"You, yes, I'm talking to you. Who do you think you are? Do you think you are special or do you consider yourself the smartest? You heard a tale of a noble hero and wanted to be them? Remember, you are one of many. If you think that you have not lost your life because of your perseverance or ingenuity, then you are wrong. You live because of pure accident and luck, you live because I want it so."
In an underground, dimly lit cell, a man of about forty in a black mantle slowly brought his head closer to the child's face.
"Next time, when I say that only one should survive in a duel, this means that the winner must kill the loser. You understood me?"
The child was sitting in a thick wooden chair, his arms and legs were chained. The child's face was covered in blood and his eyes were empty. But what stood out most was the large iron nail that stuck into the boy's thigh.
"If you think that you saved him, you are mistaken. You gave him a long and painful death. He probably now hates your kindness with all his soul."
The man straightened his back. On his face, you can see a huge monstrous scar.
"Remember, no one will ever give you a noble death. Your end will be ugly, at best you will die in your vomit or shit, at worst, your parts of the body will be scattered across the field and your bones will become food, for wild animals or other creatures. Only powerful magicians can leave with dignity because their power makes it possible to control their destinies, the ability to control their lives and death."
Having finished speaking, the man grabbed the nail a quick movement of his hand and began to move it in different directions. From unexpected pain, the boy clenched his teeth but made no sound, only breathed heavily and intermittently.
"But you are not a powerful magician, you are only a miserable cockroach and your death will be insignificant, paltry."
Letting go of the nail, the man in the black mantle said nothing more, he simply turned around and began to walk toward the exit. Approaching the door he heard a quiet voice, which was sometimes interrupted due to pain.
"I swear ... my death will be more magnificent ... then your ugly scar ... I promise it ..."
The magician turned around and looked at the boy for a few seconds in silence.
"Balor here is my advice to you and listen carefully. Your opponent surrendered, although he was still breathing. A real defeat is when your heart is silent. If you can move, then the battle is not over and you must do everything possible to win, even if you have to cast aside your morality and pride for it."
Having finished speaking, he no longer lingered and soon only Balor remained in the gloom.
...
Balor did not wait for the ghostly swords to approach him and turn him into minced meat. With great speed, he began to run to Chao Lin, all the way he heard and felt like swords crashed into the ground with great force behind him.
Seeing that the demon in the rabbit mask was approaching them, Chao Lin tightened his grip on his silver spear and stepped forward, standing in front of Xu Lee.
"This cowardly burglar could not accept his death with pride, what a miserable sight."
Suddenly, a childish voice was heard in Chao Lin's head.
"This adversary is very strange, be careful."
"I missed your voice, Violet. Are you really worried about me? "
The former demigod could not help but smile.
"Fine, I'll be careful."
"Fool, don't talk to me anymore. hmm"
Chao Lin ignored the approaching enemy and looked at his silver spear. It was a legendary reasonable spiritual weapon! This weapon itself was able to choose its owners and it became stronger when his owner increased his level of cultivation.
This spiritual spear was named Violet, Chao Lin was able to get it because of a random coincidence. He even nearly died, he was saved only by the fact that he was able to raise his level of cultivation at the very last moment!
Although Violet was about 800 years old, her personality was a 13-year-old girl and Chao Lin was looking forward to the moment when he would become stronger and his reasonable spiritual weapons would be able to take on a human form.
With each new step, Balor felt that the blows of his ghostly swords were getting closer to his back. But this was no longer important, he was able to approach his target at a distance of 10 meters.
Balor currently decided to ignore Chao Lin which stupidly smiling and queerly staring at his silver spear and decided to focus on an unknown girl who gave off a feeling of pressure.
Watching this from above, Lao Li looked at Bei Ma, who had already lowered his hand, after which the ghostly swords began to disappear.
"Maybe we should step in and help them."
Hearing a question, Bei Ma smiled.
"This demon probably thought that these two students were weak and decided to take them hostage to escape. He is a fool, my student, although young, she is the 8 stage of the level of Heaven."
"Amazing! She is the same genius as Chao Lin. I spent almost my whole life, but I reached only stage 9 of the level of Heaven. Verily, the upper world is a paradise for cultivators."
Lao Li unknowingly looked up, imagining how it feels to live in the upper world.