On a dark night, a red moon enlightened the streets of the Celestial Empire's Capital City. The once known as the best place on Earth was now facing a huge crisis, that few could imagine. After the last few years of winning against the Ayuttha, the strongest reign located in the south, against which the celestials had to fight for centuries, the people of the Empire thought that nothing could have threatened the peace they were living in.... but they couldn't be more wrong.
Clashes of blades' steel could be heard from everywhere within the Capital, while the smell of blood was filling the air all around the southernmost part of the city, as if covered in a red and iron smelly fog.
"What is happening out there? What is it that is making so much noise?" Some people, who were woken up due to the harsh sounds, wondered.
"Look! It comes from over there!" A man answered, pointing his finger in the direction of the fog.
"Oh my God, that is where the Crimson residence is!" Another one, scared, said as he widened his eyes in shock.
Everyone watched in that direction. The once gorgeous five buildings residence, famous for its mighty stone walls, was covered in flames.
"KILL THEM, KILL THEM ALL!" One of the mysterious men wearing a black robe, with the symbol of a red moon sewn on it, ordered as he approached the main building from the big garden where the battle was taking place.
"WE NEED TO STOP THEM HERE!" The chief captain of the Crimson's personal guards screamed.
"Captain, it is impossible, they have three Sky-level martial masters with them!" The second strongest guard expressed in fear, as he tried to hold them back as much as he could.
Many years later, these guards were insulted of cowardice by the townfolks, but thinking about it now, how could they have been able to defeat such masters, when the chief captain itself was only a late stage of the heaven level?.... Simply, they couldn't.
As the battle continued, the guards were being defeated one after another. No one could stop them.
"Why... Why are you attacking the pillar of the empi- cough," The chief captain tried to ask, as he coughed up blood due to the deep wound in the stomach caused by the enemy's group leader.
"Dying people don't need to know." The obscure figure answered with a deep voice, as he broke the chief's legs.
"AAAAHHH..." The man screamed as he felt a pain he had never felt before. His heavy steel armor was in pieces and couldn't protect him anymore.
At that moment, as the assassins smashed the main door of the palace open, a strong ominous and dark aura enveloped them from the center of the entrance hall. Every normal person would tremble in fear, having to face the man such an aura came from.
"I can't believe you are still this strong. I now understand why you are called the pillar of the Empire," The enemy's leader said, as he walked slowly inside the hall. The other two Sky-level experts were just behind him.
"It seems the poison wasn't enough to kill you." The black robe man continued. While walking, he pulled down his hood, revealing his green hair and his freckled face, on which a sinister smile could be seen. His emerald-like eyes were glaring at the man standing some meters deeper into the hall.
"Argh... Family Patriarch!" The chief captain said while laying on the ground right outside the main door, with his eyes pointing towards the same person.
"It seems you have grown up quite bold Arman," The man everyone was looking at said. His figure was that of a sturdy man who fought countless battles. A black short-haired man, with crimson eyes that pierced through the darkness. He was the reason for all the won battles against the Ayutthans during the last 20 years. Thanks to him, the country could prosper again, and the invasion of the Ayutthans, which went on for centuries, was finally stopped. This man was the only hope for an empire whose size was reduced by two folds in three hundred years.
His wife and two children were right beside him,
"Father, I'm scared." The eldest child said with trembling legs, as he raised his head to meet his father's eyes. Tears were running down his face while he was keeping his little sister in his thin arms. The image of the uneasy smile the invader had at that moment was something he would have never been able to forget.
"Don't worry my son, no one will touch you today. Stay close to your mother and everything will be all right." The man said as he wiped his child's tears from his left eye with the left hand.
Then he looked again in Arman's direction,
"Are they treating you so much better than what I did?" The patriarch said, with a face of disgust.
"Indeed.... they taught me the path of the strong, the opposite of what you did," Arman answered annoyed by the question, while continuing to get closer and closer, with slow steps that didn't show any sign of uncertainty in his heart.
"Strength is nothing without a moral. Cultivation based on absorbing QI from other people's blood, can't be considered a possible path to becoming strong!" The patriarch replied with an increasing tone of voice while distancing himself from his family, in order to avoid them being caught up in the fight.
"It's exactly because of your moral, that you are here... in front of me... doomed to die in this place." Arman said looking at the Crimson Lord straight in his eyes.
"Why... Why are you doing this to us?" The patriarch's wife asked, with tears starting to stream down her face, feeling as if her own son betrayed her.
"Women are not allowed to speak when men are talking." Arman answered without any sign of respect. His cold gaze made her realize that in his heart there was not even a drop left of the young smiling boy she remembered from the past.
"We treated you as if you were our son... and this is how you repay us. What did you come here for today?" The patriarch asked as he was gathering all the power left in his body.
"Where is the book?" The black robe man directly asked back.
"That's something you don't need to know." The patriarch answered, with a grim look in his eyes, as he spread his strong aura once again.
