108 Painful Memories

"Van… Van, my darling. It's time to wake up," A woman's warm voice said. Gentle fingers ran through his hair.

Hearing this voice even with his eyes closed, Van's heart started thundering in his chest.

[M-mum?]

Waves of joy and sorrow crashed over him. He didn't dare open his eyes even though he yearned to see her.

[…It must be an illusion!]

Van's heart was on guard, and yet he couldn't control his reaction to hearing her voice after so many years. Despite his high mental energy, despite Van's mature mind, suddenly the feelings that he had suppressed all this time burst forth - triggered by hearing a voice he that sometimes echoed faintly in his dreams and oldest memories.

[Why?]

[Why did you leave us…?]

A million questions battled for dominance in his mind.

[Where did you go…?]

An even weightier question settled onto Van's shoulders, adding to the desolate feeling already filling his body. His eyes twitched behind their lids.

[Mum, tell me… Why are there so many blank spaces in my memory? What happened, and what have I forgotten?]

It was only as Van grew older that he realized he had lost some of his memories before living in the village. There were large spaces filled with only silence and darkness. But the holes in his memories were not what hurt Van the most – it was the other memories.

Memories of growing up with his little sister and having two loving parents who doted on them in every way. Memories of sunlight and laughter, of running around in a large garden with his sister and throwing mud at their annoying kid neighbor, who tried to climb over their fence so many times… Like broken glass, these memories had sharp edges that pierced you when you came too close.

So, Van tried to think about them as little as possible. As the years passed the memories grew less vibrant. Sometimes they felt like the events of a well-loved storybook, rather than his own memories. It was better that way.

Light laughter reached his ears, two gentle palms placed themselves on either side of his face.

"Van," His mother's voice teased, "I know when my boy is just pretending to be asleep. The sun has been up for ages, and Finn wants to play with her big brother!""

An unbearable ache spread through Van's chest.

Van's eyes fluttered open.

Warm brown eyes gazed at him with a loving expression. His mum's hair was in her usual long braid, tossed over her shoulder. If not for the fine laugh lines around her eyes, she could be mistaken for young woman in her early twenties. She wore elegant white robes, her typical attire, although she favored white colored clothing in general.

She was sitting on a vast grassy plain with his head resting on her lap. A warm wind blew past, bringing the scent of spring flowers.

Van's nose felt sour.

"Mum!" He choked out, unable to control himself.

Immediately, his mother's face filled with concern. She wrapped her arms around her son's shaking form and soothed him.

"What's wrong honey?" Her soft voice said, "Did you have a bad dream?"

Van's eyes met hers. He could only see the unconditional love that he had been spoiled to receive his entire childhood. He found himself struggling for words. What could he say? That he wished his life was all a bad dream, and he was finally waking up now?

His mother drew him closer again. She leaned her cheek against his.

"My darling, your father and I… what we did was for you and your sister's good. If we didn't leave-"

[Van!] Jet shouted, [Push her away, now!]

But Van had reacted even faster than Jet did. The dagger of purple energy from his mother's hand never pierced his skin.

Blood spurted out in a great fountain of red.

Van stared coldly at his 'mother.' His hand was still deep in her chest cavity, clenched around her heart.

She stared back at him, horror filling her brown eyes.

"W-what have you b-become?"

She screamed.

Van was beyond furious.

"Shut up, demon!"

The moment he said these words, the illusion shattered. The grassy plain filled with wildflowers on a mild spring day was replaced with the darkness of the battlefield, with the light from the crystal far above casting sharp angles over his mother's face. Quickly, her gentle expression melted away.

"So, you don't want to know?" She said lightly, blood trickling down the side of her mouth.

Van froze.

"What do you mean?"

His mother – no the demon – looked sorrowfully at him.

"I can show you," she said, "I can show you what happened that day… just take my hand. I can show you…"

Van stared at her.

It was odd.

The day that Van and Finn had entered Mountain Village was one of his clearest memories.

[Why would she say that she can show me what happened that day? Does she think that I don't remember?]

Jet shouted at him.

[Van. That is just the demon beast talking. It cannot reveal what you do not already now – it uses your memories of her to construct this illusion.]

Van could feel the Jet's agitation clearly. The ring was genuinely worried about him.

Van steeled himself once more. This is nothing, he reminded himself, the past is the past. The only way I will ever know what really happened is by gaining the strength to seek the answers!

