by Yuri Ajin
“She has guts, I’ll give her that,” Rune’Tan commented. “Her opponent isn’t just stronger than her, but he’s also an emperor!”
“Not quite... Look closer. Her foundation score is ten, his is only seven point six. He might’ve been a genius once, but...”
“But it’s almost impossible to go from the Soul to the Divine Stage without weakening your foundation, yes... Look at you... Seems like the student is inching toward becoming a master,” Rune’Tan teased.
“I’ve been doing some reading. I remember what you told me. This all makes it almost impossible to find a Holy Lord with a foundation above eight points.”
“You won’t dare kill me because you are afraid of revenge,” the girl added. “It wouldn’t cost my mother anything to squish you like a bug.”
“You’re right,” Kyros said with a chuckle. “In the outside world, I wouldn’t dare touch you. But here... Here we’re cut off from the world. No one knows you’re here, do they? This place will become your grave and no one will ever know where your remains rest. So, since you’ve decided to refuse my kind offer... All that remains is to kill you.”
“If I’m to die, then I’ll be sure to take you down with me,” she said under her breath.
Black flames enveloped Kyros’ right hand. He dashed toward his opponent and he would’ve almost reached her if her body hadn’t suddenly gotten covered with scarlet patterns.
Exclamations of surprise filled the air. They all believed that she was constrained both physically and spirit wise. However, she seemed to have somehow managed to break some of the shackles using her bloodline.
Kyros didn’t have time to stop. He only managed to activate a defense technique before the girl’s body exploded into a mess of blood and flesh, giving rise to an enormous wave of power that overwhelmed everyone. Even Kai. Fortunately, he was too far away to get seriously injured. He was just thrown back.
However, the others weren’t as lucky. Almost one-third of the spectators were killed despite the Spirits trying to protect them. But it was Kyros who took the brunt of the blow. Covered in blood, he lay in a crater created by his body. His right hand was nothing more than a pile of flesh and bone, and his left leg was missing. Broken ribs had torn through his chest, exposing the white of the rib cage and his heart, which was beating in an uneven rhythm.
But Kyros was still alive. His body was strong, and such wounds couldn’t kill a cultivator of his caliber. He growled and unleashed his aura.
Kai was immediately subjected to enormous pressure. His skin began to tear, his eyes burst, his bones broke, and his blood began to boil. Neither his aura nor the Field of Superiority helped. To survive, he had to open the Gates of Regeneration and Resistance, activate Life Rampage, and use fifty years worth of soul energy in order to enhance his regeneration.
But worst of all was that Kyros had noticed him.
Due to the pressure that flattened him to the ground, Kai couldn’t move. Luckily, the Mask of the Great Liar was already on his face, so he didn’t need much to activate it. He hoped that the artifact would save him.
Kyros felt a mortal abruptly teleport several miles further and then disappear. In less than a second, he appeared in the place where he felt the presence, picking up his severed leg along the way. But all he saw there was a bloodstain that was slowly dissolving under the influence of the dark fog. Within seconds, nothing remained of the dead mortal.
Did my aura kill him? But where did this mortal come from? he wondered, clutching his torn chest that was already healing. What’s going on here?
Suddenly he felt a sharp pain in his head. The world spun, his consciousness began to fade, and energy broke free of his control, making him collapse.
This state of weakness lasted for a couple of moments. Once it had passed, Kyros stood up, clutching his head. The pain was slowly dying down.
Is this another side-effect of her attack? Is my head hurt too? Did I hallucinate sensing a mortal? That’d make sense... But I felt it so clearly...
Kyros looked at the spot where the stain had just been.
Shaking his head, he took off and returned to the canyon.
***
Kai ran as fast as he could. The Mask worked on Kyros. As soon as he hid his aura, Kai, temporarily invisible to everyone, ran as far away from the canyon as he could, in the direction from which he came. He had a day to hide before the Mask ran out of energy.
The desert was truly lifeless — there were no monsters or any other dangerous creatures, except for those people, their Spirits, and Kyros so he didn’t worry about using movement techniques and disturbing the peace of the desert dwellers.
After seven hours of running at maximum speed, he reached the border of the pocket dimension. It looked like a tall wall of dark fog that stretched all the way up to the very heavens. After a moment’s hesitation, Kai walked through it. However, no matter how many times he passed through, he returned to the same place again and again.
Damn it. The dimension is sealed shut. There’s no way I’m getting out like this...
But there was also a silver lining to this situation. Staring at the wall, Kai was finally able to see the dimension’s entire energy structure. If he studied it, he had a chance to find a way out.
Hiding in the fog, that was exactly what he did.
Until he was interrupted.
“Turn around!” Rune’Tan shouted, snapping Kai out of meditation.
In a second, his blades were out, armor formed, and techniques activated.
A few feet away, a scarlet window appeared. It looked like a portal but it emanated no energy. A pair of severed, deathly pale hands began to claw out from the red fog. They moved to the center of the window, from which blood began to flow, forming a human figure.
A beautiful girl in a black dress emerged from the crimson cocoon. Her blond hair made her pale skin seem even paler and accentuated the crimson of her eyes and lips.
