Death-Chapter 4

Compared to the capital, the countryside was lacking in numerous ways.

The most obvious being the houses.

With stone walls, and complicated sewerage systems, many innovative aspects of the capital could not be replicated in the countryside with the lack of manpower and materials.

Less obvious features included the lack of experts.

Experts were concentrated to be closer to the capital.

With disciplines and dojos, expensive elixirs and panaceas, and the greatest teachers the kingdom could offer, for all warriors it was a dream.

Compared to it, they found the dull and poor countryside to be a waste of their time.

The only warriors that could be found in it were those who were retired with injuries, ran out of potential, or sought to protect their home.

However, neither of the three was a match for Noah.

Villagers were left trembling in his wake, the capital feared he would attack them, officials were left wondering the amount of resources they would allocate to this threat, but the royal family was furious and immediately deployed maximum resources to kill him

Multiple squads of mercenaries, assassins and warriors, were all sent to encircle, suppress, then kill him.

Yet, he still continued.

From the capital he slaughtered in an eastward direction; the people there have not experienced the cruelty of war.

His plan to kill the villagers consisted of assassinating the hunters and burning their crops, causing the villagers to starve, and picking them off, one by one as they slept.

Sleeping during the day and letting people run, and attacking during the night, killing those who remained. He was always cautious enough to leave, when he decided the time spent was too long.

You may think that allowing villagers to flee would be contrary to his goals but in fact, it was beneficial.

It allowed his fame to spread, thus increasing the chance that a cultivator could find him.

He lived for months like this, surrounded in the abyss of slaughter.

His killing intent grew thicker and thicker.

This was different from the purposeful killing in the army.

This was mindless slaughter.

Treating human's as you would an ant.

If he focused his killing intent on an untrained man, it could cause them to lose their mind.

They'll turn into a bloodthirsty beast, attacking all that it sees.

Unfortunately, against those with a stronger body, or those with a stronger will, it proved either ineffective or unusable for anything other than testing.

However, the feeling of having power that was beyond physical human force was invigorating.

...

With corpses piled around Noah, he slowly started a fire on them.

Children, adults and the elderly, he spared none.

Noah the butcherer he was called.

His only duty was to slaughter.

Once again, slicing off a man's head from behind.

Suddenly, his hairs stood on edge.

Throwing himself to the right, a flying sword punctured the spot he was in a moment ago.

He felt that he was unlucky that a righteous cultivator found him first.

Throwing daggers at him, his mind went into an overdrive state, causing his body to move faster.

He first unlocked this state while escaping the encirclement of the army.

He felt the shackles of something being broken.

Noah inferred that it was the shackles of the soul, which allowed his soul to reach the same level as a cultivator.

This gave forth to more confidence in his plan, and was the source of his calmness in facing this enemy.

With this speed he was operating at, he believed he could escape from any cultivator.

''Arrogance.''

A look of disdain appeared on the cultivators face.

Looking back, he was wearing pure white clothes, with black flowing hair.

But his eyes scared Noah.

Pure dark eyes, with no ripples in emotion.

With a sense of danger, he quickly looked back forward.

Ghosts were ahead, clamping and crunching all over his body.

At the waist, shoulders, head and legs, all he felt was unimaginable pain.

Writhing on the floor, he swung his dagger around

Trying to do something,

Anything,

To stop this terrible pain.

His heart was thumping on his chest.

His breathing synchronised.

A slash.

A beautiful slash.

Pure.

That was the only way to describe it.

He never truly felt that fighting could be an art.

Until now.

But his hopes were then shattered.

The ghosts merely screeched a bit before continuously biting him.

This time fiercer than ever; maybe it felt insulted

The cultivator walked up and stepped on his head.

''Breaking the mortal boundary? For technique and the soul.

How interesting.

You'll make a fine Ghost of Sin.''

Black flames appeared on his hand, slowly his body started melting.

From the legs up to his head.

The pain made him shriek and flail around.

Why?

Why was he doing this when he could just kill me?

Despite killing all those people, I never tortured them.

Why.

A deranged smile appeared on the cultivator's face.

''You're thinking why, aren't you?

Well, I'll tell you my secret.''

He leaned in, to his already burning head.

''Because it's fun.''

