Chapter 61 Day One | Dead Silence

Evalyn heard footsteps coming from behind her; she wanted to look, but her body wouldn't let her. So she kept her eyes forward, focusing on the enemies she could see.

When the footsteps got closer, she saw the ground around her warping and twisting the environment.

It wasn't like Kaze's barriers—it was mixing the colors like oil paints. It was also physical.

As the warping space passed by her, it pushed her blood out of the carpet alongside ice fragments.

"W-What the fuck—"

One of the men in Evalyn's peripheral vision disappeared—

BOOOOOOM!

CrrrreeaASSHHHKK!

The wall behind the men caved in as it received a ground-shaking impact.

Massive spider web cracks developed across the reinforced plate glass walls before they exploded in a cataclysmic chain reaction.

An explosive wave of yelling entered the hallway when the soundproof glass shattered, reminding everyone of the riots outside.

"W-Wait—"

Another man in Evalyn's hazy field of vision disappeared, vanishing into thin air.

CRAAACCCK!

The hall fell silent when a sickening crack sounded behind her—

THUD!

—and a large object fell to the ground.

The men in the hallway were frozen, holding their breaths, afraid to breathe.

"W-Who are—"

Evalyn saw the man talking disappear from her line of sight and looked just in time to watch a black object fall from the sky outside the window.

It wasn't an object. It was screaming at full volume.

BOOM!

The man who was only there moments before crashed onto a shuttle, setting off a blaring alarm and temporarily silencing rioters.

The footsteps continued slowly until a pair of black boots were next to her face.

They abruptly changed course and began walking down the hallway to Doctor Miser's office.

Evalyn turned her head to watch, furious that anyone or anything would see her mom.

She turned just in time to see a man wearing black from head to toe walk between Doctor Lock, Palmer, and Vince, frozen in shock, shivering.

Their images deformed abruptly, and three piles of dissected flesh fell to the floor, temporarily leaving blood suspended before it crashed into the ground.

"R-Run! Get out—"

A wall of black and grey warping space closed the light from the window and blocked out the sound of the rioters.

BOOOOOOM!

A warping slash flew through the grey and black twisting space and wall to Evalyn's right split in half.

Sections crashed downward alongside multiple thuds and red rivers of blood.

An invisible barrier of warping space prevented debris from hitting her. Everything that fell on her simply disappeared.

Evalyn immediately thought of Kaze because of the spatial technique, but she wasn't certain.

The techniques he showcased to her or on video were wildly different than what she was watching.

Moreover, he wasn't healing her, rushing to her side, or quickly killing people. He wasn't showcasing the fury that she had seen in his eyes and heard in his voice.

There was dead silence in the hallway.

If someone spoke, they died instantaneously.

There were only three men left, and they stood in place, acutely aware of the man's message.

Watching the men standing still, silently awaiting their deaths, chilled Evalyn to the bone.

The man walked into Doctor Miser's office.

He stood there for a moment, frozen in time, staring at her mother's corpse on the left side of the wall.

A moment later, he walked out of the hallway, and the warping space pushed the three piles of dismembered flesh out the way.

"L-Look, man. We don't want any trouble." A cultivator stuttered, "We were just here for her. We don't know anything—"

Another pile of vivisected flesh dropped to the floor, dying the air red.

Golden light illuminated the hallway, and Evalyn's body filled with energy as her body healed.

"Kaze...?" Evalyn whispered. She looked up at the figure, expecting a familiar face.

However, a mime mask with a black teardrop met her gaze, and the man's body language was cold and unwaivering—completely emotionless.

Without discussion, the man began walking again.

Evalyn pushed herself off the floor to watch. However, she looked down in horror when the man got a certain distance, and the blood in the area returned in full force, flooding her palms.

Her eyes trembled, and she looked up just in time to watch something surreal.

The mime touched his hand on someone's chest. A second later, the Qi in the air got pulled into the man like a vortex until his body ruptured.

Only one cultivator remained. He was silent, stoically awaiting an instant death. However, the masked man didn't plan to give anyone what they wanted.

The cultivator lifted in the air without the man touching him and—

CReeeACKeeacCCcKCkkckCKeeeck.

—the man's limbs began twisting and breaking in the most unnatural ways imaginable.

It was a horrifying sight accompanied by countless octaves of screams before the masked man released the spatial barrier and threw the cultivator out of the window with surreal force.

His screaming body hit a group of rioters three one hundred yards away, causing a chain reaction of force as dead people smashed into others.

The riot stopped, and everyone looked at the hospital's top floor and found a man wearing a black and white mime mask, a peacoat, and black slacks staring at them.

It wasn't the same mask or outfit as the Emperor. The mask implied that the scene was a show—something he wanted people to watch. It was a tragic comedy.

Evalyn wanted to watch, but a violent wave of vertigo assaulted her body as she fell through the floor.

THUD!

She crashed into hard ground from three feet in the air.

Evalyn looked at the ground and found grey popcorn concrete. She stared at it in confusion before panning her gaze to the sky and finding the moon.

"This… [is] the spatial cultivation technique…." She whispered with astonished eyes, "It is you, Kaze."

Evalyn wasn't certain he was responsible because of his appearance, demeanor, and strange cultivation techniques that sucked her divine-grade cultivation technique dry.

She watched people turn into flesh cubes, a person floating in the air before their limbs snapped in random directions, and an attack that cut the entire wall in half.

All of that happened while she was on the floor and couldn't see his actions.

If she had, she'd have seen him reach his hand into the wall, pull a cultivator out, and snap their neck in a mind-bending display. Case closed.

"Just how little do I know about him?" Evalyn whispered in a haze while pushing herself off the ground.

When she looked over the roof, her expression froze. There was a thin line of warping space in front of her—the same from the apocalypse party. A cloaking shield.

Kaze was 300 feet in the sky, floating in the air, looking down at the rioting men and women as if they were insignificant ants.

He could see everyone around the hospital from his vantage point.

A helicopter flew into the area and spotlighted the man flying in the sky.

The emperor panned his gaze around the building, examining the entire situation from a bird's eye view.

"Are you filming?" Kaze yelled at the helicopter, "Flash your spotlight twice if you are. If not, prepare to face death for your meaningless defiance!"

After a few seconds, the spotlight flashed twice.

The emperor nodded and looked at the helicopter directly.

"I have a message for Malta, Meridian City, and all its citizens." He announced in a voice different from his own.

"When it comes to cultivation—you should be afraid.

You should approach people cautiously and not try to force their hands unless you know what you're up against."

He panned his gaze around the area to oversee the area, ensuring everyone was watching.

"Individual people hold power, and there are some people you cannot afford to offend!" Kaze roared.

"HEY, FUCK OFF!" A rioter yelled, and the helicopter's spotlight turned to them immediately.

The agitator disappeared from his location, bewildering everyone.

When the spotlight returned to Kaze, the man who yelled was 300 feet off the ground, viciously struggling in the emperor's hands.

"W-What the fuck is this?" The rioter yelled with aggressive, bloodshot eyes.

"Silence!" Kaze yelled while releasing cultivation pressure.

The world froze watching the scene, watching the rioter struggle to breathe, hanging by the masked man's hand in the air.

"I say the word [offend] because when it comes to dealing with people with extraordinary power, no level of transgression is permissible, lest you gamble with death!" The emperor declared.

"Petty cultivators will kill you for any reason, and there's nothing you can do to stop them unless you are stronger!

And while most are sensible, all cultivators will deliver swift retribution to those who strike them and the people they value!

So be wary of cultivators, build relationships with them, and pray you don't aggrieve them, as Malta and Marysworth Hospital have done to me today!"