Chapter 24: Red Memories

Ten years ago.

A tall, well-dressed man with long black hair and exceptionally striking pink eyes was walking through a dark alley in the middle of a rainy night.

He had a muscular contour in his elegant black clothes and a sword hung from his relatively thin waist.

Even with the impaired visibility of the dim surroundings, he came off as a handsome man of an important origin.

Splashing sounds evidenced his footsteps; the cemented floor was covered by a thin veil of muddy water that dirtied his black boots.

He traversed through the narrow path where beggars could be found lying every few steps, until he reached its end, arriving at a small open space where each wall was dwelled by old wooden doors, which in their fragility, wouldn't stop anyone who tried to barge in.

The man chose the closest door to his right, and after a few short steps, opened it up with one of his hands in a slow but confident motion.

'So this is the famous child we haven't been able to put down.' He thought as the scene inside the room revealed itself before him.

What welcomed him was a gruesome outcome to an obvious conflict. Blood was all over the cheap wooden walls. Fifteen corpses were lying lifelessly on the dirty floor, each with different fatal injuries. Some had parts of their body bitten off, others appeared to be crushed by some sort of giant object and the rest couldn't be differentiated as they were nothing but piles of flesh.

A young kid was sitting in a fetal position at the end of the room. He was leaning against the wall with his head turned downwards and resting on top of his bent knees and arms.

His hair was short and white, it was a little messy but still looked presentable.

Something caught the man's attention: The little boy didn't have a stain of blood on his attire. He was wearing an oversized, thin black cloak that gave the suspicion of being stolen, covering every inch of his skin, including his hands and feet.

He was shaking, but the weather wasn't that cold.

When the pink-eyed man dressed in black took a step forward, an immense pressure immediately fell upon him, enough to crush a normal person to a soup many times. However, it wasn't enough to threaten his life, he was a Third Realm expert after all.

He returned his gaze to the white-haired kid, who was now looking at him with his enervating red eyes, and smiled.

"It 's alright, kid. I'm not here to harm you."

…

Within the deepest zone of Gray Grass Sect, outside a large building that resembled a tent, a short boy with thin limbs was comically carrying a fat and large body many times heavier than his own. Small drops of blood fell off the carried boy, but the former didn't seem to mind.

"We're almost here, Brother Fang! You have to hold on!"

"How many times do I need to tell you that my condition is not that bad!"

"Stop acting tough Senior Brother! You need medical attention as soon as-"

"Stay right there!"

When Ling Zhou, who was carrying Fang Chang, was ten meters away from the entrance of the Medical Grass, he was stopped by one of the many disciples guarding the building.

"You darned evil disciples of the Flaming Swamp Sect, you want to attack the place where we treat our wounded now!?"

"Guys, it's a misunderstanding! I lost my clothes so I had to steal some from a dead person… I really am a disciple of the Gray Grass Sect, and I've brought a wounded boy!"

"Do you think we're dumb!? You probably put a bomb in that guy's body! You're not going through this door as long as we are ali-"

"Let him in, I know him."

A girl wearing a sling that held in place one of her arms came out of the large wooden doors. She had heard the commotion outside and only took her a few seconds to reach the exit.

"Thank you, Sister… uh, sister-"

"Feng Mai."

The girl that seemed drained out of all energy spoke. She appeared to have aged ten years; she was pale, her hair was messy and her eyelids fought to stay open.

"Right, Sister Feng, you have saved this fat boy's life. A little more time and I'm afraid he-"

"Shut up, Ling Zhou! How many times have I told you, my life is not in danger!"

"Don't listen to him, Sister Feng. He's already at the point of spouting nonsense. Now, if you excuse us…"

Ling Zhou was about to go through the big gray doors when someone's hand grabbed his shoulder, stopping him.

"Before that, change your clothes. We don't want you to scare everyone inside. Here's a spare change."

The young guard then threw a set of gray robes at him, which fell to the ground because he wasn't able to catch them as he was carrying Fang Chang.

"..."

"I'll put him down."

"Wait! Someone's coming!"

"What!? Where?"

"I know them! They were the ones that put me in this state!"

When Fang Chang realized a familiar group wearing black and orange appeared behind the curtain of fog that surrounded the tournament's area, which was now like the eye of a storm because of the dark walls of smoke rising to the sky and encircling it, he alarmed the others.

Everyone turned their heads towards the new visitors, including the people who hadn't left the area where the Vice Sect Leader had given his speech. The place was filled with disciples of Gray Grass Sect, so no one from the Flaming Swamp Sect had invaded the place yet.

It was like the fortress where the final battle was going to break out –the final line of defense. The only thing strange wasLing Zhou reaching the Medical Grass without anyone attacking him, but the reason was that it wasn't easy to notice the color of his clothes; Fang Chang's fat was covering, after all.

But before the more than a hundred people, scattered all over the still intact, green field of grass, could make a move, the invaders dropped their weapons.

"We surrender!" One of them shouted, raising his arms.

The rest of them followed suit, kneeling.

"What?" Everyone was confused. Why would a group of enemies suddenly come to the area with the biggest density of their adversaries, only to surrender?

Much time hadn't gone by since the battle started, the fights of the elders were still ongoing and the casualties weren't that high yet. Their decision didn't make any sense.

"Is it a trick?" Someone asked.

"It's clear they realized we were stronger! Brothers and sisters, we will win this battle!"

"Yeah! They know they are going to lose!"

Thinking this, the crowd's morale rose again.

"They couldn't see after I encountered them. They probably took the wrong path and, when they recovered some of their vision, got lost, and ended up here."

However, Fang Chang had his own theory.

"That doesn't explain why they're giving up."

Yang Pei, who came out of nowhere, tried to rebuke the fat boy's words.

"Someone smart would surrender if they accidentally got right into the wolf's lair. There was nowhere to run."

"Wasn't it the lion's den?"

"What?"

"I-I mean, the expression."

Bai Shang, the inner disciple and friend of the only guy who went to watch the ODTCOGGS, joined the conversation. Seeing him, still on top of Ling Zhou's thin body, Fang Chang then found the other person whom he was more familiar with.

"Our most loyal fan is here too! Were you two together, Brother Ya-?"

"You can't talk, Brother Fang. You need urgent medical assistance! I already changed my clothes, let 's go inside."

"What? When? W-wait Junior Brother! I said I-"

Bam!

The door was slammed open by Ling Zhou's foot, disappearing inside the building along with Fang Chang and Feng Mai.

The rest that remained outside looked at each other, and after a short moment, followed the trio inside the improvised war hospital.

…

"Are you guys dumb!? How did we even get into this situation!?"

"It's Mila's fault! We just followed her after she ran off somewhere. Why did you rashly leave, when we couldn't even see!?"

"We have a mission to accomplish, so we had to be quick. I was sure we were going in the right direction…"

"Screw that! Why did you have to force us to surrender!?"

"Are you confident in surviving against this number of people when we can barely-"

"You people, shut up!"

The newly arrived group got their whisperings interrupted by one of their escorts. The seven of them had all been tied up by the wrists and although their spiritual energy wasn't blocked, couldn't act up quickly enough to escape without dying.

What no one knew was that they weren't Flaming Swamp Sect's disciples, but a random group of people that had sneaked in the battle when it had just started. They were scouting the perimeter of Gray Grass Sect for another motive, but seized the opportunity when they found out what was happening.

But now, they had been taken captive and their leader wasn't even with them.

"You are our first prisoners, so we won't kill you yet."