There were three separate jade slips with information on Wen Duho. Sentra grabbed all of them and headed towards the tables equipped with slips readers. Being a Flesh Circle cultivator, she didn’t open her Third Eye yet and had no extrasensory abilities whatsoever, meaning that she couldn’t read the slips on her own. After picking the table in the most remote of corners, Sentra sat down and crossed her long legs before inserting the slip marked with ‘1’ into the reader. A circular screen of light projected above the table, displaying rows upon rows of characters.
Sentra groaned and focused on the lecture, skipping past the parts that didn’t interest her. Wen Duho was a talented individual, no less than Maren Eas from her very own clan. He was six, no, five years older than Sentra and was preparing to break into the Spirit Circle realm by focusing his efforts on opening his Third Eye.
His nickname, the Butcher, stuck with him after a certain lady refused to join his harem. He massacred her family before ripping her tongue out and throwing her into Duho clan's jade mines. Sentra had to pause at this moment, shivers of terror running down her spine. The poor girl was raped to death by the convicts within one day of landing down there.
Sentra didn’t really care if her husband had a harem, but she did care how he treated other women. It was a good way to gauge how she herself would be treated, but so far it didn’t look too hot. She calmed herself down before reading further into the reports. By the end of the last jade slip, Sentra lost all hope of having any chance at a calm, safe marriage. She was pulling at her hair, trying to come up with any way that would let her get into Wen’s good books or somehow evade him.
He never hesitated to kill, maim, or torture people that slighted him in even the smallest of ways. On top of that, he never, not even once, showed even an ounce of kindness. Apparently, even his parents didn’t want to associate with him anymore. Not that he cared.
Realizing that she would have to tread on paper-thin ice around Wen, Sentra felt all strength leaving her. After reading the reports she was sure that he wouldn’t hesitate to kill her despite the marriage being an alliance between their clans; he simply didn’t care. She could only hope that he wouldn’t want her and that Duho clan would need to present a different groom. However, the heavens played with her fate, kicking it straight into the gutter. When Sentra came back to her family manor, her father was already waiting for her.
-Dad?- she asked.
Zamos’ facial expression was a mix of a frown and an anxious grimace when he looked at his precious daughter. -What did you do during the night?-
-I meditated,- Sentra spat out, cursing herself inwardly for replying too quickly.
-Sen, a Ghost was assigned to you a few days ago,- Zamos coldly said.
Sentra felt her knees growing weaker. Ghosts were a type of high-ranking puppet, perfect for spying and bodyguard jobs. She knew where this was going, so she took the initiative to explain everything. In her own words, of course.
-Alright, I wasn’t,- she said, gluing her eyes the ground. She reached into her bag of holding and threw the empty wine jars onto the ground. -I was procrastinating. Drinking.-
Her father looked down at the jars before raising his finger and flicking it at her abdomen. A ball of soft, invisible energy tickled Sentra before bouncing back into Zamos’ hand. His expression instantly softened when he confirmed that his daughter didn’t commit adultery.
-I’m sorry for doubting you,- he said. -But when I heard that Roen was with you and that you two were alone…-
Sentra raised her hand, finally able to breathe calmly. Lying her way out of this would be easy. -I get it. You know he’s my best friend, just calm down.-
-I know, sweety, I know,- Zamos nodded, embarrassed for ever doubting his daughter. -The elders pressured me.-
-I understand,- Sentra walked up and whispered, -What did they tell you?-
He hesitated before replying in a similarly quiet voice, -that the talks are not over yet, but there’s 90% chance that they will accept you.-
-No,- Sentra hissed. She grabbed her father’s shoulders, looking into his eyes. -Please tell me you can get me out of this.-
-I want to, I really do, but I can’t. They are watching our every move,- Zamos replied. His heart cracked when he saw how disappointed his daughter was, but his hands were tied. -Sen…-
-What a father you are!- she screamed at him before running away with tears in her eyes.
Sentra locked herself in her chamber, not allowing even Jey in. She ignored her mother when she came to plead and her father when he tried to talk with her through the doors. At first, Sentra was just crying and lamenting her fate, but she soon gathered herself. This wasn’t her, she was a fighter, a person who controlled the situation.
If there was no escape, she would fight. Wen was an entire stage above her on top of having five years more of practice, but it wasn’t an impossible step to overcome as long as he didn’t break through into the Spirit Circle. She only needed to defend herself and her physique was incredibly potent.
Sentra walked into her small meditation chamber and locked it from inside. She had twenty days to come up with a way to defend herself from the Butcher. Twenty days of non-stop cultivation; a first for her.
Now that she reached the middle dantian stage, Sentra’s lifeforce and physique could be used to perform various techniques. She was trained in multiple martial arts and forms of combat, but any kind of lifeforce techniques couldn’t be taught. Everyone’s vascular system was different; this was a commonly known fact in the cultivation world. Because of this, cultivation manuals below Spirit Circle never had any detailed combat techniques within and only contained broad guidelines.
Sighing, Sentra grabbed one of the manuals her father brought from his travels and sat on the meditation platform, reading it for the first time. The stronger her veins were, the more lifeforce she could channel through them at a time. At her stage, Sentra couldn’t manifest energy outside her body, so she was stuck with inner techniques that boosted her body.
For the next twenty days, she experimented with various ways to efficiently utilize the extreme heat her Yang physique granted her. However, no matter how far she pushed herself, she couldn’t create anything that would be useful in the long run. She simply lacked talent and possibly, practice. With one day left, Sentra reluctantly left her chambers after refreshing herself.
It turned out that Jey was camping under her room during her free time and she just so happened to be there when Sentra opened the doors.
-Miss!- Jey cried out, almost throwing herself at Sentra but remembering her status just in time.
Sighing, Sentra stuck out her hands and embraced the poor maid. -Any news?- she asked.
-Miss, they will come tomorrow,- Jey squeezed out. -The butcher, oh, Miss, why?-
-I refuse,- Sentra hissed, letting go of Jey’s quivering body. -I fucking refuse.-
She didn’t want to do it, she really didn’t, but there was no other choice. Ignoring Jey’s puzzled cries, Sentra stormed out of the manor. She didn’t stop for a moment to greet anyone and she pushed Jey to the ground when the little maid tried to stop her. Step by step, Sentra approached the clan’s cultivation grounds located in the middle of the mountain. Without pausing, she rushed into the cave system and into the forbidden tunnel.
-Miss!- Jey cried out, too afraid to follow her in. Her face soaked with tears, she turned around and ran towards the manor while screaming for help.
Sentra, however, no longer heard her. The tunnel she picked hasn’t been used for generations, too many young clansmen died inside. There were myths and stories about this place that circulated Eas clan, and each was worse than the previous one. The rocky tunnel itself was a chilly place, a thick mist wrapped around Sentra’s bare ankles. She got goosebumps, the bad kind, but pushed on deeper into the mountain despite that.
It soon got harder to breathe and the visibility was growing worse. Struggling to catch a breath, Sentra slipped and fell into the mist. The entire world spun around Sentra and she felt her body tumbling down the abyss, the mist that wrapped around her making it impossible to know which way was up and which was down. Sentra started to get lightheaded when too much blood flowed into her head, losing consciousness moments later.
When she came to her senses, Sentra found herself lying on a cold floor. Wherever she looked, there was only thick, milky fog. She shook her head and sat up, wondering if this was the realm of nothingness the souls of cultivators went to after death.
-Finally, I was getting bored down there.-
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Thank for the chapter
Thanks. Plot is interesting enough on it's own. Like how you didn't use the usual names for the cultivation realms.