Chapter 40: Freedom

Screams echo, beneath a Pink-Green Canopy

Year 11, Day 36

Ah… calm and serene peace. It was like the world had stopped and there was this soft veil of tranquility that draped above his eyes. Root felt peace, peace and happiness as he watched the fucking ugliest motherfuckers in the face of this world die by the righteous flames of his children!

"AHHHHH!"

"KILL IT! KILL IT!"

"WHAT DO YOU THINK I'M DOING!?"

Ahteus and Fiero shouted at each other, well, seeing as one had to stay on the ground to bind and trap the spiders (seeing them from very close) the other had to use his flames to burn the spiders. Lumin just floated there, face stoic and uncaring as their hands glowed with red light before firing a small concentrated ball of Light Qi and Fire Qi, killing a single spider instantly. "Father, are these spiders-?"

"...yes… They're using their own Poison Qi to spread their offspring within themselves and committing suicide to increase their numbers by somehow accelerating the growing speed of their children…" A single root, like a snake, shot out in a snapping motion, taking one of the spiders into itself: "I will analyze this for a while… Give me a few minutes." Immediately after that, they all heard Tahsm's voice as he took control over communication again! "Now ladies, gentlemen, and everyone in between-" Lumin chuckled: "-we're back with our usual shenanigans! Next in line we have great and unique song requests!" There was a sound of flipping through papers before he started speaking again: "-ahem! We're now streaming 80's Hits! Let's start with this one!"

Suddenly, a song started playing in their heads: "-Shot through the heart! And you're to blame, darlin' you give love, a bad name~!"

…although the time was not right, it was a great song.

Beneath a Mountain, Covered in Ash.

Long, bony fingers scrapped the walls of black soot and stone as the despairing wails of the condemned echoed.

"Mercy!"

"Save us!"

"Please- No!"

"AGHHRR!"

This was more common than you'd think. A simple cell made from dark and thick black metal was enough to hold the weak, since they had no Qi left within them as the metal had absorbed it all.

They were made with Dark Silver, a corrupted form of Silver that has been bathed in Death Qi, Dark Qi, or Yin Qi for a long time. The natural properties of Silver (Absorbing Qi into itself) become corrupt, and it starts to hungrily take in whatever type of Qi it can find and pulls into itself, storing it and converting it into whatever type of Qi that corrupted it in the first place. A Death Qi corrupted Dark Silver will pull any type of Qi around into itself and release Death Qi. The same would happen to a Yin Qi corrupted Silver or a Dark Qi corrupted Silver.

Such natural converters are rare in this cruel and corrupted world, but this type of Natural Qi Converter can be artificially created.

"..." Standing still within his cell, the pale and gaunt young man felt rage. He and his fellow friends were captured by a group of Cultivators that he had never heard of before. He was but a Cursedkin Cultivator, as were his friends, but they all had been taken to "feed" whatever is that these people have been feeding. Through the months he stayed here, he could feel his Qi being pulled out of his body and into the metal that constantly touched his body, the shackles on his wrists and heels were pulling the Qi from within his body and it made him weaker and weaker each and every day.

But there is something these people didn't know about.

He was a special and different Cursedkin. His friends all had consumed a single Beast Core when they started their cultivator journey, but he ended up consuming two… Technically it was one, but the cores were two sides of a different core that were compressed and forced together.

When someone who isn't part of a major Cultivation family has the talent to cultivate or wishes to cultivate, they have to first know their affinity- which Qi are their souls attuned to? The hardest way to find out is through meditation, connecting your consciousness to heaven and letting it whisper to you what Qi you should cultivate. The easiest way? Well, it was also the most painful way too- You just pull Qi from the world around you into yourself. If your soul accepts that Qi, then you're in luck, if it rejects that Qi, you'll be in a lot of pain until the Qi is expelled from your body naturally.

Once you know which Qi your soul is attuned to, you need to find a Beast Core that has the same affinity. A Earth Beast Core for an Earth Cultivator. A Water Beast Core for a Water Cultivator. And so on and so forth.

But our little trapped friend here lived in a city where there was a cultivation family. Ah, the Gloomrose Family was a family of Dark Qi Cultivators, they also had connections to the Golden Greed Guild of Merchants and they would always buy whatever Dark Qi Beast Core they could find, which made their collection of Dark Qi Beast Core increase and become a very good size. They, however, would not use these cores. They would crack and break them, using some sort of array to pull the Dark Qi from within the cores and cultivate it. They would also give these cores for the Cursedkin… In the beginning, he thought they were nurturing them, giving them a branch so they could climb the tree of cultivation and join their family.

But oh, how naive he was.

