Kapitel 21: A Clean Start

After Mayton's week long torture ended, the door of the room creaked open and he saw Ghorzhang's huge figure. It seemed like he grew up visibly since the last time Mayton saw him a week ago.

''Finally, someone other than that crazy girl came to look for me. Thanks, really.''

Mayton said jokingly. He saw the worry on Ghorzhang's face and wanted to lighten up his mood a little before they started to talk about serious topics.

''Hey! Wait for me. You don't know enough about Mistress to tell him.''

Before Ghorzhang could say anything Zgar's voice came from outside the room. Hearing him, Ghorzhang waited and didn't say anything despite Mayton's questioning glance. After hearing Zgar's voice, Ghorzhang looked like he didn't want to be here anymore as he helplessly sighed. In a short time, three of them were inside Mayton's room, sitting face to face.

''Okay since you are here, some explanations are in order I guess. Who is this Mistress you speak of? How did I end up here? What's going on?''

As soon as Mayton asked his questions, Zgar began to answer him without giving Ghorzhang a chance to open his mouth. Unlike Ghorzhang, Zgar looked unusually excited and enthusiastic.

''You met Mistress a week ago, didn't you? She is the one who brought you here. You were unconscious and looked sickly but Mistress healed you easily. She is so strong you can't even imagine it. Even Old Mert had to hold his tongue and do as she says.''

''I get it she is awesome, can you tell what is going on now? Also, did you just mention Old Mert? Is he here?''

After hearing Mayton, Zgar's face reddened as he realized he was a bit too enthusiastic. Ghorzhang took over from Zgar as he started to properly tell what happened.

''The same night you went to the fair of souls, near dawn, Miss Leyzhen brought you back...''

Ghorzhang continued to talk for almost half an hour with Zgar interrupting him from time to time for highlighting his mistress' prowess. This Miss Leyzhen was a mysterious person who rarely spoke. No one knew where she came from and why did she save Mayton. After saving Mayton she said all the hunters were contaminated, and urgently needed to be cleansed. Even the souls of the dead villagers weren't an exception. Thus she worked without pause all week. But the hardest to cleanse was by far Mayton.

Leyzhen has been trying to cleanse Mayton, whom she called the source of the filth, for the better part of the week and has succeeded just today. But despite her unfathomable power, because she tried her best to not hurt Mayton, the process was so taxing she fell unconscious as soon as she was done.

As for the reason Zgar was calling her mistress, it was simple, after Zgar's continuous begging for her to teach him how to get stronger that bordered on harassment, she couldn't endure it anymore and offered to take Zgar in as a servant if he wanted to learn anything from her. Even though Leyzhen just wanted Zgar to give up and leave her alone, he promptly agreed to be her servant. Without a choice, Leyzhen imparted a cultivation technique to him then ordered him to go away and not return until he sensed the qi. This made Zgar revere her so much, he couldn't stop praising her whenever the topic came to her, annoying everyone who had the misfortune of talking with him.

Hearing all that made Mayton feel a bit bad about his previous attitude to Leyzhen. Whatever her reasons may be, she helped him and people close to him, thus he was thankful to her. He wanted to apologize to her face but before he could ask where she was now, he heard a familiar voice;

''Brat, when will you come and greet your grandpa? After a little success in your cultivation, you don't put me in your eyes anymore, huh?''

Mayton could identify this voice from miles away. It was obviously the majestic voice of Old Mert. Not long after Mayton heard the voice of Old Mert, the door of the room opened again as Old Mert and rest of the hunters currently present in the shop poured in. Everyone was happy about Old Mert and Mayton being safe as they chatted about the things they experienced in the week Mayton was in the room. Following a brief chat, the hunters heard the grumbling of Mayton's stomach and rushed out of the room to prepare a feast to celebrate Mayton safely getting cleansed.

Except for Mayton, Ghorzhang whom Mayton prevented from leaving, and Old Mert the room got emptied. Ghorzhang, while sharing everyone's joy, obviously had something that worried him, and Mayton wanted to get to the bottom of it.

''Okay, now everyone left you can tell me what is worrying you.''

Mayton said as he looked into the eyes of Ghorzhang. Seeing that there was no way to avoid this conversation Ghorzhang took in a deep breath as he started to explain after glancing at Old Mert for a moment;

''Do you remember the time when I sensed the dire wolf near the forest? I asked about it to Miss Leyzhen. She said the blood in my veins might be that of a beast.''

''So what? We already knew that.''

Old Mert interrupted hastily and prevented Ghorzhang from continuing. But it only served to make Mayton more curious.

''Grandpa Mert what is it you want to hide from me? Just let him finish his explanation please.''

''The beast I am related to is the dire wolf.''

Ghorzhang said in a breath as he looked at Mayton anxiously, trying to gauge his reaction. Mayton was not a fool. He immediately understood what was going on. Ghorzhang was implying that he may have something to do with the attack of the dire wolf on the village all those years ago.

''Sigh, actually I killed a dire wolf wandering in the forest near the village back in the day. Come to think of it, ferocious beasts usually don't come that close to the edge of the forest. It might be looking for Ghorzhang after all. Then … you know what happened.''

Old Mert said guiltily.

''Huh? So that was it? What do you think I will blame you for something like that?''

