At the end of the fourth day, Kyrian ordered everyone to land again.
This ti, it was a tranquil clearing at the edge of a forest of ancient pine trees, their branches heavy.
The air was cold and pure. After distributing spirit stones to the hungry beasts, Kyrian announced, without ceremony.
"I will step away for a mont."
Before surprise or a question could form on the others’ faces, he was already turning and disappearing among the dark trunks, his footsteps making a sound that quickly faded into the distance.
The reason was obvious in Kyrian’s mind. He had not fed properly in the past few days.
He made no effort to hide his presence. In a forest, his vital presence was like a beacon. The response did not take long.
With the sound of snapping branches and a low grunt, a Steel-Tusk Boar burst out of the vegetation. It was a mass of muscle and fury at the 5° stage of Qi Accumulation, the size of a small horse, its curved, sharp tusks gleaming like polished tal.
Its small, bloodshot eyes locked onto the easy prey.
Kyrian stopped. His eyes, which until then had been only deep pools of crimsom, flared. It was an internal flash.
A single thought, an absolute command of his blood intent. Focused with precision on the beast.
The boar, which had been preparing for a devastating charge, froze. A tremor ran through its massive body.
From its snout, a thin trickle of scarlet blood began to flow.
Then from its nostrils. From its open mouth, locked in a mute grunt, blood gushed forth. From its ears.
In a matter of seconds, the pressure inside its skull was violently manipulated, crushing its brain. The beast collapsed onto its side with a dull thud that made the ground tremble, dead before it even understood the threat.
Kyrian walked over to the body, grabbed one of the cold tusks, and after reinforcing his body with a layer of Qi, began dragging the boar behind him.
The friction of the heavy body left a trail on the forest floor. The sll of fresh blood was intense, sweet, and tallic.
It beca a perfect lure.
A few minutes later, a striped shadow slid out from behind a large moss-covered rock. It was a common species of forest tiger. An agile and intelligent beast at the 2° stage of Qi Liberation, its white and gray fur camouflaging it perfectly against the stone.
Its ice-blue eyes assessed the scene. The distracted human, the enormous carcass.
Driven by hunger, clear opportunism overca caution. It launched itself in a silent, lethal leap, claws extended toward Kyrian’s exposed back.
Kyrian did not even stop walking. His gaze, still glowing crimsom, turned over his shoulder for a fraction of a second, focusing on the tiger suspended in midair.
Inside the feline’s body, the blood simply exploded. Especially at critical points in the arteries leading to the brain, which collapsed outright.
It was as if small pressure bombs had detonated inside its body. The tiger let out a muffled yelp, its beautiful form losing all grace and falling like a sack of bones at Kyrian’s feet, already dead.
Half an hour later, Kyrian erged from the tree line dragging both bodies. The scene in the clearing froze the other five in the middle of their ditations or quiet conversations.
There stood their leader, the distant disciple of the main branch, with his impeccable crimsom robe, dragging an enormous boar and a majestic tiger as if they were children’s toys.
His face retained the sa indifference as always. There was not a single scratch or bead of sweat on his brow. The beasts, on the other hand, bore no visible external wounds, only coagulated blood at their facial orifices.
A detail they noticed with just a glance. So Kyrian had, in fact... gone hunting?
Without a word of explanation, Kyrian dropped the prey. With a casual wave of his hand, two blood blades appeared.
Kyrian walked to one of the trees and split it into several pieces in an instant. In another instant, he moved dry twigs and branches and ford an orderly pile in the center of the clearing.
Then he sat down in front of it. And his eyes changed.
The deep crimsom dissolved, evaporating like smoke. In its place, a deadly gray color took over the irises. And within them, where the pupils should have been, two small flas of the sa gray color danced silently and coldly.
He simply looked at the pile of wood.
There was no spark. There was no smoke. The wood, in a perfect circle about a ter in diater, simply transford.
