1 Chapter 1: Slavery, Amulets, and Cotton Candy
Tap Tap Tap Tap Tap
A tiny shadow nimbly darted through puddle-ridden and rat-infested alleyways in the dead of the night, guided only by the light emanating from dimly-lit paper lanterns.
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"Thanks for bringing me to the festival, Master. This place is great!" An innocent little girl, roughly 11 years of age, was clinging to the robe of an Elder with one hand and holding cotton candy in the other. After displaying an adorable smile to the Elder, she went back to nibbling on the foreign sweet while keeping an eye out for any other food stalls that might catch her attention.
The Elder was an amiable-looking, aged old man with white hair, a white beard, and was clothed in white robes. Upon seeing the little girl's excitement plastered across her face, he too smiled and began speaking in a warm, gentle tone, "The festival exists, in part, to welcome foreign diplomats. We have praetors from the Grecian Land, and even an important robo family from Punk Station visiting, so we decided to make the festival a celebration of various cultures. I figured it would be good to bring you along as somewhat of an introduction to the world we live in. This world is vast and there's a lot to see, Allie. One day, when you're older, you won't have to be cooped up in the sect practicing alchemy and creating those Mini-Pillies. You can go and explore this vast world, see new things, meet new people..."
"And try new food too!" As Allie interrupted the Elder, a small, dark-green pill with tiny black lines sprouting out of it for both its arms and legs, sprung out of Allie's sleeve and jumped onto her wrist. It had no eyes but turned to face the pink fluffy thing in front of it and quickly identified the unusual existence as food from the bite marks Allie left in it. A large crack formed along the pill, creating a ragged jawline which the pill then used to chomp on the cotton candy. "See, even Mini-Pilly Scout agrees that food is best!"
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Click
Clank
CLANG
The black blur kept dashing as he wrangled tirelessly with a key to free himself from a pair of rusty handcuffs that eventually broke off and fell to the floor. He gently rubbed his sore wrists with shaky, bloodstained hands. Keep it together Ares, it's just a bit of blood. Keep it together Ares, it's not even yours. Keep it to~fuc~king~geth~er, the blur thought to himself. Cultivation is brutal, Ares. People die ALL THE TIME, ARES. So what? You killed a guy, big deal! Weren't you planning on killing that asshole young Master of yours all these years anyway? Why are you psyching yourself out now that you've done it? You're going to kill plenty more people, it's unavoidable because you are a sovereign, you are a natural-born ruler, YOU ARE A KIN…
"GET BACK HERE YOU LITTLE FUCKING RAT!"
YOU ARE A RAT... Wait. No. No no. That's not right. Ares was dragged back to reality from his thoughts thanks to the nearby shouts. Ares swiftly veered onto a different path to give chase and to try to catch up to the voices ahead of him. He wasn't being chased, rather, he was chasing a group in front of him. As for the people he was chasing, they too were also giving chase to someone. If a few more people were involved in this non-sensical scene, they might have all been mistaken for an overly aggressive conga line.
The body of Ares' young 'Master', Farro, was too well hidden to have been discovered by the guards already. These people were from the same clan as said young Master but they were after an entirely different person. After sneaking out, Ares decided to follow them and help this mysterious individual that had attracted the clan's attention for two reasons. Firstly, his actions inadvertently aided Ares in his assassination by reducing the number of guards he had to sneak around to get to Farro's room. Secondly, he wanted to leave a few more corpses as a parting gift, a little thanks to the clan for 'looking after him' all these years.
Ares had planned on killing Farro tonight, specifically, for a while. The high-ranking officials of the clan, including the patriarch, had all gone out to welcome some foreign big-shots. Tonight was his only chance in the foreseeable future so, even though he wanted to secretly train at night some more, his hand was forced. Also, he couldn't let Farro's cultivation get too high, he was already at the 4th stage of the 'meridian conversion realm', any more than that and Ares might struggle to kill him quickly and quietly.
