Cursed

"Kill!" Pei Zi Yun’s body moved past in a blur, the fighter who wanted to blow on the whistle was decapitated within seconds. The whistle fell to the ground, causing a strange sound to ring out.

The fighter who had been paralyzed by Pei Zi Yun’s spell could finally move again. His eyes full of hatred looked like those of a tiger or a wolf. Without a second thought for his own safety, he charged, "Die!"

Pei Zi Yun’s sword moved gracefully as the tip sliced open his throat, causing hot blood to drip down his body. The fighter clutched his throat, gasping for breath.

Pei Zi Yun easily killed those five. He bent down to retrieve a piece of cloth from the dead corpses and wiped the blood off himself. He gave a cold laugh, "These are just people who delivered themselves willingly to death."

He then turned around to leave.

From within the forests came several cries of pain before a flare was shot up into the sky. A pair of swordsmen were dumbfounded by this and they hurriedly dashed toward the flare.

The scent of blood filled up the entire forest as an eagle watched the scene, high up atop the trees.

"Hua!" The pair of swordsmen slashed across at the trees and vines in their way, they noticed the ground, covered in blood. Five of their own were lying on the ground lifelessly.

"Horrifying. He killed an entire group of men within seconds!"

"Eh? One of them is still alive?" The swordsman took a look and noticed the group leader was still breathing raggedly.

The pair looked at each other before one of them moved forward and checked his condition with severity. He then placed a hand on the group leader and asked, "What happened here? In which direction did he escape?"

"Sss sss" The group leader’s entire hand was covered in blood as he clutched onto his throat, his breathing was ragged as he tried to speak, but no words were spoken.

Seeing the group leader in such a manner, they knew they wouldn’t be able to get any answers from him. The swordsman then tapped the group leader’s forehead gently, causing him to groan. Blood seeped out of all his orifices instantly and he went quiet.

The swordsman then gently pushed down on the eyelids of the group leader and sighed, "All of you died for Dark Altar Sect, rest in peace."

The swordsman spoke out in sorrow. All of a sudden, he heard several movements and turned towards the forest.

The forest was dense and thick, making it hard to see anything in the distance. Up in the sky, a bird had been startled and flew into the sky, breaking the silence of the night.

"That’s not right." The swordsman was startled as well and he shot a flare up into the sky. "Xiu" The sound of the flare being fired could be heard. The flare was a sort of an order for anyone to see it to gather at the location. Following this, several groups of fighters gathered around.

Shan Shen Temple

After some time passed, the temple changed once more. The floor was swept clean but the atmosphere remained dark and gloomy. Someone rushed in hurriedly, "I have a report. Three teams of men have been killed. Only one managed to escape."

Elder Xu’s hands never stopped moving, and he didn’t reply as well. The green flames were still licking the exterior of the Fate Lantern, but hadn’t found a way in yet. The Daoist’s expression fell, "This Pei Zi Yun’s fighting techniques are superb, and his tactics are unparalleled. He’s far better than we anticipated."

Another Daoist with a lofty status asked, "Has the curse been completed? If this persists, every person we send out will keep getting killed. As of now, we’ve already sustained quite considerable losses."

"Elder Xu is still casting the curse. It seems like he has some sort of a protective screen that prevents such curses from affecting him, hence the results aren’t favorable yet. We have to take it a step further in order to affect him."

Just as they were speaking, they heard a smack sound coming from the Fate Lantern, startling everyone present.

Soon after, a strong gale of wind blew across, carrying with it the strong stench of blood.

Everyone looked across and saw black energy roiling within the Fate Lantern, but it still bore the color of blood. Layer by layer, the black mass attempted to penetrate the lantern. For several seconds, the color of the lantern seemed to have been transformed to the greenish color as intended. However, it reverted back to its original color soon after.

"This person’s willpower is too strong. Up till now we only manage to succeed for several seconds at a time after trying very hard." Elder Xu stood up and wiped the sweat off his brows. He then spoke out to the pair of Daoists, "Maintain the spell. Let me regain my strength and get some rest. I will take over from you later."

"Once there is no external force being exerted over it, we will not be able to maintain the curse. He will be able to eliminate the curse if we’re not maintaining it."

