Born in Blood

Liam was amazed at his own dexterity and speed.

'It seems the sea of consciousness directly boosts the body as well. Although it depends on the bodily center of power for strength, its potential is only maximized with the mental sphere.'

Still, the targets he was focusing on were the weakest among them.

His green irises shifted left and right as he looked for more criminals, jumping above the trees and making no noise.

Just then, a particular bandit caught his eye.

Liam couldn't help but chuckle despite the seriousness of the situation.

'Why are you shitting at a time like this?'

He wondered, looking at the fat man squatting down with his pants off, making grunting noises as he continued to push out the payload.

Liam's blades gathered a fresh coat of red liquid, before his dark gaze shifted towards the main carriage.

…

The slaves' chains made a clinking noise as they walked uphill through snow, walking with difficulty and heavily panting.

The traffickers were to their left and right, and the strongest among them was right ahead.

"Get a move on!" The leader among them shouted angrily from the front.

The bandits in charge of the slaves yanked their chains forward upon hearing his shout, causing them to yelp in pain.

Some had tears streaming down their faces in frustration.

Now and again, the Leader would look behind him to make sure everyone was moving along smoothly.

Fog and thick thorny trees covered part of his vision, but he didn't fail to count the exact number of people — thanks to his men carrying strong lamps that lit up their surroundings.

He slowly let his guard down, taking off his mask and storing it inside his space-ring.

A short black goatee sat on his chin, while the man himself seemed in his mid-thirties.

His forehead was wrinkled and a stern frown naturally rested on his face. No hair was visible on his head.

He looked behind him one last time for another check, but his eyes narrowed as he did so.

'Are we… two less?'

His frown deepened as his eyes swept the people behind him.

'They could have gone for a bathroom break... but two at the same time?'

The Leader didn't stop the men from moving straight away.

'I'm nearly back to base, I don't want Boss to get pissed at me for being late...' He thought, keeping a vigilant eye on his back, but nothing happened.

He slowly shifted his gaze forward, a feeling of restlessness coming over him.

Paranoia couldn't help but whisper in his ear.

A moment later, he turned his head slowly, and his eyes widened.

The Leader's clenched hand rose in the air, prompting all the bandits to stop dead in their tracks.

The clinking noise stopped as well, and only the sound of wind howling entered everyone's ears.

The Leader grimaced.

'Four missing this time!'

The Leader quickly exchanged hand gestures with the two men closest to him, who were both cultivators slightly weaker than him.

The distance between those in the front and back wasn't significant, yet the weak fog made it difficult for them to see clearly — since they didn't have any particular mental strength — especially when cloaked in the night.

The three men split up, each one covering the left, middle, and right of the area.

The Leader wielded a normal iron mace, while the others carried silver sabers.

Meanwhile, Liam let out a tired sigh in his mind as he perched above the leafless trees. His eyes could see clearly in the dark, but the bandits weren't in the same boat.

'If only the leader wasn't such a paranoid person, I would've gotten away with chipping them away.' He thought, completely oblivious to his own hypocrisy. 'Whatever, I wanted to test out my prowess anyway.'

His hands flickered, while his blades glowed with a lunar light.

An arc of moonlight suddenly shot out from the tree line, causing two of the three cultivators' eyes to widen in surprise and jump backward to dodge.

Unfortunately for the third, the arc already shot out and severed his jugular vein before he could react, blood gushing out from the wound and dousing the ground.

The remaining slavers cursed loudly, grave frowns forming on their faces.

"Watch my back, if we fight together and use the others as bait, we'll survive." The Leader whisperingly-shouted to the remaining henchman as he thought of a plan.

The weaker traffickers were anxious and fearful, yet didn't hesitate to take out their weapons and fight back.

A shrouded figure continually sprung out from the shadows like a ghost, quickly but silently killing the men holding the lamps, stripping away their only source of light.

One by one, thudding sounds resounded through the frigid air.

The darkness hid the elated expressions on the slaves as they saw their abusers getting murdered — killed in one swift slash.