The Sins

by Pegaz A

  Even though the neurons had space to store the amount, most cultivators couldn’t control it, let alone store it. If they couldn’t gain more Life Power than what they were losing, they would lose enough Life Power to drop back to Rank 5. Then, to reach Rank 7, they would need to reach the maximum Life Power possible for cultivators—10 trillion! It only became controllable when they finished strengthening all cells in the body and reached Rank 8.

  The strengthened cells of Rank 8 wouldn’t let Life Power through; only the strengthened branches could release Life Power. The cells pushed the Life Power inside the body towards the neurons where it was then stored.

  For me, though, to get Rank 7, I would only need 2 trillion Toxin Power instead of 10 trillion Life Power. It should be an amount I can still control. That means that at Rank 8, while everybody else will be stuck at their limits, I will continue gaining Life Power and transforming it into Toxin Power.

  In terms of only Life Power, Sarah and I will be five times stronger than anybody else in the universe…

  The only thing we’d need to fear are these soul attacks I’ve read about. Though I’ve only read a little and don’t understand it all yet, if our souls are strong enough then we would only need to fear the people above Rank 9.

  Title: Rank 5!

  Chapter 3

  Leaving

  John tried to plan out his next course of action.

  To gather enough Toxins to Reach Rank 6, it would take him less than nine years, but the skills would take much longer. Without the Time Pool, it would have taken him over thirty years to get to Rank 5! The skills to get to Rank 6 would take him over thirty years, too, but John couldn’t help but contemplate about Rank 7. It might take over fifty years or even a hundred years if he had to guess. Rank 8 could take hundreds of years, and Rank 9 could take thousands. John fumbled with his thumbs, a bit distraught. Was there another way he could level up faster?

  I need to gather sins in the billions every year while I gather Life Power at the same time. That’s the fastest way to get Rank 6 and higher. It’s the fastest way to wake Sarah up.

  John looked at the system’s description of the sins and one sentence caught his attention.

  If someone uses a borrowed knife to do any of the crimes because of the seven sins, they both generate points.

  John smiled.

  I can work with this. While I gather Life Power, I can get people to do things for me to generate sins. Then, when they’re no longer useful, I can kill them and double the number of sin points I get from them!

  But I’m not sure if this will work. I’ll have to test it. Even if it does work, it will only work on mortals that are too afraid to act against me. They’re the only ones I can scare into following my every command.

  Settling on his plan, he walked out of the cultivation caves and went through the teleport rune inside his master’s house. Arriving inside their home on the Sword Sect’s planet, he teleported again to the worker puppet chef. Without speaking a word, John teleported his worker back into the cultivation room.

  Now with the puppet in the room where Sarah was sleeping, John ordered the other fighter puppets to stand down. He gave the cook puppet a command to make sure Sarah read the note he left upon waking up. The chef was also ordered to make sure the air holes were always open and free of creatures, and if it wasn’t, he would tell the fighter puppet who would then deal with it. This was the best John could do to protect Sarah in his absence.

  Before he left, he scribbled a small “PTO” on the corner of the note, turned the parchment around, and wrote down another brief message. Turning the note back around and placing the helmet on one corner to keep it in place, John smiled and leaned over to kiss Sarah goodbye.

  To further prepare for his journey, John created two pairs of leather parchment teleport scrolls and placed one inside his cultivation room. He would always be able to visit, no matter where he was. The other pair would replace the stone teleport rune inside the cultivation room in their house.

  On the surface of the planet, John bent down and touched the earth with his hand. The earth element fell under his control and he made a large boulder then placed inside his Storage Space.

  John teleported back to the cultivation room on the Sword Sect’s planet. He pointed a finger towards the doorway and made black flame appear at the tip of his finger. He used it as a welding tool, sealing the door closed on all sides. The boulder was placed before the doorway as an extra measure of security. Nobody could enter the room without being able to teleport.

  Sarah was far too vulnerable for any amount of risk. Even with two puppets guarding her, if the attacker was a high enough level, everything could fall apart.

  He teleported outside of the cultivation rooms. With Sarah’s safety assured to the best of his abilities, he felt so relieved that he forgot to put on any sort of disguise. He walked through a corridor to get to the front door but caught sight of something in the corner of his eye.

  It was his reflection. There was a mirror to his right, and when John saw himself in the mirror, he was speechless.

  The cascading silver locks falling around his familiar, worn-down face remained unchanged. What startled him the most was his right eye. The entire eye was pitch black, highlighting an electric yellow iris. A seven-sided star danced around the eye, stained onto his skin like a pitch black tar. All seven points of the star were evenly spread across that side of his face, forming a heptagon around his eye.

  He had a sudden thought and made his earring turn into the skeleton mask.

  The difference between his right eye and left eye was still noticeable. The right eye was a much darker black colour; it was like no sunlight could ever penetrate it. The yellow iris was much brighter on his right eye, too. The left eye was like a yellow crayon while the right eye was a 100-watt light bulb in comparison.

