Chapter 27: Chapter 27: The Human Party
Outer Gates of the Skull Marked Temple
There were bodies of dead monks lying all around the ground. The mist that surrounded the entire forest had now disappeared, and the forest that had been dark since time immemorial had seen the bright rays of the sun for the very first time. Three people were moving around, searching for more monks in case they had missed some.
"It looks like all the rats in the outer perimeter have been taken care of. Let's hurry inside now." An old man said as he kicked the body of a dead monk.
"Uncle Ashin, are you sure that it was the correct idea to barge in like this? What if they do something to Jane? Even though we are really strong and even have Grandpa Nyler supporting us from behind, would we be able to prevent those vile creatures from suddenly killing my sister if they choose to?" A mature lady in a knight armor asked.
"Dear Janet, why do you worry so much? Do you think they will simply kill your sister? If they would have just wanted to kill her, then they would have done that long ago. I can bet that these dogs want to use her as a bargaining chip. Don't worry, as long as the light in Jane's Life Crystal has not gone down, she is safe." The old man said as he reached out into his storage pouch to take out a crystal.
"Uncle Ashin! Look at the Life Crystal!! It is not glowing now!!!" Jane shouted as her eyes grew wide with horror when she saw the previously lit crystal now looking just like an ordinary rock.
"What?!" The old man had a delayed reaction as his mind failed to process what was going on.
"Uncle Ashin, Jane is... Jane is... what do we do now?!!" Janet said, tears threatening to flow out of her eyes at any moment.
"This... How could those dogs do this?" Old man Ashin had no answer. He had assumed that those evil creatures wouldn't do anything to young Jane because that would leave them with no bargaining chip against the empire. But the reality was the exact opposite. He couldn't figure out what should be done.
"Calm down, everyone" Suddenly, a voice came from behind Holy Knight Janet.
"Uncle Asin, look at Jane's Life Crystal. It is not glowing!! What should we do? Is Jane dead?" Janet asked desperately.
"Technically, no. If the person who is attached to a Life Crystal dies, the Crystal would shatter and leave behind the exact coordinates where the person died. Since this Life Crystal is still not shattered, this only means that Jane is still alive." Asin explained as he took the crystal from Ashin's hands.
"But uncle, why has the Life Crystal lost its luster? It was so bright before. What does this mean?" Janet asked anxiously, clearly not convinced.
"The lack of luster in the Life Crystal indicates that the person who is attached to the Life Crystal has completely exhausted all the Soul Energy in the body. This means that even though Jane is still not dead, she has completely exhausted her energy and is barely alive."
"Maybe those evil beings were startled by us approaching their hideout and thus decided to torture Jane to acquire information about us?" Asin suggested.
"What? See Uncle Ashin, I told you this was a bad idea. How are you going to answer dad about this matter now? Waaaa...." Janet immediately shouted at Ashin and started crying as she thought about her younger sister getting tortured mercilessly by these demons.
Janet had a very tough life despite being a princess. She could have chosen a life of luxury and richness, but she rejected all of that and choose to completely dedicate herself to the path of becoming a Divine Knight. She had gone through numerous battles with enemy forces and endured plentitude of hardships to reach her current strength of Holy Knight.
But this power had come at a cost. Her ties with her family slowly started growing more and more distant. Everyone in her family treated her as a monster and choose to distance themselves away from her.
Only her parents, her younger sister, and a few elders in the palace supported her throughout her journey. Over the years, they had become the only ones she truly cared about.
That was why when she first received the information that Jane had gone missing, she immediately rushed back to the capital. She was later completely devastated when she learned that her mother had also been killed by assassins who had later kidnapped Jane.
So, as soon as she heard that her father was planning to dispatch a party to search for Jane, she vehemently fought with him to allow her to go as well. After all, what was the use of having strength when she couldn't use it for her dearest ones?
But now, knowing that Jane was being tortured by demons and was left only within an inch of her life, how could she remain calm?
'I already lost my mother. Am I going to lose my only sister as well? Why? What is the use of my cultivation when I can't even do anything for the ones who matter to me the most?'
"Why don't we ask old man Nyler to go in and sweep this place in an instant? Those demons won't be able to do anything to him and we can get Jane out soon in this manner." Ashin proposed, clearly out of ideas.
"You really have your brains in your knees," Asin said, shaking his head.
"What? You..." Ashin was about to retort to Asin's words when he heard a voice from behind him.
"Asin is correct," said the voice in a calm manner.
"Old man Nyler, What do you mean?" asked Ashin.
"Even if I am the strongest human on this plane, that doesn't mean that there is no formation or technique that can restrict me. If I were to carelessly just barge into this demonic temple and am somehow caught in one of these formations, things would go bad real fast."
"Anyways, we cannot hurry inside. I understand that the longer we spend here, the more danger Jane is going to be in. But keep this in mind that we cannot save her by carelessly rushing in and getting caught. This will be us playing right into the enemy's hands"
"From now on, I will lead the way and you all will follow my lead. No one is allowed to disagree!!" The voice said as an old man with half a meter of grey beard slowly appeared seemingly from nowhere.
"But Grandpa..." Janet was about to protest when suddenly she saw a flash of lightning followed by a loud rumble of thunder.
When the party looked up to figure out the source of that sound, they were so horrified that even Divine Sword Saint Nyler lost his calm demeanor and blurted out,
"How is this possible?"
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TheImmortal
TheImmortal Hi all,
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