Chapter 54: Parley
A dozen black skinned young women were moving all around a gruesome battlefield. They were wearing red scaled armors that didn't fit them, covering them from their neck to their knees.
Under the light coming from the large flame that was consuming the nearby towering wooden structure, they ran painstakingly from body to body. Each time they couched down next to a cadaver and started to pat it down, searching for valuable items.
If they found something that had some value, they immediately took it with them and then put it into a large leather bag at the feet of a young and beautiful green haired girl. The latter was sitting leg-crossed on a large rock, watching them working with a gentle smile on her thin lips.
She even nodded in a friendly manner each time one of the women came near to her to put some piece of jewelry or shining stone in the sack. However, all the black skinned workers knew that the simple and gentle ways of the woman were only a facade.
Before her appearance, they all thought that being captured by the Fire Earth people was the worst thing that could ever happen to them. They cried and screamed in despair while their friends were killed and humiliated. Their Outpost was completely destroyed by the ax-wielding maniacs and the main structure, the large tower that was considered the tallest construction in the whole Yellow Lake Region, was set on fire.
They hated the Fire Earth people with all their heart. Yet each and every one of them would have preferred still be a sexual slave for the battle crazed raiders than a servant for the green-haired woman.
She was heartless and she was mighty. Not mightly like the warriors of the tribe that attacked them. No, her power didn't come from muscles and steel. It wasn't something that you could predict or at least try to defend against. It was an invisible attack, that could attack from miles away. It absolute and arcane.
She didn't need to touch them or even look at them to make them feel like if thousands of knives were cutting them to pieces. The girl just needed to move her hands and when silver sparkle emerged from her fingers, the torture would begin.
No one wanted to slack and be punished by the witchcraft of the green haired beauty, so they all worked hard. After patting down the dead people and making sure that they had nothing of value on them, they would drag them next a huge pile of bodies under the tranquil gaze of a green-haired woman.
If someone of black skinned women stopped for more than a couple seconds, Star Leaf would immediately activate the corresponding Slave Mark and make the unfortunate soul scream in anguish for at least one minute. Under the threat of such a mysterious power that could make them feel like they were being skinned alive, the Black Elk women didn't dare to disobey or slack in their work.
The kept searching for precious items and gathering headless bodies and cut off heads in a precise location, forming soon a wha can only be described as a hill of death. A literal hill made of dead people, some corpses were complete, some were only pieces.
On the very top of the little mountain, abruptly appeared a black snake with violet eyes. He just couldn't resist such a better place to practice his cultivation technique. When he saw what Star Leaf was making her slaves do he immediately understood that she was doing it to make peace. He gave the woman a long look and she smiled back at him.
"If you want to cultivate, you should stay the closest possible from the Blood Energy" she simply stated, moving her gaze toward the working women.
The serpent kept observing the woman for a couple more seconds, looking at the blood and grey matter still visible on her body and clothes. Even if he felt that his reaction to the fact that she brought him here by telling him only a half-truth had been moderate, he was amazed by the ability of the woman to adapt.
She had made an error, immediately apologized when discovered and now she had found the perfect way to gain his approval. Once more, he found himself completely amazed by Star Leaf 's nimble mind.
Why on earth would he ever want to get rid of such a useful ally? He recalled the words of Spike and the recipe that he gave him. Did he need to use it? He wouldn't just lose an ally, but also access to something very important in his cultivation routine: the blue link. Did he really want to lose it? His cultivation was going incredibly good thanks to it. Without it, proàbably he would never be able to completely heal his Natural Heart.
'No, the heart doesn't need fixing... I need to force it to break, only then I can form a real Devil Core.' corrected himself the serpent, remembering what the horned merchant had revealed to him that very morning.
"D, you should start working... we can't stay here for long." reminded him the green haired girl.
The snake realized that she was right. He needed to absorb all the energy contained in those corpses now that they still were fresh. Plus there was the problem of the two cultivators on the Fire Earth side. While they weren't there at the moment, they could be on their way.
He immediately cleared his mind and opened his mouth, creating a small vortex before him. He couldn't process that much energy without using runes, as his Will Manipulation wasn't as good as his Runes, but he could use the Heavenly Battleground Technique in both ways now.
Rivers of red energy poured out from the mass of bodies under him and ended into the vortex, then immediately after flowing into his body, directed towards the Natural Heart.
He kept cultivating for a dozen minutes, completely engrossed in it. He did as Spike said and didn't focus on trying to repair his Natural Heart, instead simply stacking energy inside it.
Soon, the quantity of red colored energy started to dwindle considerably and Darkscale was already thinking of stopping the technique. However, before he could do so, he suddenly felt something flying at high speed towards him. The serpent stopped his use of the Pretorian's Breath, his eyes flashing with a ferocious light as he darted in the air. A loud bang resounded in the dark, as a green arrow landed in the spot where he was cultivating a moment before.
The snake landed on the soft ground, his eyes once again calm like two tranquil violet ponds.
"That's one of ours!" revealed shocked Star Leaf, appearing next to the snake while she looked at the object that had passed through countless corpses and now was embedded deep in a large rock behind the pile of bodies.
Darkscale immediately understood what she was talking about: that green projectile was indeed very similar to the ones used by the Forest Will Hunters. However, judging from the strength of the blow, that arrow wasn't something that a common warrior of his companion's tribe could release.
Even Darkscale could do nothing more than avoid it completely, and his body was insanely though.
"Trying to ambush me?" he thought coldly as a wave of energy exploded from his body, expanding all around and trying to find whoever had shot him.
The days when he needed runes to use even a simple energy probe were long gone. Now he could use his Will Manipulation to sense the world around him pretty easily. The darkness wasn't an obstacle to his tide of energy, that easily mapped the area around him.
He immediately sensed a figure hidden in the darkness. It was a silhouette hidden behind a large hooded mantle, holding a large Green Bow in its hand.
The reptile tried to push his sensing probe under those dark clothes, but a wave of red energy emerged from the figure and dispersed his probing energy. The snake's eyes shined with a dangerous light. That energy that touched with his to extinguish his probe very familiar.
"Did you feel it?" asked the green haired woman at his side. She too had used her cultivation base to locate the hidden enemy and was met with the same disturbance.
"Yes, Heavenly Battleground Technique" said the serpent, his eyes narrowing. He recognized the signature of his own cultivation technique in the tide of red energy that disrupted his energy probe.
Almost as reading their minds, the hooded figure emerged from the darkness. "We should talk" said a cold voice, coming from under the hood.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone