บท 15: Rui Bloodstar
Ignoring Yaan's stunned exclamation, she began to examine him carefully. When she saw past his body and gazed into his soul, she paused, nearly frowning.
'A slave seal? A rudimentary soul seal, most likely placed by a Spirit Core Realm Qi refiner…I suspect that he doesn't know it himself, since it is currently dormant. There is no need to mention it for now, since this child will be unable to act properly in front of the one who placed this seal.' The woman quickly assessed the situation with a calm heart. She didn't show anything on the surface, maintaining her indifferent expression.
She decided to question him for now.
"Tell me everything that you have experienced between out last meeting and now."
She had fallen unconscious after she transmitted the Fiend Transformation Technique into his mind. When Yaan's Innate Qi developed to a certain point, she was able to absorb a portion of his energy, allowing her to regain consciousness. She didn't know what he had experienced since their last meeting. Honestly, she was slightly surprised, it was unexpected that a child could actually cultivate the Fiend Transformation Technique without any support.
Yaan narrated everything without hesitation, trying not to miss out a single detail. She listened silently, not showing a single trace of emotion from start to finish.
When Yaan finally finished recounting his experiences since their last meeting, the room fell into silence. Yaan waited patiently, until she finally brought something up that made him flinch.
She wouldn't mention the slave seal, but she would certainly bring up the matter of Yaan cultivating with an orthodox technique.
"Why are you using this below average technique? The Fiend Transformation Technique is the most beneficial technique of the fiend race, it will boost your cultivation speed dramatically."
"I…I don't want to kill needlessly." Yaan replied with an embarrassed stutter.
'A child is a child after all.' She sighed internally.
"This is part of the cultivation world. As a member of the demonic races, it is destined for you to walk the demonic path. In fact, simply becoming a fiend successfully proves that your heart possesses the innate quality of a demonic cultivator."
"Demonic path? Demonic cultivator?" Yaan asked uncertainly, he had not heard these terms before.
She didn't show any impatience, instead explaining everything to Yaan properly.
"In this world, cultivators can walk the demonic path, or the righteous path. This sect is certainly a righteous sect, practicing orthodox methods and held together by a sense of camaraderie. The demonic path is the opposite. Demonic cultivators are unapologetically selfish and will do whatever it takes to achieve their own desires. As for how the various demonic races link in…the demonic races are named as such owing to the fact that all demonic race beings possess a natural disposition towards the demonic path."
Yaan listened closely, his expression darkening towards the end.
"You're saying that I am an evil person, whilst this sect is good? I don't believe it!" He refuted as a feeling of rage welled up in his heart. He refused to accept that this sect was good!
"Did I say anything about good and evil? In the first place, those are childish concepts. Only those righteous cultivators cling to such notions so desperately."
"I am a child though…" Yaan mumbled, still not fully believing her. Wasn't it just common sense that there were good and evil people in this world…?
"Indeed. But you are a demon before you are a child, the sooner you embrace your true nature the better. Anyway, perhaps you will change your mind after I provide you with the missing details to the Fiend Transformation Technique."
"So there really is more?" Yaan perked up. He knew that some details had been omitted, but he was uncertain regarding the importance of this information. As Yaan thought of something though, he showed a hesitant expression.
"Will you need to rest again?"
"No, I have recovered enough to transfer this without issue." The woman spoke as she stepped forwards elegantly, her long black hair swaying in an impossibly graceful manner. She gently tapped the tip of her index finger between the centre of Yaan's brows, creating a ripple of white light which spread out across his forehead for a few inches, before turning back and sinking inwards.
Yaan once again felt stunned as a stream of knowledge flowed directly into his mind. Aside from this woman, he had never met anyone capable of transferring knowledge in this way, not even his teacher!
"Hah…so it was like this." After a few moments, Yaan exhaled with a strange glimmer in his eyes. He had not been imparted any new methods, but he now understood something.
If he accumulated Innate Qi by refining Slaughter Aura, his cultivation speed would be far, far greater than he had previously imagined.
"If you continue to cultivate that useless technique, you would be lucky to ever reach the Innate Qi Realm in your lifetime." She stated plainly. "If you wish to achieve revenge, then you must cultivate like a fiend."
Yaan's face screwed up into a deep frown.
"But…there's still a chance that I could reach the Innate Qi Realm…"
"If you wish to cultivate for a minimum of fifty more years, then yes. But even then, you will not be able to defeat this 'Elder Sun'. Besides, do you wish for him to live peacefully for the next few decades? By the time you catch up to him, he might have died from old age."
Every point she made cut deep, forcing Yaan to face the reality that he had been avoiding until now. Seeing him falter, she decided to kick him whilst he was down.
"What is it that you truly desire? If it is revenge, then is your resolve so weak that you will give up on avenging your family, just to spare some half dead people who are destined to die anyway?"
Yaan stood there silently, not facing the mysterious woman. He stood there, lost in thought, for full ten minutes, not caring at all as the effect of the medicinal pill gradually wore off.
"What is your name?" When he finally spoke, he didn't move, nor did he look the mysterious beauty in the eye.
The woman wasn't expecting this question, but she replied anyway without hesitation.
