Chapter 43: Thank You, Senior Brother Rollo
Having followed the group for several hours now, An understood that Rollo Por was leading them in circles around one specific location, a cave.
This cave was very similar to the burrows that Blood Lions usually dug. As for why he was leading his group in circles, An decided that it was to exhaust the twins as much as possible, especially Li Um, who hadn't had time to recover after the battle. After so much time on her feet, pushing through rugged and treacherous terrain, she looked thoroughly exhausted.
He deduced this from the emotions of the three, which he read from the Qi flows around them, especially from the giant, whose lustful excitement and sinister thirst were almost overflowing.
The only thing he couldn't understand was whether Rollo Por knew that a huge spider lived in the cave. Judging by the fact that a Last Kiss, as the creature was called in the spirit beast book, had only webbed the inner part of the cave, it had most likely claimed this spot and nested here quite recently.
….
"It's starting to get dark... I think we should find some shelter." Rollo Por, having put the map booklet into the inner pocket of his robes, turned to his companions with a serious expression.
"Oh, I agree with brother. It's getting dark, and I don't want to wander under the moons, right under the beasts' noses." Uku Tom, standing next to him, began nodding and agreeing with Por's plan.
"This wasn't part of our plans. We've been walking all day and still haven't found a single Blood Lion... Something's wrong here." Li Um, with bewilderment and wariness, turned back to where the giant Badu Dum was silently staring at them both from the darkness.
From his gaze, the exhausted Li Um felt very uneasy. She was just about to say something when she was beaten to it.
"Don't worry, Sister Li Um. Tomorrow morning, refreshed, we'll search the remaining spots in this area. And if we don't find any Blood Lions, we can always report it back to the Sect." Por patted his chest and, with a noble smile, reassured the two sisters.
"Sister, Sister, Brother Rollo is right. Let's find a place to rest! I can't walk anymore... I'm tired and hungry." Her sister standing next to her began tugging at her sleeve and looked at her with innocent eyes, trying to soften her heart.
Seeing this look full of innocence and naivety, Li Um sighed in defeat and nodded toward Rollo Por, agreeing with him and his plan.
"Excellent! Brother Uku, reconnaissance is on you! Find us a place where we can safely spend the night!" Por clapped his hands, walked up to Uku Tom, and patted him on the shoulder.
"Understood! It'll be done perfectly! Wait for me here!" Nodding, Tom gripped his sword in his hand, and with a big leap, disappeared into the thick bushes, leaving behind only the receding sounds of his footsteps.
While Uku Tom was gone on his so-called reconnaissance, the remaining four moved a little closer together, not forgetting to constantly look around.
….
Up in the branches, An watched as Uku Tom ran straight to the cave, looked around, and, making sure everything was in order, sat down under a tree, where he began brandishing his sword and muttering something under his breath.
Sitting directly above him, examining him with his gleaming green eyes, An listened as this cultivator, ready for robbery and worse, imagined himself as a great hero and savior, conquering multiple kingdoms and collecting dozens of consorts, defeating every adversary, culminating in a clash with the strongest cultivator of the royal family.
"...Ha! Who do you think you are? In the presence of the Great Dragon Warrior Uku! You dare to open your filthy mouth? Take this!"
"Miss... I cannot break the oath I made to you under the light of the moons... Ah, Miss Mili, your family, the Ridegold family, would be against it. Especially your father!"
"Great Ridegold! I know you are bound to protect the Emperor! But you must choose your family, your daughter, your blood! Then, take this! Ha!"
Towards the end, Uku Tom began running and spinning in place, repeating different movements and bellowing absurd and nonsensical technique names.
'They all dream of the same thing, don't they? Harems and riches… Ugh, the secondhand cringe is almost unbearable…' An continued listening to Tom's fantasies for another twenty minutes. After that, the young man stopped his games, carefully looked around, and ran back to the group.
Watching his back as he disappeared into the thick undergrowth, An decided against following him back, choosing instead to position himself closer to the cave, biding his time as he waited for the perfect opportunity to strike.
Finding a sufficiently tall tree with dense foliage directly above the cave, he sat down on its branches comfortably and began to watch.
….
Barely ten minutes later, the group of five emerged from the undergrowth. Slowly and carefully moving toward the cave, they looked around, scanning for potential threats.
"Are you sure this cave is empty?" Li Um turned and quietly asked Uku Tom, who was walking beside her.
"I didn't go very deep, but where I looked, everything was empty and safe." He began nodding and reassuring his companions.
