Chapter 2: Maddening Eye

Luo Zhen contemplated the method for cultivating the auxiliary Maddening Eye. The technique required the absorbance of negative emotions. Depending on the emotions the practitioner provided the embryonic eye, the eye would develop the appropriate attribute. The soul technique provided a method that could stimulate the eye to absorb negative emotions.

Luo Zhen calmed his mind and began to enter a state of deep meditation. He decided the strongest negative emotion he could conjure was the helpless, suicidal state Shen Xian had left him memories of.

Memories surfaced and a strong emotion of despair filled his very being. A sense of disgust and nausea caused Luo Zhen to vomit his gastric juices onto the small rug he sat on.

He hardened his trembling jaw and focused on his task. The embryonic eye in his mindscape began to faintly hum and rhythmically pulsate, the emotions of helplessness fluctuated and were pulled into the eye, a faint purple coloration began to replace the initially clear blue pupil. 

Luo Zhen's initially restless heart began to regain its calm, this was an example of the function of the cultivation art. Not only was it able to attack, emotions like what he felt today would not be something he would have to experience in the future as the embryonic eye would constantly absorb it to protect its practitioner.

"Alright, huuh, now I just need to intensify these emotions."

The Maddening Eye skill was pretty easy to cultivate, building the initial structure of the eye was the hard prerequisite. Now after attributing a new nature to the eye, all he had to do was intensify the maddening emotion with wisps of spiritual energy. 

The Thousand Eye Damning Heaven Art was truly one of the most coveted techniques across the vast dimensions due to its complete and complex system. Not only did it include a mantra to cultivate incredibly pure spiritual energy, but the mere existence of a spiritual eye nurtured the soul, which in turn increased the production of spiritual energy thereon out.

As wisps of spiritual energy were produced from the central soul orb, Luo Zhen manipulated them accordingly and condensed and multiplied the maddening emotions. Only when the sun began to shine its bright rays through the thin straw windows did he stop, having completed the Maddening Eye preparation.

With a deep breath Luo Zhen stopped his nightly meditation, his eyes flashed a deep purple inviting a flurry of madness driving emotions, then they flashed again back to their black gem-like luster.

Luo Zhen didn't even bathe or change clothing, he simply got up, dusted his clothes with a few swipes and left his tiny home. This era was still very ancient and bathing was not a daily practice for the common people, especially for farmers who didn't have to keep their appearances.

"Little Luo, hey! What do you think about today? Are you going to pay a visit to Old Leng?"

An older man with an especially dirty appearance skipped around before nearing Luo Zhen.

"Long Shen, I've already told you more times than I can count. No, I will not go pay a visit to Old Leng, and you can forget about borrowing as well, you still haven't paid me those 20 coppers I loaned you a month ago."

Luo Zhen was a bit frustrated with this druggie that kept buzzing around him, like a fly on dung.

"Ah! Alright! Alright, I didn't know respecting your elders was a thing of the distant past! I'll make sure to let the Zhang family head know of your misdeeds!"

The old man suddenly grew angry and spouted some nonsense, then his attitude suddenly changed once again and he skipped away in glee.

'Fucking crazy ass old man!'

Luo Zhen dealt with a similar scene everyday, this Long Shen had long been driven mad by a consumption of an assortment of illicit drugs peddled by Leng Shin, he was beyond help.

Luo Zhen grumbled as he picked up his sickle from a Zhang Family employee. Heading into the fields, he made some plans to acquire some funds now that he was more capable. 

'Let's see, Maddening Eye could incapacitate pretty much anyone with a weaker soul than mine. How could I use that to get out of these fields? Assault a martial artist? Possible, but there is a bit of risk there. Robbery? I could rob some domestic merchants' estates using the Maddening Eye to incapacitate the guards. Hahh, but all these carry quite a bit of risk.'

Luo Zhen continued to work the fields, his motions mechanical as he had become adjusted to this livelihood in this half a year.

Luo Zhen decided that he would leave that night and head into the city, he would decide how to act when he was already there. There were many options to get his hand on that long-coveted shiny metal, but it was down to whether or not he had the guts to act.

A few hours passed and it was already late into the night as Luo Zhen meditated, a sack was placed in his lap. The rusting of small rocks in the moist soil rubbing together was heard around Luo Zhen's home. The stepping stopped outside his door, the silence was then broken as his door made a creek as it was opened from the outside. 

"Luo Zhen, hmph, it's your fault after all, your fault. If only you had let me borrow some money I wouldn't have to steal from you. Hmph it's your fault after all, it's your fault after all, it really is your fault."

Faint rambling was heard as an older figure walked into the small mud home. His eyes shone as he noticed Luo Zhen sleeping tightly in his bed, he ignored the young man and walked around rubbing his fingers against the soil. Long Shen knew many people hid their money underground, in what other place could the money be?

"Little fool you forced my hand."

Luo Zhen didn't even wait for Long Shen to turn around in surprise, his pupils became a dark purple and a corrosive spiritual energy shot into Long Shen's mindscape through his right temple.

Long Shen was instantly affected as he became unresponsive. Only his glazed eyes and his mutterings were evidence of something that had transpired. 

"Kill me now, son. I'm a waste. I'm a waste. I'm a waste of a father. Kill me with your hand. I'm just a junkie after all."

Long Shen muttered as he rocked his body gently to uselessly attempt to comfort his mourning heart.

