14 First mission, end.

(Content warning. Fair bit of gore and reference to torture. You've been warned.)

The prison was... Christ, I should've tortured that bastard.

I bore witness to things that would make many of earth's worst killers shiver in fright. Blood soaked every inch of the floor, in a putrid, filthy puddle that rose to my ankles. In the vile mess, limbs, bones, viscera, and faces floated without bodies. Vomit, food, and urine was mixed with the blood, too. And at the back of the room, nine women of various ages were stripped nude and huddled together, silent. The horror must have broken their minds.

I grit my teeth, but my mind was filled with anger, rather than disgust. Why? In my last life, I would have been sick at even pictures of a room like this. Why did I feel nothing when staring such grotesque violence in the face?

And then it occurred to me. Violence. My brain had been... changed, when it came to how I regarded violence. I felt that, if I ever needed to, I likely wouldn't struggle to commit these same acts. But my heart felt anger, at the unjust pain these women had gone through. Anger that they hadn't had a protector, that they had lacked the strength to save themselves. Anger because every inch of this room told me that this wasn't even a fraction of the women who were taken, and that there was no getting the others back.

I will be there when that demonic cultivator dies. I am going to be sure of that. With this vow, I spoke to the women.

"Women of Hoopo Village. I, Adam of the Grigory Sect, am here to rescue you." My words were loud, and the women shook as they heard them. And then, tears, as they got up and rushed out of the prison through the door behind me.

I was about to turn and go assist the ladies, when Eris chimed in.

[This is a location of immense violence. Cultivation within this room would be immensely beneficial to you.]

I blinked, and nodded as I dismissed her. I then stepped out of the room, and into the clearing of the camp, looking over the women as they cowered in the center.

"I'm going to be taking you girls home, okay? Once there, I need your help. We're going to get the entire village, and move them to the sect. I can't, in good conscience, leave you all alone with a demonic cultivator around."

I passed around blankets that Tat brought me, and started to guide the women home.

...

Two hours later, and I was standing once more within the vile prison. It was still... ugh, the smell alone was gruesome to deal with.

I seated myself on the floor of the prison, feeling the blood flow around my legs and butt. It felt disgusting, but I needed to do it, according to Eris.

[You need to delve into the source of the violence to grow strong. This is the heart of the violence here.]

Er... Does it mean I have to sit in this blood? Damn it.

I crossed my legs, and entered a meditative stance. Minutes passed, before I finally felt my mind slip into a trance. Energy exuded from my flesh, a thick fog of black light rising from my flesh as it started to fill the room. The blood on the floor began to swirl and boil. The bits and fragments of corpses were dissolved by the black mist. And then... I felt foreign memories fill my head.

I was flooded with images and thoughts. I was standing over the women, holding a hatchet. I was cowering away from a man as he skinned my sister. I was splashed in blood and pain as my arm was cleaved off. Dozens of thoughts and memories fought and danced about inside my head, and I felt ill. These were memories of the violence committed here. Memories soaked in blood.

And then, I saw a single image, align in my memory. A single, vile image. A man, stood before the room. He was... eating... one of the youngest women. Drinking her blood. He radiated a fearsome energy, his energy colored crimson. It was thick, and felt like tar as it invaded every inch of the body this memory belonged to. It was brutal, feeling as if the energy was pushing against the very edges of sanity, wanting to consume it.

The memory ended, and I felt my own body return. I was shivering, in a barren room. The evidence of all those tragedies was gone. No blood, no corpses, nothing.

I was astonished, before I felt my own energy. Eris chimed in, confirming my thoughts.

[Congratulations. You have achieved Stage 8 of the Body Refinement Realm.]

Huh... It's... I guess dealing with all this unpleasant shit had some benefits. I had jumped up four full stages within my realm, just by absorbing the violence of this place. What's more, I felt as if my energy was dense, thick like oil.

[You have earned three rewards for completing an objective, and a hidden objective.]

I cocked an eyebrow, and a pair of gloves fell onto my lap. They were simple, black leather, with metal reinforcements on the finger tips and knuckles.

[Rewards: Double density of Internal Energies, 105 Exchange Points, and Blade-Breaking Gloves received.]

Blade-Breaking Gloves, eh? Sounds pretty straightforward. I pulled the gloves on as I walked out of the now spotless prison, and I began to loot the corpses of the men I killed. I won't bother you with the details, but the notable finds were when I got to the house of the cultivator I killed. He had very little, but inside i found two things. A pill bottle, and a manual.

"Eris, show me the details of this manual."

[Lethal Breath Energy Technique (Middle-Mortal): Internal energy projection, fetal breathing ability, energy invasion. Internal energies become more chaotic.]

Alright. This is doable. I opened the manual, reading through it as I walked my way back to Hoopo Village to pick up the villagers.

When I arrived, the villagers were surrounding a small hill of dirt. Praying. I noticed, the bodies of the children were gone. They probably chose to bury them before leaving. Nice folk.

I exchanged a few words with the elder of the village. He seemed much calmer now. I think I had him on edge last time, being so upset. We talked for a few minutes, and finally I gathered all the villagers, grabbed hold of a cart, and started pulling it along.

And like that, we were on our way back to the Grigory Sect.