Chapter 59
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"What is the plan Kai Jun?" Braedon said this while snacking on a bag of potato chips with Kai Jun staring through binoculars next to him. They were standing on top of a building nearby the area where the suspicious man was inquiring more information from people.
The reason they were there was to watch over the man and prepare to take action. All he knew was that they were planning to do something to the suspicious man. As to what they were going to do though, he had no idea.
Kai Jun did not respond to his inquiry and instead just placed his fingers onto his lips in order to silence him.
He finally put the binoculars down and said in a bright manner, "We are going to kidnap him."
Braedon was not even surprised at this point and said, "Okay." To show that he was ready to act whenever he was needed.
"Don't worry Braedon, just leave the kidnapping to me. You do not have much experience in things like this anyway."
Now that made Braedon react, "Wait does that mean you do?" Kai Jun was becoming more and more creepy to Braedon everyday. He was sure that most of what he said were jokes, but the line between lies and reality were blending freakishly close together.
Kai Jun laughed out loud as he launched himself off the roof of the structure and landed onto the ground without anyone noticing. He quickly slid through the people surrounding the man and eventually arrived in front of him.
"Hi." Without saying another word, his fist crashed into the man's gullet and he motionlessly fell into Kai Jun's embrace. The civilians all around didn't even turn their heads at this scene, instead Braedon stood to the side with his phone out and began waving his arms around.
This way it made the entire thing look like some sort of movie or viral video that they were shooting instead of what it actually was. It also helped that people these days were too busy looking down at their phones to see what was happening in front of them.
This was a great thing for Braedon and Kai Jun though. The two of them dragged him away back to the roof of the building they were just on and Kai Jun said that they would wait patiently for him to awaken.
Even though he said that they would wait patiently, five minutes in and Kai Jun started to slap him silly hoping to wake him up quicker.
"Did I hit him too hard or something?! Why is he not waking up?"
It took Braedon a while to calm him and down finally he consciousness slowly returned soon after the slapping ended.
His eyes began to open slightly and with a gut wrenching pain in his stomach, his vision began to clear away as he saw to people bickering in front of him, "What the-?"
He suddenly recognized one of the men to be the same guy who shoved his fist into his belly and knocked him out, "Ah-" a hand was quickly slapped across his mouth and Braedon stared at him with cold emotionless eyes. His fingers were pressed abasing his lips, signaling to man to be silent.
"Quiet down now, if you make too loud a noise then I will kill you, if you try to act up in any way then I will break your arms, if I sense any fighting intent from you then we will break your legs, if you are hungry then we will go to a buffet and split the bill but nothing too fancy since we are pretty poor, and lastly if you answer our questions then you might leave unharmed." Braedon immediately stated out a few more rules and demands after giving off his intimidating speech.
Basically he told the man that as long as he did not try anything funny, then Kai Jun and Braedon would spare him. But if they suspected him of doing anything, well you could probably guess what they would do.
The man's name was Jingyi Lei and he was a cultivator in the second realm. Another fact that they learned about him actually gave quite a surprise for Kai Jun since, despite his appearance, Jingyi Lei was actually quite young. He was sixteen years old but looked like a twenty-five year old man.
His age correlation with his cultivation was quite common, so it appeared that he wasn't a very important person within the Shadow Guild.
His potential was average and his skills and techniques were lackluster. They knew this because at one point Kai Jun decided to pretend that he was distracted and give the man a chance to escape but when he tried, he failed miserably.
The man was one and a half meter tall with a large, fat belly. His greasy, jet-black hair covered his eyes and Jingyi Lei's pudgy fingers constantly twitched nervously as if he was playing and air piano.
Despite his best efforts, Braedon just couldn't say anything that would calm him down. On the bright side Jingyi Lei was so afraid of Kai Jun and him that whenever a question was asked, he would answer the question without any hesitation.
Unfortunately, he barely had any information on what they wanted to hear. From what he said, he was basically a servant of someone of a higher rank in the guild. His job was to search for a few people that have suddenly gone missing a while ago.
They inquired about who the people were and what they were after and apparently they missing people were geniuses of the Shadow Guild That were supposed to follow specific targets that are possibly members of the organization fighting against the guild.
Braedon asked him who the targets were but he said that he had no idea. Kai Jun was standing to the side and would poke at Jingyi Lei's belly continuously.
"Kai Jun could you leave the poor boy alone, I think you're making him think that you are planning to eat him or something."
Jingyi Lei, "Heeeee! He's going to eat me?! Please don't, I don't taste good at all, in fact, I taste really bad and I'm super unhealthy! Yeah, I'm really not good for you, who knows I might even give you indigestion or something. Just please don't eat me."
Tears and snot began to flow out of him as he kneeled on the ground and began bowing towards Kai Jun.
"Now look what you did Braedon! You scared the poor boy." Kai Jun gave a disappointed look towards Braedon as if this was all his fault.
Braedon just closed his eyes and began repeating the same phrase over and over again, "Go to your happy place, go to your happy place, go to your happy place."
Kai Jun's smile grew immense as he kept staring at the crying fatso right next to him. He started chuckling when the boy began to grab at and hug his feet.
"I promise I'll be good." Something about the boy made Kai Jun be reminded of an old friend of his long ago.
"Hey fatso."
"My name is Jingyi Lei..." the boy quietly reminded Kai Jun of his name after he was called fatso.
"What did you say?" Kai Jun didn't clearly hear what Jingyi Lei muttered under his breath and asked him to repeat it.
