Chapter 64 - Punishment

Luo Xiao did not display any fear on his face, instead, he looked at the demon with great curiosity. He had read books about the demon race before, and what he had understood was that they had two shapes. One was their human shape that was almost impossible to differentiate from normal humans, the other was their demon shape.

The demon shape varied from demon to demon, some were more human while others were more beastly.

It was in general very rare for a demon to display their demon shape unless they had encountered an opponent they could not handle otherwise.

Even the soul cultivators had their strength enhanced when in demon shape, and now that this man had transformed his soul power was roiling around him, so powerful that yellow energy with golden streaks was impossible to get close to him.

The energy took shape as hundreds of swords, and all of them were pointing towards Luo Xiao. The demon had lost all rational thinking, the only thought in his mind was to exterminate Luo Xiao who had caused him such loss of face.

He even forgot that the person who had thrown him at the wall had been so fast that only a shadow had been seen. It was simply impossible to defeat him, even if he had taken on his demon shape, but who knew that he thought that he might have a chance at defeating or killing Luo Xiao before he himself became the target.

Luo Xiao was frowning. His eyes were filled with deep pondering as he wondered what he should do.

He had learned no defensive or offensive abilities, so he was fully dependant on the Shadow Guards to protect him.

Fortunately, he was not disappointed. When the swords created from soul power all launched towards him, a shield of black Qi appeared in front of Luo Xiao.

It seemed like a shadow which coiled around him, and the moment the soul power swords came into contact with them, they were swallowed up as if all light would be exterminated by the darkness hidden within this Qi.

Luo Xiao had read up on Qi cultivators as well as Soul cultivators before. The soul cultivators were ranged by their soul, either a mortal, spirit, heavenly or astral soul, but the Qi cultivators were different.

To become a Qi cultivator you needed to have a connection with an element. This in itself was not difficult, as almost anyone who had a mortal soul would have a connection to an element, however, what mattered was one's comprehension ability of the said element.

To enhance one's strength one needed to absorb and refine the heaven and earth essence into Qi, but to get through bottlenecks, it was comprehension that mattered.

There were multiple elements in the world, the most common were earth, water, fire, wood, and metal, however, there were also rare ones like darkness, light, ice, thunder, and wind.

One out of a million would have two elements, while everyone else only had access to only one element.

Seeing the black Qi that had raised a barrier in front Luo Xiao was so frightening that everyone felt a chill run down their spines.

Darkness was an incredibly rare element, and the majority of the darkness cultivators worked for the seventh prince in his Shadow Guards.

Could it be that this young man also had connections to the seventh prince? So far he had connections to the Ninth Prince, Jiang Bai directly. He also had some sort of connection with the sixth prince, Jiang Guanyu, indirectly through Overseer Zhu, and now it seemed that he might have a connection with the Seventh prince as a darkness elemental expert had appeared.

Just who was this young man that he could make so many princes pay attention to him?

Was he truly a human? If he was a spirit, then they could understand all these princes vying for his attention, but he was a mere human. He was even a mere human at the middle Sky rank, wait, middle Sky rank?

Last week's lesson he was clearly a low Sky rank, had he had a breakthrough since then?

Although a middle Sky rank was still rather low, Luo Xiao was now one step closer to the next class, and this made many of the observing people ponder, how long had it taken for him to cultivate to the middle Sky rank? What was his soul like? A spiritual soul or perhaps a Heavenly soul?

While everyone was in deep thought a shrill scream suddenly erupted in the classroom. Everyone was dragged from their thoughts and looked towards the sound.

The demon who had launched the attack on Luo Xiao was now kneeling on the floor, blood was flowing from all over his body, they saw a myriad of small snakes that were all made from black Qi slither all over his body, biting and ripping his flesh, opening wounds and drawing blood all over the person.

Although these snakes were not very large, their teeth were razor sharp and were capable of creating quite some serious damage against the demonized body of the soul cultivator.

It seemed as if killing him would be as simple as snapping the fingers of whoever was behind the snakes, however, it also seemed as if they wanted to punish him with unbearable pain.

Feeling your flesh being cut off bit by bit was simply a kind of pain that no one could understand unless they had experienced it for themselves.

The scent of blood permeated in the air, the sound of anguished howls reverberated through the classroom.

The faces of the other demons were ugly and pale, some of them were sweating in fear, but one thing was in common with all of them, and that was that none of them dared to move.

