บท 2: The Lord Immortal
The following day, Yaan went about his usual routine of carrying out the daily chores. However, he struggled to properly focus on what he was doing. He found himself becoming distracted, causing him to make mistakes on things that should have been simple. That said, he wasn't the only one.
When he visited the village market with his father in the afternoon, the atmosphere was noticeably solemn. The children were all visibly confused. They were able to sense the adults' collective gloomy mood, but they could not understand the root cause. Some of the older children remembered the Lord Immortal's last visit and understood why the adults were so unnerved, but they were instructed by their parents to hold their tongues.
For the entire day, Yaan felt extremely uncomfortable. The atmosphere grew increasingly grave, leading to some children crying in the streets due to their confusion. He even saw one woman drop to her knees in the middle of the street, before hugging her daughter tightly as she cried with helpless sobs.
Yaan knew the girl being hugged, she was a friend of his named Elia. Her clear complexion, long blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes made her the most desired girl for all of the young boys in the village.
As Yaan and Elia passed one another in the streets, they exchanged a bewildered look before their respective parents dragged them away.
That evening, dinner with his parents felt far too gloomy. Nobody spoke as they ate. The atmosphere was usually warm and joyous, but today, it was simply stifling.
"Father, please tell me what's going on! All of the adults are acting so strangely! Is it that Lord Immortal, is he-"
"Hush, Yaan. It's ok. It's just that the Lord Immortal is an intimidating person, so the adults are worried about tomorrow. For you children, there's nothing to worry about."
Realising that his child was truly panicking now in his confusion, Yaan's father changed his expression immediately and tried to lighten the mood. Yaan still felt that something was off, but he more or less calmed down after seeing his father's assuring smile.
That night, the young couple watched as their two children slept.
"I had to lie to him…sigh."
"It's best not to let him worry, after all, things really might be fine for us tomorrow. It's just that…"
"Indeed. There is always a chance."
As he pretended to sleep, Yaan overheard their conversation. He screwed his eyes shut tightly, trying to forget about everything as his mind slipped away into the embrace of the cool night.
Despite his anxiety, Yaan managed to sleep that night, but his dreams were far from pleasant. He couldn't remember exactly what it was that he dreamt of, but he had woken up in a cold sweat with a racing heart and fearful trembling eyes.
He forgot all about that dream as he followed his parents towards the village square. The cobblestone grounds around this area were well maintained, since the village square was often used to host festivals, important meetings and other such events.
Yaan's family's speed was slow, owing to his mother's weakened state. His father carried the baby to assist her, though for some reason, he kept worriedly checking on June every few seconds. Whenever he saw that she was asleep, he briefly revealed a relieved smile.
Yaan stayed silent as they made their way towards the gathering crowd. He had realised that no matter what he said, his parents wouldn't explain what was going on, so all he could do was wait and see for himself.
They eventually arrived at the village square, along with many other families and friends.
In fact, wasn't this everyone from the village? Yaan couldn't be sure since it was so crowded, but his guess was indeed correct. Every single person, whether young or old, healthy or sick, able or not, had shown up.
The stifling atmosphere from the day before once again encompassed the village, only now, it was multiple times worse than before. The tension in the air was so thick that Yaan started to feel nauseous, but thankfully, his stomach settled down after a few minutes.
The villagers anxiously waited for the arrival of the Lord Immortal.
Time passed by. The seconds turned to minutes, the minutes into hours, making Yaan wonder why everyone had arrived so early.
"We need to be here incase the Lord Immortal arrives earlier than expected." His father explained.
Yaan thought that making hundreds of people wait for one man didn't make any sense, but he kept his mouth shut and waited like everyone else.
"A carriage!" Someone from the crowd suddenly exclaimed. Hearing this, everyone tensed up.
Yaan tried to see past the sea of bodies, but the crowd was too thick and he was too small. He asked his father to boost him up onto his shoulders, but he was told sternly that he needed to remain still and silent…
A minute later, Yaan heard the sound of a carriage arriving at the main entrance to the village square. After the carriage came to a halt and the carriage door opened, a faint creaking sound echoed across the village square. This sound was all that could be heard, because after the sole person within the carriage stepped out, a silent, oppressive pressure, descended upon everyone in the village. With this feeling weighing down on their hearts, nobody dared to utter a single word.
"Is this everyone?" An indifferent yet overbearing voice echoed out. Instantly, everyone dropped to their knees. Seeing everyone get down, Yaan followed suit.
Now that everyone was kneeling, he could finally see ahead.
Only two men remained standing; the village chief, and an unfamiliar old man wearing a superior quality, luxurious looking robe. The majestic black and crimson robe draped down to his ankles. The fabric completely covered his body, as if he disdained from even touching the air in a rural village such as this.
His sharp gaze skimmed over the villagers indifferently, his expression telling of his disdain for these people. As his eyes passed over each person, they lowered their heads without fail.
