Chapter 3: The beginning of the end
death is for mortal but oblivion and conscious reincarnation is for immortals
words of the ancients
The night sky gleamed with an eerie brightness, the twin moons casting their haunting glow upon the city. Yet, amidst the serene ambiance, a man wrestled in the solitude of his chamber. City Lord Mo sat with a heavy frown etched upon his face, his Profound Qi trembling with suppressed intensity. An intermittent surge emanated from him, shattering furniture and distorting the very air—a testament to his formidable power as a peak Heavenly King Cultivator.
From how the mere fluctuations from him was able to warp the air, Lord Mo's combat prowess was enough to match level one Heavenly Emperor. Tonight however, he wasn't admiring his strength and neither was he cultivating. He was using his cultivation base to create a space of coercion, this was something unique to Heavenly Emperors but City Lord Mo can do it as a Heavenly King, they are capable of forcing the truth out of anyone who entered their coercion space.
The targets of this was standing outside the City Lord's chamber, he had a slender built and shallow cultivation base. Sandwiched in between eight hunters Mo Chen was trembling with dread, when the Hunters invited him, he already knew he had been found out even before he could make a run for it.
Previously, it had been an issue of the missing second young master and Mo Chen felt he had enough time to prepare his escape but now the situation changed when Mo Kai's life crystals broke. Mo Chen knew there was no way he could escape anymore. he can't even say who lead him to deceiving the second young Master with the false trail, the life of his whole family was at stake. He sweated bullets, after working for the City Lord for years he knew more about the brutal man, most people thought he was merely at the peak of Martial Dominator realm but he was among the few who knew he wasn't. Making the City Lord angry was a sure way to die, even if you were his brother!, his bottom line had always been his foster son who he held an unusual affections for.
Mo Chen looked at his impassive companions, if they were ordinary guards, Mo Chen would have made a run for it but hunters were perverted wraiths made by an extremely strong and evil cultivator from ancient time. Even though the Evil cultivator is long since dead, the 'wraithifying' techniques had been in circulation since then. Hunters were all human of very poor talent but the evil cultivator used the blood refining techniques to incorporate the blood and talents of demons to improve their cultivation while taking away their emotions.
Hunters are used as city protector and only obey the orders of the city Lord. However, the hunters are not invincible while they are graded in bronze, silver, gold and diamond, and stood at the peek of the corresponding cultivation realms the martial inheritor, Martial Dominator, Heavenly King and Heavenly emperor respectively, it is only in comparison to ordinary cultivators. true heaven chosen will need probably one strike to shatter a hunter of the same realm.
The face of the hunters were hidden beneath their hoods and even at a close proximity, Mo Chen couldn't see pass the darkness that shrouded their faces. he felt a tremble deep within his soul as a glare seemed to shoot his way from within the hood of the hunter. He yelp in fright and returned to staring at the door. After an hour, the City Lord's room became quiet, not even a single bit of Profound Qi could be felt from behind the closed doors.
Lord Mo stood up and walked to the window, the bright night view of the whole city soon met his eyes, for the first time since he became the City Lord, the city looked bare and desolate. he signed "come in" he spoke without turning.
The door opened and the hunters urshed in Mo Chen before giving a deep bow.they matched to the side leaving Mo Chen at the centre. The floor of the room was littered with pieces of wood and dust, the scene of destruction within the room was enough to send Mo Chen's already racing heart into a frantic and vigorous rhythm. He balled his fist tightly as if doing so will increase his courage. The City Lord said nothing, the silence continued and soon faint echoes of a fast heartbeat could be heard. Mo Chen felt relief when he heard the sound
~at least someone else is more nervous than I am~ led by idle curiosity, he listened for the source of the heartbeat which led to an increase in the sound. it was his heartbeat, he had been the one, the only one tensed and panicky.
dum dum dum
the sound of the heartbeat couldn't be hidden from any one of these men, even if a mortal in the body building realm was there, they would probably hear the sound from ten feet's away but these men with high cultivation and close proximity, is there even a possibility that they woudn't hear it?.
Mo Chen was sweating and his eyes were darting in different direction, he simply couldn't bare it any more, he fell on kneels, the broken debris from the funitures stabbed into his legs, drawing blood but he didnt seem to notice as he bowed towards the city Lord with his head banging on the hard floor.
"my lord, Mo Chen have wronged you and young master, please take my head but leave my family" he hammered his head as he shouted
"could it be you did something that am not aware of?" came the Lord Mo's slow reply, he didnt turn around or even move any part of his body but his mouth. he stood their like a statue but there was no doubt he was fully aware of what was happening behind him.
" my lord?, I..I..I am Second young master's guard and I failed him, forgive me my lord" he sobbed as he begged, clearly he was remorseful but a cold sneer came from the city lord and in a spilt second two sharp piece of wood flew from the corner of the room and stabbed Mo Chen's hands into the floor, his screams filled the room but oddly, it didnt go beyond the room.
