69 Darkness 4 (2/2)

Mao Lu himself was pulled out of the cage and slammed onto that table. His limbs were strapped.

His forearm was cut, he screamed as they put a tube in his arm and began taking his blood.

One of the organ traffickers took a large scalpel and sliced open his abdomen.

It was at that moment when sirens could be heard and police officers rushed in from all corners.

\”Somehow, even though I didn't deserve to, I did survive. I came out alive despite many others dying. My prayers had been heard.

I decided in this moment that I wouldn't let any obstacle push me down. That I was going to be more stubborn than ever. I was going to live my life properly.\”

Mao Lu stared at the Darkness, \”So no matter what horrible memory you show me next, I have already accepted it, it won't bring me down. I'll adapt from it, I'll learn from it, and I'll grow from it. I won't shy away from my Darkness, it has made me who I am today.

Don't underestimate me.\”

As Mao Lu said this the scenery changed, and Mao Lu was standing on the surface of a still black lake. Everything around him was pitch black.

\”I see.\” The Darkness said, \”I most definitely underestimated your tenacity. And I can tell you mean every word. You try to be a good person but you don't pretend that you are one, you're no hypocrite. You have the strength to admit your faults and see them through, a trait that rare in many. I see that there is no point in making you relive the rest of your troubling times. You've proven you have the resolve not to be fettered by them. For someone so young, you have had much more spiritual and mental growth than many other Gatekeepers thousands of times your age.

You pass.\”

The other version of Mao Lu melted back into shadow and wrapped itself around his hands.

\”For your unbreakable stubbornness; your flexibility to adapt, your ability to grow, and your tenacity to proudly carry your darkness, I shall give you the first piece of your True Weapon. I'm sure you can already guess what it is.\”

In Mao Lu's hands he felt something heavy appear.

It was a Longbow, well it was only the upper and lower limb, including the sight window, arrow rest and grip. It was missing the string notch, the bow string and any arrows, but it was still a Longbow.

The slim and elegant lines of the handle were made of a thick dark wood similar to Amazaque, Ash and Padouk woods. The black limbs were made of a smooth flexible metal which gleamed like they were laminated with a combination of Maple and carbon fibers with a middle insert of Ash wood. Of course it only looked similar to maple and Ash or carbon fibres. The actual material felt much stronger. The tips seemed to be made of a phenolic material, in the colour of black.

The bow was extremely heavy, heavier than the bows Mao Lu had used in the past. Mao Lu had also focused a lot on compound archery when he'd been training, he had used traditional bows before but he wasn't used to them, yet despite that it felt extremely comfortable to hold.

The grip felt like it molded perfectly into his fingers. He hugged the limbs of the bow.

As he did this the bow melted into his skin, and disappeared into his body.

\”When you complete the trial you can summon it at will.\” the darkness said.

As it said this a doorway appeared on top of the still black lake.

It rippled and glowed an eerie blue.

\”Now it is time for you to move on to the second stage.\”

Mao Lu nodded. \”I'm ready.\”

___________________________

INSIDE CREED'S SOUL CHAMBER

In this strange cage the passing of time was hard to grasp.

Chàng Bo couldn't tell whether he'd been there for days, years or only a few minutes.

His mind was racing the entire time. Why did Argenti imprison him, what questions did they want him to answer?

He'd told Mao Lu everything he'd known, well almost everything. He hadn't told him about the system.

Did they bring him here because they wanted to know about the system?

He felt like this was all for a different reason than that, if they were after his Sovereign system there were other ways they could go about this.

He wondered if Mao Lu knew he was being kept here, probably not. If Mao Lu was in on this there would be no reason for Argenti to wait until after they were separated to capture him. Not to mention Mao Lu just wouldn't do that to him….he wasn't the plotting or backstabbing type...and he loved him.

Chàng Bo was getting more stressed out thinking about this. \”Regardless of why they're doing this the worrying part is that I don't know what they're plan to do with me after they get the information they want. To Gatekeepers I'm nothing, the only one that was protecting me was Mao Lu, without his interruption they might just kill me and get rid of the evidence. I need to escape.\” he thought.

But how?

Currently his soul was separated from his body. He was trapped in a soul chamber, once a spirit was trapped inside one of these it couldn't escape unless it was let out from the outside.

Also where was his real body. Even if he managed to get out of the soul chamber, if he didn't find his real body within 48 hours he'd end up becoming a wandering spirit and who knew what kind of creatures might prey on him.

Then, even if by some miracle he was able to escape the soul chamber and find his body, he still wouldn't be able to escape. He wouldn't be able to because of Creed.

Creed was a Saint stage practitioner, someone even his father would have to bow down to and show respect.

Chàng Bo didn't have a chance of defeating him. The most he could do was run from him, but a Saint stage practitioner would find hunting a Dao stage practitioner, the same way a cat found chasing mice. Easy. Chàng Bo didn't stand a chance with his current abilities.

He began to feel rather hopeless.

\”Chàng Bo….\” a small voice whispered, it was as quiet as a pin drop.

Chàng Bo looked around in alarm.

\”Chàng Bo…\” it whispered again, this time it was right next to his ear.

\”I can help you escape. I'm on your side….\”

\”Who are you!?\” Chàng Bo asked quietly.

\”A friend…\”

\”You're not my friend\” Chàng Bo snarled, \”What's do you want?!\”

\”A friend of your Mother….. Here to help…..\”