Immortal Cultivator System

Chapter 38: Punishment and Tribe

Jian woke up in what was perhaps the most disgusting room he had ever seen. The smell was horrid and quite frankly impossible to identify, though Jian knew it had something to do with the corpses wearing white and blue robes who were laid out in front of him.

The room was covered in fresh blood that still dripped down the walls. Other than that it seemed to a cell, the iron door and the lack of windows gave this out quite easily.

Jian had been attached to a chair, and the dead bodies at his feet seemed to have been attached too. However someone had strangled them with their chains.

'This...No, no no !' Jian thought as he hurriedly closed his eyes. This was not a sight a 12 year old boy wanted to be confronted to. He might have already killed, he might have seen some disturbing things already. But he knew exactly what was going to happen to him and he didn't like it one bit.

However he just had to open his eyes when he heard a voice coming out of the other side of the door, the sound most likely getting through the little bars on the iron door.

"You came Jian ? Or you're still too angry to listen ?" Giran the patriarch of the Sect said in a voice that carried some easily recognizable cold fury.

" I-I'm good !" Jian exclaimed, chills creeping going down his spine as the intensity of Giran's aura could be felt through the door, and he seemed insanely pissed off.

The iron door opened and Giran entered carrying a bowl of soup. He put the bowl down at Jian's feet and sat on the corpses, scaring Jian even further.

" I'm going to be very clear Jian, this whole mess isn't entirely your fault, as such I won't kill you. I still don't understand what your powers are, so I can't risk it anyway. You could become an important asset. However you have heard too much, you know too much. I could just let you rot in here, however we lied to the disciples and made them believe the one who attacked Uma was an ennemy disguised as you. If you randomly die right after that, they'll understand." Giran said in such a calm tone. It was as if he hadn't just said to Jian he actually wanted to kill him but couldn't.

Jian's whole opinion on the man would've changed if he didn't already know something like this could happen.

' Uma was always pretty nice, but whenever someone tried to mess with Uri she would turn into a true demon...People aren't always the same in all situations...I did cause a lot of trouble...But Uma....I don't know what to think anymore.'

He had always seen Uma as some sort of mother figure, so he couldn't really hate her that easily. She also seemed to truly regret whatever she and her group did to Chimi. His first guess was that she was somehow forced to do whatever she did, however she said it herself that her group had to do some horrible things to survive. Now all he was certain of, was that he needed to know more about all of this. This whole matter seemed entirely too weird to him, especially since Uma always had that tattoo on her neck, which meant that she had been a part of that group even before he met her.

" Now I also can't let you go as if nothing happened. Uma is also getting punished for actually showing her powers in front of more than a hundred disciples.....This stupid hot-headed woman....Anyway, you'll both be given the same task. Maybe this mission will allow you two to explain yourselves. I honestly don't care about what she reveals to you. I'm not part of that group, I'm just the patriarch of the sect. All of this never really mattered to me...I just want my children to grow, so I can be proud of them and one day give the title of patriarch to someone I would've trained myself." Giran said, his tone getting a bit more depressed. Whatever was on his mind made him sadder than a patriarch as powerful as him had any rights to be.

"C-Children ? What do you mean ? I didn't know you had children Patriarch...." Jian said while smiling anxiously. What he didn't expect was for Giran to pat him and give him the kindest smile he had ever seen on someone looking at him...Even Chimi had never smiled at him like that.

"You are all my children. Every disciples of the sect is...Except Shina and Judem I guess, but I don't know what to think about them....But remember this Jian, even if today I look truly terrifying to you...I'm on your side, I'll always be as long as you serve the sect. You'll find comfort in my presence. And maybe someday you'll get to look at me like a child would look at his father." He simply said before tapping the boy on the forehead.

Jian's eyes suddenly became heavy and he went back to sleep. Meanwhile Giran sighed and grabbed the bowl before drinking the whole soup in one go.

"Everything is alright patriarch ? Did he cause troubles ?" Wei Lu asked as she entered the room while looking only at Giran. She wouldn't even dare to look a bit lower. Those cold faces would give her nightmares.

"Whatever he pulled out against Uma has worn off. I never saw anything like it.....Search in the treasure hall if any scroll or book talks about such phenomenon. Anyway, I'm going to put him with Uma. Who did you pick to drop them at the outpost ?" Giran asked as he let go of the bowl and ripped apart the chains that had been tied around Jian. He then put the boy on his shoulder as Wei Lu coughed.

