NOVEL NEXT Chapter 62: The monster They Bred
Four figures could be seen huddled in a corner, hiding from a group of passing guards…
"Lei Yu, are you sure we shouldn't be escaping?" Zhao Mei questioned in a hush. They had managed to escape due to a miracle.
Zhao Mei hadn't been drugged like the rest. Instead, she had been knocked right out, so after a few hours she naturally came to. But she was smart enough not to expose herself, as scholars came over occasionally to draw blood samples from her and her fellow disciples. She didn't dare flinch.
She waited patiently like that for days, monitoring the daily routines of the scholars, and finally, when she was confident enough, she took her chance. In a brief moment of reprieve when a scholar had come alone to extract blood, she acted.
The scholar was a mortal after all, so even restrained as an essence weaver, even though she was a non-combatant, killing him without causing any commotion only took extra concentration.
On releasing herself, she didn't waste time releasing the others, and with a purification weave, she quickly cleansed their systems of the poison Purple Dreams.
She had the intention of escaping with them as fast as they could, but the words of her teammates stunned her, reminding her that there was still someone else missing, Spark!
"No, we have to get Brother Spark. Have you forgotten that we are heavens know how deep under the ground, and as a martial artist only he can easily get us out," Lei Yu explained.
The others could only nod in agreement. After all, they were only essence weavers; such a feat couldn't be accomplished by them, as none of them were of the earth element.
And so they all sneaked through the tunnels, looking for traces of Spark. They searched for hours, and even after searching through all the rooms where the captives were kept, they still didn't find him.
"Where could he be?" Bao'er couldn't help but ask after they exited the final room.
Zhao Mu frowned. He had begun thinking of the worst — what if Brother Spark was dead?
Lei Yu frowned; he too thought the same. 'Sigh, if that is true we can only leave alone then…'
Suddenly, three guards walked past while casually gossiping. "Did you see Scholar Mu?"
"Yeah, I did, he seemed to have been taking the special subject out..."
"Was he relocating?"
"How the hell would I know!"
"Yeah, for all we know he might be going to dispose of the poor guy…"
"You guys are speaking of a less important subject… let me tell you, I walked past Head Lu this morning and I could swear I saw him smile!"
"Heavens! You're joking, right? Everyone knows nothing can make Stone-faced Lu smile."
"Are you crazy? Calling him such names within the base? If you're fed up with life, I'm not."
Quickly the voices of the trio drifted into the distance. The four glanced at themselves as Bao'er voiced the question in all their minds.
"That wouldn't be him they spoke about, right?…"
Lei Yu was concerned. What have these monsters done to Brother Spark? After all, the Seekers' reputation preceded them; anytime they took interest in a particular person, the person was bound to lose his humanity.
"Should we go check it out?" Zhao Mei asked.
"Definitely!" Lei Yu affirmed as they moved stealthily along the direction the three guards had arrived from.
And after a few minutes they saw a lone, suspicious-looking scholar wheeling a man strapped to a metal stretcher-like cart.
The four young essence weavers' eyes lit up; indeed it was Spark, and he still seemed to be fine and, most importantly, he was still human.
Lei Yu's eyes glinted as space fluctuated slightly, spitting out a hiltless blade, which levitated slightly in the air. Unlike the others, Lei Yu was more experienced; he was always prepared for emergency situations, so he had long embedded a spatial ring in one of his fingers, so that even if he was caught and stripped of all his items he always had a backup.
He quickly conjured essence strings as he quickly cast weaves, and the blade suddenly burst into motion. At first he aimed to decapitate the scholar, but who would have expected the scholar would be this nimble?
The sneaky guy sensed the danger and leaped out of the way, but Lei Yu was experienced and smart, so since he had lost the element of surprise it was better to accomplish the next possible thing. Fortunately, the blade was an Earth-grade artifact.
And it could pierce through reinforced metal like tofu, and in a silent and swift motion the five metal clamps were severed in a beat. Now it was up to Spark, Lei Yu thought worriedly.
But he was worried for nothing, as Spark, who seemed to have been patiently waiting for a chance, saw one and took it as fast as it came, as his figure vanished in a blink.
The scholar finally caught on as he turned backwards, gazing at the empty metal carrier — empty!
His breath hitched and his heart seized, and a primal fear crept through his veins. "I'm dead!" he muttered listlessly.
"Oh, you wish…" a sinister voice, like that of the demon emperor himself, rang out from behind him.
