55 Baptism of blood
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"D-don't come closer!!" Huang Tao stuttered as he tried to retreat using his hands, he already lost his control over his leg so standing up is very difficult for him already. Huang Lao rapidly went beside his twin brother's side and helped him out despite of his own injury.
Both of them are looking at the demonic expression on Sieg's face, compared to them, his soul form is clearer in a appearance so they could make out exactly what he looked like. At first they only thought that he was an innocent young man with a bearing of a scholar. Seeing his expression now however made them truly believe that he was a demon. In their eyes, Sieg's eyes are all red, his ears are pointy and he is surrounded with a thick blanket of dark red aura which made them shudder uncontrollably, coupled with the fact that they could hear the chains on his body emitting a thick metallic sound and the appearance of ominous looking claw really added to his demonic image.
"You could only blame yourself for pissing me off and following a useless leader. Reflect in hell you fucks." As they heard his chilling voice which almost sound like it came from deepest recesses of hell, the two of them staggered and tears involuntarily flowed from their faces, if they were wearing a real clothing here it wound undoubtedly be soaked in piss because of how scared they are.
After saying this, the two claws on both of his hands flew like snakes pouncing in their preys.
"No!" The twins begged with a frightened voice but Sieg heard nothing and so is the claws, the twins tried to resist by blocking the chains using their arms only to find out that the claws would automatically change directions, ultimately finding their way to the skull of the twins.
The twins emitted their final groans and left with overwhelming regret in this plane.
***
Outside of the Gray Crags entrance. The bodies of Ren Carl, Huang Twins along with other disciples crumbled, this clearly signified their deaths. The sect director of the eastern branch saw this happen and could only shook his head in disappointment. So far he lost about 10 Inner Disciples and 3 Core Disciples.
Other branches also experienced the same if not worse. The northern branch, which is where Mu Qingyin is the Sect Director only lost 5 Inner Disciples and a Core Disciple. This didn't made her fell better though since compared to others, her northern branch came with the smallest amount of total disciples.
"4th Elder, this junior is just curious about something." One of the Sect Directors stepped forward and talked to the old man with the loud voice.
"Speak."
"If the our disciples could obtain informations about the mechanics of this round, do they also get something for killing their fellow disciples?"
This question captured the attention of others so they also looked at the old man.
"Yes." His answer made them frown. They couldn't help but think that this is a bit too harsh for the kids, isn't this just another way on telling them to kill each other? However, the elder's next words made them apprehensive.
"The one who sits on the peak isn't the most talented nor the most powerful. It is the one who had their hands stained with their competitors' blood. And the peak he/she is sitting on is made out of their corpses."
"The shelter of a powerful sect made them soft. Because there is peace, they get rusty and just immerse themselves into a pointless cultivation. A real expert receives the baptism of blood at some point in his life. Winners are kings and losers are bandits, isn't this how it's always been?"
After hearing his words, the sect directors could only sigh in defeat. What he said was true anyway, none of them here had clean hands, they battled and killed their way to their places right now and nothing was different for the next generation as well.
One Sect Director couldn't help but ask: "If that's the case, what do they receive?"
"It would either be a map, direct enhancement for the weapons they made, strength raise, some rare information or even the inheritance that the person received could be transferred, they could get one of this things randomly." The elder non-chalantly said which made the sect directors all smile wryly.
They now secretly prepared themselves for more casualties because they knew for sure that it would happen.
While they were talking about a hidden mechanic outside the Gray Crags, Sieg was currently experiencing those inside.
Since he killed three people, he got a direct enhancement for his claws which thoroughly shocked him. The rusting claws that was wrapped around him emitted a faint light and was transformed. It could now be called a bronze claws, the rough edges disappeared as well as the rust covering it, the chains were sturdier and the claws were even sharper, the whole thing is now covered by a faint metallic sheen which shone slightly under the brilliance of the moon.
Sieg also received a mental image of a map which greatly disturbed him for a few things. One because when he looked at the map he discovered a very obvious blue marker. At first he guessed that the marker might be the place where the inheritance is, he tried following it but to his surprise the marker also moved location. He thought that maybe the inheritance was moving but that's just simply ridiculous! So he made a bold thought that this blue marker must be his current location. Well, low and behold, after some observations he figured out that this is the case.
Second thing that disturbed him is that, despite the place being only the outer area of the Gray Crags, it was incredibly large! The map followed a circular pattern and there was a clear distinction of where is the outer area and the inner area, the inner area was colored red on the map signifying that entrance in there was prohibited, the outer area was neutral in color with some landmarks emphasized in it, this is also why Sieg discovered that the blue marker earlier was his location since he walked towards a landmark and the marker moved there as well.
If the outer area was compressed it would only be the size of the Great Blue Carp City, but it was stretched around the whole inner area making it exhaustingly massive.
The one final thing that really disturbed him is that, there were civilizations around according to the map, which is where he is heading to as of the moment. No matter how he thought about it, he just couldn't wrap around his thought over this. Who in the right mind would stay inside this cold, ruthless and gloomy place? And why did they decided to stay? This is too baffling for him so out of curiosity, he started walking towards one, killing souls along the way.
The third thing that he got was a valuable piece of information. The details were about the distinctions between soul rankings. At first he thought that souls only took beast forms but according to the informations, he was greatly mistaken.
It basically says that the more normal looking the soul is the more dangerous it gets. For example, the mammoth he killed few days ago, a normal mammoth wouldn't have a tentacle in place of it's nose but the tentacle mammoth was just that, there was also that massive slug and the panther that has wing-like furs behind each leg.
If for example Sieg met a completely normal looking mammoth, the one's that had brown fur, two large tusks, long nose trunk, and four short limbs, then that basically means that the mammoth is at least on the ranks of being Lord Soul, this is the exact same details, his newly acquired information told him.
While walking, Sieg also felt a bit apprehensive. He just realized that he just greatly benefited for killing his fellow sect disciples. Truth to be told this left a sour taste in his mouth, it seems like the sect really pushes them into murdering each other.
Sieg just sighed upon this, in truth he didn't want to kill any fellow disciples, but they crossed the line. They didn't know what's good for them and was blinded by greed forcing them to make a move on him. Unfortunately, inside this place, Sieg had an overwhelming upper hand against them and they didn't realize that, in the end they caused their own demise.
He also started wandering if anyone aside him already realized that this is the case. He figured that it must be so since he too, saw how some of his fellow branch sect disciples could be so arrogant. He just secretly wished that some of his close companions were safe and doing good.
