The Forsaken-Grade Cultivator
Chapter 41: Unfamiliar memories

Chapter 41: Unfamiliar memories

"Andersen..." Ying whispered beneath his breath, his eyes staring straight through the intruders, glassy and lost as they were.

"Brother Ying... What is happening here...?" Jiang Chu uttered, finally snapping Ying out of his reverie.

’Huh...? This is... Ugh, why did I suddenly...’ Ying thought as he gripped his head, lost and confused. It was unlike him to get distracted in the middle of a confrontation, more so for one as heated as this...

"Brother Ying..? Did you not hear me? Fine, I’ll ask again... What happened, why is Xian Shan...?"

"..."

’Jiang Chu...’

Jiang Chu’s voice was shaky, and the slight tremors in his facial expressions made known his confusion, disbelief, fear and even anger at the uncanny sight before his eyes.

But who could blame him?

He had just walked in to witness someone whom he had respected, and trusted, standing over the half corpse of the love of his life with a bloodied sword in his hand.

But he couldn’t jump to conclusions, what if what he believed was actually NOT the case. He didn’t want to assume a mistruth to be the reality, thus he still questioned Ying... Is what he told himself, at least.

In all honestly, the young man simply couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

No.

it was more accurate to say that he didn’t want to believe his own rationale, which is why he gave Ying a chance.

But to this, Ying responded with nothing but silence.

As though he had become dumb, the later just kept staring at the former, empathy drowning his need for self justification. Even if he wanted to defend himself, what could he possibly say in such a situation?

All the evidence was there, stacked up against him like a siege ram. There was no amount of context that would save him from questionability.

Yet, he did not regret a single thing. Not one. After all, she had tried to kill him first.

"Brother Ying... Why aren’t you saying anything?!" Jiang Chu asked again, his voice growing amidst a clenched fist and gritted teeth. His rage boiled over, genuine veins popping on his forehead.

Yet despite this, Ying still failed to muster up a response.

"...!!!"

He didn’t know what to say.

He wanted to yell – It wasn’t me – so badly, but he couldn’t. To Jiang Chu, to everyone that had come with him, everything and anything he said would be nothing but utter bullshit.

Thud! Swoosh!

Jiang Chu fell to his knees, eyes dripping with tears, and at the same time, two lethal blurs of black surged forward from behind him, to heir target – Ying.

Clang!

He managed to react, just in time to stop the opponent’s weapons with a horizontal slash. "You two are..." Ying muttered as he recognized the uniquely tailored black outfit. It was the same with Captain’s and Zhao Mei’s.

"You were the one. You killed them... you killed all our allies..."One of them said, eyes red with rage.

’what?! All of them? I didn’t kill all of them.... The girl, I didn’t kill the girl!’

He thought.

Pointless, tactless, and ignorant.

"...For the sake of our comrades, you won’t leave this place alive. I, personally, will pay you back in kind! Die!" The other hollered, hands already rushing forth.

Clang! Clang!

Ying met the attacks head on, and exchanged a series of blows with the two mercenaries.

’hmph!’

Even together, the two were significantly weaker than Captain, but still formidable to Ying’s current self. They used the same technique as him—a compulsory curriculum if their training?— but it was terribly inferior.

By then, of course, he was already mostly healed of his injuries, and added to that the experience gained from dueling someone like that detestable Qing Lo.... Well, it was safe to say that he wasn’t, in any way, the same as before.

The battle raged on, and Ying asserted a slight dominance over the others, but they were all holding their own. Then...

"That’s quite enough." A voice boomed, from the far entrance, seemingly imbued with some sort of strange power that caused the three fighters to freeze in place.

Ying’s body suddenly stopped moving, so he turned his gaze to identify the perp.

It was an old man.

Black hair and beard, lined with streaks of aged silver; a grizzled face with sharp eyes, befitting a powerful warrior; long and flowing sky blue robes – such was the description of the old man. Ying already had inkling as pertained to who he was.

