2, Month Fall-Amberine, Year 2763 B.A.

22:20, Yao’s Hidden Villa

 

 

“Why…?” Isabella asked with some difficulty. Her mind was in turmoil. She didn’t even know who to trust anymore.

“Oh… It wasn’t actually my plan.” Yao spoke casually. He smiled while looking at the pathetic sight of the girl in front of him. “Your friend came to propose it to me 2 weeks ago. He said that you were the only one that objected to the plan to submit and want to fight it out. That was why he planned all of this to get rid of you.”

“…!” Isabella gasped. That coward!

“I don’t really care that much, but at least this way I wouldn’t lose any of my men at all.” Yao said. He then licked his lips. “But, really. The truth is I just can’t get enough of the stupid look of people like you when their plan crumbled pathetically.”

“…”

“Don’t worry. I won’t kill you.” continued the bearman. His eyes looked at her hungrily. “I will keep you as my pet. That way you could also continue to be with your boss, isn’t that great?” Yao then chuckled.

“…!”

But Isabella would never give up that easily. If her mind was that weak, she wouldn’t capable of cultivating until she reached this level.

She bit down on her tongue hard. It woke her up instantly and with a flick of her hand; she retrieved one of the magic items from the storage ring. It was also an orb but unlike the dubious purgatory flame orb. This was the orb that she had made herself.

Isabella threw the orb onto the floor between her and Yao, and when the orb touched the ground, it broke instantly.

Boom!

A mixture of smoke and air burst out from within, completely filled the room with a black cloud. With that opening, Isabella darted out toward the window.

She had escaped outside. Speed was always one of the things assassins focused in. If she could make a break out of the mansion, no one could catch her anymore.

But—

“MEN! LET’S HUNT A CAT TODAY.” Yao, emerging from his room, shouted. He amplified his voice with magic, making it echoed to every corners of the mansion.

“Yes, my lord!”

Three consecutive booms rang out from various spots in the mansion. Three oppressive auras of three perfect-circle mages followed. Yao was indeed arrogant, but he was never careless. How could he be on his own, without his aides?

From the corners of her eyes, Isabella could see three bearmen sprang out from various places. All was eyeing in her direction. She quickly retrieved another 3 Smoke Orbs out of her pocket.

She threw each of them toward the upcoming chasers.

But one of the pursuers was actually a traditional mage. Seeing the smoke detonated from the orb, he laughed coldly. He waved the staff in his hand and the magic power of him poured out. A huge tornado formed. It sucked all the smoke and wiped it out completely, exposing the lone fleeing catgirl in the process.

“Go!” Yao shouted. He ordered his men to circle around Isabella—two to the right, one to the left. He, also, went straight, hot on her tail. “The one that contributes the most can have her for tonight!” he added.

His men laughed. Their eyes flashed a sadistic vibe. They looked at the retreating lithe figure as lustfully.

Boom!

How fast could each of them go?

The perfect-circle level mage was the peak of what mortal could be. The power that each of them had was simply at an unimaginable level. They were too fast that a sonic boom occurred behind their trail.

Some low-ranking guards that unfortunately stood in the way collapsed from the shock wave alone. They laid on the ground lifelessly with their ears bleeding from the inside.

 

---

Isabella ran like a wind. Each step of her covered at least 50 meters. She was fast, but her opponent wasn’t slower.

In fact, she could even feel that one of them was actually faster than her…

This bearman was in brown fur. He was slightly shorter than the other, only around 2 meters. He was probably in an assassin archetype, like her, or a rogue type—that was why he was so fast. But unlike Isabella who spent some of her attention on some fighting spells.

This guy invested purely in the movement spell, that was why his speed was faster!

He split from his teammates—that also went to the right side of her—to try getting ahead of Isabella. This rogue bearman wanted to cut off her escape route completely. He even used the Wind Blinding spell to cover his track.

If it was another person, they would miss him and get caught for sure. But Isabella wasn’t. She also trained heavily in the wind element. That was why, even though his figure was almost invisible, she could still sense the wind movement that he generated.

“Hah!”

Isabella didn’t let his plan go to success, of course. She steeled her resolve and turned left at 90 degrees. Instead of trying to go back to her tribe, she went deeper into the forest—in the Demon Mountain Range’s direction.

“She tries to escape to the mountain!” the bear men with the mage archetype yelled. He was the one chasing her on the left side. Seeing the girl changed direction to his direction, his face was stiff. He gathered mana in and tried to shoot her down with Wind Arrow.

Isabella didn’t let him do that easily. She used trees to cover her body and slipped away—zigzagging like a ghost.

But while it looked like she could slip away at any second, it was, in fact, not.

After all, the blood spilled from her wound left the trail in the forest like a light house giving direction. This was why she was so adamant about going to the Demon Mountain Range. It was the only way she could escaped from them!

It was dangerous, yes. But uncertain death was still better than a certain one.

So when she was at the border of the area, she went in with no hesitation at all.

“Damn it!”

Unlike her, all the bearmen stood blankly at the edge of the Demon Mountain Range. They weren’t sure if there were supposed to chase her in or not. And while they were hesitating, the figure of the girl slowly went out of their sight.

Yao clicked his tongue. He then shouted at one of his subordinates. “Marcus!”

“Yes, my lord.” the rogue bearman stood at attention.

“You are to stay in these general areas for about one week. If she came back in this time frame, don’t engage with her and just report back.” Yao said. He didn’t worry if she did come back after a week at all.

