Ack!
A sphere of water formed around the unsuspecting guard, silencing his alert cries and freezing to immobilize him before he could relay a message of the group sneaking to the edge of the sect walls. Behind him, Abby waved through the rest of her group, minus Sun Cai, who had gone to keep tabs on the fled Gou Brothers.
The group arrived before the posts that previously held the bridges leading out of the sect, and tendrils of violet mist sprang up to greet them. As Abby held out her hand, the tendrils wrapped around it, causing a tingling pain to spread in her fingers. With a simple circulation of her cultivation base, the violet mist repelled out of her body, unable to remain inside and hurt her.
“Abby, what are you trying to do here? We've passed by countless people struggling against the—” Arden asked, but Abby hushed him.
Abby took out the sphere containing the wiggling root and held it in her hand. The watery sphere melted as it covered Abby’s hand as a protective cover, and the wiggling root let out little shrieks as it sensed the violet mist probing nearby. The shrieks grew more frequent and high-pitched as Abby’s hand inched closer to the violet mist. When the violet mist finally contacted the wiggling root, it let out dying whimpers, releasing red particles that battled against the violet mist.
But like a tiger latching onto prey, the violet mist in the area pounced onto the wiggling root, tearing it apart and dispersing the red particles it exuded. Within moments, the only thing left in Abby’s hand was the ordinary root remnants.
“Oh, my goodness.” Abby’s mother held her hands close to her chest.
"This means...?" Arden probed, and Abby nodded her head.
“Yeah, the violet mist is the key to suppressing the hidden pill inside everyone. Listen, I have an idea. But it involves using the rebels and will take some disguising.” Abby looked towards her brother, who smiled.
“We can add it to Sun Cai’s plans.”
“Which you still have to tell me about,” Abby pouted.
Chuckle.
“We will tell you along the way. Quickly now, I’ll gather the rebels for your plan.” Arden took out a communication talisman, which burned to cinders as it sent out a message to the rebel leaders.
“Let’s go.”
*****
“Gou Hui…” Gou Jia knelt beside his brother's corpse, noting the savagery that knocked his jaw loose and the sword wound that pierced through his heart. There was even a line of blood as Gou Hui likely crawled from his origin spot back towards The Matron Seed.
Sadness coloured Gou Jia’s eyes as he closed his brother’s bloodshot eyes. Meanwhile, Gou Da rushed past his brother’s corpse as he sped inside the cobblestone dome.
“Matron!” Gou Da shouted as the red particles cloaking the root swirled around him in a relieved greeting. Gou Jia ran behind him, looking at a wound that not even their sister, Gou Jing, managed to inflict on her raid of the sect.
Instead of its usual blood-red colour, The Matron Seed’s main root was tinted with the hateful violet colour of their eternal enemy. A colour that caused the root to occasionally call out in pain like it had been infected with a life-threatening disease.
“Begone!” Gou Da commanded, and his cultivation base exploded out from him, forcing the nearby violet mist to stretch away from the root.
Slice!
Meanwhile, Gou Jia worked on using his blood to force out the impurities that were trying to kill the root.
“Your blood won’t be enough, brother. Use mine, too.” Gou Da sliced his hand, and a faintly demonic aura seeped from the blood flowing out. Under Gou Jia’s skillful control, the blood covered the root and burned its violet tint away.
Screech!
After exhausting his strength, Gou Jia watched as the root recovered enough to link back with the two remaining brothers. Immediately, countless hectic thoughts blasted into their mind.
Anger.
Fear.
Revenge!
At the end of the flood of chaotic emotions, a vision forcefully took over their minds, courtesy of the root-released red particles that flooded their system. But, the Matron root was evidently not fully recovered, and the vision was fragmented, like snippets of a larger, more whole video.
The image of the Bramble Chimera attacking a chubby young man.
The image of the violet mist breaking apart a sphere of bloodthorne roots.
The image of the armoured violet earth warrior sinking his sword into Gou Hui’s heart. The images shifted from that last image, focusing on the feature that sent shivers down the two men’s backs.
