Second Meeting

It was already dark when the five of them reach the entrance to the Dahu village. It wasn’t welcoming, not even a single soul accepted warm regards. The people were afraid of the killings which made them unable to walk when the sun was about to hide. The three disciples roam around to look for an inn. Jia and Zihan also took the other route to seek a resting place for the night.

Jia looked up in the dark blanketed clouds, the conditions weren’t helping; it was about to rain heavily and they aren’t familiar with the directions. Zihan also looks serious which might keep the young man quiet. He traces what the young master was staring at, it was an old bur oak tree, monster in size appeared horrifying in the picture. Something that added creepiness to the old tree was the crows who were loitering around.

Zihan’s eyebrow furrowed, he made the carriage stop right in front of the massive tree, he hops out followed by Jia, the crows reacted to the sound and started cawing uncontrollably. There were hundreds of them that it was so terrible to hear the noise they were making. Jia was tensed, he was afraid that something bad might happen since it was a sign of impending death.

“Young master!” Jia uttered his voice wavering; he was afraid but the determination to protect Zihan at all cost was restraining him to be nothing but a slump idiot.

Zihan turns his head to Jia with a stern expression; he wasn’t even smiling. The thought shook the man himself. He felt chickening away, and about the possibility that all of them might survive. Zihan open his mouth to talk, his senses were sharper than before “Ge, can you go find someplace for us to stay. Will you be alright without me?” his throat bobbed as if something was making him uneasy.

“What?” was the only thing that Jia spit out to talk back to Zihan. He was hunching that Zihan sense that they were not the only ones in the place right now. Suddenly, they heard a faint sound not far from them. The young master alerted himself, he quickly draws his sword blocking Jia to protect the man behind him.

Jia got goosebumps all over, he didn’t know exactly what was happening. He keeps his guard on Zihan who was looking at the oak tree and then at the dark bushes in front of them. He was puzzled as to why the young master seemed to like seeing something he can’t see.

“Ge, go inside the carriage now!!” Zihan shouted at him, it made Jia scared that he can’t move. Not even a single strand of his hair is willing to move, he becomes a statue.

“Crap!” Zihan yanked him dashing through the carriage and with a “thud” Jia was laying inside. He can’t let Zihan die. It wasn’t his intention to let go of Zihan this way. Jia tried to grab the young master’s outer robe but he failed. The young master swiftly went out without turning his back to glance at Jia. The linen wildly flutters, it was the only thing that separates Jia’s vision outside. He witnesses everything Zihan was fighting some entity he can’t see. The young master swung his sword sideways, there was a glitch every time he strikes. Jia was sweating nervously; his hand was trembling. He knows Zihan was having a hard time dealing with the entity himself because the young master’s face was in terrible appearance. His breath shortens and his pace becomes slower.

The crows continue to caw, the wind becomes unbearably strong that the dust turns into a dirty fog. The unknown entity made a deep cut on Zihan’s shoulder. The blood splatters everywhere, but Zihan wasn’t giving up. He strikes and strikes until they heard a roaring sound from where the young master was standing. Jia stiffly stood up, his knees might be a little weak and the ache on his back was throbbing, but he overlooked it all.

The raging wind calm down a bit, and Jia was on his way to Zihan; he looked relieved that the young master was still fine and that he wasn’t going to die on him. Zihan glances in his direction and softly smiles. Jia dashed forward he was worried because Zihan was panting hard. His sword was bathed in blood. He thought that was the end when suddenly Zihan become tense again and he quickly tried to protect Jia from someone. The sword flew over Jia’s side there was a glitch near him. He dares to look at it when the horrifying feeling devoured him. He can see what the entities form.

It was terrifyingly big; the eyeballs seem like popping out at any second. The feet were nowhere humanely it was like a wolf, thousand of its torn from head to bottom. The mouth had sharp fangs that can kill a thousand men. The monster roared at him ready to strike at the man.

Jia was petrified, he can’t hear what Zihan was shouting. His strength betrayed him.

Zihan summoned his sword again, he run towards Jia and throw him out of the danger. He aims at the monster’s head and skillfully swayed his sword despite the immense pain he was feeling in the cut he contained.

The monster cried in pain; his body wriggled wildly while the unfamiliar smoke slowly eats him. Zihan stabs his sword on the ground supporting his weak body. Jia hurriedly went on Zihan to help him. The blood openly flowed staining Zihan’s robe. Jia was crying, he tried to choke back a cry but his tears gushed out without stopping.

“Ge, I am fine do not cry,” Zihan assures Jia but the young master’s breathing was erratic and panic-filled Jia’s mind.

“No…. ngh we m... must hurry.” Jia was trying to carry Zihan on his back. He also senses the surroundings keeping his eyes as sharp as possible.