"Ah! Nothing at all, yes Sir Kai Jun, little fatso is listening." He apparently mistook this as Kai Jun becoming angry and immediately tried to apologize.
This actually made Braedon feel kind of bad for him as he realized that from an outside perspective, they looked like gangsters bullying a young man, "Hey, you don't really have a lot of pride do you?"
The boy looked up and shook his head solemnly, "I am a slave of the Shadow Guild. Beings like me can't have self esteem. We were raised to be used not to be cared for. Plus what would a weak and fat nobody like me be prideful about?"
He didn't say this with sadness, despair, or anger. Instead this was said in a way that made it seem like common sense. Even Kai Jun became just tiny bit more serious when he heard the boy's words and he knelt down on one knee right next to him.
"What are you talking about? You probably have plenty of things to be prideful about. I mean you don't seem to be that weak."
Braedon sat down next to him as well, "Yeah, I mean you were somehow able to join the Shadow Guild, right? While I understand you aren't a high ranking member, at least you were able to join."
Jingyi Lei shook his head sadly, "You don't understand, when I say that I am slave of the Shadow Guild, I meant that literally. My parents, who were poor at the time, sold me off to a space trader when I was younger. They did it so that they could obtain some money to pay off their debts and bills."
He paused for a second as his memories of the past began to resurface, "I passed through several owners one by one who beat and abused me. Eventually I was finally sold off to the Shadow Guild, there I was forced into a battle for survival. I was placed into a room with twenty four other children like me all the same age, six. We were forced to labor away everyday and were given barely any food. As soon as food would arrive, everyone would kick and punch each other in order to reach the bread and bucket of water first."
Braedon's eyes squinted into thin spots while Kai Jun passively knelt there and listened as Jingyi Lei continued, "Finally when we all became eight years old, we were given a chance to obtain freedom," tears began to flow down his cheeks as haunting images began to appear within his mind one after another.
"We were forced into a death match. In order to survive, each of us were forced to slaughter each other and the last one standing was kept as a slave. I barely won, but even then in my heart I knew that I was the one who actually lost."
"For years after that I was neglected, given almost no training resources, and used as a punching bag by the other members. Almost nobody cared for me and I was sure that I was living in hell. But one person saved me, big bro Li Ruo. Throughout the entire ordeal, he watched over me and protected me. He even shared some of his resources with me and when I grew hungry, he would immediately bring me food to eat."
A bright smile appeared on the boy's face and a happy feeling began to radiate off his body, "Even when an elder of the guild wished to refine me, it was big bro who stopped him and protected me, thanks to the fact that big bro is a talented genius and they didn't want to lose him in any way."
At this Braedon paused his story telling, "Wait, what do you mean by refine you?"
Kai Jun looked over at Braedon and said, "Some cultivators, when they are reaching the end of their lives and can't advance any further, choose to turn the body and soul of other people into pills to eat. These pills provide the user to obtain a longer lifespan and a higher chance at breaking through into the next realm. The problem is that the process is so brutal and I humans that most cultivators would find the subject taboo. This doesn't mean that no one does it though."
Braedon looked on disgusted by the thought of refining another person, "That's horrible, why would anyone do that?"
"You need to accept that the world is full of rainbows and gummy bears Braedon. In the world of cultivation it is either kill or be killed. Not everyone is kind like you. The quicker you accept this, the easier it will be to digest this information."
Braedon was still shaken up by the news but he nodded to Jingyi Lei in order to let him continue, "Go on."
The boy looked at the two people talk curiously. It was strange, at first he found the two people to be horrifying like monsters but now he wasn't afraid anymore, "Th-thank you. Anyway, big bro took care of me as if I was his own brother if it wasn't for him I wouldn't be here right now. But now I'm worried. Big bro was one of the people who suddenly went missing recently and I'm worried about where he went."
Radeon stopped him for a second, "Wait is your big bro the person that you have been giving a description of?"
"Yes!" As the boy responded a knowing look appeared on Kai Jun's face, "Fatso, I think you should stop searching for your big bro and instead run away."
The boy looked at Kai Jun in shock, "What! Why?"
Braedon tried to stop him before he could continue but Kai Jun answered the question too quickly, "That is because he is dead."
A shocked and heartbroken expression appeared on Jingyi Lei's face as he asked in a shaky voice, "D-did you k-k-kill..." Kai Jun shook his head in response and the boy looked down sadly, "Then do you know who did?" Again his answer was a shaking of the head.
Even more tears began to stream down his face as he collapsed right there sobbing. Braedon sadly looked at him and turned to Kai Jun, "What will happen to him now that this Li Ruo is gone?"
"Most likely that elder will refine him, it will be a long and painful death but at least he won't suffered too much in the end."
Braedon's eyes shot open wide as he shot up, "How could you say that! We can't allow that to happen!"
"Why?"
"What do you mean why? Look at him, he is just a child who is about to be killed and you're asking why we should save him! Kai Jun we can't just let him die like this when we can clearly save him."
Kai Jun stood up himself and stared Braedon deep in his eyes, "So what if he is a child. Braedon, we don't have time to babysit a random child that we just met. You are forgetting that not only did we just meet him here and now, but he just so happens to work for the group that the people who stole your body are a part of! He gave us almost nothing to work on and is pathetically weak. You're telling me you want to take someone like that with us? That's just foolishness."