As he spoke, a bright flash of light illuminated the area before a thunder-like roar could be heard within the room. Elder Xu then ordered, "It’s true I underestimated him earlier on. I didn’t expect him to be so strong. But now, he’s already been cursed by me and is hallucinating. He wouldn’t be able to differentiate reality from illusions."

"Even a child would be able to kill him now."

"The current order is to reform your groups and hunt him down. Once you see him, finish him off. Forget about capturing him. He’s way too strong to be captured, and too terrifying to spare him additional minutes of life."

"Use the talisman to communicate among your groups. We’re onto something huge here, several lives lost don’t mean anything!"

"Yes!" Everyone around started using their talismans to relay the orders.

Several moments later, raindrops started falling in the forest. The droplets of rain splattered down on the leaves and made rustling sounds. The swordsmen carried torches but weren’t extinguished by the rain yet. A certain sort of coldness overwhelmed the entire forest.

More than ten swordsmen glanced down at the dead bodies on the ground and shouted out, "Revenge for our brothers."

"We shall kill him and have revenge for our brothers."

A pair of highly skilled swordsmen noticed their men were extremely motivated and psyched up. They nodded their heads and saw that a message had been relayed to their talismans. When they finished reading they smiled coldly, "The Elder had successfully placed the curse. Looks like he has nowhere to run now."

"Hm, I’ve always wanted to engage him in combat. This person killed An Jian. Just thinking of it makes my blood boil." A swordsman spoke out, a crazed excitement could be seen in his eyes.

A slightly older swordsman laughed, "The Sect trust us to finish him off, don’t ruin our chances by engaging him in single combat. If we fail to kill him because of you, we will face huge problems."

At the same time, several Daoists came around with swords in their hands.

Somewhere further away, a group of five men were carefully walking across. They were considered older than the average group of men at around thirty years of age.

Two of them were standing in front, cautiously walking while checking the ground. Two were standing guard behind, ensuring they didn’t get ambushed, while someone was in the middle giving instructions. They split into three different moving groups. Everytime each group took five steps, they would call out to each other. Suddenly, the men in front warned that there was something up ahead. The two men behind gripped their blades tightly and looked at the shrubs in front of them.

For a long time, no sound was heard.

All of a sudden, the man in the middle gave a grunt as he waved his left hand, "Secret throwing weapons!"

"Pu pu pu!" Small knives were thrown and several leaves were severed from their vines and dropped to the ground soundlessly. The five of them relaxed before approaching further.

A bright light flashed as the pair of fighters tensed up once more and gave a cry of courage as they raised their blades to parry the oncoming blow. A loud sound rang out, signalling that they had successfully defended themselves from the first blow.

In the next moment, an unnatural strength coursed through his sword, rendering him unable to keep it in front of him. His blade was deflected and a shadow appeared. The next thing he saw was a sword plunging into his chest, exiting from his back. Pei Zi Yun withdrew his sword and cold smiled.

The three men standing behind drew their swords simultaneously, but were a split second too late. With the gleam of his sword, the fighter on the left side had his left hand severed. Pei Zi Yun moved so quickly that immediately after delivering that blow, he disappeared into the darkness once again.

On his next attack, Pei Zi Yun’s blade penetrate his target’s chest without much resistance, rupturing his internal organs.

"Die!" The remaining two fighters took advantage of the fact that Pei Zi Yun’s sword was still lodged within the man’s chest cavity. Just before they could land any blows on Pei Zi Yun, their bodies trembled violently as they lost control of their strike.

The blade of the sword reflected light once more, as the two of them screamed out in agony before falling to the ground.

‘Ever since I’ve became Yin Master, my Dao arts became much faster as well. Even in the midst of combat I can use it without needing much effort.’

‘These five men were clearly much more experienced than the previous group of people. Even if they were to fight me alone, it would take me longer to dispatch them. But with the combination of my swords skills and Dao arts, taking them down is still too easy.’

‘I’m very satisfied with the way I used the Paralysis Spell. My killing techniques improved yet another notch.’

The last person clutched onto the flare and released it up into the sky where it exploded beneath the clouds.

Pei Zi Yun gave a cold laughter. He was very familiar with the way Dark Altar Sect planned their assault after seeing a common pattern. Just as he was about to finish him off, everything went dark. Not only could he not see anything, he felt like as if everything around him had disappeared. Several seconds later, his vision was restored.

