62 The Truth 4 - Calling the Kettle Black (1/2)

”Sorry Stigma, if this is your friend then this will be a short meeting, after all this man here is our target and we were tasked to take him out. After all, he has a bounty for being a criminal.”

After hearing what the leader said, Stigma demanded an explanation and felt like something is wrong with her statement. Stigma put a bit of force to snap the rope around him but as if it was alive, the rope started to stretch on it's own, preventing him to snap it under the pressure of his inhuman strength.

Even after using his full strength, the rope did not even made the sound of of being torn. Slowly the rope forced Stigma to pull back his strength, if he wasn't careful Kirin would suffer under his arm and get crushed.

”It's no use Stigma, this rope is specially made for capturing, by applying some Zen Energy it functions is like that of a living Snake coiling around its prey. It's no use forcing it with your level of strength, so save your struggling, this will be over soon.”

Stigma continued to struggle under the embrace of the little brother, he can only look at Felix who was bound under the crushing weight of the red rope.

He didn't know what was going to happen, but he wasn't going to go down until he had the whole explanation. Stigma or Cheng Xuan wasn't an honest person even in his previous life, but even he would not do something like betrayal for personal gain.

”What! Why?!?!?! Explain your Reason!”

Of all things Stigma hated, betrayal was what he despised the most to be to himself or do to others, Felix may be a criminal with a bounty, but even criminals have reasons for committing their crimes.

If Stigma didn't act now, then this misunderstanding will lead to him losing someone who he can consider his older brother.

At the same time he wanted an explanation from Felix. If this was a misunderstanding, then Stigma won't stop until Felix was cleared of all suspicion.

”Reasons, Hmm...” With a flip of her hand, a scroll appeared out of thin air with a blue emblem tied with the string, she lazily placed the knife she was playing with and pulled the emblem of as well as bottom half of the scroll then summarized the contents as she read it out.

”He is charged as a war criminal, during a war ten years ago he had harmed citizen who aren't part of the war within the vicinity and was charged with mass murder. He has been sought out numerous times but has yet to answer his sentence.”

”Don't forget Stigma, even Cultivators have laws and have to answer for their crimes from other cultivators societies, remember that well.” With the arm on his neck, Stigma could only listen to the little brother explanation.

The leader continued to read out the contents as she was eyed both their reaction, Stigma was one thing but she was observing Felix the entire time, as if she was doing an interrogation and testing the water. She then continued her explanation by listing the names of the victims that numbered over thirty nine victims.

Eventually rolling up the scroll and placed it on the table then crossed her arms as she looked back at Felix with a her foot taping on the table.

Her expression was cold and emotionless the entire time and the sibling were no different, the sister remained indifferent while the brother continued to restrained them.

”I can't say his name but one who sent this hails from the Panther clan, ordering us to bring him back to pay for his crimes which he had avoided in taking responsibility. Don't take this personally Stigma, we were personally informed about his crimes to the contractor himself.”

Because the scroll was being read at her chest level the entire time, Stigma wasn't able to see the contents from where he was, the distance wasn't far but if there was something in the way he can't see it anything.

When the words Panther Clan entered his ears, Felix look at her with great shock but paid attention, Stigma on the other hand didn't miss his expression and stopped struggling.

”Because they had to strengthen their clan, they just recently found out the village in the outskirts near their borders and had to bury the remains out of respect.”

She then called out the names of the victims bodies that were discovered in the following order: Peter, Layle, Agus, Yohan, Agatha, Lector, Orthega, Nancy, Grace, Fatima, Eric, Lester, Isabella, Xeno, Fabio, Orlando, Rex, Tabata, Hans, Evan, Sophie identified the concubine of the leader, Agatha's supposed child, Ken Eric's step-father, Orthega's supposed mother unknown, Fabio's wife remains identified by the scar on her back that looked like a snake, Tabata's son, Han's supposed son, Eric's failure of a son, Benjamin a slave, Octavia the supposed mother of the slave, Yorick supposed son of leader's first wife, Tabata's known adopted children, Ethan, Sophia, Theodore, Harrison, Isaac, Mathew.

