25 25. Disarmed

[Twenty-three days before the Blood Moon]

"Do you have any more orders I can follow?"

Risha and Kiel were in the middle of a mountain. It was night, and the moon hanged low, there was no one around them, and the two of them gathered around a campfire.

Risha had just finished cooking food in a golden pot and had served Kiel his dinner on a platter. She looked at him straight in the eyes as she demanded another task.

Kiel looked at Risha to ask her, "I think this is when you ask me if I liked the food rather than asking if you can follow another order."

"It is fine; I already know it is palatable. Before my clan got destroyed, my skills with cooking had been said to be comparable to the Head Chef of the Silver Emperor." Risha boasted as she puffed up that modest chest of hers.

Risha sounded proud of her skills, and as Kiel took a bite of the glistening cut of the meat, he closed his eyes and found it hard to admit, "It is indeed goo… you have my praise."

It was better than anything he had eaten.

"Of course, it is." She said as if it was a matter of fact, "Now, do you have orders for me, husband?"

"You call me husband, yet you act as if you are a servant."

"I have been taught that it is my job as the wife to serve my husband. I shall do just that to honor my family's traditions."

Kiel looked at the moon and at Risha; he remembered something and asked her, "I need a life right now. Will you accept my request for your death?"

"…I will not… I have been ordered to keep my life; thus, I can die no matter what happens."

This was the first time Kiel had no idea how to react to someone's words. Risha was direct; she answered anything she was asked and do anything she was ordered to do.

Kiel had previously asked her why she kept on saying she was his wife, but her answer would always be the same, "Because Ame said that I am to stay by your side forever."

From what Kiel could gather, Risha could only live and move because she was ordered to live… she was like a doll. Never would she go against an order.

She's similar to the Ye Feng who walked the three paths, but unlike him, Risha followed orders with great passion and joy. Receiving orders was her pleasure, and executing them was her purpose, 'I now see why Ame told her to come to me.'

Risha was so beautiful that she attracts the eyes of every man and woman they come accross. She was strong and could be said to be Peerless with her Zither at hand, but her flaw was that she followed every order she was given.

'Ame must have wanted to protect her.' Kiel managed to see through Ame's intentions after spending some time with Risha, 'It is fortunate I did not escape from her. Though with that weird ability of hers, I doubt I'd be able to escape her anyway.'

Kiel remembered how Risha found him and shook his head in confirmation that she's not something he could run away from, 'The cultivation of this world is weirder in the higher levels.' That was the only thought he could make.

But who could blame him? It was indeed something he did not think would happen.

He already gave Risha the order to receive orders from him, so he could protect her from being used by others. Risha had already been placed on his list of people he needed to protect.

Though he still did not know much about her.

"Husband, my orders?" Risha asked Kiel once more.

"…go eat and then sleep. Rest for the night. I am going to first confirm the area."

"I understand." Risha said as she quickly went to sleep.

Kiel stayed awake that night and then left the area after confirming there was no danger surrounding the area.

'There would be a [Blood Moon] in three days, I need to find the necessary material…'

Moving with quick speed, Kiel searched the land and found no humanoid life. He would have hunted every living Beast in this forest if not for the fact it would serve him no purpose.

Sighing, Kiel had nothing to do other than going around sweeping the area once more.

"I do not want to do this, but, I have no choice. Upon my contact with the Mystic Palace my killings would affect my standings and the Palace's I can't have that. So now, I need to start a hunt.

Kiel searched for sticks all over the forest and after collecting hundreds, he finally began his hunt for human life.

"The Blood Moon is coming… the Rifts are about to open… I must hurry."

[Twenty-three days before the Blood Moon]

Kiel spared no effort moving about and killed every bandit in the area. He saved a few people but he also saved even more.

That's correct, Kiel Zarta saved people instead of using them as fuel. It was not something he appreciated; however, Kiel was raised by parents who taught him righteousness more than anything else.

He once had a self-rule of killing everyone in the area to not attract attention. For Kiel who followed the Evil Path before, such an act was easily doable.

However, not the current him. Though he did leave some holes he could tread when needed, like the necessity to kill whoever may possibly antagonize his family.

Kiel new of his hypocrisy and he did not care for he, at least had the courage to admit his faults.

[Eighteen days before the Blood Moon]

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

A group of Bandits were fighting against a single woman in purple. All seventeen of them rushed her with their roar in a chorus, but a single movement of her hand prompted their heads to separate from their bodies.

