25 The Liquid Pelle (1/2)

The message sent to her identification medallion via divine sense brought Shin Sumi back to her senses.

Suddenly her rational mind took over again, pushing the images of slaughter and her mental scars away.

”Elder Zhu wants to see me before the end of the day? Can it be that he knows I have killed his mercenaries? No, surely he wouldn't have any way of knowing that. It must be for something else.”

A repulsive idea crept into her head. Shin Sumi really didn't want to resort to that, but for her own good she had to gather every piece of information she could get her hands on.

Thankfully her stomach was now completely empty, keeping her from vomiting once more when she bent over one of the corpses.

It was the leader of the group, the one she had bashed the head in so many times it now resembled nothing more than a red gory paste.

As fast as she could while looking away, Shin Sumi extracted his bag of holding from around his waist.

Without even thinking about it, she opened the not yet rigid fingers of the corpse and took the dagger he had menaced her with before.

She did the same with the other two red robed disciples with the Affairs Pavilion insignia. Her eyes distant and lost in a dark void, she discovered that the disciple adept of using paper talismans had died not long after she was done with him.

Shin Sumi hesitated whether she should hide the corpses in the muddy waters that formed the swamp or not when the other two disciples came to mind.

The three versus one battle that she had won despite all odds had lasted for about a stick of incense worth of time, and the constant movement had brought the four people across the clearing a few hundred meters away.

As she had been lost in reflections and sick to her stomach, Shin Sumi had forgotten all about what the three disciples were doing when she arrived.

First Shin Sumi went to check on the disciple that had been knocked unconscious the moment she had stumbled upon the scene.

”He is still alive” she said in a relieved breath. ”Another dead body and I think I would not be able to sleep in peace for the rest of my life!”

The young man was still unconscious, having lost a lot of blood, but Shin Sumi could tell that he would wake up eventually. He was already in the Shinsoo Gathering Stage and his wounds had started recovering, although slowly.

It wasn't the time to think about performing shameful acts. Shin Sumi had already killed three people and taken their possessions, thus she ignored the voice in her head and still took the disciple's bag of holding.

”I am sorry, brother ... Jiu” she read the name on his identification medallion” but I'm sure you wouldn't mind considering this a small payment in exchange for saving your life!”

Shin Sumi was joking but with a bitter laugh.

She put the identification jade back in the folds of the disciple's robe. There was no use for it, as it was inscribed with personal information and nothing else.

Finally Shin Sumi turned her head towards the swamp waters. There was still one person to check on.

Since the beginning Shin Sumi had no delusion about the person's state. When she arrived, the corpse was already dried up and half immersed in water.

Gears slowly turning in her head she now understood what had been going on in this clearing, far from the sect's borders.

”Elder Zhu had commanded the group of three to hide the dried up corpse. Disciple Jiu walked in on them, apparently simply due to bad luck. The four of them fought until he was almost killed and about to be left to rot hidden away. I must have been alerted by the sound of their battle and I interrupted them. After that... well it's over now.”

Shin Sumi didn't find any bag of holding nor identification medallion on the dried up corpse. The only thing she could tell was that the facial features were unrecognizable, the skin having been stretched across the skull as if by a vacuum inside.

A large cut was visible on the corpse's abdomen, going from the pelvis to the diaphragm. Inside the rotten skin and the frail bones, the flesh was black and some organs had been removed.

The dantian region especially had been badly damaged.

Shin Sumi had thought before that nothing could get worse but she was wrong. Upon inspecting the corpse she still found in her stomach enough bile to throw up and almost passed out from the shock of seeing a corpse in this state.

The corpse simply had a set of red disciple robes on it and nothing else. Shin Sumi understood why when she performed a closer inspection of the loot she acquired from the other disciples bags.

”Of course the Affairs Pavilion disciples have kept his stuff. His surname was Dang Chi. Quite a few status points, he wasn't too bad for a red robed disciple, as far as talent goes...”

These were only Shin Sumi's interpretations but she somehow knew there was something behind it.

When she was done around the clearing, Shin Sumi had taken every possession of every disciple, alive or dead. At this point she decided that she had nothing more to do around there.

Shin Sumi was silently thankful for Elder Zhu's request to go see him. It wasn't that she particularly wanted to, but at least she had found something to cling onto.

If there were no other pressing matters to attend to, nobody knew how long she would have stayed crying in the middle of the bloodbath she herself had created.

Taking a human life is a difficult thing to do and before that, Shin Sumi had no idea how much of a toll it could take on somebody's spirit and soul.

Storing all the different bags of holding into hers, she quietly left the scene never to return. Upon waking up, the red robed youth called Jiu would wonder what had happened but would have no way of knowing.

Hopefully he would simply be grateful for still being alive. If he was stupid enough to enquire why the three disciples he found hiding a corpse were wearing the Affairs Pavilion insignia, then all the trouble that would follow would be his to deal with.

Shin Sumi quickly made her way to the western gates of the lower valley. A lot was on her mind as she jumped through trees and bushes. The little nut swayed gently between her breasts as she moved, unneeded in this part of the woods, but still giving Shin Sumi a comforting feeling.

On her way she passed Hon Zi who was about to leave the training grounds as well. The teen with the orange robes had waited around for a full five hours and only now was about to head back to the lower valley.

He didn't see more than a red blur as Shin Sumi leapt a few meters away from him.

Liu Qing was nowhere to be seen, probably having returned to Chu Erlong to report the matters of Shin Sumi going to the Myriad Sword Pavilion before her escape through the woods.

Shin Sumi went back to her lone courtyard where she undressed quickly and washed herself in the pond. She stayed silent during the whole time, afraid to even think about what had happened. One thing was sure, she wanted to feel clean. To wash away her body and soul as much as possible.

She didn't stay idle for too long. After she had donned new red robes, she left the courtyard, locking the entrance with her identification medallion. The day was soon to be over and she had to go meet Elder Zhu at the Affairs Pavilion.

Instead of leaping meters with each step, Shin Sumi opted for a slow walk. She remembered the first time she had crossed the lower valley from the Affairs Pavilion to her courtyard.

She had been impressed by the speed of the red robed disciple that showed her the way. Now she realized that she was capable of much greater speed and efficiency.

For the first time, Shin Sumi discovered what cultivation was all about. Training to become more powerful.

As the Affairs Pavilion appeared in front of her, she imagined herself walking into the dragon's den. The only way to ensure that she would never experience that was to be stronger than anybody else.

The strong made the rules. The strong preyed on the weak. Only by becoming the strongest could she ever be free of worries.