Chapter 83: Where are you, dear little Jian
After all those months of constant harassment, the situation of the Raja's sect was quite horrid. Ressources weren't going away as fast as they thought since they ordered a rationing that surprisingly worked, however the morale was at an all time low.
The disciples at the bottom of the ladder thought they had no chances of surviving, the inner disciples started to doubt their superiors and the ones who actually knew what the plan was were savouring life for as long as they could.
Ever since Giran announced the plan, the ones who had been at the reunion knew their lives were soon to end. They simply couldn't survive such a thing. Of course they could pull off the slaughter of the Starlight Sect, even though most of them didn't want since that sect had once been an ally of the Raja sect and only attacked due to it's new patriarch, but the reveal of the Void...This was sure to put them into more troubles than they could handle. It was truly the worst gamble ever.
Either the Void wouldn't be able to handle everything and wouldn't attack them immediately, or annihilation would come straight for them. Either way they died, it's just that the first possibility allowed them to live for a bit more.
They were already at the end of what they could handle. The various enemy sects were attempting new things all the time. Digging up tunnels, throwing random spells at the HQ, sending spiritual beasts at them, hell they even tried to use a highly poisonous gas on the HQ.
Ever since the siege started, the Raja sect lost close to a hundred disciples and three elders.
But they had other problems, because being under a siege wasn't enough a punition apparently. Some disciples simply couldn't take it anymore and started fighting amongst themselves or even try to defect to the other sects.
So the inner and elite disciples had to handle such problems. They couldn't quite just sit back and relax, waiting for death to claim them.
And one such problem was a certain disciple who had been moved to the small cottage at the outskirt of the outer court. The small cottage who once belonged to Jian was now used to house this deeply deranged disciple.
He wasn't known to be all that strong, but ever since he went completely crazy, they had so much troubles handling him. He stopped sleeping or doing anything a normal human being should do to survive...And yet he was still alive. He had gone a lot skinnier of course, but he still had a fire in his eyes, one that told the inner and elite disciples that he wasn't ready to drop dead just yet..
But it didn't matter. They couldn't come to care about him, especially since none of them ever talked to them before he started to develop a second personnality. It made a few disciples curious though. He was so deranged he got a second personnality, but this one had the voice of a woman. That disciple wasn't exactly the epitome of masculinity, but still...he didn't have such a high voice before.
It made so much disciples curious that he became some sort of circus freak, although he wasn't as amazing as some freaks you could see in most circus...He was still one of the only sources of entertainment the disciples could get.
After so many disciples tried to do various to and with him, the inner and elite disciples simply started to monitor him from a distance, letting the others have their fun. It was good for the morale, or that's what they told themselves. Of course the higher ups didn't know about this little thing. Everyone knew how angry the sect head or event he patriarch would be, if they were to know about it. So it became a secret, a very well defended secret.
That day had been particularly calm, as such the disciples had nothing to do and dragged the deranged one out of his small cottage. They brought him to secluded part of the forest where none of the higher ups would go searching, and started to 'play' with him.
Their favourite game was to mention that one thing that made him snap and then start dodging him. It was like a childish game they played when they were much younger, except with this game.....You really didn't wanted to be caught.
"Ah ! Better luck next time !" A female disciple exclaimed as she jumped over the deranged one and striked him in the neck.
"GAHHHH !" He screamed, turning around in an instant as the female disciple gulped.
"Well, she is out of the game." An inner disciple who was in charge of the game said.
"Yeah, that dumbass underestimated his reflexes. Though...Seems like he is calming down a bit, should we ?" Another disciple asked. There were at least a few hundred disciples, sitting on tree branches all around the deranged one who was standing at the middle.
Their breathing stopped for a second as they waited for the inner disciple's decision. They knew one of them would go next, so that meant they would have to go right after he snapped once again. That would be insanely hard. The goal of the game was to not get caught during an entire minute and extra points would be awarded for every attacks that landed on the deranged one. They weren't allowed to go hard on him, they could only land soft attacks that would barely damage him, but those attacks had to be made with their own bodies, no spells were allowed.