"Husband, I have killed them. How about you?" Risha asked as she looked towards west and strummed her strings again — she killed another three, "And that would be all of them."

"I too have slaughtered them all; I have freed the captives and they are… once again kowtowing to me. Ladies, young people, stand up, you do not have to bow to me in such a manner."

Kiel, who was now a 3rd Stage True Spirit Cultivator responded as he watched seven people kowtow before him. For the past few days, Slave Traders have been more common than bandits.

"Our Benefactor, how can we ever repay you?"

"Stand up and stop crying like I told you." Kiel then flicked his wrist and handed the kowtowing woman three pieces of paper, "This is a Talisman I drew with my blood, if you are attacked by any Beast, then, go tear it down and it will kill its target."

"Tha-thank you, for you to give us something so valuable, I don't know if we could ever repay you." She said as more tears flowed down her face.

"Like I said, stop crying and help everyone stand, me and my partner—"

"Wife." She chimed.

"—as I was saying, we are now leaving. Head east and you will follow the main road, there, you should be able to find the nearest town in three days. We would come with you, but we have to go and face the Blood Moon."

"Sir benefactor we are finem we could reach the town by ourselves; we have your gifts to protect us, again, I thank you." The captives bowed as Kiel and Risha left.

The freed captives bowed to them one last time to show them their gratitude. Usually, they would be protected by the Hegemon who controls the area they live in, however, it was that time of the year when the guards of both Hegemons were low as they prepare for the Blood Moon's arrival.

It was sad, but also true. It was also true that these people did not appreciate being abducted away from their families. They also saw most of their friends and family before their abduction so, their hate towards the failure of a Hegemon would be rather dark.

This would further create sparks of chaos and affect the economy in many ways but that's a different talk altogether because what mattered was Kiel hiding from the prying eyes of ordinary people as he absorbed the souls of his enemy.

As his eyes shed tears of blood, Kiel now have a total of 386 Human Souls.

The two proceeded to kill more as the days approached them.

===

[Six Days before the Blood Moon]

TAK!

A crisp sound of a wooden piece falling on a wooden board reached far and wide.

Two women whose faces and body telling their age to be in their mid-twenties was playing a game of a popular board game called, Infinity.

"Two of the Towns under our ruling have collapsed." The woman wearing black said.

"Are you talking about the Western Area of the Region?" The one in red answered with a smile.

"Yes, do you know about it?"

"Well, my student did come from there so I know quite a lot about the western area, and as she asked of me to check up on her brother from time to time, I send some people there. If you're talking about the destructions, I advise you to stop now."

"Why?" the woman in black was left confused as she stopped her movements.

While thinking, the woman in black answered, "The one who caused those destruction was most likely Ame's brother."

"The Cripple?" the woman in black was surprised.

"Oh, but he's no cripple. He's actually quite capable being able to take the Tigers from the Silver Forest and making them his home's guardians." The woman in crimson laughed, thinking about how she once thought how Ame had such an incapable brother, "I should have known that Ame's sister would be far from being a crippled man."

"Nonetheless, we must question him why he's doing such a thing. The towns are not in the brink of collapse, I sent Lucious there, but I don't think he'll be able to stop it. This is going to damage our Sect's funds, you know."

"You're really persistent, aren't you? Well, that's why you were seated in the Sect Master's position, anyway. If this was any normal day, I would ignore it, but, as I am now the Grand Elder, I'll help you find him if you promise me not to hurt him" The Grand Elder in crimson attire said.

The Sect Leader nodded her head, "Don't worry, I owe Ame too much to hurt her brother."

"Good to know. Mirh gathered the information herself. She said the brother asked an Innkeeper for a map that includes the Mystic Palace. He should be heading there, I don't know why, though."

"Okay, I'll send one of the messengers there."

"No, don't bother, Mirh already left. She has a bone to pick with the brother after he took the Tigers from the Silver Forest. She had been waiting for them to mature for years and now it's gone. She planned on using the Father as her Soul-Beast for her Ascension, but now that it became a Guardian of Ame's previous home, she's rather upset and would want an "apology" from the brother. Just send Mirh a [Silver Roc] to inform Mirh what you want to do."

"Oh, but can Mirh take care of herself? The slaughterer killed a Sect on her own, right?"

