Chapter 29: The Chase 3 // Taboo

Just as Zed had expected, Wan Chao didn't escape despite his injured state.

Instead, he was waiting near a clear meadow. The clear land of grass stretched before a tall edge of a mountain that stretched to the skies.

Wan Chao was standing in the middle of the field and looked at Zed, as if trying to taunt him.

Zed only sighed to himself before walking towards him.

Wan Chao smiled as he spoke. "I may have made a misunderstanding. C'mon brother, we're both from the same world! Can't we just get al-"

WOOSH!

BOOM!

Wan Chao quickly dodged to the side as Zed sent a fireball in his direction.

"Tsk!"

Wan Chao could very well tell that Zed didn't have any intentions of talking with him.

However, he doesn't plan on dying now and instead-

"You're just a piece of shit who likes picking on the weak, huh? You're probably a 4th circle Apprentice Mage, aren't you?"

"You dickhead..."

Wan Chao spouts curses one after another, but Zed simply replied with fireballs.

Eventually, they reached the mountain and from there on, Wan Chao began to move.

He grinned as he saw a cave and immediately went in it using a spell. Instantaneously, he merged within the darkness of the cave.

Zed simply rolled his eyes and nonchalantly extinguished the burning patches of grasses with water.

After making sure that the surroundings would not catch fire, he then walked towards the cave.

It was a relatively small cave, and yet Zed only stared at it absentmindedly.

He looked as if he was waiting for something.

Meanwhile, Wan Chao kept moving deeper and deeper into the cave. He was grinning to himself while thinking, 'That guy will definitely follow me in here. He's an arrogant one after all.'

'But he should know that... dark and close places like this are a dark-mage's specialty.'

His eyes flashed in anticipation. 'Now! What will you do?'

Suddenly however- He began to smell something unusual. It was a familiar smell in his previous life but he forgot what it was called.

He racked up his mind trying to remember what it was until he finally did.

'Methane.'

He paled as soon as he realized what that smell was. He glanced at the entrance and his worse fear has turned into reality.

"No way he planned all th-"

BOOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

A series of explosions echoed throughout the cave  and Zed stood to the side of the mouth of the cave.

Not a moment later-

FWOOSH!

Large debris followed by combustion of the explosion exited the cave's entrance and Zed could feel the ground quake.

Rumble... rumble... rumble...

Zed indeed planned for all this as this cave was one of the places where he had put a trap in. Three days ago, he generated a large amount of liquid methane deep inside the cave.

Three days was plenty of time for this liquid methane to turn into a gas, and the result was as Zed had predicted.

Actually, The reason Zed was nonchalant this entire time was because Wan Chao has been moving according to his plan.

Wan Chao also realized this at the last moment, but unfortunately, there was no remedy for unpreparedness.

Eventually, the ground stabilized but smoke and dust still filled the interior of the cave.

[Basic-Level Wind Magic: Meves]

He cleared all the dust and smoke away by using wind magic.

He didn't need to use an advanced level spell since he only had to direct it all in one direction.

As soon as the cave cleared up, Zed entered. He descended into the darkness while preparing to cast a spell in case the cave collapsed.

Eventually, he stumbled upon a black charred corpse. It smelled like burnt flesh and the expression of the head indicated that the person had died a horrible death.

This corpse was naturally Wan Chao's.

Zed used magic to drag Wan Chao's corpse outside the cave.

When they arrived outside, The sun was still shining brightly so Zed got a better look at Wan Chao's corpse.

Wan Chao's right arm and two legs were missing. A few fingers were missing from his left hand. His entire skin was burnt black.

Zed didn't flinch at the sight of something gruesome because-

He was about to do something far worse.

A taboo for all mages.

This was also the reason Wan Chao didn't run away from him. They both wanted something from each other, but they needed the other one to be dead before they could have it.

Zed's eyes flashed with a cold gaze as he took out a dagger hidden within his robes. He approached Wan Chao's corpse and-

Chuck!

-

"Haa... Haa.. Haa..."

Lan'er had stifled breaths and disheveled hair. Sweat and blood were pouring down her head as her hands were clattering while holding the heavy sword.

Her legs were trembling since every muscle in her legs were twitching out of exhaustion.

Meanwhile her opponent, a peak core formation expert, was looking at her with a curious expression.

He was really surprised at the martial technique this little girl had. His eyes flashed with greed as he pictured himself becoming a powerful expert in the future, so long as he learned this technique.

After all, the little girl was only a mortal, and yet she could deal this much amount of damage? Not to mention that sacred treasure of a sword.

He could barely contain himself, wishing to beat all the information out of the little girl.

He had been stuck in the core formation realm for so long, but with the little girl's technique, he might be able to breakthrough.

While her enemy was enjoying the sight of her pathetic state, Lan'er couldn't help but remember the events that occurred in their basement, the event that happened after they had just moved into the city.

At that time, her brother was fighting a peak qi foundation expert and was put in a much worse state than her.

'That meant...' If she could beat this person, then she could prove to herself that she could beat her brother.

(E/N: She wishes…)

She would then accomplish a greater feat than her brother, and once she proved that she was stronger, only then could she be satisfied now that she would be the one to protect her brother.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

The sword in her hands began to beat louder and faster than before as the fire in her heart set ablaze.

Determination stayed in her eyes as she let out a grin.

"That's right.... if you limit yourself to what your brother can do, then you will never be able to defeat him!"

"Instead... aim higher!" Tang Xiurong encouraged her disciple.

This was the reason that Tang Xiurong made her fight against a peak core formation master. Lan'er was limiting her sights to what her brother accomplished, but never sought out to aim higher than that.

She knew that if Lan'er continued to grow this way then she would never truly be able to beat her brother.