  Turning the skeleton mask back into an earring, he held his stare deep in the mirror. Tentatively, he reached up and tugged at his eyelid to see as much of the pitch black eyeball as possible. In doing so, he confirmed that it wasn’t just the front of the eye that had turned black, it was the whole eyeball. He checked his left eye, and it was a normal white colour.

  Is this because I became a demon? Is it only a visual thing or does this black eye do something? If it changed when the demon title came then it’s already been months... I noticed nothing different while cultivating.

  Just one more question without an answer. Maybe I’ll found out during my travels.

  As his racing thoughts came to an end, John was suddenly stricken with regret. His mind wandered back to the Anti-Assassin Sect and the people who lived on their planet. He firmly believed those in the sect deserved their deaths, but what about the innocent people? The families who were trying to get by? The farmers and the merchants? Couldn’t he have found some other way without taking the lives of the innocent? His anger had driven him to destroy everything in his path—even those who didn’t deserve death.

  Taking a long and shaky breath, John pushed all of these thoughts to the back of his mind. Dwelling on the past would not bring their lives back; it would only destroy him more and more from the inside. His fight was not over just yet. He had to stay strong.

  All I can say is, I’m sorry. I sincerely hope you are all reincarnated into better lives.

  John made his earring change into a mask. He became Jonathan for the first time in years but was careful that the mask hid the pattern around his right eye. In this guise, both eyes resumed a normal appearance, pale blue irises and all.

  I remember saying I’d use the Jonathan disguise to become a demon, but I didn’t expect to use it so soon.

  He turned his armour into the Sword Sect’s outer disciple’s white robes with one black star.

  There are too many people inside the Sword Sect. With this disguise, I’ll be able to walk inside the sect and nobody will know any better.

  John’s earlier suggestion to the sect addressed this security issue, bu
t he figured they still had a long way to go before they could implement a proper system. At this point, the sect would still need elders and people in power to be able to identify every disciple’s face and name within the sect. Without the aid of a system like John’s, it would be almost impossible for them to create a fully secure environment this way.

  Deciding to leave a note, John walked to the living room instead of the front door. He took out a parchment and scribbled down a brief explanation for his absence. For anyone who asked about him, he was leaving the planet to find a way to save his wife. This was, at least to some extent, kind of true. It was a believable note, at any rate. When he finished the note, he gave it his butler puppet and told him where to deliver it and how to get there.

  Finally ready to depart, John made his way to the admin building. It was time to say goodbye to his home.

  A few teleport runes and an hour later, John was standing amidst the Sword Sect’s public planet. From there, he headed towards the Rogue Sect’s teleport room near the city with the carnivorous giraffes. It took some time but once he arrived, John took a seat on the ground and plotted out where to go for his experiments.

  He recalled that there were planets with teleportation runes on them, but were uninhabited by immortals of any kind. One of these planets would be perfect for him to run some tests on. Now all he had to do was try to remember the location of one of these planets. He closed his eyes, deep in thought.

  The closest one will take me almost two months to get there using the Rogue Sect’s teleportation system.

  After he completely remembered the route, he stood up and walked towards the number 23 teleport room. He strode through the door and disappeared from the face of the planet.

  Chapter 4

  Accepting the Suggestions

  During the months that John spent levelling his skills up by Sarah’s side, the Sword Sect was abuzz.

  Fred and Frank sent people to the Anti-Assassin Sect to demand answers, but no one they sent was able to reach their destination. Instead, they were teleported to a random place on the planet they were on. This could only mean one thing: something had destroyed the paired teleport rune. The message took some time getting back to Fred and Frank, as the messengers were forced to take alternate routes back home.

  Once informed, Fred and Frank reached out to Alisha to tell her the speculation. Despite being en route to her Dual Cultivation Sect, she immediately changed course at the word. With a pit in her stomach, she fully expected to take the blame for what happened, but the Sword Sect did no such thing. They filled her in on all the details, explaining how John had forced Elder Han and his son into retreat. With gaping eyes, she took the news sitting down.

  With the full story out in the open, she concluded that there were too many coincidences. If it wasn’t her, it had to be a set-up from someone else. At least, that was what her first thoughts on the topic were. Fred and Frank wanted more evidence.

  They invited the leader of the family who was terrorised by the gryphon. The man arrived with great reverence towards all the elders, who then began interrogating him. No detail was left out; the family leader drew every scene out with plenty of information. He almost passed out from his own fervour when he mentioned the chilling killing intent he’d experienced in the heat of the battle.

  “I remember his words as if they are still ringing in my ears…” The man’s voice quivered and beads of sweat formed on his wrinkled brow. “He shouted that he would kill me, he swore it… My whole body shivered in fear, my mind went blank... I almost passed out!”

  The elders’ interest was piqued and they leaned in to hear more about this part of the story. The family head explained how anyone lower than a Rank 3 was left unconscious in the surrounding area. This spanned for about ten miles, where most of the city’s residents were also unconscious.

  “Those who were Rank 3 and higher all had the same story,” he said as he clenched his fist in recollection. “The voice they heard made them shrivel in fear.”

