NOVEL NEXT Chapter 76: Courted Death
Coming On Sunday...
Anyways enjoy~♥
Going back a few minutes in time.
Violet was picked up by the foundation formation warriors who dashed through the streets at an even faster pace after they had grabbed the oni.
They didn’t even run in one direction as they split off in many different directions with some of their numbers pushing on ahead of the pair hastily carrying her body. At first it may seem a strange choice for them to completely abandon who should have been guarding, yet they actually ‘knew’ exactly who they had kidnapped, so had planned around this. Being that they stole a young oni they would know doubt have guards that were faster than them so it made far more sense to instead utilise numbers.
By splitting up and having the carying group essentially be taking a random path in a random position among many other members. Though there was obvious tension between the two carrying the princess of the oni who seemed to be a esteemed guest of the ‘favoured prince’ as they of course knew there would be cultivators & oni guarding her. One thing they certainly didn’t expect was those spine-chilling female knights to be hanging around cleaning up after some fool apparently summoned a terrifyingly strong spirit that went berserk in the area.
Regardless none of them were sure what actually the spirit in question was nor who summoned it they could easily make logical guesses. Many people utilised spirits as assassins as it was often impossible to track them back, were far different in methods to a human and even were stronger than human comprehension. Similar things could be said for demons yet they were often more expensive due to more energy being required to breach the spatial layers to the {Demon Realm} in addition to having less stigma than demons.
Both spirits & demons were dangerous nevertheless one could say spirits were more akin to those who maintain principles of the world while the demons were outsiders.
Many rumours circulated about why demons would launch their incursions or accept deals from those within their {Mortal Realm} but none of them were confirmed. The reason was quite simple to understand; no one had apparently successfully returned from the {Demon Realm} despite many righteous, evil & demonic factions having tried in the past. One could always ask a demon but the maleimp was hardly intelligent with even their stronger spined female variants not exactly being the talking type. As for talking to a higher level demon about it… Well you would be lucky if they didn’t kill you for wasting their time after summoning them for such a pointless reason as to ‘talk’.
It could well be possible that many had tried asking an amused high-ranking or noble demon such questions still nobody would know since such an act alone was a grave crime. As such many believed that the {Demon Realm} was a harsh desolate land with hardly any resources thus explaining easily why the demons wished to invade.
Even if you wanted someone dead it was foolish to summon a demon who obviously had ulterior motives instead of a spirit.
So the obvious reason for such a spirit being summoned was likely to either kill the prince Du or one of the other well-off youths who were attending. This alone showed how strong the spirit must have been to fight who was likely the strongest prince yet those azure adorned knights had clearly dealt with the situation with ease as none of them were wounded. Neither of the people were fools so they of course realised who those knights must have been as it completely matched with the appearance and M.O of the {God-Hunter Order}!
“What will we do if those knightess get involved; we won’t stand a chance if they actually decide to take issue with us!” <Kidnapper 1>
“What are you even worrying about - why would people that strong care - not to mention they only ever hunt down strong malicious beings. We have no such things as hidden dragons, crazy gods nor evil cults backing us. To people like them what we’re doing is more akin to a pebble knocking another pebble a little ways down the stream!” <Kidnapper 2>
“But these aren’t cultivators, hell, everyone knows how much they prioritise justice since they work for the {Heavens} according to rumours!” <Kidnapper 1>
This caused the other cultivators to grow silent for a while as they rapidly passed through the back allies of the city with a constantly shifting route.
“I… Well let’s just bring this girl to the prince and let him decide.” <Kidnapper 2>
With them both having no idea nor permission to decide what to do next they could only continue on with the plan as it were. Though they did decide to waste no time or effort so exploded forth without worry for staining their cultivation base. In contrast, only seen by the oni who was being carried, was another oni simply floating casually with her arms hanging by her waist as she seemingly was carried along by her wings of metal.
“Are you really going to let these fools court death freely?” <Vibrant>
She spoke curiously to Violet as if she could not understand the decisions of the purple haired oni who willingly let these fools get away with their nonsense. If it were her she would have cut all but the fastest looking one down - then she would have that one (willingly or not) follow her to his leader in order to teach them a lesson for making her lose face. Yet here was her other self just willingly let the men treat her like some weakling they could manipulate for their own benefit despite not even caring to know her name!
Even if the two were technically part of the same person, that didn’t mean they could understand one another perfectly, so Vibrant really could never get that lax attitude.