Tang Xiuromg was especially afraid that Lan'er might develop a heart demon in the future, and that would be a troublesome problem when one intends to walk the path of the dao.

To be honest, her disciple was already performing above her expectations. Tang Xiurong made Lan'er fight her opponent with the intention of letting her disciple lose.

This is so she can temper herself to never be afraid to fight against someone stronger. She needs to have the courage and resolve to fight.

And when her disciple was about to lose, only then would Tang Xiurong step in and take possession of her body and escape.

Tang Xiurong was plenty confident that she could escape even with the state of her body being this bad and her opponent being of that level.

But even this-

"RAAAAHHHHH!" Lan'er roared as she engaged in combat.

Lan'er jumped several feet high in the air and proceeded to use a technique.

[Empress's Domination: 2nd Technique]

Her eyes flashed and in mid-air, Lan'er disappeared with a blur.

CLANG!

Bam!

The leader had a furrowed expression on his face, as he felt the heavy force from receiving Lan'er's sword.

His legs trembled as his ankles plunged into the hard ground. Cracks and small debris formed beneath him as he looked at Lan'er's face.

He realized that the latter's attack wasn't finished yet as she suddenly disappeared. His eyes widened when he saw the flash of blade about three centimeters from the side of his head.

Clang!

He received it once again with his sword. But that still wasn't enough.

Clang!

Clang!

Clang!

He was under attack by a barrage of swords. She was too fast to the point that he could barely see her afterimage despite using his technique.

'Grk... This girl... is she really a mortal?!'

He could not believe that he was put into this state by a mortal.

"You did good, disciple."

Once Yan'er heard her master's voice, her vision went dark as she became unconscious.

"I'll handle the rest from here." Tang Xiuronf said as she took control of Lan'er's body

Her eye slightly twitched as she realized the Lan'er's body was in an even worser state than she had thought, but it wasn't something she couldn't manage.

She reappeared in the middle of the battle while observing her opponent.

She could escape by herself, but she couldn't allow this person to escape alive because he will spread the information about their escape.

Not only that, but he had also seen what Lan'er could do, so... for that, he needed to die.

Her eyes became cold as she showed a cold smile.

The leader felt his spine shiver as he thought that the temperature around them had suddenly became colder.

-

Zed had flesh bits and blood stains all over his hands and arms. His dagger was completely drenched in blood as he had used this in order to cut and open Wan Chao's body.

Wan Chao's corpse had the skin of his chest stripped off and his ribcage and lungs were showed to the world.

Zed unhestitatingly dug his hand through the ribcage and beneath the lungs. There, he grabbed the organ that he had been looking for, the heart.

He extracted Wan Chao's heart and calmly examined it despite the bloody, iron, and fish-like smell that surrounded him.

He then slowly began to cut the heart on its surface, as he tried to find the piece he was looking for.

Zed's actions had long violated human rights, and as a person from modern society, he should have been affected by the morals implemented by that society.

Sure, killing a person is one thing, but what he was doing- Looking for the main circuit of a mage? That was one of the taboos in mage society.

Rumor has it that one can improve a mage's circuit if he or she devours another mage's main mana circuit.

Although this rumor was shushed, it didn't stop plenty of mad men from trying it, and as a result- another war between mages occured.

As one would expect, the side of justice and order won, and the practice of consuming the main circuits of another mage became a taboo.

No one had ever heard of the results of consuming the main circuit as the order of mages prevented it from being leaked.

In the end, people could only speculate and Zed was one- USED to be one of those since now, he was going to confirm whether that rumor was real or not.

After he succeded softly slicing the soft organ in half, he found out that the main mana circuit wasn't there. His brows slightly furrowed, but he thought that they must have had a different main mana circuit.

Therefore, after completely dissecting the heart, he moved on to the brain.

No one disturbed him as he continued his operation in the middle of the hard stone ground.

Zed sliced off the skin on the corpse's forehead, the scalp, and revealed the white protective skull of the brain. Blood spurted from time to time, but Zed wasn't bothered in the least.

As Zed moved to cut the skull, he couldn't help but wish that he had the proper tools to make this process easier.

Usually, neurosurgeons used a drill to smoothly cut the skull faster, but alas, Zed had to do it the primitive way.

He started carving holes into the top of the skull. This process took him about half an hour before the top of the skull became loose and Zed could extract the brain.

Slimy brain fluid shot out along with a tinge of blood, but Zed continued to extract the slimy brain unperturbed.

He had long dreamt of doing this in his past life, as he had thought that it could be one of the methods that could change the fate of his life.

But what held him back from doing so was his conscience, along with his fear of the Order of Mages.

Now that he was in a new world, and there was no one to stop him, he abandoned his conscience to care for a fellow mage.

Of course, this was considering the latter's personality and qualification as a human, and as a result- He failed in Zed's eyes.

But who gave the right to Zed to be the judge of someone's life?

It was simple. He was the stronger one, and in this world, the strong ruled over the weak. Being weak was a crime and you wouldl naturally suffer injustice from it.

Zed shook off his sentiments and proceeded to disect and examine the brain.

Eventually, he found the unique transparent blue tissue which he could identify as the main mana circuit.

He cut off the tissue from the rest of the brain, and now, what Zed had in his hand was a long transparent blue tissue with a zigzagging pattern like the rest of the brain matter.

Zed gulped as he put the main mana circuit flesh near his mouth.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Without saying another word, he put it inside his mouth and swallowed it.

The taste of brain fluid and blood was still there, and it was no different from eating raw fish but-

His mana circuits reacted strongly. The air around Zed became strange as he couldn't tell whether he was trembling or if it was the ground.

His eyes glowed blue as he let out a smile.

"This is..."

Edited By: WorthyAdversary