Jack and Sam shared a drink that night.
They didn’t speak. They didn’t chat. They just drank in silence as they enjoyed the peaceful night breeze in the forest.
The next morning, Habi woke up and the first thing he saw is Sam. He is shocked. Not that he is alive, not that he woke up, but rather he saw Sam. As long as Sam’s presence there can be explained, the rest of the questions will be answered themselves.
Once he digested the information that Sam is here, he felt ashamed. He felt embarrassed.
He rolled off the bed and knelt on the floor. He touched his forehead to the ground and spoke.
“I apologize teacher. I am unfit to be your student. Not only did I get betrayed, I brought great shame to you as your student by letting myself get cheated by a woman who used love as an excuse.”
He is sobbing as he spoke. Sam felt a prick in his heart. He felt a sharp pain as he looked at his student. He knew that something like this might happen. He had doubts as soon as he went through the information.
He knelt down and made Habi look him in the eyes. He wiped the tears off and spoke.
“Whatever happened, we can talk later. There are very few things that you can do that would make ashamed of you to be my student.
I want you to check your body and get familiar with it. I have taken the liberty to make some changes without asking you. You will get to know that from now on. You will be a completely different person in terms of abilities.
And I have reason to believe that your new body is going to suit your current emotions a lot more.
Once you are done there, we can talk. Okay?”
Sam tapped him on the shoulder and made him get up. He left his student alone and went to meet Jack
“She betrayed him. That girl that he liked. The porcupine must be still with them.”
“Why did she do that?”
“I don’t know, let’s hope that he comes out and explains it to us. It is a very funny situation though, the fact that you were trying to not go all out so that she won’t be effected, meanwhile she might just be the person that brought this all up on him. The fucking irony.”
They sat out and waited for Habi and he didn’t take that long.
When he comes out, Jack is surprised to look at him. His face is full of shame and embarrassment. He is disappointed in himself.
But then there is another type of emotion that is emitted in his aura. He is feeling angry. There is a mountain of killing intent being emitted from his body.
He wants to kill someone. He wants to kill them so badly.
That ferocious killing intent is something that they carried when they were of Habi’s age. But at that time, they were taking on the world with enemies all around.
Sam’s students have everything they had and more except for the killing intent.
But one betrayal from a woman seemed to have changed that a lot.
Sam looked at him and smiled.
“So, what is it that you want to tell me?”
“That woman, Rani. She wanted to get an important place in her clan. In her opinion, her father is a biased guy who only cares about his son and her mother is not any different. She believed that the only reason she is not succeeding is because of her parents.
At first I thought the same, I bought into her lies. We got close and she even got close to the porcupine. I was so blinded.
One day, she said she had an expedition. She is afraid that her brothers are going to kill her. So, I gave her the porcupine as I couldn’t accompany her. And she never came back with the porcupine.
At first, I could feel the connection e had, but I couldn’t sense the location. Soon though I managed to find out the location. It is in the city.
When I went there, the porcupine is being held. Tortured. They are trying to use some weird formation to reverse our soul connection and make the porcupine break the bond.
At first, I thought she was not in on it, because she was held in her room. I thought she was forced to hand over the porcupine. I was stupid enough to go and rescue her.
I almost succeeded since I picked a perfect time. The elders were unable to respond immediately and the youngsters are all the only challenge which isn’t much, to begin with. I easily reached her and got ready to get her out.
But I never knew she would be the one injecting me with something that made me faint.
They tried to make me relinquish the bond with the beast. They must have understood that our bond is special and my death will only make it worse. So, they somehow brought this weird poison that will help with this.
I don’t know how it works and I don’t know the exact details, but this will cut our bond without harming the porcupine.
This will allow them to take over the porcupine easily without any trouble. That is their plan. But we somehow managed to survive all of this and here I am standing in front of you like this. Like an absolute failure.
I am really sorry teacher.”
Sam smiled and rubbed their hair of Habi.
“Is that why you are so angry? Because you are betrayed by a woman you liked so much?”
“Not just that teacher, I am angry at myself for letting myself be betrayed by a girl like that. I am your student, this type of betrayal shouldn’t have been possible.
How can someone cheat me like this? It is an insult to your name and I have brought that insult myself. The other party didn’t even have to try too much.”
Sam just kept on smiling and replied.
“It is not that big of a sin to fall in love with a person like that. Sometimes it is inevitable that you put your trust in the wrong person. Particularly at your age, when you are seeking a person to share your life with and someone comes to your face with all the qualities that you need in a life partner. It is absolutely natural for you to let your guard down.
If you want to be angry, be angry that you were unable to see it coming, be angry that your companion that stays with you in life and death, your beast was stolen from you because of this, be angry that your companion is suffering from this. Be angry that your heart is broken.
Don’t be angry thinking that you let me down somehow.
Also, channel that anger in the right direction.
These clan people did something to you that is unforgivable. But out of all of that, you have a blessing in disguise. Can you show me what you can do with that new body of yours?”
Habi nodded and moved to the nearest tree. He punched the tree from far away.
A spiritual energy blade condensed and attacked the tree like a whip. A small cut appeared on its trunk. From that cut, the tree started rotting. It is withering at a rapid pace.
Habi turned around and kicked a stone. This time also the kick didn’t touch it, instead, a blade attacked the stone, and that too just a graze. But from that small cut, the rock started melting.
Jack looked at this and was shocked.
“Did you really make the poison part of him?”
“Not only is it a part of him, it changed the nature of his body completely. From now on, even his spiritual energy is poisonous to others.”
“That is too much.”
“Well, it doesn’t end there.”
Sam walked to Habi and took out the executioner’s sword. He held it with both hands and extended it towards the young man.
“Here take it.”
Habi widened his eyes in disbelief.
“It is your sword, teacher. I can never. Please I cannot accept it, I am unworthy.”
“Of course, that is why I am giving you a chance to prove you are worthy. Just because I said, it is natural to be betrayed like this, doesn’t mean, it is okay for someone to come and mess with my student.
Since we have a full story, we don’t have to worry about anything else. And we need to get your beast back. So, I am giving you a chance to prove yourself. Jack and I will not touch anyone below the Middle-stage of Astral Plane Pretranscendence stage cultivators. They are all your job to clean and I heard that your girlfriend also falls into that category.
Put that excessive anger to good use and finish the job. If you do that, then this sword is yours.
