Chapter 17 "Not A Hero"

Children were scared. As they should be, since the black line made of ashes represented the end line of their lives.

The man who had a scary aura and emotionless eyes, sitting on the main seat in the hall, look more like a puppet than a leader.

A puppet, drawn by the expectations of all who served him. As if, what he wanted does not matter, not even to himself.

Two mages were standing beside him.

MAGES. Those who purely chose the path of mana and give up on cultivation.

It did not mean they are weaker than cultivators. They were also great in number since not everyone has a talent for cultivation.

One of the mages moved forward and begin to chant in a fast and unknown language. Took him less than 10 seconds to finish.

As soon as he finished all the children present there felt something hot under their feet. The fire began to rise from the ground to the point that it covered each one of their body from head to toe.

"Noooo!!!" Cried, Xing Kiang. He wanted to close his eyes but could not do so. It was a great blow to his heart. All of it was over now. He could not protect them.

Children cried desperately. Few of the guards looked away. They may agree with this but they were not heartless. The strange thing was no matter how they tried to cover their ears the sound of cries simply could not be heard.

But this time there were no cries. When they looked back they saw nothing. There was nothing no burning corpse not even ashes were left and most important of all no tormented souls.

TORMENTED SOUL, different from the normal one in the sense that it scarcely enters the reincarnation circle and it is only produced when a person feels extreme pain before death.

They found the burning method the right one for children. Burning an adult will rarely produce a tormented soul since adults must have faced great difficulties once or twice in their lives. On the other hand children, rarely had to bear extreme physical pain.

Normally they burn slowly for at least ten minutes, for this purpose a special spell is used but this time it is all finished in a few seconds.

All guards looked toward the mage who was currently looking toward his hands as if he was confused that whether he cast the wrong spell with the wrong intensity.

He was afraid. It looked like he had messed up. He looked toward the master with fear in his eyes but as soon as he did so his pupils contracted.

A boy was standing in front of his master while grabbing the scepter which was still in his master's hand.

All the guards, when they saw this, had a look of astonishment on their faces.

'How?'

Just how did this boy pass by all of them unnoticed? Where were the other children?

The boy looked at the scepter and then toward the man holding it.

The man still had those dead eyes. He didn't even look at the boy nor tried to stop him. One might think that he was just a corpse but he was alive right now.

"I can heal any wounds but unfortunately I cannot mend a broken heart"

"Grab him!" Shouted the guard's captain, toward his men who were standing nearest to the master.

"Hmmm, more than 70 tormented souls" The boy didn't pay them any attention and took the scepter out of the man's hand who didn't try to stop him.

It was like a burden lifted from the man's shoulder. The heaviest burden he had felt in his entire life...Guilt.

The boy lifted the scepter and smashed it on the ground.

Broken to pieces which resulted in the release of all tormented souls inside the scepter.

"No!!!"

Guards cried while despair filled their minds.

This was it. All the hard work and most of all, all of the guilt for their action, in the end, for nothing.

But soon it dawned upon them. Tormented souls, all of them were free now.

Without the scepter as a base to hold these souls, they were now out of control. And their targets would be those who tormented them to this abomination state.

"Shit" they tried to run but tormented souls, evidently faster, caught up with them in no time. And pinned each one of them to the ground with their own weapon.

Souls moved towards Xing Kiang who closed his eyes ready to accept his fate but after some time he didn't felt any pain.

He hesitantly opened his eyes. He was completely alright while others around him were all in a miserable state.

'Why didn't these mindless souls, purely driven by instinct, attacked him.'

They avoided him as if they were ordered not to touch him but who was controlling them.

After thinking up to this point. He tried to get up and turned to look toward the boy.

He fell to the ground again. He had lost all the strength in his muscles to get up from the ground.

"Monster."

A single word. That was all that came out of his mouth.

The boy still had a normal appearance. But his eyes. His eyes were pure black.

No. Not just black. It was the darkest color he had seen in his life. But more than that, looking in his eyes he felt like his soul was being pulled out of his body.

He hurriedly looked towards the ground. Damn it!!!

He almost shitted his pants.

The boy lifted his hand and recalled all of the little tormented souls. The souls compressed themselves together into a little orb in his hand which looked like a red orb because of the natural color of tormented souls.

Normally tormented souls give quite a headache to the controller even while using a medium because of their hatred but in the boy's hand they were quiet and peaceful.

A Golden Flame appeared on the boy's hand holding the soul's orb, completely enclosing it with fire. The souls didn't become afraid nor they tried to run away as if these flames were key to their freedom. They happily embraced it.

"True Samadhi Flame"

Xing Kiang was astonished. He had just heard about it in legends. This was his first time seeing it, 'one of the rarest flames in history.'

The flame purified all of the souls without hurting them. Souls, after regaining their original white color, flew toward the sky. Few of them stopped as if thanking the boy, while others, they were eager to enter the reincarnation cycle.

"Stop it. Who the hell are you?" The captain shouted. Even after being impaled to the ground he still kept his mind in the line, unlike others who were all caught off guard.

Some of them had a sword stabbed into their stomach and embedded in the ground on the other side, while others had spears impaled in their limbs.

Blood was continuously flowing out from their bodies.

"Me? I am no one. Really." The boy replied nonchalantly.

"Respected Sir, what do you want. We haven't done anything to offend you"

The captain took a U-turn after calming down and called the boy 'Sir' with great respect.

'A boy?, even if you beat me to death, I wouldn't believe it. He definitely is an old cultivator taking the look of a young boy.'

So this was the only way out captain thought off for him and his fellow guards.

'What was master thinking. He just let go of the scepter easily.' Thinking that the captain looked toward his master. Damn it, his master was not exempted from this same fate.

"Yes, you are right you haven't done anything to offend me"

"Then..." Captian saw some hope but the boy's next words were like a cold bucket of water on his head.

"I am not offended, I was just traveling with tose kids from before until your group interrupted my peaceful journey." the boy said in a soothing tone.

"Sir, please listen to me. We had to do it. We just wanted our family back. Yin yang sect. They took everything. They are at the fault here sir. Please believe me sir we....."

"Shush...calm down... You think I am a hero. You think I am doing this for justice. I don't give a damn about your heartbreaking past. In fact, I am not mad at all."

"You! What the hell is wrong with you. We have done nothing wro...

----squished---

Those were his last words and the last thing he saw was a sole of the foot in front of his face which had suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

Like a watermelon, his brain was crushed under the boy's foot.

"~shushhhh~ you talk too much." The boy said to the captain...the dead captain.

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