Luo Zhen spent an hour observing Long Shen, this was his first attempt at using his cultivation in the real world. Even then, a feeling of dissatisfaction stifled his accomplished heart.

Luo Zhen stepped forward and held Long Shen's forehead and looked into his eyes. Images stimulated by the Maddening Eye were reflected in Luo Zhen's. He could see Long Shen's pitiful upbringing and his continuous mistakes driven by a desire to forget his childhood.

"Haah, nothing is ever simple. Let's see if this works, Long Shen. I hope you can get your shit together afterwards."

Luo Zhen willed control over the Madness in Long Shen. The embryonic eye pulsated and formed an attractive force, extracting the Maddening spiritual energy back into the eye. 

Long Shen trembled a bit before he passed out in exhaustion.

"If it's effective like this, then I have confidence this plan can work out."

Inspired by Long Shen's plight, Luo Zhen walked out and headed into the city. He rather not report his wishes to terminate his contract as early termination came at a cost, and Luo Zhen was not willing to hand back his hard earned copper. If they wanted it so badly they could get it from his hand themselves, afterall he was not a soft persimmon anymore. 

"I'm just being hyperbolic, at most they'll just bar me from working here again."

Instead of returning to Soft Willow Town, where he had his ancestral home, he decided to stay in Small Stone City, after all it was larger and had greater wealth to plunder.

________________

A few days had passed and Luo Zhen was idle in a small hotel towards the center of the city. In the day he would walk around and look for potential prey, while at night he would meditate in place of sleep.

On the fifth day in the city he got his first opportunity, the fourth young master of the Jiang Family was visiting a restaurant with a few friends and his personal guards. The Jiang Family had a wealth comparable to the Zhang Family due to its ownership of more than thirty percent of the shops in the city as well as few others in surrounding settlements. 

Luo Zhen sat in a restaurant adjacent to the Festive Halls Restaurant. While the Festive Halls Restaurant had three floors, the Dawn Mediterranean Restaurant had only two. 

Luo Zhen was seated at the top floor towards the end where the Dawn Mediterranean Restaurant met the wall of the Festive Halls Restaurant. Both restaurants were owned by the Jiang Family and Festive Halls Restaurant was especially built for the pleasure of three largest family clans in Small Stone City, requiring an identity token to enter assuring the common people could not enter. 

Luo Zhen watched as the fourth young master of the Jiang Family entertained his friends, their boisterous laughter occasionally making its way into his ears. Luo Zhen ordered a couple different soup dumpling dishes and ate them listlessly as his eyes were focused on their target. 

They were standing about 50 meters from Luo Zhen, the long wooden window making the perfect occasion for action. Luo Zhen's eyes became lifeless as the purple pupil shimmered in the sun's rays.

Only a second passed before five people in the group sat in fear, sweat dripped from their forehead as helplessness filled their hearts. One young man, about 18 years of age, directly picked up a knife from the table and stabbed it through his ribcage directly into his heart.

Screams came flying out as the young nobles began to scream in fright. Luo Zhen was also surprised and a bit stupefied. He expected them to feel helplessness and to become deranged, "possessed" by Madness, but he didn't expect how effective it could be to the right person.

The emotions of guilt came, but they were swiftly absorbed by the embryonic eye in his mindscape. He was aware of it, but did not stop it as this scenario was not a one off thing, situations like these would probably continue, after all the martial world was inherently cruel.

The Jiang Family guards quickly protected the remaining four young men from themselves, tying them in silk ribbons fashioned from the ripped tablecloth.

Over the next ten days, Luo Zhen continued to attack people from different families, aiming for the younger generation, though some elders of the families were also successfully attacked. The two elders from the Jiang Family he had attacked were accomplished second rate martial artists. He was able to catch them lacking when they personally escorted a group of carriages from another town into Small Stone City.

Now rumors were floating around, tales of demonic spirits coming to enact revenge on the rich circulated popularly among the lower stratum. Some other rumors began to spread afterwards, the accounts of the city's physicians' failure to treat the deranged nobles fueled the superstitious tales, causing some to think that the fate of the three families would result in destruction in the coming days.

Though, it was not just the common people that were filled with these obnoxious tales, the upper stratum similarly feared this unknown threat and had begun to post recruitment posters for exorcists. 

Martial arts were the only true force in the empire and exorcists were viewed as swindlers as the supernatural was not something that occurred frequently, and since it was so metaphysical testing the validity of exorcists skill and claims was incredibly difficult.

Finally, three days after he attacked the Jiang Family elders, posters recruiting exorcists began to get posted all around the city. 

" Help! The Jiang, Zhang, and Li Families are currently

 looking for exorcists, all are welcome to demonstrate 

 their skills, those capable, will be rewarded handsomely!

 Reward for Exorcism: 100 Gold Coins "

'One hundred gold coins? Quite a hefty sum.'

It was a very large sum, 30 copper coins was the salary of a farmer every month after all. In a year, 365 copper coins, equivalent to around three silver coins were able to be earned. How many years would it take to earn one gold coin if its equivalency was one hundred silver coins?

It's impossible! Even for the three big families, their incoming profit was around one gold coin every month, one hundred coins even when divided among the forces was a substantial amount.

Donned in a recently purchased black cloak, Luo Zhen made his way into the Jiang Family compound first.