The black light swirled a mile into the morning sky while the screams of the tortured souls howled out into the still peaceful early morning of the forest, the fierce beasts stampeded in the opposite direction of the black light, A sadness emanated through the atmosphere as the released souls scattered and turned into dots of black lights which faded from existence never to visit the river of reincarnation, those unlucky souls lost forever.
The dust slowly settled on the devastated surroundings, every standing structure had been flattened. It was something from the apocalypse framed by a golden hazy sunshine, body parts were strewn everywhere, the bandits had been wiped out, it would be a miracle if any escaped. Lou Ang had awoken bleeding and was still uttering under his breath with wide eyed madness. Lou Ang would never be the same after this, his evil soul had attracted a higher evil and he had experienced being almost harvested.
"I can't believe we made it out of that in one piece" said Qin Li, he walked over to Hartley in relief and patted him on the right shoulder. Qin Li had a lot more questions he needed explanations to, but knew Hartley was not obligated to answer them so he pushed them away for now. He was really interested in Hartley after seeing his demonstration of strength.
He could relate to Hartley's history as it was similar to his own but now was not the time to dawdle. Hartley's mouth twitched a little, he was unused to being casually touched by someone invading his personal space. Qin Li pointed at the bloodless body separated into 3 pieces,up till now they couldn't see the person's face, there was still a dark and blurry outline of a head under the cloak. "That creep scared the shit out of me, I don't even want to be around his body, lets get out of here" Hartley nodded his head in agreement and then walked forward and removed the mans space ring . Qin Li made some bandages, wrapped Lou Ang's injuries and made their way back through the forest.
Everyone in the Cosmos region and the immediate surroundings had witnessed the hair raising evil black light column off in the distance with the eerily spooky howls of the tortured souls. When they returned to the small town, it was abuzz with activity, people were frantic, asking if any one knew what took place out in the forest. A group of half naked merchants had passed by earlier and left immediately bringing frantic tidings of a black devil eating souls. People were saying that it was a bad omen and were preparing to leave, taking their chances with imprisonment in the official provinces.
Hartley and Qin Li with the injured Lou Ang on his left shoulder made their way to the inn.
CREAK! The door to the double room squeaked open, exposing a sullen looking Lou Rylai sitting on the bed at the far end, Lou Tai was sat on the floor with his back against the wall, knees up and his head bowed between them. They had reached the inn about half an hour ago and decided to wait for an hour to see if Qin Li shows up. As far as they were concerned, Hartley's soul was the dark cloaked man's breakfast and Lou Ang his dessert.
Qin Li entered with Lou Ang across his shoulder, the occupants of the room swiveled their heads in his direction and quickly jumped to their feet. Qin Li placed Lou Ang onto the bed on the right side of the room and was immediately bombarded with questions, Qin Li remained quiet until Hartley entered the room to the shocked surprised expression of Lou Rylai and Lou Tai. Lou Tai with his mouth agape looked at Hartley, he then turned his sight to the floor, he had fled when Hartley engaged the opponent, even though he wasn't a shameless person, he was scared witless to the point of blowing a useless whistle through the whole encounter and finally the desire to preserve his own life broke his will to stay.
Lou Rylai too had taken the opportunity to flee, she too looked at Hartley with a slight shameful blush on her face. Hartley knew what they were thinking, he had no ill will towards them. He himself was looking to escape. Hartley waved his hand casually and addressed them with a small smile "no need, I would have done the same thing." He pointed his chin at Qin Li and said "only this guy was dumb enough to not recognize a life saving opportunity." Hartley had a wide mocking smile on his face as he looked at Qin LI who also burst into laughter. Hartley had had a good impression of Qin Li from the start and him staying til the end was stupid but also endearing.
"Lou Rylai, heal Lou Ang and everyone pack up and lets leave soon, we need to report back to the clan." Hartley issued a series of commands and everyone obeyed. Strength was idolized and Hartley had proven his, Lou Rylai formed a translucent orb floating above her right palm then went over to Lou Ang and touched his back, with painful groans the exposed bones sticking out of his skin slithered back under his skin and the skin closed together leaving a little blood still running from the slit on his shoulder.
Lou Ang's eyes were glazed over and he was still uttering incoherent sentences under his breath. When they left they still had to carry Lou Ang because although his physical injuries were healed, he was still mumbling non-sense while looking into space. Tying Lou Ang's leg to the stirrup of a horse after placing him in the saddle, They set off.
While the core disciples from the Lou clan left the Cosmos region, others were only just entering. A man with a scar running from his left eye down towards the side of his neck turned up with 3 xiantian in tow. he pointed two towards the bandit camp and he himself went towards the make-shift town. Two hours later they regrouped and reported to the scar face man, "Fu Xiao and Fu Luang died at the bandit camp, Fu xiao space ring was taken and we can't get to Fu Luang's body which is lodged ten meters into the valley wall, the compound was flattened, there were no survivors and Fu Faxi died in a devastated part of the forest, his space ring was also taken. The scar faced man's pupils darted to the upper left corner of his eyes while he stroked his beard in contemplation, musing aloud "What the hell happened out there?"
The Lou clan core disciples had by now caught up to the carriage with the freed merchants using it to make their way back to the Waltham province, it would take a day and Hartley sent Lou Rylai on ahead carrying the inebriated Lou Ang to report to the clan first. Him and the other two would escort the carriage safely back. The merchants were crammed into a carriage designed to carry four people, they had doubled the capacity because none of them would stay a single second longer in the vicinity of the Cosmos region. When they saw Hartley they respectfully hailed him. Hartley gave them a sense of safety they haven't felt in what feels like years.
Hartley dropped back and traveled a hundred meters behind the carriage as the rear guard. The merchants traveled through the whole day, eating dry rations, there was to be no unnecessary stops during the journey back. The 2 six legged beast pulling the carriage could carry it all day without a break, but the speed wasn't impressive. At dusk the Waltham province was in sight....