Everyone started eating. However, the atmosphere was more somber than cheery. It was so quiet. Everyone ate without saying anything. Even when they talked, they whispered, as if afraid someone else would hear.
But no one was saying or doing anything to change the mood. Everyone simply continued to drink wine and eat their meal silently. It was more like attending a funeral than a feast.
One of them, a teenage man named Hei Siong, probably feeling uncomfortable, quickly finished up his meal and wine. When he was done, he stood up and asked to be excused. Hei Gong simply waved him off. Hei Siong didn't show any expression but anyone can feel his relief after being allowed to leave.
He stood up. He tidied himself and his utensils. He took his empty bowl and cups to be brought away with him, he was going to put them in the kitchen for someone to wash later.
Not long after he left, sounds of tableware falling to the ground were heard. Everyone looked in the teenager's direction and found him to be kneeling. His back was facing them. It looked like the tableware he carried had slipped and now he knelt down to pick them up. Everyone went back to finishing their meals.
After a while, one of the people at the table saw that the teenager was still on his knees. He called out, "Hey, Hei Siong. Why do you take so long to pick up the bowl?"
Everyone turned again to the teenager after hearing the words. They watched in puzzlement at the kneeling Hei Siong. Suddenly, Hei Siong collapsed to the ground. Everyone was taken aback by the scene.
"Hei Siong! What happened?" His brother Hei Lang called out with concern. He quickly stood up and ran over. But just after two steps, he stopped abruptly. He clutched his stomach and neck, before falling to his knees. He looked back. His face showed an expression of anguish.
"What's wrong?!" Someone asked him, but then he heard groaning from the other side, he turned and saw the others showing the same pained expressions as Hei Lang. He then felt it, his stomach felt as if his innards had tied around each other and tightened. His throat then clamped up, he was unable to suck in a breath.
Everyone at the dining table showed the symptoms, even Hei Gong, Hei Pho, and Amon.
"Wh… What… is… Hap…pening…?" Hei Gong asked through the pain.
"P–Poi…son…!" Hei Pho uttered painfully through her forceful breaths.
Hei Pho and Hei Gong could barely talk as they had stronger bodies due to being cultivators. The others had either fallen to the floors or their face lying on the table, including Amon. Some were still quivering due to the tormenting pain, but they soon succumbed and laid breathless in stillness.
Hei Pho's hands went to her pouch to search for medicine or antidote that might stop or slow down the poison, but she could not find any of what she was looking for. She had always prepared them in her pouch for an emergency. How come they were not there when needed?
Hei Gong utilized his energy to try to control the poison but seeing his clan people dying in front of him made it hard for him to concentrate.
The poison was very deadly. Hei Pho who was much weaker than Hei Gong could finally not resist the poison from taking full effect. Her struggle instead caused her throat to become wounded. She coughed and a spray of blood shot out from her mouth. Her head fell to the table. Her eyes were wide open as she stared at Hei Gong, trying to convey a question as to why had this all happened? And then she was no more.
"Urgh…!" Hei Gong could not bear the pain in both his body and heart, to watch his family die in front of him, without being able to do anything. His pain and rage forced his energy to seethe out. He was using brute force to eliminate the poison.
I am a Martial realm cultivator! Such poison would not end me! He screamed in his mind as he channeled his energy to the limit.
As he closed his eyes and gritted his teeth focusing all his energy. He suddenly sensed rising energy just next to him. He then felt a stinging stab at the top of his throat and below his jaw. His palm unthinkingly slapped forward, delivering a powerful force. He felt his palm hit something hard. He opened his eyes and saw the one that had been pushed away by his palm strike.
The color was drained out of his face as he saw the one standing a few meters away from him. It was Amon. There was blood flowing down his nose and mouth. A bloody dagger was clutched in one of his hands.
"As expected of Martial realm expert," Amon commented. "Even when heavily poisoned, you can still deliver such a powerful strike."
"Yo… You… It's you…? Wh–Why…?" Hei Gong asked with difficulty. Blood was flowing fiercely through the hole in his throat.
"Normal people would already die from that stab. Cultivator's body truly is impressive," Amon said. He had used Silent Swift Stab to deliver the sneak attack. He had expected the poison to not be able to completely kill Hei Gong who was a Martial realm cultivator. From Hei Pho's notes which he studied in secret, all the poisons were only meant for Human realm cultivators. He had combined and experimented on them to boost their potency, but he still doubted that it would be enough. Hence, he planned for the ambush.
When he felt that his stab could not penetrate all the way into Hei gong's brain, he immediately activated Hardened Bronze Body, just before Hei Gong's palm struck him. He was glad to know that his defensive art had managed to save him from the strike. But he also knew that mostly it was because Hei Gong had been greatly weakened by the poison. Otherwise, Hei Gong's palm strike would easily obliterate his body even with his Hardened Bronze Body in effect.
He was also the one that removed all of Hei Pho's antidotes from her pouch, ensuring her demise.
"W… why…?!" Hei Gong asked again, his voice hoarse.
"To keep a secret," Amon answered.
Hei Gong stared at him in disbelief.
"You said it yourself. It would be too dangerous if anyone finds out about the secret of my body. What better way to keep a secret? By making sure the ones that know about it can't talk anymore."
"He… Hei… Mo… You… Ungrate…full… Bastard…!" Hei Gong was gritting his teeth in pain, rage, sadness, and helplessness.
"… My name is not Hei Mo," Amon said. "My name is Amon."
Hei gong looked at him. He did not talk anymore as it caused him enormous pain every time he spoke, but his eyes expressed the question in his mind.
"My name is Amon," Amon repeated. "And if you are wondering how a nearly four-year-old kid could have committed such a heinous act. It's because I am not one. I don't know how it happened, or why it happened. But apparently, during the time you created this body, my newly departed soul had been transferred to this body. That's why your forbidden art had worked this time. I am a fully grown adult who had passed away from a world very much different from this one, and you are the one who had summoned me into this world."
Hei Gong coughed a few times, blood flowed from his mouth. He was now having difficulty supporting his body on the table using his hands.
Amon felt that he owed the old guy an explanation, that's why he had told him the truth. "Your concern about your clan legacy, I will carry it. I will bathe this world with blood and use the name of the Hei clan to stand on top of this world. Everyone in this world will know of your surname. That's the least I can do for you."
"Heh… heh…" Hei gong made a mocking laugh.
He lifted his hand with difficulty, his finger was trembling as he pointed somewhere. Amon saw the direction he was pointing in and saw Hei Xilia's cold body on the table. She was lying there as if asleep. Her face appeared strangely serene, as if she had not gone through any pain before she died.
"She… she had… always treated… you… as if… a brother… she… care… deeply… about you… How can… you…"
"It is better this way," Amon interrupted him. He knew what the old man was trying to convey. "She herself wanted death. Better than becoming the plaything of a ruthless man. I freed her from that awful fate."
"You… are truly… a demon…" Hei Gong's head laid on the table after his last words. He was not moving any longer.
'That I am,' Amon said in his mind. 'In my past life, or in this one. That will never change.'