“Sounds fun…” <Violet>
“Shut up brat!” <Kidnapper 2>
“Don’t hit her; we need to bring her back alive and you may kill the kid since we can’t tell exactly how weak she is due to noy being a cultivator.” <Kidnapper 1>
That response merely made Vibrant shake her head at first however upon hearing the two men arguing with one seemingly even about to ‘shut up the brat’ she showed her displeasure. He didn’t carry through with it but it was clear that Vibrant was seconds away from removing them if not for a casual pout from Violet reminding her not to.
The reason for this was because she was still the same person as Violet so being so disrespectful to Violet was akin to giving her no face. Would she allow some mere mortals to not show her, {The Sword Saint}, no face if she wasn’t being held back?
Of course not!
Thankfully it didn’t take the two to arrive at their destination although strangely - despite what some may have assumed - it wasn’t located in some despotic area. There were certainly a lot of abandoned buildings in addition to slums where grand structures were not even officially recognised by the empire. Despite that the location these men coalesced at was just a normal warehouse that anyone could buy; though the warehouse in particular appeared rather high-class and well kept due to the strong formations as well as materials.
Such a thing was stupid, when one considers that they were trying to hide away yet left a likely very obvious paper trail to get the place, to say the least. Even the usually pigheaded Violet could not help but giggle causing those carrying her to frown as well as show great confusion at what she was even confused at. Still they entered the warehouse where they were welcomed by the sight of a boar-like man in expensive golden lined black robes.
Next to him was one of the servants of the palace who was bowing down while nervously shaking in his clothes at the massive, hairy & muscular man.
“So this is the girl you saw your older brother talking to?” <Boar-Like Man>
“Y-yes prince Yezhu b-bu-t I don’t think you un-” <Servant>
“I don’t need lowly servants like you to think for me!” <Yezhu>
If prince Du was akin to a ferocious demonic wolf who carefully watched their opponents while growling in hopes to see whether they commit to fight or flight… This younger but far harrier brother of theirs was clearly not as much of a methodical thinker despite having far larger muscles than the seemingly wild yet calculative prince. Also he didn’t seem to have anywhere near the decorum of the favoured prince as he struck down with a sword he drew from one of the guards behind his throne.
With a swift movement he stood up and brought the blade down on the servant while the two bandits who stole Violet dropped her on the ground; being quick to bow.
“We brought her as requested but… There were {God-Hunters} at the scene who had just finished battling with some spirit that likely attacked Prince Du, your highness!” <Kidnapper 1>
“God Hunter? What the heck is one of them!” <Yezhu>
It was only at this time that one of the bodyguards stepped forward to seemingly whisper into the very ignorant prince’s ear. Hearing the words his eyes darkened for a second before a flash of light occurred. Shortly after he began slapping his knee while sitting down in his throne; after throwing the sword across without a care not realising who was watching.
“Sure you do not wish to trade places; there is plenty of food in the demon realm that has far better quality than what you’ll find in this backward place?” <Vibrant>
Her speech was far colder than before yet Violet didn’t immediately respond as she watched the prince by lying on her back after she was dropped but tilting her head all the way back.
“Huhuhu so that foolish brother who dropped out of the race for the throne and is getting the cold shoulder from imperial father got attacked? Good! Good! That’ll teach the rat for refusing to accept my offer to become my servant; something I only offered since he is technically my older brother who was born from the empress instead of a concubine. With this oni that pacifying bastard was courting in my grasp I’ll quickly become the fav-” <Yezhu>
“Bored, switch with me, boring~!” <Violet>
The little oni screamed out while throwing her limbs about like a baby crying on the floor leaving all those watching confused. Still the prince was belligerent as could be so instead of trying to understand he just smugly smiled thinking the girl wanted to switch to support his rise to the throne instead of his brothers. With that he happily waved at the girl with the level of confidence that only a fool could have.
“If you kiss me feet I-” <Yezhu>
It was then that the realm itself began to shake as cracks in space seemed to envelop Violet before spitting out an older, more refined variety. This variant obviously being Vibrant with her golden hair as she stretched out her wings that had each ‘feather’ exuding the aura of an immemorial treasure far above that of the {Immortal Palace}. Immediately after she appeared her first act was to hover above everyone else in the room with her presence alone managing to make her seem far taller than her rather unimpressive 5’5 height.
“Wha-” <Yezhu>
“Never disrespect a finely crafted sword like that; brat you have courted death.” <Vibrant>
After that everyone in the room saw the wings on her back gain a golden sheen of aura before exploding out into billions upon billions of aura blades. Littering the entirety of the building with her sword aura causing them to be blinded by the shimmering gold; feeling the warmth of holy energy dancing across their skin…
That was until they all felt the sharpness then the coldness that followed immediately afterwards.
Soon after that her re-emergence in the realm was announced to all.