chapter 5 'sharp piercing pain'

"I want clear answ…..." but before he could finish his words, he felt very sharp piercing pain in his chest above heart area".

4th prince has already pierced a dagger with strange runes through Kai's chest, it was about to reach his heart when Kai abruptly opens his eyes.

Suddenly few men and women came in his sight who were looking towards him like a pack of wolf looking at their prey.

"Who?" he speaks with difficulty while feeling intense pain in front.

"ha-ha ha-ha, hello cripple, no…. young master, you don't need to struggle too hard"

"we are here to liberate you from your miserable life" 4th prince taunted Kai while pushed dagger deeper.

Blood spurted from his mouth while he noticed 'Shu' insignia in 4th prince's chest.

He also noticed other people in the room with same insignia and there are some with even 'Li' insignia.

He was confused…. 'what's happening here?'

So many questions start arising inside his head, he wanted to speak but because of intense pain and blood lose he is already losing consciousness.

"shove" dagger pierced his heart But suddenly something happens, the runes in the dagger radiates when it pierced Kai's heart

The pain he was feeling subsided while the feeling of numbness took over his whole body, it was like pain never existed before. 

"ha-ha ha-ha it is working, we succeeded"

"now, all we have to do is wait while this artifact extracts his power" the excitement in the eyes of the elder from 'Shu' kingdom can be seen clearly. 

Elder from 'Shu' family…. "this is too easy, I thought there will be at least few experts from your family to protect this guy". 

"but there are only few foot soldiers in early body strengthening stage".

"it seems they abandoned him too quick" says 1st prince.

"you don't have to worry about this matter because matter of his safety is in the hands of council". Elder bolten speaks with a clear tone.

"and its already decided at the moment of his birth that he will not receive a single support of the family".

Everyone was discussing this matter when rune in the dagger starts vibrating, it attracts everyone's attention.

The green light starts emitting from the dagger.

Meanwhile Kai was about to completely lose his consciousness when he hears same strange voice in his head.

"boy, it seems you have decided to let these ants take your life and your luck"

Kai…. "NO" he speaks very slowly while enjoying numbness in his body.

"then what is your decision?"

"this will be your last chance" 

"YES or NO" the strange voice says with hidden excitement in his tone which Kai is oblivious about.

Kai knew he didn't have any choice either he'll die here or afterwards if he let the strange entity take over his fate.

He was afraid that if he takes help from the strange entity, he might unleash an unknown powerful entity into the universe.

'do I have any choice' "NO"

'I want to live; I want to travel across the world'

"I want to make friends'

'I want to become a powerful cultivator who can go anywhere without any restrictions'

"I want to be free"

"I want no restriction in my life, if you promise this then" 

"yes" 

he said with a determination in his voice before he actually loses consciousness.

Suddenly the dagger in Kai's chest starts vibrating more violently.

The people around from both the family are flabbergast after seeing what is happening.

4th prince…. "what?"

"why is it vibrating so steadfastly"

"elder do something these must be something wrong here"

The dagger was oozing green power in the air which is increasing little by little.

While there is petrified look on the face of both the elders.

Bolten…. "is this awakening?"

"but while awakening the person usually wrap themselves in cocoon of the same power, they usually awaken with!!"

6th Elder from Shu kingdom…. "NO, this is definitely not awakening nor it's because the runes"

"there must be something wrong aah…." Suddenly something came to his mind and he shudder in fear.

"No, it can't be that" he spokes while gritting his teeth. 

When everyone saw his condition, they were dumbfounded by his strange reaction. 

1st prince…. "elder hu what happen?"

While elder hu pointed towards the place where Kai is lying, while the dagger is violently vibrating.

The green hue is turning into dark hue and as the time goes it's turning into completely black substance.

Everyone noticed this but except both the elder no one knew what's going on.

"why the fuck are you reacting as if you have seen something forbidden, isn't it clear that his weak body does not even able to handle a 1st stage earth grade artifact that's why he is giving this damn reaction"

everybody believes the same as 4th prince because they are either from younger generation or their status is lower so, that they didn't knew about the tragedy which happened a decade ago. 

