The Blood King

levi woke up early and bathed before going back to his room to practice a defense mental energy skill. "this skill is not easy to learn, so i will explain it as best as i can." the demon saints aged voice was heard. "hurry up then, old demon." levi said with irritation. "....does his mood ever change?" the demon saint thought. "first, you turn your mental energy into tiny threads. you then weave those threads into a cloth." said the demon saint. "is this a defensive mental energy technique or are you teaching me how to make clothes?" levi asked in a mocking tone.

"....after weaving the cloth, you can make it as hard as metal. the hard part of this technique is the weaving of the cloth, as after making all of the threads most of your mental energy is used up." the demon saint ignored levi"s mocking and continued the explanation. "i will try it then." levi said.

sitting cross-legged on the floor of the small wooden room, a small black flame appeared in front of his forehead. he began first with making almost microscopic threads of mental energy and weaving them into bigger ones. he repeated this process for more than 100 times. at this point he was breathing heavily but he wasn"t finished yet as he continued to weave more threads. he continued to weave another 100 threads, beads of sweat appearing on his forehead.

satisfied with the amount of threads that were made, he began the process of making the cloth. he he began moving all of the threads in an attempt to weave them into a cloth. "agh! huff huff!" the threads were moving in all directions, as he continued for a few minutes before a splitting headache caused all of his work to be in vain. "did you fail?" the demon saints voice was heard. "how did you know? huff!" levi was in a pitiful state. his hand wet with sweat as he ma.s.saged his temples.

"i felt your mental energy disappear." said the demon saint with a weird tone. "oh. huuuuu" after a minute or so the headache faded away. "again." he said. "wait!" the demon saint suddenly interrupted. "what?" levi asked, his voice held a bit of curiosity. "..." the demon saint didn"t respond, which made levi"s face darken. "what?" he asked again.

the demon saint paused as he thought of various things. " the headache was a warning. although it might be gone, your mental energy will not recover that fast. if you try to use your mental energy in this state, it could kill you." the demon saint explained. he was conflicted.

he was conflicted, because although if levi died he would die as well, his pride wouldn"t allow him to live as someone else"s slave. but he also didn"t want to die. after thinking for a while, he made his decision. "although i don"t want to be somebody"s slave, i don"t want to die either. so i will help you for the time being, but you will need to help me also." the demon saint said. levi kept silent, not a sound coming from his mouth. not hearing any response, the demon saint could only sigh before also keeping silent.

...

after about half an hour later levi tried using the skill once again, but before he could start there was a knock on his door. "senior brother, we have to go to the altar." the voice of the disciple who held the test in cloud city was heard once again. levi got up slowly and opened the door. "what altar?" levi asked coldly as he looked at the disciple who looked to be a few years older than him. "why are there so many things here that i don"t know about?" he thought.

"every two days, when the sun is directly above the sect, all of the disciples have to gather at the alter! i don"t have time to explain, we have to go!" the disciple said. as he turned around and began running. after thinking for a second, levi decided to go along with it.

...

following the swarm of disciples, levi found himself in front of the paG.o.da once again. chi! the paG.o.da sunk into the ground, as the sound of stone rubbing together was heard. after the paG.o.da sunk, the ground around it also sunk, creating a large circular staircase leading into the mountain. levi watched the disciples orderly going down the stairs, before he himself went down.

"...." after walking down the stairs, he found himself inside a large underground dome. the disciples stood orderly while looking up to a old stone altar. "begin!" a voice echoed throughout the dome. disciples walked up to the altar one after another and cut their hands with a weirdly shaped dilapidated knife. the blood flowed down the alter, seeping into it before it could touch the ground. "w-what the h.e.l.l..." walking up to the alter, levi felt like the old stone alter was trying to suck up his qi .holding the knife in his hand, he grew out one of his fingernails and cut himself with it.

after all of the disciples left, the paG.o.da returned to it"s original position. "what was that?" levi asked while walking back to his room. " it looked like it was supposed to be a stolen alter." the demon saint answered. "stolen alter?" levi asked. " the stolen alter was a supposed to be a legendary tool that would allow who ever was in control of it to steal bloodlines, qi and mental energy. but that one was most likely a fake." the demon saint said. "why would it be a fake?" levi asked. "as i said, the stolen alter was just a legend. ones like that would only be able to absorb one out of the 3 things i just mentioned, and most of whatever the user is trying to absorb is wasted. that one also looked like it was old. "..." levi said nothing. "what is the cloud sect planning?" he mumbled.

...

a few months later.

levi was sitting cross-legged on the floor, a small black flame floating in front of his forehead. bzz! tiny threads of mental energy were twisting and turning around him, making soft buzzing noises. "i have been practicing this skill for these few months, so why can"t i weave the mental energy threads into a cloth?" levi mumbled as he opened his eyes. "in these few months, the disciples had to go to that stolen altar multiple times. the weird knife draws out the qi in blood, so when people are cut with it, it causes qi along with blood to flow out and be absorbed into the alter. but who is absorbing it? who is controlling the stolen altar?" levi thought.

"during the months i"ve been here, even the year changed." levi said as he got up from the ground. "i think it"s time to leave. tonight will be my last night here, it will also be the night the cloud sect falls." as he said this, his red eyes regained their usual chill.