Chapter 78 Sworn Brothers, In Life and In Death.
Life is a long journey full of suffering and loneliness. But life sometimes loves to make jokes to unite loneliness with happiness of being with others.
Going on an adventure with brothers, like a small band of adventurers who dreamed to conquer life covered in love and happiness. All suffering, sadness, and hards.h.i.+p were shared together, faced together.
In the end, someone will ask, what life is for if not to share love, to love or to be loved…
Elder Meng quickly moved to catch the arrow that flew towards the one remaining Hyena Troop’s neck. The arrowhead had pierced a half cm from behind the poor’s man neck. Meanwhile, Elder Huo moved angrily towards the crowds where the arrow came from and stood beside a man who released the arrow.
“Who are you?” Elder Huo Bo Xiang asked while grabbing the neck of a man in his thirty and lifted him and made his legs hanging freely.
“I think he is Huo Lou Li.” Jaime said while reading a small letter on his hand. “The other traitor is Huo Kok Wi, Huo Bi Bu, Huo…”
Listening to Jaime’s voice, a few men in the crowd suddenly turned around and fled. Of course Elder Meng and few other Elders soon caught them up and threw them onto the podium. Those who were fleeing must be guilty.
After Jaime read thirty names, twenty-one of them were caught from around the city and the rest could not be found anywhere.
“YOU!” Elder Huo Bo Xiang shouted angrily and pointed at one man in his twenties. His face showed anger and disappointment. “Huo Jie Long! Your father is my brother, he asked me to take care of you, but what did you do, huh! You betrayed your own clan.”
The man who was called Huo Ji Liong was kneeling and dared not say a word.
“You too!” Elder Huo shouted again to the other twenty traitors. “Why did you betray your own clan and let those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds robbed your clansmen? You killed your clan who have raised you.” Elder Huo suddenly vomited blood and pa.s.sed out due to acc.u.mulated feeling of depression, sadness, and disappointment.
Elder Meng caught Elder Huo’s body and put him down gently, he channeled his spiritual energy from his hand to wake Elder Huo up.
Elder Huo woke up and stared at those traitors in front of him while shedding tears. He said, “Tell me, why you betrayed your own family? What did we do to you? I really do not understand.”
“Do you really want to know?” Jaime asked Elder Huo. “If you knew, you might want to kill yourself.”
“What is done is done.” Huo Bo Xiang stood up and gave his respect to Jaime. “I’m ready to accept anything, no matter what I just want to know the truth.”
“Alright then, take Huo Kui An here.”
Listened to Jaime’s order, Huo Bo Xiang became weak and fell. He fell down on his knees. His tears were flowing. His bad feelings became true, something that he refused to acknowledge this whole time. “Elder Huo Liem, bring Huo Kui An here.”
The elder who was called Huo Liem was surprised and replied, “but Elder, she is your own daughter.”
“BRING HER HERE!”
The whole place became silent; they did not expect that this drama would be this deep. No one dared to make any sound.
Huo Kui An was one of the four most beautiful girl’s in the Huo Clan and the beloved daughter of Huo Bo Xiang. But who would have thought that she was one of the culprits behind the biggest betrayal in Huo Clan.
When Huo Kui An was brought in front of Jaime. Jaime clearly could see the beauty of that girl, the gentleness of her eyes, and her innoc
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
ent face. If not for the Book of Karma, he will surely be bewitched.
“Elder Meng, whip her to death.” Jaime’s statement surprised everyone there. Huo Kui An who was also surprised run towards Elder Huo and hugged her father.
“Father, father, what happened, why am I being punished?”
Elder Huo didn’t say anything, his face was empty.
“Elder Meng!” Jaime called but Elder Meng was conflicted whether he has to whip a weak woman or not.
“If you feel that your conscience wouldn’t allow you, I’ll do it for you.” Jaime without hesitance took out a whip from his dimensional bag and whipped Huo Kui An’s hand with it.
In a flash, it moved towards Huo Kui An’s palm and destroyed three of her five fingers. In that moment, Huo Kui An was screaming in pain. Her hand was covered in blood.
“Father! Father! Help me!” Huo Kui An cried.
