One day the cultivator descended. The clear sky shined upon them like any other. However, this time was different. They had fed yesterday. It should take three more days until he returns. A metallic sound came from the top of the crater, and something even stranger happened. Blair felt the sound touch him, shove him in a direction. At first, it irritated him, but he soon realized that all the other people moved into the pit in an orderly manner. That sight shocked Blair down to the core.

Something was up. Should he hide and observe? That would, however, mean his cover as one of them blew up. Against his better judgment, he mimicked the others to keep his disguise. It was a trade-off with which Blair had to live. His heart pounded louder.

He went down into the pit. The midday sun gave the place a pleasant temperature. Add to this the hundreds of thousands of energies emitted from the people, and you got a bone-chilling powder barrel under the sunlight.

The cultivator didn´t care. He flew over their heads, landing near the edge of the pit. For a moment, Blair felt the bloodcurdling fear. Then the cultivator pushed a massive boulder away. Blair looked on in shock as a tunnel appeared behind the boulder. He wanted to cry. An exit truly existed. At least that’s what it looked like, and he had lost the hope of ever leaving this place.

Blair gritted his teeth, nearly cracking them. The cultivator led them through the dark pathway, constantly ringing the bell. Only a pearl illuminated the place. It magically floated next to the cultivator.

Slowly another light source appeared on the end of their path. It flickered like a firefly, and Blair desperately hoped it was a salvation from the crater, something better. Then the brightness of the real world blinded him, and all the other cave dwellers.

The warm rays caressed his skin and his torn soul. It was a wonderful moment. Then he opened his eyes, and the grandeur of the place took his breath. Mountains encompassed him from all directions. Some were far, and others close by. Some were thin like swords, while others dwarfed the sun. The landscape was a piece of art. Add to that the innumerable houses and buildings on the mountains, and you got a heavenly place.

Then the sound of the bell rang one more time, giving Blair a different order. Stand still. Then the cultivator left them. Blair had tingling in his legs. Some part of him wanted to run, but where to? The buildings in the distance and tell them he was lost? They would take him into custody faster than he could utter those words. Blair cursed his situation.

It took a while, but the same cultivator came back from the same exit. He led another group of mad people. By now, they were multiple thousands, and their jail time had just ended. They left for an unknown future, traveling along different mountains. Blair took a moment to marvel each time. The novelty of the place captivated his mind, even in his terrible situation.

Then a second cultivator joined them with another group of mad people. After a while, dozens of cultivators traveled together. It got to a point where Blair was stunned at the sheer mass of people. They must have looked like an ant swarm from the skies. Their numbers exceeded any imagination of Blair. The horde and its momentum even frightened him, as many radiated energies. Yet, the energy deep inside him resonated with the sea of red.

The horde eventually stopped in a valley. In front of them stood tightly packed mountains, which resembled a wall. No way such a thing is men-made, right? A silly thought. Blair reckoned, smiling at himself. The innumerable people pathed through multiple tunnels. He was curious about what lay behind them.

Soon it was his turn to travel through the tunnel towards the other side. The thing he would see took the air out of his lungs. A ship towered before him, and it was not the only one there. He counted two more. However, behind them may lay more. They were mind-bogglingly big. He had seen warships of varying sizes in his life and fleets of aircraft carriers. Yet, those medieval-looking ships dwarfed them all. The situation was absurd, like a bad joke.

Hatchways opened on the ships in the thousands, and wooden ladders descended. They crashed into the ground, blowing up the nearby dust. Then the cultivators brought them onto the ship, and into a room. The ceiling was low, forcing Blair to crouch. The insides had no windows or other source of light. It was cramped. Next to Blair were multiple mad people, all waiting patiently like the well-behaved mannequins they had become. Luckily Blair had lost his sense of smell, or else he would have coughed himself to death, as the tightly packed and unwashed people must have smelled dreadful. Was that lucky? No, not really. He was simply in bad shape after being forced to live in the crater.

