Chapter 6 - The First Step

Yaan had now been living in the core sect region of the Heavenly Path Sect for one full month. He mostly spent his time accompanying Great Elder Wan, but was given some free rein to explore by himself.

The core sect area was large and lacking in people, enough so that it was rare to bump into others unless one ventured into the various public meeting places. By exploring the marketplaces and training halls, Yaan became acquainted with some of the more well known core disciples and Elders.

They treated him courteously, so he reciprocated in kind. These people were still unsure about Yaan, he was an unknown variable and at a glance, he appeared to be like any other mortal child. That said, how could someone who managed to catch Great Elder Wan’s attention be ordinary?

As such, Yaan was treated politely whilst people waited for his first achievements.

After assessing that he had finally settled in properly, Great Elder Wan brought Yaan into a dungeon below the sect’s central punishment hall. The hall itself was located within a grand palace crafted from various rare rocks and crystals, but the dungeon below was basically the opposite

Dark, damp and forever stained with the foul stench of blood. The aura of death always lingered in the air, reminding those who descend to these depths that this was no happy place.

“Teacher, what are we doing here?” Yaan asked curiously. Over this past month, the Great Elder really had treated him well. On account of their student-teacher relationship, Yaan took to calling him ‘teacher’. It would be more courteous to call one’s teacher ‘master’, but Yaan wasn’t prepared to devote himself like that just yet.

Most of his caution towards this amicable teacher of his had disappeared, it was just that he couldn’t help but feel distrustful of people in general now.

“You will begin to cultivate slaughter aura once more.” Great Elder Wan looked down at Yaan with an understanding smile, happy that Yaan was warming up to him. Although it was gradual, he was certainly gaining the young boy’s trust, slowly but surely.

“Slaughter aura…but…” Yaan showed a pained expression. The memories of his unforgivable actions in Zong Village slowly reappeared in his mind. These memories haunted him in his dreams, forcefully transforming every night into a depraved nightmare.

He lost his sanity and killed tens of innocent people, even revelling in the bloodshed as he did so. All he could see now when he slept were the pained and fearful expressions of the children who’s lives he had ripped away so gleefully. Thinking back on it always made him feel sick to his stomach…

If it wasn’t for Great Elder Wan’s interference, perhaps Yaan would still be running around like a crazed madman. No, in all likelihood, any other Elder would have just killed him.

“What happened in Zong Village was not your fault Yaan, and don’t worry…the people I have chosen for you this time are all prisoners scheduled for execution.”

“Prisoners?” Yaan repeated, blinking as he looked up at the Elder curiously.

“Right. People who have offended the sect in someway and are being held in prison cells until their executions. They are all destined to die regardless, so you might as well do it yourself, no?”

Yaan nodded slowly. This did indeed suit him. He wanted to continue with his cultivation, but didn’t wish to kill innocents needlessly. He was already tormented by what he had done, he had no desire to continue along such an evil path. Whilst killing in general was still not something that Yaan felt good about, if the people were doomed to die anyway, then he supposed it was somewhat better.

“This time I want you to resist the slaughter aura by yourself. The effect on your mind after the 100th kill will be far greater and I will be unable to help you resist it, so it’s for the best that you adjust now.”

Yaan silently agreed, though still felt slightly begrudging about the fact that he was going to kill again. However, he knew that he needed to do this. For the sake of his revenge, he would definitely do this!

Creak…

They stopped besides a thick cast iron door at the end of the corridor. Unlike the doors to their sides along this passageway, this final door was manned by a lone guard.

“G-Great Elder Wan! I heard word of your arrival, it is an honour, my lord!” The man bowed deeply, both afraid and in awe of the huge figure that was Great Elder Wan. Yaan had to remind himself that to the majority of the sect members, his teacher was a figure of such grandeur that a single meeting with him would be forever engrained within their memories.

“Mm. My disciple will be entering alone, he is not to be disturbed until he leaves.”

