Born in Blood



The Shard had been cracked.

As Liam's consciousness faded and his transformation reverted, the last thing he heard before the blackness were the magic words:

"Shadow Demon wins."

***

In the world of cultivation, there were unspoken rules that every cultivator knew about. 

One of those were: 'Zeniths were untouchable unless you were one of them.'

Unspoken, but set in stone and known by all.

To be followed for years and years to come.

And yet…

"Shadow Demon wins."

There was not a single murmur throughout the entire Main Lands. Nobody spoke, but they all had the same thoughts.

'How?'

'What?'

'How?!'

'What?!'

Their brains had momentarily shut down to process just what they had heard. 

North Star, Cerulean Dragon, Unmoving Mountain, Sun's Spear, Miasma Queen, Felling Wind and Myriad Brush had grimaced at the same time. 

For different reasons, too.

North Star because he realized just how powerful the Temple's forces were.

Cerulean Dragon because he called a Mortal ranked cultivator who beat a Zenith a 'retard'.

Unmoving Mountain because his Zenith disciple literally died to a Mortal ranked cultivator.

Sun's Spear because of just how grand the achievement was, and he wasn't the one to achieve it.

The rest were just worried about what this entailed for the tournament.

"5 points to the Temple. 19 total," Myriad Brush. To his credit, there wasn't too much concern in his voice.

19 points.

Even if the others won their next bouts, they would be two points shorter than the Temple!

This was getting dangerous, and the six knew it well.

Miasma Queen wasn't even in the fight, and even she was getting worried.

Usan quickly flew to Liam's body and started to patch him up with his shadows. 

Liam's right hand was split down the middle, the fingers of which bent from the base. 

…And that was the least gruesome injury he had on his body.

Using his shadows to carry Liam back to the Monolith Lion, Usan turned towards the Unmoving Mountain with a chilling gaze and said one word:

"Come."

The Unmoving did exactly that. His expression grew heavy, menacing and dark. 

The shame he felt today…

He would feel it for as long as he lived.

But a promise was a promise.

The Unmoving gripped his right wrist with his left hand… then pulled.

A wave of shaky gasps followed from the audience.

The Unmoving's right hand ripped right off with a loud spurt.

What remained was a crude-looking stump, but which rapidly healed and closed off on its own.

"There," the Unmoving said sternly. His face was stoic and indifferent, as though he hadn't just ripped off his own hand. "At least now I can fight without feeling shame."

Usan shook his head and chuckled under his breath. What kind of idiot disables himself like that before a fight? 

Then again… the Unmoving was strong. 

Among the top 3 of Rank 5 cultivators.

Perhaps he was the hardest working cultivator, too. 

No one's Path was as unrelenting and dominative as his.

"Choose your rules."

The Unmoving was the first to dictate:

"We'll do the same thing those two did. Fair? You can still choose a rule."

Usan paused.

"Fine," he said, then spoke his rule.

"Neither of us can use internal strengthening."

This rule evened out both their defenses. But more so the Unmoving Mountain's. 

Usan's defenses were not the best. He was a damage, attack-based cultivator who broke through defenses, not build them.

The opposite was true for the Unmoving, but there were bound to be some devastating spells in his arsenal.

"Fine by me," the Mountain said. "Jiang can decide who attacks first."

Myriad Brush sighed.

"Since the Temple's Secondary Fighter won, the Unforgiven could attack first."

The three nodded in agreement.

"Damn it! Let us see the damn fights!" one audience member shouted amidst the raging noises. "You're dangling the carrot in front of our eyes!"

There was a roar of agreement.

The Isolation Barrier was put up anyways. 

The Sect leaders didn't even hear the man, or the noises around them, due to how intensely focused they were at their own tasks.

Usan and Zeth, the Unmoving Mountain, locked gazes.

"So. Are you going to tell me what that boy actually is?" Zeth asked with a dark voice. 

Usan's lip curled to a smirk.

"A curse that keeps on giving." 

Zeth snorted but said nothing further. 

Immediately, his body started to surge with iridescent 'Ora' currents, visible through his veins and muscles. 

Slowly, a pearly sheen grew around the man, making him look like a living statue. Even his eyes and hair gained a lifeless quality.

Although one might think this was internal strengthening, it was not.

The sheen was a coating.

The insides of Zeth's body were still unprotected.

"Come," Zeth mocked.

Usan scoffed derisively.

Instantly, his shadows merged together midair and slowly took the shape of a crude looking spear. 

It looked volatile, and unstable, as though preparing to explode.

Thirteen other spears were made through the same way… which then merged together as one solid entity.

A powerful spear.

An unstoppable force.

A pearly statue.

An immovable object.

Usan put some finishing touches on the spear to make it as deadly as possible.

The tip had been thinned to a needle's length, but the base and everything below was just a conduit for energy.

Usan pulled back the spear.

It was as though he was preparing a slingshot, since the spear resisted Usan's pull.

Then, Usan let it go.

As soon as Zeth's statue-like body and the spear connected, there wasn't a normal explosion.

Similar to the Focused Havoc, all of its force condensed into a spike-shaped point…

So, instead of spreading outward and surging with flames, it pierced a fist-sized, see-through hole in the center of Zeth's chest.

The result was more than satisfactory, but not enough for a kill.

Despite having a wound that would kill others of a lower rank, the man seemed… annoyed.

No traces of pain whatsoever were on his stoic face.

A moment later, his stump of a hand started to sharpen. 

Where the hand once was, a jagged shard of pearly stone took its place.

"My turn."