They gave him a Dual Core. A core that had been broken and fixed with another one of the same realm… This would normally kill the one who would become a Cursedkin, but it didn't kill him. The stronger he got by consuming more and more Dark Qi Beast Cores, the closer he got the family- Then he and his friends, fellow Cursedkin, were invited for a dinner at the Gloomrose yard.

They captured them and took them to their basement. There, they were thrown into these cages, and here he has been for the past 7 months. These cages would pull away at his Dark Qi from within his core, but it would also release Death Qi, which no one besides him knew was another type of Qi he had affinity for.

You see, the Dual Core he received that should've killed him, granted him two different inner beasts. And although they did not get along, they cooperated due to their similar nature. One of them was this enormous black panther with shining green eyes, a long tail that ended with a sting that looked like a bloomed rose, and a pair of curled horns. It would spend most of its time licking itself with its toxic saliva. The second one was this enormous raven-like bird with six eyes and four wings. The claws of this raven had four large talons that looked like dangerous swords, and whenever the raven would open its beak, this black smoke would pour out.

He had learned a little about these beasts… They were, after all, deadly beasts that only powerful cultivators can kill!

A Thousand Poisons Panther, and a Demonic Death Raven.

Two beasts that are different from each other, but somewhat similar… The Panther uses Dark Qi, Demonic Qi, and Poison Qi, while the Raven uses Death Qi, Demonic Qi, and Dark Qi.

These cells would release Death Qi after absorbing his Qi, which was meant to weaken his body until he was too weak to fight back- he had seen such happen to his friends, they stopped responding to his voice and they looked so weak -and as they were too weak to fight back, one of the Gloomrose servants would drag them up, and present them to the Gloomroses.

He knew he was too weak. He was in the 3rd stage of Core Exaltation realm when he was taken to this place, and now he has been degraded to a 4th stage Core Formation Cultivator. This process took 7 months because he actively resisted it and pulled the Death Qi expelled from the metal into himself, which was… not ideal. Mortals were not meant to cultivate Death Qi, it damaged his body because he wasn't strong enough to resist. His Dark Qi Core was starting to weaken- And that was when he had the craziest idea: What if he makes a second core, but with Death Qi instead?

And that's what he has been doing for the past 3 months.

And today, he succeeded. It was like he was cultivating all over again, he had to gather Death Qi (Qi Gathering Realm), which was easy thanks to all the cages around with people inside them that would release Death Qi. Then he had to build a steady foundation (Foundation Formation Realm) so his Cultivation would not crumble under itself, and then he started the process of making another core. Having two cores was not easy, he had to constantly keep them balanced or else he would explode. He knew that because he almost exploded! His body was in constant pain due to the strain he had to endure of having two cores within his body.

All of this, to escape.

'...here they come.' He laid completely still as the servants approached. He knew that they were mortal, he could easily kill them, but he didn't. He stayed still as they dragged his body out of here- His plan was simple: Once out of the basement, he would open his eyes a little to see where the nearest window is, and then he's going to jump to it.

Let's just say… He found a little thing about himself.

"He's heavier than the other cattle." One of the mortals complained: "Is he even supposed to be this heavy?"

"Stop complaining, Jerold-" …who names their kid that? "-you're just weak… Also, if lady Yuhoa hears you, she'll skin us alive!"

They were silent after that. He waited a few moments until he felt the darkness of the basement fade away- He opened his eyes a little and looked around, the first thing he saw was that he was in a long hallway, and at the end of it was a door. He looked to the left and right and saw various windows. Seeing his chance, he took it- In a simple movement, he got free from the hands of the servants ("Woah!" "SHIT-") before he fell on the ground. He got up a little wonky, his eyes hurt as he wasn't used to seeing the light of day after spending 7 months in complete darkness- He threw himself at the window, he felt light as his body was falling for a moment- "...freedom."

A pair of dark wings pushed from his back, tearing his skin away. With all his strength, he flew away. Higher and higher until he reached the clouds, and once there, he simply let his body glide forward, losing altitude ever so slightly until his wings passed by a hot air current, which lifted him up again as he followed it naturally.

He was free…

What now?

-[author]-

New Character introduction! Let's start with appearance:

He is a tall and lanky man with long black hair and sunken yellow eyes. He is a Cursedkin so clearly he has animalistic features, and since he has two Inner Beasts, they manifest in different ways. He has the yellow eyes of the raven (and also the wings), his nails of his hand are sharp claws while the nails of his feet are sharp talons. His arms are covered in dark fur and he has a long black panther tail.

Wakanda Forever, am I right?

Also, thank you for your support, my patreons: Dallas Meck, mamun220, Keith Brown, Kaleb, and underdog121! Your support helps me write and gives me the will to live. Thank you :3