Great Loses

Inside a dim-lit room, a frail man sat on a red chair, beside him there were two burly men, one on each side. Dale and Monark were in the center of the room, the two bowed towards the man sitting on the chair.

-" So you couldn't even bring me a bloodstone? I truly think that I'm dreaming." The frail man looked calm but the rage was visible in his eyes.

-" Master, we aren't at fault —" Before Monark could finish a blood sword materialized above him and descended on his hand.

-" You weren't given the right to speak." The man to the left of the chair spoke with an icy voice.

Monark could just stare hatefully at him, from his master's gaze it looked like the attack didn't diminish he gulped and stared at the floor. Beside him Dale was gritting his teeth, he just came back to the sect and dint get the chance to dent to his injuries, his hate towards the Strafhampton family only grew.

-" So what excuse do you have? I spent too much preparing the runes for the ritual, all you need to do was perform it and escape with the Space Tearing Stone." When the Elder spoke Dale finally understood how Monark escaped, he felt a heartthrob, most likely his part of the plan was to be a sacrifice pawn.

-" The second son of the Duke is cultivating the Stary Deer technique, when I was hit by it my energies turned chaotic so I couldn't use my full strength." Monark tried his best to find an excuse.

-" Oh, another one?" The elder looked to the man at his right.

-" While I didn't watch much of the fight his technique wasn't the White Deer Technique."

-" What's his cultivation realm?" The elder returned his attention towards Monark and asked.

-" 1st level of Foundation Establishment Realm." Mornark face instantly fell as he spoke.

-" Hahahaha, the Stary Deer must be truly marvelous, only at the 1st level and already so powerful that you two couldn't do anything?" The rage in the elder eye grew even more.

-" This isn't all, what made it impossible of completing the rituals was that the villagers escaped their cells." Monark quickly added fearing his master's rage.

As Monark spoke the man in the right of the elder raised his hand again and another sword materialized, but before the sword could descend the sitting elder made a gesture for him to stop.

-" There were any strong cultivators imprisoned there?" The elder was shocked, he was the one who prepared the cells, he even made them of Cold Iron for ordinary people to break out of them was ridiculous but he knew that Monark wasn't lying to him, he held a portion of Monark Vital essence so his emotion and intent were visible to him

-" No, the villages didn't break the cells, one of them opened the door."

The elder heard that and looked at Dale, who just shook his head.

-" I wasn't present when that happened, I was holding the Duke's son and his lieutenant, but, I don't think that the bandits who were guarding the cells helped them."

Seeing the elder confused Monark explained to him how the villagers opened the cells.

-" The one who opened the door used a Hairpin to open the locks." Of course, he hid how a bunch of ordinary villagers held him back and stopped him as tried to kill the villager.

-" Ah hairpin?" The Elder face was dark, he even felt a little shame, who thought that the cells he paid so much were so shabby that even a hairpin could open the locks. -" So what happened to the escaping villagers?"

The elder quickly changed the subject he now knew that his carelessness helped in the plan's failure.

-" I killed them all, before escaping I casted the Vitality consuming Fire, I even used some of my —-" Before Monark could finish another man entered the room and interrupted him.

-" Master, a large group of people were sighted near your hidden cave. There was a large number of villagers in the group." As the man spoke Monark and Dale's faces turned even worse, they felt as if someone cursed them.

-" Oh, Why don't you tell us again how you killed the villagers?" Monark's master's gaze now was icy cold, everyone in the room felt his fury. -" Send those two to the Barren Fields now, they will obtain my bloodcore even if it means collecting troll's blood."

Dale and Monark could only bite their tongues and curse Jeffrey and Cyl in their hearts. They were still injured and would be thrown in the middle of the battlefield against trolls, their chances of surviving were almost zero.

The man at the right nodded and took the two away, as the man sitting in the chair took a few deep breaths and calmed down.

-" Go to the Strafhampton territory and keep an eye on their movement, we need to know if they could obtain some important piece of information about our moves."

As the man was left alone in the room, the arm of his chair burst as he gripped it with rage, blood red aura started to spread to all parts of the room, and his eyes turned red, as the mist was about to completely engulf the room light came back to his eyes and he started to tremble.

-" My time is running out, if I cant cross to the Rebirth Stage soon I may lose control completely."

The man felt his body getting frailer and sighed as he looked towards the main sect hall. Sadness filled his eyes, he felt so close but so far away, he only needed a small step to finally have enough power to confront his enemies.