Elder bolten starts sweating and he even about to curse because he was there at the time when the whole continent went through the horror of the curse which became the reason of Kai's birth and his unfortunate journey of 10 years.

"cur…. curse…. That's definitely the curse, that black hue" his condition is even worse than elder hu from the Shu family.

Elder bolten was also present when the unknown 'seer' visited Li's mansion and that day, Ye li's body was also oozing same black hew.

Because of both the elder's reaction the group's focus is towards them that they didn't realizes changes happening is Kai's body.

His missing limbs is growing at a very fast speed while the dagger has already stopped vibrating. 

Suddenly dagger came out of his body at a very fast speed that it went past through in front of the face of the 1st prince of Shu kingdom.

It was too close from him that it made small cut through his face.

"aaahhhhh"

 he shouted out of his lungs that his voice attracted everyone's attention towards him.

The dagger is a low rank spirit artifact that its single scratch can prove deadly for cultivators below mid foundation establishment stage cultivator.

As 1st prince being an early peak Qi refining stage cultivator got hurt very badly by its single scratch as the dagger extract Qi and spirit power of any cultivator below mid foundation stage cultivators.

Even late stage and peak foundation stage cultivators can be affected by its power if not being careful around it.

"prince"

elder hu used his spirit power to help 1st prince to heal his injuries.

As being the part of Shu royal family, he also awakened low rank spirit at the age of 10.

He formed a ball of Qi in his hand and then closed his eyes to recall his spirit, suddenly his eyes went light green while a shadow of tree like a small pine tree which was still young but about to reach middle stage starts hovering behind him.

"look that's the famous healing spirit of Shu royal family" people of Li family start discussing among them as healing spirits are rare even in a family like Shu's. 

Another young man said…. "but isn't it very small and it's just low-level spirit".

"hey shut your mouth, do you have a death wish?" says the girl behind him.

Another guy from Shu royal family says…. "what do you mean by its just low-level spirit?"

"you yourself has a low-level wind spirit and you should already know having a healing spirit is akin to like having a status of a king"

"elder Hu's spirit is still in his early young stage as you know non-fighting spirits growth is slower than the fighting one and specially if it is a rare spirits like healing, alchemy, artifact spirits etc".

"he still holds prestigious stand not only in our Shu royal family but in the entire continent as he ranked 6 out of all the 7 healing masters in the whole continent".

"three of them are from our Shu family so shut your mouth or not even you elder can protect your life as no one wants to offend a healing master".

People around only nodded their heads as this is the truth that everyone is aware of but there are few people from Li family who are not happy to see Shu royal family meddling in their family matter but they can't even raise voice as the current wife of the family head is from Shu royal family.

Unknown to them there is a person missing from his place but before the find out, soon the whole room covered with darkness that's when they realize severity of their situation.

"what happened"

4th prince…. "how come suddenly darkness…."

Before he even finished his words, he saw a shadow of a small boy whose eyes is glowing green while his body was oozing black and golden hue.

The shadowy figure was standing just behind the 1st prince and elder hu while holding the same dagger which he plunged through Kai's chest few minutes ago.

[elder Hu, from Shu royal family"

"watch out, behind you!!" he shouted and grabs elder Hu's attention.

 As elder Hu glanced over towards the shadowy figure while he pushed 1st prince aside to save him from the guy behind them.

At the same time Kai rushed over towards both of them, elder Hu manged to save 1st prince, and then he used all his power to brace himself from the impact of assailant but he was few seconds late.

He felt a sharp pain in his neck which is now pierced with the dagger.

"Ahn...." he wanted to shout but his voice is died down before he could even start.

Now his only option is to heal himself with the remaining power he has but to his surprise the dagger was extracting his power with a speed that within 15 second he lost his consciousness and died. 

Things were too fast for everyone that before they could even understand what happened they already lost one the remaining two elders.

Crown prince…. "NOooooo…. elder Hu…." 

"you bastard I'll kill you" as he rushed towards the shadowy figure.