Almost every Sunday morning, Xin City's streets filled up with people. The streets were crowded with couples walking around, textile shops were overflowing and because the Summer Festival was around the end of the month; everyone was buying many things to celebrate it.
However, Ling saw nothing good in spending the only free day of his week walking around in the streets. He wanted it to be calm with Zen music playing in the evening while he caught up with his manga.
It was [07:10 am] when the young man reached "Nagi's Superstore."
Out of breath, Ling walked into the store through the automatic doors with the crowd and rushed past the people to the manga stall. The sight that greeted him was gorgeous. A single book of Sword King Liu sitting in the middle of the empty rack, almost ready to tip over.
Slip! Ling swiftly caught the book when it fell.
"HA!" With a victorious yelp, he raised the book for all the belated weebs to see.
A few more teenagers who were rushing towards the stall, mostly wearing glasses fell to their knees. "NO! Noooooo!"
The regular citizens, mostly the elderly who never read manga were giving him the eye and he sensed some evil aura bustling within them even.
'Jeez… That was a close one,' Ling wiped his forehead with his sleeve. Finally, Ling Tao had the consent to calm himself.
Then, his eyes darted to the nearby shelf to look for the special chapter of Sword King Liu which was to be released that very week. Many hardly bought those, so the shelf was full of them. But Ling bought those too. How can he not when this was his favorite manga?
And at that moment when he stood before the shelf, he felt a strange sense of aura coming in with the crowd bustling into the shop. His eyes darted towards the crowd, and in the middle of that crowd… There was a flaming aura.
'Hmmm… Interesting. That's one of the most powerful auras I've seen in the city. Who knew there were S-rankers among the regular citizens…'
Yes. He only saw that flaming aura within the S-ranker Cultivators he has seen before in the city hall gatherings.
However, it was coming from a little girl who was clinging to her mother's hand. So, Ling dismissed it with a shrug and walked to the counter, forgetting his special chapter as he spotted a few familiar faces buying some lipsticks at the corner of the store. Seeing the idols Sho Mei-Mei and Shinro Qiqi wearing real short pants from behind is not a chance you get every day.
Awed by the sight of these girls, the thought of buying the special chapter escaped Ling's mind.
///
Even though Ling dismissed this spiritual energy, not every cultivator can be unamused by such things. And this was not merely an S-rank cultivator; it was stronger. Because this was no cultivator either.
Tears came to the little girl's eyes. The aura emitting from her small body was not something she was supposed to possess. She was not even a cultivator. She was a mere… vessel.
"Mommy… I am feeling ill. Let's go home!" The little child pulled at the mother's sleeve when she was pushing through the cart while picking out some canned food.
"Ayo, Momo, here. Lemme check," the mother kept her hand on her daughter's forehead. "Honey, you're ok. Are you sick of coming to the store with mommy?" she chuckled.
"No no no!" Momo refused. "There is a scary bug monster… he – he's in –" The little girl suddenly stopped speaking and fell to her knees.
"Momo!!" The mother instantly grabbed her child. The eyes of the people around her shifted to the scene. "Momo! Are you okay?"
The child was unconscious.
Tears came to the mother's eyes and her heart began to beat faster. "SOMEONE HELP! MY CHILD —"
Shinro Qiqi, who was observing a charming white wristwatch inside a glass box heard this scream and shifted her head. But, what took her by surprise was not the crying mother. It was the immense dark aura flaming up from the little girl's body. "WHAT!?"
She was utterly shocked to see that kind of aura coming from a mere child. 'That… That is an S-Rank? No – that's even more energy… Is it the immense presence I felt when I entered the shop? I knew it… That –'
She snapped out of her conviction and raised her hand towards the Mother from where she was.
"GET AWAY FROM THERE!!" A beam of aura shot out of her palm and shot the mother, pushing her away from the child instantly. The mother slammed against the wall and instantly fell unconscious.
And right at that moment, the little girl began to float.
The only cultivator in there was Qiqi and she was the only one able to see the vast energy being extracted from the girl's body. It was… unnatural. But the citizens only saw the floating girl until a dark aura started to emit from the girl's eyes.
[FACT: Dark Aura and Light Aura are two types of a form of vast energy that could be seen even by regular human beings who possess no power of cultivation.]
And a moment later, from the dark aura emitted from the girl's eyes, a monster emerged. A 10-foot-tall centipede-like monster with an immense dark aura was hanging above the little girl's head, and it was holding katanas on every one of its limbs.
Shinro Qiqi's heart skipped a beat. 'She was possessed…?'
"ARGHHH!!! RUN! MONSTER!!" The people began to panic, rushing out of the superstore. "SOMEONE GET A CULTIVATOR! IT'S AN EVIL SPIRIT!!!"
The monstrous spirit swung its blade at all the humans within its reach, slashing the humans dead almost instantly. Blood poured all over the stalls, humans screamed and Qiqi's heart began to beat faster.
To the sudden fear which struck the crowd, not a single person stood there even for a minute. Pushing each other down, the humans rushed out of the store.
Even Qiqi's friends were gone in a minute, and only Qiqi remained, gazing at the gigantic spirit. She couldn't rush out. She was the only one who had the power to save these people in the store now.
///
Ling Tao casually strolled past the Ming Yon Park when he suddenly remembered that he forgot to pick up the goddamn special chapter!
"HOLY SHIT! Goddammit… that kid. Ah, I forgot it because of that little girl –"
When he turned around, he was surprised to see a ton of people rushing out of the superstore in the distance. Someone had pressed a "SPIRIT ALERT!" button nearby to call the cultivators to the scene.
'Huh? A spirit emerged?'
That meant only one thing for Ling.
If he did not hurry the fuck up, he would never see the beautiful pages of that limited edition chapter of Sword King Liu ever again.
///Author's Note///
[Arc 1: PAIN IN THE ASS]
Arc one, chapter two finished folks! Hope you enjoy it!! Give up your goddamn power stones if you need more daily content! And leave a review and a comment, thank you. Makes my day.