“Of course my lord!” The guard hurriedly nodded. He fumbled in his pocket for the key, dropping it on the floor in his nervousness. He hastily apologised as he scooped it back up, sweating at the fact that he had appeared so stupid before the sect’s Vice Lord.

Great Elder Wan showed an uncaring expression. To him, this guard was just an insignificant character, he was more concerned about Yaan’s progress.

“The prisoner is tied up, there is a sharpened sword within for you to use as you see fit.” The guard smiled at Yaan with a flattering smile as he opened the door, pointing towards the dark chamber beyond the door.

Yaan nodded and entered slowly, not stopping until he heard the door slam shut behind him.

This room was the execution room used for mortal prisoners who had somehow offended key sect members. The stone walls were stained with blood, along with a strong aura of death and resentment that lingered in the air. Bringing people to their deaths in a place like this was truly malicious, as the gloomy atmosphere ensured that their last moments would be filled with despair and fear.

Yaan stared forwards through the faint candlelit atmosphere and gazed at the emaciated man before him. When the man heard Yaan enter, he slowly looked up and stared at Yaan expressionlessly through his empty eyes.

“Are you here to kill me? To think they would send a child…” The man muttered with a raspy voice.

His long and disheveled hair, the cuts that covered his body, the bone structure that could clearly be seen through his pale skin…this man had obviously suffered plenty.

“Why are you here?” Yaan asked, for reasons he could not explain himself. It would definitely be better if he killed this man without thinking too much about it, yet he asked this question anyway.

Seeing that Yaan was hesitating, the man’s dead eyes rekindled with a faint glimmer. He struggled to sit up, the chains that bound his limbs clattering on the stone floor.

He saw an opportunity.

“It was all a big misunderstanding! One of the lords visited my home village, so of course the entire village showed up and paid our respects. Only, my damned brother in law muttered something about the lord being late, to which I slapped and berated him, only the lord mistook me as the-”

“You’re lying.” Yaan stated plainly, cutting off his story and staring at the man coldly.

“No, I really-”

“You’re definitely lying. That look in your eye is one I have seen many times in those scheming types of people. That aside, there’s no way that an Elder would ever make such a basic mistake like that.”

The man was stunned for a moment. He was not only dazed that a child could see through his lie so easily, but this young boy’s manner of speech was not befitting of a child in any way…this caught him off guard for a moment, causing the room to descend into silence.

Yaan slowly walked across the room, then picked up the sword that was neatly racked on the far wall. He felt the weight of the sword in his hand as he examined it, complimenting the sharpness internally. As the man saw Yaan observing his death-blade, his eyes widened and the words began flowing out once again,

“I, I really don’t deserve to die though! Sure, I did twist the truth slightly, but I still don’t deserve death!”

“Maybe, but you will die regardless of whether or not I act.” Yaan sighed at this pitiful man.

The second that the spark of hope was relit within his eyes, he began grasping at straws, trying to find any opportunity to save his own life. It was a pathetic display, yet entirely understandable at the same time.

“I really shouldn’t have said anything…” Yaan muttered to himself as he approached the now screaming man. The man's pleas became silent to Yaan’s ears as he became focussed on the task at hand.

Chi! Thump!

Yaan acted quickly, striking before the man had time to realise that his death was imminent. His head was sliced cleanly from his body in a single slick motion. Blood spurted out from his headless corpse, then his body hit the floor with a thump soon after the head rolled away.

From the still pleading look on the man’s face, it was clear that Yaan managed to kill him before he even realised that his killer had acted.

Yaan stood there expressionlessly, staring at the decapitated corpse. He could feel the bloodlust within his body rising whilst the slaughter aura was absorbed, but compared to that time in Zong Village, this much was nothing.

The experience of completely losing his mind to his base killing desire actually hardened his resistance. This meant that even though the bloodlust increased with each kill compared to the last as he approached 100, Yaan was able to maintain his sense of reason for now.

That said, he didn’t plan to leave this place just yet. He would remain within this chamber until the bloodlust completely dissipated, this way he could leave without needing to worry that some outside influence might affect his mind.

