seemed to become even more enraged than before.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

He wailed down on Falca with punch after punch. Yaan was hesitating previously, but on seeing that Xinti was continuing with his relentless assault even after Falca lost consciousness, he couldn’t sit back and watch any longer.

“Xinti, please-”

Bang!

Yaan stepped in towards Xinti carefully and started to protest softly, but found himself caught in the chest by a kick before he could get any further.

“Does my authority mean nothing to you people?!” Xinti roared out loud.

He scanned his eyes over the scared looking kids with a cold smile. He then looked towards two older boys and pointed at them, causing started and fearful looks to spread across their faces.

“You two, tie that kid to the punishment pole.” He pointed to Yaan, then to a wooden pole in the centre of this area.

The pole and the surrounding ground were all died red with blood. The two boys paled, but then simply nodded and grabbed Yaan who was still recovering from Xinti’s kick.

Yaan’s mind was hazy as he was dragged towards the punishment pole. He was tied to the bloody wooden pole with a rope that was developed within the village from a sort of tree found around the outskirts of the dark forest. Under that terrifying gaze of Xinti’s, the boys tied his wrists up so tightly that the rope dug into his skin and left behind red blisters.

“Sorry, we have no choice.” One of the boys quietly muttered in his ear.

As Yaan opened his eyes, he saw Xinti standing tall above Falca’s unconscious body.

“Watch closely.”

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

“…”

Everyone stared silently in horror as the chubby tyrant smashed Falca’s head again and again. Yaan was tied up so he couldn’t move, but his eyes remained wide open and the feeling of helplessness in his heart grew stronger. Xinti’s heavy kick injured him so badly that some blood was stuck in his throat and he couldn’t even cry out.

Falca’s head had long since become disfigured, yet Xinti continued with his barbaric display of power. He only stopped after Falca’s brain was completely pulverised and spread across the floor.

Thump!

With that, Xinti kicked his lifeless body over towards Yaan. Yaan was tied up in a way that forced him to kneel on the hard dirt ground, and he now found himself staring directly at Falca’s mangled corpse from just a couple of feet away.

“Leave him tied up with the corpse for a day, if I find anyone feeding him then I’ll kill them myself. Clear?” Xinti yelled out, only feeling satisfied after seeing everyone hurriedly nodding.

Yaan was starved and parched of water for a full day and night, but what he found even worse, was being forced to stare at Falca’s festering corpse during this time. Una had been dragged away and buried, but flies and other insects made their way into Falca’s body during the high heat of the day. The smell became rancid quickly, making Yaan dry heave from the bottom of his empty stomach for hours on end.

For the full 24 hours of his punishment, nobody came to his aid. Nobody even dared step within twenty feet of the pole for fear of their actions being mistaken for something else.

When he was finally released, Yaan dragged himself home in a truly pitiful state. He barely managed to consume a raw potato before passing out on his wooden bed from exhaustion.

After this traumatising event, life became even more difficult. Xinti would deliberately find problems with his work wherever possible, often skimping on the full deserved pay. Thanks to this unfair treatment, it became harder than ever to save up money. After another 2 months of this difficulty, Yaan was beginning to lose hope.

There was only so much of this torment he could take. In the last two months, another young child had died. This wasn’t anyone he knew, but the atmosphere in the village would always become more solemn following a death as they were reminded of their own precarious situations.

During this time, Yaan made it a point to talk to others in order to learn more about the Heavenly Path Sect and the world of Immortals in general.

The first thing he learned was quite depressing, which was the cost of the most common cultivation technique. This technique cost three gold coins to purchase, a set price throughout the sect. Three gold coins was equivalent to 30,000 bronze coins. Even if he managed to save one bronze coin every day, it would take almost 100 years of careful saving before he could afford it.

Yaan felt like something was wrong with this. What was the point of choosing people with cultivation talent to join the outer sect if they couldn’t even learn the most basic of techniques?

He was right to have his doubts. Primarily, the problem lay with Xinti. As the village chief, payment was entirely up to his discretion. He deliberately paid the village kids a pitiful wage to keep them weak and afraid, so that he could continue to lord above the masses without fear of any repercussions.

Secondly, it turned out that they would be allowed to leave the village after reaching 16 years of age. At this point, they would be taken to a different area of the outer sect and provided with the cultivation technique free of charge.

The problem with this, was that starting cultivation at 16 years old was quite late. Cultivation was a slow process, requiring long periods of time and endless effort, which was why the sect took in children between the ages of five and ten.

Besides this, Yaan managed to learn more regarding the Heavenly Path Sect itself. The sect was split into three main sections: The outer sect, the inner sect and the core sect. The outer sect homed those children who were taken from the surrounding villages and forced to work. They were forced to work tirelessly until they earned a cultivation technique, then to cultivate this technique until they reached the Qi Gathering realm. At this point, they would be considered Qi masters and could enter the inner sect.

The majority of the sect disciples were situated higher up the mountain in the inner sect. They wouldn’t be required to work manual labor once entered into the inner sect. Instead, the disciples were expected to devote themselves to their cultivation and becoming stronger.

