Gleam [Karma Cultivator Isekai] - Chapter 110: Confrontation

Shae sat in the hard backed chair in his house, hunched over a map spread out over the table with a bitter expression on his face. His fingers drummed on his knees as he stared blankly. It barely even seemed to matter at this point.

“Damn this job,” Shae growled, rising to his feet and kicking the chair back. It hit the ground with a crash, but he didn’t even glance back at it. Shae swept the map off the table and gritted his teeth so hard that they hurt. “Rank 3 with that sort of support. I was played for a fool.”

Shae stormed back and forth across the room, fuming. He could always set back off and try to track the boy down again, but whenever he glanced at the doorhandle, the Red Hand’s face flickered in the back of his mind and he pulled back.

“I need them dead,” Shae hissed. “Both of them.”

“Passion is better spent in the field than inside,” a cold voice said. Shae stumbled, spinning on his heel. A man stood behind him, his dark hair hanging low over his sullen face. Two purple voids spun where his eyes should have been, devoid of any real emotion.

“Who in damnation are you?” Shae barked, jumping back and calling on his Essence. Before he could bring any of it to bear, a powerful wave of force crashed down on the room. Shae grunted as he slammed down to one knee.

His teeth grit as he pushed back with all the force he could muster. It was all Shae could do to lift his gaze – and that was enough to show him that the intruder wasn’t even struggling. He was being toyed with.

“Your resilience would probably be seen as admirable,” the man said with a dispassionate sigh. “But I can’t be bothered to deal with it myself. Are you finished?”

“Who are you?” Shae repeated, his shoulders trembling with exertion. The world felt like it was closing in around him. The knees of his pants grew damp as dark water started to trickle out of the floorboards.

“You may call me Vex,” the man said. “You work for me.”

Shae’s brow creased. “I work for the Shikari council.”

“And they work for me,” Vex concluded. “For the time being, at least. Thus, you too work for me.”

The pressure bearing down on Shae vanished. The amount of resistance he’d been forced to put up was so much that, once the restraints were gone, Shae launched to his feet and nearly tripped over himself. He staggered, catching the table and drawing in a sharp breath of air.

“How do I know?”

“I don’t care,” Vex replied. “You aren’t the only one I’ve come to, but you were the closest to catching Chance and Bella. Thus, you have information I desire.”

Shae paused. His eyes flicked down to the map that he’d thrown from the table. A flat smile played across Vex’s face and he nodded to the chair behind Shae. “Sit.”

After a moment of consideration, Shae picked the chair back up and sat down. It was clear that Vex was stronger than he was. Considerably stronger. There were only a few people in Gleam that were this powerful, and there were even fewer that he hadn’t met at some point or another. For the time being, the smartest course of action would be to hear Vex out.

“What do you want?” Shae asked, his voice curt but polite. Showing too much weakness to powerful entities tended to result in death, but pushing back found the exact same result. There was a sweet spot to hit when talking to powerful cultivators, and Shae had been in Gleam for long enough to figure out just where it was.

A torrent of water rushed up beneath Vex, curling into a stool. Vex sat down on it and propped his foot up on the table, leaning his chin in the palm of his hand. “Of everyone tracking Chance and Bella, you were the only one to grow close. Why?”

Shae frowned. “I don’t know. Perhaps nobody else who was competent took the job.”

Vex snorted. “Perhaps. Nonetheless, you found them once. You can do it again. Where are they now, Shae?”

Shae didn’t ask how Vex knew his name. Powerful cultivators tended to know things like that, and asking was sure to net him nothing but either a knowing smile or a smirk. He bit back an irritated glare.

“They were in the Dancing Cloud sect, as I reported.”

“I know what you reported,” Vex said. “What I want to know is what you didn’t.”

Shae’s eyes narrowed. “You seek Jade’s whereabouts?”

“Do you care?”

“No,” Shae replied with a shrug. “Couldn’t care less. She’s a poor Shikari. Some talent, but too hardheaded and incompetent to ever become of use. A criminal by the name of the Red Hand took her into an Ancient Realm, where Chance and Bella retreated. I was forced to retreat to escape with my life.”

Vex nodded thoughtfully. Then he tilted his head to the side. “Why?”

“Why did Lin take her? I haven’t a clue.” Shae shook his head. “Whatever the reason, it hardly matters. She’s dead now – that, or he brought her as a gift to Chance. For some reason, the crazed bastard seems to have taken a liking to the little criminal. They’re cut from the same cloth.”

“I doubt that,” Vex said, his features darkening in anger. “And what of the third child? Yeo?”

“I wasn’t going after him. There are others. Ask one of them.”

