17 First kill

"Daddy!" Hope cried while jumping at Alex, who was caught off guard for a second, but quickly reached out to catch her. Hope hugged Alex tightly leaving Alex speechless for some time seeing how she seemed to have missed him. 

"I missed you too. so, what took you so long, shouldn't you have come 5 days ago?" I asked while hugging Hope back. at this, Hope pouted slightly.

"She should have come back 5 days ago after the tournament, but we had to wait for Zero who spent 5 days to form his core." Hope said unhappily, she wanted to rush home and tell her dad everything but Zero couldn't wait to form his core.

Of course, no one knew he only spent 3 days to form his core, and an extra 2 days to form Alice's core. They both had gotten a core above the Supreme Grade, which Alex called the Sovereign Grade.

"Okay, tell me. what did you learn?" I asked while putting Hope on my shoulders, at my words, Hope thought for a second to collect her thoughts before going on to speak.

"Well, I learned mostly from Zero. the cultivators of old created many techniques, but they were greatly limited. Lightning was mostly used for speed and attack power. Fire is mostly used for attacks and explosive power and so on. but this is a new era, and many bright minds have taken elements and pushed them to the extreme... Zero was weak and wasn't as strong as the others but through skills and creativity he was able to face them all and take first place." Hope said softly,

"I want to be like that... I want to be a master of all elements, push each element to its peak, and go beyond." She said softly, to which I nodded slightly with a smile. Hope went on to speak nonstop, telling me everything she learned. It was more than I expected, showing off just how bright she was

"Also... well, I was watching Jane fight and couldn't help but wonder if one could fuse elements without the need for a physique," Hope said softly, causing me to think for a second before speaking.

"Well, try looking into Naruto's chakra system. In that anime, although others can't just fuse elements and had to be born with said element or get it through other means, there are unique elements like Ice release which could only begin through the fusion of wind and water release." I said calmly, making Hope's eyebrow raise for a second.

"Isn't it Naruto where Zero got Kirin?" Hope asked to which I nodded calmly. Hope rubbed her chin for a moment, but she nodded to herself. she should look into anime for some creativity, if Zero could do it, then it should help her as well.

"Oh, I created an album... look," Hope said while showing me her phone, which I took and went through. my eyebrow raised for a moment, before nodding my head.

"You have good taste, I expect nothing less," I said with a smile, making Hope poof her chest out slightly. but she noticed Honey who seemed to have become bigger than the last time she saw her. jumping off my shoulders, she went to greet Honey, who happily liked Hope's face to grit her. Sunny also ran over, no longer the weak hungry puppy.

"They have missed you, I didn't have time to take them for walks. take them out when you could," I said calmly, to which Hope nodded in understanding. I looked over towards Lily who had been just watching this scene with a gentle smile. We didn't talk and instead waited for Hope to take Sunny and Honey for a walk.

"Your breakthrough to the core formation realm was a bit fast... is everything alright?" She asked softly, to which I just smirked.

"I'm at level 1 Core formation realm, and have the power to fight those at level 2 Nascent Soul," I said causing Lily's eyebrow to raise in shock, as that was a bit... well, she was shocked I could skip 11 levels.

"Sigh. you talents..." Lily said depressed while resting her head on the table. she was currently only at level 5 Body transformation. What she wouldn't do to have some talents.

"There are ways to improve talent, there are also cultivation arts which don't need you to have high talents... there are also cultivation arts which could improve other talent." I said calmly, making Lily's eyes widen slightly, but this was something someone like her couldn't hope to get her hands on.

"What was with you and the masked woman?" Lily asked softly, to which I sighed softly. 

"My sister," I said causing Lily to freeze, her face twisted slightly, remembering that girl who would throw death glares at her every time she would come to Alex's house. it was the main reason she avoided coming by Alex's house back then.

While the two talk, videos of the tournament spread across the United States and even to other continents. The world powers have changed greatly, The United States which was once standing at its peak was no longer in power. after all, the other continents held extremely strong foundations.