The image of eyes containing a will of stone.
“…Kill...” The Matron’s voice echoed into their minds, and the backlash of using a technique after only just recovering sent the root into flails of pain. The visions abruptly cut out, and the two Gou Brothers fell to the ground as their minds naturally healed and their breaths returned to normal.
Suddenly, the ring on Gou Jia’s finger flashed, and a glowing talisman popped out. It was glowing with a call from the other of its kind, and when Gou Jia held it to his forehead, it relayed the message it needed to send and burned to cinders.
Argh!
“I’m going to kill that violet bastard!” Gou Da stood and angrily screamed out. But Gou Jia’s hand caught his shoulder before Gou Da could storm off.
“Calm yourself.” Gou Jia commanded.
“NO! We need to find that little insect warrior and crush him to pieces! I’m heading out into the violet mist and—”
Slap!
The blow wasn’t hard, and the power behind it couldn’t hurt a Gateway Foundation Cultivator like Gou Da, but the shock from the impact far outweighed the pain. Gou Jia retracted his hand as his cold voice of reason sieged Gou Da’s temper-cloaked ears.
“We have a sect to look after. People to look after. The last thing it needs is its leaders running after a ghost in the mist.” Seeing Gou Da’s angered expression, Gou Jia didn’t falter. He guided Gou Da toward the conclusion he had already made after seeing Gou Hui’s body.
“Go ahead, try and sense him. Use your spiritual sense if you want; it won’t penetrate through the mountain formation's violet mist.”
Gou Da pushed down his anger for a moment and closed his eyes. Gou Jia watched him, and moments later, Gou Da heaved a furious breath.
“The violet mist protects him.” Gou Da spoke. Gou Jia solemnly nodded and reasoned with Gou Da.
“You can either spend precious time chasing after him in the hopes of finding him, or we can think ahead to a point where we win regardless of a violet earth warrior appearing."
"What is our goal, Gou Da?” Gou Jia squinted at him.
Gou Da felt his fury slipping away as he mumbled his response.
“Our duty is to The Matron. Her strength is our strength.”
“Correct. Our priority is to help her recover, and we can’t do that chasing around violet earth warriors. Instead, we need one thing….” Gou Jia’s eyes darkened with vicious thoughts.
“…sacrifices.”
Gou Da nodded, and, with an equally vicious look, he turned his back away from Gou Jia.
“Which means I need to go get them.”
“Yes, you do. And while you're up there, you need to quell the chaos brewing among the rebels. The inner sect members have told me that Sun Cai has reappeared. Bring me his head on a spike.” The coldness in Gou Jia’s voice made even Gou Da shiver.
“I won’t stop there; I’ll bring them all.” Gou Da finished and walked away towards the cobblestone platform. As he walked, he brushed past Gou Hui’s body, not even sparing it a glance.
Behind him, Gou Jia watched his brother activate the platform and disappear into the violet mist. He walked over to the cobblestone dome’s doors and sat in meditation as the tattoo of the bramble beasts faintly glowed on his arm.
Screech!
The Matron Root behind him let out a far-reaching scream that echoed past the mountain, the outside forest's trees, and the human settlements they had pilfered. Through his connection, Gou Jia relayed one order to the horde of bramble beasts scouting the world around them.
“Come back and kill the violet warrior,” Gou Jia whispered, and the bramble beast tattoo glowed even brighter before slowly dimming to normality. After ushering out the command, Gou Jia stared ahead into the shroud of the violet mist.
Gou Jia’s eyes appeared calm, but beneath the surface were raging currents that begged for the violet earth warrior to appear before him.
“…do you seek power…?” Behind him, The Matron’s compelling voice filtered into Gou Jia’s mind, but he remained unmoving, unaffected by the promise of more power. Instead, Gou Jia’s voice lingered with resolve.
“I’m not one to blindly follow like my brothers. The price of your power isn’t something I’m willing to sacrifice. So, crawl back into your hole and recover, Matron.” Gou Jia paused a second, sensing The Matron retract from his mind.
“I’ll kill him myself.” Gou Jia whispered.