Jaime walked towards Huo Kui An like a bad guy and pulled her long hair, separated the daughter and her father forcefully. “When your father forbade you to go out at night, you should’ve listened. When your father warned you, you should’ve realized. Now, everything is too late.”
Huo Bo Xiang sat weakly in silence.
“Huo Kui An!’ Jaime shouted loudly so that everyone could hear. “I knew you slept with these twenty men here and forced them to become traitors. I will not say how many men that you have slept with and your forbidden relation with the previous elder.”
Some of the traitors were surprised, they stood and saying in disbelief, “No way! Huo Kui An only loves me. There is no way she was sleeping with everyone…” those men were suddenly stopped speaking and staring at their partners.
“Don’t tell me, that she was sleeping with you too?!”
“Huo Kui An, please tell me that it was a lie!” that man shouted to Ho Kui An. “You promised me if I let people of Hyena Troops in, they will share their loots and then we will use that money to go far away from Huo Clan and live together until death separates us apart.
“She said that to me too…” another man said
“Me to.”
“Ya…”
“No!” Huo Kui An shouted. “I don’t know them. They are lying.”
Slap!! An elder slapped Huo Kui An’s face hard. “You shameless wh.o.r.e! Do you think that I am blind? I saw with my own eyes that these men entered your room and you also secretly paid them a visit.”
“You liar!!!” Huo Kui An shouted.
“Hahahaha…” that elder was laughing. “You can call me a liar, but can you call your father the same? He was with me when you secretly did those shameless activities. He just ignored it and let you do that!”
Huo Kui An’s body shook greatly and she looked at her father. Her panicking face turned pale in fear and then reddened.
“This is all father’s fault!” in her fear, Huo Kui An tried to defend herself. “Father did not want to cooperate with Elder Huo Jie and Elder Huo Tou to make relation with Prime Minister Ang. In the end they casted you out from the circle of leaders.h.i.+p, made me and mother live in suffering. I didn’t have money to buy medicine to increase my soul essence. I was exiled by many people. Huo Gie who was supposed to marry me chose to cancel the wedding, even though he has taken something precious from me. All happened because father no longer possessed power. You destroyed my life! True that I did this betrayal, I slept with everyone including Elder Huo Jie and Elder Huo Tou! Everything is your fault, father. At least Prime Minister Ang promised me that he will adopt me. You… you just gave me a life of suffering.”
Huo Bo Xiang just stayed silent and didn’t do anything; suddenly blood flowed from his mouth. But Jaime has arrived behind him and patted his back to lock his movement. “If you kill yourself here, who will make sure the survival of Huo Clan? Do you still have face to meet your late master who entrusted the glory of Huo Clan on your shoulders?”
Huo Bo Xiang closed his eyes and tears flowed from them. He couldn’t say anything because his burden was too great. He didn’t even know what to do anymore.
“If you were not tempted by power and wealth, you would not fall into the suffering. You made the choices yourself… Don’t blame your father!” Jaime quickly ordered. “Elder Meng, send Huo Kui An and these traitors out from Huo Clan’s territory. If Elder Huo doesn’t wish to kill them, then neither do i. And no one is allowed to kill them inside Huo Clan’s territory.”
Elder Meng sent some of the elders from Double Moon Sect to bring those traitors out from Huo Clan’s territory.
Jaime stood on the top of the podium in front of the city hall and stared all people of the Huo Clan. “Do not blame Elder Huo Bo Xiang for your loss, because he was the one who has lost the most. All of this was because the previous elder who has sold out your clan to Prime Minister Ang…” and then Jaime told everything to them, from the beginning to the end. “All of your money has been taken by Hyena Troops of Prime Minister Ang. If you must have someone to blame, blame Prime Minister Ang, our common enemy.”
Jaime took out a debt certificate. “I made contract with Elder Huo Bo Xiang to defeat Ifrit to save you. The cost is 50 million spiritual stones.” People who saw that became nervous. They have lost their wealth and have nothing to pay that debt. “After the death of twenty loyal followers of my father who I have considered as my fathers, I just found you guys became orphan, lost everything. How could my heart asked money from you!”
