Reborn

THE BANQUET (1)

The carriage rolled over the bare ground that led towards the Imperial Palace. It passed through the dark forest that were supposed to harbor evil beasts. The periphery of the forest had been sealed by top masters of the Continent, preventing them from leaving the barrier so to avoid destruction. From outside, it looked quite beautiful though, however, outward appearances can be deceptive. It would open once a year for people who wanted to get stronger by surviving in the forest but they always had a choice of escaping the same with a talisman, if a life threatening situation ever occurred. Sakura remembered all this information as it was told to her by her Second sister. She also recalled that her sister would often threaten her with dire consequences, like throwing her into the forest region lest she should disobey. However, now that she occupied this body, she was much interested in going to this forest and discovering the secrets that lay within. She glanced at the forest one last time, before it disappeared from her view. At the same moment, she sensed some danger, and just then, an arrow shot by her hair. If she wasn't powerful enough, she couldn't have dodged it. It was so accurate; these people are powerful, she thought. The carriage shook heavily and more arrows shot by, still she was able to dodge each one of them.

Finally, the carriage broke down, and she could see four people staring at her...disguised, dressed fully in black clothes. She noticed, that the driver had run away; now she was surrounded by all four sides. However, she was not afraid as she could kill them with just a slight movement of a finger. The assassins were surprised seeing her alive. Maybe, she was lucky, but this time they would not miss. All of them were at Sunstroke Realm, Sakura observed, but she needed to uncover their identities, if she wanted to find her enemies. Having so many people at Sunstroke Realm, gathered at one place, was interesting and quite rare. Their leader must be powerful, she needed to get to root of the problem, if she were to cut every danger possible from her path. "Who are you all? Who sent you here?" she asked." "You will never know who we are, prepare to die," said one of them, as they all pounced on her with weapons in their hands. In a split second, all of them were injured and died on the spot. "They really are weak for assassins, aren't they supposed to survive for at least few minutes, this organization is really lenient in recruiting candidates, such poor choices!" Sakura said, wiping her bloodied hands with her handkerchief. While looking at the dead bodies, she observed a dragon mark on their chests. From her memories, she checked and concluded that only two people could use the dragon mark, either His Majesty, the Emperor Riku and the other was a mysterious organization called Blood Devils. Though, there had been no prior evidence regarding the organization's existence, it was revealed only when it became one of the main bridges between the warring Continents of Chenghuang and Feifei. It was the leader of the organization who was able to convince both the Continents for a peace treaty. As per the little known, the leader always wore a mask, so no one was ever able to discovers his true physical appearance. It was said that, whoever offended him, were sure to be tortured to death. Not a single person would come out alive; merciless and brutal, that was their attitude. They didn't even leave children and women. The leader also had a peculiar quality, he would only kill those people if he had the mood to kill them or if they were thought to be worthless. He despised the weak and admired the strong. She decided it couldn't be the Emperor Riku who would want to kill her, nonetheless, he could always send orders to his subordinates. As for the Blood Devils, they might be involved in this case, the most plausible explanation would be that the Emperor Riku collided with the Blood Devils. After all, the leader hated incompetency. Also, if the leader is that important, he may be present tonight for the banquet. Such a cold blooded and ruthless man, how dare he regard people lives as trash, ready to be discarded at his order. She thought of something and smiled, if they wanted to play with her, she would also like to play with them. She tore her dress and with a knife stabbed herself making little cuts here and there, making her look like a heavily injured person. She then increased the size of her feet and made it look like they were two people present at the scene. She then recovered her feet to its original appearance. She then destroyed the tress and land near the vicinity making it look as if a great battle had occurred here and the assassins tried their best to fight the opponent, yet, failed to do so. She then made the injuries on the assassins look fresh so she could cover the truth of their quick death. Finally, everything was done with utmost perfection and care. She then hid her true cultivation and blocked her meridians that were open, so if anyone did see her, she would be regarded as trash. At the same time, it wouldn't suppress her powers. It's time to hone my acting skills, she thought. The Imperial Palace was at a distance of ten minutes. To add up to the drama, she ran towards the palace barefoot, her face returning to her normal ugly appearance and her physique. From outside she looked like before but the actual strength lay inside, it was best not to reveal her appearance right now, she reasoned with herself.