“Did Cheng know from the start?”

“Was he aware of her bewitching ability?”

“Is that why he asked me to bring Frey along?”

Many thoughts revolved within Jin’s mind as he stood in the snow. He was perturbed. He was shocked.

He was breathing heavily. His chest heaving up and down violently.

That’s when two people walked out of the corner.

Adom and Harken appeared.

Adom said: “Well, Vice-Captain, who could have guessed you went down the well, eh?”

Harken added: “You’re in pretty rough shape there”

Jin ignored them. Heck, he was not even aware of their presence right now. He was still reliving what happened. He could not help the pain from rising, the sadness to crush his spirit and his lack of inability to bring down his mind.

Adom and Harken looked at each other and grinned.

They both took out their swords and Adom stated: “Do forgive us, Vice-Captain Jin, but we got orders, you see”

Seeing as Jin got no reactions, Adom signaled Harken and they made their moves at the same time.

Powerful spiritual energy combined with the thunder element filled their swords as they rushed at Jin and pierced towards his heart.

They expected him to dodge in some ways or even parry.

He did not.

Both swords went through his chest and exited from his back, the thunder ravaging his insides.

Harkem cursed: “Fuck!”

They both hurriedly took back their swords and jumped a few steps backwards.

Harkem stuttered: “D-D-did we really kill him, L-L-like that?!”

Adom was in the same state, unable to process what happened.

They did plan to rough Jin up some more but never to kill him. After all, they wanted them to bring him back alive.

But now he was dead.

And they killed him.

How the fuck were they going to survive now?!

They both watched as Jin’s body convulsed with blood flowing from the two holes in his chest and more being retched out of his mouth.

Jin’s eyes dimmed as he began to lose consciousness.

The embrace of death…Once again…

“How warm…”

He felt tired, he felt like it was fine to sleep now. He felt like it was enough…

And he lost consciousness as his upper body dropped onto itself and his head hit the snow.

Adom and Harkem lost it. They freaked out.

And while they began to curse at the heavens and each other, something happened.

To Jin’s body.

His ears onto which a ring was attached dropped into the snow.

And his true appearance was revealed. The corruption was still pulsating and it began to pulsate even more fiercely.

Vein-like tendrils began to climb out of his shoulder and quickly spread through his entire body.

His remaining human eye turned red and black like the other while one side of his mouth began to reshape itself into a devilish jaw.

The head within the snow began to grin.

Mouths opened all over his body as eerie laughter began to spread throughout the area.

Harkem and Adom stopped bickering at once as they turned to Jin’s corpse. The sounds originated from there.

And what they saw scared them.

Jin was back up.

However, it was not Jin.

The monster laughed as it cracked its neck. It then spoke through all of his mouths at the same time: “So, you were the one trying to kill me?”

Harkem and Adom took their stances as the look within their eyes turned serious. They were obviously aware that Jin was a carrier of the corruption but they did not think it would be able to take over.

The situation was dire.

The corruption had taken over and was rebuilding Jin’s body from the inside, healing his injuries.

…

Within his soul sea, Jin floated.

He was tired. He did not want to move. He was ready to die.

That’s when a ball of red and black appeared in front of him. A big jaw popped open from within it. It said: “Let me save us” with a grin.

Jin simply nodded.

He did not care anymore.

…

The monster looked at the two old men in front of him and laughed. Then, he materialized four more corrupted arms.

On his right side, he made Jin’s spear appeared. As it did, wind and thunder clamored.

On his left side, he took out Cao Lei’s sword as eerie howls began to resound. The sword was swiftly covered by a blackened haze he emitted. It was the Fear element. The howls became even louder.

At the same time, it placed the crown looted a few moments ago from within the secret realm hidden under the well. As it was placed on his head, a shocking thing happened. A third eye opened in the middle of the other other. It was like the gem of the crown and filled him with the power of the Tempest.

The monster laughed adding to the terrorizing atmosphere.

Harkom frowned: “You think we can take this thing on?”

Adom answered: “I don’t think we have much of a choice here”

However, just as they got ready to fight, Jin disappeared.

They heard the laughter first. From behind them.

They turned around as they saw blood dripping down Jin’s weapons.

Then, they died. Without realizing how.

The monster laughed as the bisected corpses of the two fell within the snow. A mere instant later, corruption dropped from Jin’s body and reached theirs, engulfing them within.

Then it returned to Jin’s body leaving nothing behind.

The monster laughed as it cracked its neck.

“Now then, let’s take care of all the others”

Jin disappeared silently.