Haa...haa..hahh
Heavy breathing rung out into the wilderness as a person sat knelt tongue ground. He had blood covering his mouth and a crazed, terrified look in his eyes.
A wolf, seeing its opportunity, jumps forwards and snaps it's jaw wide open. Its going in for the kill.
The man dug his fingers into the ground then swiped to the side, throwing dirt into the wolf's face. It jumped back, surprised at it's prey, but not scared yet.
The man turned to look at the wolf, and in its place he imaged a terror, a terror so hard that he shot forward like a rabid animal.
No sword, no weapon but pure human brutality. His hands glowed a purple light as a barrage of punches turn the wolf into a pile of flesh.
He stood up and looked into the sky, screaming in a primal tongue.
***
Si Tai stood in the wreckage of that district of the city. All the building thoroughly destroyed, the people buried under. He looked in disgust at the remnants of miasma he had felt.
"If it's miasma, then that leaves one likely culprit. Nine Clouds Sovereign Sect, specifically Elder Nine Clouds Purple Miasma, Mo Huai!"
Si Tai crushed his hand and the air around him turned dark and bloody shadows rose from the wreckage and turned into the figure of man.
"This man..."
So Tai's eyes flickered, he had seen this person before. Well...he hadn't seen him personally, but he had heard of him.
He bit his lips, and then broke a simple jade slip. Then a projection formed, a projection of a cultivator sitting upon a golden throne.
He rapped his fingers and then realised who had summoned his projection and sat up, "Senior brother Si Tai! Greetings!"
"Stop the politeness and tell me, is this the man you placed a tracker on?"
The projection looked at the shadow which had taken the form of a person. He studied the features and then nodded gravely, "This is him...Hamar. He's the one that could use a weird technique to invalidate laws despite no fluctuations in his base!"
Si Tai closed his eyes for a moment then dismissed the projection, "Leave now, send me the latest location of him. I'll send some people to get rid off him, what do you estimate his power to be?"
"It shard to say with his techniques...if I had to guess, I would say he surpasses second hardening and perhaps more. I don't see how even with his techniques he could do anything to you. Is there some conspiracy with the other major sects? Perhaps Yi Sect?"
Si Tai nodded, "Perhaps, but don't dig into this. Keep to your own missions Fang Xia. Now as said, leave." He shooed the projection away, it disappearing shortly after.
He squeezed his fists, "A mere second hardening cultivator escaping me...if he hadn't stolen the Grand Life Crystal, I would've like him. Too bad.."
As he mentioned the Grand Life Crystal his eyes flickered, a pain evident in his demeanour. Even such a strong figure had worries.
The Terrestrial Overlords Sect of which he was member of had used many resources creating the Grand Life Crystal and he couldn't afford to lose it.
***
The man, stood beside the flesh that was once a wolf composed himself. He brushed his long hair back with his bloodied up hands and his eyes settled to a sanity he had not been earlier.
He took a few deep breath and in doing so a purple light burst forward and a qualitative change occurred.
Hamar felt his aura condense further but more so it became more entangled with the essence of his being, he knew that now he could use aura with more preciseness and pull out more power. His techniques could become stronger than they ever were.
A flash of inspiration washed over him and he held out his hands and put them together, then he bared his teeth...his fangs.
The purple aura flowed out and turned into the shape of a phantom wolf, as he pounced forward, the phantom wolf followed and his every attack was enhanced by that spectral figure.
After showing a few moved he dropped his hands satisfied. He had let out his primal urges and now returned to vague normalcy, and pulled out something from his robe. A smaller piece of paper, on which he wrote with a brush,
"Mo Huai, master, I have a map. As told previously I made a deal with Night Sky information brokers and this is some results they've gained...Hou might be in one of these places, they are all places with the specific type of poison he is in contact with...I've come into contact with an enemy and had to use the Miasma avatar you and given me to escape...his name is Si Tai..."
Then in the back side of that letter he drew a map. It was a copy of that same one he was given. He had memorized it, after his rejuvenation his memory had been enhanced.
Then he put the letter in an envelope and sealed it with a special tool, as he threw it into the air it turned to miasma and vanished.
hamar held out his hand and using aura he made a solid block which he sat upon and thought. He locked his fingers together and furrowed his brows, "Hou...It seems in this journey to find you, I'm going to have to become much stronger."
He looked into the sky, and imagined a scene. A massive whirlwind of laws and energy. A cosmic spectral giant, fighting against a earth spider-man monster.
The two giants completely ignoring the world, as if above it all. He continued to look up, looking far into the distance.
He continued imaging, "Hou why did you have to sacrifice yourself...Just who attacked us, and why! There's no reason we had to lose you...and now what? You're sealed by that same enemy!?"
Hamar's eyes became bloodshot and his pupils shook. He stood up and his aura burst out again. That breakthrough from before compounded again and the aura shook vividly.
Looking into the sky, his face scrunched and he pulled out his sword. Using that angry aura he...he put it all into one slash and cut the sky, angry at it all.
Angry that Hou was gone, angry that in his attempt to find him he found that he was weaker than an ant, angry at his weakness against the forces at play.
That anger manifested as he cut the sky, not just the clouds, but the air, the space, the concept of the sky was cut.
It quickly mended and everything was patched as soon as it was broken. He dropped his sword in resignation, "I'm too weak...far too weak."
He felt a ping come from a token in his robe, that token he had been given to contact Night Sky. But in this moment, he felt like that was of least importance and he did not check it.
Sheathing his sword, a new determination welt up in Hamar. A determination to really grow, not just passively going through the journey to find Hou, he would never find him that way.
No. He needed to grow stronger through hard work, constantly striving to expand strength and comprehension. "Only by comprehending more can I grow past any limits..."
He took out his map and looked at a certain marked point, one he had not drawn on the copy he gave to Mo Huai. "At least, I know where to go from here. Get strong enough where I can investigate these sites safely."