"Sister Um, what if we camp near the entrance, without going too deep, in case there really is something inside the cavern?" Rollo Por stopped and turned to the twins.
Li Um, in response, thought for a moment, pulled her sister closer to herself, and nodded.
Having agreed, they carefully proceeded into the grotto.
….
As soon as dark night fell, warm light from a campfire appeared from the cave entrance. Sitting on the branches, An watched as the firelight played on the colorful bushes and flowers around the cave.
Listening to the crackling of the firewood, An began studying the Qi inside the cave. He could easily tell what each of the five people and the beast inside were doing.
For several hours, he watched the cave without looking away from the treetops. During all this time, everything was calm inside. From the emotions he read from the Qi and the loud voices coming from the cave, he could roughly tell that they were having a lively conversation, sitting in a circle and passing around some kind of vessel from which very weak energy flows emanated. He understood that it was most likely alcohol, which was fermented from spirit fruits.
Watching the sisters' energy flows, only growing distrust emanated from Li Um, while her sister felt fine, especially after a few sips of alcohol.
The other three behaved calmly, but An could feel their lust and thirst, mixed with a strange malice, intensifying by the minute.
Watching this calm before the storm, he suddenly threw a glance at the Qi emanating from the huge spider. As he had expected, the spider was slowly but surely approaching the group that had invaded its new home.
Literally a few minutes later, everything went quiet inside. All voices fell silent, and in the next moment, the Qi around the three became chaotic. Immediately, the twins' energy, specifically Li Um's activated, and the energies began to clash against each other.
They had started fighting.
After several exchanges, one of the sisters, with panic and fear taking over all her emotions, ran off to the side, into one of the tunnels. Her sister, Li Um, tried to follow her, but her path was blocked by Rollo Por and Uku Tom. Immediately, the owner of the most agitated Qi, the giant Badu, dove into the same tunnel right after her.
The group split into two. Li Um continued trying to break through to her sister, but both men continued to hold her back, trying to neutralize her, as An understood. Throwing a glance at the tunnel, he noticed that Badu Dum had already caught up to Li Am, and her energy was beginning to mingle with Death Qi.
Suddenly, the spider had already reached the epicenter of the battle and lunged straight at Rollo Por.
'I think now it's my turn.' An jumped down from the tree and calmly walked into the cave, maintaining Qi Silence and keeping control over his breathing and heartbeat so that no one could detect him.
"Hiiiss!"
"Hold her back, Brother Uku! While I deal with this damn beast!" Por shifted his attention to the huge spider and began pelting it with a large number of talismans, trying to drive it away from himself.
"Bastards! You're all finished! Do you even realize who we are?! Who my father is?! Damned beasts!" Covered in dozens of cuts from blades, Li Um held her sword with both hands, simultaneously fighting a sudden exhaustion that wouldn't even let her keep her eyes open, let alone control her entire body.
"Haha! What do we care about your damn father? Huh? Be a good girl and put down your sword, or I can't guarantee your sweet little sister's life!" Tom watched her bleeding with burning eyes. Just the sight of those cuts on her excited his entire being.
Slowly entering the cave, An saw Rollo Por using a stack of talismans to drive back a huge black spider with legs as sharp as blades. With each second, the spider got closer and closer, ignoring the blasts detonating against its carapace.
Uku Tom, meanwhile, was blocking the tunnel leading to Li Am and the giant Badu, simultaneously pressuring Li Um with his flashy sword techniques, completely ignoring the now-panicking Por.
Li Um, breathing heavily with bloodshot eyes, gripped her weapon with failing strength, barely deflecting Tom's attacks, doing everything in her power just to get into that tunnel.
"Beasts!! If it weren't for the poison you slipped us, you'd all be dead already! Human trash!" Her screams, tearing her vocal cords, flew out mixed with trembling and fear. She was afraid of losing consciousness without protecting her sister, who was somewhere alone and needed her help.
Standing in the shadows near the entrance, An looked into the tunnel from which he felt more and more Death Qi. Moving calmly along the wall, avoiding any sources of light, he passed into the tunnel without any trouble, bypassing the fierce battle between Tom and Um.
"Ugh~ Ugh~"
Walking through the tunnel, he heard heavy, sharp gasps.
Continuing to walk in complete darkness toward the sounds echoing louder and louder through the tunnel, he felt uneasy.
Rounding a corner, he saw an artifact lying on the ground, something like a small wooden chest, inside which a tiny dog was spinning, standing on its hind legs, its small collar weakly illuminating everything around. Right next to this chest lay a hand, reaching with all its might to grab it, but no longer.