"My name is Rui Bloodstar."
"Fine, Rui. You win." Yaan slowly looked up at the woman whose origin was still a mystery to him. When she saw the look in his eyes, she felt a sense of satisfaction.
She had pushed him towards the darkness with her sharp and properly considered words, urging him to embrace the demonic way, and now…
That cold, ruthless look, it was exactly what she had been hoping to see. According to her initial estimations, it should have taken him years to reach this point, but it seemed that she had undervalued this child.
A natural demon indeed.
The following day, Great Elder Wan glanced down at this disciple of his with a mixture of happiness and confusion. Whilst it was true that he had been hoping to see his disicple embrace this path, but…why the sudden change of heart?
Until now, Yaan had been so adamant about his unwillingness to harm innocents. So, why was it that all of a sudden, he was now determined to kill as many people as necessary to advance his cultivation speed?
The elder was happy, but he didn't understand it at all. Still, he wouldn't say anything to discourage Yaan now.
"Remember Yaan, you still need to be aware of the Slaughter Aura. It should be an order of magnitude easier to resist compared to when you were a mortal, but the danger is still there."
Yaan nodded silently, taking his teacher's words to heart.
After speaking with Rui for some time, he decided to visit the execution chamber once again. Rui disappeared within the stone ring, though she could still communicate with him using a method she called 'Spirit Sense'. Using this Spirit Sense, she was able to transmit her thoughts directly into his mind. Of course, since Yaan was unable to use this technique, he could not reply to her.
Once again, Rui had displayed a technique that Yaan felt certain his teacher could not use. Yaan was becoming increasingly aware that this woman was someone incredible, a person far beyond any of the cultivators in the Heavenly Path Sect!
Rui could also observe the scene twenty feet around the stone ring using some methods. It didn't take her long to deduce that Great Elder Wan was the person responsible for placing the dormant slave seal on Yaan's soul.
'Yaan appears to trust this man. He is using the guise of a teacher-student relationship to nurture a demon…so that's it, he wishes to refine a demonic puppet to assist with his breakthrough into the Origin Soul Realm.'
If Great Elder Wan were to know that someone had seen through his schemes so easily, he would certainly be shocked to the core. It was fortunate for Yaan that his teacher held no suspicions towards the ordinary looking ring on his finger. He just assumed that it was cheap trinket from his mortal family, since it had sloppy looking craftsmanship.
Rui decided against telling Yaan the truth regarding his teacher. That said, she couldn't just leave things as they were. Once Yaan entered the execution chamber, Rui broke her silence. She informed him that his teacher was not spying on him using any special methods right now, so it was fine to speak out loud, now that he was alone in the execution chamber.
"You shouldn't be so trusting of people, Yaan. Remember that in this world, everyone has their own schemes, nobody is generous for free."
"…I know." Contrary to her expectations, Yaan agreed. He sighed with a complex expression and shook his head. He knew that it was impossible for his teacher's kindness to stem solely from the generosity in his heart, but he didn't want to think of this gentle man as someone deceitful.
Despite everything he had been through, Yaan still wanted to believe that there was some degree of human decency in this world. He just hoped that Great Elder Wan's plans didn't involve anything malicious.
"Anyway, are you saying that you have your own schemes with me?" Yaan changed the subject, asking Rui this with a curious expression. As he spoke, he walked across the chamber and picked up the bloody execution sword for the first time in two months.
"Of course I do. I need you to become powerful enough to assist with my recovery."
Yaan blinked, not expecting her to admit this so freely. Compared to those people who put on a righteous facade, he thought that Rui's straight forwards nature was actually quite refreshing.
Well, she probably wasn't telling him the entire truth, even now. He didn't bother questioning her further, knowing that she would only reveal what she wanted him to know.
Hearing Yaan speaking to himself, the prisoner looked at him in confusion. However, when the shackled man saw the crimson-stained weapon in Yaan's hand, he began desperately pleasing for his life, but Yaan ignored the man's ramblings.
Without saying anything else, Yaan swung the blade a single time.
Chi!
"…For someone so resistant to killing, you're surprisingly ruthless."
Seeing Yaan execute this man with such a clean and decisive swing, Rui was actually a bit surprised.
The blood splattered across the stone wall messily. Some even splashed onto Yaan's right hand and arm, yet he barely even showed any reaction. It was extremely rare for a child to be this calm when killing, even if that child was a fiend.
Yaan chuckled bitterly in response to her comment. He had indeed become more ruthless compared to the past. He didn't enjoy killing, and in fact, every time he killed, he felt a strange pain filling his heart…this pain never lessened, but somehow, it was becoming easier to endure.
Perhaps, killing so many people was gradually numbing him to the atrocities that he was committing. Perhaps he didn't feel too bad about it since these people were destined to die either way. Perhaps becoming a fiend was slowly changing him. Or perhaps, this was a side of him that had always existed, but was only now being revealed…
He tried not to dwell on it too much, instead reminding himself of his goal - revenge. As the hatred he felt towards Elder Sun continued to stew toxically within his heart, ingraining itself deeply into his mind and soul, Yaan told himself that this much…was nothing.
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