Jaime’s eyes became wet and he burned the certificate right in front of them, surprising everyone from the Huo Clan. He then took out a Heavenly Contract Stone and showed them. “Inside this stone, there are thousands of soul essences of the people from your clan, among them were those who died during the rampage of Ifrit. In the beginning, I intended to enslave you to make you pay for attacking Double Moon Sect. But, when I see your struggle to survive, how could my pure heart dare to enslave you.”
Jaime let out every soul essence of Huo Clan member from inside the Heavenly Contract Stone free. Small blue light b.a.l.l.s as if they know their way, flew towards their owner and entered their body, came back to their main souls.
“Our journey here is such a waste, even more we have lost many people.” Jaime took a deep breath. “But there is something that made everything worthy. It was when Huo Bo Xiang made me his master.”
Jaime then turned his gaze to Huo Bo Xiang. “Life is full of unexpected things, sometimes even though we have done our best, the result won’t always be good, perhaps worse. But from the hards.h.i.+p in this life, one’s soul will be truly tested.”
“Elder Meng, tell me, what is Elder Huo to you?”
“Master!” Elder Meng kneeled and said, “when Elder Huo made you his master, it means that he is my junior and my brother.”
“What is the meaning of a brother?”
“Master, a brother is someone who fights alongside you, the one who protects each other, together in happiness and sadness.”
“Elder Huo is also a clan elder and you are elder from Double Moon Sect, if you are brothers, does this mean that whole Double Moon Sect and Huo Clan become brothers?” Jaime asked Double Moon Sect members.
“Great Leader, all Huo Clan are brothers of Double Moon Sect.” everyone from Double Moon Sect shouted in unison.
“Now that Elder Huo and Huo Clan were struck by disaster, what we will do as their brothers?” Jaime asked
“We help them.”
“Good!” Jaime stood firmly. “None of you shamed me as your leader. Elder Meng, how much money that the Double Moon Sect has?”
“Master, for now we only have two million five hundreds seventy five thousands three hundred and twenty spiritual stone.”
“Good… give everything to the Huo Clan!”
It made everyone, especially people of Huo Clan, surprised.
Elder Meng quickly knelt, “Master, please reconsider it, because this is everything that Double Moon Sect has.”
“Listen up everyone!” Jaime made his voice louder. “Become brothers, means that not only we share happiness but we also share our suffering together. Once brothers, always brothers. Until we die. If our brothers don’t eat, we don’t eat, if they eat porridge, we eat porridge. That’s what brother means! If Huo Clan suffers, we, Double Moon Sect, suffer together with them.”
“Yes, Master!” Elder Meng pulled up a horse cart, took it to the center of the field and poured every spiritual stones from his dimensional bag. He didn’t stop, Elder Meng also took another bag and pour porcelain bottles which contained recovery pills and pills to increase soul essence. It was over when Elder Meng poured golden pots, talisman and many other precious things.
“Why did you do that?” Jaime asked in surprised.
“This is the realization of three steps of being a good student towards his master.” Elder Meng said while kneeling
“Good!” Jaime looked at the disciples of Double Moon Sect.
Disciples of Double Moon Sect quickly made a long double line. When they arrived in front of the horse cart, a disciple took out their money, emptied his precious pills and even gave his weapon.
In a few moments, money and precious things filled up the cart and overflowed from it. People of Huo Clan who saw that were surprised and couldn’t say a word.
After all disciples from Double Moon Sect finished emptying their treasure bags, one of them kneeled in front of Jaime and said, “Master, allow me to return to Double Moon Sect territory to collect money from other brothers and sisters to help our brothers from Huo Clan.”
“Leader, allow me to return to the village to collect money from the people of my village.”
“Leader, allow me to bring some of my brothers to borrow money from people who pa.s.s through the high way.”
“Good!” Jaime said happily. “You really are good students. For those who can collect more money, you may go. For those who cannot, use your strength to help repair the houses, use your strength to protect whole Huo Clan territory from their enemies who wanted to strike them in this condition.”
“Show them that we are not only brothers in happiness, but also in sadness.” Jaime looked at the Huo Clan. “With us, your brothers, here, even though we cannot return your money and the damage done by Prime Minister Ang to you, at least we will never let Huo Clan lose its dignity in front of the whole world!”
