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95.65% Tales of Demons and Gods: The Blood Emperor / Chapter 17: Final Preparations

Chapter 17: Final Preparations

<<<Shin Akagawa>>> 

Taking a deep breath Shin could feel the cold wind of the night running through his body as a full moon shined brightly in the sky illuminating this silent night.

"How much longer?"

A rough low voice shook him out of his trance and as he glanced to his left he saw the owner of said voice furrowing his brow in a disapproving way, Taishiro has always been a man of few words the only time he actually spoke was when he really disapproved of a work badly done if not he would prefer actually silently obverse the scene from the shadows before voicing his thought in a long and dedicate report at a later date, a report that Shin's father always hated and Shin himself came to fear in these few days.

"They should've been back already, the other party had a single gold rank Demon Spiritualist while they had a couple of Gold ranks and even a single Black Gold rank, there's no reason for them to take this much…"

Continuing he shook his head as Yoru glared a little at him from the other side of the hall where she was seated.

Right now Shin and most of the other elders were in the main hall as they waited for Yoru squad to return, after returning from the expedition to the Ancient Orchid City Yoru offered herself to deal with the matter of the Dark Guild group that resided inside of Glory city and after two weeks of gathering information on them she finally decided to attack as she sent a group of a dozen Gold Rank and a Single Black Gold rank to capture them, she would have definitely sent and even stronger force but unfortunately with the various projects going on the Akagawa Clan couldn't move any more people and if any of the elders moved it would surely alert some of the spies they could feel lurking around the clan main compound ruining the whole mission.

As silence returned to the main Hall Shin could feel the tension slowly increasing, out of the elders Eiko was closed in his lab making pills and finding ways to use the Demon Beast Blood Essences and the secrets found by him and Ning'er.

Daisuke, his uncle, entered closed door cultivation in hope of actually breaking through the Legend rank so that they could gain an unshakable standing in Glory City.

Ryunosuke was still comatose with Keiko taking care of him while Kuro who was still an unofficial Great Elder was busy commanding most of the troops of the clan.

So those that were present were Taishiro, Yoru and Naoki who dutifully guarded Shin as his bodyguard.

At that moment a few shadows arrived at the entrance of the hall, there a tall burly man walked up to them before kneeling, behind him a dozen or so of Gold rank all of them had bruises and their clothes were torn up clearly showing they just returned from a hard fought battle.

"First Shadow here to report to the patriarch!"

The burly man spoke in a loud and powerful voice, one that a person would not think belonged to the hurt man.

"Go ahead."

With a single command Shin eyes briefly looked behind the group as he saw another group of people tied in a special robe as most of them were passed out while a single man was glaring hatefully at all of them unable to speak thanks to the property of the rope.

"We've successfully captured all of the Dark Guild present, 20 Bronze rank, 10 Silver rank, 3 Gold rank and 1 Black Gold rank. While we received some injuries due to an unexpected inscription array we had no casualties!"

He could feel a gleeful snort coming from Yoru direction but he ignored it as he looked once more at the group of people tied up, he could recognize the group that attacked him but what he was more interested in was the Black Gold rank.

For the truly powerful Families of Glory City their strength would be calculated by how many Black Gold rank they had for them self with the Snow-wind Family having more than a dozen known Black Gold rank and many other unnamed ones, he wasn't foolish enough to believe they didn't had at least a single Black Gold hiding.

The Akagawa Clan itself had several Black Gold ranks hiding away from the public eyes like the one kneeling in front of him. 

"You've done a good job, you're all dismissed, you'll receive your rewards later, for now go rest and heal your injuries."

As the group made their way out Yoru quickly walked toward the Black Gold rank before whispering something and sending him off with a pat on his shoulder, as they exited the main hall she quickly closed the door turning with a grin toward the group of tied up people sending shivers to everyone present.

"Young Master… May I?"