Yaan was no exception. When his eyes met with this man's eyes, he immediately broke out in cold sweat, he found himself short of breath and his heart started palpitating wildly. He needed to lower his gaze just to relieve the pressure and regain his normal faculties!
'This must be the Lord Immortal!' Yaan instantly realised in shock. He truly felt shaken by that gaze…he didn't understand how such a sharp pair of eyes could exist in this world!
"This is the entire village, Lord Immortal." The village chief trembled as he spoke, lowering his head respectfully.
"Hm." The robed man nodded lightly. "I believe it has been five years since my last visit. Bring forth the children between the ages of five and ten for testing."
"Yes, my lord." The chief agreed readily. He turned towards the villagers and nodded, causing them all to sigh. One by one, they urged their children to go up to the front of the crowd.
"Yaan, you must go up and have your talent measured by the Lord Immortal, this is the procedure for when he visits." His father tried to explain this calmly, but a hint of anxiousness seeped into his tone, whilst his eyes were filled with sorrow and worry.
"What, but-"
"No questions Yaan, or you will anger the Lord Immortal." His father said firmly. Seeing his serious countenance, Yaan realised that he couldn't disagree here.
After turning away from his father, Yaan took a deep breath, then walked forwards towards the front.
Wherever the children walked, the adults moved aside to allow them unobstructed passage. Once they arrived before the intimidating Lord Immortal, every single one of the young children stood there with fear and uncertainty in their eyes.
The overbearing robed man didn't seem to care about how they felt.
He waved his hand, then with a flash of white light, a strange glass orb appeared in his hands. Most of the children missed this scene because they had kept their heads lowered out of fear, but Yaan caught a glimpse from the corner of his eye.
'What was that?!' He inhaled sharply, then bit down on his tongue to forcefully stop himself from crying out.
"Form a line and touch the orb." The robed man spoke plainly, but his words were like divine gospel. The children all found themselves obeying him obediently, as if resisting his command was simply not possible.
One by one, they did as instructed. There were 23 children in total who met the required age range, whilst Yaan, currently six years old, stood near the back of the line.
"No talent, go back." The robed man stated calmly after the first child touched the orb, showing his indifference towards this assessment.
The child stared blankly at the orb, which showed no change after he touched it, before happily processing that he could return to his parents. He awkwardly bowed to the Lord Immortal, then scurried back to his family.
One by one, similar scenes repeated. It was only on the fifth attempt that there was a change.
"Low talent, off to the side."
The child looked at the robed man uncertainly, but after seeing the man's cold gaze, he could only do as instructed. He was unable to make out his parents from here, but if he could, he would see his mother holding back her tears.
Before reaching Yaan, another boy was assessed with low talent.
Yaan's friend, Elia, had high talent. The robed man only showed some mild consideration towards Elia, the rest he treated as dust. It seemed that even finding a 'high talent' was not enough to change the robed man's mood.
Finally, it was Yaan's turn. He walked up to the orb dazedly, then placed his hand onto the surface, just as those before him had done. For a second, nothing happened. Soon after, however, the orb began glowing with a faint white light.
"Moderate talent, to the side."
Yaan felt dazed for a moment. This 'talent' meant nothing to him, since he did not know what it meant, however…those with talent were not allowed to return to their families yet.
Yaan tried to hide his anxiety as he joined the others. He glanced at them one by one, feeling slightly relieved to see that he wasn't the only one feeling uncertain and confused.
There were only three more children behind Yaan who were yet to be tested, but their turns were interrupted unexpectedly.
"Waaaah! Waaahhh!"
The sounds of a baby crying echoed through the square, easily audible over the background silence. For the first time, the Lord Immortal showed an irritated expression. His gaze turned towards the source of the noise, then he let out a cold harrumph.
With a wave of his hand, a flying sword materialised before him. Seeing this, the villagers were all terrified, quickly moving away from the source of the noise, leaving Yaan's mother, father, aunt and baby sister, alone.
"Waaaahh!"
"Insolent mortals, to disrupt this lord's duty is a crime deserving of death!"
The sword lit up with a bright white light, then shot forwards through the air at an inescapable speed.
Yaan watched with a blank expression as his mother, sister and aunt, were pierced through their chests by the sword. The blade stabbed straight through their bodies, cutting through them like a knife through butter. With each impalement, blood spurted out around their bodies, some of which was left behind on the flying blade.
They were killed one by one, but it happened so quickly that they all fell to the ground at the same time.
Thud…
The sword returned to the robed man's side. He tapped the weapon with his finger, causing it to emit a bright white light, before vanishing without a trace. He wore an annoyed expression, as if he had truly lashed out in anger…however, hidden in his irate gaze, a hint of mocking disdain could be seen. His display of anger was just an excuse. He had a reason other than simple anger for lashing out with this level of excessive brutality.
Of course, nobody in the village noticed this.
"Huh…?" Yaan stared at the bloody corpses with wide, confused eyes. Everything happened too quickly, he was completely unable to process the shock.
What was going on?
A sword…his family…blood…death…
They were…dead?
This wasn't really happening, right?
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