Being a slave meant he was forbidden from cultivating after all and he had to rely purely on his own strength although, honestly speaking, he wasn't particularly strong. His real talents lay in his speed, his footwork, and his skill with weapons… That and he successfully managed to sneak up behind Farro. Ares was confident that he could have killed him without sneaking up on him but, before giving chase to the mysterious intruder, the guards cuffed him as a 'preventative measure' and gave Farro the key. It didn't exactly do much though, did it? Perhaps the guards had gotten fed up with their arrogant young Mater Farro, or maybe they were too pre-occupied with the mysterious intruder to put much thought into a harmless little slave like Ares.
Now that Ares' hands were free, he was itching for a fight! He happened to enjoy fighting even though he was usually forced to do it with other slaves as a form of entertainment. He would make sure to hold back during his bouts so as not to arouse suspicion, which inevitably caused him to get hurt occasionally, but he still enjoyed the thrill nonetheless. Ares had no real way to temper his body so his fighting strategy was simple, don't get hit in the first place. In fact, Ares was really quite nimble and adept at dodging, to the point that he would never have gotten hit at all if it weren't for keeping up appearances.
As for the guards up ahead, they were all at the 6th stage of meridian conversion, barring their leader who was sitting comfortably at the 7th stage. Killing them was workable for Ares, even though he'd yet to start cultivating, but he needed to be smart and pick them off one by one. He could maybe manage two or three at once, but six? Not happening. He wasn't even in the 1st stage of meridian conversion so fighting all of them simultaneously was nothing but a pipe dream.
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"Hm?"
"What's wrong, Master Zhang?" Allie looked up at her Master, Elder Zhang, with beady eyes that sparkled with curiosity.
"There appears to be a group of people chasing a young boy, roughly your age, I'd say he's 11 years old. I think they want to kill him," Zhang said nonchalantly as he stroked his beard.
Gasp
Allie raised her hand to her mouth in shock. "Can you save him, Master? Pretty please?"
"No. This is the real-world Allie; you need to get used to it. Besides, think about it, if I go save him, who'll stay here to protect you? What if he's a really bad child and deserves punishment? What if those people shouldn't be offended? Why should either of us care about him? These are the kinds of questions you need to learn to ask yourself, Allie."
"Okayyyyyyy," Allie spoke in a dejected tone before sighing loudly. Her sad mood didn't last long though as she brought out another bit of cotton candy from her spacial ring, instantly pacifying her thoughts and bringing a radiant smile to her face.
The Elder's head snapped back to the street to catch a quick glimpse of yet another young child, this one slightly older than the last but also much faster. The child had decently long, black, layered hair and was wearing tattered clothes and yet he had an incredibly elegant, black-feathered cape with grooves running through it, draped over his back. The Elder deduced the boy's cape was a personal treasure otherwise there was no way in hell he would have been able to keep something that fancy in his possession without having it stolen from him.
The child's looks were relatively unimpressive, only slightly above average, if even that, and yet his appearance still managed to be quite striking. Some men were natural pretty-boys, kind of like the first child that ran by, but this kid's looks practically oozed heroism. The most apt way to describe him would be brave. If that kid grew up to become an army commander or something equivalent, it would surprise absolutely no-one. It was almost possible to imagine him in a few years' time with one foot on a corpse and his hand raising a flag to commemorate victory on the front lines of a war. The kid was in deep concentration as he sped across the street following the previous group but he felt the gaze of an expert and looked over to get a quick view of Elder Zhang, thus giving Zhang a chance to see his eyes. His eyes were such a deep shade of brown they were practically black, giving the illusion of endless space and vast nothingness, ironically enough, hidden within was a sort of endless determination. The glint in his pupil was reminiscent of a shining star. Just as soon as the boy appeared, he vanished off into an alley somewhere. What really caught Zhang's attention, however, was that he was carrying a bloody dagger and actually running after the previous group. Was he going to fight them? The kid didn't even have a cultivation base yet he seemed awfully confident...