Braedon didn't back down though as he steeped himself, "It is not foolishness, I understand that you've been living in a world where the strong don't protect the weak. Nor do you have to care about those who are in trouble but I don't like that! I live in a world where we are told that those who are given power are also give the responsibility to use that power to protect those without it. I know that I can't protect everyone in the world, but if someone like him is in close enough in front of me that I can reach him, then I want to help out as much as I can."
Kai Jun's face twisted into a snarl as he rebuked his words, "Protect those in front of you, HA! What about all of the mortals down below us, if someone stronger than you by several realms attacked them right now, you would sacrifice yourself to attack them?"
"If it means that I can save at least one life, then yes." Braedon shouted with clear and resolute look in his eyes. He calmed down his voice and whispered quietly to Kai Jun, "I know that this might cause a lot of trouble, and I know that he would be more of burden than assistance to us, but allowing an innocent boy, right in front of me, die is not something that I would want on my conscious nor would you."
"You don't know how much innocent blood is on my hands Braedon, one more person won't matter much to me."
The two stared each other down with neither one of them stepping back, "That isn't true Kai Jun, and you know it."
Jingyi Lei looked at this scene in front of him in shock, never in his wildest imaginations would he believe that another person would fight for his survival. As he looked at Braedon's back, an phantom like image of his big bro Li Ruo suddenly appeared right next to him.
The more he looked, the more he thought of how similar both his big bro and Braedon seemed. "Big bro Braedon?"
Finally Kai Jun couldn't handle Braedon's persistence anymore and gave up, "Fine! We will bring him with us, but if a situation occurs where I have to choose between saving his life and saving your, I will choose you in a heartbeat Braedon."
"I would hope for nothing less." Reason gave off a triumphant smile and thanked Kai Jun profusely.
Afterwords, he turned to Jingyi Lei, who was still just sitting there and put an arm out, "So how about to, want to come with us?"
Just as he was about to answer a voice called out suddenly, "Hey, slave! What's going on here?"
Suddenly a group of people appeared out of nowhere and began to question them. Without even thinking, Braedon already knew who they were. The man who Jingyi Lei served under.
"Qi Bao! W-what are you doing here?"
"Well I noticed that my favorite little punching bag was missing so I went out to find him, and here he is talking away with some nice young people. And who might they be? The ones who have been attacking our people?"
A panicked expression appeared on Jingyi Lei's face as he wobbled over and fell down at the man named Qi Hal's feet, "No, they aren't! They are just nice people that have nothing to do with the ones who attack us! Please let them leave peacefully." He smashed his head into the ground as he begged the man to release both Kai Jun and Braedon.
A disgusted look appeared on Qi Bao's face as he raised up his foot, "Who gave you the right to talk back to me?"
Jingyi Lei began to tremble when he saw the foot and prepared to be stomped upon, but before he could do anything Braedon charged in and swung his arm out.
Flames began to pop out of his hand and strike at Qi Bao's foot. Qi Bao, who thought nothing of the flames, kept pushing his foot down but he suddenly felt something hard stop his stomp.
The flames cleared up and revealed a blazing reddish-orange feather shielding Jingyi Lei. Braedon stood there with his arm outstretched, "That's enough!"
Qi Bao didn't say a thing as he swung his hand forward. Braedon quickly grabbed Jingyi Lei and retreated back to Kai Jun's side. A loud sigh escaped his mouth as he said, "I told you Braedon, that boy is more trouble than he is worth."
Qi Bao waved his men aside and pulled out a large saber, "You dare to stop me from stepping on my slave? It seems that these people want to die, well then let us grant their wish. Prepare for battle everyone."
The two other people behind him pulled out their own weapons and got into a battle stance.
"Well, on the bright side, of any of them survive we can question them afterwards right Kai Jun?"
A cruel smile grew on Kai Jun's face as he approves of Braedon's words, "You aren't wrong."
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"What is the plan Kai Jun?" Braedon said this while snacking on a bag of potato chips with Kai Jun staring through binoculars next to him. They were standing on top of a building nearby the area where the suspicious man was inquiring more information from people.
The reason they were there was to watch over the man and prepare to take action. All he knew was that they were planning to do something to the suspicious man. As to what they were going to do though, he had no idea.
Kai Jun did not respond to his inquiry and instead just placed his fingers onto his lips in order to silence him.
He finally put the binoculars down and said in a bright manner, "We are going to kidnap him."
Braedon was not even surprised at this point and said, "Okay." To show that he was ready to act whenever he was needed.
"Don't worry Braedon, just leave the kidnapping to me. You do not have much experience in things like this anyway."
Now that made Braedon react, "Wait does that mean you do?" Kai Jun was becoming more and more creepy to Braedon everyday. He was sure that most of what he said were jokes, but the line between lies and reality were blending freakishly close together.
Kai Jun laughed out loud as he launched himself off the roof of the structure and landed onto the ground without anyone noticing. He quickly slid through the people surrounding the man and eventually arrived in front of him.
"Hi." Without saying another word, his fist crashed into the man's gullet and he motionlessly fell into Kai Jun's embrace. The civilians all around didn't even turn their heads at this scene, instead Braedon stood to the side with his phone out and began waving his arms around.
This way it made the entire thing look like some sort of movie or viral video that they were shooting instead of what it actually was. It also helped that people these days were too busy looking down at their phones to see what was happening in front of them.
This was a great thing for Braedon and Kai Jun though. The two of them dragged him away back to the roof of the building they were just on and Kai Jun said that they would wait patiently for him to awaken.
