The Truth - Beast in the Forest

With his hood removed, Felix revealed himself paying the guards for identification tags, but Stigma didn't waste time in waiting or running up the pathway and had dashed upwards like a ninja, finally landing on the edge of the red bridge entrance and ran to the path of the forest. When he saw what Stigma had done, Felix was shocked to find a boy who was younger than him, had a more agile physique than he appeared.

Without any delay, Felix grabbed the two identity tags brought by the guards. The tags act as a form of identification to tell if the person was a customer that went out or had a residence in the market. If they had lost it, then the missing item will be replaced with a maintenance fee of over one hundred gold coin, just renting one is over one hundred copper coins.

While ignoring the guard demanding him and explanation, Felix focused his Zen energy to his feet and leaped into the air that reached ten kilometers, enough for him to reach all the way to the top of the cliff. After landing to the ground he ran after Stigma like nothing happened, with such a display that would be considered heaven defying, the guards from below were greatly shocked. Slowly realizing that they were both Cultivators and have been very rude to them, eventually causing all of them to panic.

As the guards on duty were shocked from seeing a man suddenly leap in the air that was higher than any mortal can handle, a captain was inside his private tent silently observing what had happened.

As he turned his head to look at the cliff, he made a dark expression, when a commotion suddenly appeared, the captain peeked outside his tent and he already recognized a child's face. The captain was the one Stigma had met the day before, since yesterday he was skeptical if the boy was an actual cultivator or he lied about having any connections to a powerful Cultivator.

Now all his actions from yesterday had come to bite him back in the ass.

After the incident, the guards would play the fool and reported that the mercenary leader escaped from his arrest so his former subordinate were ordered to capture him but have yet to return. When in actuality the captain of the guards became lenient and fired them, warning them to never cause trouble inside or outside the market until they all leave.

Unfortunately the patrol had given him reports that the leader was with mercenaries band, camping outside laying in wait for Stigma to leave and get his revenge for insulting him. Holding a grudge against a child was ridiculous, but the leader was not his responsibility anymore, so he forgot the incident like air.

Normally the guard captain would ignore what the mercenaries would do or whatever threats come his way, but after seeing how both Stigma and Felix climb the cliff. He clearly heard that man yell out the boys name 'Stigma', even when he was sitting down, he was about to pass out but held it in, his back continued to shudder and his face was covered in cold sweat.

When he had heard from one of the hired Second Tier, that if a cultivator where to climb up the cliff, they would jump all the way and only Zero Tiers need to run all the way; First Tier would need twenty five to thirty jumps, Second Tier would need ten or so, and a Third Tier were to climb that cliff he would need just one jump to reach the top.

Remembering the thought had him loss his breathing, he had asked out of curiosity in hopes to not offend another Cultivator but now...

"The man who was following Stigma was clearly in the Third Tier! So the boy was telling the truth all along!"

While gnashing his teeth, the captain quickly wore his armor and weapons, then grabbed a quill and paper, writing down a few lines of exaggerated reason that would make anyone believe he was a mad.

Dripping some wax from a candle he grabbed a seal by the table and pressed it down, revealing a symbol of Four Orchids under a roof, the seal signifying the servant of the Top - The House of Four Orchids.

He would need about a few days to have the signature of his master along with her Seal of approval, but between angering his master and angering a Cultivator within in the Third Tier is something he didn't want to cross.

What was worse was that he had judged to early and had about two days left until he can capture mercenary leader back, with the sudden change of heart the mercenary band will retaliate so he had to bring about one hundred or so men to subdue them all and hope the accumulated wealth behind it will suffice.

"Men assemble! I have here a warrant of arrest with the signature and seal, the arrest deadline for 'Cleaving Wind' Grun is within two days, any member of his mercenary band that involve themselves are to be arrested and sold to the slave market!"

'I screwed up big time!' With a dozen or so men running around executing their orders, the leader was sitting down on a log with a deep sigh, looking at the direction Stigma and Felix went to.

***

Although Stigma had used his skill to remove most of the paralysis curse from Felix's body, there was still some numbness, like when a person sits cross legged for a long time and his legs fell asleep. His left leg was slightly paralyze before, but it wasn't serious enough to hinder his lifestyle until now, but his arm was starting to affect his senses such as his vision as he ran.

Right now, Felix was trying his best to concentrate on his recovery and adjust to his lost sense as he followed Stigma whose speed was almost at his level. If that wasn't enough, Stigma wasn't even using the regular pathway leading to the forest but the trees to increase his distance.

"Stigma! Slow down! Tell me what is going on! I can help you!"

The more Felix tried to get closer the more distance Stigma had increased his dentance after a few short pauses from the trees. However Stigma didn't look back, he was trying to reach the cave Stigma had left Kirin and used the similar method he used to travel, he didn't know what the red colored named signified when he saw it, but he had played enough games and his intuition told him that either Kirin is hurt or he is in an abnormal state.

