A Vow To Fulfill

Anger, disbelief, confusion, what else? Feelings he did not know existed within him surfaced. Those separated heads all belonged to the people at post guardian the dead woman.

Now, they were presented to him in the most humiliating way, coupled with a direct threat. In his entire camp, only he and another under him had managed to cultivate. One day a few years back a woman stepped up to them. She was beautiful beyond words but likewise deadly if not even more so.

She offered them power in exchange for nothing. Nothing at all.

Around these backwater areas, Cultivation was but a myth. It had appeared on this planet about a hundred-thousand-years ago. Shockingly enough, a small percentage of the public till today have never had the chance to encounter a cultivator, much less practice it. Heck, some of the public is still oblivious to what cultivation is, to begin with.

This gang was one of the few who actually uncovered a thing or two about cultivation, mainly from experts who traverse the sea from and to the inland not so frequently. By not so frequently, as in every two decades or so. Green Maplewood village was commonly recognized as nothing more than a settlement. A group of people huddled up together in some unknown corner, the village didn't even exist on the map. Documents-wise, only the Orphanage was recognized by the Dynasty, and thus some people deluded themselves into thinking just as the Orphanage nearby was under the jurisdiction of someone influential, so was the village.

Where did the 'abandoned' children come from? No one knew.

Where do they go? No one knew.

The Orphanage was too seclusive, and pretty much every character in it was introverted. The Boss thought that the woman was some official from the Orphanage, she had the demeanor of someone with status. The way she looked at him and his followers was as though she was looking at stray pets. Thus, she tossed them a bone, cultivation methods. Following these, by the passage of the years, their numbers dwindled to a few…

Why? Those unsuited for cultivation died. With such knowledge, some were frightened to even try. Some thought the instruction scriptures were rigged until the Boss had successfully broken through the first stage with the help of cheap spiritual herbs. Over the years, he collected and consumed herbs, giving the leftovers to his most trusted right-arm man. Following that, their gang supposedly had two cultivators. Who knew that one day, news of a Silver Coin within the possession of an Old Woman was handed out to a disabled Lady and her son. This was a great temptation for the Boss.

Kill the family, get the coin, buy herbs, then grow stronger.

But, he had underestimated the circumstances by sending a few of his men. If he knew they would have been killed that easily, he would have come personally. He doubted whoever provided aid back then would topple over his own strength, he was already at the Blood Cleansing stage, his entire body could be considered to have been reborn anew except a little.

Still, standing there looking at the young man before him, he could only grit his teeth. He was too, a cultivator.

What stage was he at? He did not know. But, it was safe to assume that everyone within his gang had already perished, all seemingly done effortlessly.

"Why are you daydreaming?" Yang Lin asked, pace ever-so-peaceful as he took gentle steps towards the man. A sarcastic, cold smile painted across his face.

Loosening his right fist, the accumulated heads dropped to the ground one by one, slowly rolling about. "You really made a piece out of her," Yang Lin stated as if basking in the admiration of how ruthless a man can be.

Behind the man, cast over by his shadow, the Madam was yet to recover from her shock as she sat numb, her back aided by the wall to not collapse as her breath quickened. This is no longer the innocent child she knew, what did he experience?

"What do you want?" The man asked in a stern, solemn tone. No longer paying attention to the woman behind him, his attention wholly glued over Yang Lin who was like a God Of Death.

"First, your life. Then, the life of every person who ever wronged my mother in this scum of a village. I vowed to myself after all; I am a man of my word." His announcement to slaughter everyone in this village shocked not only the thug but the Madam as well.

She had no idea how much loathing, resentment, and hatred lingered under the mask of innocence that was Yang Lin's carefree smile. The thug had no spare seconds to be shocked, as he experienced a sudden deja vu, as a knife whizzed silently through the air to house his forehead.

"That's the final one, mother." Yang Lin said, albeit smiling, his heart was bleeding.