Even though he said that they would wait patiently, five minutes in and Kai Jun started to slap him silly hoping to wake him up quicker.
"Did I hit him too hard or something?! Why is he not waking up?"
It took Braedon a while to calm him and down finally he consciousness slowly returned soon after the slapping ended.
His eyes began to open slightly and with a gut wrenching pain in his stomach, his vision began to clear away as he saw to people bickering in front of him, "What the-?"
He suddenly recognized one of the men to be the same guy who shoved his fist into his belly and knocked him out, "Ah-" a hand was quickly slapped across his mouth and Braedon stared at him with cold emotionless eyes. His fingers were pressed abasing his lips, signaling to man to be silent.
"Quiet down now, if you make too loud a noise then I will kill you, if you try to act up in any way then I will break your arms, if I sense any fighting intent from you then we will break your legs, if you are hungry then we will go to a buffet and split the bill but nothing too fancy since we are pretty poor, and lastly if you answer our questions then you might leave unharmed." Braedon immediately stated out a few more rules and demands after giving off his intimidating speech.
Basically he told the man that as long as he did not try anything funny, then Kai Jun and Braedon would spare him. But if they suspected him of doing anything, well you could probably guess what they would do.
The man's name was Jingyi Lei and he was a cultivator in the second realm. Another fact that they learned about him actually gave quite a surprise for Kai Jun since, despite his appearance, Jingyi Lei was actually quite young. He was sixteen years old but looked like a twenty-five year old man.
His age correlation with his cultivation was quite common, so it appeared that he wasn't a very important person within the Shadow Guild.
His potential was average and his skills and techniques were lackluster. They knew this because at one point Kai Jun decided to pretend that he was distracted and give the man a chance to escape but when he tried, he failed miserably.
The man was one and a half meter tall with a large, fat belly. His greasy, jet-black hair covered his eyes and Jingyi Lei's pudgy fingers constantly twitched nervously as if he was playing and air piano.
Despite his best efforts, Braedon just couldn't say anything that would calm him down. On the bright side Jingyi Lei was so afraid of Kai Jun and him that whenever a question was asked, he would answer the question without any hesitation.
Unfortunately, he barely had any information on what they wanted to hear. From what he said, he was basically a servant of someone of a higher rank in the guild. His job was to search for a few people that have suddenly gone missing a while ago.
They inquired about who the people were and what they were after and apparently they missing people were geniuses of the Shadow Guild That were supposed to follow specific targets that are possibly members of the organization fighting against the guild.
Braedon asked him who the targets were but he said that he had no idea. Kai Jun was standing to the side and would poke at Jingyi Lei's belly continuously.
"Kai Jun could you leave the poor boy alone, I think you're making him think that you are planning to eat him or something."
Jingyi Lei, "Heeeee! He's going to eat me?! Please don't, I don't taste good at all, in fact, I taste really bad and I'm super unhealthy! Yeah, I'm really not good for you, who knows I might even give you indigestion or something. Just please don't eat me."
Tears and snot began to flow out of him as he kneeled on the ground and began bowing towards Kai Jun.
"Now look what you did Braedon! You scared the poor boy." Kai Jun gave a disappointed look towards Braedon as if this was all his fault.
Braedon just closed his eyes and began repeating the same phrase over and over again, "Go to your happy place, go to your happy place, go to your happy place."
Kai Jun's smile grew immense as he kept staring at the crying fatso right next to him. He started chuckling when the boy began to grab at and hug his feet.
"I promise I'll be good." Something about the boy made Kai Jun be reminded of an old friend of his long ago.
"Hey fatso."
"My name is Jingyi Lei..." the boy quietly reminded Kai Jun of his name after he was called fatso.
"What did you say?" Kai Jun didn't clearly hear what Jingyi Lei muttered under his breath and asked him to repeat it.
"Ah! Nothing at all, yes Sir Kai Jun, little fatso is listening." He apparently mistook this as Kai Jun becoming angry and immediately tried to apologize.
This actually made Braedon feel kind of bad for him as he realized that from an outside perspective, they looked like gangsters bullying a young man, "Hey, you don't really have a lot of pride do you?"
The boy looked up and shook his head solemnly, "I am a slave of the Shadow Guild. Beings like me can't have self esteem. We were raised to be used not to be cared for. Plus what would a weak and fat nobody like me be prideful about?"
He didn't say this with sadness, despair, or anger. Instead this was said in a way that made it seem like common sense. Even Kai Jun became just tiny bit more serious when he heard the boy's words and he knelt down on one knee right next to him.
"What are you talking about? You probably have plenty of things to be prideful about. I mean you don't seem to be that weak."
Braedon sat down next to him as well, "Yeah, I mean you were somehow able to join the Shadow Guild, right? While I understand you aren't a high ranking member, at least you were able to join."
Jingyi Lei shook his head sadly, "You don't understand, when I say that I am slave of the Shadow Guild, I meant that literally. My parents, who were poor at the time, sold me off to a space trader when I was younger. They did it so that they could obtain some money to pay off their debts and bills."
He paused for a second as his memories of the past began to resurface, "I passed through several owners one by one who beat and abused me. Eventually I was finally sold off to the Shadow Guild, there I was forced into a battle for survival. I was placed into a room with twenty four other children like me all the same age, six. We were forced to labor away everyday and were given barely any food. As soon as food would arrive, everyone would kick and punch each other in order to reach the bread and bucket of water first."
