It was a silent spring night. Well, silent comparatively, especially for a large group camping in the Kigara Forest. Other than the occasional growl of a beast prowling through the forest, attracted to the light, yet smart enough to know that it was no match for the large camp, nothing had made the slaver guards jump during their patrols.

But this night wasn’t like the others they’d had recently. There was a heaviness to the air, as if the Mortal World had shifted its sight to this very place at this exact time.

It made the usually lazy patrols a little more on point this night, a little more alert. But in the end, it didn’t really matter.

The camp of slavers normally numbered in the few hundreds, with two hundred slavers at any given moment while the quantity of slaves usually rose and fell with the seasons as they captured and sold them.

The guards were normally lazy, especially when it was their night to patrol, but the threat of a Core Stage Cultivator who let his own power roam free deterred any potential attackers, beast or otherwise. But if one truly did want to break into the camp, it wasn’t too hard.

This group of slavers had spent the last year going through the southern villages, raiding, looting and taking slaves and was now headed to the eastern city of Nejena of the sands.

Only one of the villages they’d destroyed had technically been within the bounds of an established kingdom and after raiding it, their leader had been careful in the others he’d chosen to loot.

Nejena, a small town in the Southwest, just past the border of the Kigara forest, a part of the Teril Desert, was a town of merchants and a large center for human trafficking, as such practices were outlawed within the small Kingdoms that made up the South.

Nejena was also the city where recruiting for the slaver guards occurred and since Devar liked to only keep a certain amount due to the fact that he’d have to shell out more gold depending on the more of them he had, sometimes he liked to kill the incompetent ones before they returned to Nejena.

It was another reason why the guards were on their best behavior that night, just a week and a half from returning to the barren sands of the South.

A certain group of three was patrolling the northern perimeter of the camp. Clustered close together despite the slight warmth of the spring night, they looked out into the darkness, hoping it passed quickly.

And so, when a tendril of silver light ejected itself from the darkness and wrapped itself around the throat of the leftmost slaver, the other two looked on in horror instead of sounding the alarm.

And even when that tendril turned sharp and decapitated their fellow guard, even when the thin body of a dirty and emaciated man stepped out from the darkness, small bolts of lightning arcing from his pure silver eyes, they only stared, gaping at the absurdity of the situation.

It was only when they heard the thud of the dead guard hit the forest floor that both realized the danger of the situation they were in. Both opened their mouths as one to scream an alarm, and both were met with silver tentacles of pure energy.

The middle guard died as noiselessly as the first, but the last guard had the presence of mind to draw his sword and cut through the tendril, whose energy dissipated into the air as it was cut.

It wasn’t the power of the energy that had killed these men, but the absolute surprise that the power brought.

The last guard fell to the ground, gasping for air as the man of silver lightning approached him.

“Please,” the guard whispered, not daring to try alerting the rest of the camp. “Mercy, please.”

Kai did not answer him, instead pulling down his neck of his ratty shirt and showing the man the permanent scars left behind by a torturous collar, built with spikes inlayed to create the maximum amount of pain for its unwilling users.

“Please, man,” the guard whispered again, tears running down his face as the smell of piss permeated the air. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Kai forced the energy into a shape, and with a blade of solid silver energy, decapitated the last guard. But then, he was forced to dismiss the energy with a grimace.

The Chi still running rampant within his body wanted to be released and trying to shape it into a controlled state was much more mentally taxing than he had expected. Instead, from here on out, he would have to use the energy in controlled blasts, which would still contain a small bit of the chaos that the energy desired, but would also manage not to destroy everything in a 5 mile radius, as Kai knew it could.

Which meant that he needed a weapon and fortunately, he knew exactly where to get one.

Not yet, he told the Chi running through him as he clamped down on the leaking energy. You’ll get your chance.

It didn’t matter how much energy he had, he still craved the one thing that brought him the most peace in this world, ironically. He needed a sword.

And so, even with Chi raging through his body, ending his life as surely as a thrust of steel to the gut, even with a world ending anger simmering just under his skin waiting to be used in the most righteous way, he decided to clamp down on his leaking energy so that he could sneak through the camp.

After a full half bell of sneaking around, slitting the throats of slavers sleeping so out in the open that it was almost too easy, Kai found himself in front of a large tent where the weapons master and honorary blacksmith of the camp resided in.

He slowly opened the flap of the tent, controlling his own breathing as he listened for the arms master’s. It was only when he heard the deep breathing rhythm of a sleeping man that he crept into the tent itself.

Each slaver in the caravan, no matter how important was allowed only one tent, so even though the arms master was essential to counting and redistributing equipment to the slavers, Devar still forced him to sleep in the same area as the weapons.

Which was fortunate for Kai since this was the best place to find a sword that would hold itself together long enough.

He crept forward slowly but, unable to see anything in the darkness, loosened the clamp on his power slightly, letting his eyes glow silver once again. In this powered form, his eyes weren’t just good for night vision, but could see the very weaves of energy in the world, see the weaves of Cultivation Techniques and their residues all over the camp of these filthy slavers.

He used his newfound vision to pick out a small curved knife known as the karambit, and a collar that made him snarl in recognition.