With fear and anxiety filling his heavy beating heart, Stigma couldn't relax for even a second, he had left Kirin by the border of the forest with the confidence that no one was capable of harming it because of his speed. Now he was hearing that someone had spotted a beast clad in lightning near the border of the forest and tried to hurt it, mistaken it as the one causing those disappearance when the cave it was living in was filled with bodies, he had to find Kirin and see if it's okay.

With both of those description along with seeing Kirin's name in red, how could Stigma not be spooked. If Kirin did have some connection to the disappearances, then he would cut all ties to this place and go into hiding.

Stopping from time to time, he saw the carvings he had left on the trees as a landmark, the markers is all that he need to see if he was going in the right direction. He had left about twenty or so markers on the way, and he was on the sixth one, it was still a long way to go so he had to hurry.

'Kirin! I'm coming for you! Wait for me!' Focusing energy on his feet, Stigma increased his speed by using his new technique the 'Shadowless Waltz' that left behind an after mirage.

After leaving behind a great distance, Felix was baffled to find himself even more confused about they boys origins and find out that Stigma knew an advance method in channeling Zen energy at a very young age.

"Stigma!" With no choice left, he focused a large portion of his energy into one stomp propelling Felix by a wide margin, if not for the trees and unfamiliar landscape he wouldn't use that method, but he was finally ahead of Stigma who was about to land on the next tree.

"Out of my way!" Out of reflex, Stigma stomped on the air dodging where he was about to land, however the size difference was clear and Felix only stretched out his right hand and grabbed Stigma's leg. As he continued to struggle to break free, Felix was having great difficulty in keeping his balance, yet his iron like grip would not allow Stigma to go free.

He was worried that in his current state, Stigma would come across an accident that would greatly injure him. With Felix still recovering, he might be as much help if a fight broke out, so he had to calm Stigma down as he is the only one who can fight properly.

"If your worried about your familiar, slow down and listen to me! What would you do if your familiar is in danger and you are not in the right state of mind, you might injure it by mistake."

After the blood rushing to his head was gone, Stigma finally calmed down and took deep breaths, and was finally let down. He was responsible in taking care of Kirin since it was still a newborn, so if anything happened to it, he would not be able to forgive himself.

"Have you finally calmed down? Now, what has gotten into you that you left in such a hurry?"

"..Senior Felix we need to get going, if you heard the conversation from the tent beside us, then you have to understand why I had left."

"Of course we have to worry, newborn beast are rare and are quite weak if they face such a beast in the forest."

"You misunderstand Senior, the beast clad in lighting they were talking about is my familiar it's a thunder beast named Kirin!"

....

"Senior?" Felix had his eyes wide open and his mouth stretched all the way, as his eye continued to twitch. With each shocking secret Stigma was revealing he wouldn't be surprised anymore, but adding a familiar with a rare element had already caused his mind to go blank and lost composure.

"Ha!!!!!!!! When did you say you had a familiar with that ability! How the hell did you get a rare Heavenly Beast in the lightning attribute!"

After a explaining the circumstances, Felix finally calmed down and recalled the conversation, sympathizing on how Stigma felt since he had a familiar as well resting in the clan.

"Alright, I understand why you are shaken by the sudden news, but how are you sure it isn't him and not another beast who uses the same attribute."

"Because I told to wait for me in a cave, there wasn't any structure that could house him during the rain, so I choose a stable environment and left a lot of meat there. Also they said a huge claw marks were made on the surrounding trees, Kirin is still small so how the hell could it be the one to cause an incident like that, plus it was using the lightning element as a form of running how could it fight if its only capable of tackling and leaving behind burn marks."

That was true, when Stigma was running of Felix heard that the victims had been torn to shreds by a claws or cut in half, there was never a discussion in where burn marks were found not even the trees were claimed to have burn marks just clawed in.

With all those news adding up, Felix believed Stigma was telling the truth, but to he sure he flipped his wrist and gave him a necklace with a small container that looked like a bird cage along with some dried green herbs.

"Use this for your familiar, Kirin was it, so it could enter the market without irritating it. Place this herd inside the container and light it, your familiar would be able to enter the market without worry, since the smell is what is causing it to not enter."

"Thank you, I will tell you how I got Kirin but we have to find him first!"

"How to we find him? Do you have a method?"

"I left behind some carving on some trees, they lead all the way to the cave I left Kirin behind. Senior we have to hurry, I have a bad feeling about this."

"Alright! Lead the way!"

Their travel time took about an hour, but they finally arrived at their destination, unfortunately there was somebody guarding the entrance of the cave. About two guards were placed at each side of the cave, after the sudden news of finding dead bodies inside, the top organized an investigation on the crime scene.

There was a small pile of straw mats with legs sticking out, so by elimination, those were the bodies inside the cave.

"So they new ahead of time and covered it up, are we going to get in Stigma or are we going to watch in silent?"

"....Something is very wrong, this is the cave I left Kirin in, but the number of bodies is alarming. The cave was empty when I left it, and Kirin was to small to even pull bodies of that size. Somebody is hiding something and they were using the cave to hide all the bodies."

"What do you mean?"

"It was only yesterday that I have left Kirin in there, and the bodies don't add up the time he was there, if Kirin did kill these people why bring the bodies inside. When he killed a Heavenly Beast two days ago, he just left it there and ate some of the meat, leaving the remains behind after it was full when I grabbed the core."

