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The Crimson Shadows

Blak_Zhero
7
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The average realized release rate over the past 30 days is 7 chs / week.
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Chapter 1 - A Broken Boy.

Bang!

Fad Zai suddenly shot from his sleep as his consciousness dashed back to him. His eyeballs rolled around, capturing his surroundings, and the moment he noticed a change of scenario, a stream of tears rolled down his rough cheeks.

"Am I... really out of there, or am I just dreaming?" He struggled to speak between his sobs.

It wasn't like he was in a fancy place though. He was inside one of the most badly renovated room. The room could bear support a life as the walls seemed to be on their last stands

Cracks could be seen everywhere. Large and small holes decorating the walls, certainly allowing a cold breeze to rush inside the room. But the moment Fad Zai felt its coldness against his skin, his heart jolted, realizing how much this wasn't a dream.

"But how!? He muttered with more tears trickling down his rough cheeks.

He was in a total bad shape.

Bones could be counted allover his body with a stretched skin that exposed just how much he lucked flesh in his body.

His eyeballs had popped out, his jawlines had sunk deeper, exposing the sketch of his skull, and his lips looked even more dry.

It was like he was breathing on a borrowed air, or he was just cursed by the gods to look like this, a clown!

"I... I... I died. How..?" He muttered, perplexed and unable to make sense of what was going on.

But then, he couldn't help as his heart skipped a beat of happiness. If this place was his hell or paradise, then it was certainly infinity times better than the place he previously was.

It was like hell, as his mind even refused to remember where he previously was. And Fad Zai was ultimately glad for that.

He slowly forced his upper body up and sit at a badly maintained bed. But doing so, he felt his entire body feeling extremely sore, overwhelmed by exhaustion, and his head feeling extra heavy.

"Ahhh!" He gritted his teeth in pain. But doing so, something extremely strange happened.

[System Sync completed]

[Evolution path calculated]

[From the ashes rose the Phoenix]

[Congratulations! You gave been granted a black flame phoenix system]

A dark black background screen with a crimson writings suddenly materialized in front is his blue eyes.

"What's this?" Fad Zai muttered, confused and unable to make sense of what was happening to him.

But thinking that this was the end of it, more text displayed shortly.

[The Iron vajira fighting technique has been unsealed]

[The crimson shadow cultivation manual has been unsealed]

"This..." Fad Zai muttered, not knowing if to cry or laugh after reading this.

The iron vajira and the crimson shadow manual are the reason he has lost everything. And now to think the it has always been sealed within his core, he didn't even know how to react.

To him, this was some kind of a joke, a punishment granted to him by the gods or maybe nature itself. And the worse part of it all is that he doesn't even know his crime.

"You are kidding! Right?" He painful chuckled while looking at the roof full of holes, somehow wishing it could provide the answers to his questions, but it sadly didn't.

"Who are you talking?" A young cute innocent voice sounded from the door.

The voice made Agra to jolt while crawling to the end of the bed as his defensive instincts had kicked in.

For the past eight years, Fad Zai had learned that whenever someone speaks to him, unmeasurable amount of torture would follow shortly. It was like it was programed into his mind, and all this torture and torment just in search of the iron vajira and the crimson shadow manuals.

No one could blame him for cowarding away, as that has been the story of his life for the past eight years.

"Hey, are you ok?" The voice spoke again, politely that made Fad Zai to slowly raise his head and look at the direction.

He wasn't used on being talked to this smoothly, and he just couldn't help but wonder what had suddenly change.

His eyes landed on a young dirty girl of about nine years staring back at him innocently. She had strikingly beautiful blue eyes with a childish innocence painted all over them, and just as Fad Zai saw them, his heart pounded louder, as he remained at a dazed state.

"Fai." The word subconsciously escaped his lips.

"Are you sure you are ok?" The girl innocently asked while nearing him and bring him back to the world of the living.

For a moment, Fad Zai looked to his left, then right, and behind him before turning back to the girl, pointed his nose and asked...

"Are you talking to me?" He asked with a surprised expression.

"Of course it's you." The girl innocently giggled while nearing the bed and sit in front of him. "I found you unconscious by the lake three moons ago. I took you in, gave you some little medicines we managed to steal, and some little food we managed to snatch. But forget that. I'm really happy that you have waken. At least now we can start arranging for our wedding." The girl innocently smiled.

Fad Zai looked around the place. It was clear to him that whoever lives here was struggling a lot to make end points meet, and he couldn't imagine that he had been a burden to them for the whole three months.

'Are kind people still exist in this wicked world?' He found himself sobbing.

He jumped off the bed and kneeled in front of the girl and immediately forced his forehead to kiss the dusty floor as he kowtow.

"Thank you for taking care of me, little miss. I'm forever in debt to you." Fad Zai cried.

He had been through hell for as long as he could remember, and now this?

Even if it was the smallest kindness of all the time he had received, he would have still really appreciated it.

"Hey, hey, hey. No need to do that." The girl rushed over and helped him up. "And don't call me little miss again. People call stingy begger, but since I'm your finance, you can call me Que." She spoke.

"Fiance?" Fad Zai asked, perplexed as he doesn't remember being betrothed to this little girl. Yes, he was betrothed eight years ago, when he was nine years old, but he would rather not remember it as that night marked the genesis of his nightmares.

"Yes, fiance. I'm the one who found you. And according to the rules of the beggers, we keep what we find." Que innocently explained.

"And just like that, I'm your fiance?" Fad Zai asked, still struggling to follow up.

Que was just nine years old and he was seventeen, making it quite difficult for him to even start imagining her as his fiance.

"Well, technically I wanted you as a slave. But mama harshly debated against it. So I have no other choice but to marry you and give you plenty of strong children." She spoke.

"You..." Fad Zai wanted to say something but something else caught his attention.

[The user can now view his status information]

The text displayed.