If one was found to be highly talented or if they achieved a certain level, they could enter the core sect, the area home to the sect geniuses. Little was known about this prestigious place, but it was sure to be incredible.

Those who grew up from their youth and began to slow down in their cultivation as their potential was wrung out would become sect elders, like that Elder Sun.

Yaan was thinking about all of these things as he made his way into the dark forest. Just as he was about to leave the village, he paused and narrowed his eyes in a certain direction.

It was Jash. Since Una and Falca’s death, Jash underwent a drastic change. His naturally caring nature gradually faded, replaced solely with his selfish desire to survive without a care for anything else. Falca’s death shook him to the core and made him realise that if he wasn’t careful, he could be next.

This was why he now followed Xinti around everywhere, sucking up to him with a flattering smile. Yaan always felt disgusted on witnessing this scene.

Their eyes briefly met, before Jash turned away and ignored Yaan as usual. He couldn’t even look him in the eye properly, it was obvious that he still had some moral reservations about what he was doing, yet he continued along this path anyway.

With a sigh, Yaan continued towards the forest, axe in hand.

Yaan’s appearance was much different compared to 3 months ago. He was skinny, severely lacking in body fat. His muscle mass had slightly increased though, owing to him swinging the axe for most of everyday. He had also grown slightly taller, though his growth was sure to be stunted if he kept up this lacking diet.

Today, Yaan decided to venture deeper into the dark forest. It was said that so long as you didn’t go in any deeper than two miles, then you were unlikely to encounter any beasts. He’d gradually been exploring further and further each day, until he finally built up the courage to delve into the edge of that two mile boundary.

As usual, the forest became darker as he explored the deeper depths. The tree bark darkened, as did the leaves, making it feel as if the foliage was sucking in all of the surrounding light. The atmosphere was gloomy and ominous, often keeping people from straying this far in.

Yaan was on high alert, ready to run or hide in case he encountered anything unusual.

Two miles wasn’t too far a distance, and he soon reached a thin stream after walking for slightly under one hour. He knew that this thin stream signified the two mile boundary, and that venturing any further would become exponentially more dangerous with every step.

He gazed across the stream, staring at the forest on the other side. Was it really that much worse in the forest compared to Zong village? He almost felt tempted to jump across the stream, then to just keep on walking…

In the end though, his fear of the unknown won over. Yaan slumped his shoulders dejectedly, annoyed at his own lack of courage. He sighed and turned to leave, remembering that he needed to chop the day’s lumber if he wanted to eat.

Splash!

“Wh-?! AH!”

He didn’t have time to react to the noise, only realising that something was amiss after feeling a sharp pain on his leg. Looking down, Yaan almost screamed out in fright at the horrific looking creature that had tightly attached itself to his flesh with its vice of a mouth.

It was certainly a fish, but like no fish he had ever seen before. Its pitch black scales made it difficult to see clearly in the dimly lit forest, but its large 4 foot length was outlined when it shook from side to side, latching its fangs deeper into his leg with every movement.

Thwack!

Without even thinking, Yaan lashed out wildly with the axe. The fish was hit directly in the stomach, the force of the attack throwing it from his body and to the side. Its jaw was gripping down so tightly that it ripped out a chunk of his flesh as it was torn away from his leg.

Yaan stepped back and winced in pain as he stood lightly on his leg, but quickly forgot about that and stared at the fish with wide eyes.

At first he was afraid, but on seeing the fish flapping around helplessly on dry land, he began to have some other thoughts.

Rumble…

Yaan clutched his stomach and the light in his eyes brightened. His gaze towards the unfortunate fish was filled with hunger, and at this point, his actions were only hindered by his fear towards the unknown.

This time, his fear was overcome by the intense pain in his stomach and the dull weakness in his muscles.

Yaan tentatively stepped closer to the fish, flinching back slightly at it seemed to react to his movement by flapping around even more violently. Gritting his teeth, Yaan steeled his resolve. He drew the axe above his head, then swung down with as much force as he could muster.

Thud!

He missed, but the sound was enough to scare the fish. It began to go crazy, nearly slapping Yaan in the face as its slippery body bounced up and down. Its movement was random and chaotic, but it was actually moving back towards the stream by chance.

Not wanting to miss this opportunity, Yaan jumped forwards and swung down towards the fish once more.

Kwik!

Blood splattered across the ground as he chopped off the fish’s head messily. At least, he’d mostly removed the head, but it was still attached to the body by half an inch of flesh.

The fish continued moving for a few moments, forcing Yaan to kick it away from the river. He felt pained, seeing his meal getting covered in dirt, but it was certainly large enough to feed him either way.

A couple of minutes later, the obscure fish finally stopped moving. Yaan cautiously crouched down and observed the fish carefully, frowning as he realised that he really couldn’t identify it.

Despite his uncertainty, any apprehension Yaan held towards eating this alien looking creature was wiped away by his ravenous hunger. Without wanting to wait any longer, he tore the fish’s head off with some difficulty, then brushed off the dirt where he could. It would probably be best to wash it in the stream, but Yaan couldn’t bring himself to approach the dangerous waterway again. His leg still stung, reminding him of the very real danger.