Braedon's eyes squinted into thin spots while Kai Jun passively knelt there and listened as Jingyi Lei continued, "Finally when we all became eight years old, we were given a chance to obtain freedom," tears began to flow down his cheeks as haunting images began to appear within his mind one after another.
"We were forced into a death match. In order to survive, each of us were forced to slaughter each other and the last one standing was kept as a slave. I barely won, but even then in my heart I knew that I was the one who actually lost."
"For years after that I was neglected, given almost no training resources, and used as a punching bag by the other members. Almost nobody cared for me and I was sure that I was living in hell. But one person saved me, big bro Li Ruo. Throughout the entire ordeal, he watched over me and protected me. He even shared some of his resources with me and when I grew hungry, he would immediately bring me food to eat."
A bright smile appeared on the boy's face and a happy feeling began to radiate off his body, "Even when an elder of the guild wished to refine me, it was big bro who stopped him and protected me, thanks to the fact that big bro is a talented genius and they didn't want to lose him in any way."
At this Braedon paused his story telling, "Wait, what do you mean by refine you?"
Kai Jun looked over at Braedon and said, "Some cultivators, when they are reaching the end of their lives and can't advance any further, choose to turn the body and soul of other people into pills to eat. These pills provide the user to obtain a longer lifespan and a higher chance at breaking through into the next realm. The problem is that the process is so brutal and I humans that most cultivators would find the subject taboo. This doesn't mean that no one does it though."
Braedon looked on disgusted by the thought of refining another person, "That's horrible, why would anyone do that?"
"You need to accept that the world is full of rainbows and gummy bears Braedon. In the world of cultivation it is either kill or be killed. Not everyone is kind like you. The quicker you accept this, the easier it will be to digest this information."
Braedon was still shaken up by the news but he nodded to Jingyi Lei in order to let him continue, "Go on."
The boy looked at the two people talk curiously. It was strange, at first he found the two people to be horrifying like monsters but now he wasn't afraid anymore, "Th-thank you. Anyway, big bro took care of me as if I was his own brother if it wasn't for him I wouldn't be here right now. But now I'm worried. Big bro was one of the people who suddenly went missing recently and I'm worried about where he went."
Radeon stopped him for a second, "Wait is your big bro the person that you have been giving a description of?"
"Yes!" As the boy responded a knowing look appeared on Kai Jun's face, "Fatso, I think you should stop searching for your big bro and instead run away."
The boy looked at Kai Jun in shock, "What! Why?"
Braedon tried to stop him before he could continue but Kai Jun answered the question too quickly, "That is because he is dead."
A shocked and heartbroken expression appeared on Jingyi Lei's face as he asked in a shaky voice, "D-did you k-k-kill..." Kai Jun shook his head in response and the boy looked down sadly, "Then do you know who did?" Again his answer was a shaking of the head.
Even more tears began to stream down his face as he collapsed right there sobbing. Braedon sadly looked at him and turned to Kai Jun, "What will happen to him now that this Li Ruo is gone?"
"Most likely that elder will refine him, it will be a long and painful death but at least he won't suffered too much in the end."
Braedon's eyes shot open wide as he shot up, "How could you say that! We can't allow that to happen!"
"Why?"
"What do you mean why? Look at him, he is just a child who is about to be killed and you're asking why we should save him! Kai Jun we can't just let him die like this when we can clearly save him."
Kai Jun stood up himself and stared Braedon deep in his eyes, "So what if he is a child. Braedon, we don't have time to babysit a random child that we just met. You are forgetting that not only did we just meet him here and now, but he just so happens to work for the group that the people who stole your body are a part of! He gave us almost nothing to work on and is pathetically weak. You're telling me you want to take someone like that with us? That's just foolishness."
Braedon didn't back down though as he steeped himself, "It is not foolishness, I understand that you've been living in a world where the strong don't protect the weak. Nor do you have to care about those who are in trouble but I don't like that! I live in a world where we are told that those who are given power are also give the responsibility to use that power to protect those without it. I know that I can't protect everyone in the world, but if someone like him is in close enough in front of me that I can reach him, then I want to help out as much as I can."
Kai Jun's face twisted into a snarl as he rebuked his words, "Protect those in front of you, HA! What about all of the mortals down below us, if someone stronger than you by several realms attacked them right now, you would sacrifice yourself to attack them?"
"If it means that I can save at least one life, then yes." Braedon shouted with clear and resolute look in his eyes. He calmed down his voice and whispered quietly to Kai Jun, "I know that this might cause a lot of trouble, and I know that he would be more of burden than assistance to us, but allowing an innocent boy, right in front of me, die is not something that I would want on my conscious nor would you."
"You don't know how much innocent blood is on my hands Braedon, one more person won't matter much to me."
The two stared each other down with neither one of them stepping back, "That isn't true Kai Jun, and you know it."
Jingyi Lei looked at this scene in front of him in shock, never in his wildest imaginations would he believe that another person would fight for his survival. As he looked at Braedon's back, an phantom like image of his big bro Li Ruo suddenly appeared right next to him.
The more he looked, the more he thought of how similar both his big bro and Braedon seemed. "Big bro Braedon?"
Finally Kai Jun couldn't handle Braedon's persistence anymore and gave up, "Fine! We will bring him with us, but if a situation occurs where I have to choose between saving his life and saving your, I will choose you in a heartbeat Braedon."
"I would hope for nothing less." Reason gave off a triumphant smile and thanked Kai Jun profusely.
Afterwords, he turned to Jingyi Lei, who was still just sitting there and put an arm out, "So how about to, want to come with us?"