He could almost hear her salivating at the implication of how much vital information she could extract from a Black Gold rank of the Dark Guild, obviously Shin wasn't brave enough to stop her as he smiled at her with his hand pointing to the group of people showing his consent.

Silent screams resonated inside the main hall that night.

<<<...>>>

After spending the entire night taking out information from the people of the Dark Guild thanks to a special technique of Yoru, Shin was left with an enormous headache and even more tasks to complete.

Much to their surprise every single member of the Dark Guild they captured was bound to a soul shackles, the Bronze and SIlver rank were bound to the Gold rank while the Gold ranks were bound to the Black Gold rank and the Black Gold rank was bound to another person, this was a terrifying news to them.

These Soul Shackles were the sign of the use of a banned special technique that would bound the soul of a person to another giving total control over the former's life to the latter, the drawback were that as long as the two parties were separated or the controller was incapacitated the controller wouldn't be able to do much and to bound the soul of another person the controller had to be much stronger than the other person.

But this also meant that there was someone strong enough to completely overpower a Black Gold rank, at first it wasn't that alarming since they already deduced that there was a peak Black Gold rank leading the Dark Guild but after digging more into the memories of the Black Gold rank they discovered that the Dark Guild had actually three legend ranks people or at least three people that had strength rivaling a Legend rank.

'With their force, why haven't they attacked Glory City yet?'

A single question that haunted Shin mind through the night, that was until he remembered the letter of Ye Mo. A single letter that was sent to him in secret to inform him of a couple of things.

Firstly he was informed about his suspicion of the Sacred Family colluding with the Dark Guild, something Yoru already confirmed long ago, but most importantly the letter informed him of the discovery of a new unknown Realm found by Ye Mo as he was tailing the Dark Guild.

Ye Mo already gave him all the theories about how this realm was actually the place the Dark Guild originated from and the place where their main base was at.

'If the Dark Guild is really from another realm then it wouldn't be strange if other cities or organizations live in that realm… Maybe the reason they didn't attack at full force Glory City is because they can't actually move their own Legend ranks…'

He didn't know what to feel at that conclusion, he felt sadness when his parents died, he didn't feel despair when he was stuck at Fire Lotus City as his people faced an hopeless situation, he wasn't scared when he decided to leave his city behind to join an unknown force but the thought of a whole new unknown realm filled with Legend ranks almost terrified him.

'Glory City may not be our city but after receiving their help we can't give them the cold shoulder and run away as they face such a situation.'

Thinking that he calmed down as he entered another room, upon entering his nose was filled with all sorts of medical scents. Right now he paid a visit to Eiko in his laboratory.

"Young Master, you've come at the right time! I just finished the pill you've asked me to make."

With an unusual excited voice Eiko stood up as he quickly walked toward Shin with a big grin on his face, for an old alchemist such as him coming across new ingredients and recipes was like finding a Phoenix egg in a barn, because of that as soon as Ning'er gave him the recipes and materials find in the Secret temple Eiko rejuvenated a couple of years as he immediately closed himself in his laboratory.

"You were actually able to make it?"

Looking at the purple round pill Shin eyes shined like stars, the pill in his hand was an ancient pill made with Demon Blood Essence and other special materials, the main effect was to help a Warrior clean their body from impurities along with slowly increasing the physical strength of a person through the Demon Blood Essence. Shin planned to use this to complete the first Stage of the Prime Titan Body Technique and hopefully directly breakthrough the Silver rank in a fell swoop.

"I actually failed a dozen times and even then this pill can only be considered a low grade compared to the true pill of ancient times but nonetheless it will do its job in helping the Young Master completing the First Stage."

Declaring proudly Eiko patted his own chest as he reassured Shin, the latter smiling as his eyes never left the pill.

"Anyway, how's the outside? Any good news?"

Finally calming down, Eiko took a seat at a low tea table as Shin followed him sitting in front of him, the two starting conversing as they drank tea.

