The sun blinded me temporarily as I tried to shield my eyes, I was no longer in the Forrest. The immediate area looked well kept and to be someone's private residence.
It was large, exquisitely decorated and consisted of many buildings.
Well kept lawn and trimmed hedges with plants cut to various shapes and sizes, many flowers and different types of colorful plants bled color into the vast green-scape sparsely hiding the pathways that led to the overly large and very unique group of buildings.
Most of all the world energy here was rich, and if I wasn't in the middle of breaking through I would no doubt go exploring.
I sat on the soft grass and calmed my mind, I no longer needed to concentrate to pull world energy not to mention I seemed to be capable of absorbing impossibly large amounts of hou strands.
The natural world energy felt refreshing but very different to directly absorbing ki.
Firstly world energy needs to be painstakingly refined into ki before it can be used.
"Hey you!" Someone yelled, I could hear footsteps approaching me from the paved pathway.
I slowly opened my eyes, master was right being interrupted while breaking though was one of the worst type of annoyances one could endure.
Not to mention I was still upset about the whole jiya thing, whether it was just my imagination or not it still angered me.
Two men in uniforms with Spears looked down on me while I sat, "how dare you trespass on master Subin's private residence without an invite!"
"I'll leave once I'm finished, for now just go away!" I replied sharply I really had no time to deal with them.
"No, you will cripple your cultivation and maybe father here will allow you to leave with your life!"
I looked up at him, "are you serious?"
The world energy here seemed to react to me, it would be a simple thing to replicate what master did to help me cultivate and crush them to bits.
"Are you that intent on dying here?" I asked annoyed "Please just leave, don't force my hand."
The first one laughed angrily "don't blame father here for being ruthless." He stated getting ready to use his weapon.
While the second grabbed his friend's hand and lowered his spear, "What if she's a guest of great lord Subin?"
"Idiot!" The first stated loudly "great lord subin is with vehetra and grand master Jiya at the ceremony right now didn't you listen to the commanders orders this morning?"
Jiya!!?
"I don't know, this just seems suspicious, so let's be certain before we do anything we might regret later ok?" The second responded calmly to first guy before turning his gaze to me.
"I'm sorry to bother you but could you provide some of identification?"
He asked more politely than the first.
"That's easy, I'm vehatra."
"Ha ha." The second man laughed nervously "that can't be as the ceremony is too important to be stopped midway and your appearance is a bit different to what we were told."
"If you want to verify my identity just go get Jiya and she'll tell you what you wanna hear." I added sharply. this was intentional after all if i played my cards right might get to see Jiya again.
"How dare you utter the grand master's name in such a manner." the first man raised his spear again ready to strike.
"Hang on." I interrupted holding up my hand in calm protest before inhaling and exhaling, something was wrong and I needed more time before I would be able to breakthrough, I needed master's help but while I figure out my current situation or where she is the next best thing to do would be to find Jiya.
"Take me to Grandmaster Jiya." I ordered more seriously.
"Not on your life," the first man snapped thrusting his spear.
A small trickle of blood dripped from my hand where I had caught the spear.
He had aimed at my neck, no doubt with the intention to kill.
I slowly stood.
"I have no intention of hurting you, but you'll have to compensate me for this."
I was angry again but I needed these two to find Jiya for me.
I pulled down and snapped the shaft of the spear tossing the tip aside before locking eyes with the now shaking man who slowly tried to back away.
"Your ki, will suffice."
The man collapsed to the ground as if he'd fainted.
I had absorbed a bit of his ki.
"That was easier than I thought," I stated before turning to the second who had dropped his spear in surrender.
"He's not dead, just unconscious so I'll have to trouble you with leading the way."
********
Soon enough I stood by the closed entrance of the largest in the cluster of buildings.
Its design ancient and rustic but well kept. Thick tendrils of refined world energy seemingly restrained by the large looming doors or something unseen seem to reach out to me.
The doors seem to pulsate ever so slowly, glowing a faint white before fading back to normal.
"this..."
"They're sealed by great lord Subin so it's impossible to touch or even get close to them right now.
The doors themselves bled white colored hou strands, forcing me back every time I tried getting close enough to touch it.
He wasn't lying.
"Ok," I turned to him with my most brilliant smile "thanks for your help!"
"I can leave?" He asked hopefully.
I shook my head "your friend did hurt me remember? And look it's still not healed yet." I showed him my palm with the small wound.
"T... then I can get you a healing pill I'll even give you a mid grade golden body tempering pill too, it's a rare treasure and my most valuable item!"
I shook my head again before
"Please don't hate me for bullying you I'm actually really pissed right now but I'm generally a nice person."