Anger.

Anger boiled up inside Noah.

Why,

Why,

WHY!

And thereforth came darkness.

A chilling voice was heard.

''How annoying. It was truly a good material.

He could nearly create a late stage qi gathering ghost?

A shame.

It could've broken through the bottleneck, even if he was in the first stage of qi gathering before refinement.

I'll talk to my master, to see if he can make it break through to late stage .''

...

Then silence.

...

Hazy.

Sluggish.

Thinking is tiring.

...

Taken out of Nix's spiritual treasure again, the now ghost-turned Noah awaited orders.

''Ghost 2, hide inside my sleeve and protect me in case of trouble.''

He saw Nix complete the sect mission once again.

...

In the sect he was turning it in, an old man had a proud smile on his face.

''Good job Nix, if you break into foundation establishment soon you'll definitely get a good elder position!''

''May i ask, what qualifications i need to get cultivated as a golden core seed?''

''Sigh, Nix, don't try. To become a perfected one is more difficult than ascending the skies.

To get cultivated as a seed, the average requirement is to break through after completing the 3 secret arts of qi gathering, or show an exceptional talent.

Who knows? Maybe if you break through within a few months, you could get picked.''

Thanking him repeatedly Nix slowly walked back to his cave abode.

''Ghost 2, dismissed.''

...

And more silence.

...

''Nix, your evil deeds have gone too far this time.

I refuse to believe that you can defeat two cultivators at the same level as you''

''Amitabha, this monk, will use his life, to kill you.''

''Foolish righteous path cultivators, do you truly believe you can beat me.

I've spent 15 years cultivating these trump cards.

After i kill you, I'll torture your souls for years.

How dare you make me reveal them.''

...

The world warped again.

An order seemed to have appeared in his mind.

Quickly charging at the taoist priest, two more ghosts came charging with him and helped support Noah.

The other two fought the buddhist while Nix was recovering.

Quickly changing into a basic formation, they attacked the taoist in multiple directions.

The taoist had an ugly look on his face.

Noah felt Fireballs that were flung at him multiple times, but he felt that he resisted the damage with his ''flesh''.

''Damn it devil!

How are the yin of these ghosts so strong?

How many must they have killed to gain this aura!''

''Amitabha, where did you find so many evil souls?

And even before the buddhists could exorcise them.''

With a sneer, Nix responded.

''Dead men, don't need to know.

But you should worry about yourselves rather than others.

After i kill you, I'll refine your souls to create even more ghosts, and then use your souls to break through to foundation establishment.

With that, i could be cultivated as a golden elixir seed.''

He cackled.

With resolute eyes, the buddhist and taoist nodded at each other.

With a burst of strength Noah and the rest of the ghosts were thrown away for a second, giving them enough time to use forbidden techniques.

Qi disintegration technique!

Merit Curse!

Suddenly, the taoist gained a huge burst in strength.

Nix looked on with fearful eyes then attempted to run, but suddenly spurted a mouthful of blood.

The buddhist's light was rapidly dimming.

Nix felt his foundation being damaged, and the fear promptly changed to anger.

''HOW DARE YOU RUIN MY FUTURE!''

Fighting the taoist, he felt his internal organs receiving wounds with every clash.

Quickly the buddhist ran to support him, but they didn't expect that they were still at a disadvantage.

With eyes full of sadness the monk mentally transmitted to the taoist.

''Amitabha, this little monks life, will be used to prevent another perfected one from appearing in the demonic path.''

''Bodhiro, don't!

You damaged his foundation already, he couldn't possibly manage to heal it and gain a place as a golden core seed.''

''Amitabha, no need to dissuade this little monk.

He has made up his mind.''

With that, the monk ran straight up to Nix and self destructed.

A huge explosion occurred, and a large wave of qi suddenly expanded.

Nix, clearly not expecting them to be so decisive, was hit with the full brunt of the power, while the taoist retreated and used shields to minimise the impact.

Severely injured, Nix attempted to run away, but suddenly felt a burst of pain.

Looking down, he saw a hand grasping his heart through his chest.

Full of anger that his bright future was ruined by them, he also self destructed and took the taoist with him to death.

Thus all that knew what happened were the ghosts, still floating around.