Luo Xiao glanced at them, he too was pale-faced as he saw the pool of blood that was appearing beneath the demon being tortured, but he forced himself to look at the gruesome and ruthless scene in front of him.

He knew he had a trauma when it came to blood because of him witnessing his entire village being slain and eaten in front of him, but he also understood that if he wanted to stay by Jiang Yao's side, then he too had to become ruthless and cold-blooded.

When Luo Xiao had been by Jiang Yao's side on the way towards Cloudsoar City he had been naive and gentle. He had Jiang Yao to look after him, he had accepted his care and consideration without thinking too much about it, but now things were different.

After joining the Cloudsoar Royal Academy he had understood that the world was not as simple as he thought. Although Jiang Yao was mighty, he too was pressured from many sides.

If Luo Xiao wanted to be of assistance to Jiang Yao, then he had to pull himself together and strengthen up, not just his knowledge and cultivation but also his mind and maturity.

Luo Xiao was only fifteen, almost sixteen, but he understood that the world was not a place where fairness existed. Strength ruled this world alongside schemes, and if Luo Xiao could not adapt, then he would not only kill himself, he might even drag Jiang Yao with him, something he never would want to see.

The anguished howls within the classroom turned more and more muffled as the demon had less and less energy to cry out and it was not before he was at the very edge of death that the black snakes turned into a black mist that slowly dissipated into thin air.

Luo Xiao did not pity the demon. Who knew what would have happened to himself had the Shadow Guards not been present, so he was not such a good person as to pity his enemies.

Sensing that the punishment was over, the other demons hesitatingly went to his side and helped each other carrying him, rushing from the classroom as if there was fire on their tails.

Shaking his head, Luo Xiao glanced back at the pool of blood that was present in the corner of the class, but instead of paying any attention to it, he turned around and left, leaving a stunned and gaping audience, all of which were filled with fear.

No one knew who the expert that had protected Luo Xiao was, but they understood that it was no ordinary individual to be able to not reveal his own appearance but still leave a high Sky ranked soul cultivator in such a sorry state.

Luo Xiao did not go to the Herb Hall this day, neither did he return to the house to cultivate, instead he sought out Jiang Bai.

He had been given a full week free time from his job as Overseer Zhu's assistant, and during this week he was supposed to be using the facilities at the academy to help him improve his cultivation, but he knew nothing of the different facilities and thus he decided to seek out Jiang Bai.

Although Jiang Bai disliked him, he had something to do with Jiang Yao, and as a result, he assumed that he would answer his questions about the facilities - introduce and explain the amenities to him.

Finding Jiang Bai was not difficult. Although he was one of the weakest princes so far, even amongst the non-direct lineage princes, he was still very famous in the academy.

Many women wanted to become his wife, some would even be satisfied as his concubines and many men wished to befriend him because of his overwhelming background. So what if he was factionless and not in the running for the throne? He was still a direct lineage prince, born to the Emperor and the Empress.

Although he was the ninth prince, he was also the last prince. No one knew what had happened, but from one day to another, the empress had vanished from the continent. No one had been able to find her, but what was most surprising was that the Emperor had made a royal decree that no one was to discuss the empress again, and that no new empress would appear before a new Emperor took over the throne.

When Luo Xiao located the house belonging to Jiang Bai he could not help but raise an eyebrow in surprise.

He lived in a small house, but it was considered rather spacious to him, however comparing it to the mansion that Jiang Bai resided in, it was simply impossible to even compare.

The mansion had a massive front yard with a stone garden, the house itself was four stories high and everything oozed of luxury.

Luo Xiao knew that every house had a barrier around them, and one could only enter if the resident allowed for one to enter, but Jiang Bai was a very social young man and considering that not many would dare to have thoughts of harming him, he had allowed for all to enter through his barrier.

Sensing that nothing was blocking him, Luo Xiao shrugged his shoulders and entered. He found that when he knocked on the door, one of the people who had previously followed Jiang Bai opened.

His face displayed surprise when he saw that it was Luo Xiao. He hesitated slightly, wondering if he should let the young man in or not. Everyone knew that Jiang Bai disliked him, but he had not said anything about denying him entry.

Torn between what to do, the young man in front of the door frowned, "Do you need anything?" He asked with a voice filled with impatience. He had come to a decision, if Luo Xiao had no purpose here, then he would chase him away.

"I am here to see Jiang Bai," Luo Xiao said, completely ignoring how the pupils of the other shrank when he heard how casually the name of the ninth prince was being said.