Just as he was about to answer a voice called out suddenly, "Hey, slave! What's going on here?"
Suddenly a group of people appeared out of nowhere and began to question them. Without even thinking, Braedon already knew who they were. The man who Jingyi Lei served under.
"Qi Bao! W-what are you doing here?"
"Well I noticed that my favorite little punching bag was missing so I went out to find him, and here he is talking away with some nice young people. And who might they be? The ones who have been attacking our people?"
A panicked expression appeared on Jingyi Lei's face as he wobbled over and fell down at the man named Qi Hal's feet, "No, they aren't! They are just nice people that have nothing to do with the ones who attack us! Please let them leave peacefully." He smashed his head into the ground as he begged the man to release both Kai Jun and Braedon.
A disgusted look appeared on Qi Bao's face as he raised up his foot, "Who gave you the right to talk back to me?"
Jingyi Lei began to tremble when he saw the foot and prepared to be stomped upon, but before he could do anything Braedon charged in and swung his arm out.
Flames began to pop out of his hand and strike at Qi Bao's foot. Qi Bao, who thought nothing of the flames, kept pushing his foot down but he suddenly felt something hard stop his stomp.
The flames cleared up and revealed a blazing reddish-orange feather shielding Jingyi Lei. Braedon stood there with his arm outstretched, "That's enough!"
Qi Bao didn't say a thing as he swung his hand forward. Braedon quickly grabbed Jingyi Lei and retreated back to Kai Jun's side. A loud sigh escaped his mouth as he said, "I told you Braedon, that boy is more trouble than he is worth."
Qi Bao waved his men aside and pulled out a large saber, "You dare to stop me from stepping on my slave? It seems that these people want to die, well then let us grant their wish. Prepare for battle everyone."
The two other people behind him pulled out their own weapons and got into a battle stance.
"Well, on the bright side, of any of them survive we can question them afterwards right Kai Jun?"
A cruel smile grew on Kai Jun's face as he approves of Braedon's words, "You aren't wrong."
"What is the plan Kai Jun?" Braedon said this while snacking on a bag of potato chips with Kai Jun staring through binoculars next to him. They were standing on top of a building nearby the area where the suspicious man was inquiring more information from people.The reason they were there was to watch over the man and prepare to take action. All he knew was that they were planning to do something to the suspicious man. As to what they were going to do though, he had no idea.Kai Jun did not respond to his inquiry and instead just placed his fingers onto his lips in order to silence him.He finally put the binoculars down and said in a bright manner, "We are going to kidnap him."Braedon was not even surprised at this point and said, "Okay." To show that he was ready to act whenever he was needed."Don't worry Braedon, just leave the kidnapping to me. You do not have much experience in things like this anyway."Now that made Braedon react, "Wait does that mean you do?" Kai Jun was becoming more and more creepy to Braedon everyday. He was sure that most of what he said were jokes, but the line between lies and reality were blending freakishly close together.Kai Jun laughed out loud as he launched himself off the roof of the structure and landed onto the ground without anyone noticing. He quickly slid through the people surrounding the man and eventually arrived in front of him."Hi." Without saying another word, his fist crashed into the man's gullet and he motionlessly fell into Kai Jun's embrace. The civilians all around didn't even turn their heads at this scene, instead Braedon stood to the side with his phone out and began waving his arms around.This way it made the entire thing look like some sort of movie or viral video that they were shooting instead of what it actually was. It also helped that people these days were too busy looking down at their phones to see what was happening in front of them.This was a great thing for Braedon and Kai Jun though. The two of them dragged him away back to the roof of the building they were just on and Kai Jun said that they would wait patiently for him to awaken.Even though he said that they would wait patiently, five minutes in and Kai Jun started to slap him silly hoping to wake him up quicker."Did I hit him too hard or something?! Why is he not waking up?"It took Braedon a while to calm him and down finally he consciousness slowly returned soon after the slapping ended.His eyes began to open slightly and with a gut wrenching pain in his stomach, his vision began to clear away as he saw to people bickering in front of him, "What the-?"He suddenly recognized one of the men to be the same guy who shoved his fist into his belly and knocked him out, "Ah-" a hand was quickly slapped across his mouth and Braedon stared at him with cold emotionless eyes. His fingers were pressed abasing his lips, signaling to man to be silent."Quiet down now, if you make too loud a noise then I will kill you, if you try to act up in any way then I will break your arms, if I sense any fighting intent from you then we will break your legs, if you are hungry then we will go to a buffet and split the bill but nothing too fancy since we are pretty poor, and lastly if you answer our questions then you might leave unharmed." Braedon immediately stated out a few more rules and demands after giving off his intimidating speech.Basically he told the man that as long as he did not try anything funny, then Kai Jun and Braedon would spare him. But if they suspected him of doing anything, well you could probably guess what they would do.The man's name was Jingyi Lei and he was a cultivator in the second realm. Another fact that they learned about him actually gave quite a surprise for Kai Jun since, despite his appearance, Jingyi Lei was actually quite young. He was sixteen years old but looked like a twenty-five year old man.His age correlation with his cultivation was quite common, so it appeared that he wasn't a very important person within the Shadow Guild.His potential was average and his skills and techniques were lackluster. They knew this because at one point Kai Jun decided to pretend that he was distracted and give the man a chance to escape but when he tried, he failed miserably.The man was one and a half meter tall with a large, fat belly. His greasy, jet-black hair covered his eyes and Jingyi Lei's