June 22nd, 2032 | Cold Deception

[A/N: This chapter has a very mild, non-graphic scene that some readers may find triggering. Reader discretion is advised.]

—

Evalyn's mind cleared, and her pain lessened radically, causing her to open her eyes meekly. It was difficult, as her body had yet to melt the frost that had developed on her eyelids.

From her narrowed eyes, she could see a dancing blizzard. Somehow the frost had turned into a Chinese dragon, flying through the sky as if free from the world's woes.

"Wha…."

The blonde coughed, and she brought her hand to her mouth. After she finished coughing, she looked at her hand, and her mind froze in horror.

Her fingers were black, burning with frostbite.

Thu-dump!

"W-What is this?" Evalyn cried in horror with a thumping heart.

"Frostbite." Kaze scoffed in vexation, "Do you think I'd use healing cultivation on you as a safety precaution?"

She shivered uncontrollably, unable to feel shame because of the cold.

Once Qi stopped circulating in her body rapidly, her cold and pain resistance dropped significantly, making her cry out.

"I-I didn't understand." Evalyn grimaced in pain, "W-Will this heal w-without you?"

"It will. With normal cultivation, it should heal in a week." Kaze replied coldly, "Tell me, do you think you'd be able to teach your mother cultivation like that?"

Thu-dump! Thu-dump!

She placed her palms down on the ground with a beating heart, trying to stand. However, her arms buckled, and she smashed to the ground.

Her compiled wounds screamed in pain as she hit the rough ground.

"I planned to release this when I couldn't take it." Evalyn cried, "I was lost in cultivation; I believe I reached enlightenment. I wouldn't have gone this far without that…."

Kaze scoffed aggressively. "What did I warn you about when I told you about enlightenment periods?"

Evalyn tried to bite her lip, but it burst open, and blood spilled into her mouth. She cried out in pain and tried to adjust her body with rocks grinding into her wounds.

"Stop making excuses." He replied in annoyance, "Your actions killed you tonight. You wouldn't have died from those wounds, but you would from the mob you're ignoring."

"I can hear her!" A person yelled, "It is Evalyn! She sounds like she's in pain!"

"Evalyn! Are you there!? We need help!" Another yelled.

"What's going on?" Evalyn asked the emperor in confusion.

Kaze looked over the area behind a concealment wall with a cold expression.

"As soon as my calming technique allowed them to break their cultivation, they saw the warp gates and eighty people cultivating Illuminecent Breathing with calm expressions." He explained.

"Those drunk and unprepared were crying out in pain, while those cultivating were fine.

Everyone instantly understood that cultivation was the difference between pain, sickness, and death.

Then an emergency broadcast went out urging people to ask friends and family to post their techniques online.

So they confirmed cultivation was the key to staying healthy."

Evalyn's eyes trembled at his words, and her breaths became sharp. "W-What happened?"

"Come see for yourself." Kaze replied in a frigid tone.

Her body heated up as a golden light enveloped her, easing her pain until it disappeared.

Evalyn pushed herself off the ground with a guilty expression, expecting to apologize to Kaze.

However, her mind fell blank after she saw what he was looking at.

The area had dozens of dead bodies, and people were fighting and beating one another.

"I know you have it!" A person yelled while kicking Larkin's stomach. He was the man hyping up the crowd by screaming [Scrawn Fu].

Larkin vomited on the ground. "I don't even know when—"

"Stop telling lies!" Another man scoffed while kicking him in the chest. Four people were beating the drunk man on the grass vigorously.

"W-What are they doing to Larkin!?" Evalyn cried.

"I gave him the Illuminescent Breathing technique." Kaze said coldly, "Now people are taking advantage of his drunken weakness, hoping to beat it out of him.

He can't give it to them, but they still assume he can, just like the other thirty-eight people they've killed already."

Her breaths panicked, and she watched in terror as the men viciously beat Larkin to the ground, no longer concerned with letting him answer.

They couldn't think straight; their minds felt distorted, hazy, and confused.

"We need to help…." Evalyn whispered.

"Of the 81 people I gave the technique, we've already rescued 69." Kaze replied apathetically, "The rest got separated or entered senseless fights or refused to move."

She looked up at him with fear pulsing through her veins. "You knew this would happen, yet you put them in danger anyway?"

"Yes, I did." The emperor confirmed coldly, "I gave 81 people life when 99.4% of the population will die without the next two years because I need them.

They needed to see the apocalypse briefly, unlike those at Immortal Skye, disconnected from the outside world, and to know I saved them.

Moreover, they needed to experience what it's like for people to blame you for not saving the world—just like you are right now.

While Larkin Downs understands what that's like—you still do not."

"Wait, Larkin understands…." Evalyn fell silent, watching the people beating the lanky man.

"Please! I don't know!" Larkin screamed, "You need to ask Scrawn—"

"Don't you fucking say that man's name!" A man yelled while kicking Larkin in the chin, knocking out some teeth, "He's mass murdering everyone right now!"

"People have already called the police on that serial killer!" Another yelled while kicking the man in the ribs, "What am I saying, you're killing us too by keeping that technique to yourself!"

"Hear that, Evalyn?" Kaze asked, "Now, the weak will are trying to harm me, kill me, and force me into helping people. If I don't, they'll lust for revenge. A curious thing that is."

Evalyn watched with a strained expression. "i-I can't watch him just die like that."

"Hoh? Should I kill the aggressive ones, then?" He mused.

"I-I… can't you just send a message?" She cried.

