Chapter 44 June 22rd, 2032 | The Emperor’s "Generosity"

[A/N: This chapter has a very mild, non-graphic scene that some readers may find triggering. Reader discretion is advised.]

—

Evalyn's mind cleared, and her pain lessened radically, causing her to open her eyes meekly. It was difficult, as her body had yet to melt the frost that had developed on her eyelids.

From her narrowed eyes, she could see a dancing blizzard. Somehow the frost had turned into a Chinese dragon, flying through the sky as if free from the world's woes.

"Wha…."

The blonde coughed, and she brought her hand to her mouth. After she finished coughing, she looked at her hand, and her mind froze in horror.

Her fingers were black, burning with frostbite.

Thu-dump!

"W-What is this?" Evalyn cried horror with a thumping heart.

"Frostbite." Kaze scoffed in vexation, "Do you think I'd use healing cultivation on you as a safety precaution?"

She shivered uncontrollably, unable to feel shame because of the cold.

Once Qi stopped circulating in her body rapidly, her cold and pain resistance dropped significantly, making her cry out.

"I-I didn't understand." Evalyn grimaced in pain, "W-Will this heal w-without you?"

"It will. With normal cultivation, it should heal in a week." Kaze replied coldly, "Tell me, do you think you'd be able to teach your mother cultivation like that?"

Thu-dump! Thu-dump!

She placed her palms down on the ground with a beating heart, trying to stand. However, her arms buckled, and she smashed to the ground.

Her compiled wounds screamed in pain as she hit the rough ground.

"I planned to release this when I couldn't take it." Evalyn cried, "I was lost in cultivation; I believe I reached enlightenment. I wouldn't have gone this far without that…."

Kaze scoffed aggressively. "What did I warn you about when I told you about enlightenment periods?"

Evalyn tried to bite her lip, but it burst open, and blood spilled into her mouth. She cried out in pain and tried to adjust her body with rocks grinding into her wounds.

"Stop making excuses." He replied in annoyance, "Your actions killed you tonight. You wouldn't have died from those wounds, but you would from the mob you're ignoring."

"I can hear her!" A person yelled, "It is Evalyn! She sounds like she's in pain!"

"Evalyn! Are you there!? We need help!" Another yelled.

"What's going on?" Evalyn asked the emperor in confusion.

Kaze looked over the area behind a concealment wall with a cold expression.

"As soon as my calming technique allowed them to break their cultivation, they saw the warp gates and eighty people cultivating Illuminecent Breathing with calm expressions." He explained.

"Those drunk and unprepared were crying out in pain, while those cultivating were fine.

Everyone instantly understood that cultivation was the difference between pain, sickness, and death.

Then an emergency broadcast went out urging people to ask friends and family to post their techniques online.

So they confirmed cultivation was the key to staying healthy."

Evalyn's eyes trembled at his words, and her breaths became sharp. "W-What happened?"

"Come see for yourself." Kaze replied in a frigid tone.

Her body heated up as a golden light enveloped her, easing her pain until it disappeared.

Evalyn pushed herself off the ground with a guilty expression, expecting to apologize to Kaze.

However, her mind fell blank after she saw what he was looking at.

The area had dozens of dead bodies, and people were fighting and beating one another.

"I know you have it!" A person yelled while kicking Larken's stomach. He was the man hyping up the crowd by screaming [Scrawn Fu].

Larken vomited on the ground. "I don't even know when—"

"Stop telling lies!" Another man scoffed while kicking him in the chest. Four people were beating the drunk man on the grass vigorously.

"W-What are they doing to Larken!?" Evalyn cried.

"I gave him the Illuminnecent Breathing technique." Kaze said coldly.

"Now people are taking advantage of his drunken weakness to attempt beating it out of him.

He can't give it to them, but they still assume he can, just like the other thirty-eight people they've killed already."

Her breaths panicked, and she watched in terror as the men viciously beat Larken to the ground, no longer concerned with letting him answer.

They couldn't think straight; their minds felt distorted, hazy, and confused.

"We need to help…." Evalyn whispered.

"Hoh? I did, Evalyn. You're watching the result of my [generosity]." Kaze replied sarcastically.

"Just like the other thirty-eight people that died because of my [benevolent] actions."

