Chapter Thirty One - Yuansing Eelwing

They knew what was coming.

Kiso clearly had no good intentions towards them or their sect. He had dealt with Hanzi and now he had dealt with Zeil.

The four of them were individually powerful among ordinary cultivators, being at the fourth stage of spiritual pressure, but compared to Kiso they were too weak.

The older brother of the two, who had been making light of the war earlier, took the initiative to speak up, begging, "...Yo...You...Young Lord Kiso... Please, we were just followi...."

Before he had the chance to finish begging Kiso sneered, thinking, "These idiots even dare to be so shameless..." With that thought fresh on his mind, he flicked his hand downwards releasing a single thin bolt of lightning.

Due to the extended period of flying and the significant amount of spiritual pressure he had put into the attacks on Zeil, Kiso was left feeling rather taxed. To deal with the remaining enemies, he could only be reserved in the amount of spiritual pressure he put into dealing with them.

The younger brother's eyes became red as he watched his older brother get bathed in a searing black light, disintegrating into ash.

"....You!!!" He gnashed his teeth and began to accumulate his spiritual pressure, intending to perform his sects suicidal last resort technique.

But how could Kiso not understand the techniques of the Apostles of Death by now?

As the younger brother gathered spiritual pressure, he only felt his body go numb for a moment before his consciousness faded away never to return.

Kiss carefully studied the faces of the remaining two, watching for any subtle changes. He wanted to get a little bit of information from them if it was possible. After all, he was rather curious how Zeil knew who he was and why he was so eager to do battle with him.

Landing on the ground a few meters ahead of the remaining two Apostles of Death, Kiso looked them deeply in the eyes.

"You two, answer my question and I'll allow you to die without pain." Kiso's voice was cold and the two men before him could sense the hostility in it.

They glanced at each other while sending a few mental messages back and forth. After five long breaths, they turned their eyes back to Kiso.

A bald headed forty-something man cleared his throat and responded, "Speak your question Lord Kiso."

Hearing his name pass the lips of these vile men, Kiso frowned, but still asked the question on his mind, "How do you five know who I am?"

The two men exhaled, they were worried what sort of question Kiso would ask. After hearing it, they instead were somewhat happy to respond, "Lord Kiso, that matter is actually quite simple. Our elder brother Hanzi so graciously informed our elder brother and begged him for his assistance."

Kiso's eyes widened, "Hanzi? He's alive?"

The two men smiled and nodded. In truth, they were considerably upset that Hanzi had only managed to live thanks to Kiso's ignorance of the technique soul transfer. He even had the face to come beg their elder brother for assistance. It would have been one thing if had Kiso been killed as requested, however, Kiso even managed to kill the elder brother! His death can be considered to be directly caused by Hanzi!

This was something they agreed on silently prior to Kiso's question. If they had the chance, they would rat Hanzi out in a heartbeat. If they were going to die, they were going to take that bastard Hanzi down with them!

"Right! Hanzi used our sect's soul transfer ability, dominating the soul of one of his academy's students! All you need to know to find him is the name of the student he dominated. You should be quite familiar with him... His name was Bo Black!" The bald man's voice was hoarse, he spoke quickly for fear of Kiso ending him before he could finish.

Kiso thought about the man's words for a moment. From the look in his eyes and the tone of his voice, Kiso determined... That what the man said was likely true!

Hanzi had actually transferred his soul in Bo's body! Two of his enemies had combined into one.

"Interesting..." Kiso thought. He had planned to hunt down Bo at some point anyway, if it meant dealing with Hanzi as well it would only add to the reasons for doing so.

With a disdainful sneer, Kiso raised his hand and said, "Alright then, I'll accept your answer. Now, as promised..."

The two men had complicated smiles on their faces as their world turned black.

As their ashes spread into the gentle autumn breeze, Kiso raised his hand to his chin, contemplating the various repercussions of Hanzi's continued existence.

"It seems that things may be interesting in the days to come." Yuansing's ancient voice rang in Kiso's mind.

Kiso's lips rose into a bitter smile, responding out loud, "Maybe for you... But for me.. I'm extremely worried. That Hanzi sent my mother to a prison to be sacrificed in less then three years. If he's still alive, I fear she may not make it that long."

Indeed, Hanzi would likely immediately contemplate various forms of revenge on Kiso. Taking his mother's life would find itself atop his list in a hurry.

"....Oh?" Yuansing's voice carried a hint of concern this time. "Very well, I'll assist you with recovering your mother. For now though, I believe your other little friend needs a hand."

"Hm?" Kiso couldn't help but look over towards the remnants of the army of light.

In the air above, Yuni could be seen hovering. She was pale from spiritual pressure usage and grasping her bloodied shoulder. The black vulture, although weakened, was still an attack formed from five powerful Apostles of Death. It even used up a large amount of their spiritual pressure. The fact that Yuni had managed to survive to this point was simply a testament to her current strength.

Although she had survived until now, that fact was threatening to change in a hurry. The vulture seemed to sense it's own spiritual pressure fading and prepared a final attack against this girl who had impeded its slaughter.

With a sharp cry, the vulture folded its wings inwards and dove at Yuni. If this was a few minutes ago, Yuni would still be able to dodge. However, it was taking all she had just to keep herself from plummeting to the ground.

She couldn't dodge.

Seeing this, Kiso's eyes widened. He himself barely had any spiritual pressure remaining. Would he be able to counter the vulture's final assault?

It wasn't time to doubt himself though, he could only grit his teeth and summon the last remaining spiritual pressure he had.