Perhaps staying besides the still bleeding corpse wasn’t helping, but Yaan remembered Great Elder Wan’s words of advice, about building up his resistance to the bloodlust. He could even considered this to be a form of tempering his mind.

Six hours later, Yaan finally stood up. He took one last look at the corpse and sighed, then shook his head and knocked on the metal door. There was a moment of silence before the guard hurriedly acted, this time gripping his hand tightly and not dropping the key. When Yaan stepped outside, he found that Great Elder Wan had left, though this wasn’t surprising given that a few hours had passed by.

“I’ll go and fetch the next prisoner, you can leave to eat and rest in the mean time. Vice Sect Lord has explained the situation to me, feel free to come and go as you please in this layer of the dungeon.” The guard smiled flatteringly. Yaan simply nodded, then left without a word.

When the guard glanced inside the room and saw the cleanly beheaded corpse, he couldn’t help but take a second look at Yaan as he walked away.

‘He definitely killed this guy hours ago, yet stayed besides the bleeding corpse for so long afterwards. To kill so decisively, then show no emotion afterwards, and his weird actions…sigh, it’s best if I don’t think about it.’

The guard knew that Great Elder Wan was doing something strange with this disciple of his, but as an ordinary prison guard, he wouldn’t dare to have wild thoughts like suspecting him of anything.

Yaan found himself going in and out of the punishment hall and the first layer dungeon quite often, such that he even ended up becoming acquainted with some of the regulars in this place.

The punishment hall Elder was called Great Elder Tajin, a dark skinned man from a far away land. He mostly kept to himself and never spoke a word to Yaan, but he would sometimes nod to Yaan as he passed him by in the upper hall.

Yaan had more contact with the core disciples who worked for the punishment hall. This was considered a prestigious job in the sect, as they were given special permissions to enforce the sect laws fairly as they saw fit.

These people actually developed quite a good impression of Yaan. He kept to himself, obeyed the rules and was always polite. The ideal disciple.

His actions of continuously delving in and out of the first layer prison couldn’t be hidden, so Great Elder Wan made up the excuse that Yaan was cultivating a technique that required one to have a firm and unshakeable mind, hence him killing a prisoner every three days and then spending the following few hours besides the deceased body.

There were too many strange techniques in this world, so nobody doubted his words.

Each time Yaan entered the execution chamber, he would find an adult prisoner, starved and tortured, fearfully awaiting his hand of death. After his experience with the first prisoner, Yaan no longer asked questions, or even spoke a word throughout.

He found that despite saying nothing, the prisoners with the dead and hopeless eyes would always become quite talkative as he walked across to them with a sword in hand. They would beg him for mercy, try to appeal to his sense of empathy, or even attempt to lie their way out of the situation.

Yaan never hesitated in his footsteps, walking directly towards the prisoners and beheading them silently. He hoped that by making the process fast and painless, that he could at least minimise the suffering of these pitiful individuals.

In Zong Village, Yaan killed 88 people. After spending just over a month within the core sect, he executed 11 prisoners, bringing his total up to 99 kills. From these 99 kills, he absorbed 99 strands of slaughter aura in the process.

Towards the end, each new strand of slaughter aura exerted a significantly more powerful burden upon his mind than the last. The 99th strand of slaughter aura forced Yaan to hole himself up in the execution chamber for a full day afterwards as he gritted his teeth and endured the bloodthirsty desires that welled up within his heart.

He managed to resist the bloodthirsty desire, the desire that urged him to let go of his inhibitions and rampage crazily. Now that Yaan had successfully absorbed 99 strands of slaughter aura, he was just a single step away from from achieving success with the Fiend Transformation!

By killing a single human, his Fiend Foundation would evolve, allowing him to break through with both his Yuan Qi and his body simultaneously.

Yaan was now much more clear regarding the intricacies behind the Fiend Transformation technique compared to before. The information surrounding this technique in his mind was still incomplete owing to the mysterious woman’s rushed transfer, but Great Elder Wan was able to fill in some of the gaps for him, based on his own knowledge of this demonic technique.