"Alright, I'm on it." The inner disciple said. A few disciples picked up the female disciple who had been punched right in the face and had lost conciousness.
The inner disciples approached slowly, remaining undetected by the deranged one. As soon as he stood behind him, the inner disciple whispered something in his ears and quickly jumped away.
"ARGHHHHH !" The deranged one screamed, holding his head with his two hands.
"Damn...The hell did you even say to make that guy go so mad ?" A disciple who was on his first game asked.
" Reset Moon. That crazy guy always repeat this thing, he seems afraid it, although no one knows what it even is. So to make him snap we just tell him that. " The inner disciple answered.
None of them were aware that their conversation had been heard by a certain elite disciple who had finally been convinced by his fellow elite disciples to come and watch the game.
"Honestly...I find this game quite disgusting. I mean, it's not because all attempt at healing that guy failed that we can just start treating him like an animal. " The inner disciple, Zhi li, said as she stood besides the elite disciples. They were all standing on a small cliff that gave them a perfect view on all the disciples.
"Well he refuses to listen to us and every time we tried to help him he attacked us. I could care about him, but I don't really want to. Plus it's not like they are hurting him? Seriously it's more like caressing him than hitting him at this point. He doesn't even grunt when hit, so he obviously doesn't feel any pain." One of the elite disciple, a young man wearing a black and dark green Qipao, said.
As the discussion went on between the elite and inner disciples, two of them were talking a few meters away from the group.
"After all this time, you still refuse to tell me what's going on ? Why the hell did you manipulate Giran into attacking the starlight sect and revealing the existence of the Void ?" Karasu Shina, the third strongest disciple of the Sect, asked. Gatsuga Judem, the strongest disciple of the Sect and perhaps even the strongest cultivator of the whole sect if some rumors were true, looked at her briefly before going back to his thoughts.
"Ugh...And now, what the hell are you thinking about ? You never space out like that." She asked him. He clicked his tongue as he glared at the disciples who were playing with the deranged one.
"The reset moon.....It's bugging me. I know I heard that somewhere but I can't remember." Judem said as Shina gasped.
"The hell you mean you can't remember ? You have a perfect memory, judem ! Hell you can even remember the smell your goddamn mother had and she died right after you were born !" Shina exclaimed before getting punched on the head.
"Stop speaking so loudly dumbass...I am telling you I cannot remember.. Which means someone did something to that specific memory. "Judem explained. Shina went pale as soon as she heard that. She even began to stutter.
"Y-You..You don't b-believe it's them, r-right ?!"
"The Void ? Hell nah. It's impossible....Or at least it's impossible for any of the agents I know about. I don't know everything about the Void, and there are still a lot of cells I have never met. Maybe it's someone from a clan I haven't heard about...Or maybe...ahhh, I don't freaking know ! But this is annoying the hell out of me. I just know I heard it somewhere." Judem said, his face going from completely blank to a deep frown.
"Well...Why not ask the guy directly ?" Shina asked, pointing at the deranged disciple.
"...No. He doesn't know about it either. He is repeating it because someone said it so many time it stuck to him. And that someone should be the second personnality the disciples spoke about."
"You think it's not an actual second personnality but a being who resides inside the guy ? I mean, it could be that. But I don't sense anything inside of him, and my senses are sharper than yours." Shina said as she looked at the deranged disciples with eyes full of interest.
"I don't know...I am not sure, but asking him will be a waste of time, i am sure. I do wonder though, how his dear friend would react if he saw that guy in such a state."
"Right...I wonder how he would react. But who know if he will ever see him, we don't even know where said friend is. Heck he could be dead already. " Shina said, however Judem shook his head.
"You didn't know he was alive. Don't lump me with you, I actually have informants, contrarily to your lazy ass. "
"Oh...He is alive ? Well I wonder where he is now.....Really, where are you dear little Jian ?"