Jaime looked at Elder Huo Bo Xiang. “Elder Huo, life is cruel indeed, but we will never yield to it, no matter how cruel life to us. And with me being your master and Elder Meng as your brother, we will never let you pa.s.s through this hards.h.i.+p alone. We will never let you and Huo Clan destroyed before us! Because you are our brothers!”
Many of the people of the Huo Clan were touched and shed their tears unconsciously. Elder Huo opened his eyes and looked at Jaime with a gaze that still had hope in it.
“My brothers!” Jaime stood with dignity in front of all of them. “Together we will pa.s.s any hards.h.i.+p in life! Together we will step onto the sky and become kings in this life. Together we will have eternal glory.”
“Everyone! Tell them who I am!”
“Jaime the Great!” People of Double Moon Sect shouted together
“What is my t.i.tle?”
“King of the Three Realms!”
“What will I do?”
“Kill G.o.ds, step over the Asuras and become the mighty king over mankind!”
“Good! Together with me, you will never suffer anymore! Come, join me!” Jaime stood with dignity, aura of the kings glowing from his body and made everyone astounded and felt like they were standing before a holy man.
Many of the people of the Huo Clan shed their tears and yelled in high spirit, and kneeling to pledge their loyalty. “Great Leader! Great Leader! Our Great Leader! Jaime the Great!!!”
Elder Huo let a heavy sigh after told them the story of the Huo Clan. “After they repaired the whole damage and guarded Huo Clan territory for fourteen day, they left twenty million spiritual stones without asking anything in return.”
“I still remember seeing their strong back slowly disappeared from our sight. We realized how lucky we are to find brothers in life and death like them.” Elder Huo Bo Xiang’s eyes became wet. “They truly are the savior of Huo Clan. Now tell me… who is our great leader?”
“Jaime the Great!” the children shouted in joy.
“What is his t.i.tle?”
“The King of the three Realms!”
“What will our great leader do?”
“Kill G.o.ds, step over the Asuras and become mighty king over all mankind!”
“Who is our sworn brother?”
“Double Moon Sect!”
“Who is our sworn enemy?”
“Prime Minister Ang!”
“Good! Now, it is time for me to teach you three steps of being a good disciple to his master. First is to show our obedience to our leader, second is to show our loyalty to our leader and the most important thing, the third is. . .”
In another place, Prime Minister Ang destroyed everything on his table when he received the latest report from his subordinate.
No one from Hyena Troops who was sent to the Huo Clan returned to him; as if they had disappeared into thin air. Furthermore, Huo Clan survived from extinction, while he already sent out a message to make Huo Clan a lesson for other sects.
“Now they are laughing behind my back!” Prime Minister Ang destroyed the table in front of him. His plan for Huo Clan has failed, every spy he sent to Huo Clan vanished and after everything, he gained nothing. “Who did all of this!”
On the corner of another forest, people were forming a line to receive sum of money.
“It is beyond my expectation that what we have donated to Huo Clan will be returned two fold by our great leader. Even the sword that I gave was replaced with the sword with superior quality.”
“True! I should’ve followed the others. forced my family and people from my village to make donation, and return with the twice amount of money.”
Similar conversation can be heard everywhere.
In the meantime, two men was coughing and whispering.
“Ahem… Elder Meng, after the cuts here and there, how much is our profit?”
“Reporting, master, we still have around 67 million spiritual stones and that is after we paid two fold of the donation from the disciples and the others.” Elder Meng was smiling widely. “Huo Clan is really rich. Especially previous Elders of Huo Clan who seemed to accept bribes from Prime Minister Ang.”
“It is good that we were able block the path of Hyena Troops and robbed them.”
“It is all thanks to the information from you, master.” Elder Meng looked at a small creature that has claws and horns; it has size of a cat. “Master, what is that creature?”
“It is Ifrit, when we know its real name and bind it with contractual formation, it will be hopeless and do anything from its master.” Jaime smiled. “I forced him to cancel its contract with Prime Minister Ang and bind a contract with me, now he is my obedient subordinate.”
“Hehehe…”
The End of the Third Book