Africa, China, and India. these 3 continents had taken over and were fighting for the top 3 spots... well, Africa was in a unique state. Africa was said to be the origin ground of all humans, humans came from there and spread out to cover the rest of the world. it's there that many inheritance grounds were hidden.

back then, many powerful people entered Africa to try and steal these inheritances ground for themselves. this led to the cruel scenes of slavery and other such things that took place in Africa. the pyramids for example were such inheritance ground, only those who would be accepted would be teleported to a dimension that held resources that were stored away by experts of the past.

pretty much, in the past 24 years, many powerful clans that should have died out in Africa had risen, Africa was more than 3 times larger than the United States. such huge land was filled with huge amounts of inheritances, which allowed the people of Africa to go to war. against who?

the fucking lions, and other wild beasts in Africa. Do you think they would care for others right now? The lions were going out of control, the Gorillas, elephants, Rhinoceros, Hyenas, jaguars, and other powerful animals were located here. and they all had reasons to hate humans. It was a war, an all-out war, and of course, no one was stepping forward to land a hand.

But they were not the only ones with a headache facing these animals. Australia was fucked. humans had lost to the animals long ago when they went to war with emus, and now they had to fight against those oversized insects, snakes, and so on. many people had fled Australia, it had become a battlefield.

Asia was home to China, and many people knew that China wasn't new to the idea of cultivation. they had taken the first step in the fusion of Qi and technology, but sadly they couldn't show off. across the world, they seem to be facing the strongest wave of wild beasts, it's almost like they gave the wild beasts an extremely strong reason to feel as if they had to defeat them, or they would be whipped out.

India was home to many inheritances as well, and to some degree, cultivation wasn't lost on them over time. Africa, China, and India were on a path to being the world powers, sadly they couldn't turn their blades towards the rest of the world, as they were not united... at least not yet.

Within China, a young Chinese man sat before a TV where he watched the scene of Zero battles. he closely watched them all, while also looking at the commits people have made worldwide. many people have linked Zero control over lightning to many animes.

Zero using lightning to control iron sand was linked to someone called Misaka from an anime called Toaru Majutsu no Index.

Zero Kirin was linked to the Sasuke technique, and Sasuke was from the anime called Naruto. The list went on,

'System, are Kirin and Misaka abilities taken?' He asked in Chinese, and although he was a master of many languages, in the end, he was Chinese.

{No host, no one had picked those two abilities. at the same time, there are no abilities that should allow anyone to copy abilities from watching anime. he most likely just recreated them, this person is a genius.} A genderless voice sounded, making the young man frown slightly. the system was right, Alex didn't copy those abilities from anime, he simply recreated them.

"Elder Mo, have one of our men join the Grand Thunder Sect. Have them get near this Zero, and collect information," he said calmly, Zero was most likely a system user just like himself. due to the arrival of Qi, there would be many system users popping up. A system alone wouldn't mean an absolute win, one would need the mind to make the best use of the system's powers. this Zero showed the capability to do just that, hopefully, it was some lightning system.

He wasn't the only one who had spies try to enter the Grand Thunder Sect, many system users who had the capability did this, as well as many who felt uneasy with Zero's show of power...

"Okay, before you go to bed. what is fire?" Putting Hope to sleep, Alex asked with a smile, 

"Fire occurs whenever combustible fuel in the presence of oxygen at an extremely high temperature becomes gas. Flames are the visual indicator of the heated gas. Fire can also occur from lower-temperature sources." Hope said calmly, making me shake my head.

"I asked why. To understand a law, you have to understand why this happens and not why this happens," I said with a smile, making Hope frown for a moment. She thought for a moment, but she didn't know.

"Tomorrow you will play with fire, study it, feel it, and so on. understand what's up with fire in your free time." I said with a smile, to which Hope nodded slightly. Just as I was about to leave, Hope stopped me.

"Did... did James do something when I was away?" Hope asked softly, unsure how to bring this topic up. at her words, I frowned for a moment. but she had noticed that the car window was broken, and some things on the house door steps were off.

"It's nothing to worry about, I went to buy a gun. it scared him off." I said while pulling out a gun, which made Hope force a smile. what was a gun going to do before a powerful expert? they most likely fell back as the loud gunshots could lead to them being kicked out of the sect.

with that, I went off, leaving Hope to go to sleep... but after a few minutes, Hope opened her eyes. getting out of bed, she made sure she didn't wake up Honey and got out of the window, she went to the roof and looked towards the streets where a car was parked. her Qi wrapped around her body, turning her invisible, 

"James, are you sure?" A black teen asked calmly, to which James nodded slightly. he looked towards Alex's house for a second before speaking.

"I'm telling you, his daughter had enough strength to send me flying with a punch. she is only 10, she is a super genius." He said softly, to which the black teen nodded slightly. he wasn't a part of the 4 arm sect, he was a gangster who saw an opportunity. 