[This is just an illusion! The Night Fey is just trying to draw this situation out. The longer I remain in this illusion, the weaker I get and the stronger it gets!]

"Die, demon!"

Van tore out his mother's heart. The organ flopped to the ground, staining it red.

His mother's face slid away and was immediately replaced by the strange alien appearance of the Night Fey he had been fighting. It gurgled at him before shattering into motes of light.

Immediately, the sound of the battlefield reached Van's ears.

He turned around urgently and saw that the battle had grown fierce and messy. Large swathes of people were staring blankly into space, their minds totally taken over by the Night Fey. They simply stood they're as the Night Fey inserted glowing purple daggers into their hearts.

Weng! Weng! Weng!

Disciples were being eliminated from the battlefield without them even realizing they had been trapped in an illusion.

Despite being deeply shaken, Van was still the fastest to wake up in the entire battlefield.

At that moment, a shrill scream of anger split the air.

Van turned his head slightly and saw Cordelia split the Night Fey in front of her with a strong slice of wind qi. A second later, Daphne awakened, intercepting the Night Fey's dagger and killing it with a single blow.

Van turned his attention away from them. He immediately began freeing his sect mates from the monsters that held them in thrall. One by one, they regained their senses. They were horrified to know that they had been so easily convinced by the demon's illusion. Of course, not all of them needed Van's help. About fifty percent freed themselves from the illusion without any interference, the rest were freed by Van. Fortunately, Van was able to get to everyone in time. This was mostly due to the fact that he had been able to get rid of the Night Fey attacking him so quickly.

Luckily, the biggest hurdle in the fourth round was simply the Night Fey's illusion skill. The Night Fey themselves were in the 4th rank, and while they possessed this powerful skill, they were physically weak and so it was not difficult to kill them.

Saying that, the Night Fey's illusion ability had greatly damaged the morale of the participants. It seemed that nearly every battalion had a great deal of members - save for the Cedar Sect. The Zephyr Sect was also doing better than average due to Cordelia and Daphne snapping out of their trance relatively quickly.

Two hours later, the round came to an end.

"The fourth round has ended. The fifth wave will begin in six hours," the ghostly voice announced.

Van watched the Night Fey retreat with a look of distaste on his face. He had not allowed a second Night Fey to capture him within an illusion after that first one – he had learnt his lesson!

Samuel plopped down onto the ground next to Van's feet, sighing.

"God! I saw the scariest illusion today, my uncle barged into my house and started lecturing me about not eating my carrots – ugh!"

_____

[6 hours later.]

Van's open meridians were sucking in the thin spiritual power in the air to refill his spirtual reserves. After the last wave, he had dropped to about 80% of his full power.

In stark contrast, most 5th rankers had about 10% of their energy remaining while the 6th rankers were doing better at 30% of their full power. The other 7th rankers were averaging around 50% of their power left. The six-hour break was greatly needed for them to recover their spiritual power.

If anyone knew that he had only spent 20% of his full power to defeat endless waves of the tricky Night Fey, who were all in the 4th rank, they would have spat blood. What a monster!

Why was there such a large difference?

Naturally it was because Van's spiritual reserves were the largest out of all the disciples present in the battlefield. Not only had he unlocked the legendary 99th meridian, which allowed him to accumulate spiritual power at an insane rate when activated, his absorption of the Tri-Divine Blood Flame had expanded his capacity once more. While the quality of his spiritual power was a level better than an ordinary 7th ranker, the size of his spiritual wells rivalled a 9th ranker!

If the size of his spiritual reserves were to get out, countless people would praise him as a one-in-one-thousand-year heavenly genius.

But Van was happy to lie low. The best thing for him was to be underestimated by his enemies.

While Van meditated for six hours like everyone else, he had actually recovered 100% of his power in the first hour. For two hours after that, Van replayed his movements in the battlefield to gain a deeper understanding of his martial techniques. The final three hours Van spent building up his cultivation with more spirtual power. While he only gained 0.5% of the spiritiual power needed to advance to the 8th level, it was still time well-spent.  Van concentrated on the tranquility he felt while cultivating to shut out any unnecessary thoughts.

HUMMMMMMM

The giant crystal 'lamp' in the sky vibrated suddenly.

Then it plummeted downwards!

Van looked up, alarm crossing his face.

It seemed that the fifth monster wave was going to be quite different!