Kev's knife slashed through the ghost. His movements were more confident.
He had taken to coating his knife in Spirits. The difference was insane.
Kev was faster and stronger than ever. He eagerly absorbed another Soul.
He was starting to get a headache,but he ignored it.
It was nothing next to the power that came with those Souls.
He licked his lips. The more Souls he absorbed the more eager his own soul was to eat them. And the more eager he was to kill.
A ghost came running at him from behind. Kev turned around just in time.
His knife slashed through its putrid flesh.
Kev saw a glint of metal in its hands. His eyes widened.
He jumped back just in time. Its sword hit the air instead of Kev, albeit barely.
What the hell. It was the first one he saw with a weapon.
Uh. Whatever. He wouldn't let himself be bested.
His eyes narrowed. He lunged at it.
He narrowly avoided its sword and stabbed it again before jumping back.
Hah… this was so tiring. Fighting a sword with a knife was the worst.
As soon as that thing was dead, Kev was stealing its weapon.
Kev stabbed at it over and over again. Finally it fell, its Soul's light going down just a little.
It better had a good technique for him with all the effort it took to kill it.
Kev took it from its ribcage. A familiar warm feeling enveloped him.
He sighed contentedly. This was the best feeling.
Memories graved themselves in his mind. Yes. Finally, a good fighting technique.
The sword was eagerly pocketed from the body.
His grip adjusted itself on instinct. Like a familiar dance, he swung the sword.
He swung, not in the awkward way he swung his knife, but with practiced ease and brutality.
He smiled.
He felt the joy the previous owner of the sword had felt when swinging their weapon.
But… it felt weird. Maybe he had gotten too used to his knife.
He tried using the technique with the knife.
It felt… more familiar, better. But, it was also not quite as honed.
It just needed a bit more practice. He slashed the air over and over again.
Overall, today was very productive. He had absorbed a whole lot of Spirits and a whole lot of Souls.
He had also learned about a few plants. Just the more important ones he picked out from the book.
Particularly, the poisonous plants interested him. Given the Demonic Sect's reputation, he assumed he would be able to find a lot of those. Be it in their garden or their storage.
Hm. He was getting tired. He should go back in.
He hide the sword outside and kept the knife on himself.
He stared intently at the pill in his palm. He swallowed it whole before going to sleep.
Fatigue had started accumulating and he quickly fell asleep.
***
Kev blinked. As soon as he opened his eyes, he was blinded by a familiar light.
Ah, what kind of Spirit could shine so brightly.
His sight slowly got accustomed to the light. It was coming from… his ribcage.
He touched himself. It felt warmer than before. He felt so much stronger.
He dodged a pillow someone threw at him. He also seemed to be much faster.
" Don't lie to me, I know you took it. " Liu Jian said, gritting his teeth.
" Not this again. " Li Wei sighed.
" I already told you it wasn't me ! " Fang, the accused, yelled.
" What else am I supposed to think when you're always the first one to come back from work. "
Liu Jian glared. It was the first time Kev had actually seen him angry at one of the others.
This was definitely Kev's fault. He stopped himself from smirking.
But… it seemed as if they all knew about the pill. Kev looked at the lights emanating from their Souls.
He knew people with higher Spirit power like cultivator should have a brighter Soul than a normal person.
But he didn't really have a baseline for what a normal person's Soul would look like.
He stayed in his corner, reading his book until it was time for breakfast.
In his mind, he reminded himself of all the human parts Jin Mei had told him to remember.
It was difficult though, with all the yelling and all. He glared at them.
He sighed. Guess he could go to the servant hall early. He slipped out of the room, avoiding another stray pillow.
It was lucky there were only beds in their room. Otherwise, Liu Jan might have thrown a whole table at them.
He was kind of intimidating when angry. Before, it might have made Kev hunch on himself and silently obey Liu Jan.
But it didn't scare him much right now. Not when he felt the Spirits coursing through his veins.
He kind of wanted to hit a wall. Just to see if it would crack.
But he wasn't that fearless yet.
People started arriving and meals started being served.
It was the same strange mush. Now that he knew what Spirits tasted like, it seemed much more unappetizing.
But he didn't think he could live off of Spirits.
A hand hit the back of his neck.
" Tryna escape us, huh ? " Fang smirked.
Kev scowled.
" He isn't putting his nose where it doesn't belong. Unlike some people. " Liu Jian glared at Fang.
Ah. So they were still mad at each other then.
" Attention servants ! " Yelled the head maid of the inner court.
The hall quieted down. The head maid bowed her head to a man beside her.
" A new bunch of servants will soon been brought back. As such, there will be a purge among the staff. It has been decided that you will be given a cultivation technique scroll. Anyone who reaches the third level of Spirit Refinement may live. You have three weeks. "
Once his announcement done, the man threw the cultivation scroll on the ground like it was trash. He left, leaving the servants to whisper among themselves.
Kev carefully observed the other guys faces. Kev had never known them to be too confident, yet their faces showed no traces of worry.
Another point toward the ' they're all cultivators' theory. But what would they gain by hiding their power ?
To Kev's understanding, servants who managed to become cultivators were rewarded and could claim through the ranks.
Also, what was the third level of Spirit Refinement ?
He could guess it was one of the stages of cultivation. But he had no idea if it was one of the higher stages or not.
For all he knew, it was a stage impossible to reach in three weeks and they were just being set up for failure.
Maybe it was just another psychological experiment they were using them for.
Although, Kev still remembered the face of the woman who did most of said psychological experiments. That woman and the man who gave the speech were definitely not the same person.