"Why are you telling me this now? shouldn't you have told me before she returned? we could have forced her to do anything with her father in our hands." The black teen said calmly, to which James sighed.

"If you were not so hard to find, would I have been struggling?" James asked softly, the black teen smirked slightly. due to his condition, he had to keep moving. their boss used to be a part of some powerful clan but was expelled. it was just a month back when his fate turned around and he took over a gang. they already were a pain within many sects, forcing them to have to keep their sect disciples within their sect or else risk having them be kidnapped

James and this teen used to go to the same school, they were friends but they grew apart. it was only a few days back James had tried to contact this old friend to tell him about this girl, knowing he might be interested in this.

"Let's go, the lights are out," James said seeing how all of the lights were out, but they waited 30 minutes before they stepped out of the car and headed towards the door. there were only 4 of them, the black teen, 2 others from his gang, and James.

While they were heading forward, they didn't notice that those behind them suddenly froze with a dagger made of Qi stabbing into their neck. the first fell like this, but Hope who had killed for the first time stood frozen for some time. for a moment, she almost threw up, but she had to rush forward before they looked back to see one of their people had died.

With shaky arms, she appeared before the second guy, her arm pressed against his neck with great power, enough that he couldn't even let out a sound, before stabbing a dagger into his neck... but bark from inside her room sounded suddenly, Honey was awakened from the smell of blood.

this caused the group to look towards each other, only to see that two of their man were killed. it was a quick moment, but the black teen waited no time to retreat, he quickly ran while a flying sword appeared under his feet, and he flew off. he was only at level 8 Body Transformation, if two people at level 7 Body transformation could die with him sensing nothing, he was sure he would follow.

Hope to see this panicked, the panic caused her Qi to go chaotic, allowing for James and the guy who was fleeing to see this scene. Hope looked towards James for a moment, before she opened her mouth and threw up. Tears ran down her eyes, she had just taken two lives... but she couldn't stop, not when her dad's life was in danger.

but she didn't want to kill James... death was too good for him, he destroyed her life. for this, he will pay greatly. but she couldn't let that level 7 Body transformation realm cultivator escape, so she had to pick. James or that other guy? Well, that became easy to pick once she realized that the guy who was escaping just sent a video to someone.

Now it was pointless even if he died. with a flash, she knocked James out with a punch and went on to drag his body to the car, where she put all of the lifeless bodies before she went on to put James' knocked-out body into the car. with that done, she drove off.

"Mom only wanted to help dad... unlike me, she was just a normal human. you destroyed her self-confidence to manipulate her, that you will pay." Hope said with slight tears, she couldn't help but remember the scene that happened a few years back.

her mother was a housewife, and Alex who grew up having people relying on him didn't like the idea of his wife working. instead, he wanted her to just enjoy life. he wanted to do all the work, but Sarah wanted to do something to support her husband. cooking, watching over Hope, and so on, to her didn't seem like enough. A marriage should be 50/50. but this marriage in her eyes was 20/80. Alex was doing 80% of everything, he was perfect. it made her feel like she wasn't worthy.

She asked Alex if she could start her own small thing, but Alex could never understand that she just wanted to help him. this type of help was new to Alex, so he couldn't comprehend it, so he had always rejected it, pushing it to the side while he thought Sarah just needed some extra money.

When Alex's company began to be destroyed, she couldn't help but feel useless through it all. this uselessness only grew with James who made sure to point it out while showing off how he could help her. At first, James offered to sleep with her to help save her husband's company. she rejected it. when the company was destroyed, this guilt only grew. She had a chance to save it, but she did nothing.

Her husband she couldn't help, and James had no interest even trying. instead, he offered to help Hope and her. years of feeling useless and the sudden fall from heaven led to Sarah doing what she thought was best for her family.

Hope hatred towards James was huge, boundless in fact. her family was shattered all because of him. He had to pay... but while Hope was driving, she suddenly hit the brakes as a woman suddenly appeared in front of the road.

"What is a little girl doing driving the car" Alice asked while walking up to look at Hope, causing Hope to panic. She tripped over her words, trying her best to explain things while removing her tears. but it was then Alice spoke.

"I saw you somewhere... your father by chance Alex?" She asked with a smile, to which Hope went blank. her breathing grew heavy, this woman was sure to tell her father, she was sure to be in big trouble, her dad just told her she could only kill when she turned 12.

"Hope? You're my niece." Alice said while pulling Hope out of the car and into a hug, leaving Hope speechless...