Chomp!

He couldn’t hold himself back for another second and directly bit down into the fish’s neck, not caring about the remaining dirt around the flesh.

“Pah!” He almost spat it back out right away, but instead forced himself to swallow. Yaan grimaced at the bitter taste, wondering how it was that an animal could taste so terrible.

Even though it tasted god awful, his stomach felt less pained after the bitter flesh entered his body. Sighing to himself in self pity, Yaan continued to eat bite after bite.

Whilst he was extraordinarily hungry, Yaan was just a small child and this fish was nearly four feet in length, there was no possible way he could eat the entire thing. He managed to eat less than a third of the aquatic creature’s flesh, but just as his stomach was reaching its limit, he suddenly fell back and clenched his jaw in pain.

“Gah, a bone?!” He had bitten into something solid, it felt like a rock, but of course his first assumption was a bone. Yaan spat out the solid object into his hand, but what he saw left him staring blankly.

“A ring?” It was a black ring. The ring was pitch black and appeared to be roughly made from some sort of stone. But what was a ring doing inside of a fish’s body…?

As he continued to stare at the ring in confusion, Yaan discovered that this day would only become more strange from here on.

Buzz…

Yaan jolted in shock as the ring actually started to vibrate in his hand. Following this, a mysterious white symbol lit up on the outside of the ring, scaring Yaan so much that he almost dropped it. Shortly after, another symbol appeared, then another…one by one, these symbols began to glow, until a total of nine symbols were shining brightly on the outer surface of the ring.

Whoosh!

The nine symbols all let out a glow of white light simultaneously. Yaan fell back and dropped the ring to the floor, but he soon realised that there seemed to be a connection between himself and the mysterious ring. He started to feel slightly tired and worried that this weird ring was going to kill him somehow, but his exhaustion luckily wasn’t pushed too far.

Finally, all of the chaotic events came to a conclusion. However, this finale was no less shocking than the prior build up of events. As Yaan lay down in the dry dirt and looked up, a woman, entirely made from light itself, stared back down at him. After a single glance, she turned away and looked around.

Beautiful! Such a beautiful woman! She was so beautiful that Yaan was drawn into a trance, temporally forgetting how strange this situation was and instead just staring.

The woman was so beautiful that for a moment, Yaan felt like this woman was the only woman he had ever known….Yaan was so distracted that he didn’t notice a faint green line of light appear between the two of them with a shimmer, before fading into obscurity….

Her silky black hair cascaded down her crimson red robe. As the woman turned towards him, she opened her eyes. The faint red light in her eyes matched her clothing, making her feel like a demonic goddess looking down on this world. Her skin was white and pale, as if she had never once stepped foot in the sun. Or perhaps, even the sun's rays didn’t dare to touch her.

After again glancing at him briefly with no emotion to show on her face, her gaze turned towards the half eaten fish.

“Did you eat that fish?” She spoke softly, yet her voice was somehow commanding. Yaan could only nod his head.

“A shame. It has been so long, yet it appears that I will not be able to recover myself this time either.” The woman muttered to herself, ignoring Yaan entirely.

“Who are you? Did you come from that ring?” Yaan finally mustered the courage to ask her.

She glanced back down at him and sighed.

“Just a child. What is a mortal child even doing in a place like this? You’re lucky to have survived to this point. Though, I suppose that your luck has run out.” She ignored his question, but her words made Yaan’s heart skip a beat.

As if to confirm her words, a sharp pain originating from his stomach suddenly spread throughout his body like a violent wave. Yaan cried out in pain, curling up into a ball and clutching his abdomen.

“What, what is…?!” He couldn’t even finish the sentence as the pain became increasingly unbearable. He was left on the floor, crying out audibly in sheer agony.

“You consumed a young demonic beast, your body cannot handle the energy. You will die soon, my apologies.” She stated this plainly, as if this was an irrelevant matter that didn’t even warrant an emotional response.

Yaan had no time to lament over the cold indifference behind her words. As he continued to roll around on the floor, his muscles contorting in pain, he managed to utter a plea for help.

“Help…me…please…!”

The woman didn’t say anything for a while, instead just watching as he grit his teeth and painfully raised his face towards hers. Seeing the fire in his eyes, the desire to live, she slightly raised one eyebrow by an unnoticeable amount.

"How old are you?”

“Six…” Yaan replied, not understanding why she cared about this right now.

“Hm, then this has a chance. Tell me child, do you truly wish to live, no matter the cost?”

“I do…”

“Even if it means giving up your humanity?”

Yaan didn’t understand what she was saying, but he knew that he wanted to live, more so than anything else right now. He could never have expected that his answer to this question would alter the very course of his life as if finally aligning himself with a gruelling fate.

“Yes…”

As Yaan spoke this simple word, an inch long crack appeared in the sky, far above the highest of clouds. The crack only appeared for a second before it was forcefully sealed by the pressure of this world. This brief event was not noticed by a single living being, not even by the mysterious woman who continued to stare at Yaan with a calm gaze.