An Eye For An Eye

The blazing heat scorched the earth red, transforming the ground into rivers of magma, flowing in a languid manner.

The sky was blanketed by a layer of thick soot, preventing sunlight from ever reaching the ground. Coupled with the extreme temperature, most life forms were unable to live in this environment.

Only a few species and varieties of living things were able to evolve and adapt to such a fiery environment. One of them was the Crimson Striped Wolf. It was larger than the common wolf and red stripes decorated its body, causing it to give off a faint fiery aura; Highly resistant to fire.

It's claws were able to glow to a shade of ember, slicing through metal like melted butter.

"Damn it! Damn that Patriarch Wei!" Elite War General San cursed as he treaded through the barren terrain.

After his beloved sword got destroyed during the battle with Patriarch Wei, his overall strength has decreased. Accordingly, he could only abide by the wishes of Elite War General Yi.

Glancing down at the Soul Searching Compass that the Human Emperor has bestowed to him in search of the third Elite War General, it had somehow pointed in the direction of the cursed land.

The eternal inferno, or better known Land of Eternal Blood, ruled by the Devils.

For somone at the peak of Core Formation stage, they could easily form a Qi barrier around themselves, significantly reducing any damage done to them by those below the Core Formation stage.

Although Elite War General San continued his incessant ramblings, his senses remained as sharp as before; Honed by all the terrific wars he had participated in and survived.

Glancing at the Soul Searching Compass ocassionally, Elite War General San trudged on dilligently.

***

The village has gone deadly quiet, with the exception of several crackling flames on the torches.

The villagers hid in their shabby houses as they spectated the scene playing out in front of them. Even a fool could sense the tense atmosphere that had taken grip of the village.

"What are you? Don't you know that you just killed the imperial soldiers?!" Elite War General Yi asked askance.

'What the hell is that thing in front of me? Eyes that are colored with no nose and mouth?! How come I can't sense its cultivation level??'

Although Elite War General Yi looked courageous and firm on the surface, his heart was actually in turmoil as questions ran through his mind.

Shadow slowly took out his colossal sword and planted it by his side, causing the ground to tremble for a few seconds. However, that few seconds were enough to knock several soldiers to their feet, not because of losing their balance, but because of the unimaginable amount of strength that the entity possessed to be able to wield that sword.

Eventually, Shadow spoke, his voice neutral, with a tinge of coldness to it, "Are you the leader?"

When Shadow answered his question with another question, rage consumed Elite War General Yi as he roared, "HOW DARE YOU HAVE THE AUDACITY TO NOT ANSWER MY QUESTION!!" However, he took no action and only bared his fangs.

"Looks like you are," Shadow calmly confirmed as he began walking towards Elite War General Yi, causing the ground to tremor as he closed the distance between them.

"What are you waiting for?! Fucking kill him!!" Elite War General Yi lost his cool as he ordered his subordinates to attack while he retreats.

Under normal circumstances, Elite War General Yi could outperform those at the same stage as him and maybe, just maybe, leave a scratch on those at the Spirit Ascension stage.

However, though he felt no aura coming off from Shadow, the presence of Shadow alone was enough to suffocate him. After coming up with the best possible solution, he decided to sacrifice the lives of his men to save his own ass, even if it had a probability of success of 0.1.

As the soldiers rushed towards Shadow with their skills and swords readied, Shadow released his otherwordly aura, dropping the soldiers like flies.

The soldiers could not even hold a handle against Shadow, as they were crushed to minced meat, even their ranked weapons were crushed to smithereens.

When Elite War General Yi reached the exit of the village, he glanced back, expecting his soldiers to put up a bit of resistancs. However, it was in that moment, that he saw Shadow's aura.

Shades of gold and red danced around Shadow as a strange black mist swirled around him, causing Shadow to appear as a god of death.

"What kind of aura is that?! Manifestation of aura to such an extent!! Even the Human Emperor can't do that!!" Elite War General Yi murmured to himself as he saw Shadow disappeared from the spot.

Panicked, Elite War General Yi immediately shouted out, "wait!! Don't kill me, I have what you want!!"

Just as his sentence ended, a colossal sword appeared inches above his shoulder, followed by a gush of wind, almost pummeling him to his knees.

"Speak," Shadow commanded, basking in his own aura.

"I can help you to overthrow the Human Emperor. You can become an Emperor!! Have all the women and riches, and I will serve you with all my heart!" Grabbing the chance, Elite War General Yi sputtered out everything and anything he could think of.

Without say a word, Shadow slightly lightened his grip on the colossal sword, allowing a tiny bit if its weight to rest on Elite War General Yi's shoulder.

Coupled with the weight of the sword and the pressure from Shadow's aura, he puked out a mouthful of blood as he fell to knees.

"Master...no, god! Yes, god! Ask me anything and everything! I will provide all that i know!!" Elite War General Yi rambled with a crazed look in his eyes.

"Who is behind the extermination of the Righteous Sword Sect and who killed Lin Fan?" Shadow lightened his tone when he spoke his brother's name. At the same time, a tinge of sorrow crept towards his heart, or wherever that was hurting.

"Ahhh!!! The sect extermination!! Yes, it was the Human Emperor!! Very right, I'm sure, yes yes..." Elite War General Yi started to mumble as his eyes lose focus; Insanity has completely taken hold of him.

"What about Lin Fan? Who killed him?" Shadow asked again, this time round with annoyance instead.

"What? Who? Oh, Lin Fan... Lin fan... I remember!!! I did it, it was meee, meee..." Elite War General Yi sang merrily as if he was recalling a good memory.

Shadow frowned for a minute before stabbing into the eyes of Elite War General Yi, forming 2 bloody holes.

"AHHH!! ME EYES!!! PAIN!! MUMMM!! THE WORLD HAS GONE DARK!!" Elite War General, no, i meant Lunatic Yi began running around wildly while covering his empty eye sockets, blood flowed incessantly nonetheless.

"May you never find peace as you suffer the wrath of your victims," Shadow stretched out his left hand as the red glow in his eye intensified.

Instantly, thousands of skull faced spirits began to rush out towards Elite War...Lunatic Yi, and soon enough, the screams of Elite...Lunatic Yi died and what replaced his original position was ashes.

It all came to an end.

Shadow gazed at the ashes for a minute, before heading towards the Imperial Capital. Now he knew who did it, the Human Emperor.

With a telepathic command, all of the beasts sprinted around the village as they followed Shadow into the distance.