The Untamed 2: Deranged Minds

Chapter 39 (Part III)

"I guess I really cannot prove to you whether I am telling the truth or painting another lie for you. Cultivators you will have to take my word for it." Seeing Jin Ling trying to protest he added. "Please let me explain first and then you can decide whether to believe me or not."

"Fine. Be quick about it." Jing Yi went and sat on a nearby rock. It was hard to even tell whether it once upon a time used to be a tombstone or not.

Jin Ling looked at Jing Yi in surprise. He most clearly did not plan on sitting on anything dirty wearing his golden robes. But if a Lan was doing it in his white robes and as Ze Min also sat down leaving him the only one standing, Jin Ling decided it's better to sit down as well. Well, even though Jing Yi told Ze Min to be quick, there was no telling how long he would actually drag his story for now, is there?

"Well cultivators, when I said I used soul gathering plants, it was not exactly a lie..."

"Oh, now you are trying to act innocent huh?"

Ze Min waited till Jing Yi seemed to calm down. "Cultivators, please let me start from the beginning then. It will help you understand the situation better. When I was young, we used to live quite far away from here. And after my sister was born, my father asked a sect leader of a cultivational clan to take me in as a servant mostly because he could not afford to look after two children at the same time. I was twelve at the time and the sect leader, being a close friend of my father, agreed to take me in as a favour and treated me very well like I'm one of his own discipes. As I lived there, I started to dream about becoming a cultivator. My father told me not to bother our sect leader and I should remain as a servant for he was already doing us a huge favour by taking me in. But sect leader said he will teach me cultivation and if I show good potential, he will actually recruit me. So, he started teaching me various methods and I have to say our sect had quite unique techniques like the one I was performing now. My sect leader believed it is faster and easier to gather spiritual energy from different objects like the spirit gathering plants than actually slowly cultivating them."

"But isn't that cheating?" Jin Ling asked.

"Well, some might definitely say so. Therefore, our sect leader liked to keep these techniques as secrets only know by the sect. Our sect had so much potential to grow and we actually expected it to soon become the main sect in that area. We had a very good herb master too. He is the one who taught me all about plants. But only after four years of me joining the sect, our sect leader's worst fear came to be. The biggest sect of that area at that time came to know about our master's techniques and demanded to know the truth. And just like cultivator did right now, they also called it cheating and also went far enough to call those methods evil. They had been seeing us as their rivals for years and it did not come as a surprise when they decided to jump at the opportunity and demolish our sect and execute the "evil sect leader".

Even then, we could have run away without losing any lives. But our sect leader started blaming the herbs master saying he was the one who leaked the secret to the other sect accusing him of trying to win their favour to join their sect. They both started fight and even went as far as drawing their swords making us lose precious time we had to get away. Some were suggesting we should leave them and others were trying to break the fight apart. I still remember how amidst their quarrel the other sect came and showered us down with arrows. Our herbs master was shot then and there and lost his life including many other disciples.

The rest of us ran and ran and when it seemed none of us could get away, a few adults including my father who came to my rescue stayed behind to fight so the rest could run away hoping our sect leader would manage to lead us to safety. None who stayed behind survived and we lost our father just like that.