Born in Blood



The plateau atop the mighty mountain was covered with a circular set of buildings owned by the Verdant Warriors Sect.

They were dull colors, simple shades of black, gray and dark red. 

Clearly, the constructor of such buildings didn't care much about appearance, and focused on functionality instead.

However, those practicing their martial arts within the vast training grounds of the Sect were anything but dull.

Their punches crackled like thunder and sent shockwaves that could pop a normal man's ears.

Their physique was of a destructive and destroying quality. Ripped muscles that adorned their tanned bodies, taller than the average man by several feet.

Their punches cracked the hardest of metals. Their stomps shattered mountains. Their rhythmic shouts shook the air.

Even as day rose and night fell, the disciples of the Verdant Warrior Sect were unmoving and tenacious in their pursuit for strength, staying awake in the most arduous of conditions.

Sleep was for the weak!

And the Verdant Warriors never slept!

Also hair! 

Hair was for the weak!

And the Verdant Warriors had no hair!

To join the Sect, one had to be of the earth element, and have a Rank 3 body.

Liam knew all of this beforehand.

Currently, he was on the foot of the giant mountain that housed the Verdant Warrior Sect.

In front was Krel, and all around him, Disciples and Acolytes.

Just like the map that Elder Jane displayed back at the Temple, it was made of gray rock, jagged, cone-shaped and was overrun by beasts surrounding its perimeters.

Narrow paths circled around the mountain and led to the plateau at the top. 

And the mountain stretched to the clouds. 

Elder Orisa had already laid her traps.

Little arrays covered every nook and cranny of the mountain walls. 

They were noticeable to the naked eye, and anyone with a sound intellect could tell they were dangerous.

However, the Verdant Warriors came out from their Sect once every six months.

And the last day they had left the mountain was 5 months, and 28 days ago.

Exactly six months ago, Elder Orisa had begun making her Isolation Formations around the mountain.

Arduously, she always had to clear the surrounding beasts in order to make sure her formations weren't ruined by external factors.

And just two days before the Warriors left the mountain, the Temple was to execute their orchestrated plan.

The amount of intricate details that went into such a plan made Liam raise a brow in amazement.

Even the layout of their buildings were memorized and given out to the acolytes as a whole.

'There are Border Guards, an Outer Ring, an Inner Ring, and a Grand Pavilion,' Liam reiterated the layout with distant eyes.

'The Border Guards are Rank 3 cultivators and among the strongest the Warrior Sect has.'

'The Outer Ring has lower ranked disciples. Those still learning and attempting to master the Clan's martial arts.'

'The Inner Ring includes those with talent and higher mastery of the Arts.'

'And the Grand Pavilion is where the Sect Patriarch and his Elders reside.'

For a small-sized clan like the Verdant Warriors, their Elder's were not Zeniths.

Most commonly, they would have a Rank 4 body, but their other centers of power would be Rank 3.

Usually, they had a specialization that gave them an edge over the normal disciples of the Sect. 

That was what allowed them to receive the 'Elder' status.

Liam raised his head to the sky.

It was midnight.

Clouds covered the sky above, churning with a coming rainstorm. Brief flashes of blue lightning threaded them.

With their plan in motion, Krel silently gestured forward with a stern expression, and the group began to move up the rocky paths leading to the sky.

Three hours.

It took three hours for the plateau to become visible.

As they climbed up the mountain, they looked like little ants crawling over a giant, rocky finger.

Faint shouts grew louder in their ears as the unrelenting Warriors trained.

Meanwhile, some of the lower ranking Acolytes were already out of breath.

At one point, the paths simply broke off to an empty cliff, forcing them to climb up with their bare hands and feet.

There was a main path, of course, but the risk of being spotted was higher from using that road.

Obviously, this wasn't any trouble at all by itself.

Even a Rank 2 body didn't run out of stamina unless pushed to severe limits.

Yet the air above the mountain was unnaturally thin, almost to a hair's width, making it difficult to breathe.

'Is it a training method of some sort?' Liam thought, his King's Eye constricting to find the best handhold to go upward with. 

His hands were strengthened with his Shadows, and he was pinned to the rock like a nail.

'It has to be. There's probably a Formation that allows them to do that. Most martial arts have special breathing patterns to them, after all.'

'The Elders probably used their Shadows to deduce their layout, but not the Formation.'

For Liam, it wasn't any trouble. He simply took a deep breath in and held it for as long as he could.

Liam noticed an acolyte struggling below his feet.

He held out a leg for her to hang onto.

The acolyte smiled and gripped Liam's foot.

Liam quickly pulled her up to another handhold, before shifting his attention upward again.

Now that Liam had become a Disciple, he had a responsibility over the Acolytes under him, even if they were weak and undeserving. 

Finally, the edge of the plateau was just a few meters away.

Liam sensed three Border Guards atop a small tower made from rock. They were in silent cultivation.

[We will wait for the signal,] Krel transmitted telepathically to his group, covering himself with his Shadow. [Until then, stay put.]

Thanks to Liam, nearly the entire Temple of Shadow learned how to speak through their mental spheres. They also learned how to better hide their presences.

They all exchanged terse nods and waited for the so-called 'signal'.

Ten minutes passed.

At the mountain's foot, the shadowy writings suddenly started to flicker.

All of a sudden, from all four sides of the mountain, the writings exploded into tendrils of darkness that rapidly swirled through the air in a circular fashion, like a bubble.

A few minutes passed as it continuously grew in size.

From an outside view, a black, cone-shaped dome made from Shadows had enclosed the entire mountain!