Unnatural- The beginning of the end- 2

"Xie Ra, Where were you?" Weiming Zhao's voice bellowed at his junior. Xie Ra halted in his tracks. He felt the oppressive aura emitted from his usually kind senior. Tiny beads of sweat formed on Xie Ra's temple.

"Where were you last night? Do you have any idea how I was worried? Explain yourself." The Authority of Weiming Zhao's voice made the ones around them nervous. They quickly scattered away, leaving them alone.

Xie Ra turned to his senior and bow, before explaining the scene he witnessed last night. He omitted the part about Tang Zihao and their encounter. He just said the assassin dropped his target and followed Xie Ra. Therefore he had to hide in that old house.

He knew if he caught up for lying he wouldn't get easy fate but, he didn't want to betray Tang Zihao. If others find out that he was a fire demon, they would give hard time to both Tang siblings.

A troubled look passed in Weiming Zhao's face for a minute. Then he shrugged it off and spoke with an urgent tone.

"Whatever, I'll look into this later. We have a more severe problem now. follow me." The senior swordsman swiftly turned around and motioned his junior to follow him.

Then both of them entered into a gloomy-looking room. This room was so cold hence it made Xie Ra shiver. It didn't escape the eyes of the senior disciple. So, he drew a formation on the junior boy's temple. Xie Ra felt a warmth spreading through his blood vessels as cold washed away. He put down his arms from his chest and took a good look around.

The windowless room looked creepily bluish-black. Pulsating, azure formations displayed on every wall in the room. From the first glance, Xie Ra knew these arrangements kept the room cold during any season. Weiming Zhao formed a bright white glow from his palm that lit up the whole room. Xie Ra saw so many rectangular metal boxes arranged in lines, neatly inside the room.

"This morning, we found fourteen corpses of sect messengers hung in the front gate. We put all of them here and tried to check for some evidence. We found something bizarre. Let me show you as you didn't have a chance to check them this morning."

Then he pulled the lid of one of those boxes. As expected, a frozen body slept peacefully inside the box. Weiming Zhao took it out from the container and placed it on the examining table with the help of Xie Ra.

"What do you think about this? This body is one of those corpses." Dage Zhao looked at Xie Ra expectantly.

The junior boy's phoenix eyes carefully scanned the body in front of him. The corpse turned into a dull bluish tone even under the white radiance emitted from Dage Zhao's palm. Its facial skin creepily stuck to the skull bone.

The lips of the corpse sew together, making them shut without much gap between them. But, a small streak of blackish foam escaped through both corners of its lips. Xie Ra touched a thread to check if they sew it before or after the death of this poor man.

Realization hit him, making his eyes widened. He heard his Senior talking from behind.

"What do you think? Before or after death?"

"Before death." Xie Ra murmured. Who could be this cruel? But, compared to the bloody corpses he witnessed in the past month, it wasn't a surprise. Xie Ra moved on to check other signs.

Then he looked at his senior.

"Dage, is it ok if I draw some blood from him? I couldn't understand why he turned into this color. I mean, according to the signs this body shows, this man most likely died less than six hours before. But this discoloration is unnatural."

Weiming Zhao looked impressed. He nodded and granted permission to the junior boy.

Xie Ra carefully cut the blood vessel near his wrist without cutting the vein. He didn't want venous blood to cover his judgment.

Black blood gushed out from the opening he made.

"Dage, how could this happen? What's going on?"

Xie Ra asked with utter confusion. He didn't see anything like this even in his past life. He couldn't remember a single fact that could make blood pitch black. Some poisons could make blood somewhat black, but not this dark. It was his turn to look at his senior expectantly.

Weiming Zhao patted the junior's head and answered.

"That's what both we and Azealia people tried to figure out this morning. Even the elder Wan Mingyu couldn't find a clear reason. If he couldn't, it must be something evil." He said thoughtfully.

Xie Ra nodded in a disheartening manner. He knew how talented elder Wan Mingyu was from his past life experiences. He felt defeated.

Maybe Tang Zihao might know something. If this thing is related to blood cultivators' he was the best person to ask. It was a shame that Tang Zihao couldn't enter into the sect.

Xie Ra badly wanted to escape this night again and meet Tang Zihao and ask. But, a few obstacles lie on his path compared to last night. First, Weiming Zhao would be pissed off if he catches Xie Ra sneak out again. Second, He didn't know where Tang Zihao was hiding today.

Tsk. Xie Ra felt disappointed.

After placing the corpse into its original container, Weiming Zhao closed the lid properly and walked out of the room. He locked the room before heading to the library as their other members did. It might help them to find some clue about the black blood incident.

Sun went down as everyone in the city slowly went back to their usual life pattern. Even the sect returned into its accustomed serenity. However, as the night fell, a servant walked out of Xie Ra's room silently.

He had a rough beard and clothing covering his head, hiding his hair. A weimao hung on his back. This figure headed out from the sect into the city at a moderate speed.

After reaching the city market, the figure put on the weimao, which accidentally let out a single streak of white hair.

"Shit. My stupid hair." He muttered to himself as, hid his hair inside the clothing again. Then he walked through the market, looking around observantly like he wanted to search for something or someone.

Meanwhile, in the sect, inside a dark, haunted-looking room, something weird started to happen. Light green sparkles collected into fourteen boxes as a response to a low bell sound heard in front of the door of that room. Unknown to the many sect people who prepared to have a good night's sleep, the insides of these boxes continued to glow dangerously.

The lid of one of the boxes slowly pushed aside. Not from outside but by a bony, dull black-skinned hand that emerged from inside of the container.