Then, suddenly the planks under his feet shook. It felt like the entire ship moved. He had no idea how that would be possible, but the cultivators had many secrets. That was the reason he dreamed of being “here” in the first place, just his circumstances were surprising.

At some point in time, a heavy impact happened. Then the ship stopped. The opening door, fresh air, and light were wonderful, but Blair became increasingly annoyed. He wanted a fresh start, doing what he came here for.

The cultivator assembled them outside the ship. Once more, people as innumerable as the stars on a midnight sky filled the ground. By now, they stood on a grassy plain in the middle of nowhere. Blair counted five identical ships.

Then massive ladders crashed down from the top decks. Their impacts shook the earth, and different people descended from it. They wore neat, white clothes and seemed agitated, more excited than anything else. They formed orderly lines before the mad people. However, they were weak, and only their discipline was impressive. After them came the cultivators in their white and purple garment that Blair had seen so far.

The last person to appear on the ship was someone in blood-red clothes. He stood on the deck, appearing tiny to Blair and vice versa. Nevertheless, Blair's blood froze, and his breathing stopped. That man induced fear without radiating an aura. No, even more impressive, all the mad people retracted theirs instead, and Blair knew why. The energy inside him got out of control and hid inside him. Was that the devil standing before him?

Absolute silence descended over the plain. “My beloved disciples. Today is your second trial. You have already pleased me by passing the first, but now you will need to prove your worth. Don’t forget the task given to you, and don’t waste the opportunity that the next days will bring to you. You are the blood of a new generation. The slaughter sect needs your utmost devotion. Go, Kill!”

The people in white unleashed roaring applause. As the man in red vanished from the deck, their roars and stomps continued. After that, the rows of people in white pulled out bells just like the cultivators, and rang them. It was great chaos as their sounds overlapped, but one specific tune managed to find and pull Blair in a direction. It led him to an ugly man. There was no other way to put it. His nose resembled a stubby potato, and his skin was uneven, like a moon landscape. Another mad person stood before him. Blair was right next to him. A couple of other disciples came as well.

“Ey Kraden, are you ready?“ One of them asked. He had a striking familiarity with the man Blair followed.

“Absolutely. Do the ghouls follow nicely?” Kraden, Blair's apparent boss, asked. One of the men rang his bell, and one ghoul started to dance. Kraden nodded. A slight smile was on his face, which made him look that much nastier. “Then let’s go.”

They were six disciples and 12 ghouls when they left. Their group marched into the endless plain. It took hours until they were away from other groups. At some point, they found a creek and followed its tracks. That decision led them soon to a group of buffalos. They grazed and drank peacefully, but the disciples had other plans for them.

Some disciple sneaked around. Their ghouls always followed them. Meanwhile, Blair remained in the front. At some point, the sound of bells resounded from behind, the signal to attack. Disciples, ghouls, and Blair rushed forward. By now, the animals realized the imminent danger. The herd tried to find an opening, but the disciples maneuvered the ghouls in a way that made escape impossible.

The ghouls were the first to pounce on them, bringing the first animals down in seconds. Blair was slightly shocked at the display of strength. That only changed when he punched an animal himself. It felt like shoving a newborn. Its legs gave in, and the buffalo collapsed after one more punch to the neck.

Blair enjoyed that short fight, but it was a bit too easy. The problem was the energy inside him. Blair had restrained its usage and influence over him. Yet, it remained a monster constantly roaring inside him, until it turned Blair into one, and he hated that.

Now the energy surged upward and regained momentum. The fighting and killing invigorated it. It winded through his body and towards his mind. The other ghoul’s bloodthirsty auras only aggravated the problem. He needed immense willpower to suppress the energy.

Meanwhile, he saw glees in the eyes of the disciple, like rabid dogs. They fully gave in, and it disgusted him. They had no self-control just like the ghouls. That made them probably even worse.