He froze, terror washed his face as he laboriously turned his neck towards the source of the voice, and there he was — a man clothed in scant bloodied wear, someone he knew far too well…
The chilling glare of the sapphire glints in Spark's eyes was slowly overshadowed by a crimson sheen, as a deranged smile stretched across his lips.
He had waited for this for what seemed to be years to him; he had dreamed of this moment every time he closed his eyes, every time he saw their faces, and now it was here.
Mu Bai staggered backwards, his legs trembling with every step, fear flooded his veins as he opened his mouth in a desperate attempt to scream.
Puff!
But instead of a shriek he could only cough out a mouthful of blood, his face distorted in agony, as his tongue spattered into paste.
One had to recall, Lu Ming had used the divine elixir 'Days in a Second, Years in a Minute' on Spark; though it was used to elongate his suffering, it also allowed Spark's mind to advance by ten good years…
Adding to the fact that he had spent most of his time in captivity fighting against the strange energy-suction force of the black metal clamps, all these facts coupled together pushed Spark to his very limits, allowing him to reach a new level of control in his ability that was never thought possible.
Yes, not only had he reached Zenith, he could also feel the resonance with his soul and the world; it was as though he could impose his desire on nature itself… Spark had awakened a Will!
An absurdly powerful one at that, one that allowed him to manipulate the structure of matter and energy itself. Not only could he control matter and energy to an absurd level, he could also directly force an object of matter into a state of pure energy, and vice versa. Which was what he did right now — by turning sound waves that Mu Bai was about to emit into wind blades, he pulverized the scholar's throat without any effort.
"Honestly, if left to me, I would have loved to hear your screams, it's a pity I can't be exposed yet…" Spark's raspy whispers drifted into the terror-filled scholar's ears.
Mu Bai's hands sneakily moved behind, ready to stealthily activate an emergency token his master once gave him. He had to be subtle in this act, lest Spark noticed him. 'Just you wait, once Master has you back in chains I will make you live a life worse than death!' he raged inwardly, his heart filled with malice.
And just when he thought he would be successful with his sneaky plans, he suddenly noticed Spark's figure blur for a moment, before the once empty-handed Spark was now holding onto something and glancing at it curiously.
Mu Bai's eyes widened, his face draining of all color, his heart skipping a few beats as his blood almost flowed in reverse — wasn't that his arm?
His mouth opened to let out a pain-filled wail; as his brain finally registered the pain, he only let out a slight wheeze, his remaining arm clamped tightly on the bloodied stump as he rolled in pain.
A demonic grin played on Spark's lips as he walked step by step, taking his time approaching the bleeding scholar. "You know your lunatic master taught me some new torture techniques you'd like to try?"
He had long reached the scholar as his ominous voice rang out, his lips dangerously close to the man's ear.
Mu Bai opened his mouth in a desperate bid to beg for death, but muffled grunts were all he could communicate.
Spark's smile widened, showing the whites of his teeth, as his fingers pierced specific acupuncture points of the scholar. This was a special method the lunatic had used on him, that brought him to experience a level of pain he never thought possible.
"Ahhh… it's a pity you don't have the time-distorting elixir that would have let you savour more of this flavour to its fullest…" Spark sighed in pity, as he glanced at the squirming scholar.
Then he suddenly turned backwards, greeting his long-lost teammates; the contrast in attitude was jarring. "Ah, is that Brother Yu and the others… this humble soul can't thank you enough for the rescue."
Finally the four stepped out of the shadows, their expressions apprehensive; they had just watched Spark's whole display, and they never thought he was this crazy and ruthless!
Seeing their wary expressions, Spark smiled. "Brother, you don't know what these bastards have put me through these past few… days, or is it weeks? Months? Ah, I can't tell anymore…"
Lei Yu and the others finally understood; it seemed Spark had been through worse things than they could imagine.
Bao'er delicately asked, "So what are you planning on doing now?"
Spark's expression suddenly turned ice cold. "I know you guys are in a hurry to escape, but I will have to apologise, I won't be coming along for now… I have a debt to settle and I don't plan on leaving until I do."
Lei Yu nodded in understanding, but he asked sternly, "Are you confident of taking the entire base?"
Spark glanced at the squirming scholar at the side, his tone deathly. "Though these bastards did inflict the vilest of means on my body, they aren't that much of a problem. Even at my previous level I could waste them all… and now they have no idea what type of monster they just bred…"