"....That is suspicious, Stigma do you think someone is framing Kirin so they can capture it or the timing was coincidental and there was another beast clad in lighting so it was the actual beast causing this."

"But the timing of the missing people doesn't add up, that pile over there could not add up into one day, I assume that it would take more than ten days to make such a pile like this. And if such a beast did exist why leave the victims with slash marks, it would normally eat victims if its hungry or burn his victims if it is the beast clad in lightning."

....

The more they look into it, the more the story doesn't add up, Felix was already in the market a day before Stigma, so he heard rumors of people disappearing which wasn't new to him. So the sudden news of a beast clad in lightning had him believe someone was exaggerating or combining stories, but if they are making up stories they would be a point like preventing people from leaving or causing some small prank.

Stigma on the hand was looking it from a liars point of view. Bringing two witness would lose value of a made up story but only makes it more believable if the party wasn't involve, and finding dead bodies in a day only proves that someone is involved is hiding them but had a story about a beast involve.

Based in Stigma's testimony, if one of the top really did find the beast ahead of time and wanted it, why waste killing so many people and risk discovering their actions before finding it. Killing customers to frame the beast would lead to most of them fearing for their lives, not increase individuals willing to join the hunt.

Majority of their customers were only small noble families or non Cultivators, using the hired Cultivator would be the more appropriate solution, but if they haven't moved, then that means only one thing.

'They have no connection to the incident and only found the bodies recently.'

Stigma and Felix have the same thought process and only had one question that needed to be answered. 'Who were involved and what are they hiding?'

"....Stigma are you sure Kirin is inside there?"

"No, there should be a hollow tree nearby for it to hide, but I doubt it could move very well if it's injured and those bodies might not be planted there for a reason."

"Stigma do you know the method on how to find your familiar."

"I tried using my skill, but there are too many thing in the way, so I can't tell head or tail of it bleongs to him."

"Show me your hand follow my instruction."

What Felix was teaching Stigma was a method for Cultivators to find their contracted beast, if Kirin was Stigma's partner, then it must have left some of its own energy as a signature for Stigma to recognize.

"Image you familiar then focus your Zen energy, you familiar is a contracted beast so it must have left behind a tattoo on you. Follow the flow of energy I am circulating to you, so you can tell where it is, after the tattoo reveals itself to you the location of the beast will be certain."

Following Felix instructions, Stigma molded his energy and his body revealed a chinese character of the wolf, when he tried to follow the flow of energy it lead him inside the cave.

"...He's really in there, Senior what should we do, would I take them out."

"...No choice left, we can only force out way in, don't kill them knock them out so we can enter inside. I'll take the ones from the right, take out the ones on the left."

Without waiting for Felix's signal, Stigma placed a scarf loosely that covered his face then grabbed two rocks on the ground. Using his 'Shadowless Waltz', Stigma appeared behind one of the guards from the left side and threw two rocks at the adjacent guards head.

Removing the scarf on his face, he covered the face of the guard in front of him and pulled up behind, using his weight of his descend he pulled the head of the guard to the wall behind and performed a devastating kick to the chin of the guard beside him.

It took about just a matter of seconds for al guards to be knocked out, two of the rocks hit the back side of the head of the guards from the right, while Stigma knocked out two guards by slamming one by the wall and landing a hit to his jaw.

Felix was again shocked to find Stigma capable of taking out four people at the same time, they were non - cultivators, but it was nonetheless an impressive feat for him. So when he remembered that Stigma was given the opportunity to be an assassin, Felix could only agree that Stigma would have found his true calling.

Motioning Felix to come out, Stigma took the opportunity to cover the guards eyes, hands and feet, to prevent them from entering. To add into the precaution, Stigma ripped some of their clothing and doused them using their canteens filled with water and placing the wet cotton in their ears to prevent any noise from entering.

Puzzled from the sudden approach, Stigma explained to Felix that someone was involved in this incident and may be man made. So to take this matter seriously, Stigma made it look like a perpetrators had returned to the scene of the crime to find any evidence left behind.

Also, by not killing the guards, Stigma was giving a silent message to the top that someone is helping them from behind the scenes. Giving them a major hint that they ignoring the bigger picture and missing smaller details, if the Top were really well educated, then they would understand the message and seek them out to help with the investigation.

Not to mistake them as being involved with the murder. With all that explained, Felix was now having a really hard time believing that Stigma had lived a normal life, and assuming that had lived under a house of a noble with difficult living condition.

For now, Stigma replied that he doesn't remember since he woke up in a cave filled with bodies, so the subject was dropped.

After placing the guards against the wall, they ventured inside to find it filled with dead bodies.

'What the hell....'

"Kirin! Where are you! Answer me!" After a few shouts, Stigma finally heard some soft bark form within the pile and ran after the sound, pulling away some of corpses he finally saw Kirin with a large wound on his back side shaking to ran at him.

"Kirin....what happened to you....." After looking at the wound on its back, Stigma vowed to kill the bastard who harmed him.