"Well… Firstly Daisuke entered closed door cultivation, hopefully next time we see him he will already have reached Legend rank, we finally captured the Dark Guild group…"

From there Shin started to recount all the things that happened while Eiko was closed in his laboratory, out of everything he made a sour expression as he told him that Ning'er returned to the institute, after staying in the clan territory for a week she received a letter from her family after that she decided to return home as he bid Shin farewell, while he wanted to know the content of the letter he could also feel how she didn't want to involve him so he could only regretfully let her go, obviously he secretly sent a Black Gold rank to protect her in case her family actually tried something but as much as he thought of them as fools he didn't think they would actually try something.

"Mh, Mh, Unfortunately I can't help you much since I always believed that each person Love and Hate in their own way so the only thing I can say is… Don't waste your time worrying instead use that time to grow stronger so that if something does actually happen you'll be ready."

He smiled a little at those words, he didn't deny being more than a little worried for her but more than anything he was pissed at her family for selling her to the Sacred Family just because of a debt.

Leaving the Laboratory he reached his room and sat down in the middle of it as he took out the purple pill from before, to complete the first stage of the Prime Titan Body Technique Shin needed to completely cleanse his body from impurities and by using this pill he could easily complete that step, the pill was made specially for that after all as it not only would cleanse his body but it would also expel all the soul force in his body before starting to take in new soul force, during that moment Shin would take the opportunity to push his body and take enough soul force to break thought and go even beyond that.

Putting the pill inside his mouth he immediately felt the medical effect as a warm energy started spreading from his mouth to his whole body, his temperature rose as he started sweating.

Huffing mist left his mouth as his body was already drenched with sweat, the clothes closely sticking to his body. At first it was bearable but as the heat continued to increase he started to feel pain all around as if his body had been thrown into a pool of hot magma. 

Resisting the urge to move his soul force to help with his condition Shin gritted his teeth as the pill's effect continued his body continued to burn as his skin from white became a deep red and at that moment the pill, who finished spreading around his body, started to expel or burn any type of impurity while his soul force started flowing out of his body.

Enduring a scream he kept his mind stable even as he could feel the physical change his body was going through, it was only after a couple of minutes that the pain started to subdue as the pill finished expelling everything.

Taking a big breath he didn't waste time as he sat down cross legged while starting to practically inhale any soul force in his surroundings, normally when one started cultivating one would count how many soul points they had, from zero to one hundred one would be considered a white rank, from the hundred and one point they would officially considered a Bronze rank and from then on each hundred point would be considered a Bronze star, it was only when one finally reached the peak of the bronze rank that they would finally see the difference between Bronze to Silver, to reach Silver rank one would actually need to reach the thousand points, in comparison to the five hundred needed for the five star Bronze rank it was like cultivating the bronze rank from the beginning a second time!

That was one of the main reasons a lot of normal people never would be able to step into the Silver rank but how could he be compared to normal people.

As his soul realm started stirring the soul force inside the room became visible as it started converging on his mouth, his eyes widened as another change happened inside his soul realm, at the opposite side of the lone moon floating above his soul realm, soul force slowly concentrated in a orb like shape before starting growing and in no time a second moon was finally floating in soul realm facing the previous one.

'I've already formed the second moon!'

Feeling the soul force actually increasing the speed in which was flowing into his body he returned his focus on his cultivation, like that in the dim lit room a single person continued to cultivate ignoring what was happening outside.

<<<Ning'er>>>

Saying that meeting Shin has improved her life could be an understatement, she could finally have someone to talk to, she could finally spend some time without the constant dread of having the Sacred family come and collect her like some sort of item.

Shaking her head she banished that thought from her head, while the threat of the Sacred Family was still very much real, spending more time thinking on it was not worthy, she believed in Shin and his ability to truly free her so all she had to do now was keep her family on check so that they didn't do anything rash. Or so it was supposed to be but she couldn't help but sigh thinking back to the earlier discussion she had with her father and the various elders of the family.