“Alas, I cannot raise the dead. That power is beyond even me.” For some reason, Vex seemed to take amusement from that statement. He let out a cold chuckle, then yawned. “Every single cultivator that has sought out Yeo has died. Most of them have been found cut to pieces.”

Despite himself, Shae’s eyes widened. Vex clearly knew just about everything the Shikari were doing, so it was very likely that he was actually somehow part of the council. And, even if he wasn’t, arguing would only result in death. “Truly? But he’s only a Knight.”

“Chance and Bella were only Squires when they left,” Vex pointed out. “Now, I suspect none of them are. Forget Yeo for the time being. Someone aids him. Chance, on the other hand, evades us on his own.”

“Not on his own,” Shae protested. “He had–”

“I do not care about what some rogue criminal is doing,” Vex roared, fury washing across his features in an instant as he rose from his chair, a wave of Essence pouring off him and throwing Shae from his chair and into the wall.

Shae slid down the wall with a groan of pain. As quickly as the anger had arrived, Vex’s face returned to its plain state and he sat back down. Shae pulled himself upright, his heart slamming in his chest, but Vex said nothing. He just looked at the fallen chair.

This cultivator is completely and utterly insane. He might be even more gone than the Red Hand.

Shae strode back over to his chair, righting it and sitting back down. Vex smiled.

“You’re much better than the other cultivators I’ve been working with as of late. Very nice.”

“Thank you. I try to remain professional.”

Unlike you.

“You have yet to answer my first question,” Vex said, interlacing his fingers. “Why have you not gone back for them?”

“Because I have no clue where they are,” Shae spat. “Chance is not an idiot. I have men stationed in the Dancing Cloud sect in case he returns there, but I know he will not. And, for some reason, I cannot seem to find him again. He evades me once more.”

“Perhaps he is still in the Ancient Realm.”

“Even if he is, I should be able to track him down,” Shae said with a shake of his head. “Something obscures me. Jade is beyond me as well. I tried seeking her out as soon as I discovered that I was unable to locate Chance.”

“Dead, perhaps?”

“It’s possible,” Shae said with an uninterested shrug. “She was not the smartest.”

“The young seldom are,” Vex said with a knowing nod. “And what of this Red Hand? Have you tried tracking him?”

Shae paled. He glanced to the side and shook his head. “No. I do not wish to greet my death so early. I know my limits. If I go after him, then I will die. He is far stronger than our records indicate. I have already updated the status for his bounty, but we will need a Duke ranked cultivator to handle him.”

Vex’s features tightened in anger. For a moment, Shae feared that he was about to get hammered with another wave of Essence. Instead, Vex let out a slow hiss and let himself relax once more.

“I see,” Vex said.

Relief filled Shae, but Vex wasn’t finished.

“I see that every single Shikari is an incompetent fool,” Vex spat as he rose from his chair. “You cower in the safety of your room, whining at your failure but refusing to take steps to solve it. The boy and that damnable girl still walk around, happy as can be, while dozens of so-called Shikari stumble and fail at every opportunity, getting killed in droves and completely failing to reach their targets. Am I correct?”

Shae didn’t respond. Answering that kind of question would almost certainly end with Vex putting a fist through his head. The crazed cultivator drew a slow breath and bared his teeth as he let it out.

“No more of this game,” Vex said. “You have a manner to track the Red Hand?”

“Yes, but–”

“Then I will go with you,” Vex said. “I tire of this game, and our time runs thin. I will not permit this to last any longer. I trust you feel I am strong enough to handle this cultivator you fear?”

I think it’s more likely that I’ll be killed on the trip over there.

Despite his thoughts, all Shae could do was nod. There was no refusing someone of Vex’s strength.

“I will simply have to report our departure,” Shae said.

To his surprise, Vex nodded. “Go. I will find you once you leave the city. Be prepared to hunt.”

And with that, Vex collapsed into a puddle of black water and sank through the floorboards, vanishing and leaving Shae alone in the room. For several seconds, Shae didn’t dare to move.

Then he slowly rose to his feet with a grimace, pushing the chair back. If Vex didn’t care that he was reporting the task, then Vex almost certainly hadn’t been lying. Shae wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not, though.

But, even with his misgivings, a cold smile tugged at the corner of Shae’s lips. If he could manage to survive traveling with Vex, then the Red Hand’s reign would be over. Even he wasn’t strong enough to handle Vex – and Chance would fall soon after, when the Red Hand revealed the boy’s location.

I’m sure he’s got something to do with how Chance and Bella are hiding. You’ll regret leaving me alive, Lin.

Shae strode out of his room, heading for the nearest Shikari Base to report his trip. For the level of danger the mission he was about to embark on held, his features were far too excited. He was greatly anticipating the look on the Red Hand’s face when Vex arrived at his side.