"Do you know how lucky you are kid?" The voice that spoke was oddly youthful. It was an adolescent male voice. Cracking and inexperienced. At odds with the shadowy visage.

A shadowy figure walked out from an abandoned corner stall in the cul-de-sac.The figure was dressed like a spectre. All the figure wore was a large black cloak. A black so inky it looked darker than the actual shadows that he came from, even in the light of the street lamps.

You could see nothing of his face. Until two pale hands came out from underneath the long sleeves pulled down the cloak revealing a pale teenage face under a shock of red hair.

Jian relaxed at the sight of that youthful face. It was a mistake. The teen saw his shoulders slump and relax. His face changed into an ugly snarl.

The teen reached a pale hand into the air and clenched his hand. Jian felt as if an invisible hand held him in a crushing grip. He felt his breath being squeezed out of him. His ribs being crushed painfully. He took shallow breaths and watched the teen in terror.

It was over.

"How lucky are you kid?" The teen mocked.

"Do you realise what you have? Do you know the wars that have been fought for the thing you have?"

He gestured airily into the night.

"The endless oceans of blood that have been shed for that thing? How many millions have died chasing that thing, not even knowing what it was."

He pointed at the kid.

"And Yu gave it to you. Who are you? A nobody." He sighed theatrically. Shaking his head. "He should have picked a better candidate. At lease someone who could defend himself."

The man laughed. No, cackled. Like a crow standing over it hoard of items. It was an ugly, villainous laugh. The man laughed distractedly, visions of grandeur and future wealth and fame swimming through his mind.

A sigh broke through the noise.

An old man appeared in front of the kid. Directly between the teenager and Jian. He was short, shorter than both Jian and the teenager who were both young. His face was tanned and vaguely European looking. It was hard to make out any features under the ritual scars.

He looked like a former-corporate employee. The faded nano-suit going grey with age burnished that image. The suit looked out of date. He looked as if he had once been corporate but had fallen on had times.

The teenager choked off his laugh. One pale hand changing from its normal form to it’s tactical cyberoptic form. The arm split into four like a flower blooming, but a terrifying and gun like flower. A giant Anti-armour laser-cannon appeared in the center of the four way split.

The teen without saying a word started firing at the old man. He fired a dozen shots in quick succession.

The old man just stood there.

All of the laser cannon shots sat frozen in front of the man.

It took a second for the sight of the frozen laser beams floating in mid-air to penetrate the teenagers mind. The teen stopped and stepped back in shock.

"S-s-s-s-s-s-senior," he stuttered. "I-I-I didn’t know he was part of your-" The old man silenced him with a wave.

"He is not." The old man waved in mid air and the laser beams vanished. The invisible grip holding up Jian also vanished as well.

Jian almost collapsed after being freed. He was just on the edge of passing out.

"I-I-I-I humbly give up my rights to the item to senior-" The old man once again interrupted. This time with laugher.

"What did you think was going to happen?" Asked the old man to the teen. "You were going to kill the kid and retrieve the item and it was all going to be magically okay?"

He shook his head bitterly. Walking towards the teen.

"Why do you think they didn’t kill Yian when they had the chance to? Why were they negotiating with him?"

The teen looked at the boy then looked at the old man. His eyes widened in shock.

"Exactly. It phones home. A signal goes out to everybody. You kill the kid. You escape. The signal goes out and then they all appear to hunt it down."

Each step that the old man took towards the teenager was filled with pressure. It was crushing down on the teen. He started to take steps back in fear.

"Not just higher level walkers, not just Demigods, but Gods, Immortals and Ancients. Even a rogue Path Lord might be tempted. And they would all come chasing you. Hunting down your clan. Doing what they did to Yians clan to you."

The teen had started to sweat. His pale blue eyes open wide in terror.

"You don’t know what they would do. What they wouldn’t do. For those cultivators who had been stuck for millenia at their level. What would they do for even a hint, a small chance to get to the next level."

The teen had backed away until his back hit the cart from which he had sprung out from.

"They would kill anybody. Do anything. They have given up their humanity to chase immortality."

The old man walked and stopped right in front of the teenager. He touched his forehead. The expression on the teenagers face went slack-jawed then confused. His memory had been wiped.

"Scram." said the old man. With a wave of his hand. The teenager vanished into thin air.

Jian collapsed, sitting the floor in shock. The adrenaline that had been holding him up vanishing.

The old man soon arrived in front of Jian. He looked down and Jian. Assessing him coldly: "I don’t know why he picked you." he said.

"I don’t know either." replied Jian sighing. "I don’t want it either." The old man laughed at that.

"Good. Good. Good." Said the old man smilingly. "What a good child you are. You know enough not to be greedy."

"Don’t you want it?" asked Jian suprised.

The man shook his head. "I have seen this item destroy too many lives. It is not fated for me."

"What about me?" asked Jian. "What is it?"

"It could either be a disaster. Or a blessing. It’s a key."

"A key?"

"A key." said the old man with a mysterious smile.

"To what?"

"An exit."

"Exit?"

"That’s what some say. Nobody knows for sure."

"What do you think I should do?"

The old man laughed again.

"What a wise child you are. Do you know you’re the first to ask me such a question after possessing the key." He looked up at the sky thinking.

"You have two options." Jian perked up his ears. Paying attention.

"You can stay small. Run. Hide. But they’ll find you eventually. The odds of that are small."

"What about the other option?"

"You can grow stronger. Grow so strong that you can stand and fight against them."

Jian sat there lost in thought. The man looked down at him.

"Think it through. Take your time. It’s an important decision." The old man waved his had and an old staff, as tall as he was appeared in his hand. "For being such a clever child, I’ll leave you with a gift."

The old man tapped the staff onto Jian’s forehead. He felt a whisp of something slide into his body and vanish.

"What is it?" Asked Jian.

"It’s a whisp of my consciousness. If you are ever in a life or death situation it will save your life."

The old man made the staff disappear and turned his back to Jian and started walking away.

"But why? Who are you?"

"A friend. Someone who owes you a favour" replied the old man, getting further away.

"But I don’t know you." By the time Jian had finished that sentence the man had vanished.