Stepping over to the still sleeping arms master he grit his teeth in anger as he remembered the pain this man had caused him.

The cruelty of the master of arms in the camp was only second to Devar. The tortures he’d faced at this scumbag’s hands were too gruesome for him to even remember, especially since he was so closely removed from the experiences.

But he remembered being told that it had been a personal project for the man to create a weapon that would cause the most pain yet also prolong a torture as long as possible. He shuddered as he remembered the Spine Whips.

Kai could’ve taken the weapons of any of the slaver’s he’d killed but he’d had this ulterior motive for coming to this man’s tent first.

Kai kneeled down and quickly pressed the karambit to the man’s throat. Anyone would wake if cold steel were to be pressed against their throat and the arms master was no different.

He woke up with a start, his green eyes widening as he felt the knife at his throat. Kai let even more of his power escape, silver lightning starting to arc over his arms once again.

“Remember me?” Kai asked with a smug smile.

The arms master’s eyes widened even further in horror and recognition as he whispered, “Please.”

“Oh heavens. Please. Is that the only word you pieces of scum know? It’s the only word I’ve heard out of you all since I snuck back into camp. What is it? Are you no longer happy to see me now that I’m no longer in one of your damned collars?”

Kai widened his own eyes in perfect dramatic fashion before continuing. “Oh, that reminds me.”

“Here,” Kai said, as he brought forward the slave collar he’d picked up, wrapping the cold metal around the man’s neck and forcing the two clasps together with a snap, cutting off the man’s Rank 3 Channels Stage Cultivation. “A gift for you for all of the times I was assigned to you.”

The arms master whimpered as Kai said, “Don’t think about escaping. As you can see I’m now much more powerful than you.”

Kai then stood up almost languidly, letting even more of his power burst forth, feeling even more silver lightning flashing over his frame.

He walked over to the racks of weapons, looking through each sword carefully to pick out one that would be good for his usage.

“Do you remember what you said that one day? No, of course you wouldn’t. I do though.”

“‘You either choose to be a predator, or remain a prey for the rest of your life.’”

Kai gave him a few seconds to stew on that before saying, “That was the stupidest shit you’ve ever said. But, it looks like I took your advice.”

Kai suddenly flipped around and launched his karambit at the arms master, who’d started to inch towards the entrance of the tent. The knife landed a scant two inches from the man’s nose, making the man flinch and then freeze in horror.

Kai didn’t address the man’s idiotic and pathetic escape attempt as he turned around and picked out an unused katana with an okay balance and a surprisingly sharp blade.

Finding a sheath for it, he then strapped it onto his back and looked for a longsword for his primary weapon.

“Fear. You taught every man in this camp fear. Even the slavers fear your fucking whip. You deserve everything that’s coming for you.”

And then, Kai’s eyes widened as he heard a gurgling sound from behind him.

He flipped around and bounded to the armsmaster.

“NO! NO! NOT LIKE THIS. YOU DON’T DESERVE AN EASY DEATH. FUCK!”

The arms master had used the karambit that Kai had basically given to him to cut his own throat, deep enough that these were the last few seconds of his life. He’d known he couldn’t escape so he’d taken the chance for Kai to give back some of the pain he’d been forced to endure, to his grave.

Kai slowly fell to the ground, holding his hand to the man’s throat, hoping to staunch the blood flow. Yet, the man still died and it was with a smile on his face.

“No no no no no. No! I didn’t give you permission to die.”

And then Kai looked up, eyes blazing in unbridled rage as he said, “I was only going to take your life, even after you’d faced some pain. But now. Now, I’ll take your very Soul.”

And with the power rumbling through him and a connection having been made from the very first time he’d appeared there, Kai pulled on something within his Soul, a cord that wasn’t a Meridian but instead a rope that led to another realm.

He pulled on it and suddenly, was faced with the black waters of the River of Death. He saw the specter floating on the banks, hood tilted in silent question, yet Chaos was nowhere to be found.

He disregarded Death, and instead looked down at the dark waters. Kai waited a few seconds before catching sight of a slight glow. His hand then blasted down, pushing apart the dense waters of the River, before he caught something within and pulled it out.

The River gave its prize up instantly, uncaring, and Kai brought an orb of white light up to his face.

He heard Death gasp to his right, but once again disregarded the deity like being in favor of the Soul he was holding. The Soul of the arms master.

“I told you you didn’t have my permission to die yet,” Kai said with a dark chuckle before crushing palm sized orb within his hand.

“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?” Death yelled in question.

Kai flipped his head to the right and said coldly, “You and your friend chose to give me this power, knowing the first thing I would do is raze this camp of slavers to the ground.”

“I know,” Death hissed. “But what you’ve done here is heresy to the highest extreme. Crushing a Soul is too far, even for you boy.”

“But tainting a Soul in the way that these pieces of shit do every single fucking day isn’t? Torturing a man by raping and hurting his future wife in front of him isn’t?”

“You’re better than than them,” the specter said. “You’re not a monster.”

“You’re wrong about that,” Kai said, chuckling darkly. “I’m the monster that monsters like them have created. And I’ll become the monster that they fear.”