That’s... That’s the woman who fought Kyros...
“Kai... Look at her description... She’s a member of one of the old races... Ones that are considered a myth even in Nikrim... She’s a...”
[Race: Vampire]
“How peculiar,” she said with a slight smile, looking at the Mask. “Although you’re even more peculiar.”
With a snap of her long fingers, she made the portal, the Gate of Bloody Rebirth, vanish in a crimson mist.
Before Kai could do anything, she appeared in front of him.
What the...? I can’t move!
The mask was carefully removed from his face even though its effect was still active. Curious, the girl examined the artifact, spinning it in her hands, and then suddenly grimaced. Sniffing the air, she brought her face closer to Kai’s. She was so close that their noses almost touched. Her breath tickled his skin.
“Well, well... A Hydra...” She smiled even wider and licked her lips. “I haven’t seen one of you in a long time... You smell delicious...”
Throwing the mask under Kai’s feet, she dug her fangs into his neck and began to drink his blood.
“Old man...”
“I’m exhausted as it is, kid!” he replied sharply. “She won’t kill you. Trust my gut.”
Kai tried to nod but couldn’t.
For a whole minute, the girl fed on his blood. Luckily for him, it was immediately restored so he didn’t risk fainting from blood loss.
Once she was full, she stepped back and sighed blissfully. Blood slowly trickled down her chin. She licked her plump lips and wiped the excess blood with her finger before licking it off it.
Kai felt weak.
Damn it, my regeneration isn’t working... It feels the same as when I overused the Eight Flashes of Yang Technique. Fortunately, it’ll come back. Until then, I just gotta endure...
Struggling to remain on his feet, he observed the vampiress. Her face was red as if she was intoxicated, and she even staggered a little. Using energy vision, Kai bore witness to a strange process that
began to occur inside her body that he couldn’t quite understand. Her organs, bones, muscles, and other tissues disappeared and reappeared with increased quality. It looked like she was regenerating. As if she also possessed the same bloodline as him.
That can’t be... Can it?
She stared at him for a good while longer, as if thinking if she should go for seconds or not, and then suddenly fell unconscious.
He was finally able to move.
What the hell just happened?! he wondered, looking at the unconscious vampiress.
Chapter 34
A TRUE MASTER
The next day
“Well, well... You didn’t run away while I was recovering,” the vampiress said, noticing Kai who was meditating nearby.
“You know, leaving a defenseless girl in the middle of a fog of Yin is pretty rude,” Kai answered. Opening his eyes, he turned around. “Even if she is a great master.”
“You’ve got some nerve, boy!” the girl exclaimed with a frown and released a weak wave of pressure that made Kai collapse to his knees. “It’s funny that you’re so unshakable,” she said with slight surprise in her voice, noticing his calm gaze. “You show zero emotion. What’s wrong with you?”
“Why did you attack me? How come you ended up here?” Kai asked, standing up.
“Did your mother never tell you not to answer a question with a question?”
“Ah, I beg your pardon, great master,” he replied, bowing.
“Stop that!” she retorted and grimaced. “I’m too young to be called a great master. I’m only at the Divine Stage. I’m Acilla Nor Adria. Call me by my name.”
A Divine one...
“May I know how old you are, erm, Acilla?”
“How rude!” she exclaimed. “But I’ll humor you. I’m eighty-seven.”
Eighty-seven?! Despite the Cold Void, he experienced slight surprise. Even Jiang Dao was just an Elementalist at eighty-seven.
“How old were you when you became an Exorcist?”
Acilla grinned.
“Bold one, are you? To ask a lady so many questions regarding her age... Still, I’ll humor you again. It’s not like we have much to do while I recover. I didn’t become an Exorcist, I was born as one. This is possible if your mother, like mine, is a goddess. At about five, I embarked on the path of cultivation. I could’ve started earlier, but I wasn’t allowed. Why? I don’t know nor did I ever bother to find out. At the age of eleven, I reached the Elementalist Stage, and at twenty-six, I became a Holy Lord. A year ago, I finally reached the Divine Stage. Does that answer your questions, boy?”
“It does, thank you.”
“Good. Now it’s your turn. But first...”
Acilla looked around and snapped her fingers. Kai felt the Forces of Space envelop him and form what was definitely a peak-level Sphere, no less strong than Rune’Tan’s. In the blink of an eye, they changed location and found themselves not in the midst of a dark fog at the edge of a lifeless desert, but a luxurious hall inside a giant palace.
“We’re in my pocket dimension,” Acilla said, answering Kai’s unasked question. “Now... What’s wrong with your ability to emote, boy? Why do I feel an inexplicable cold emanating from you?”
“A concept captured my soul.”
“A concept did that?” Acilla raised her eyebrow, cocking her head to the side. “I’ve never heard of such a thing happening before... Show me!” she demanded, eyes aflame with interest.
Seeing no reason to deny her, Kai created a small icicle from Cold Void particles. It floated over to Acilla who took it in her hands and began to study it with spirit perception.
“Interesting... I feel like it’s trying to freeze my thoughts...” she commented. “What’s the name of this concept?”
“Cold Void.”