The giant lay on top of her already cooling body, his pants down, twitching chaotically on top of her, making heavy sounds and muttering something under his breath.
Standing only a meter away from this, looking straight into the tear-stained, once innocent eyes, and at the huge mass on top of her, An's eyes lost any gleam. His gaze radiated only coldness as he looked at the back of the giant's head. Any doubt, any hesitation, from the moment he had passed through the eastern gates to the moment he entered this cave, had vanished. As never before, his thoughts and his emotions joined together and stopped finally conflicting.
"Hey..." An said, almost in a whisper.
"Hmm?! What the?! Who!" The giant, with a stunned expression, raised his head and looked back.
"Who?? AGhAA!" Only seeing before him a face with empty, chilling green eyes, he felt his breathing stop. In the next moment, he saw everything around him spinning and dimming, catching only those eyes glaring straight into his already empty soul.
With a sharp movement, relying solely on raw physical strength, An drove his hand straight into the giant’s neck. Piercing through his throat like a hook through the lower and upper jaw, and grabbing hold from inside the skull, with one sharp tug he tore the entire head, along with part of the spine, straight out of the body.
Taking the head in both hands, An brought it to his face. Looking into the giant's eyes, into that unfocused gaze, he suddenly squeezed, and the head burst with a pop, splattering everything around.
Lowering his hands, what had once been a person dripped down them. Lowering himself to one knee, An took the wooden chest in his hand, staining it with blood, and placed it into Li Am's hand.
Standing up and staring intently into her glassy eyes, still enveloped in panic and horror, the fresh tears still streaming down, An enveloped his hand in Qi and waved it, covering her exposed body with her torn clothes, hiding the numerous teeth marks on her body.
Turning toward the sounds of battle coming from the base of the cave, An again immersed himself in the darkness of the tunnel and slowly and silently walked toward those sounds.
"Block her damn legs! Don't let her move them!" Rollo Por, running around the spider, was giving orders to the already gasping Uku Tom.
"Ha!Tyrant Sword! Second Form!" Swinging his sword, Tom released a huge wave of Fire Qi, which, engulfing almost the entire space of the cave, flew straight into the legs of the huge spider.
"HiiisssH!" Feeling that her insides could no longer withstand the scorching temperature around her, the spider struck the ground with all its might, sending huge chunks of stone flying straight at those despicable humans who refused to become her dinner.
"Watch out!" Por, activating the talismans attached to his sandals, bounded dozens of meters to the side, dodging the flying boulders.
"O-oh, no! Aaaah!" Not having time to react, Tom slammed into the wall at tremendous speed, right next to the tunnel entrance he had been so fiercely defending just a few minutes ago.
"Agh! Damn prosthetic! Where?! Where is that brainless imbecile..." Spitting blood, he tried to get up, covering the huge wound on his abdomen, torn open by Li Um's sword, but now opened to the size of a human head by a rock that had just crashed into him.
"Ughm… This is my chance... While that beast is busy with Brother Rollo, I can slip away and patch up this damn hole..." Leaning against the cave wall, he finally managed to get to his knees. Crawling along the ground, searching for his sword, which he had dropped, he suddenly saw someone's feet appear out of nowhere without a sound. Looking up and seeing a face completely smeared with blood and pieces of clinging flesh, only those eyes, boring into his very being, Tom suddenly remembered.
This face was very familiar, a face that had brought him much mental suffering. All those memories burst forth at once, and his expression changed to absolute terror. Opening his mouth and trying to say something, he suddenly felt a strong impact on top of his head, and another as his head slammed against the cold floor, almost losing consciousness.
Uku Tom suddenly felt himself being lifted into the air, and something around his neck was squeezing tighter and tighter. Trying to wrap his hands around his neck, he tried to focus on the face before him, but from the strong blows and the lack of oxygen, everything around him only grew darker and cloudier.
Suddenly, he heard a clear crack, which like lightning raced through his entire body. Opening his mouth, trying to scream, he only felt hot blood beginning to pour out instead of his cries.
"Alas... You can thank your brainless imbecile for this..." An released his broken neck and set Tom down on the ground.
Looking into his huge, frightened eyes, An pushed his finger against his forehead, and Tom collapsed to the floor, powerless to do anything.
On the ground, Tom was still clutching his neck with one hand, reaching out to An with the other. Grabbing his pant leg, he stared intently into his eyes, trying to say something.
Looking at him, An saw in his eyes desperation and reluctance, as well as flashes of hope that he would take pity and help him.
Exhaling, he raised his foot, enveloped it in Qi, and brought it down on his head, smearing it across the ground.