The man threw the expanded flare down onto the ground as he drew his sword, faced Pei Zi Yun and screamed out while charging at Pei Zi Yun. He knew deep down that he would die. When he saw Pei Zi Yun freeze, he was elated and kept charging toward him.

Pei Zi Yun’s body trembled. Very instinctively, he narrowly dodged the blow, and only a single hair dropped to the ground. The scene before his eyes changed once more. He looked up and saw tall buildings in front of him, with many cars moving busily across. He was seated within one of the cars and had just fallen asleep. At this point, he froze in shock as he watched in a daze.

‘Eh? Was I dreaming?’ Pei Zi Yun shook his head as he stretched a hand out to pick up the newspapers in front of him. However, something still didn’t feel right at the back of his mind.

"Boom!" The image completely shattered as his eyes focused once again to the forest, where he was. The swordsman swung his sword over, and was almost going to strike Pei Zi Yun forehead.

"Pu!" Pei Zi Yun spun around to dodge the blow, and felt the blade sear across his back. Blood started dripping down as he felt his back burn as if it was on fire. He gritted his teeth and returned the strike.

"Pu!" The sword he held onto was sharp beyond measure as he slashed open the swordsman’s abdomen. Blood oozed out of the gash.

"To hell with you!" Pei Zi Yun knew something wasn’t right and he intended to hurry and finish him off. Just as he struck down at the swordsman, he noticed that he had a sinister, confident look on his face. Their swords met with a loud clang before their shadows broke apart. Pei Zi Yun had stabbed him in the neck immediately after. He watched as blood spurted out from his wound.

"Ah!" Pei Zi Yun felt an intense wave of dizziness sweep over him once more, causing him to lose all visibility once again. He used his hands to apply pressure on the wound at his back before dashing into the depths of the forest.

"Ding" The sound of a bell rang out as Pei Zi Yun opened his eyes.

He found himself within a classroom, with a shelf of books on his left. On his right was a desk with an open textbook placed on it. Pei Zi Yun was extremely confused.

‘I am a student?’

‘No, this doesn't feel right.’ Pei Zi Yun pushed opened the door suspiciously. The corridors were empty.

"Is anyone there?" Pei Zi Yun shouted out, but nobody replied him. In the silence, he could hear his own heart thumping wildly in his chest. All of a sudden, he could fear footsteps gradually approaching.

Pei Zi Yun was elated as he turned around, expecting to see someone. However, there was absolutely nobody behind him. A sudden wave of cold air blew onto his back.

‘What’s going on?’

Pei Zi Yun stretched out his hand and was about to continue walking when he suddenly froze. ‘No, something isn’t right.’

‘Let me think.’

"Stars Transposition!"

"Boom" Everything before his eyes crumbled like fragments of glass. Pei Zi Yun found himself sprawled before a tiny creek. A single flash of lightning lashed out in the distance. The rain hasn’t stopped as it continued showering down upon the trees and plants nearby. He could hear the sound of voices not far off.

A group of people dressed in woven clothes were around. At this point the fires around were extinguished. Pei Zi Yun kept hearing someone whispering, "Everything is alright." He paused for some time, the voices still ringing out in his head.

They were closing in on him rapidly. If this were any other times, Pei Zi Yun would treat them like pieces of paper to tear apart. In fact, he had already killed more than half of their forces at this point. At this point however, he could feel a certain gloomy dark energy descending down on him, threatening to swallow him any moment.

"It’s dangerous here, quickly surround him."

‘I should thank my lucky star that it’s raining, thus drowning out all the noise and footprints left behind by me!’ Pei Zi Yun knew that if he were to remained sprawled on the ground, he would be dead in no time. Regardless of where he was, if he continued lying here he would be surrounded and killed.

He took advantage of this moment of clarity and thought, ‘Have I been cursed?’

‘Regardless of what, it’s clear that the Stars Transposition is protecting my sanity and allowed me to return to reality for as long as possible.’

‘I just need a little more to advance. Once I reach the third level, I can protect myself to a stronger degree.’ Thinking this way, he realized that his head was extremely heavy, and was spinning. He was nauseous, but couldn’t vomit. He could see several thick reeds up ahead. Without consideration, he plunged into the reeds and rolled for some time until he gradually reached a halt. He was completely covered in mud. He remained still there.

"Boom" Everything turned dark once more as he immersed himself in another alternate reality.