“I’ve never heard of it... Seems that the Ecumene is more mysterious and interesting than I’ve thought...” she said absentmindedly, after which she teleported to the nearest lounging chair and, taking more pillows, lay down. “And what are you going to do about it?”
“What do you mean?”
“This,” she waved the icicle, “is a disease. These kinds of concepts change cultivators. They mess with their essence. Sooner or later, this Cold Void of yours will either kill you or stop your development, regardless of your talent,” Acilla explained.
“And what can I do about it?” Kai asked casually as if he hadn’t just heard that he could potentially die.
“I don’t know.” Acilla shrugged. “I think there’s a way to get rid of it...” She thought for a second, and then she nodded. “The gods should definitely be able to do it... But more on that later. Now. Would you care to explain to me what a descendant of the Nine-Headed Heavenly Hydra is doing here?”
“Studying, cultivating, fighting...”
“Are you kidding me?”
“No?”
“In this shithole?” Acilla asked with surprise. “Why would someone like you be so far from the Central World...? How did you even get here?”
“Like me? What are you talking about?” Kai asked, confused, and sat on the lounging chair next to her. “I got here from a peripheral world. That’s where I started my journey.”
“Wait, wait, wait...” Acilla shook her head. “Did you acquire this bloodline artificially? How? And how come you have a ten-point foundation? As well as the very rare Favorite of the Forces?”
“How do you know that?”
“I can read you like an open book, boy. My spirit perception transcends your wildest imagination.”
“Well... I don’t know,” Kai said. “It’s been with me from the beginning, as far as I can remember. Although I didn’t know about it from the beginning. As for the rest, I achieved it on my own.”
“Are you serious?” Acilla frowned. “If you really don’t know anything about the Hydra Clan, then how could you gain such a perfect foundation?”
“I don’t know what to tell you.” Kai shrugged.
“Are you certain you want to talk to me like that, boy? I’m only keeping you alive since you’ve piqued my interest... Should you cease to be interesting...”
Kai thought about it. Acilla was probably the only one who could help him get out of here, as well as tell him more about his origins.
“I’m sorry... I’ll try to satisfy your curiosity as best as I can,” he said with a sigh. “I found a way to increase the quality of my foundation. If you swear that you won’t spread or use this information in any way, I’ll tell you how I did it.”
Acilla narrowed her eyes.
“Very well. This better be interesting. However, my conditions are as follows: we’ll both swear an oath that this conversation will be honest and that neither party will use the information learned here for their own benefit or pass it on to a third party. Do you agree?”
“I do.”
As soon as the oaths were exchanged, Kai raised his hands, releasing a mist of pure light and a mist of pure darkness.
“Impossible!” Acilla exclaimed, approaching Kai with the speed of light. She knew that some kind of energy could be created from these two concepts that could raise the level of one’s foundation and restore soul energy. However, from what she knew, only the gods could create this kind of energy, and that was by relying on their ability to manipulate reality. “One soul can’t use both Yin and Yang at the same time! That’s just...” She suddenly remembered something. “That can happen only if the cultivator has a...! It can’t be!”
Acilla grabbed Kai by the wrists and activated her spirit perception. But no matter how much she observed, she couldn’t find what she was looking for.
“Tell me, have you mastered Yin and Yang yourself?” She glared at him.
“I suppose there’s no harm in telling you since you’ve sworn the oath...”
“So I was right!” She gasped, seeing the tattoo on Kai’s arms.
“Do you know anything about the Yin Yang Ghost Tattoo?” he asked. “I need some answers, too, you
know.”
Letting go of him, Acilla returned to the lounging chair.
“A little. I read that it’s possible to master both of these concepts at the same time only with its help and that it’s a unique divine technique created by one of the most powerful beings of the Ecumene... Alas, no names were mentioned in that book,” she added, disappointed.
“I got this tattoo from a statue of one Or’drok Okka Yashnir, which was made by his servants. Maybe you know something about him?”
Acilla thought for a little while, but in the end, she shook her head.
“No. I’ve never heard of him.”
“What about the Hydra Clan? Tell me about it.”
“There isn’t much to tell. It was a strong, divine clan. They lived either in the Central World or in one of the neighboring ones. They had the same bloodline you do. That’s all I found in our library.” Acilla raised her hands. “The only time I personally met any of them was during the Tournament of the Continents forty years ago, in which some of their junior cultivators participated. I remember that the smell of their blood almost drove me crazy. I barely restrained myself...” She smiled. “I was a young fool back then...”
“Why do you need blood? And what did you do to me when you met me?” Kai inquired, remembering feeling strange back then.
“I sensed you and your bloodline even during my fight with Kyros. I destroyed my body, faking my death. I only needed to assemble myself again. Unfortunately, full recovery usually takes a month. However, by temporarily borrowing your power, I managed it in just a day. Though I admit that I didn’t expect that I’d lose consciousness...” Acilla explained and then suddenly turned serious, making Kai tense up. “It’s time to wrap this up. I want you to show me your abilities.”
Before Kai could say anything, they were transferred from the hall to what seemed to be a training room.
“Try not to die.” Acilla smiled. Still lying on the lounging chair that she had teleported together with herself, she raised her hand.
