As Will was flying back to the city, he could not help wondering how it was doing. After all, it had been a whole three months since he left. When he left, the kingdom had not only lost its king and princess, but the queen had betrayed them all and left to go to the Shadow Devil kingdom. As such, the kingdom would probably fall apart or be destroyed. It would be a miracle if it could survive till now upon broken foundations. Despite having several peak spirit realms in the kingdom, without the support of their king and the queen, along with the lack of support from the two peak spirit realms that she killed, and the two that she injured, there was only one peak spirit realm, and he had already fled, abandoning the kingdom when he saw that there was no chance of survival if he stayed.
As Will approached the area where the city used to be, he smelt the pungent fumes of flames and poison gas. This gas was noneffective on him, but it would be able to kill anyone under the fourth level of the spirit realm given enough time. He was only able to withstand it due to his natural tolerance to poison because of his insane healing. He had even healed from the poison from the arrow of the city master of hidden valley, which was much stronger than the poison gas in the air. After all, it was concentrated poison whereas poison gas would naturally be less concentrated.
As Will finally reached the city, he saw nothing but burning buildings and bodies all over the ground. There was nothing left anymore. None of the bodies even had any wounds. It was clear that the enemy had wiped out the whole city at the same time and they planned to take possession of the land later. This was the way of the world. There was no mercy to those who were weak. Even the strong would be killed by others if they were brought low enough. As such, Will did not blame the enemies of the Scorching Sun kingdom for attacking. Instead, he could only feel pity that they had fallen into such a bad situation and that such a horrible thing had happened.
After landing on the ground, he walked through the streets which had been bustling with life only three months ago, which were now scattered with dead bodies, covered in ghastly green and yellow lines, foaming at the mouth. It was clear that these people were the ones which stayed and planned to fight to their last breath. He could still faintly feel the determination in them, but more so, he could feel a lingering air of helplessness.
Not wanting to look at the massacre anymore, Will released his inner breath of calmness, this time, instead of having the intent to attack as he did with the tree, he had the intent to heal, to purify the poison gas.
He had discovered earlier shortly after he experimented by shattering the tree that his intent at the time of release of the inner breath decided its behavior.
If he intended to destroy that which the inner breath came in contact with, then when the inner breath first came into contact with its target, it would plunge it into pure silence. Nothing could be seen but calmness, as if nothing could ever disturb that target. But the moment he removed the inner breath from the target, it would plunge into chaos, eventually tearing itself apart, such as a maniac tearing themselves apart slowly.
But when he intended to heal, as he did when healing Kessia, when the inner breath came into contact with something, it would clear it of any impurities, healing it until there was nothing but calmness remaining.
As the inner breath spread into the air, it quickly formed into a web, catching and sucking in all the poison in the air. Very soon, a small area was clear of poison, and all that remained was the dead bodies on the ground. Everything else looked just like the day that he left. He continued to do this around the city until all the poison gas was gone. However, no matter how much he purified the air, he could not bring back the lives of those who were lost. He could still feel their pain, their sorrow, and most of all, their helplessness that they felt in the last moments of their lives.
He could not help but partially blame himself. After all, one of the main reasons that he had broken through to the spirit realm was to help defend the kingdom when it had almost no hope at all. After all, most breakthroughs to the spirit realm at most took about a day, let alone a whole three months. He could not have possibly predicted that it would take him so long.
Alas, there was nothing that he could do. There was no use complaining about it now that everyone was dead. "What's done is done, and what is done cannot be undone," he mumbled to himself as he prepared to leave the second place that had ever shown him kindness in his life. The first place was Princess Belle, of the kingdom from where he came. She was the first one to ever show him kindness, but he figured that she was most likely dead at this point.
...
Soon, he was ready to leave the Scorching Sun kingdom for good. He took one last look at the place with his blind eyes. Despite these eyes being blind, if someone were to look at them, they would get the impression that he could see everything, that nothing could deceive him. The remaining aura of helplessness in this kingdom would last for ages to come, even if no one ever felt it again.
Turning around, he left the kingdom finally, and he would never return here again.
What he did not know was that on a faraway mountain, there sat a short old man with a long white beard, watching him.
With a deep and melencholy sigh, this old man softly said, "I never even got to know his name. I wonder how far he will go?"