He was looking everywhere like a maniac that was paranoid about the lurking danger. Zihan weakens, and his sword disappears into thin air.

“Ge, I think I was poison,” Zihan confesses while he was leaning on Jia’s back.

“What… what… why?” Jia’s panicked voice reverberated.

“It stops me from drawing out my sword. The wound was consuming my chi so much, that I didn’t know that Wu Siwang’s right-hand man was here too. He was the only one capable of creating that poison. I was….” Zihan suddenly throws up fresh blood in his mouth. It stained Jia’s robes but the lad keep his pace begging Zihan not to say a word anymore. Jia felt guilty; he was dying from it. They could’ve prevented all of this from happening if he was honest but it was too late to even take the blame.

He was running wildly like a madman. The crows seem to follow them because the more he runs away, the cawing becomes closer. Jia felt like giving up, his heart was abnormally fast. He was having trouble catching his breath. Zihan on the other side went slumped, heating up from the poison.

“Zihan,” Jia shouted at the man turning his head to look at the young master who was now unconscious.

“Shit.” His eyes were blurry, the road was dark no light was there to guide him. He may stumble, knees bleeding from the rough impact of sharp objects, but Jia didn’t protest with Zihan on his back because the only priority he had was to find a safe place for the young master.

While he was running for their lives, he felt like Zihan was getting heavier and heavier. The young master’s hands were like knives trying to cut on Jia’s flesh skin. The unbearable pain kept on increasing and suddenly he heard a devilish laugh.

“You are next, An Jia”. A ghastly voice reaches his ears.

It daunts Jia at the moment, stopping his pace as he heard the familiar threat that haunts him in his sleep. He nervously looked at the one, he was carrying the whole time.

It was nothing like Zihan, it was the very face of an old man who haunts him in his nightmare. The same muddy cloak, the stench smelled like a corpse rotting away. He was clutching hard on Jia that the man’s skin was turning red and some even made slits on the pale skin.

“Stay away from me!!” Jia shoved the old man away it felt like they were glued together, not wanting to separate from each other.

Jia’s mind was corrupted by fear and loss. His thought was wandering for Zihan while his body was fighting for the old man. He tried to peel himself but the old man was stubborn and then he went on bite hard on Jia’s neck.

The excruciating pain was immeasurable, he shouted at the top of his lungs until his vocal cord broke off. The old man was nibbling, sucking, and biting his neck. Jia slumped hard on the ground knocking his head off.

The old man then stood up looking at the lad with his predatory eyes. The crows were ready to aim at the limp body but it was restrained by some sort of dark aura, a smoke that floats like a snake guarding Jia’s weak state.

“Zi…. Zihan,” he mumbled bathing in his blood.

The old man yanked his forearm, the force was too strong that Jia’s arm made a cracking sound.

“No!!! Ah!!! It hurts… it hurts so much let go of me!!” his voice was broken Jia was tired from shouting and defending his own. Without any hardship the man dragged him, pacing forward the old man was still holding the poor man’s forearm while the lump body was forced to take in the pain that was rubbing on him.

After getting dragged for a long time, the old man dropped Jia at the place where it all happened. There was an indescribable noise and unusual whispers. A ghoulish sensation that made the man alarmed about what was happening around him.

All his hopes crumbled to pieces as his life shattered like fragile glass. He met eyes with the young master and the three more disciples who were with them. They were tied up, disheveled, and with blood coming out from everywhere in their body. Zihan was the worst, his skin was torn like paper, topless with only his pants on. His feet were bounded and his arms tied behind.

His eyes were crying blood as he shouts for Jia who was currently lying on the cold ground staring at him.

“Don’t… don’t do anything…” Zihan pleaded when the old man was walking closer to Jia.

The old man just laughs it off and yanked the young man’s hair up, it hurts like hell. But for Jia who witnesses the fall of his young master and his beloved friends, it makes him feel numb at the moment.

“Don’t you dare touch him!!!!” Zihan shouted trying to squirm at the hardest. They were just looking at each other. A look in a helpless state.

The old man maniacally laughs as he was into Jia’s blood that he made a move to taste another bite on the poor man. The scream of An Jia was heard all over the place, his tired voice that keep on protesting, shoving the old man with all his might.

The disgust and fear were in a total mix that he acts like a man losing his soul. Zihan keep on shouting, he didn’t care whether he was naked, the only thing that embeds his mind was to save Jia from the old weird man who keeps on latching at his poor Gege.

Suddenly, a thick fog was forming out of nowhere. The old man stops from whatever he was doing and focuses on the upcoming guest. He wickedly smiles at the silhouette not far from them.

“If it was Xieye, what are you doing here?” the old man was circling the silhouette with great interest.