pudgy fingers constantly twitched nervously as if he was playing and air piano.Despite his best efforts, Braedon just couldn't say anything that would calm him down. On the bright side Jingyi Lei was so afraid of Kai Jun and him that whenever a question was asked, he would answer the question without any hesitation.Unfortunately, he barely had any information on what they wanted to hear. From what he said, he was basically a servant of someone of a higher rank in the guild. His job was to search for a few people that have suddenly gone missing a while ago.They inquired about who the people were and what they were after and apparently they missing people were geniuses of the Shadow Guild That were supposed to follow specific targets that are possibly members of the organization fighting against the guild.Braedon asked him who the targets were but he said that he had no idea. Kai Jun was standing to the side and would poke at Jingyi Lei's belly continuously."Kai Jun could you leave the poor boy alone, I think you're making him think that you are planning to eat him or something."Jingyi Lei, "Heeeee! He's going to eat me?! Please don't, I don't taste good at all, in fact, I taste really bad and I'm super unhealthy! Yeah, I'm really not good for you, who knows I might even give you indigestion or something. Just please don't eat me."Tears and snot began to flow out of him as he kneeled on the ground and began bowing towards Kai Jun."Now look what you did Braedon! You scared the poor boy." Kai Jun gave a disappointed look towards Braedon as if this was all his fault.Braedon just closed his eyes and began repeating the same phrase over and over again, "Go to your happy place, go to your happy place, go to your happy place."Kai Jun's smile grew immense as he kept staring at the crying fatso right next to him. He started chuckling when the boy began to grab at and hug his feet."I promise I'll be good." Something about the boy made Kai Jun be reminded of an old friend of his long ago."Hey fatso.""My name is Jingyi Lei..." the boy quietly reminded Kai Jun of his name after he was called fatso."What did you say?" Kai Jun didn't clearly hear what Jingyi Lei muttered under his breath and asked him to repeat it."Ah! Nothing at all, yes Sir Kai Jun, little fatso is listening." He apparently mistook this as Kai Jun becoming angry and immediately tried to apologize.This actually made Braedon feel kind of bad for him as he realized that from an outside perspective, they looked like gangsters bullying a young man, "Hey, you don't really have a lot of pride do you?"The boy looked up and shook his head solemnly, "I am a slave of the Shadow Guild. Beings like me can't have self esteem. We were raised to be used not to be cared for. Plus what would a weak and fat nobody like me be prideful about?"He didn't say this with sadness, despair, or anger. Instead this was said in a way that made it seem like common sense. Even Kai Jun became just tiny bit more serious when he heard the boy's words and he knelt down on one knee right next to him."What are you talking about? You probably have plenty of things to be prideful about. I mean you don't seem to be that weak."Braedon sat down next to him as well, "Yeah, I mean you were somehow able to join the Shadow Guild, right? While I understand you aren't a high ranking member, at least you were able to join."Jingyi Lei shook his head sadly, "You don't understand, when I say that I am slave of the Shadow Guild, I meant that literally. My parents, who were poor at the time, sold me off to a space trader when I was younger. They did it so that they could obtain some money to pay off their debts and bills."He paused for a second as his memories of the past began to resurface, "I passed through several owners one by one who beat and abused me. Eventually I was finally sold off to the Shadow Guild, there I was forced into a battle for survival. I was placed into a room with twenty four other children like me all the same age, six. We were forced to labor away everyday and were given barely any food. As soon as food would arrive, everyone would kick and punch each other in order to reach the bread and bucket of water first."Braedon's eyes squinted into thin spots while Kai Jun passively knelt there and listened as Jingyi Lei continued, "Finally when we all became eight years old, we were given a chance to obtain freedom," tears began to flow down his cheeks as haunting images began to appear within his mind one after another."We were forced into a death match. In order to survive, each of us were forced to slaughter each other and the last one standing was kept as a slave. I barely won, but even then in my heart I knew that I was the one who actually lost.""For years after that I was neglected, given almost no training resources, and used as a punching bag by the other members. Almost nobody cared for me and I was sure that I was living in hell. But one person saved me, big bro Li Ruo. Throughout the entire ordeal, he watched over me and protected me. He even shared some of his resources with me and when I grew hungry, he would immediately bring me food to eat."A bright smile appeared on the boy's face and a happy feeling began to radiate off his body, "Even when an elder of the guild wished to refine me, it was big bro who stopped him and protected me, thanks to the fact that big bro is a talented genius and they didn't want to lose him in any way."At this Braedon paused his story telling, "Wait, what do you mean by refine you?"Kai Jun looked over at Braedon and said, "Some cultivators, when they are reaching the end of their lives and can't advance any further, choose to turn the body and soul of other people into pills to eat. These pills provide the user to obtain a longer lifespan and a higher chance at breaking through into the next realm. The problem is that the process is so brutal and I humans that most cultivators would find the subject taboo. This doesn't mean that no one does it though."Braedon looked on disgusted by the thought of refining another person, "That's horrible, why would anyone do that?""You need to accept that the world is full of rainbows and gummy bears Braedon. In the world of cultivation it is either kill or be killed. Not everyone is kind like you. The quicker you accept this, the easier it will be to digest this information."Braedon was still shaken up by the news but he nodded to Jingyi Lei in order to let him continue, "Go on."The boy looked at the two people talk curiously. It was strange, at first he found the two people to be