Either way, it didn't matter.
Kev took a glance at the scroll. It was the same useless cultivation method he had extracted from the ghost's memories.
Did they really expect anyone to reach any kind of power with this useless thing ?
Whatever. It wasn't his problem. He stood up to go to Jin Mei.
She hadn't told him when to come, but she didn't seem to be the sort to expect him to be there before breakfast.
The pouch still full of coins she had given him hadn't left his side.
It was still as heavy as before. In truth, he didn't really know what to do with those coins.
He had never possessed money before. He didn't even know where he could spend coins in the sect.
His feet brought him to Jin Mei's door. He knocked.
" Come in ! " She yelled through the door.
He obeyed.
" Hello miss. " He greeted her politely.
" Hey, no time to talk. " She was running around, her arms full.
She handed him what was in her arms.
" Follow me. " She ordered with a wide smile.
He obeyed. She started saying words in another language.
Before he could ask what he was doing, the bookshelf slid aside to reveal a hidden door.
She opened it with a key she had around her neck. It clicked open.
It lead to a dark but rather large room. It reminded Kev of the dungeons he had so often cleaned.
It was silent. Well, almost. Kev's senses had become much more developed under the influence of Spirits. It made him able to catch, albeit barely, the weak breathing of some creature.
She stopped at a metal table. On it, was a distinctly human silhouette, bound to the table.
Ah. So not a creature then. He should have guessed.
The disgust and empathy he used to feel for the Sect's victim was gone. The only thing left in him was a vague sense of fear that this could become him.
" Put that down here. " She pointed to someplace.
He obeyed.
" Do you know what that is, apprentice ? " She asked.
The warm smile she wore clashed with… everything else. He noted that she called him 'apprentice'.
He thought he was just supposed to be a personal servant. Well, if she wanted to raise his ranks, far from him to argue.
" A human ? " He answered.
He didn't distinguish any trait on the body that would prove the contrary.
She chuckled.
" Yes, quite. But this is also a perfect canvas for what I have in mind. "
Hm. Poor thing, he thought, looking at the body. It was going to have a pretty bad time.
Kev didn't know when his sympathy for the Sect's victim had gone down so much. But it was bound to happen.
" What did you have in mind, miss ? " Kev asked, curious.
" Do you know what a Martyr is ? "
He knew the definition of the word 'martyr'. Somehow, he didn't think that was what she meant.
" A person that is condemned to suffer ? "
" Exactly. Martyrs are humans with a specific mutation that allows them to take other's suffering ; their wounds, their diseases, all gone. " She explained patiently, her eyes focused on the body.
Ah. He could see where this was going.
" And we are meant to induce a Martyr's mutation ? " He asked.
Jin Mei nodded.
It was a sound strategy to give even more power to the Demonic Sect.
" The Sect already has multiple Martyrs. Yet we still don't know how to make a Martyr. The only ones able to make Martyrs, to our knowledge, is the Voodoo Sect. And as you can guess, we can't ask them for help. "
No, Kev couldn't guess, as he had no knowledge of the politics going on between sects.
Well, aside from the Demonic Sect hate the Holy Sect and vice versa.
But that was common knowledge to anyone with a brain, so.
Either way, Kev nodded like he knew anything about a 'Voodoo' Sect.
" Now, inducing that mutation is where you come in, with your spirity thing. " She wiggled her fingers.
Kev froze. This was a good thing, right ?
He was always planning on telling someone anyway, in order to move through the ranks.
But how did she know ?
" I see the way you look in the void sometime. Everyone can sense Spirits if they train hard enough. But not everyone can see them. It's a rare gift that. "
Kev stayed silent for a moment.
" Thank you. " He didn't know what else to say. " But I still don't understand how I can help. "
She smiled. Jin Mei turned around to a wall full of drawers.
She opened one of them. She easily pulled out a metal plate on which laid a body. Or well, a torso.
Kev's eyes widened. It was still breathing. It didn't even have a head. He swallowed.
" This is a Martyr the Sect stole. It is the only one in my possession. Your job will be to write down everything unusual about its Spirits. " She explained to Kev.
She put the body on another table. She threw a book at him.
He caught it before it could hit him.
" It's blank notebook. For you to write all your observations. You can keep the book. But you need to bring me everything you notice about this. " She poked the torso.
It shuddered. Kev did too. It was so weird to see it move despite missing its head.
" If you need to, you can butcher the other body to use it as a control subject. You can use every tools in here as long as you don't open the drawers. I will come tell you when you can leave. "
She left, locking the door behind her.
Only a few meager candles lit up the room. Well that plus the Spirits.
Kev had to admit that the Spirits were very handy in making the atmosphere a bit less creepy.
He observed the torso. He slowly approached his hand.
He poked it. It flinched. Kev thought it might have been trying to move back.
Well, Kev doubted Jin Mei would open the door soon. He might as well experiment a little.
He approached his face to the torso.
" AH ! " He yelled suddenly.
It didn't flinch. Didn't show any kind of panic.
Right. It was logical that it couldn't hear given that it had lost its ears.
He looked to the side, to the other body. It hadn't waken up either.
It was probably sedated.
His hand went along the torso.
He saw its Soul. It didn't try to go toward him like the Soul of the dead did.
He wondered if he could forcefully get the Soul out of its owner.
But no, he had a job to do. And for that he needed it alive.
Kev thought it might have been the first time he touched another human being so intimately.
He sighed. This was fucked up, he thought, but he still had a task to complete.
Plus, he could admit to himself that he was curious too.
Let's get to work.