“Take your filthy mouth out of that child’s body.” The man had glowing crimson eyes, a slender hand, and nails too long that can cut anyone’s skin.

“What do you mean? It was the vessel surely; we can taste that man. He will also be devoured by us. Right?” the old man clicked his tongue as if he entices the clad.

“Silver Monarch isn’t it,” the silhouette grin at the old man.

“You are too dumb to become Siwang’s, right man. I always wonder what bangs Siwang’s head that he picked a useless man like you. Does your elder know you were imitating him?” the silhouette crosses his arms, glancing at Jia’s state.

“Apo Kankai was too old and busy to even notice me. That old man didn’t even have an idea that I reconciled with you and helped a certain someone for a vessel.” The old man turned to his original form; he was a young man who had a lanky build. His old muddy cloak became a crimson red shade with the anonymous symbol at the back of it.

“So, aren’t you letting me taste the vessel first?” he put his arms on the silhouette with a friendly gesture.

“Not for now, he needs to be filled with the demon core first.” The silhouette added uninterested.

“What do you mean the demon core? Who’s the vessel?” Zihan suddenly spoke out.

Jia lifts his head, crawling like a bloody worm. He was afraid for his young master’s safety.

“The Black Dragon will never surrender the demon core to you witches!!! “Zihan added.

Silver Monarch looked at Zihan with an exciting stature. He then crouched down and grabbed the young master’s chin lifting it to level him.

“You are what they called “The Second Siwang” truly your core was immensely strong. The mana surrounding this young man was not a joke either. Should I eat you instead” Zihan’s eyes unwavered. He wasn’t afraid of the threat.

“No!!! Get away from him!” Jia tried to crawl forward to stop the Silver Monarch from touching Zihan.

The guy just laughs at him, turning his attention to Jia instead “You were too stupid to scream and demand me to not touch your master when you’re the one who run away leaving him.” he stepped on Jia’s back until the young man’s whole body flattened on the ground.

“I wasn’t running away… I… I was sure it was him… It was him I carried on my back.” he insisted.

“He was under hallucination you made him run away with you to distract me!!!” Zihan angrily shouted back at the man who was stomping Jia’s body.

“Hmmm… Whatever.” The silver monarch then walks back at Zihan and took a tiny knife out of his fabricated pocket.

“What are you doing?” Zihan ask him with a calculated look face.

“Getting a piece of flesh on you.” the silver monarch then crouched down and slowly ripped Zihan’s robe.

“Hell no, get off me!!” Zihan struggles to move because he was bounded by a tied that had a tiny thorn in it. He was bleeding all over.

He stabbed a little on Zihan’s arm and take the knife deeper, the young master screeched in pain. He was kicking his leg wildly trying to let himself go from the inflicted stab. The disciples were unconscious that they weren’t aware of what was happening.

The man just greedily laughs at Zihan’s painful stature. He can’t believe a mighty master of the Black Dragon clan will fall into their own hands. He chased Zihan, planning to stab him again but a big “thud” was heard and the silver monarch stumbled across the ground he held his head which was now dripping with blood.

“FUCK!!!” he cussed looking at the man responsible. In front of him was Jia hurriedly untying Zihan unbothered by the man who just made a fuss.

Jia almost untied the young master but then someone yanked him from behind. His head made a cracking sound due to the extreme force. It was sudden that he felt numbness in every corner of his body. The man bangs his head on the cold ground making Jia’s world spin crazily, his nose was bleeding.

“Arrgh” was the only thing he could spit out of his broken voice.

“How could you hurt me.” Every word was equated with a bang on his head. Zihan pleaded with him not to hurt Jia anymore but the man didn’t listen. He continues to bash Jia’s head on the ground until he was satisfied.

“Stop it” Qi Xieye insisted on stopping the silver monarch.

With a panting breath, the man stopped, Jia’s face almost couldn’t be recognized. He was an ordinary man without a core. Surely, he will die soon.

Zihan was crying his eyes out, crawling his way to Jia. The young master panicked.

Jia’s vision failed him this time. He wanted to keep the fight but he had a body of a powerless man. A weak feeble lad. He doesn’t want to believe that the truth he was carrying will be buried with him.

If he had power, even a demonic one, he might have a chance to save the soul of that innocent one and then kill himself afterward

But then again, he was slapped by the reality of him being the disadvantaged one. An unfortunate lad who was born worthless in this world. In the end, he failed to protect Zihan and his friends. He was a failure. His tears flowed down with his sore and beaten eyes closed.

Before passing out, he wanted to reach someone’s robe in the hope of not hurting the young master. He didn’t know whose robe was it.

With a little voice he got, he desperately plead a word enough to suck all his energy to knock him unconscious.

“Don’t hurt… him” …………...