New Threat (2)
Inside a dimly lit room a man sat in the cold ground with his head down. The room was small, made of brute black rocks and could not fit his body if he laid down. There was nothing inside the room, only him, the biting cold and the echo of his ragged breath.
Yet, he dare not to complain, for him it would be worse outside. The place was deep dark and the man had no idea how long he had been inside. It seemed that his perception of time changed while inside the solitary confinement. Was it yesterday that he stabbed a man? Or was it two weeks ago?
Or was it the day before? He wasn't sure.
He scratched his shaved head, feeling the large scar left by a knife years ago. An ordinary man could go crazy in such a confined space, but not him, he found it comforting to step into his chaotic thoughts.
Suddenly a small light shone in the room and caught his eyes. There was no window in the place, how could there be light? It didn't take long for him to find the source of that light: In front of him a small and old parchment had appeared.
[Did the guards drop this?] Doubtful, the man extended his tattooed hands and grabbed the old thing carefully.
The sheet appeared to be made from ancient papyrus and felt rough under the touch of his hand. As he got it closer to his face to inspect it, beautiful red symbols shone bright. For a moment, the small room was illuminated.
"What is - AAAHHH!" The man could help but to scream out loud as he felt his mind burn. Before he could even call for help, the symbols shone brighter and brighter, invading his mind.
His head hurt like hell, his scar burned and his eyes hurt even after closing them. He could still see the red light! That was not the physical pain he was used to, but it affected his mind, perhaps even his soul - if he believed it existed in the first place.
Fortunately or not, no one came to check him out and soon he passed out from the immense pain.
He woke up some time later. Minutes, hours or days? It was hard to tell inside that place, and it didn't matter anyway.
Feeling his head dizzy, he tried to no avail to get up. Trying to hold his urge to throw up, some weird memories filled his mind and a few words resonated repeatedly over his ears.
*RIVER OF BLOOD DEMONIC CULTIVATION*
*RIVER OF BLOOD DEMONIC CULTIVATION*
*RIVER OF BLOOD DEMONIC CULTIVATION*
"What?" He furrowed his brows as he tried to understand the situation. "Is it the scroll's fault?"
Remembering the ancient parchment that had appeared out of nothing, the man quickly searched the room for it but wasn't able to find it. The ancient parchment had disappeared!
"Shit…" The man then decided to look inside the new memories over his head, as so to see if the weird voice in his ear would stop.As he progressed through the memories, he soon understood that this was a cultivation technique. He had already heard about what happened around the world from the guards but didn't know the details, so he felt extremely lucky. As soon as he finished 'reading', the man smirked.
"Looks like I'm going to have fun out there!"
This scene took place in all prisons around the world. Unfortunately, not only inside it.
**********
At the same time somewhere on Earth, a young man with blond hair licked his lips in joy. He had never felt his body so full of energy and power before!
That feeling was so addicting, way more than any drug he had ever used!
"Hehehe. This technique is marvelous!" He smiled as looked at his reflection in the bloodied knife he held in his hands. Long hair that reached down to his shoulders, small blue eyes and a strong chin that had small clumps of beard. At his face, a few drops of blood which made him even more beautiful - at least that was what he thought.
After a few seconds admiring his own reflection, the young man then proceeded to the bathroom to wash off the blood on his face and hair. Seeing a few red strains on his clothes, he decided to take a shower, brushed off his teeth and changed clothes.
"Ah, I'm feeling good!" He went towards his bedroom and found an old black boon over his bed and grabbed it with trembling hands.
*THOUSAND ARMS DEMONIC CULTIVATION TECHNIQUE* He read it out loud, a creepy smile forming on his face.
"The name is too flashy, but it feels good to be at the first stage of a demonic body." He smiled, tied back his long hair and opened the book to review what was written. "So the life energy of others will allow me to improve my physical strength, and once the first cycle is complete, will I be able to turn parts of my body into demonic forms?"
The first time he read that sentence, a few hours ago, he was incredulous, yet he decided to give it a try. Now that his body had significantly improved, he couldn't wait to get even more powerful!
"Power is indeed addicting." The young man pondered to himself. "But.. Am I the only one?"
He tucked the strands of his blond hair behind his ear and tried to think things through.
[This book is clearly different from the ones on the internet, what if there are more people like me? That would lead to a chaotic fight for 'resources'…] He shuffled the old book into backpack, unaware he had just classified people's lives as resources.
"Hehehe!" The blond man went back to the kitchen and looked at the mess the corpses had made and shrugged. "It means I will have to work faster and not get caught… I'm pretty sure murder is still illegal."
"Thank you mother and father, at least you were useful for something!" He gave the dead bodies one more look and got out of the house.
Outside, in the garden, he looked intensively to the bright moon and stars as a new idea crossed his mind.
[What if I kill someone who already is a Cody Cultivator, will I be able to extract more life essence to turn into Demonic Qi from them?]
It was worth a try!
***********
Niyanyu flew around the world inspecting his accomplishments. Even though he was only a Nascent Soul cultivator now, having to constantly use Qi to fly, with what was left of his shadow domain and his precise control over Qi, he was able to maintain a pretty good speed in the air.
With a wave of his hands, more books and old parchments flew off in the distance, his targets were well chosen and almost all of them wasted no time before trying to cultivate the demonic arts.
These arts were called Demonic not only because the cultivator would have to kill people to increase their strength and eventually be able to transform into a Demon, but as their bodies mutated so would their minds. Their sanity, if they had any to begin with, would be lost and what would be left would be mindless murder with an immense thirst for blood.
In a sense, Niyanyu knew that only crazy or desperate people would cultivate this type of art. But that was how a cultivation world worked: there were always an infinite amount of crazy and desperate people in it.
Another thing he did, now as a type of reward, was create some simple treasures - nothing too extraordinary for him, but which would be useful for such a weak world. They were "treasures" that he could create with a simple wave of hands, and now that he had lost his belongings to the mysterious red haired man, that was all he could do after all.
Simple earlier Qi-Foundation weapons like swords, halberdiers, greatswords and spears flew to the world. Potions and mysterious elixirs were also spread by him, most hidden in somewhat dangerous places, to follow the motto "danger and rewards come together".
Not that he cared much about this world, but his intentions were clear: he was showing goodwill to the mysterious master behind the red-haired man, who wanted to transform this weird world. At the same time Niyanyu couldn't help but to smile, daydreaming about the idea of becoming a disciple of the Celestial Star Sect.
That Sect was so full of mystery that no one knew where it was even located. Many thought it was just a legend.
As for his old master and sect? He cared not for them anymore, he knew that his master would not have the balls to offend the Celestial Star Sect, nor would his old sect be so bold. In fact, he was glad he was still given the chance to live.
Niyanyu created a pair of simple yet deadly daggers with a wave of his hand and hid it in the same neighborhood where one of the demonic cultivators was located.
[I'm sure that man is inside that Reënbog Forest now… should I talk to him?] But soon he dismissed that thought, the red haired man didn't seem to be the type who liked to be flattered. [In fact, what a stupid name these Earthlings gave to the Twilight Heavenly Tree!"]
Niyanyu shook his head. In fact, his heart was bleeding when he thought of such a divine resource being used in this way... to make a forest.