I had said it in a cheerful voice which visibly confused him.
"I'll be taking your ki.... all of it!"
*****
The two giant doors slowly opened inward. It had taken a bit longer than I'd anticipated to break the seal on the door but after I did I realized my mutated golden black core had
Been absorbing twice as much world energy than before even though I wasn't actively concentrating on gathering any.
Had my understanding of world energy grown?
My wound had healed, the man in uniform now a literal shell of his former self, drained of his ki completely and utterly.
Dead.
A heavy wave of unstable and old ki burst from the room the moment the doors opened.
The room had many people immersed in meditation. Each of them seemingly refining hou strands and directing the resulting ki towards three people that stood in the center around a small piece of black rock similar to the one that had taken me to master so many months ago.
Was this the same thing?
It was much bigger before,
the light from outside now illuminated the area slowly growing into a wider beam until the light fully illuminated the rockface.
Master's soul avatar was chained to the small piece of the black rock that was barely taller than me but from the light I could now see that they'd been hurting master.
I had grown to accept the invincible character she had portrayed while teaching me for so long.
Now she was bruised and covered with wounds.
If that wasn't bad enough, the person leading the charge was actually Jiya.
She wore a dress that I could only imagine being a ritual robe and a cloth that wrapped up her hair and covered her small horns.
Jiya... wouldn't...
Jiya... wouldn't hurt master I know she wouldn't, yet here she was, my chest ached with a pain I hadn't felt in so long.
This was.... yeah this was-
Misery.
"Jiya."
She turned when she heard my voice.
The other 2 hooded people who stood beside her did too.
"Lalie?" She replied in surprise. "What are you doing here? No how are you even alive?"
I had no response for her, how could she do this? Even then, had she really...
Abandoned me?
No that doesn't matter, because Jiya...
A small tear drop fell from my eye.
All the emotion that had built up because of her, everything that I thought I'd suppressed came back, and I... I snapped.
"he, Ah ha hA Ha," I clutched my sides, in this new revelation it all just seemed too funny.
Jiya betrayed me. The one person I had given myself to.
Used me and tossed me aside like a dirty tissue. I chuckled to myself.
Jiya looked confused, her eyes widened when she looked past me at the body of the guy whose ki I devoured.
"Lalie," she asked as if trying to figure out why a child stole candy. "What did you do?"
I held up my hand to stop her while I contained my laughter.
The people in uniform had stopped meditating and turned to look at me with surprised and even angered expressions.
"I only have one question for you, Ji-ya, why did you follow me into the woods that day?" I breathed calmly now awaiting my answer.
She hesitated for a a few seconds before attempting to make some thing up but ultimately failing, "No answer? That's too bad. because I'm feeling a little hungry right now and the ki in this room-"
I inhaled and open my mutated golden black core.
The wind picked up and the hou strands and ki in the room with the exception of jiya's and the other two's ki spiraled around me in a vicious storm before entering into my core.
"-its just so damn tasty."
The people in uniform who were meditating before slowly fell to the ground some of them writhing in agony before they'd stopped moving.
The star shaped tattoo like marks on the back of my hands growing in synchronicity with the ki and hou I've absorbed spreading slowly from my hands to my arms.
I locked eyes with the Jiya and the other two, "you cant hide forever!"
I could see that the space between Jiya and I had become distorted, some kind of invisible spatial force. "All ki belongs to me!" I screamed "It's mine so let gooo!!"
"Jiya, this is your problem, I suggest you solve it quickly! you have 2 days." the man stated calmly before he and the other hooded person touched the rockface, disappearing with it and master leaving only Jiya.
"NO! where did they go?!" I reached forward concentrating my efforts on the spatial barrier the room shook in protest the walls cracking in different places.
"ugh!" Jiya fumed "You ruined everything!" I was surprised at that and even more surprised when with a flick of her hand I was on my back, my mutated core completely gone and the heel of her stilettos pressing hard into my stomach as she looked down on me.
"Lalie did you think that this queen has no means?" she pressed harder the pain pushed away my disorientation and I reached for her leg but not before a blade pierced my palm and pinned it to the ground.
"This queen doesn't need to use ki-techniques to deal with the likes of you."
I was upset and this pain is something I could deal with but the helplessness was so profound that I couldn't stop the tears from flowing as I cried out in pain.
As she looked down on me her expression softened. "Lalie, why did you have to become like this? you've become the very thing we fight against." tears welled up in her eyes "When you see a demon path cultivator... kill without prejudice." even after saying this she hesitated.
Through difficult breaths i managed, "You've... taken everything... away from me why not take, take my life too? Do it... you coward!"