How could one stay in Demon Mountain Range for one week? They would probably die in the first night already.

 

 

---

3, Month Fall-Amberine, Year 2763 B.A.

12:00, Demon Mountain Range

 

After the chase, Isabella ran for hours and hours—probably days but she didn’t know the exact time. The catgirl didn’t look back at all. She didn’t know that her pursuer had already given up; she didn’t have the luxury to do so. Slowing down even one bit would cause her to be caught up in an instant.

That was why she just ran and ran, only stopped when her body gave in. Her blood loss got into her.

“Hah… Hah...”

When, she came to, she was already deep inside the Demon Mountain Range.

While the name of it was Demon Mountain Range, it wasn’t actually consisted of mountain only. In fact, most of it was actually the forest that stretched around 400 kilometers on both sides of the mountain.

The forest was dark all the time as the trees in this area reached out high in the sky. There was only minimal light in the area, even at midday. The ground was mostly a swamp and there was no grass at all. No plant that needed light could survive down here.

Isabella, after making sure that the bearman had already stopped chasing her, checked the bleeding from her—used to be—left arm. Luckily, it had stopped. She then looked around. There was no demonic beast in her sight yet. While she could deal with some weaker beasts in here, most of the time she would rather not to. Fighting always attracted attention, and that was the last thing everyone wanted in here.

Isabella walked around cautiously and tried to find someplace to rest first. She knew that the Umbra tribe probably wouldn’t let this end that easily. She needed strength—and it better be as fast as possible.

The Path of Killing…

This was the only way for her right now. She had to master it and used it to destroy Yao’s undying body. This was the only way to kill him.

After circling around a nonagon-level Red Fur Boar, Isabella finally came across a suitable resting spot. It was a cave that came naturally in the mountain range. There was some stench of a demonic beast in there, but it was faint. Likely that the owner of it didn’t return for some time already. They probably died already, she thought.

Isabella slipped in quietly and sealed the entranced with a rock, creating a perfect hidden chamber for her rest. She couldn’t rest for long though, beast could come in here at any moment even if the entranced was sealed.

Not only that, she had to go back. She had to make some breakthrough in the spell or else everyone in the tribe would be doomed.

Isabella swallowed a healing potion and mediated for about two hours before she felt that her vitality had regained somewhat.

I have to hurry.

She opened her eyes and retrieved a manual out of her storage space.

The manual was ancient, but it was sturdy. It probably existed for centuries, yet there was no damage at all. It was very thin as it was only 6-pages thick. There was only a cover, an introduction page, and diagram pages. That was all.

Isabella then opened it and started at the introduction page. It was the action that she had done countless times already in the past 2 weeks.

The words written on the page, even an uncountable time had passed, still radiated a profound killing intent from the writer.

People only live to kill. By killing, you survive. By surviving, you kill.

Die by my hand, millions. But live by my hand, billions.

If you want to live, you kill. If you want to survive, you kill.

They opposed you? Kill. They resist you? Kill as well.

Are they god? Are they demon? Or are they mortal? It doesn’t matter.

Killed by heaven or to kill the heaven. Only the strong could define their own fate.

Isabella read those sentences over and over again. She felt that there was something hidden in there, but she couldn’t understand it. Did the writer just want to emphasize on the kill and be killed situation? Or is there other intention there?

Or maybe this was just a distraction and it didn’t even matter at all...

Countless thought flashed her mind. The catgirl’s eyes didn’t look away from the manual even for a second. She also took another look at the next page. The diagram in that page was just multiple figures of a person drawing their weapon. There was nothing else there at all.

She flipped it around, hoping to find a secret, but there was none.

If there was truly one, her other family members would probably find it already.

 

---

“…”

Hours passed, and Isabella's concentrated face slowly crumbled. It changed from focus to blank and then to distress and melancholy as time passed. Finally, she stopped.

If she took more time than this, she wouldn’t even make it back on time of the tribe’s submission at all.

I am useless… I couldn’t do anything at all….

She couldn’t understand the manual at all. Tears dropped slowly on the page that opened in front of her as she thought to herself. She tried to executing the movement that the drawing had, but there was nothing happened at all. It failed. She couldn’t do it.

The vision of Isabella turned blurry. She could no longer see anything. The only thing she saw was her own tears and her incompetence.

“Aila… Please be safe.”

The girl prayed. To no one in particular. She just hoped that her friend would somehow live happily after, even if the chance was low.

She wasn’t strong enough. And as the manual said: she, the weak, would be killed by the heaven.

“Please, someone… helped her… helped our tribe from this fate…”

Ding!

A strange sound suddenly chimed in the cave as if to answer her prayer.

It actually came from beside her, from a tablet that laid there. It was as if the tablet only appeared at this instant, yet it was also as if it existed for a long time already.

In the tablet, a picture of a gentlemanly old man appeared. He was in a black robe with a hood that covered half of his face. The only notable feature of him was his golden eyes that radiated with profound wisdom.

[(Q&A Session) You are invited to my wisdom chamber! Sage Khun will answer all your questions!]

[Live in 5 minutes (4 October, 18:30)]

[6 waiting]

[LittleSnow: First]

[EmperorOfYellowKingdom: @LittleSnow ...]

[Roboto_1291: @LittleSnow ...]

[Animeboyforlife641: @LittleSnow ...]

[LittleSnow: Why doesn’t anyone say anything!?]

[SealedFate: ...]

“What is this…?” Isabella asked, her voice parched. But in the cave, there was no one else, so her question didn’t reach anyone at all.