"Zhao Shu....I figured it was a good idea since we need him to go meet his relatives who arrived at Zhuge...Oh right. Zhuge is a little village located near the 'capital' of the Buddha Free States. Also we received words from the leaders of the States. Apparently they were quite pleased to hear that the two Zhao Warriors who joined the Akaryu order managed to convince other members of the tribe to join the war. The Elite Disciple Hircen has reported that the free states will most likely join our side as soon as the other side looses it's morals from hearing that the Zhao Warriors are coming after them." She said as Giran rose an eyebrow.

" The Zhao warriors who responded to the call already arrived ? I know that the buddha states are close to the ocean...But still....Well it's the Zhao Warriors, so nothing really surprising coming from them. You've done well. After I put Jian with Uma I'll go back to my mansion. If anyone asks, I'm meditating." Giran simply said before leaving. However just after he stepped out of the cell, Wei Lu talked again.

"Meditating ? What will you really do ?"

"....Drink, until death comes for me if possible."

*****************

( A few days later with Zhao Shu )

The little prodigy that had joined the Raja Sect a few months ago had truly grown. Jian may have declared himself Zhao Shu's rival, but he never did bother to actually check just how quickly the young man grew. He had already reached the 6th Step of the Qi Core Realm and was nearly about to break through the 7th step, which meant that he was once again superior to Jian.

Though he himself ignored that Jian now had the means to defeat him quite easily. A blade as powerful as the Red Sky Sword was already quite difficult to overlook for someone like Zhao Shu, but the eyes of the blight were also a serious problem.

However Zhao Shu had quite honestly forgot a bit about Jian. He had been really busy getting closer to all the strongest Inner disciples. And he had been doing a great job at that. Jin Wang wanted to get him at all costs, Huang Lei had given him great equipments as a reward for his outstanding progress and Zhi Li had seemingly fell in love with him. That or she was really way too flirty, though Zhao Shu wouldn't really mind it. He had been taught a lot of things by the men and women of his tribe, and one of those things was how to resist the charms of any women.

None of that mattered though. At the very moment Zhao Shu arrived at the outpost, everything changed.

He entered a dead zone. Not a single soul lived there. However a fire was still lit and even saw some fresh foot prints in the snow. Everyone seemed to have left in a hurry. He wasn't able to tell why though. That was until...

*BOOM*

He turned around in an instant, and that just in time for his eyes to widen at the sigh of a gigantic pillar of fire rising towards the heavens. The problem was that this pillar of fire had appeared right inside of the capital. And he knew exactly what was going.

'NO NO NO ! Anything but that ! Not again ! I was thrown away once, not twice !' He thought in panic as he summoned his hell butterfly and rode on it.

He quickly flew over the capital and his fear was confirmed. The buildings were up in flame, the palace itself was now at the very center of the pillar of fire. The poor civilians were running around, screaming in horror as no matter in which direction they went, a blade would come to take their head.

"...Why ? This was obviously planned...So....DID YOU MAKE ME COME HERE JUST SO I COULD SEE YOU RUINING EVERYTHING FOR ME ?! ONCE AGAIN ?!" He yelled as his butterfly dived.

He crashed on the ground and immediately rushed towards the source of this whole mess. And he found that person quite quickly. However they were already fighting someone.

Zhao Shu groaned as said person collided with him after being thrown away by the source of the chaos. He helped the person up and before he could ask them if they were alright, his eyes were drawn to a mother and her daughter. They were running towards an inn that had been spared by the hellish fire. The innkeeper was at the door, yelling at them to run faster.

He wanted to help them, but he just couldn't, his whole body was frozen as this scene echoed with a memory he had tried desperatly to bury as deep as possible in his mind.

He watched as they got a few meters away from the inn, before said inn was blown to pieces by a random fireball that wasn't even aimed at it. The daughter burst into tears as her mother grabbed her and tried to make a run for it. However the woman who had caused this slaughter appeared in front of her.

Her halberd pointed at the mother, she was ready to take both lives, but stopped when the man she had previously sent flying yelled and burst into flames before lunging at her.

Meanwhile Zhao Shu was still looking at the mother in shock. He couldn't move even a single finger, however something luckily escaped his mouth.

"N-No...Don't die...Chimi !"