"Jashua, how many of them do you want to fight this time?"
The woman raising her hand on the handles of the wheelchair was waiting for an answer from the hulking young man standing in the center of the formation.
"Does it have to be this slow?"
"What would you like?"
Jashua was in a place five steps by five steps wide, where the blood on the ground reached his ankles; disciples trapped in other parts of the formation were watching him carefully. There were five round areas connected to the square area in the middle, and the old woman sent a certain number of people to Jashua each time.
"I don't understand why you let those two escape. Since I am left with these looters, how about you open them all at once?"
The old woman leaned towards the man sitting in the wheelchair; apparently, she wanted his opinion. It was also the man standing one step away from death who stopped the old woman with a dry cough when Bloody Star Norte and Bloody River Corriente were fleeing.
The old man scanned Jashua for a few breaths, and then a faint smile appeared on his face; the answer was very clear. The woman, raising her hands into the air, lifted the barriers separating the square section from the round ones; no obstacle remained between Jashua and the disciples numbering over a hundred and fifty.
"Attack, kill him!"
"Don't be afraid; for the revenge of the dead!"
Jashua, targeted by the disciples flocking to the first gap they saw like rats trapped in a cage, raised his two hands into the air, and at that moment, the blood on the ground began to gather forming five spheres. A sphere appeared in front of each area passage; they formed so fast that the attacking crowd hadn't taken a few steps yet.
"So you have the courage to make claims bigger than your size!"
When Jashua's words finished, the spheres began to fly into the crowds; while slight vibrations on their surfaces caught the eye, they had already entered among the disciples of Bloody Star and Bloody River.
"Explode!"
The Young Count uttered a single word, and the blood spheres he created exploded instantly. In the blink of an eye, smaller blood spheres shaped like marbles scattered everywhere. It was impossible to see anything inside the round areas. Due to parts torn from people, a fog of blood had formed.
When ten breaths passed, the only person left alive inside the formation was none other than Jashua. Blood was flowing from the bodies of the dead and gathering in the area where he was; they were flowing rapidly as if being sucked by a vacuum.
When everything was over, the blood level almost reached Jashua's waist. While faint vibrations rippled the blood pool, his eyes were on the old woman and the man.
"So you could advance this much on your own?"
Jashua was the target of the woman's admiring gazes. She was advancing step by step towards the formation she approached by pushing the wheelchair. A step or two before reaching the blood-red wall, a door wide enough for two people to pass comfortably opened, but the blood almost at waist level didn't flow out.
The old man lifted his arm with movements that seemed like slow motion and plunged it into the blood; at that moment, the area Jashua was in started vibrating madly. The Young Count was having hard moments due to the vibrations transferred to his body from the blood. While sweat flowed from his forehead like floods, the sound of his teeth chattering against each other could be easily heard.
When the Founding Sheikh withdrew his hand, the formation closed again. As the old man, exhausted to death by this small movement, closed his eyes, the woman pushing his chair started speaking.
"Jashua, I give you one year! If you can assimilate the technique in the blood, the end of the road ahead of you will lead to a place you can never guess!"
When the old woman completed her words, she turned her back and attempted to return to the mansion, but Jashua shouted with excitement.
"I have six days; I cannot stay longer!"
A pleasant laughter slipped from the woman's lips and mixed into the air; then she would try to catch them by uttering a few more words.
"How much he resembles your youth. He is a goofy but sweet boy just like you!"
Jashua, who was trapped, was sure he couldn't get out; although the old woman looked like anyone, the Young Count could guess her identity.
While Nafız and Jashua were living their own destinies, in a completely different place inside the Blood Valley, five disciples of the Holy Blood Sect were advancing side by side. While walking in the dark valley, they saw a shadow coming towards them from afar.
"Who is that?"
"Identify yourself; who are you?"
As he approached, the comer turned out to be a long-haired young man. His face wasn't visible, but the aura he emitted was overwhelming.
"How boring to deal with the same trash every year!"
Following the movement of the young man snapping his fingers, four people collapsed to the ground like puppets whose strings were cut; the one person remaining standing was also about to have his knees give way.
"Congratulations; welcome to the Holy Blood Sect!"
The long-haired young man was laughing with arrogance while looking into the eyes of the other young man who was in shock. The person opposite him didn't know him, but if Nafız were here, she would know who he was without a second passing. She had unfinished business with Columna de cobre from the library, and now he was grabbing a disciple entering the Blood Valley trial by the arm and taking him along.
Activity continued outside the trial area where completely different stories were written in every corner, but there was a deathly silence in the area where five of the Six Clan representatives gathered. While they whispered among themselves, no one dared to approach them.
"Where is Virgen?"
Bloody Valley Valle was speaking without minding the deep cut on her face. With every movement of her mouth, there was a thin flow of blood from the moving wound.
"To hell with Virgen; I barely saved my life!"
Bloody Sun Sol wanted to hide his trembling hand from the others by taking it behind him, but everyone could see what state he was in. Even Bloody Mountain Cumbre right next to him had fallen apart; his usual majestic state was long gone.
"What happened inside? I would understand if it was one of us, but the men of all of us were killed. Even Virgen himself is missing; we were really very unlucky this time."
Although Bloody River Corriente tried to stand tall, the sudden changes in her voice were enough to reveal her mood. While waiting for the sixth one whose death they didn't know about, the five clan representatives were in a deplorable state.
The Third Elder watched the five from afar; his mind was somewhere completely different. Although he was responsible for the internal affairs of the sect, there was no one who didn't know he was in communication with the Six Clans. Clan Representatives were important, but those who died inside the Blood Valley were not ordinary people either.
Some were the children, grandchildren, and heirs of high-level names in the clans. His experience told him that those gone wouldn't come back, and if he didn't find a suitable cover for this situation, he would be in deep trouble.
The first day of the trial, which would last six days, started at a speed unprecedented in history, and when it became midnight, three-quarters of those who entered were thrown out. Although those waiting at the entrance of the Blood Valley assumed the remaining ones were alive, what they didn't know was that almost all of them were already dead.
Blood Valley opened this time truly thirsty for blood. No one came out on the second day; the third and fourth days accompanied it, but the result didn't change. There was no one coming or going; when the fifth day passed too, the disciples of the Holy Blood Sect concluded that those unable to come out were dead.
At the dawn of the Sixth Day, the vast majority of those waiting at the entrance of the Blood Valley had left the area; almost no one remained except the five clan representatives, the notables of the sect, and the Third Elder. They also dispersed after waiting all day when it got dark and the entrance to the Blood Valley closed.
Although they lost all their resources and men, the faces of the five clan representatives, who thought Jashua and Nafız, whom they saw as their greatest enemies, were dead, were smiling. Although he couldn't show it in the area, the Third Elder put on a satisfied expression in moments when he was alone; at least he had obtained an excuse he could present to the clans.
There was a full moon over the Holy Blood Sect tonight; where the entrance to the Blood Valley was open for six days, now darkness reigned until a blood-red light coming from nothingness cut through the air and opened a rift.