"Damn beast! Just die already!" With a pale face, Rollo Por could no longer hold on and was throwing all his talismans in a row, just to make this giant spider finally fall.
"Hiis-Hiisss!"
"Haa! Brother Uku! Where are you! I can't hold it anymore!" Jumping from side to side, maneuvering to dodge the spear-like legs flying at him, Por began shouting and calling his brother for help.
Suddenly, he heard a whistle directly above his head and saw three semi-transparent blades made entirely of energy fly past above him. The moment he sensed them, a chill suddenly ran through his entire body.
"Hiiiisss! Hisss!" All three energy daggers embedded themselves deep into the giant spider's head. Feeling this energy penetrating deeper and deeper into its head, the creature began to scream and thrash from side to side.
Throwing its body against the wall once more, the spider suddenly stopped moving, and all its limbs curled up.
"Haaaa… What was that..." Exhaling, Por turned back. The first thing he saw was a body lying at the tunnel entrance, its head crushed. Stunned, he recognized by the clothes and the iron prosthetic his brother Uku Tom.
Spinning sharply in the direction from which the blades had come, he saw in the darkness the silhouette of a boy no older than thirteen, quite thin, with disheveled and dirty hair, smeared with blood like his face, his shirt with small burn holes, covered in pieces of dried flesh. Staring into that expressionless face, where dull green eyes offered no trace of any emotion. Por's face went pale, and sweat began to appear on his forehead.
"An... Brother... S-Senior Brother An! Wh-what are you doing here?" Gripping the cracked dagger tightly in his trembling hand, he began slowly backing away, glancing at the entrance deeper into the cave, realizing that this was the only direction in which he could run, at least try to.
Silently, An began walking slowly toward him, not taking his eyes off him, like a predator watching its prey.
"S-Senior Brother An, our l-last meeting… th-that was my mistake! You have to understand!" Rollo Por raised his free hand behind his back, pulling out several talismans from his pouch.
"I-it was all a misunderstanding! You must understand that! You insulted me to my face! But I was... I was wrong, I understand and admit it... An... Senior Brother An! Please!" Por plastered his trademark gentle smile across his face and, with innocent eyes, tried to justify himself in heightened tones.
In response, An only continued to walk toward him slowly and steadily, getting closer and closer.
Stopping in place, Rollo began trying to reason with An, explaining the reason for his actions. But the moment An took a step and found himself ten meters away, his face suddenly twisted. Regret and innocence were replaced by rage, triumph, contempt, and hatred. This entire spectrum of emotions did not escape An. Seeing all of this, he simply smiled and continued walking forward.
"Heavenly Justice! Death To The Unfaithful!" Immediately, Rollo threw about a dozen talismans at the cave ceiling.
Flying up and stopping directly above An, the talismans activated. Looking up, he saw it all, but reading the information from them, he understood that they were not a real threat to him.
All these talismans, upon activation, began to fall around him and explode, enveloping him in waves of energy.
Standing at the epicenter, he felt the waves of chaotic Qi tearing at his skin and boiling inside his body. Without realizing it himself, part of this energy was transformed into his own, heading straight to his dantian.
"Die! Die! Damn slave! Who gave you the right to look at me like that?! Who do you think you are! Carrion! Dirt under my nails! Hahaha!" Laughing with a twisted, malicious grin, Rollo Por watched with a wild gaze as his pile of talismans engulfed An from all sides.
"Hahaha!"
"...Ah!" His manic laughter abruptly caught in his throat. Every shred of arrogance vanished, replaced by a suffocating terror that drained the remaining color from his face.
Only when the smoke cleared did he see the boy standing motionless in the haze, looking directly into his eyes. His body was cut up by the raging energy, in some places, chunks of flesh had been torn out, exposing his bones. Part of his face was scraped and torn. His entire body was covered in blood, his and the giant's, already mixed into one.
Taking a deep breath and holding back terrible pain throbbing through his entire body, An watched as the wounds across his flesh began to knit together, regenerating at an incredible speed. Even he himself hadn't expected such speed of regeneration after his breakthrough and the partial evolution of his cells.
"W-who... What are you?" With a pale face, Por simply fell to the ground, trying to crawl backward, but fear had frozen his mind and body.
An suddenly created a Qi Blade, only very thin, and sent it straight into Por's neck.
"AghH!" Before he could even understand what had happened, Por felt his mouth filling with blood. Grabbing his neck, he felt a tiny hole right below his Adam's apple.
With wide eyes flooded with fear and panic, he stared straight at An and tried to crawl backward.