Apparently the Sacred family, after seeing her spend so much time with Shin, sent her family a letter showing their own displeasure or well that's what the elders of the Dragon Wing family told her but she knew that the elders of the Sacred Family weren't that bored to spend that much time on this and it was either something fabricated by them or it was a personal request from Shen Fei.

For now she reached a compromise of staying in the clan compound until the yearly exam practically putting her in house arrest until then, but that was fine with her, while she would miss Shin she will take advantage of this time and cultivate to her heart content, then she will be able to enjoy the surprised face of those old fools. Finishing the letter she used the special technique used learned by Yoru to send a letter to Shin to at least let him know she was ok.

Leaning on the window she looked longingly at the small fire bird flying in the night sky toward the Akagawa clan until it wasn't even visible anymore, leaving her along with her thoughts and the shining moon above her head. 

Sighing she closed the window before resuming her cultivation, there was already no risk of her falling ill with the Arctic disease anymore so she couldn't afford to laze around only because it was night.

<<<Naoki Gestumei>>>

Naoki Getsumei, a name he gained after being adopted in the Nightmare Shadow Clan after being found by the previous City Lord and the current head of the Nightmare Shadow Clan Yoru Getsumei.

After all this year he still can't understand why the previous City Lord would go out of his way to save him from his fate, but all these years growing up he didn't waste time on thinking of that, his only objective was to become someone powerful enough to be of help to his lord, so when he received the news that his lord was dead he was floored, never in his deepest nightmare would he ever thought that the man he saw as his teacher, the man he saw as the one single human close to reach actual divinity would die before any of them.

But Naoki's despair wouldn't last even a single night as he saw the current and only hope of Fire Lotus City, the son of the previous strongest, Shin Akagawa rise to the position of City Lord and immediately show why blood doesn't lie, sure he also had to admit that the young master was still naive and had much to learn but nonetheless he could faintly grasp the future of mankind, a future free from demon beast, a future where they didn't need to hide like rats and could proudly walk around this large unknown world.

Stepping back he dodged the attack of said hope, sparring with Shin had quickly become a common occurrence since his return from the outside.

Grimacing at the thought he couldn't help but feel like he failed one of his main jobs, just because the whole clan became lax in super visioning the young master life, thinking that as long as he was in the city no harm would come, they let the young master way too much freedom but that almost costed them everything, if the young master had died in that expedition the clans would have broken down, with no one to hold them together Naoki could only imagine how quickly they would have deflected even with still Daisuke being alive.

Lifting his hand a green shield formed in front of him and just a second later said shield trembled under the pressure of a fist, said fist was the attack of Shin Akagawa.

Smirking Shin retracted his right fist before punching with his left fist, a pair of orange/crimson fox heart fluttering from the wind as Naoki could see his eyes no longer a round crimson but now orange slited with a wild feeling to them, after reaching Silver rank Shin didn't waste any time on merging with two demon spirit, that right two, thanks to the special cultivation technique he was practicing his body would be able to hold as many demon spirit as many the moon inside his soul realm where, meaning that right now with two moons he was able to safely hold two different demon spirit. 

Obviously the first one he merged with was the Scarlet Flickering Fox that he found on the market with Ning'er, as for the second he decided to take on a demon spirit that would help more passively and stealthy unlike the first one.

Seeing as his fist would be of no use Shin decided to try something else, eight crimson petals appeared in a circle right in front of him before four went to float around his right hand while the other four went to float around his left.

Naoki lifted his eyebrows but didn't move, while he could end this fight quickly this wasn't the purpose of the fight, at least not today. 

Just as Naoki expected the petals to slowly float around his hand they quickly gained speed as they orbited on his entire arm, taking a deep breath, under Naoki inquisitive gaze Shin brought back his fist before quickly stabbing forward.

A loud thump was heard the shield trembled for dear life but what surprised Naoki was that he felt the hit, the shield while seemingly blocking his fist couldn't block the vibration and force behind hit, if it was someone at Shin level even if their shield persisted they would still come out injured from that hit.