He would breakthrough with both his Yuan Qi and his body, meaning that Yaan would attain the Qi Gathering realm and also develop a 1-Star demonic body at the exact same time.

There was more than one path for cultivation in this world. Humans were most suited towards Qi refining, thus the Qi refining system was the most thoroughly developed and improved system throughout the ages. Beasts would naturally develop their bodies and other unique abilities, leading to them being ranked from Rank 1 to Rank 9.

Demonic races varied from race to race, but Qi refining was still far more prominent. To pursue two paths simultaneously though…this was unique to the fiend race. It was actually quite unusual for a race with a similar stature and size to humans to cultivate the body.

Of course, there was no such thing as a perfect technique in this world. The cost for this ability to cultivate two paths simultaneously was an extremely demonic and arduous method of cultivation, where there was a chance of completely losing the mind and devolving into a crazed demonic beast during the breakthrough.

If that were to happen, even Great Elder Wan wouldn’t be able to save him.

For this reason, Yaan rested for a full week, spending this time alone as he meditated and calmed his mind. When Great Elder Wan noticed Yaan’s suppressed anxiety, he pondered this issue for a day, before suggesting that Yaan try painting.

“Even the most diligent of cultivators needs a hobby to help relax their mind and heart, Yaan.” The Great Elder explained to him patiently.

“Is that why you paint, teacher?” Yaan asked curiously. He had been wondering about this for some time now.

“Mm. Come, give it a try.”

For the first time in his life, Yaan took up the brush and swiped paint across a white canvas. There were few people who painted, or even had access to paint, back in Lightstone Village, but Yaan had watched his teacher enough to understand the basics. Still, his skill was clearly lacking. He attempted to paint the landscape outside of the Elder’s temple abode, but it ended up looking like a mess of colours that didn’t really resemble much of anything.

Even so, the process of painting, just focussing on something relaxing for a while, really did help Yaan to calm his mind. After a week of this, he had mentally prepared himself for the coming trial. He accepted that this was something that he needed to do, and that he wouldn’t have any regrets, no matter what.

Enduring those days of bloodthirsty desires whilst forcefully controlling himself had caused Yaan to develop further mentally than any ordinary 7 year old child. He was beginning to grow up, understanding that this world was cruel and unforgiving. Yaan now knew that if he wanted something, then he would need to pay an appropriate price.

His resolve towards obtaining his revenge grew deeper, motivating him to finally enter the execution chamber after another week of solitude.

The time, Great Elder Wan insisted on joining him.

There were two reasons for this. Firstly, he was going to provide Yaan with a material called Yuan Water. Yuan Water was a precious medicinal ingredient that could be used to quickly accumulate Yuan Qi. The reason for him providing Yaan with this material lay in Yaan’s breakthrough. Yaan’s breakthrough this time would likely cause a disturbance not befitting the Qi Gathering realm ascension. This was largely due to Yaan’s body, which would also absorb masses of spiritual energy from the surrounding atmosphere as it broke through to the 1-Star stage.

The Elder set up a stove within the room, quickly filling the sealed room with evaporated Yuan Water mist.

The second reason the Great Elder chose to stay with Yaan, was so that he could wait outside of the chamber, a necessary precaution incase Yaan failed and lost his sanity. In this case, Great Elder Wan would be forced to kill him. He didn’t say this directly, but Yaan understood this point and honestly didn’t disagree with it.

He didn’t want to become a mindless monster, he would rather die. At least, he thought this way right now, though he probably wouldn’t feel the same if he really did lose his sanity yet again.

Yaan shook his head and dispelled all of these useless thoughts as he entered the familiar chamber. The door was quickly shut behind him with a clank, so as to not let escape the precious Yuan Water mist.

The room was filled with a faint white mist that left him feeling increasingly invigorated with every breath. Through the mist, Yaan could just about make out a female prisoner, left confused by this strange fog that was somehow replenishing her energy and healing her wounds.