"Elder Zhang Gue Lang, undo your Spirit Technique this instant!"

"You are a renowned elder in the Flowing Sword Sect, but even you can’t afford to offend our Patriarch. You are already interrupting our mission as is."

The two mercenaries interjected. As it would seem, Elder Zhang Gue Lang had used something called a Spirit Technique, to inhibit their actions, but Ying couldn’t help but feel that he had heard that name somewhere before...

Fortunately, the answer wasn’t too long in the coming.

"Yes, if I kill you, then the consequences I would face from the Patriarch would be quite severe... But pray tell I sever the links between your jade trackers and the Zhao Mansion, AND THEN kill you. Do you think I’d get off easy that way?" Zhang Gue Lang threatened, "Stand down, both of you, my student has something to say," strands of blue energy swirling around his outstretched hand.

"Tch, he’s an expert at the Imperfect Core Stage, while we can’t even use Qi. We don’t stand a chance against him."

"Damn old man, just give me a few dozen years!"

The two mercenaries expressed their distaste as the Spirit Technique came undone. Then facing the powerful elder, they lowered their weapons in defeated resignation...

A big mistake.

’Kill.’

Stab!

Stash!

Thud!

Two black clad bodies collapsed lifelessly to the floor, one bleeding through a hole in their chest, while the other was missing a head. Two distinct arcs of blood formed a crimson crescent, leaving Ying wide-eyed in the backdrop.

"W-wha –?!" Whispered Ying with eyes as wide as saucers. Elder Zhan Gue Lang shared the same expression; he also hadn’t expected such an outcome.

"How ruthless, there was no hesitation in your blade as you killed them..... Even though you were the one at fault. Ying, was it? Tell me, are you actually on a mission to get yourself killed by that Zhao Mo Chuan?" He asked.

"I..." Ying was speechless.

’Did I just... No, I didn’t.... but then, who did?’ Ying was confused, staring at the fallen corpse with a scrunched up expression. His gaze fell on the carcass without a head, causing him to wonder; ’Am I even strong enough... to sever a person’s head?’

’Hmm, it’s less of strength than it is skill and precision.’

Suddenly, Ying’s thoughts were disrupted mid sentence. It was a voice – a disturbingly familiar one. And as though the statement was some sort of catalyst, everything clicked instantly.

Ying remembered the mysterious void which he had been pulled into, the eerie vibe it gave off as well as the abominable appendages he saw crawling underneath its forsaken shadows.

He remembered the distinctive voice of the Unknowable, its horrific, spine chilling touch, as well as its last words to him.

Following that, he started seeing images.

Images of him slaughtering the head steward by making use of a strange power, images of how he utterly tortured the aged veteran before he finally broke, and died. He saw images of how he beat the shit out of Xian Shan, when she tried to beg for her life.

The way she screamed, pleading for mercy, and the way he relished stabbing his sword into her body time and time again...

He euphoric face, reflected by her quaking eyes, was clear as day....

He even saw himself using her dismembered hand as a sort pen, to douse the wall in blood writing.

These visions... No, daydreams? No, not quite right either.

What he was seeing was far too vivid to be a vision, and infinitely too realistic to be a mere daydream. The unfamiliar images that flashed before his eyes came accompanied by a rendition of his five senses.

In that sense, it would be more of an experience than anything else. As if he had been living and breathing those moments. But he didn’t remember doing any of that...

Ying instantly put two and two together.

’You...’ He spat venomously, his words aimed at the intruder hiding inside his psyche.

He could its presence within him, its dark being coiling around his figure from behind, gloating and giggling as it was, he overflowed with annoyance.

’Took you long enough... Awwn, why the hostility? Is that any way to greet someone who just saved you from certain death...? Besides, you and I both know... that I can kill you at any moment.’

Ying was very unsure about the fine details relating to this matter, but one thing was for certain... this person was NOT Andersen.

Or at least, it wasn’t the Andersen he knew.