Conspiracies in Garakil (2)

Since he knew exactly where Harol and Jali were, Shui slipped past the hotel's security and went straight to their room. He planned on knocking, but Harol opened the door before he could.

"Huh? Who the hell? Wait, you look kind of,"

Shui interrupted Harol with a slap to the face and then entered the room and sealed the door behind him. To ensure that there wasn't any interference, he also used talismans to block all vibrations and spells from leaving the room. 

"There's no need to look for me. I came here to send you two off."

"Harol!"

Although Harol was taken off guard and didn't have his barrier up, Shui hadn't used too much force, so he only lost a tooth. 

"Damn it! I'll kill you!"

In a furious outburst, Harol cast several fireball spells and flung them at Shui without any thought for the collateral damage done to the room. With just mental control, Shui deflected the flames, leaving him completely unharmed after the attack. While Harol clicked his tongue in frustration and disbelief before preparing another spell, Jali realised Shui's identity thanks to the symbol on the silk coat he had on.

"Are you Shui from Storm Sky Manor?"

"That's right."

Shui didn't care if they knew who killed them, so once Jali announced his identity, he made his next move. Shui concentrated the power of ten basic fireball spells into a tiny orb of red light at the tip of his right index finger and then shot it at Harol. Sensing a dangerous level of heat from that beam, Harol quickly cancelled the spell he was preparing and poured all of his power into a barrier spell. He was somehow able to prevent the beam from hitting any vital regions, but it still caused minor burns on his skin.

Harol and Jali were told that Shui would be in the Soul Realm, and his aura seemed to match, so they were confused and frightened by how powerful he was, but he didn't give them time to process it. Once Jali noticed that Shui was preparing to attack again, he moved to aid Harol.

"We have to handle him together."

There was no room for disagreement, so Harol nodded, and the two joined their power to create a barrier. They managed to properly block the beam this time, but Shui immediately had another one ready.

"Tch. He's looking down at us."

While Shui was certainly strong, to use fire against members of the Lava Stream Sect was commonly taken as provocation. Though they would be right to think that Shui was using fire on purpose, his understanding of the natural laws of fire was likely on the level of their core elders. If he used either the void flame or his heart flame, this battle would have already ended, but Shui didn't plan on letting them off that easily.

He elevated the power of his attack to compensate for Jali's addition but kept it at a level that they could barely resist. After several rounds, the two were fed up and ready to take some risks to counterattack. Jali raised his hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead for the umpteenth time and noticed the red shade of his skin. Horrified by the realisation that struck him, Jali hastily used his spiritual sense to check the room temperature.

"You! You're raising the room temperature on purpose. You're toying with us!"

"You finally realised. Not that it matters."

Since they had to focus their power on maintaining the barrier, the two lacked the energy to defend against the rising room temperature. If nothing changed, they would be baked like chickens, so they hardened their resolves and charged at Shui with their lives on the line. Harol's hair ignited and became a powerful inferno, while Jali's skin was covered by a layer of red rocks. To confront them, Shui gathered the heat in the room and had it cover his right hand in the form of red light. Shui then swung his hand at them, and the red light extended, passing through their bodies and barriers as if they were the same as air.

The two didn't feel any pain at first, so they tried to push forward, but suddenly, as if a wildfire had occurred within their bodies, they felt agonising heat.

"Ahhh!!!"

As core disciples, they had access to an underground space with flowing magma for their training, but they had never experienced being burned from the inside. Desperate to extinguish the heat, they began clawing at their chests as if to rip themselves open, but Shui didn't allow it. He stopped their movements with mental control, leaving them incapable of doing anything besides screaming. If he left them like this for a few minutes, the two would certainly die, but he had different plans for them, so he stopped the heat at a suitable point.

"Uh..."

Their minds were nearly broken after the experience, so they didn't make any moves even after the heat went away, and they wouldn't be able to either. The heat was stopped from taking their lives, but their meridians were destroyed, so they were no longer able to cultivate or control nature energy. Most cultivators would say that this was crueller than killing them, but Shui had decided to leave the decision on whether to take their lives to the people of Garakil.

Early the next day, the two were found tied together on the street with a list of their crimes and evidence to support it. At first, the people were confused, but once one of the few breathing victims spotted the two, he immediately attacked them. When the spectators asked him why, he revealed that he was one of their victims, and the crowd realised that the two were heinous criminals that had been delivered to them for 'justice'. The city's administration would eventually send guards to control the commotion, but by then the crippled two were already dead.

Back to the time just after crippling the Lava Stream Sect disciples, Shui went towards the masked woman he had knocked out earlier. He hadn't tied her up or done anything to stop her from escaping after she woke, but she wouldn't be able to escape him either way. 

One moment she had been searching for her target, and the next moment she had lost consciousness, and since she wasn't stupid, the woman knew that she had been compromised. She wasn't sure why he didn't restrict her movements, but she didn't let that stop her from fleeing the city as soon as she regained consciousness. Unfortunately, even at her max speed, she couldn't escape the limits of Shui's perception.

"Stop right there."

As she dashed through the beast-filled forest, the woman suddenly found Shui standing in front of her. Without a hint of hesitation, she took out a knife and thrust it at her own neck. However, before the tip of the knife could make contact with her skin, she found her body ignoring her commands. While restricting her with mental control, Shui leisurely approached her and then took the knife from her hand. 

"There's no point in killing yourself; I already know who sent you. I didn't come here to use you as a hostage either. Instead, I want you to send a message for me. What do you say?"

Shui then released his mental control and waited for the woman's reaction. Though she continued glaring at him, the woman lowered her hand and didn't take any other actions.

"Good. Since your Mistress is one of her few friends, I'd rather not kill her, but I can't let her keep threatening me either. So I'll give her one chance to make up for her actions."