If Will was here, he would recognize this old man as Old Man Dai, but his aura at this moment had completely changed, from the eighth stage of the foundational realm to a regular old man that emitted no aura whatsoever. However, his eyes seemed to pierce through the universe to see everything, as if nothing could escape his sight. And his robes had changed as well, going from the red fiery robes that Will had seen him in before to long white robes that hung down to the ground. As he got up and walked towards the direction in which Will went, he had left no mark. No footprint, nor no wind. It was as if he was simply dust, leaving no trace on anything at all.
...
Two days later, Will reached the great wall which surrounded what was once the Scorching Sun Kingdom. However, it was now a wall which guarded nothing. All of the kingdom had been killed or had fled. As he flew past this wall, he felt no emotions other than calmness. He was so calm in the face of so much death. Anyone else would be scared, angry, or wanting to take revenge. However, the calmness that one could see on the face of Will could not be described. He was so calm that it was terrifying.
He had already made his vow, and he would follow it till the end of time.
"I will scourge the world of its filth," were the words which he had said. He would never break this vow as long as he lived.
Dealing an eye for an eye and tit for tat. When he made his first kill, he had decided his path. His path was a path without mercy, but also a path of kindness. An angelic devil. The pure feathers of heaven dipped into the blood of hell, his pearl wings with red tips, dipped in the blood of hope.
His white wings, powered by his inner breath of calmness. Calmness was the only incorruptible emotion. It was the only one which would not destroy you entirely should you be consumed by it. Calmness was the clearness of the mind, as was the clearness in Will's eyes, blind as he may be.
But calmness, as incorruptible as it may be, may be coated by other emotions, as the blood of hope had been dipped onto his pure white wings. Hope may overlay calmness, may even hide it, but the calmness was still there, even if it couldn't be seen.
This was the basis of the 'Symphony of the Heart' which Will could hear, every living thing, every emotion, combining to make a song. Just as every emotion would eventually be present on his wings.
Will had found the cloak which Old Man Dai had had made for him, and he wore it as he traveled. After all, he did not want to attract more attention than he had to. Someone at the spirit realm at 14 years old would undoubtedly attract attention, but a 14 year old at the spirit realm that had wings would simply be absurd, and there was a good chance of getting noticed by the people of the Shadow Devil kingdom. After all, they had people everywhere, and there was no doubt that they knew about the astonishing talent that Will possessed and the threat he could pose to them in the future. After all, Xenia had directly seen him and he had the potential to grow into a great enemy of the Shadow Devil kingdom should he be given time to grow.
The Shadow Devil kingdom was many times stronger than the Scorching Sun kingdom, and silver core realm experts were merely disciples there. Xenia was an inner disciple at the peak of the spirit realm, and she would soon break through to the silver core realm. In the shadow devil kingdom, there were 3 people at the peak of the silver core realm and there was one empress who was at the realm above that
In the silver core realm, there were seven levels. Each level was significantly stronger than the last, an example being that the king of Scorching Sun kingdom could not even resist at all faced with the attack of someone at the third level of the spirit realm. What he did not know was that that attack had even been partially weakened due to the passing of time.
Faced with such differences in strength, no one could imagine going up against them as they were simply too strong. Strength ruled this world, and the weaker ones could only take it and move on. Having three peak silver core realms and one above the silver core realm, the Shadow Devil kingdom was one of the top in a million mile radius.
They were some of the filth that Will had vowed to scourge from this world.
No one in this world was innocent, but the people of Shadow Devil kingdom were vile creatures that didn't deserve to even be called humans. Everyone was appalled by their behaviour of murdering innocents and even their own families merely to get into the kingdom. They had caused the collapse of countless kingdoms and countless more lives.
However, strength alone ruled in this world. Their methods were what allowed them to be on top, such as the shadow devil body, which turned their bodies into shadowy figures that were hard to see and hard to defend against.
As Will continued his journey, he heard about a sect called the Black Iron sect. In the Black Iron Sect, strength ruled and nothing else. It was slightly weaker than Shadow Devil Kingdom, but they were still a force to be reckoned with. They had two peak silver core realm but none above the silver core realm.
However, he was disappointed to hear that there needed to be a recommendation to get in as well as an entrance test. The test was held every twenty years and had just recently happened. He was not willing to wait another twenty years, so he decided against going there.
Shortly after he heard about the Black Iron sect, Will heard about something else as well. A wild forest, in which no one under the second level of the silver core realm could survive.
A forest full of danger, but also full of rewards. Especially for someone like Will who almost didn't have any combat experience whatsoever.
At this moment, he decided to go into the forest.
Author's note: The first three chapters have officially been updated!!! Please go check them out!!!