And what surprised Shin even more was that he didn't stop there, fist after fist Shin didn't stop his attacks as the petals grew more and more sharp and dangerous. Taking a moment when Shin was bringing back his fist Naoki sent out a counter attack of his own taking him by surprise, the wind seemed to move along with his arm and even when Naoki's attack didn't connect to Shin the latter was still sent flying a couple of meters back.

"I think that's enough for warming up?"

Asking that Naoki waited for a few seconds as Shin got back his bearing after barely landing on his feets, sighing he simply nodded his head before he took out a sheathed sword from his spatial ring before taking up a stance reading to actually spar this time. 

Nodding at his form he analyzed it for a few seconds noting some minor mistakes that he would voice to Shin later after the sparring before gathering his own soul force, as wind started to gather around his body Shin moved. 

A single step was heard as Shin flashed right before Naoki, his sword already drawn as the eight petals were systematically floating around the blade.

Naoki quickly stepped back even as his hand created a weak green shield to test Shin power, the shield as expected was cleanly cut in half by his sword before crumbling in small sparks of light.

Shin didn't stop there, instead he moved his sword for a stab as three crimson petals shot through the air like arrows aiming for Naoki.

Taking out his own weapons, drawing out one of his swords to deflect two petals and dodge the third one with minimal movements.

Seeing that Shin sighed mentally at the ease in which Naoki dodged his attack before preparing another one. 

Under Naoki's curious gaze Shin stopped moving as he closed his eyes but before he could ask what was wrong Shin's body transformed into dozens of petals as they flew straight toward Naoki.

'Is this his second Demon spirit ability?' Obviously as his guard he already knew that the second demon spirit he integrated with was an illusion type demon spirit, so calmly facing the storm of petals he didn't even bother raising up a shield as he slashed forward and as expected the storm had been a simple illusion.

'Well as long as he plays his cards right this can be considered a good trump card… But his killing intent is way too strong.'

Raising sword he blocked an invisible strike before a smirking Shin appeared at his right.

"Got you!"

Before Naoki could ask what he meant from the storm of petals, eight small petals shot at high speed striking true on Naoki chest-plate, sending him back a couple of steps. 

Naoki was stunned, obviously not injured even though the same could not be said if instead of him it was a silver rank receiving that attack, but nonetheless he was stunned, for the first time in their sparring session he had been caught off guard by Shin. 

"... What to say… Well done young master, I wasn't so sure of your choice at first but maybe this second demon spirit really suits you."

Mumbling the second part he congratulated Shin as he thought back at the fight, it was rare to actually find someone that fought with illusion, even in Fire Lotus City only Yoru used illusion and even he hasn't seen her fight all that much, so this was somewhat of an eye opener. 

"Thanks, haa finally, it was starting to get frustrating seeing you easily dodge and counter everything I sent your way…"

Saying that Shin smiled as he put his weapon away before stretching his body.

"Oh? We are not going to continue?"

Shin's answer came immediately.

"And have you beat me to a pulp? Nah I prefer to end it on a win, besides we have to get ready and return to the Institute if we want to be on time for tomorrow's exam."

Watching Shin return to probably get change Naoki smiled at his antics before going toward his own room, while he was right they definitely had enough time to spar a couple more times but he won't say anything, after all a good guard is a silent one.


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Lugh_Zero Lugh_Zero

Hello Hello~ It’s been a while huh.. Well sorry but bout that but I ended up being even more busy than I thought with my free time being even more reduced than normal but I haven’t forgot about this story or you guys, from now I’ll hopefully continue writing even though release will still be a lot slow at least for the next two weeks since I have University exams in two weeks.

For now I wanted to post this to show that I am indeed still alive and still haven’t given up on this story.

As always, I hope you enjoyed it and if you find any mistakes please tell me so I can go and fix it.

Hopefully see you soon~

Creation is hard, cheer me up!

Like it ? Add to library!

Have some idea about my story? Comment it and let me know.

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