"No need little human. This girl warrants my humble self taking action." Yuansing's deep voice sounded out. This time, rather then from inside, Kiso could hear it all around him.

Looking up, Kiso could see a gigantic eel swimming through the sky. The body of the eel was pitch black and covered in draconic scales. If it wasn't for the long thin fin on its' back, Kiso would have thought it to be a snake. The most awe-inspiring part was, the entire eel emitted a golden colored lightning along its' body.

Kiso's eyes widened and his jaw dropped, "An Electric Sky Eel?!?!"

An Electric Sky Eel was one of ten legendary spiritual beasts in the world. They are known to only exist in a handful of numbers at a time.

While Kiso stood in a blank stupor, Yuansing opened his giant maw in the sky above. The lightning flowing along his body raced towards the gap between his upper and lower jaw. After only a half a breath, the golden lightning rumbled and shot across the sky, covering the nearly quarter mile distance between Kiso and Yuni.

The black vulture had drawn within ten meters of Yuni's head when the golden lightning enveloped it. The golden lightning was simply too powerful, besides vaporizing the black vulture, the lightning still continued for another half a mile before flickering out of existence.

"...." Kiso's eyes couldn't get any bigger. He was even at a loss for words. Was this truly the "infant" spiritual beast Elder Sage had passed onto him? Would this legendary spiritual beast really be willing to assist him?

After the golden lightning flickered away, Yuansing coiled his body vertically in the air while turning to look down at Kiso. His draconic looking face seemed to smile as he squinted his eyes and laughed loudly.

"Look at your face little human! You look like you've seen a Phoenix or something! Hahahaha..." Yuansing could only laugh.

After a few moments, Yuansing's laughter ceased and his body rapidly shrunk. Now the size of an average human, he descended towards Kiso.

Still an obvious smile stuck on his face, Yuansing spoke, "Alright... Kiso right? Speak, ask your questions."

Kiso blinked a few times, he really didn't know where to start.

"Um.. Lord Yuansing..." Kiso started to speak but was cut off.

"I'm no lord yet little Kiso. Just call me by my name and speak freely." Yuansing was very respectful and his deep voice greatly contradicted his gentle words.

Kiso could only awkwardly nod, then take a deep breath, "Okay.. First off all, Elder Sage told me he transferred an infant spiritual beast into me and that what it became would depend on myself. How is that a mighty legendary Electric Sky Eel came out?"

Yuansing laughed, "Your Elder Sage was rather incorrect on some of that information. For one, only among my own race would I be considered an infant. My ten thousand years of life is comparable to a few weeks of normal human life, so you get the idea. Also, the second part of what he said was half true. It would indeed depend on yourself to summon me, but that was only in the sense that you would need to be able to collect a certain amount of spiritual beast cores. Each time a raw core is exposed within a certain distance of my host, I am able to absorb the energy directly.

In other words, anyone could have summoned me. In fact, much of the energy needed to summon me was already collected by that Magnum himself! I never would have thought he'd give up so late in the game.. Hahaha...

Oh well, he passed me into a good seed, I can't complain."

Kiso absorbed Yuansing's words and digested them one by one.

"So that's how it is.." Kiso's lips curved into a huge smile.

Yuansing nodded, he liked Kiso's attitude from the moment he began observing him.

"Anything else little Kiso?" Yuansing wanted to get the mysteries between them out of the way right away. His "short" ten thousand years of life taught him that relationships always work better with trust at the foundation.

Kiso's smile toned itself down slightly and he nodded, "Yeah.. A few things..

For one, what did you mean by "this girl warrants me taking action" or whatever?

And, why are you so willing to help me? Why was your energy sealed in the first place?"

Yuansing thought for a moment, then replied, "I'll only tell you one thing regarding your little friend. Just know, only one of her parents was human.

As for why I'm willing to help.. Simple. You helped me break out and I like you!

I was trapped in a sealing formation and placed in a human hundreds of years ago by my parents. Electric Sky Eels are the type of spiritual beast to attach themselves to human partners and share in their experiences to grow. After I reached the seventh stage of spiritual pressure, my parents sent me off to find a partner.

Unfortunately, they chose a weak human who was unable to hunt beast cores from the start. It took nearly three hundred years and eight different humans to collect enough energy to break the seal..."

Yuansing's explanation was easy to understand, despite itself.

Kiso listened to the entire thing, yet was completely hung up on the first part.

"Half human?" He couldn't help but wonder about Yuni.

Indeed, it was rather strange that she was able to keep up with him in cultivation despite the world around them falling behind. When thinking on that point, Kiso found it easier to accept.

Still, he couldn't let it go. He had to ask, "Yuansing, I can accept everything you said as the truth and I promise to repay you if you help me. It's just, couldn't you tell me a little more about Yuni? If you just say something like that... Can you really just leave it there?"

Before Yuansing had the chance to reply, an exhausted pale faced Yuni slowly jogged up from behind.

She rested her hands on her knees and attempted to catch her breath for several tens of seconds. When she finally looked up, her eyes landed on Yuansing, who was looking right back at her.

Slightly startled, Yuni shifted herself behind Kiso, asking in a mental message, "Kiso... What's going on? Is this...?"

Kiso nodded, "Right, this is Yuansing Eelwing, the spiritual beast Elder Sage passed to me."

Confirmed her suspicions, Yuni relaxed. She came out from behind Kiso and bowed to Yuansing introducing herself, "Yuni Black greets Lord Yuansing!"

Yuansing's eyes widened and he quickly lowered his head and raised his voice, "Nonsense! Your servant could never be referred to as Lord by the princess!"

To Be Continued!