Ki sat down in a private room while Rashida sat opposite her, they both sipped on some hot tea before Ki spoke. "So tell me how you became a slave."
Most slaves had their own stories but most of them started to all sound the same if someone listened to every slaves tale of how they ended up in that position.
Most were tricked, owed someone money so was forced into that life, sold by their family or friends or were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"I… my family and friends are from the western desert but because of the harsh environment we are often used to being on the move. When we entered the central lands we travelled together as a group of 10, to make a living as we travelled we formed a troupe and began to perform in bars or small restaurants. Some of us played music while others performed a sword or sabre dance. My specialty was the sabre dance, we were living happily and not bothering anyone until we encountered a rude noble within Wolfden City. He began harassing me and my sister to remove our veils and began threatening us with his status to make us become his. Our family were enraged but held their anger in, my sister was only 15 while I was 17 at that time… we tried to quietly leave the city but the underground gangs within the city began to hunt us down. We did have some capable of protecting us and caused them some damage but I lost most of my family. I believe that most of the gangs or that gang in particular was related to the city lord because we were quickly sold to their family. They began to try taming us and you can imagine the rest of what they did… my sister did not survive very long either since she had a weak disposition and killed herself." Rashida revealed a look of pure rage. "They are monsters in human skin. Most of my body scars are from the son trying to get me to stop being so rebellious but I was sold off again a year and a half after they ruined my family. The reason I was sold off was because of the sons marriage partner, she would not leave me alone and eventually resorted to wounding my face and almost killing me. After that I was picked up by your family after they raised my body to a condition where I could be sold again."
'The story is so similar…. So so sooo similar to my past experience.' Murderous intent flared in Ki's eyes. 'The same people, the same actions and worst of all they were even harsher on the ones who resisted them. I was going to make a plan for later when I have built up my power but soon I will be meeting with nobles thanks to my families connections in the future so I need to come up with a solution to this problem soon or at least in the near future. They will only continue their horrible deeds and then my previous master will repeat her sacrifice to save the slaves.'
'But… first I need to solve the current problem.' Ki looked at the scimitar at Rashida's waist and held out her hand. "Give me the blade."
After receiving it she performed a couple of cutting motions to familiarise herself with it and remembered the subtle differences between a curved blade and a straighter sword used in the central lands.
In the west they mainly use scimitars that are curved blades, larger and heavier swords and other weapons which rely on brute force and cutting power.
'Perhaps she is already with this type of weapon because of her previous profession so can learn at a faster rate.' Ki nodded and handed her the blade after demonstrating a guarding form, cutting upwards, sideways and diagonally and finally turning the blade backwards to thrust the curved blade downwards as if piercing the enemies face over their raised shield. "Try to perfect those forms and you should not have any problems as you perfect it in combat and grow stronger. To be honest rather than a one handed scimitar I would recommend a larger one for the training I wish to put you through. I will try to get one made that will be a suitable weight and size for you. You can carry it on your back as a form of training."
"If it helps me to grow stronger I will learn." Rashida's eyes glowed with determination.
"Alright. What I will be teaching you is a Qi art that is more difficult than use than what I taught the others. Do you know of the diamond body sutra that is rumoured to be practice by the Buddhist monk sect within the central lands? It's believed they strengthen their muscles and skin through constant practice so that they do not need to wield weapons. Some who have practiced to perfection cannot be harmed by ordinary swords." Ki began to explain. "While the art is primarily earth based and helps to strengthen the muscles and skin like rocks until they reach the stage of diamond… the art I will be teaching you sacrifices your vitality as a cost to do the same. Your muscles, tendons and skin will be tempered by your vitality and you will have a reduced lifespan the further you practice. Such martial arts that harm its own user are usually called demonic or devil arts but there is something which balances out this effect within the Qi art I will be teaching you since it combines the blood sects techniques of taking others vitality to make it your own. After you begin practicing you can put to use the blood you collected earlier and as it runs out you must collect more if you wish to continue to practice without harming yourself. If you do happen to run out you can try hunting beasts as some beasts have higher vitality than most humans unless they train in martial arts."
Ki handed her a booklet containing the complete blood Buddha Qi art before leaving. "After you have memorised and mastered this art burn it. Don't let me find out that this has been spread elsewhere. The only reason I decided to teach you this is because I believe you will be a good leader to your team and you need to be stronger than them in order to keep their respect. Although it is an art that surpasses others it still requires harsh training, dedication and resources in order to perfect. If spread further then it will end up causing great harm."
The sect leader of the blood sect and the future leader may only be allowed to practice the Blood Buddha Art so that they can hold power over all of those below them.
Although they require a lot more vitality and effort in order to reach a higher mastery the end results proved that ordinary blood sect members within the same realm would not be able to do any harm to those practicing the Blood Buddha Qi Art.
Ki was only able to kill the sect leader with poison because they did not have immunity to poisons and grew arrogant after years of being unharmed during many battles, thinking they were unable to be killed they let down their guard to those close to them.
The blood sects way of recruiting more members was to openly spread their sects Qi art through their ordinary members who then spread the Qi arts to recruit people from all walks of life whether it be illegitimate children of a noble family who have no power to inherit their family in order to gain control of the family or simply building gangs in cities or spreading to other places around the world.
The blood sects Qi art could be spread according to their own beliefs in order to strengthen their influence on the world but the blood Buddha Qi art could not be used by anyone but those who would inherit the position as sect leader.
Now the number of people who are officially using that very martial art is 3 or 4 but officially known to the world there is only 1 at most and another still in training which is the sect leader in training who Ki had killed in her previous life.
Most eras had their stories, songs and poems created to tell the stories of the great heroes of the era but when the blood sects next leader appeared in the world along with others the era was the named the era of villains.
They held so much influence that they even helped the emperor stand in his position after being a son of a maid with no support.
The martial alliance had trouble dealing with the threats from the western lands and had to split their manpower in dealing with the situation in the west along with the threat from the blood sect, the demon sect and the unorthodox alliance.
After securing the western borders the martial alliances greedy eyes turned to the east for their ores and rare herbs in order to reestablish their power, they did not know that the emperor they were working with was working with the blood sect and manipulating their actions in order to weaken them further.
Isaac Dante established his position within the martial alliance with his actions of saving many lives with his intellect and quick thinking however this quickly made him a thorn in the emperors side which had to be removed.
After establishing themselves further the blood sect became the biggest villains and powerful influence that could shake the power of the central lands.
Only after Ki ended their long reign of terror did the martial alliance finally have a chance to reestablish their control over the central lands, sadly they ruined their chances by trusting the words of the blood axe and the emperor who were members of the previous blood sect.
The gained advantage they had been given by Ki had been destroyed by their rash attack on the remaining blood sect members and they had to spend an even longer time in order to reestablish their power and influence.
The era of villains was fast approaching and Ki needed to prepare for it!