The gender of the prisoners was inconsequential to Yaan, he had killed both males and females indiscriminately.

Once again, Yaan wrapped his fingers around the handle of the short sword. The blade was still sharp, clearly someone was tending to the blade in between each of his visits.

The sound of a sword being drawn echoed through the room, causing the woman to tense up.

“I-Is someone there? I, please listen to me, I-”

Ching!

Yaan didn’t spend long letting her worry. His footsteps were light but fast, soon reaching her and removing her head from behind in a single clean motion. The sword swept through her neck like a hot knife through butter, leaving the still pleading expression plastered across the woman’s face as her body split into two parts.

Yaan quickly tossed the sword to the side, then sat down at the back of the room. He could already feel the slaughter aura pervading his body, invisible yet clear in its effect.

He started breathing heavily within seconds, his thoughts quickly becoming engrossed with thoughts of killing and destruction. Yaan pushed these thoughts out of his mind, instead focussing on the serene nothingness that came from emptying his mind.

His practice of daily meditation began to show its effect, as did his training to resist these types of bloody thoughts. Despite the phantom stench of blood filling his nostrils and saturating his body with the desire to leap to his feet and kill, he stayed sitting and only grimaced through this suffering.

As the bloodthirsty emotions built up further within his body and mind, some other changes were also beginning to take place. The white mist inside the chamber began to move, spiralling awkwardly with Yaan as the centre at the back of the room. The rotation gradually picked up and the mist span faster, until it started flowing towards his body as if pouring through a funnel.

Each breath of Yaan’s drew in and absorbed the mist, before his body naturally urged the mist to fill his body, blood, muscles and organs. Every second that passed by resulted in a greater suction force upon the surrounding spiritual energy, dragging it inwards and forcing the energy into his meridians. The energy was rapidly absorbed, circulated and refined, flowing through an intricate circuit along a seemingly predestined route, until finally…

BANG!

An explosive sound heard only to Yaan rang out through his mind. This sudden jolt caused him a great shock, resulting in his near loss of control over his mental state. He just about managed to hold on, suppressing all thoughts and emotions once again as he searched through his body in amazement.

Yaan immediately discovered, to his marvel, that a strange energy was circulating through his body. It passed through multiple gateways, accumulating en mass as a faint gas at a single point within his lower abdomen.

He knew from Great Elder Wan that these gateways were his meridians and the dense area should be his dantian. Yaan focussed deeply on his dantian, mesmerised at this strange aperture where Yuan Qi was continuing to accumulate.

Not only that, but Yaan could feel his body rapidly strengthening, absorbing energy and filling him with a feeling of immense power and livelihood!

This feeling was intoxicating, almost causing him to lose his focus of suppressing the evil desires. When Yaan realised that he was slipping, he quickly returned his full attention to keeping himself sane.

The simultaneous feeling of pleasure and pain was somewhat unusual, leaving Yaan at a bit of a loss. He was only holding on by a hair’s end, at risk of falling at any second.

Luckily, this process didn’t last for too long. Ten minutes later, the disturbance to the white mist gradually slowed down until it eventually came to an end. The mist thinned out dramatically, but the stove continued to replenish it. Remembering the Great Elder’s instructions, Yaan quickly turned off the stove and placed a lid over the pot to seal the water and mist within. He could feel that his breakthrough was over and that he no longer needed this thick Yuan Water mist, so he wouldn’t waste anymore of this precious liquid.

As Yaan’s breakthrough reached the finale, an explosive black light flashed out from an unknown place, tens of miles up in the sky. The light was pitch black, void of any colour, whilst the sound was so deep that human ears would not hear it, only feel it. Despite the extremity of this occurrence, it was so far away and so brief that it went unnoticed by all those below.

Slowly, Yaan looked down at his hands. He clenched his fist a few times, feeling the power flowing through his body. Whether it was his physical flesh or his Yuan Qi, both exuded a feeling of strength like nothing Yaan had experienced before this very moment. Unknowingly, a smile spread across his face.

Finally, he had stepped onto the path of cultivation!