Kyrian opened his eyes.
The sound of footsteps broke the silence of the forest. The sky blue dissolved into crimson red, and the cold light that once radiated gave way to an oppressive, almost suffocating glow.
The seven men ahead stopped for a moment.
As soon as they looked into those eyes, they all instinctively felt a shiver run down their spines.
Kyrian did not want to waste time with any of them. The Qi in his two dantians was burned in great quantity, spinning violently. His vision distorted. The world disappeared, leaving only that which pulsed, that which vibrated with vital energy.
Men of blood.
That was how Kyrian saw his enemies now. Flesh, bones, and muscles all vanished. What remained were the beating hearts, throbbing veins, and red rivers circulating through the essence of each one of them.
Behind Kyrian, Yanyu felt an inexplicable chill. Her ears suddenly picked up something strange. A low, muffled sound, as if it were only an illusion.
’Thump-thump’
She blinked, confused.
’Thump-thump’
The sound slowly grew. It wasn’t external. It was an internal sound. As if it were inside her own head.
Within seconds, that pulsing was already loud enough for everyone to hear.
The leader of the group stopped, and the seven looked at each other, their expressions tense.
’THUMP-THUMP. THUMP-THUMP.’
Each beat seemed to echo through the air. But it wasn’t just a sound. It was their very hearts, hammering with such force they felt as if they would burst.
"W-What the hell is this?!" one of the men suddenly screamed, clutching his chest.
"My heart... it’s... it’s racing!" Another suddenly dropped to his knees, the Qi frantically circulating through his body as he tried to stop it.
"What are you doing, you bastard?!" The leader furrowed his brow, his gaze fixed on Kyrian.
But Kyrian did not respond. His crimson eyes only reflected an absolute coldness as the crimson glow seemed to intensify, his dantian’s Qi burning stronger and stronger.
The men tried to stabilize their hearts with their Qi, sending their energy directly into their chests. But it was useless. The control Kyrian exerted over blood was an authority they did not understand.
’THUMP. THUMP. THUMP. THUMP. THUMP.’
The sound became deafening, maddening. The speed increased. The force increased. And then came the end.
Muffled explosions echoed.
"AHHHHHHHH!"
Screams tore through the forest as six hearts exploded at once. Blood gushed from eyes, mouths, noses, and ears. Flowing like crimson rivers, staining the grass. Their bodies trembled for an instant before collapsing heavily to the ground.
Silence returned. Broken only by the sound of a single last heart still beating. The leader’s.
He remained alive. His bulging veins and the sweat running down his forehead showed the desperate effort he was making to keep the organ intact with his Qi.
His gaze fixed on Kyrian with pure terror.
"Demon... You are a demon!"
He spoke as he spun on his heels and ran, screaming in total despair.
"Monster! Damned monster!!!"
His speed was not something Kyrian could catch. But when his feet touched the ground covered with the blood of his subordinates, something changed.
The liquid that had once only flowed now rose. Drop by drop, as if it had a life of its own.
In an instant, dozens of blood needles formed in the air.
The man had no time to react.
The needles simply pierced his body through and through. His Qi was completely focused on his heart, leaving the rest unprotected. The blood tore through his veins, organs, and bones.
His eyes widened, and a final spurt of blood escaped his mouth before his body fell motionless to the ground.
Kyrian let out a sigh, his crimson eyes still glowing.
"It doesn’t matter if it is mortal or cultivator... Greed always kills humans." Kyrian murmured.
Behind him, Yanyu was completely motionless. Her lips trembled, her eyes wide. Her body unconsciously took a step back without realizing it.
Kyrian turned to her. The shock on her face was clear as day.
He stared at her in silence for a few moments before taking a few slow steps in her direction.
"You..."
"Are you afraid of me?" Kyrian’s voice sounded calm.
Yanyu took a deep breath, trying to steady the tremor in her hands.
"It was... just a slip. Yes, a slip." She forced a smile, though her voice carried a hint of hesitation.
"I know you are not a cultivator of the demonic path. This must be... another physique. Isn’t it?"
Kyrian’s eyes analyzed her. There was no lie in her words; she truly believed what she said. But she was still a little frightened by the brutality, though she did not reject him.
Even so, he noticed that whenever his crimson eyes met hers, Yanyu instinctively looked away.
Kyrian sighed inwardly.
’Wei Feng was right... The path of blood is an evil path in everyone’s eyes. If I had shown this before Mu Lin and the others, everything would probably have been different. Better to keep it hidden until I have some protection.’
’The Eyes of Ice is more acceptable.’
His crimson eyes slowly lost their color, returning to a deep blue.
Yanyu breathed in relief, as if an invisible pressure had been lifted from her shoulders. She smiled, this time genuinely.
"I will pretend I didn’t see this. I know you are not someone bad."
Kyrian simply nodded in silence and helped her up.
He then walked to the body of the four-armed monkey defeated by Yanyu, storing it in his ring.
Then, as the two walked to the men’s corpses, Yanyu spoke.
"Remove their plates. Take them to the guild and explain what happened. Even if the guild doesn’t protect anyone against other forces, they do not allow mercenaries to kill each other. When that happens, they reward those who capture or eliminate the culprits."
Kyrian quickly crouched, picking them up one by one, collecting the six iron plates, and finally the leader’s bronze plate. He stored them all in his ring.
While searching the body of the seventh-stage cultivator, he found a pouch tied to his waist. Inside were ten low-grade spirit stones and a simple book.
Kyrian opened it.
It was a basic cultivation technique. It only went up to the peak of the Qi Accumulation realm.
’Useless to me. But it can be sold. They were truly poor...’ He then stored it away.
Having gathered everything, Kyrian stood up. Yanyu was already waiting, her breathing steady and her face calm. The fear had vanished.
"Let’s return to the city." She said briefly.
Kyrian agreed with a nod. And then the two departed, leaving behind the corpses and the metallic scent of blood that still hung in the forest.
After they left, beasts soon gathered to feast on the cultivators’ corpses. Which would provide a fine meal for any beast. The battle began again in the clearing.
Until, suddenly, all the beasts felt a horror and fled desperately, no longer thinking of the corpses. It was at that moment that a completely black silhouette emerged. The bodies were all absorbed in an instant.
The silhouette seemed to grow rapidly and then departed once all the drops of blood vanished. Only the marks of where the bodies had lain remained.
The forest, then, finally fell into silence.