Her shoulder jerks to the side as she sobbed and stammered while speaking. Xin goes closer to her, curious about what she said. Up to down, he questions what she means.
Is she misunderstanding that he is the same as her?
Behind her foreign species in a womanly figure, lying on the ground. They were pregnant, and their eyes looked at him with an empty look. Heart retching as Xin questions the reality of this situation.
"N-no, no! Don't—" Tic, paniccally breaths, "Come closer!"
In just a second, she screams, crying as, upon closer look, she realizes Xin was bare-naked. Backing off, Xin realized that only she had a gate. He goes to his cell.
But where?
For all he knows, the key he got from the masked man could work. Is it even worth it? Is this a trap? Many questions were raised in his head, starting to make him doubt the intention of the woman.
Still, he does it.
The set of keys was outside the cells; even his ripped clothes were on the ground, which he didn't remember leaving there. Standing still, he wore the blood-smeared clothes, covering his lower.
Here again, he was outside her cell, cycling through the keys to open.
At the corner, she cowers in fear, whimpering, preparing for the worst that she had envisioned, of what Xin would do. To her surprise, nothing happened as the gate opened.
"I came here to save you," said in a manly voice.
It was only her delusions.
Still, she doesn't trust him, nor does Xin trust her. Xin, hoping she would follow, left the door open as he then pressed on. Slowly, she exits the door, following his back.
"Hey."
She was telling her reasons for being there in a silent tone, but Xin couldn't care less, looking around. He lets her talk, waiting for her to tell her what she meant previously—abrupt, he stops.
A patrolling spearman strode past, blind to their presence in the shadow.
The woman whimpered as Xin silently cupped his hand over her mouth. hoping he can flush the noise of her tics. Suddenly, she hyperventilates, making her fall flat on the ground quietly, as she fainted.
Stomp.
The sound of his naked feet echoed, notifying the spearman to look—Too late, as he flung him across, in quick succession. The locked creature ate him through the iron bars, biting as it got stuck through the bars like a stick.
He grabbed the spear from him. Afar back in the dark, he hears someone. Xin spotted the masked man; seeing him again felt almost whimsical to him.
Though not in a good way.
He hurled his spear, striking true, but the man merely blocked it with his arms.
"Ooh, some thorns we got here."
The man taunted, arrogance plain in his stance, daring Xin to attack again. Pushed aback, Xin lunged, running straight like a human torpedo, but the Aesir moved like a shadow, reappearing behind. He forced Xin backward, arching his spine. Flattened against the ground, the man hammered him, black and blue, until Xin coughed blood.
Crack—Thwack!
Swish.
The Aesir claimed the spear with a kick and executed him.
Red—everything was red, flowing to the ground.
The Aesir paused, decapitated Xin, and dragged his body to the prison, where he found another battered corpse devoured by a crazed woman. Irritated, he scratched his own head until it bled, then killed her and arranged the bodies, as if performing a ritual.
"Strange. I thought he was an orchid, but he's the same—a Gladiolus,"
He removes their clothing. When finished, he stood back, awed.
Two men and a woman.
"Perfect."
The strange prison whirled open, revealing stairs. He ascended, glancing at the corpses before whirling close, and sealed him inside.
------------
In a white void, Xin heard faint echoes. He felt whole, whimsical, sitting on the ground. The smell of old wood and ink lingered, but darkness soon swallowed it.
A voice drifted near.
"Remember, you mustn't show emotion when absorbing Qi."
The words faded as a cool breeze brushed his skin. He felt earth and grass beneath him; footsteps rustled through the blades.
"Empty yourself—you mustn't mix it. It's not alive, it has no feeling; accept it as it is," instructed the voice.
It burns, it's out of control…
Enduring the blazing heat it makes, with just one breath he takes, he calms down. His eyes fluttered open to a wash of green, blue, invigorating colors he'd never seen before in this world—a stark contrast from before.
Joy stirred in his heart at the sight of the sun and the grass. A figure in black appeared, scroll and fan in hand, blocking the sunlight, walking in circles.
"Without excitement, hunger, and so on—these are how we safely absorb Qi, the orthodox way," He deliberately stops, "Our path."
The Scholar intoned, his gaze chilling for one so scholarly. His eyes felt scary, scary, unbefitting for a man who just reads wood carvings and inks. He then continues walking, circling them as he fans himself.
"What about the Demonic cult?"
He stops in front of the student, staring down at him.
"Orthodox, Unorthodox, and a demonic path. Unorthodox practitioners keep their emotions, letting them mingle in the Qi—risky, but seldom fatal."
He covers his eyes with his fan, "Blindness."
In fashion, he covers his mouth, "Muteness, and so on…"
With a sway, he closed his fan, "But death? Rare."
"Demonic relies heavily on these emotions—dangerously so. Like monsters. One slip and your feelings explode: Greed, lust, envy, pride, gluttony, sloth, and wrath. Without these, existence is empty—just breathing, not living."
"The pinnacle of demonic cultivation, Heaven, is a state defined by one desire. Any guess what that emotion is?"
"Gluttony!"
"Lust!"
"Sloth!"
"No. Not gluttony, nor sloth, anything you think."
He paused, eyeing Xin, "But I won't say it, as someone here is far too curious…"
"Isn't that right, Isseul?"
The world fractured into white. Xin floated, only the glimmer of a stat panel before him. Staring at it with emptiness as he pondered.
An experience that he felt but couldn't move, just moving without his will.
Xin felt great; his head seemed clearer, and anything he thought just came out clearly. Behind his system panel, Xin was perplexed as an indiscernible figure appeared. It is as tall as him, moving like its whole body is made of mist.
'Who are you?!'
It stood still, ignoring him.
"Distribute all Raising Points to Defense."
[Confirm?]
Suddenly, it came in fast at his face.
"Confirm," it said with a sharp smile.
Raising Points: |59||58|…|0|
Defense: |09||10|...|67|
Suddenly pillar of water appears, then all of him starts to gather at it. Whirling like a storm, it fixes him into a whole. The white void gradually gives way to the innards of the strange prison.
He felt warm, numbed, and empty.
|1| like a wheel, it starts to count down to zero.
|0| Xin awoke in full consciousness, naked and improved.
-In its spiraling stairs, Xin falls, and with his own grip, he catches himself dangling at the spiraling.
Falling means death, a permanent failure.
Up top, he overhears a heavy concrete move, the first floor of the tower, his first trial of the hundred trials.