Mayton heaved a sigh of relief. He was afraid that something bad happened to Ghorzhang. It turned out to be something inconsequential.

''There is more to it. He must return to the forest, to his kind.''

While saying that Old Mert unconsciously rubbed the scar on his neck, making Mayton notice it in the process. Seeing the questioning look of Mayton, Old Mert started to tell his story animatedly.

After they split near the forest, Old Mert chased the dire wolf for an entire day. His anger, coupled with the emotional instability caused by using his demonic cultivation excessively prevented him from realizing that the dire wolf was baiting him.

When his qi began to run out, he finally realized the ploy of the dire wolf, but they were already deep in the forest. Seeing that Old Mert understood its intentions, the dire wolf stopped running and attacked him after letting out a loud howl. As they fought back and forth, despite his cultivation, Old Mert found himself in a disadvantage as he got grievously wounded. Just when the dire wolf was going to finish him off, another howl was heard.

This howl was so strong, the ground quaked and trees shook. The dire wolf immediately got away from Old Mert with his tail between its legs*. In a moment a strange wolf appeared near them. It was like teleportation as Old Mert didn't see it approaching at all. This beast had sky blue mane and three tails with a tiny silver gem embedded on its forehead. It was much smaller than the dire wolf but its forceful howl and imposing posture was testament to its strength. It looked disdainfully at Old Mert and the dire wolf before saying in a guttural voice;

''Bring. Back. Sibling. You took. He die. If not. Go.''

Old Mert looked dumbfoundedly at the strange wolf. This was his first time hearing a beast talk. Then he remembered that as the beasts get stronger, their intelligence also increased accordingly. This prompted him to focus on the beast's forehead. There it was. A demonic core. Old Mert shivered after his brain registered what kind of beast this was.

After ferocious beasts absorbed enough qi, they formed their demonic cores just like humans formed their cores at the core formation phase. This meant that the beast in front of him had strength equal to that of a core formation phase cultivator.

''I-I'll bring him to you.''

Old Mert stuttered and ran away as fast as he could. He wandered around this dangerous world for years. He might be rash sometimes, but if he didn't know when to advance and when to retreat, he would be long dead by now.

Old Mert finished his story by telling the time he spent together with Leyzhen. The part where their whole village got leveled including the graves of Mayton's parents and the house he lived in for years irritated Mayton a bit, but from what he understood about Leyzhen, even though she was unconventional at times, she was a good person at heart. So she probably had a reason for doing it.

After Mayton thought about his parents' graves, he immediately remembered Leyzhen's words. She said she took their souls with them too while saving him. Even though she was still resting and thus can't meet him right now, it had nothing to do with Mayton checking out his parents' souls. He learned the way to see his parents' last memories from Celyse*. All he had to do was breaking the orb containing their soul. So he offered a few words of comfort to Ghorzhang and then impatiently asked about the soul collecting orbs;

''Old Mert do you know where are the orbs Miss Leyzhen brought right now?''

''Here I was wondering when you are going to about it. They are with me. But don't forget there are other souls in it too. The souls of your uncles' relatives. So we should break them open after everyone gathered together.''

Old Mert said hesitatingly. He knew that Mayton felt responsible for the villagers' deaths thus didn't want to mention them. He knew this kind of guilt well because he always thought he was at least partly responsible for the attack of the dire wolf. Unfortunately, there was no way to avoid the topic.

Mayton was indeed feeling guilty, but he was also feeling angry at the perpetrators. Now, he had a proper cultivation technique. This gave him the confidence to seek revenge in the future. With time, he was sure to take revenge for the villagers and his parents.

With thoughts of revenge in his mind, Mayton followed Old Mert to the biggest room in the hunters' residence, the dining room while Ghorzhang went to call the other hunters. In a short time, the hunters were gathered in the dining room. There was a grim atmosphere in the room as everyone looked at Old Mert with some having tears flowing down their cheeks.

Old Mert took out five orbs from his pockets and started to break them one by one with his illusory lion claws. As soon as one of the orbs broke a white mist surged out of him. Some part of the mist was attracted by the hunters and bore into their facial orifices while most of it scattered away. The hunters who attracted the mist had their face twist in agony for a moment before standing still in a daze.

When Old Mert broke the third orb, some of the mist surged towards Mayton and finally entered his body. The first thing he felt was a bit of pain, but it was not something unbearable. Mayton endured much worse during his cultivation. After the pain, came a wave of dizziness as his vision changed.

He was in his mother's body experiencing her last moments before death. He felt the hopelessness and despair she felt at the time, as well as the feeling of contentment after successfully hiding Angeza in the well. Before long, there were tears on the rims of Mayton's eyes. Just when he saw a gray robed young man, his vision changed again.

He was in the village. Crying sounds and pleads of mercy were coming from a short distance away. He rushed as fast as his disabled leg allowed toward the origin of the sounds. When he finally reached there, he saw six young men in gray robes with red ouroboros symbols on their hearts killing people left and right with a wave of their hands. He tried to shoot one of them with an arrow, but his attack was unsuccessful. The young man he attacked looked disdainfully at him as he waved his hand towards him and killed him effortlessly. As he was dying he heard one of the young men mocking;

''Haha, even these ants don't respect our esteemed commander Delun! What a joke.'' *