Directly into a bed of fine, glowing ashes. And from those ashes rose a gray, translucent, silent fla.
It did not crackle. It emitted no perceptible heat to the skin. In fact, an absurd, dry cold emanated from it, making the air above it shimr.
It was a brief demonstration, but Bai Zhu imdiately frowned and instinctively stepped back. A certain trauma surfaced within him.
Ignoring the weight of their stares, Kyrian pulled a simple sword from his ring. His subsequent movents were a lesson in brutal efficiency.
He dismbered the beasts with surprising skill, removing the hide with clean cuts, separating muscle from bone, and cutting the at into generous, juicy pieces.
A fleeting mory passed through his mind. Yanyu, with her skillful hands, doing the sa for him on cold nights in the domain of the verdant sword.
A small pang arose in his mind.
’When we return from the auction...’ he thought, a plan solidifying in his mind.
’I will speak with Dong Zhen about returning to the domain of the verdant sword.’
In silence, he skewered large pieces of at onto sturdy branches and balanced them over the gray flas.
The at did not char, did not sizzle. It simply cooked, its color changing from vivid red to a perfect, juicy brown in a few instants, as if ti itself had accelerated.
Kyrian took the first piece, an entire boar leg, and bit into it decisively. The flavor was intense, satisfying his deep hunger.
Only then did he raise his eyes and et the collective gaze of the five, standing around the clearing like statues.
"What are you waiting for?" His voice sounded between one chew and the next.
"Eat."
It was i Li who moved first, her smile now tinged with genuine curiosity.
"Thank you, leader!" she said, her lodic voice cutting through the silence.
She deliberately chose one of the larger, well-cut pieces from the boar’s loin and sat at a respectful distance, though not too far from Kyrian.
She began to eat in a refined manner, but with evident appetite.
Kyrian watched her for a second, his gray eyes returning to their usual crimsom.
Then, with a nod, a brief but clearly perceptible gesture, he said.
"Good."
i Li was the approval the others needed. Yan Ling approached, her expression focused on selecting the best piece of at.
Kai simply grabbed the nearest piece and sat on a fallen log, eating in silence, his gray eyes watching the surrounding forest.
Bai Zhu, after a visible mont of internal conflict between wounded pride and the tempting aroma, grumbled and took the largest piece he could find from the remaining ones. Then he sat with his back to the group and devoured his food as if he were in combat.
Li Fen was the last, taking a small piece and retreating into the shadow of a tree, where he ate silently and calmly.
A new silence then descended upon the place, but in a way different from the previous silence.
Less tense.
The sound of chewing and the ghostly glow of the gray fire lingered in the clearing for several minutes.
As he ate, Kyrian consulted the map in his mind. The calculations were clear. In three more days they would reach a small city, a sowhat turbulent trading outpost. It would be another place for a rest for the beasts.
And it would be the exact mont, the seventh day, when the limit imposed by his eyes after the last breakthrough would dissipate completely.
At that mont, while he was thinking, i Li suddenly moved closer to Kyrian. Taking another piece of at and sitting beside him.
Kyrian glanced at her montarily with doubt.
i Li then spoke.
"All five of us already knew each other, but you... where did you co from? Before entering the Blood Court?" she asked in a calm voice before biting into the at in her hand again.
The question made the others pay attention to Kyrian. In truth, they were all curious about his origin. For he had truly appeared suddenly within the court.
Kyrian thought for a mont about i Li’s question and then replied.
"I was a direct disciple of the leader of a 5° level sect. The Verdant Sword Sect. I t Dong Zhen by coincidence, and he brought to the Court."
"One of the lesser domains?" i Li replied, with slight surprise, as she seed to fall into deep thought.
Kyrian noticed that none of them, besides i Li, seed to recognize the Verdant Sword Sect or domain by their expressions.
But i Li, sohow, seed surprised.
"You know the Verdant Sword Sect?" Kyrian asked in doubt.
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