  The nearest safe zone was six miles further away than the town, where the shout could not be heard. Using this location in addition to other information he gathered, the family head was able to locate where the source of the voice came from. When nearing the location, he found a series of spider-cracks spanning a ten-foot radius on the ground. It was as if somebody had hit the floor with a hammer so large that it had uprooted bushes and trees nearby. The whole area showed signs of a battle.

  With a nod to the elders nearest to him, the family leader reached down and drew a large, two-handed sword out. He placed it on the table before him. Alongside it, he drew out a wooden crate and placed it down. The elders’ eyes widened as he lifted the lid, revealing a human arm.

  “I found these at the site.”

  “That is elder Han’s two-handed sword...” Frank knitted his brows, an expression of morbid curiosity spreading across his pale face. He looked at his father with troubled eyes. “I could recognise it anywhere. It was our blacksmiths that created it at his request.”

  Fred nodded. Gingerly, the elder used Life Power to bring the arm closer to him.

  “This arm is from a person at least Rank 7 Level 9.” As he inspected the arm, Fred’s voice grew bleak. “They have strengthened the cells in the entire arm. The arm belongs to someone who is either about to break through to Rank 8, or has already done so.”

  “Ah!” Alisha jolted upright as an idea struck her. “Elder Han from the Anti-Assassin Sect is a Rank 8! Could it be that this is his arm?”

  “It was his sword next to this arm and the rank matches.” Fred mused over the idea a little, thumbing his chin. “We cannot confirm it just yet, but there is a very tangible chance that this arm belongs to Elder Han.”

  There was a murmur through the group.

  “We asked John and his wife on this quest because of their speed and ability to fly,” Fred continued, deep in thought. “Perhaps this posed the perfect opportunity for Elder Han to kill John and take his wife. My conclusion is that the Elder and his accomplice underestimated their opponents. Perhaps Sarah’s vitality was used to fuel John’s fighting spirit, somehow. Either way, the result is plain as day.”

  “And the timing?” Alisha interjected with a worried glance. “The Anti-Assassin Sect’s teleport runes were destroyed around the same time. That cannot be a coincidence! He must have destroyed them while he was on the planet.”

  “While there is no concrete evidence, this seems very likely.” Fred nodded, eyes alight. “There is a very real possibility that John is on the Anti-Assassin Sect’s planet right now, hunting the members down one by one. This could very well be the end of that sect.”

  A hush fell among all members at the table. A few seconds later, there was a loud knocking sound coming from the big metal doors.

  Everyone’s blood froze.

  A Grand Elder, who was guarding the door, looked at Fred for approval. After exchanging a nod, he grabbed his sword handle with his right hand and opened the door with his left.

  On the other side of the door was nothing more than a messenger with a note. The tension in the room vanished and the elder at the door was about to dismiss the messenger, but the urgency in the latter’s voice swayed him. The Grand Elder took the note and slammed the door.

  The message was passed down to Frank, who hastily opened it and skimmed over what was written. Despite the curiosity around him, he refrained from reading it aloud. The note completely denounced his father’s conclusion; it was a message from John that drew out his plans to leave the Sword Sect. John had been here the whole time.

  Fred read it next. Feeling a bit humbled, the Elder decided to announce what the note said.

  “If he was there the whole time,” Alisha asked, “does that mean he already got his revenge?”

  “It seems there are more variables than I initially thought.” Fred shrugged his shoulders. “To be honest, I don’t know. I’m confident that John is the reason the Anti-Assassin’s telep
ort runes no longer work, but what happened on the planet remains a mystery. All we can do is speculate. If he has gotten his revenge and killed every Anti Assassin Sect member, the teleport system will never be repaired. We may never know what happened on that planet. Not unless somebody made it through the backup system before John found them.”

  Fred thought for a few seconds before he lifted his head up to meet the gazing eyes of the Elders surrounding him.

  “John and his wife suggested a method to make our Sword Sect grow in strength.” The change in topic was a bit abrupt, but much needed. “To survive in this cruel universe, we will have to make some changes. Accepting these suggestions means there will be a lot of disciples who will die.”

  Frank drew a sharp breath at the words. He stilled the shiver crawling down his back. With a glance from his father, he took a confident step forward, head raised high and voice booming.

  “You will lose loved ones; disciples you are proud of, disciples you consider to be family. Many will die. But we do this for our own survival. If you want to save as many of their lives as you can, then teach them! Train them how to kill, teach them how to hold their own in a life-and-death fight. Learn every disciple’s name and face. No one will slip through our defences! From this day forward, our Sword Sect will be known to be feared and revered by all our enemies and friends alike. No one will dare spy on us, and if they do, we will show no mercy.”

  Every elder in the room stood up, eyes burning with passion. Frank looked down on his audience and saw something he hadn’t seen in a long time. A proud smile cracked his lips.

  “Yes, Sect Master!”

  Chapter 5

  New World

  John travelled via the Rogue Sect’s teleport system. While he journeyed, he tried using his absorption technique on the small, pitch black ball he had taken from the centre of the Anti-Assassin’s planet. With the orb, he could gather the same amount of Life Power per minute compared to Grade 9 Life Stones. He then turned it into Toxin Power, generating quite a healthy sum.