"I suppose so. Let's try." Kaze mused. He waved his hand, and an invisible slash went through the air, slicing through someone's Achilles heel.

"Gahhhhhhh! What the fuck just happened!?" The man yelled.

"That was a cultivation technique! I saw that warping stuff from earlier!" One of the men yelled.

He turned to the crowd of people who were beating another person. "I was you, wasn't it!?"

"The fuck you talking about?" The other scoffed in annoyance, lifting his leg from a woman.

Evalyn's eyes widened in shock when she saw a heavily beaten woman with ripped clothing on the ground, gasping for air. "Why aren't you helping that woman!?"

She wasn't assaulted; Kaze killed anyone who tried to do that in his presence.

However, multiple people attempted to do so. As a result, people beat her, thinking she was responsible for their friend's deaths.

"Do you think that she's killed those seven people?" Kaze asked mockingly, "I've killed seven people who have tried to defile her."

-

"That cultivation technique, you bastard. Don't deny it!" The first yelled.

"Do you think I'd be wasting my time with this whore if I had one? Fuck off." The man scoffed.

Everyone beating Larkin turned to the man with murderous rage in their eyes.

-

"You're killing people instead of healing and protecting her?" The blonde asked in disbelief, "You might as well kill her yourself!"

"Do you see what you just did?" He scoffed mockingly, "I gave that woman a cultivation technique and life itself, but now you accuse me of murder for not helping her."

She swallowed her words and felt regret again, feeling panic.

"Despite your irrational interpretations, I've healed her to full health [three times] and killed her would-be assailants repeatedly, Evalyn." Kaze explained coldly, "Three times, she's frozen up.

Have you not yet processed what I've told you? 99.4% of the population will die in the next two years.

This woman couldn't save herself from assault and death with miraculous aid three times.

Prolonging her life would only condemn her to defilement before death. Is that what you want?"

"That's not guaranteed, Kaze!" Evalyn cried, pleading with him.

-

"Then how did you kill all those people!?" The mob asked the man.

"I didn't do that shit—it was this whore." The man next to the woman said, "But if you don't shut the fuck up, I'll add your bodies to that pile."

The group immediately left their bleeding and screaming friend and ran at the man.

Before the man could react, the three men rushed him, kicking him to the ground.

Evalyn watched in disbelief as the three men beat the man to death. Once they were done, one of the men looked at the bloodied woman on the ground.

"Fuck it." He said while unbuckling his pants, "I'm going to die anyway."

The blonde turned to Kaze with a beating heart, begging for him to do something, anything.

"I don't care how… I just… help her." Evalyn begged.

He waved his hand, decapitating all three men and leaving the man on the ground.

She processed the situation in horror, watching her crush kill three people in real time. The reality of her words became clear.

Kaze waved his hand and healed the woman with a golden light.

Despite her wounds healing, she didn't even notice. She just stared at the dead bodies and horror, unmoving.

"R-Run!" Evalyn screamed, staring in horror as she stayed idle, still around dozens of people. "I don't understand this…."

"That much is obvious." Kaze said coldly, looking away. He didn't like seeing her in pain, but she needed to wake up before she went searching for her mother.

It made him sick that he couldn't wait to get her. If he prolonged his trip to Immortal Skye, the military might seize it while he was away.

"Correct. I'm taking you home now." Kaze declared, "I only healed you because I knew you'd do something stupid without thinking of your family. It must be in your blood or something."

"Wait! You gave that woman a technique, right?" Evalyn said, panicked, "Does that mean that you're helping her?"

"No, I will not help her a fifth time." He said coldly, "We're under a concealment technique; the retrieval teams and I will not come into the open lest we alert the military of our illegal operation.

It will give the military leverage to seize our faction and seek to force us to do their bidding. I won't risk thousands of lives for a woman who can't move after being saved four times.

If she can't get home to another retrieval point herself, she can't come to Immortal Skye."

She looked up with hope in her eyes. "So she has a chance at—"

Evalyn's body dropped to the ground after he chopped the back of her neck with his hand.

"I don't want to talk to you further." He scoffed, "I don't have time to waste with nonsense."

Kaze waved his hand, sending a wave of Paradox of Healing to Larkin, reversing his body 12 hours when he was sober.

"Go home, Larkin!" The emperor yelled.

The man got up in confusion, but he didn't question it. "O-Okay!"

Larkin ran as fast as he could, weaving through the nightmare of aggressive college students.

Kaze pulled out his phone and dialed a number. When the phone connected, he spoke to the person on the other line.

"They've left for their homes." The emperor said coldly, "Clear out the park and move the wounded to the safe house, not a hospital.

We're giving everyone a chance at survival, but no one else is going to Immortal Skye. Drop them off anywhere if they jeopardize our mission."

"Understood." A voice on the other line said, "Is there anything else."

"Yes, add Larkin Downs to the list of people to retrieve at their homes." Kaze ordered, "Tell him I say to keep quiet about his experience at all costs.

Then make sure to lock everyone in the reinforced mansion until I arrive. Do not let anyone leave—at any cost."

"Roger that." The voice said, "If there's anything else, let us know."

Kaze looked at Evalyn and then back to the skyline after the transmission ended, waving his hand and opening a rift.

"I hate to deceive you about your loved ones." He said pensively, "However, I can't get your mother right now. If you're unprepared to face reality, you won't be able to protect her."

The emperor walked through the portal, using the increased Qi to move like a ghost through the night.