Pressing his back against the wall, Por panicked even more. His heart was beating so hard it was about to burst out.
An slowly walked up and crouched down next to him. "Your eyes... Your gaze... When… when I was still a teenager, no older than sixteen, I ended up in a hospital... Lying on a gurney, right next to me, literally a meter away, on the adjacent gurney, lay a woman, probably someone's mother, or maybe even grandmother... She was dying. It was the first death I ever witnessed... And her gaze, it was exactly like Yan Eli's... Seeing those eyes, that unjust look, just like the woman in the hospital, I wanted to help... I wanted to rush to her aid... Every time forgetting where I am and who I am now."
Listening to this strange rambling, Rollo Por tried with all his might to stop the blood from his throat.
An moved closer and sat down opposite him, literally less than arm's length away, and continued speaking, "Every time I try to suppress the fear, the panic, all those emotions that... I don't even know… emotions that don't let me cross that line, the line that will finally become a step, a real step on my own path... Every time..." He suddenly fell silent, staring into Por's eyes.
"Today, I spent a long time thinking about exactly how I should act. Beat you all, cripple you, find the right moment to get rid of you. But every time I thought about killing all of you, I felt uneasy, every time I tried to push those thoughts away and come up with something else, constantly fighting with my conscience... Until the moment I saw your gazes... The gazes in the last second, the moment before the end..."
"The woman on the gurney, Yan Eli trying to kill me, the innocent girl sold into slavery by her father, the little boy trying to protect his sister, the giant violating that girl, your friend with the prosthetic... All their gazes, in their final moments, were the same... Just like yours right now: lost, filled with fear and reluctance, with injustice..."
"Such different lives, complete opposites. Some live honestly, by their conscience, but in the end, they reach the same place as a murderer, a rapist… Old man Shoa was wrong... If you divide everything into black and white, sooner or later, you'll run into a dead end, faced with a choice that becomes that cut rope over the abyss... So it's better to let this world lose its colors and blur into a single spot..."
"At least then I won't feel the torment inside me. I'll be able to move forward… And it doesn't matter where that path breaks off. At least I'll create it and walk it myself…"
"Thank you, Senior Brother Rollo. Thank you and your brothers, for finally helping me figure things out…" An condensed a thin Qi Blade in his palm and slowly brought it to Por's neck. "There's still so much I'd like to say, but I think I've delayed you enough…"
"Your brothers are already waiting for you." He said this, looking into Por’s eyes, without any emotion on his face.
"Ah! N-no! Please! I beg..." Feeling that this was the end, Por managed to force words out of his throat.
With one sharp movement, An cut off his head, and the headless body fell to the ground.
Sitting before the body, An closed his eyes and lowered his head, killing the last doubts in his thoughts.
Dispelling the Qi Blade, he stood up and walked toward the other side of the cave, closer to the exit.
"You... can... you... help... me..." As An approached Li Um, who lay broken on the ground, she immediately turned her gaze toward him.
Looking at her body, her torn clothes, the chunks of flesh torn from her arms and legs, the large hole in her stomach, he knew from the remaining Qi on the wounds that this was mostly the spider's doing.
"Yes." After a few seconds of silence, he said slowly and quietly.
Li Um, lying in her own blood, looked at him, expecting some action from him, but he didn't move. He only stood and looked back at her.
"W-will... you... help... me?" Gathering her strength, Li Um, looking into his eyes, whispered.
"No." An just shook his head.
Seeing this, Li Um's eyes dimmed. She wanted to ask why, but something stopped her. Throwing a glance at the tunnel into which her sister had run, she found the last strength to ask.
"M-my... s-sister... is she… alive?" With hope in her dimming eyes, she stared intently into the depths of the tunnel.
"Unconscious… Don't worry, I'll take her back to the Sect..." Watching her silently, he wanted to shake his head and tell the truth, but in the end, he decided to lie, trying to ease her final moments.
"Tha... thank..." Resisting until the very end, she finally closed her tear-stained eyes.
Looking at her body, An took a deep breath, "It will be difficult to paint everything in shades of gray… but it's the right thing to do."
Using his Qi, he pulled her sword toward himself, and enveloping his hands in energy, pressed down on the blade and broke off a piece. Throwing the broken sword next to her, he sent the broken piece into the tunnel where the two bodies lay.
Looking around and making sure that he had erased all traces of his Qi, he walked toward the cave exit.
He decided not to touch their belongings, even the spider's spirit core. He knew that before long, the Sect would launch a search for them, and taking anything that belonged to them would have consequences.