"Are you worried about her? She's at the Peak of True Spirit Stage, she can take care of herself. In our region no one can match her at the same level. The Blood Moon is coming, I don't think anyone has the time to go around and wander about. Mirh's going to be fine."

"That's understandable — checkmate."

"What!? Dammit, that's the seventh time you won in a row! One more time, goddammit!"

"Can't I'm going to the Dragon River; the Blood Moon is arriving in two days and another Blood Night is coming, we don't know if this is going to be a Blood Calamity."

"You know a Blood Calamity is unlikely to happen at this time, one just happened a year ago."

"Yes, and everyone also thought Blood Calamities only happens every fifty years, yet ever since twenty years ago we had three, things are changing, Lisa. If a Hegemon like Mystic Palace can fall because of carelessness, I won't take the chance for such a thing to happen. We no longer have Ame." The Sect Leader said as she left off.

Lisa, the Grand Elder looked at the leaving Sect Leader and sighed, "Lisa, wait a minute, I'm coming with you!"

"Call me Sect Leader, Keal."

===

[Two Days Before the Blood Moon]

The world continued its stagnant revolution. Every being on its surface remain the same, it would move in a constant time.

However, for a brief moment, a butterfly moved to a crawl.

A split second to be exact, no more than that. Its wings and entire being moved slowly but it soon returned to normal after some time.

"This is the Second Ability I manifested after you reach True Spirit Realm, I call it [Flow Anchor]. It anchors them to the past and halves their speed. It is different from Chrono rewind that can only be activated once a day. This can be activated three times a day without so much as a problem.

"Each use only has a split second, but if stack together, it can reach up to a full second and even a second and a half. But like Chrono Rewind, it only affects the designated target, and this is no area of effect skill, so do be careful who you target. And you have already used two of your chances today."

Kiel nodded his head, 'I know, that's why I kept one for emergency use.'

To many, a split second might seem to be too meager. But to cultivators, every moment, every single movement were necessary to achieve victory.

Kiel nodded his head and then flicked his wrist, on his hand were three crescent wind blades, lightning, and water blade.

'Lightning for destruction, strong and devastating, but eratic and slow: Wind, quick and sharp, but fragile: Water, malleable and overwhelming, but too energy consuming. This is the current skill I can wield using the Storm Calamity Tiger — Calamitous Blades.'

Soul Beasts gives their user a single skill and an infinite possibility in regards to elemental manipulation.

'The strength of a Soul Beast is measured with the advantage they can give and how much doors they can open for the cultivator.'

The strength of a Soul Beast was not measured by its strength, but its capabilities. One can always argue the Storm Calamity Tiger can beat the Black Emperor Pengu, but, at the end of the day, the Black Emperor Pengu can give a cultivator access to the domain of [Nihility] and [Wind] so it sat on top of the Heavenly Soul-Beast Ranking.

However, Kiel doesn't really care about that because he had the Ouroboros. If the Pengu had Nihility, Kiel had time. Though the Ouroboros' strength was still limited because of its desire not to endanger the Universe and the [Beyond].

Kiel would usually no care about the universe, however, considering his sister was still alive, he would rather keep it intact.

Crushing the Calamitous Blade, Kiel sighed and then turned to the Storm Calamity Dragon on one corner of his Spirit World, 'Did you perhaps bully it? It appears terrified.'

"It's entire being is lower than an ant to us in this world, it is not even worth being considered dirt so its fear is something natural, it will get use to it, with it staying in this place, interesting events might occur."

'Like what?'

"Do not bother, it shall happen nonetheless. But, are you sure you should be paying attention to me and not that?"

The Ouroboros spoke and then he turned his head to the side where a pile of bandit corpses piled up. But that's not what the Ouroboros wanted to point out, rather, the people beside the corpses who were on their knees, kowtowing to him.

Currently, Kiel and Risha was on some unnamed mountain and encountered a group of bandits, who, they slaughtered with ease.

It was only a matter before they could reach Mist City and it was only a matter of days before the last day of the last month.

Kiel would like to meet with Horus and receive his sanctuary and help, but, before that, he had to do something about his parents. He had already been making preparations to go there, but, first, he needed to go somewhere and to go there, he would need a lot of souls.

That was the reason why he was killing every bandit troupe he could find.

At this time of the year when a Blood Moon's coming bandits and slave traders were very active as Sects were too busy preparing for the upcoming Blood Moon.