horrifying like monsters but now he wasn't afraid anymore, "Th-thank you. Anyway, big bro took care of me as if I was his own brother if it wasn't for him I wouldn't be here right now. But now I'm worried. Big bro was one of the people who suddenly went missing recently and I'm worried about where he went."Radeon stopped him for a second, "Wait is your big bro the person that you have been giving a description of?""Yes!" As the boy responded a knowing look appeared on Kai Jun's face, "Fatso, I think you should stop searching for your big bro and instead run away."The boy looked at Kai Jun in shock, "What! Why?"Braedon tried to stop him before he could continue but Kai Jun answered the question too quickly, "That is because he is dead."A shocked and heartbroken expression appeared on Jingyi Lei's face as he asked in a shaky voice, "D-did you k-k-kill..." Kai Jun shook his head in response and the boy looked down sadly, "Then do you know who did?" Again his answer was a shaking of the head.Even more tears began to stream down his face as he collapsed right there sobbing. Braedon sadly looked at him and turned to Kai Jun, "What will happen to him now that this Li Ruo is gone?""Most likely that elder will refine him, it will be a long and painful death but at least he won't suffered too much in the end."Braedon's eyes shot open wide as he shot up, "How could you say that! We can't allow that to happen!""Why?""What do you mean why? Look at him, he is just a child who is about to be killed and you're asking why we should save him! Kai Jun we can't just let him die like this when we can clearly save him."Kai Jun stood up himself and stared Braedon deep in his eyes, "So what if he is a child. Braedon, we don't have time to babysit a random child that we just met. You are forgetting that not only did we just meet him here and now, but he just so happens to work for the group that the people who stole your body are a part of! He gave us almost nothing to work on and is pathetically weak. You're telling me you want to take someone like that with us? That's just foolishness."Braedon didn't back down though as he steeped himself, "It is not foolishness, I understand that you've been living in a world where the strong don't protect the weak. Nor do you have to care about those who are in trouble but I don't like that! I live in a world where we are told that those who are given power are also give the responsibility to use that power to protect those without it. I know that I can't protect everyone in the world, but if someone like him is in close enough in front of me that I can reach him, then I want to help out as much as I can."Kai Jun's face twisted into a snarl as he rebuked his words, "Protect those in front of you, HA! What about all of the mortals down below us, if someone stronger than you by several realms attacked them right now, you would sacrifice yourself to attack them?""If it means that I can save at least one life, then yes." Braedon shouted with clear and resolute look in his eyes. He calmed down his voice and whispered quietly to Kai Jun, "I know that this might cause a lot of trouble, and I know that he would be more of burden than assistance to us, but allowing an innocent boy, right in front of me, die is not something that I would want on my conscious nor would you.""You don't know how much innocent blood is on my hands Braedon, one more person won't matter much to me."The two stared each other down with neither one of them stepping back, "That isn't true Kai Jun, and you know it."Jingyi Lei looked at this scene in front of him in shock, never in his wildest imaginations would he believe that another person would fight for his survival. As he looked at Braedon's back, an phantom like image of his big bro Li Ruo suddenly appeared right next to him.The more he looked, the more he thought of how similar both his big bro and Braedon seemed. "Big bro Braedon?"Finally Kai Jun couldn't handle Braedon's persistence anymore and gave up, "Fine! We will bring him with us, but if a situation occurs where I have to choose between saving his life and saving your, I will choose you in a heartbeat Braedon.""I would hope for nothing less." Reason gave off a triumphant smile and thanked Kai Jun profusely.Afterwords, he turned to Jingyi Lei, who was still just sitting there and put an arm out, "So how about to, want to come with us?"Just as he was about to answer a voice called out suddenly, "Hey, slave! What's going on here?"Suddenly a group of people appeared out of nowhere and began to question them. Without even thinking, Braedon already knew who they were. The man who Jingyi Lei served under."Qi Bao! W-what are you doing here?""Well I noticed that my favorite little punching bag was missing so I went out to find him, and here he is talking away with some nice young people. And who might they be? The ones who have been attacking our people?"A panicked expression appeared on Jingyi Lei's face as he wobbled over and fell down at the man named Qi Hal's feet, "No, they aren't! They are just nice people that have nothing to do with the ones who attack us! Please let them leave peacefully." He smashed his head into the ground as he begged the man to release both Kai Jun and Braedon.A disgusted look appeared on Qi Bao's face as he raised up his foot, "Who gave you the right to talk back to me?"Jingyi Lei began to tremble when he saw the foot and prepared to be stomped upon, but before he could do anything Braedon charged in and swung his arm out.Flames began to pop out of his hand and strike at Qi Bao's foot. Qi Bao, who thought nothing of the flames, kept pushing his foot down but he suddenly felt something hard stop his stomp.The flames cleared up and revealed a blazing reddish-orange feather shielding Jingyi Lei. Braedon stood there with his arm outstretched, "That's enough!"Qi Bao didn't say a thing as he swung his hand forward. Braedon quickly grabbed Jingyi Lei and retreated back to Kai Jun's side. A loud sigh escaped his mouth as he said, "I told you Braedon, that boy is more trouble than he is worth."Qi Bao waved his men aside and pulled out a large saber, "You dare to stop me from stepping on my slave? It seems that these people want to die, well then let us grant their wish. Prepare for battle everyone."The two other people behind him pulled out their own weapons and got into a battle stance."Well, on the bright side, of any of them survive we can question them afterwards right Kai Jun?"A cruel smile grew on Kai Jun's face as he approves of Braedon's words, "You aren't wrong."