A little later. He sat among slain buffalo and blood-bathed ghouls. A specific smell lay in the air, retelling the story of a killing. The outer disciples sat on a patch of green grass at the same time.

“Did you hear their screams?” One of them asked.

“Sure made me hungry. Time for a good steak. What do you say Kraden?” Another one asked.

Kraden didn’t comment initially but pulled out a milky white disc. “You did good guys. A small reward is due.”

“A flame disc? You really get pampered by the elder.” The one looking familiar to Kraden said.

“A great disciple deserves some benefits, Haki,” Kraden said. They cut up some slices of meat and cooked it with the disc.

Blair listened in on their conversation and would beg to differ but hold his opinion back. However, he had to give it to them. Their cooking smelled great. His mouth watered as the sound of sizzling meat and the smell of grilled meat blasted his sense. He couldn’t even remember the last time something seemed so good.

Even the dull ghouls registered the food and couldn’t help themselves but stare at it. Disgusting yellow drool runs down their faces. The disciples must have thought the same way Blair did as they gave them a new order. Go away, and eat the carcasses. The ghouls enjoyed it. They happily gobbled down junk after junk. Blair hesitated for a moment, eating raw meat felt wrong. That was something he had never done.

However, his stomach growled just from looking at it. He had eaten more disgusting things, and the crater had taught him a thing. Eat as long as you can. The first bite into the unknown food was hesitant, but the hesitation vanished. It tasted great, and he felt so good from just one bite. Vitality filled his body.

Lucky for him that his dignified education and upbringing were long since gone. As his instructors would turn around in their graves if they saw him gulp down raw flesh, getting all messy in the process. The feast and the subsequent rest lasted for an hour.

After that, they continued the march, not slagging. It turned out right to eat his full. Blair needed every piece of energy, as their day would be long. They continued to slaughter animals in their way.

The local fauna suffered massively at the hand of the disciples in the next days. In that time he overheard the disciples talking and practicing. Apparently, the energy he felt was called qi, slaughter qi to be precise.

His own qi strengthened during this time. For one, that was good as it made fighting easier, and he had wanted to become stronger all the while. However, at the same time, the energy became harder to control. It lingered inside his body, slowly attacking from the inside.

The killing intensified as actual predators appeared and challenged them. It was at this time that Blair started to take a leading role. He outperformed the other ghouls and had more impact than the disciples while keeping his secret of being sentient.

It had become all he did for the last days. He became so enthralled that the scenes of blood and killing appeared before his inner eyes. They even appeared in his dreams, and his thoughts turned weird. One night, he dreamed that a hollow-eyed man stumbled towards him, blood dripping down his head. His figure turned into a shadow being, but not before Blair recognized him as the man he had killed in the crater. It took him a moment to understand that.

Blair stared at him and the creature stared back at him. It got creepy. Then he and the man moved even though he didn’t want to. They glided through the endless red plains and stopped in front of a mountain of corpses. The man came closer, opening his mouth, but instead of teeth and tongue, a twisting void stared at Blair.

Then the head of the man distorted, like a fever dream. “Why have you killed me?” His voice flickered but was full of sorrow and sadness. By now, the creature stared into his eyes. Blair couldn’t answer. No matter how hard he tried, it was impossible to make a sound. The monster grew impatient. It expended its maw and suddenly bit down on Blair, nearly swallowing him whole. Blair panicked. He couldn’t defend himself. He was powerless, but woke up the next moment.

He had cold sweat all over his body. It was still night. The moon hangs high up in the sky, and he was still confused. Meanwhile, he felt the energy inside him going rampant. His body hurt, and he felt like he went insane, once more.

It took all his concentration to confine the energy. He really needed to find a cure, but it didn’t seem like there was a way for him. He even wondered if those batshit crazy disciples had to live through the same hell like him. Was that the prize he had to pay for strength? That might not be worth it, and yet he enjoyed fighting.