In the ballroom Tristan freed everyone from the ropes. Everyone was still stunned by what had happened.
Joanna saw blood on Tristan's face and shirt and was shocked. "Are you ok? We should go to the hospital!"
"I'm fine sis. Its nothing." Tristan wiped off the blood marks.
Others were dumbfounded by other things. "Super villain, monster and then the female super hero died to protect us from that claw in the sky. What is going on?"
"That super villain said the government is hiding the truth! Is Area 51 real?" Another shouted.
"Its a martial arts world!" A person yelled.
Tristan saw this and dumbfounded. If everyone saw this, what is the government going to do? World wide memory spell?
Soon government officials came in and began cordoning the area. No one was allowed to leave. The 24 chiefs who had put in their energy were now extremely weak. They wouldn't have any power for weeks, leaving the place defenseless.
At this moment, Tristan got a call from an injured Heavy Matter. "White Star, are you on site?"
"I am. But why are you calling me now, I saw your heroic sacrifice now, you should rest." Tristan replied.
"No. Now is the most crucial period. I have a bad feeling and I cannot spare any people at the upper echelon to do this. White Star I have an urgent mission for you." Heavy Matter sighed.
"You barely know me to trust me to do a crucial mission." Tristan said.
"I am out of good choices and lacking manpower now. The six guilds feel like someone is engineering internal strife. I want you to investigate this Cursed Blood Sect and their true puppeteers." Heavy Matter whispered.
"How exactly do you want me to do that?" Tristan asked.
"Infiltrate them. Because of this incident we have obtained several clues about their modus operandi. Infiltrate them and find out the higher echelons. If possible spread internal chaos within and find out their goals. Their origin can't be simple, to have assembled a force of thousands willing to die without the knowledge of the government or the five guilds is ridiculous." Heavy Matter said.
"Alright." Tristan cut the call.
Everyone was sent back home after a few hours. The government, it seemed had decided not to do anything at all. No statement, no attempt at quashing rumors, nothing. Rumors of superheroes, monsters, fantasy world and government conspiracy were festering and the main topic of conversation among the ordinary folks.
Tristan was bored by this new topic. Even his mom and dad were pestering him about the "Superhero incident". Tristan was spending his time analyzing the intel of the Cursed Blood Sect instead.
It seemed that the world wide broadcast had caused a boost in recruitment of the cursed blood sect, especially among ordinary people who were angry because the government hid the truth from them.
Tristan formed a new faux identity and applied to the cursed blood sect through these recruitment notices. After a few days he was registered and called for a meeting. There were no meetings within Coastal City because it was on high alert.
So tristan reached an outskirts village in the disguise of an ordinary factory worker with an honest but angered look. When he reached the meeting place, he was blind folded, but he simply counted the steps and directions he was made to follow. Such a move was ineffective on him.
Tristan was brought into a factory which had been emptied and his blindfold removed.
"Name?" A bulky man grunted.
"Jimmy." Tristan answered.
"Jimmy what?"
"Just Jimmy."
"What do you do?" The bulky man snorted.
"Factory pusher." Tristan said.
"Why did you apply?" he asked.
"I want to know what they are hiding." Tristan replied, with a touch of anger.
Soon he along with a few others were led to another area. A bearded man walked in front of the group of new recruits. "Today you will all be initiated. Everyone will now go in the pit and you have to fight each other. If you run, you will be shot dead. If you hide, same. Last man standing gets promoted."
Soon they were all hurled into a pit. "Begin!" The bearded man yelled and people began punching each other.
Tristan did not shy away either, he punched and kicked haphazardly without form and hiding his strength. He also got hit a lot and bled a lot, but was constantly being healed and couldn't care any less. The fighting went on for a long time, primarily because no one in the group was fighting skillfully. But Tristan managed to conduct the orchestra of chaos and remain the last man standing with a rage filled look, his entire body drenched in blood.
Tristan was brought to a different room, still bloodied. Two people looked at him and nodded.
"Well done. You are our premier recruit! Upper leagues directly. Your fighting skills were terrible, but you can tolerate pain. Good!" One of the men said.
Tristan nodded.
"Go to that corner there. Our zonal chief officer there will give you a potion to heal up." He said.
Tristan walked to the cubicle in the corner to collect the potion, but was suddenly stunned. The zonal chief officer looked at the bloodied man and nodded. "Jimmy?" He asked.
"Yes." Tristan said.
"Good job. Here take this potion. You can return home. Come to the factory tomorrow for your mission." The man said.
Tristan was still stunned. The zonal chief officer was none other than the person who had introduced him to the hidden world. "Jack, the tattoo artist."
Tristan went out and was blindfolded again and walked to the encounter point. Tristan acted like he was going away and could sense that he was being followed. So he didn't do anything suspicious and went to the house the forged documents belonging to Jimmy's identity suggested.
There he went to sleep, or acted as if. Then he felt the followers actually enter his room and search the area quietly and after not finding anything suspicious, left. Tristan felt like he was still being followed, and so continued to maintain an ordinary routine of a factory worker.
The next day he was again led to the factory. This time Jack, the zonal chief was much more genuine.
"Welcome Jimmy, you will receive 3 blood stones and the first stage of the Cursed Blood Text. Do you have any questions?" He asked.
"Sir, what is blood stone? What is Cursed Blood Text?"
Jack nodded. "Cursed Blood Text is the power to become a strong warrior. Blood Stone is a stone of crystallized blood. These are crystallized blood of a beast."
Jimmy nodded and bowed. Then he was sent to his corner where he could study and practice this method.