Zhang turned to Allie who was completely oblivious and staring greedily at a nearby stall selling meat skewers. "Allie, on second thought, I'm going to go nosy around a bit."
The Elder beckoned towards a nearby rooftop before disappearing and a man dressed entirely in black, with a hood covering the entirety of his face, took his place. The man in black had a much deeper voice but was still kind toward Allie. "I'll take care of you until Zhang comes back, so let's get you some more food, ok?"
"Ok..." Allie liked this new person who easily identified the key to her happiness. "... But if you were always here, then why did Zhang use protecting me as an excuse not to save the boy earlier?"
The man's eyes twitched under the hood. Because he wants you to learn life lessons the hard way! he thought to himself. How could he tell her that though? Then she'd probably blame herself for the kid's hypothetical death, saying something along the lines of, 'If I Weren't here, would Zhang have saved him then?'
"I actually only just got here," the man lied through his teeth unconvincingly after clearing his throat.
"..."
"Oh look! Meat skewers!"
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Ares slowly crept up to the edge of a nearby wall. The guards had finally caught up to the unknown intruder in an empty, quiet square far away from the festival. No time like the present, Ares thought before making his move under the cover of darkness.
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"You goddamn brat. You sure can run, I'll give you that." The 7th stage guard took the lead, taking one step closer to the pretty-boy. The guard was slightly hesitant as the clothes the boy was wearing were rather high in quality. Some rundown thief would never be able to acquire fur clothes like this from just anywhere. If he were, per-chance, from an impressive background then the guard would be seriously screwed for messing with him, thus he decided to take a cautious approach. Then again, he was seriously screwed if he didn't mess with him as the brat had stolen the clan's signature treasure. The patriarch would be furious if he didn't manage to get it back from a damn child of all people. "Where's the amulet?"
As the guard took a step toward the kid, the kid took a step back. "What amulet? This amulet? This is the only one I have." The kid held up a shimmering jade amulet, one which matched the colour of his beady green eyes, with an elegant eagle engraved upon its surface.
"NO! You know which amulet is ours, and we know you have it, you stupid kid. Hand it over and we can let you go."
"You mean this one?" This time, the kid held out a white amulet, one which matched his fair skin, with a glorious flame pattern emblazoned front and centre.
The guard's right eye twitched and he curled his hands into fists before finally calming himself. "Look, kid. I don't why you have so many fucking amulets, but if you don't hand over ours, you're going to suffer." The guard stretched out his hand to grab the child
"OKOKOKOK. Here, this one, right?" The kid panicked for a second before he reached into his pocket and fished around for a bit. Eventually an onyx amulet, one which matched the kid's jet black hair, with the likeness of a coiled snake carved artfully into it, popped up in his palm.
The guard narrowed his eyes. Although it looked like his Chen clan's amulet, how could he be sure around this tricksy little brat? What if it was a fake? He took the amulet and activated it, completely removing his presence and cultivation from the prying eye. Although he was still visible, it was impossible to tell he was a cultivator and you'd have a hard time spotting him if your attention was elsewhere. "Alright kid, I'll leave you alone this time, but if I see you around our clan again, I'll tear out your goddamn spine with my bare hands." The guard started to turn around.
"WAIT… Is this your amulet?"
"KID! Do you think you're a FUCKING STREET MAGICIAN!? Do you seriously have a death wish? I swear to God I'll break all your… What?"
The kid was holding an amulet identical to the one he had just given him.
The guard was stunned stupid. Was the one he'd been given somehow actually a fake? He hurriedly tried to pull the amulet out of his pocket only to realise there was nothing in his pocket at all. "ALRIGHT. YOU'RE DEAD KID!"
"If you say so…" The child shrugged as his eyes darted from the guard to the bloody scene behind his back. "... But you might want to deal with him first."
