Liberty shelter

Bian looked at Philip again, his clear white skin, had patches of red here and there. He was also sweating profusely, like a woman in labour.

"Hey are you alright?" Bian picked him up, his body was scalding hot.

"It must be the blood oath, probably triggered by the death of Labak." Philip said.

"Labak's house, something tells me a solution should be there" Philip pointed a finger in its direction, his voice sounding weak.

Bian helped him stand upright, as they navigated through the shelter to Labak's room. The two guard stationed outside had collapsed on the floor, blood red patches visible on their skin.

Bian entered the room and dropped Labak by the side, the interior of the room was full of different canisters of blood. 

"Over there" Labak weakly pointed to a bookshelf, he was on the verge of losing consciousness. Bian brought out an old box, it had no keyhole or seam.

It looked like a complete cube, with his jade like hands, he cleaved the top of the box. A light scratch was left on the box. 

"Ain't got the time for this" Bian summoned the manticore, it shot a green beam at the box.

Although the box could resist the shock of the beam, it couldn't resist its acidic properties. Soon the lid of the box melted away.

Bian brought out two books from the box. A Sutra and a book on formations using blood.

The lightning rune surfaced in Bian's mind, time seemed to slow to a crawl. Philip watched as Bian flipped through the pages lightning quick and closed the book in seconds.

Even supassers couldn't read a book that fast, Bian ran out the room and quickly returned with the corpse of Labak.

Under the incredulous gaze of Philip, Bian used Labak's blood to draw a matrix on the floor. His consciousness faded as Bian seemed to chant something.

...

"Wake up!" Bian tapped Philip, he stood up and looked around him, the canisters of blood remained and the carcass of Labak was still on the floor.

"How long was I out?" Philip asked.

"A minute or so" Bian responded and picked up the other book, the sutra. After skimming through all the pages, he found that it was a variant to the blood-pulse sutra called the blood-refine sutra.

The blood-pulse sutra allows user to pass down his abilities to the next generation in the users genetics. Each following generations would be stronger than the previous if they continue practicing the sutra, finally turning the blood blue and providing tremendous power. Being able to showcase speed equivalent to teleportation just by jumping.

The blood-refine sutra was used to empower the practitioners blood. They could refine the blood of people and creatures to enhance their physique. 

Unlike the blood-pulse sutra, the blood refine sutra didn't necessarily need a blood legion artifact to be cultivated.

One could sacrifice their eyes or their skeleton to practice the sutra, the sacrificing of eyes only had a fifty percent success rate while that of the skeleton boasted a guaranteed pass to cultivate the sutra.

Bian took a look under Labak's eyepatch, his eyeball was still there, it was as black as night, an unreal kind of darkness.

"Hey Philip, the teeth are a part of the skeleton right?" Bian rhetorically asked, he knew the answer to this question.

'Blacktooth shelter' Bian got up and walked out. Now anyone who drank the blood oath was free, but the minotaur still blocked the teleporter.

Bian went to the front of the group of people who had gathered. Anger, malice, sadness and despair filled their eyes.

"Labak is dead, you are free to leave the sanctuaries but first, I want you to hear me out." Bian didn't yell but his voice was audible throughout the shelter.

"I know a lot of you have been mistreated, maybe you've even lost hope in humanity. I wouldn't blame you, but I want, no I need you to know something" Bian began to walk and the people followed him quietly, he caught sight of Zack holding a woman, presumably his wife, in his embrace.

They walked to a certain high profile home, when the mob of people saw Philip, they nearly started a riot.

"What did you do to those young men and women."

"You're a monster!"

"People like you are the cause of evil, if the bad people don't see customers, evil wouldn't be so prosperous" Zack's wife said in anger. A lot of young men and women had gone missing in that house.

With a nod from Bian, Philip walked into the house. A few seconds later, he came out with twenty or more people. They had smiles on their face and looked perfectly fine.

The mob of people were left aghast. Philip cleared his throat and spoke up. "Firstly let me say, I am deeply sorry for turning a blind eye to the suffering around me" Philip gave a bow.

"I spent a lot of money to save as much people as I could from the grasp of those devils in human skin. I truly wanted to help but this was the most I could do. Please forgive my powerlessness." Philip was on the verge of tears as he spoke.

"You have heard, know you can make a choice. Stay or leave." Bian continued his monologue.

"From now on, this shelter shall be called liberty shelter. The rent shall be free and power returned back to the people. I nominate Zack to be the new leader" Bian had already convinced fifty percent of the people present with his opening speech.

The remaining people were scared, after all Bian was also in a position of power. He could choose to start a reign of terror at any time.

With a leader chosen from among them, someone who always stood strong even when suppressed. Ninety-nine percent chose to stay and try to make a living in the sanctuaries.

"Well you can count me out" A man with bruises said, he had been tortured by his previous owner.

Like a house of cards, four more people decided to leave. Bian had already unsummoned the Minotaur, he was more than happy with the number that chose to stay.

"Wait, I never said I wanted to be a leader" Zack spoke up, a little bit flustered.

"But it's what the people want" Bian said to him.

Zack looked around him, he saw the hope in their eyes. Even if it was just a tiny bit of hope, he couldn't be the one to extinguish it.

"But I don't have the power.." Zack stopped talking, Bian had signaled for him to stop.

Bian walked towards him and transferred the inferno gargoyle shapeshifting beast soul and the jade crocodile scissors along with three of the five sacred-blood beast souls he gathered from the recent shelter raid.

"Now you have the heart and the power. To liberty shelter!" Bian pumped up his fist.

"To liberty shelter!" Everyone followed suit

Bian suddenly looked in a certain direction. A lifeforce was burning brighter than that of average super creatures.

"The rest is up to you now" Bian said to Zack.

He turned to Philip and said to him, "Let's meet up for a chat later." Bian quickly sprinted out of the shelter, in a few steps he had gone out of view.

...

Outside the shelter a slightly old man with a bandana on his jaw was approaching. He casually walked through the forest as though nothing could harm him.

"Since you're already here, why don't you come out?" The old man stopped walking and said.

Bian emerged from a nearby human-sized bush. "As expected of blacktooth" he gave a mocking smile.

"Ooh, for you to know that, is Labak still alive" The man asked but didn't need a response, with a sigh he continued.

"What a fool, he couldn't even maintain a simple blood farm" The old man didn't take Bian seriously as though he wasn't a threat to him.

"A fool? Is that because he only sacrificed an eye and succeeded at practicing the sutra" As Bian said this, the expression on the man's face soured.

Losing an eye was tragic, but sacrificing your skeleton would severely limit the level of evolution one could make. His body couldn't be rebuilt in the evolution chamber to become a surpasser.

"I was planning on killing you, but now I think I'll keep you as a living blood bank." Blacktooth said.

"Now you're just talking like a vampi~" Bian quickly dodged to his right. A light scratch was left on his skin.

"Ooh, I missed. Fighting beasts all day must be dulling my martial skills." Blacktooth said, he summoned a large heavy two handed mace.

"Try not to die" Blacktooth posed his mace, its spikes were vibrating at a visible pace.

Bian summoned the marble katana and the white general aura beast soul. A white smoky-light loomed over his white katana, brightening up the darkness.

Among the shrubs and bushes, Bian and Blacktooth stood opposite each other. Ready to face off against each other.