Kiel had already killed hundreds of bandits; however, it was not nearly enough for he needed more of them.

However, he could make do.

'I'll just make a deal with them.'

"Mi-mister Benefactor, how can we ever repay you?"

While thinking to himself about the future, one of the women spoke in tears with her daughter in hand.

Kiel looked at her and everyone else with much disinterest. He had been asked such a question but thankful people that his ears was beginning to fall off. He was on the verge of wanting to kill them… he had admitted to being a hypocrite, Kiel was ready to prove everyone why.

However, the words of his mother stuck to him and with but a snap of a finger, he quickly switched expression.

"Do not worry, just raise your heads and everything would be all right."

He sighed. He was not really good with interacting with these people… who were supposed to be sold off in a different Region as Slaves.

"You may now go back to your homes, dismiss…"

But as Kiel was just about to tell them that, he heard loud footsteps coming from the side and when Kiel turned his head, he saw a fool waking up after being severely injured.

Kiel creased his brows and walked towards the groaning man and without so much as a hesitation, he cut the man's neck — big mistake.

Blood gushed out and despite him jumping back, Kiel found himself smeared with blood… he was quite possibly irritated.

"Sir Benefactor, a-are you all right?"

Kiel simply turned to them, smile and nodded his head, "I am, do not worry, so, stop kowtowing it is distracting. Sigh, why bother sneaking when your mount makes so much noise?"

Kiel quickly turned around and saw a sword closing on his neck while a woman in red clothing descended from the skies after jumping off an avian beast.

Kiel could see the shock in her eyes and how much confidence she had, but, fear was present. The sword neared, it was now only a few inches away, but, Kiel was calm.

'She did not foolishly announce her presence by screaming, how commendable, but, the mount and the intent was too noisy, she's an amateur at best… let's get this over with.'

He could still revive himself through Chrono Rewind, and would have done that but that's his trump card so, without much thought into it, an invisible coiled snake appeared beside him, 'Flow Anchor.'

For a split second, the woman's world and entire being slowed down by half, and using this, Kiel raised the stick in his hand.

Half a second passed… but that's enough.

"You should have done better. Keep this in mind after you reincarnate." Kiel shook his head, "Pierce."

A grand amount of energy came out of the stick. The stick disintegrated like always but the target was not dead.

Kiel watched the woman grit her teeth and force her body beyond its limits to move her body to the side as soon as she realized the danger.

The woman was sent flying backwards then crashed onto a tree with a loud bang. She avoided certain death, but her arm got severed.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" she screamed pain.

'She's exaggerating.' He said for he too had his arm torn off too before, it was not that big of a deal, 'Is she trying to get pity? It is not working.'

Kiel said as his fingernails extended and dashed forward to kill her. Her life was already about to reaped off but then, Kiel noticed her clothes.

Kiel stopped his steps, he looked at the woman and tilted his head.

After retracting his nails, he spoke, "Your clothes look familiar."

He was left preoccupied and the woman saw this as an opening.

She gritted her teeth and readied her blade—

"Move and I'll take your head, now do not make a commotion else I will take your life. Give me time I am trying to remember something." He warned.

"Don't worry you and I had no past or future." She quipped trying to save any face from his thoughts.

"Should you really be talking while your life is literally in my hand?"

The woman shut her mouth, there was no torrent of Killing intent this time, only a simple fact — he could kill her.

"Those clothes, I should remember it… is it perhaps a variation of the same kind that I know?" the young man said.

"Sir benefactor may I offer you information?" one of the women raised her hands.

"Speak." Kiel gave her the permission.

"That uniform belongs to a Core Disciple of the Celestial Phoenix Mountain… I managed to see one such person when I was young, saying they will give us protection but ended up abandoning us when we needed them."

Realization dawned upon him and as Kiel looked the woman in the eyes he asked her, "What is your name?"

"…"

"Your silence means you wish for death, I shall grant you—"

"MIRH! Dammit, it's…Mirh."

Recounting his memory, Kiel remembered one of the ladies who took Ame into the Cultivation world, Mirh was one of that lady.

"Oh, it would appear there has been a terrible mistake, I did not recognize one of my sister's friends…"

Kiel looked at Mirh dead in the eyes and apologized, "I apologize for not recognizing you quickly I have been rude to one of Ame's friends — oh yeah, I also apologize for the arm."

Kiel has disarmed the enemy.