The list of names were endless, but Stigma summarized that their identitied were all families. Even some unborn children were involved.

”Hey! Senior Felix, what are they talking about!”

In this world where might makes right, Stigma wasn't surprise in hearing about non cultivators or weaker people getting trampled upon by the strong. But harming or killing on purpose or randomly for fun is something he can't look away from, especially when they can't fight back.

Felix remained silent but he looked up to the leader first then looked at Stigma, compare to when she looked at the leader, he showed a dark expression to Stigma.

”...It was about the time I destroyed a village under the Panther's rule.” Stigma didn't speak and let him explain, using his skill 'Essence Reader', he can tell if a person lies by seeing how their soul reacts.

How he sees the soul is like seeing an orb of light beating like a heart, the faster the beat means the person was nervous or excited, if it was slow then the person was calm or telling the truth. Although he hadn't used this method too much nor had enough time to experiment, he can at least tell if Felix was feeling nervous or calm from seeing his soul form.

To summarize his understanding from using it on Gus, any emotion made or the what state of mind the individual was in, the soul cannot lie.

To summarize the event what happened that day, Felix told him the entire story. At that time a war was raging on, he had participated for more than seven year and had destroyed a few villages within the vicinity, although a warning was given to the surrounding villages some remain to be stubborn and remained in hiding within the village.

He was young at the time and entered a battle with another cultivator, he entered a nearby village for their fight and assumed it was desolate, he fought until his last breath without carrying for the damages and escaped when enemy reinforcement came.

If there were people within the vicinity that got caught in harm's way, he wasn't sure since he was focused on a battle with his life on the line, but he had not heard of anyone seeking him after twelve years when he retired due to injury. Since then, he had never left the clan until know, waiting for his past crimes to come after him.

”I have nothing to say about my crimes, but I will say this....” Felix turned his head to Stigma, and smiled while he struggled under the binding rope.

”Don't worry Stigma, I know you didn't betray me...” Those very worlds shocked Stigma, Stigma easily believed his words when he heard for one simple reason, his soul was still calm.

Although they haven't known each other for a long time, Stigma was worried that Felix would cut ties with him after this dilemma. During their entire interaction, Stigma had used his skill and Felix had zero intentions of harming or fooling him. In this world where he didn't belong, finding people to trust was a very hard thing.

”Straight out of the horse's mouth, now you see Stigma, you have to be careful on who you meet from now on. Meeting people who will fool you might be dangerous...” When she saw him clenching his free fist, she told that obvious thought and tried to comfort him.

”Hah! That's calling the kettle black for all I know, your no different! You used me and you want me to believe you!”

”Stigma, there are all types of people in all profession, just be glad you met us instead of others. Were considered one of the few most 'tame' ones, we take the safest and less dangerous route to take, leaving no traces behind such as homicide unless needed. Unseen. Unknown. Patient. That is what it means to be an Assassin.”

She then stood up and picked up her strangely shaped knife on the table and twirled it around, making her way to Felix. Stigma wasn't aware of the knife's design, but he realized something was weird about it and had a bad feeling, if he didn't do something soon it might be to late.

”I told you not to struggle, this rope stretches everytime you apply some force, as long as I apply enough Zen energy you won't be able to break this.” Unknown to Stigma, the little brother was quite shocked upon seeing Stigma's level of struggle. Since he didn't want to hurt Stigma, the rope wasn't stretched out to much so he should have more room to breath in.

Unlike Felix' binding where it was completely stretched out, the rope had properties like a rubber and would be difficult to break once the rope reaches its limits, but once Zen energy was applied to the rope, it strengthens in durability and would be no different than trying to break a steel cable.

Stigma had no idea what the little brother was thinking about, but he didn't care as he remembered he had something of value. Stigma calmed his breathing by taking deep breaths.