Arman stopped walking, the other two masters were ready to take action at any moment. They were just waiting for Arman signal,
"Argo... You are indeed as foolish as I thought... You were once the proud only Divine level martial master of the Celestial Empire.... and now you are weak.... don't even think that your family will overcome this night alive." Arman stated as he smiled again, sure that nothing could stop him from achieving his long-desired revenge against the man that expelled him from the Crimson family.
"I can be weaker than before.... but it doesn't mean that you have become stronger than me," Argo replied, as he watched the enemy starting to attack.
"RIVER OF DEATH!" Arman shouted. A huge flow of poisoned green coloured water, that could corrode a person's skin, filled the hall and directed against the patriarch.
"YOU MUST GO, NOW!!" Argo screamed to his wife, that, in the meantime, regained her composure. She already knew what to do, as she took her son and daughter with her. There was no time for emotions... the safety of the children was the priority for both of them.
A fraction of a second later, Argo launched his attack,
"WAVE OF DARKNESS!" As he moved his arm with all his strength from the bottom to the top with the palm open. A devastating wave of darkness originated from this move.
The clash between the two techniques completely destroyed the front part of the palace,
"How?? How can he be so strong after 6 months from taking the Ethereal poison??" The other two masters accompanying Arman wondered in complete shock, as they were blown away by the shock wave while noticing that Argo didn't even move from where he was standing.
Walls and columns were falling as a dusty fog formed around Argo.
"Go after his family while I stall him! Hurry!" Arman ordered the two black-robed men after he was pushed back by the clash. They immediately ran towards the three figures at maximum speed.
"PRESSURE FIELD!"
After hearing these words, the two men looked in Argo's direction, whose left hand and eyes were pointing towards them. After a moment, they felt as if their body weight increased by 100 folds. They were utterly crushed on the ground and could barely breathe.
"Where do you think you are go- cough" Argo tried to say as he coughed up blood and was forced to release his move.
'Dammit, when I use my strength, the poison starts to eat me from the inside,' He thought after seeing the blood on his right hand, 'I need to stall them as much as possible.'
"Finally the poison is taking effect. I was starting to get worried." Arman said with a grin on his face, as he stood up again after the huge blow taken a few moments before, "This is your last chance to tell us where the book is."
At that moment, Arman got startled by Argo's unexpected smile,
"Do you think this is funny?" He continued while gritting his teeth, as he became more and more nervous.
"Of course it is... considering that the thing you are so greedily looking for doesn't even exist." The patriarch answered.
"W-What?" Arman got startled by such an answer. Of all the excuses he would have expected, this one didn't even come to his mind. "Hahahaha, to think that you would be so shameless... Do you think I don't know? Your cultivation techniques are passed down generation after generation and you want me to believe that there isn't a book you studied from? Dream on!" Arman said, trying to hide his worry, but everyone, looking at his face, could have guessed how desperate he was feeling.
"There has never been a book... The Power Of Darkness has never been written on a physical book." Argo answered while trying to stand up properly, even though he was feeling weaker and weaker as time passed, "But this is all you will get to know."
The enemy's eyes widened open after hearing such a revelation,
"N-No... It can't be... then how...? HOW WAS IT PASSED DOWN TO YOU???" Arman asked angrily as he lost his temper. His fists were clenched and his upper body directed towards his enemy.
"You already know the answer to that question."
"You... You b*stard, you were saying the truth that time... I thought it was impossible that such a way to pass down a technique could exist..." Arman made some steps back with his trembling legs, as he recalled a memory from the past when he was still a Crimson family member. "You told something so important to a child you only adopted?! Why did you do that??" He couldn't believe that he knew already what the biggest secret of that technique was.
Seeing as Argo was just looking at him without answering, he continued,
"I see... so your son is the real owner now!" Arman realized, as he put his hand on his forehead and started laughing aloud, "HAHAHAHA, months spent on thinking how to take that power away from you.... and now we discover that it has already been passed down," and continued, while looking again into Argo's eyes, "This means that, if you didn't pass it down, you would have been even stronger than this.... you truly deserve to be called the Pillar of the Empire."
And he was right. The strength of this man was unfathomable, but The Power Of Darkness is a set of skills and a cultivation method, that, once it has been passed down, the previous owner would lose gradually all of their powers. It was invented by Argo's grandfather, but only under Argo's period, the Crimson family could enjoy its benefits, by becoming the fifth Great family in the Celestial Empire.... thing that wasn't much appreciated from the other four, to say the least, who were in that position for centuries.
Argo knew that he didn't have any more time because of the poison. So, the only choice he had was to pass it down, in order to protect his children. Thus, at the words that Arman said, he only replied with a smile. That was the last time that Argo had spoken. After that moment, the battle went on, but Argo was unable to fight back for long, though he was still able to endure till his family arrived at their destination... the River's residence.