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"Just what sort of monster do you have to be to be able to kill two Tempering Marrow cultivators from the Black Tiger Family?" A guard with long black hair asked as he lightly tapped his hat, attempting to cover his vision of the sight before him.
"These guys and all their items were taken from them. In addition, it looks like anything of value they had stashed away was snatched up. Could this just be a case of robbery?" The same guard inquired.
"..."
A senior guard who was writing down stuff on a note board turned his head behind him as he asked, "Have you not heard?"
"Heard what??" The first guard questioned with a confused tone.
*Sigh...* "Listen up, Newbie; there was an incident a couple days ago in the Yang Forest. And in that incident, there was a Yang Sect Trial Disciple, the only one of his kind.
And this boy, who was known as the trashiest of all cultivators, suddenly had a complete flip in not only his power but even the way he carried himself. He went on to kill four Yang Sect Outer Disciples when they tried to bring him back by force."
"What!? This Trial Disciple actually had the balls to go against the Yang Sect?? Does he not fear death!?" The first guard exclaimed.
"You truly are a moron, aren't you? Didn't I just say that he's part of the Yang Sect? You should know as well as anybody that the Yang Sect is one where the strongest fist rules," the Senior Guard explained with a slightly exasperated voice while jotting down things on his note board.
He continued by saying, "Which is to say that this boy was able to do as he wished without punishment. Of course, some of the elders of the Yang Sect were infuriated over this notion. But in the end, it was a dispute between juniors, and thus, they weren't allowed to interfere by order of the Sect Leader, Yang Fa."
"You're saying that this Trial Disciple is doing whatever he wants without any repercussions??"
"Yes, and he isn't a Trial Disciple anymore, as he won the Outer Sect Admittance Competition not even half a day ago," the Senior Guard replied.
"But what I don't understand is what all of this has to do with this Trial Disciple?? These two assassins are of the 20% Tempering Marrow Realm, and there's no way that a boy could have anything to do with their deaths..." The younger guard muttered with a puzzled tone.
"..."
The Senior Guard let go of his pencil as he turned his head over his shoulder and said, "These cuts are exactly the same as the ones we found on the Yang Sect Outer Disciples. It also just so happens to be similar to the marks on the group of assassins we found dead inside the Yang Forest depths."
"You can't be implying...-"
"Yes, I am saying that this Azmodeus kid was capable of taking out not only cultivators in the Middle and Late Pulse Condensation Stages but also two assassins in the 20% Tempering Marrow Stage," the Senior Guard interjected.
Even he himself couldn't believe what he was saying, but there was no other explanation he could think of to explain the events that have happened over the last couple days.
"B-But sir, surely you jest... I mean, what sort of genius would you need to be to reach the 20% Tempering Marrow Stage at such a young age...?" The younger guard spoke with a tone of disbelief.
"I don't know, youngster, but the one thing I do know is that a genius beyond anything ever before seen in Spirit River City has just appeared, and it doesn't look like he is planning to keep his existence unknown..." The Senior Guard responded. After which, his train of thought was directed toward a question.
If this boy was considered trash not even a few days ago, and if you include the fact that he likely took the weekly power test for all disciples not even a week prior, then is that to say he had acquired such strength within these two days...?
And if so, just what sort of aberration are we letting grow up inside our small city...?
Meanwhile, in a location a few miles out from the place where two Tempering Marrow Assassins were killed, a young boy with relatively handsome facial features strolled through a shopping district. He bought out any cultivation supplies from all the alchemist shops he could think of.
The clerks would always ask him where his parents were, to which he would respond by throwing more money in their direction.
Money was one of the only resources in the world that could be used for a wide number of things, and since it wasn't even originally his money, he didn't care how spendthrift-like he appeared.
There was a time when he once cared about the amount of money he used up in advancing his cultivation at a snail's pace in his past life. But that all seemed to stop the moment he leveled up the Shadow Cleaver Trait.
Slowly but surely, he was losing all sense of his past self. Someone capable of infinite adaptation and evolution began to show its head from the flimsy shell that used to be a boy trying to live on a day-to-day basis...
There was, of course, the option where he could recycle all of his traits and regain his past personality, but what was the point?
Why show weakness to have it taken advantage of...?
In his past life, there was a girl, and she was someone who worked at a nearby stone-opening shop.
This girl was someone who showed levels of kindness to Azmodeus that no one had ever given him in his entire life. And for a few months, he actually thought he had found someone who he could learn to love.
However, as with all things in life, nothing good lasted forever...
This girl found herself a powerful boyfriend from a neighboring city's ruling force. With this boyfriend, the first thing she did was come and shove it in Azmodeus's face while saying the most demeaning of things.
His growing emotions died right then and there as he once again understood that nothing would ever go right in his life...
However, it wasn't long after this girl came back that he took the beatings of her boyfriend and his group of hooligans with a blank expression. He figured, 'Why whine and sulk when the next day will be just as terrible as the day before? Tears eventually dry up for good...'
His life was one filled with hurdle after hurdle, and there was no respite for the boy called the weakest and trashiest cultivator in existence...
He was simply someone trying to survive... But in the end, none of it really mattered, as he died due to the drunken acts of a bastard who had nothing better to do...
This was the life of a boy named Azmodeus.
At least, it was...
......