The Villain's Sword Is Sharp

Mikhail sat by Frederick's side, thinking. He was so still that he could've been mistaken for a statue. His mind was in turmoil as he weighed his options and thought things through. However, Frederick was losing blood for each second he wasted. He had to stop dilly-dallying and make a decision, before it was too late to make a decision at all.

After about 20 seconds, Mikhail settled on a choice. It was a choice you might not expect from a Blood Path cultivator – he chose the life of a friend.

Frederick was somebody he'd known for most of his life. They'd met in the farm, where Frederick had taken Mikhail under his wing. Then he'd saved his life twice in the trials, and the 2 of them were the only people who'd survived their particular trial. After that, they'd gone into the academy and met the other people in their group.

Throughout their journey, Frederick had always been like an older brother to Mikhail. He might live to regret this choice in the future – especially if he reached a wall in his cultivation that he couldn't surpass because of this – but he knew he'd never be able to live with himself if he watched Frederick die in front of him now.

Mikhail gritted his teeth and drew upon the energy stored in the walls of his Qi Core. Tears fell uncontrollably as an indescribable agony overcame him, but he persevered; he forcibly sucked the Qi out of his core's walls and transported it through his Qi Veins towards the Anima in his hand. It felt like a thousand maggots had been placed his stomach and told to eat their way out – the pain was horrifying. It took all of Mikhail's energy and endurance to fire 5 small beams of light. Then he collapsed.

Isaac watched on apathetically. The tear-jerking demonstration of friendship didn't interest him; he only cared about whether Frederick would live or not.

He inspected the man's injury and saw that it'd mostly burnt closed. Mikhail's light beams had scorched the wound, cauterizing it and massively reducing the flow of blood. Just to make sure Frederick would live, Isaac wrapped the cloth back around the wound and applied pressure to try and stop the bleeding completely.

When he was confident Frederick would make it out alive, Isaac stopped being so nice. He went back to his house and retrieved a large coil of rope – he'd expected some robberies after he asked Sanna to spread the rumours about him, so he'd prepared a lot of rope in advance.

When he found the rope, Isaac brought it back outside and started tying up the 7 who'd attacked him. He also found the black-haired woman who they'd cut free and tied her up again as well.

The crowd watched him like a flock of hawks. They were shocked by Isaac's cruelty when he forced a fellow sect member to damage their foundation, but they had no reason to intervene so they simply observed. It shocked them even more when they saw Isaac tying Mikhail up.

We understand the others – you haven't punished them yet. But you've already damaged his foundation, do you need to do more?!

Isaac had considered letting Mikhail go, but he wasn't the type of person to do something out of compassion. He had no rational reason to release Mikhail, so he wouldn't release him. It was as simple as that.

As for Frederick... he was still in an unenviable condition, but Isaac also had no reason to let him go. The wound had stopped bleeding and he didn't seem to be in any danger of losing his life, so Isaac treated him the same way he treated everybody else.

The crowd watched as Isaac bound each member of the group and dragged them into the alleyway beside his house. It was a little difficult to do with his injured shoulder, but he managed.

It was even harder to pull each of them through the window using 1 arm. But once again, Isaac managed to do it.

Then he went back outside and cut down the 2 people who were still hanging upside-down. Leaving them like that for too long could actually kill them, so he had to bring them in before he went to bed.

After he dragged them into the alley, he pulled them through his window as well. Then he decided to put on a show for the crowds outside.

They couldn't see what was going on, but they heard horrendous howls of pain coming from Isaac's house. The screams were too bloodcurdling for some of the disciples, so they decided to leave. On the other hand, some of the crowd relished hearing those cries of agony. They stuck around for about 40 minutes, which was when the screams finally stopped.

It was getting late, so Isaac knocked out his prisoners and went to bed. After the screams stopped, the remainder of the crowd also dispersed. As they returned home, they spoke to some of the people on the streets. By the morning, rumours about Isaac's cruelty had already begun to spread...

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Isaac yawned as he got out of bed. He stood up, stretched, then walked to his cupboards and made breakfast. He ate slowly, crunching on the food in his bowl. He seemed to drag out each bite and savour it.

Only when he finished eating did he cast a glance at the corner of his room and the 10 people tied up there.

When they felt his gaze, the 10 instinctively shivered. His eyes were like 2 tiny worlds of ice, conveying an utter absence of 'decent' principles such as care or kindness. It was a gaze which expressed no goodwill or positive intent. Likewise, Isaac's eyes did not express even a hint of hostility.

That was because Isaac did not hate these people. But he was still going to hurt them. He was going to hurt them because it suited his goals, not for any other reason, and that was what scared the group most. Because they knew there was nothing they could do to stop him, or to appease him. After all, he wasn't angry. How could you appease somebody who wasn't angry?

They simply had to wait; wait while filled with dread and terror; wait for the inevitable torture which they could neither avoid nor endure. In fact, the group no longer hoped they could escape – any such hope had long been crushed. The only hope they had left was the hope they could survive – the hope that they would eventually leave here with their lives intact.

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Screams rang from Isaac's house for most of the day. Just like before, he spent the day switching between cultivation and torture. As evening rolled around, Isaac finished absorbing the Basic Qi Pill he had been using. He also felt he had sufficiently tortured his 10 captives.

Even if you were to search their bodies, it would be difficult to find a patch of skin which hadn't been marred or marked in some way. None of the prisoners were conscious, and a dried coating of blood, snot and tears covered their faces; Isaac had truly been thorough this time and tortured them to the brink of death.

Even Frederick had been brutally tortured despite already being on the verge of dying. Isaac had been especially careful with him and avoided cutting him any more – instead he had burnt Frederick.

He had burnt Frederick over and over until the man cowered at the mere sight of Isaac's water bottle. It might seem like a strange thing to fear, but Isaac had heated his metal bottle over the fire and then used it to burn Frederick. His body was now covered in countless red circular brands where the base of the water bottle had been pressed against his skin.

The others were in no better condition – in fact, they were far worse. All of them had many broken bones, several missing chunks of flesh, and many various other wounds. Isaac had deliberately inflicted them with highly visible injuries, so anybody that saw them could clearly see how much they'd been through. This was enough to fulfil his purpose, so he didn't need to torture them any longer.

He walked over to the group and slapped them all awake. He'd done this several times already, so they all expected to be tortured again. 10 pairs of eyes looked up at Isaac in fear.