”Hey! I have a question!” The leader stopped what she was doing and looked at Stigma, the sibling even looked at him, along with Felix.

”I have something of value that can be used for a bargain, will you listen to me then.” The brother wanted to say something but was stopped by the boss when she raised her hand.

”What do you have to offer? If it is something worth of value then I will listen, if its something worthless then be quite. Well spit it out, don't try any funny business or Felix will get it.” The leader walked towards Stigma as she played with the knife, she skillfully played with it as she balance the knife on her finger.

”I have a very precious jewel within my possession, it's very appealing to the eyes and can shine under the night.” Stigma was referring to the one Wade showed him before he killed him, until know Stigma had no idea what the orb was or how to use it.

So far, he was planning to sell it in the slave market to remove all traces in him having possession of it, but know he had to use it to bluff his way out. Not only that, he still had a trump card he can use.

”Really.....Show me, what's it called. I may not look like it but I'm quite the collector of precious stones.” The leader took a few steps closer with an excited expression, the brother only sighed and did his job in preventing both Stigma and Felix from moving, while the sister looked from afar and giggled by covering her mouth.

”First, let me take out my other hand, that's where my space ring is, do you mind.” The leader was silent for a moment, but eventually allowed it but had the knife at his eye the entire time. Having a knife near his face wasn't new, but to fool them he clenched his teeth and glared at her the entire time.

In his previous life, the experience of being threatened by wannabe thugs who used knives were numerous, after experiencing it about three time, he noticed that they could only hold a knife and can't fight back at all. Plus, compared to dealing with the wild beast souls with his bare hands, Stigma thought a knife to his face was considered just for show.

But from the way she was holding the knife, Stigma could tell she was serious and he was really going to get stabbed if he wasn't careful.

The little brother lessened his grip on the second rope from his one hand, but continued to tightened the grip on his arm, causing Stigma to choke a little. The leader pulled away the knife and motioned him to show him the product.

With his now free hand, he made room for Kirin to squeeze its head out, the picture of a cute blue wolf popping out of a hole had caused all around it to sigh in with satisfaction. Suddenly the leader grabbed Stigma by the shoulders and looked at him with a crazy glint.

”Stigma! Don't tell me your planning to trade with this cutie! If you are, then its sold!”

”SCREW YOU! GET RAPED BY A PIG! I'M NEVER GOING TO SELL KIRIN!” Stigma wasn't sure if the woman was serious or was trying to piss him of. But when he saw her pull out a personal seal and writing materials he knows she wasn't kidding around.

The leader wasn't insulted from the comment of getting raped, but when she heard Stigma reply back about Kirin, she came back to her sense and shrunk back with a red face. She then hid the tools in her space ring and tried to cover her face for breaking character.

”Don't take away something precious, unless your prepared in having your hand bitten, remember chief!”

With the elder sister laughing in the background, her face got even redder like a rip tomato, the brother wanted to laugh but stopped when he saw his leader's glare. After coughing a few time, she fixed her hair and appearance then continued with a red face.

”W-well! You should have said so sooner! I may be a patient Assassin, but my time is precious! So tell me what the goods name is!!”

Stigma didn't waste any time and brought his hands together, since they didn't know about his second space ring he only fumbled around his hand to revealed his second space ring under the bandages.

Upon seeing the second space ring, the leader was shocked, not just her but even the sister who saw it in her position was surprised.

A space ring was a symbol of being a cultivator to the general public, but when cultivators see another space ring, it only summarizes that they killed another one to get it. Stigma was still a young child in their eyes, so they never expected him to have a second one, the first one was from the follower so they weren't surprised.

But the appearance of a second space ring had them take Stigma seriously, be it stealing or taking it,

he would have to face another Cultivator who was still wearing it.

Unless it was like before, where Stigma had beaten he follower to near death, the space ring would be extremely difficult to remove unless the Cultivator wasn't focused or gave it up willingly. The ring was bound to the owner, unless he was dead, there was no way in removing it even if they cut of the finger.