She looked up at him with fear pulsing through her veins. "You knew this would happen, yet—"

"Yet what, Evalyn?" Kaze scoffed, "I gave one hundred people a chance at life? Should I have held their hand and led them to a private party to accommodate them?"

Evalyn swallowed nervously, processing his rationality against the present.

"Please! I don't know!" Larken screamed, "You need to ask Scrawn—"

"Don't you fucking say that man's name!" A man yelled while kicking Larken in the chin, knocking out some teeth.

"He killed us! He led us to the slaughter! People have already called the police on him!" Another yelled while kicking the man in the ribs.

"Hear that, Evalyn?" Kaze asked, "Now, the weak will are trying to harm me, kill me, and force me into helping people. If I don't, they'll lust for revenge. A curious thing that is."

Evalyn watched with a strained expression. "i-I can't watch him just die like that."

"Hoh? Should I kill the aggressive ones, then?" He mused.

"I-I… can't you just send a message?" She cried.

"I suppose so. Let's try." Kaze mused. He waved his hand, and an invisible slash went through the air, slicing through someone's Achilles heel.

"Gahhhhhhh! What the fuck just happened!?" The man yelled.

"That was a cultivation technique! I saw that warping stuff from earlier!" One of the men yelled.

He turned to the crowd of people who were beating another person. "I was you, wasn't it!?"

"The fuck you talking about?" The other scoffed in annoyance, lifting his leg from a woman.

Evlayn's eyes widened in shock when she saw a heavily beaten woman with ripped clothing on the ground, gasping for air.

She wasn't assaulted; Kaze killed anyone who tried to do that in his presence.

However, someone attempted to. As a result, people beat her, thinking she was responsible for their friend's deaths.

"That cultivation technique, you bastard. Don't deny it!" The first yelled.

"Do you think I'd be wasting my time with this whore if I had one? Fuck off." The man scoffed.

Everyone beating Larken turned to the man with murderous rage in their eyes.

They left their friend bleeding and screaming on the ground, running at the scoffing man.

The man realized his situation and couldn't understand [why] he let things escalate, to begin with.

Before he could react, the three men rushed him, kicking him to the ground.

Evalyn watched in disbelief as the three men beat the man to death. Once they were done, one of the men looked at the bloodied woman on the ground.

"Fuck it." He said while unbuckling his pants, "I'm going to die anyway."

The blonde turned to Kaze with a beating heart, begging for him to do something, anything.

"I don't care how… I just… help her." Evalyn begged.

Kaze waved his hand, and the woman's head separated from her neck, drenching the man with blood.

Evalyn looked up in horror, asking for an explanation.

"Look at the bodies, Evalyn." Kaze ordered.

"I already killed the three people that tried to defile her. However, she fell to the ground, having a panic attack.

Men rushed her, thinking she killed their friends or that she was a cultivator."

"C-Couldn't you have done something?" Evalyn whispered in fear.

"What did you want me to do? Risk my life to heal her when she can't handle a basic sight of the apocalypse?" He asked coldly.

"Or did you wish me to kill the man and wait for the next round of desperate men to try?"

"I-I don't know." Evalyn whispered.

"Correct. I'm taking you home now." Kaze declared, "I only healed you because I knew you'd do something stupid without thinking of your family. It must be in your blood or something."

"T-Thank—"

Evalyn's body dropped to the ground after he chopped the back of her neck with his hand.

"I don't want to talk to you further." He scoffed, "I don't have time to waste with nonsense."

Kaze waved his hand, sending a wave of Paradox of Healing to Larken, reversing his body 12 hours when he was sober.

"Go home, Larken!" The emperor yelled.

The man got up in confusion, but he didn't question it. "O-Okay!"

Larken ran as fast as he could, weaving through the nightmare of aggressive college students.

"This should be enough to counterbalance the trauma of me killing that woman." Kaze muttered to himself, watching the man run away, "So that imbecile better not die."

p Kaze pulled out his phone and dialed a number. When the phone connected, he spoke to the person on the other line.

"They've left for their homes." The emperor said coldly, "Prepare the retrieval teams and lock them in the reinforced mansion until I get there. Do not let them leave—at any cost."