As Ma Jin's burning body walked towards them, as those two white pools of never-resting light looked at them, Chen Liang and his lackeys realised one thing.
Ma Jin wasn't in the danger; he was the Danger.
One of them, who had brown hair, tried to run away, screaming in fear as if he had seen the reaper of death.
Well, he wasn't really wrong.
At that precise moment, Ma Jin's body blurred and reappeared in front of him, and what followed next was the sound of a soft thud.
All eyes were settled on the 'thing' that had fallen on the ground, the lackey's head.
It was the lackey's head.
And as a second passed, the head burned in the same strange black flames that were covering Ma Jin's body.
Chen Liang watched every event with wide eyes. His body was trembling, but he tried to keep his calm; hasty moves like his lackey would lead to death.
My chances of escaping are zero until some miracle happens, but the question is, will I even be alive by then?
There was only one answer.
Death.
Before others could even move, Ma Jin's body disappeared again and reappeared in front of Sheng Rui; the lad's knees buckled as fear took over him.
Falling on the ground, he looked upwards. His eyes were shaking as they met those two white pools of light. Sheng Rui pleaded while stuttering:
"Please....please don't kill me...please, Ma Jin....please don't kill me..." As Sheng Rui said those words, the black flames on Ma Jin's body stirred before shooting in the direction where the remaining lackeys were running away.
Those sparks of flames hit all of them except for Chen Liang, burning them alive without even leaving behind their ashes.
This terrified the other two.
At that moment, Sheng Rui looked at where Ma Jin's face was supposed to be, but what he saw wasn't just the two white pits but a terrifying smile, stretching to the ends of his supposed ears.
"UAAAAHHHH!!" He screamed and crawled backwards, tears escaped from his eyes, and the sense of dread ate him from the inside out.
Harrowing.
It was truly harrowing.
Seeing Sheng Rui's condition, Chen Liang suddenly felt a strange feeling coursing through his body; it was the same feeling he felt from his father.
It was fear.
But...
He couldn't accept this feeling.
No way, it can't be, he....he isn't a cultivator, this is all a lie, LIE!!!
However, when he appeared in front of him, all that anger in his thoughts faded away. Ma Jin stared down at him, and then he spoke for the first time, after going through this transformation:
"I don't even have words to say to you, only the gift of death is what roots my heart and soul, you were nothing, Chen Liang, always nothing."
Those words sounded like pity, but what was this overwhelming feeling he felt?
Chen Liang didn't know.
But he knew that death was waiting for him, and it wasn't a good thing to let it wait any longer.
A tear shed from his eyes as the image of his father appeared in his mind.
Sorry, maybe I will be a good son to you in the next life.
Then, Chen Liang's body started to burn from those same black flames, before he, too, turned into ashes.
What a pitiful end.
Ma Jin remained still; perhaps he was mourning, perhaps he was feeling joy or contempt, or perhaps he felt nothing at all.
His face was burning, but he looked at the light piercing the cold skies, it was...soft.
Then...
The shroud of the flame began to fade away, revealing Ma Jin's bare body; however, his body seemed more defined than before.
Noticing the changes in his body, he raised his brows.
"Did my body get more refined? Is this the... effect of those strange flames?" He asked himself.
Then, as if listening to his question, a surging pain made its way through his body and mind.
For a moment, Ma Jin was silent, but then...he let out an inhuman scream.
His knees buckled, then he fell, he screamed and screamed as if his body was getting peeled by a dull blade, as if two rods of hot iron were pierced in his brain.
He struggled to even keep his body up. Failing to do so, he fell, but the screams didn't stop. He scraped his own skin with his own hands, with his nails, to subdue the pain.
Ma Jin bit on his lips, bled his mouth with blood and quenched the ground's thirst; however, the pain didn't stop.
He smashed his head again on the ground, and he pierced his eyes to cut the root of his pain, but the pain didn't stop.
Moments of dreadful pain later, the eternity of it ended. But he, he was barely alive, black sockets replaced his eyes, his skin was burning red, bleeding.
His throat was torn from endless screaming, but he felt relieved. The pain was no more, and he was also nothing.
In his mind, a few words were constantly whispering:
"Let sin devour everything, let the demon take over the world, let your soul set the heavens in flames.
Don't take this sin as a crime, but as power, destroy and kill anything that comes in your way.
Whatever you devour will be your own. This is the first step in karmic cultivation, this is....
The path of the sin root."
As those words ended, the black flames reappeared on his body, this time not as a weapon but as an aid.
The soothing heat of the flames healed his injuries, his eyes, his skin and his mind. He was fresh as new, no scars, nothing at all.
Ma Jin sighed.
So much had happened in one day, and yet he felt that this was normal; was it the effects of this strange cultivation, or was he always like this?
Ma Jin didn't know.
"Those words told me that whatever I devoured will be mine, so does that mean that those black flames which killed the others...."
Words were shallow, application was better.
In his mind, he had imagined two things: Chen Liang and the robes he wore. He concentrated on them again and again, until..
Those strange black flames erupted from his body and engulfed him. Those flames moulded themselves into fine black silk robes.
The faceless mask of those flames covering his face wriggled and started to define the facial features of... Chen Liang.
As those flames subsided within his body, Ma Jin walked near the stream and looked at his reflection.
Instead of his own face, the face of Chen Liang was staring back at him. Ma Jin touched it, feeling the difference in the ups and downs, and somehow it was truly hilarious.
"It feels like I have made a mask out of his face, to think I am wearing the identity of a person I used to despise."
Now that Chen Liang was dead, Ma Jin didn't felt anything particular about it, maybe in the end, he was always worthless in his eyes.
The past should remain the past, and now that he has gain the ability to supposedly cultivate, there were many things he needed to do.
And the first step was:
"The chief isn't at his residence right now, that means..."
That he can infilirate it.