"you filthy animal!, daring to lie to me?, I will not ask again but this will be you final chance. don't bother beating around the bush, that will only make you watch as I make a hunter out of you". he turned torwards the kneeling Mo Chen, his eyes as cold as the winter heart "your first order will be to kill your whole family and feast on their heart, of course, you won't feel anything because by then you will already be a full fledged wraith. I need names, names of all those involved and details of how much effort was invested!."
after saying that, City Lord Mo moved, like a mirage, his figure floated, seeming to move both forward and backwards at the same time and suddenly vanished. Drifting from the direction of the god mountain was his voice
"tell your truth to the hunters, I for one already know all I need to know" after a slight pause his voice was heard again sounding ethereal "help him on his journey"
Mo Chen was shocked, 'Heaven..Heaven Seizing, that was the powers of a Heaven Seizing realm cultivator! the power of laws, what am I seeing??. to think that I dared plot against his son...
He looked towards the hunters behind him, his pegged hands restricting his movement. he swallowed, "I will tell you now"
"tiisss musssnt botherrrr weeee haavveeee heardddd ittt alllll"
"what?" before he could make sense of everything his head flew into the air.
it wasn't hard to understand, Mo Chen already spilled the whole truth when he stepped into the chamber but Lord Mo wanted to give him a final test, if he spoke the truth, then he might be able to keep his life, unfortunately, he lied.
_____________________
Miss Yanru of the the yang clan, an utter cultivation trash but an astonishing beauty walked along the side road of SubYang city, this was her early morning routine, the sunlight made her fair cheeks rosy and warm. Yanru smiled and laughed with the commoners, the ease at which she communicate with people was enough to make the children clustering round her forget she was a direct descendant of the Imperial Yang family! the true rulers of Muyan Province. Because of her lack of cultivation ability, her prospect was limited even her clan had more or less given up on her. Her staying in the branch city of the family was arranged by her royal father. what people didnt know was that it was her Father heeding her request. Seeing her now, no one will see any part of unwillingness in her eyes, only profound joy. To put it simply, she was a life loving girl.
She laughed as one of the children showed her his dance steps. Yanru's laughter momentarily halted the early morning chaos in the City market, men were dazed and females were stunned. the pearl of light laugh was like a musical note begged to be heard. a look of infatuation suddenly flooded the people around her. Yanru seemed to notice as she blushed, an annoying but sweet memory choosed then to resurface in her mind, it was when she was out playing with Mo kai, she had laughed causing an invisible ripple that left everyone around them dazed and muddle headed. Jealous Mo kai even told her to cover her month whenever she laughed as if afraid someone will take her from him.
"that fool" she muttered but a beautiful smile accompanied her gentle cursing.
It was beautiful, the moment could have gone on for ages but a voice rang through the quiet like a cursed thing that must be killed. the charm was broken leaving people frowning and sighing in irritation.
"young miss, something bad has happened?"
miss Yanruwas shocked silly
"what?, is my mother alright, was there a rebellion, was imperial father harmed, uncle Yan, tell me quickly what happened?
Yanru was clearly agitated, her questions came In less than a breath leaving the figure that seemed to materialize before her in daze. with a gentle sweep of his hand , a shield of light isolated their voice from reaching the prying ears of the surrounding people.
" Nothing that dramatic young miss"
"that's good, ha, I thought the worst have happened, Uncle Yan shouldn't torture little Yu'er like this, tell me what is this bad news that is not so bad?."
"this humble servant just got news from Mo City, it seems that second young master Mo went missing last night and his life crystal broke sometime in the midnight."
"What?" Yanru's eyes went wide with shock and then red as tears glistered within her bright brown eyes.
"this is worse Uncle Yan tell me you are lying, no, quickly, let's go to Mo city, Mo kai definitely won't have died. he definitely didn't die". she was crying hysterical as she looked up to her protector. thankfully the people were oblivious of this as seeing their little Princess crying would have lead to an outright riot.
Her Uncle Yan frowned, to him the life and death of the little genius was nothing worth mentioning, to think that to the little miss, an uprising wasn't as bad as that brat dying. he furrowed his brow contemplating the need to ignore the princess's request.
"Yang Yan, take me to Mo city this instance or gods help me I will have you killed by father".
~Daring to call me my name..Humph, just a litlle trash and she thinks she owns the world. whatever, killing you will come soon anyway~
He harrumphed and then whistled, after a moment a black long peaked eagle landed before them. Yanru didn't wait for instructions and jumped onto the saddled back. for someone without cultivation, she was several times stronger. Yang Yan joined behind her on a separate saddle soon they flew into the morning sky and disappeared in the direction of Mo City.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone