The Hidden Myth of Ji Dara

Dara's vision was greeted by the fall of some strand of hair which he realized were actually his own, because the sword slash which the Obun Elders had decided to use for beheading him ended up taking his hair instead…

Then he sprung to his feet and turned around to look at them with a mischievous grin;

"You two have done enough- Now it's my turn!" He bellowed at them...

He dropped his hands before standing on one leg, and hanging the second one just in front of him, with both of his hands outstretched into a palm with one ahead of the other;

Then he made a 'come over' hand gesture with his furthermost palm, as the Obun Elders became more enraged and bolted toward him with two blunt, but sturdy and serrated swords in hand;

Then just as they reached a certain distance to Dara, he instantly bellowed;

"Tenketsu!"

The he bolted towards these Obun Elders in a zigzag pattern trying to disorient them by swapping between whom to attack first…

When they all got within striking range, the First Obun Elder struck in a vertical downward hack, looking to split Dara into three different parts, whilst the Second Obun Leader also struck in a diagonal horizontal arc, trying to cut out all of Dara's escape route...

But despite that, Dara saw a slim window with which he could evade their attacks and took it;

He jumped off the ground and spun on the same axis more than several times, and just like a bullet flying through a hole in wall, Dara was able to exploit a tiny gap between the First and Second Obun Leader's attack, as he landed behind them…

Due to the abrupt evasive technique Dara had just used, the two Elders were slightly stunned and therefore unable to react on time, as Dara joined the index and middle fingers in both palms and jabbed them towards the spine of these two Elders;

Bam! Bam!

The two Elders were sent flying about 3 meters across the ground before grinding themselves to an abrupt halt and then turning around to find Dara back in that weird stance of his…

'Damn, their armor is tough!'

Dara thought to himself, as he stab his hands into the ground whilst the two Obun Elders watched him absorb Qi directly from the ground…

His arms began to turn pitch black at a speed visible to the naked eye…

"Eh?"

The two Obun Elders were stunned by what they were looking at; this was something no one within the entire Dark and Grey lands would think is possible…

But shockingly to Dara, rather than these guys attacking him, he saw the Obun Elders drop their weapons in shock and fall to their knees, and then began to shed tears down their eyes…

Now it was Dara's time to get stunned by what he was currently looking at…

Howl!

The First Obun Leader howled into the sky as Dara saw all the Obuns within the village lurch to a halt before dropping their weapons and gathering behind their two Elders, before they finally went down on their knees with their hands up in the air in surrender…

Dara looked at these half beast half men with skepticism; he was obviously not going to let down his guard just because they seemingly surrendered…

The First Obun Elder then abruptly stabbed his hand into the Second Obun Elder's chest, exactly where its heart was and then, Dara saw a very shocking sight;

There, in front of him, and spilling out from the Second Obun Elder's heart was actually pure, fresh, red colored human blood…

"What!?"

Dara exclaimed in shock, and he was not the only one who was greatly shocked by the turn of events…

Then he saw the First Obun Elder use the fresh blood to cross the seal on his palm as a searing sound rang across the entire area;

Sssss!

The sound of skin searing or roasting was accompanied by a power ripple that began to spread out from the Obun Elder's palm…

Then the First Elder coughed up a mouthful of blood himself before blurting;

"Help us!"

This time, his voice was clear and he was very much speaking in human tongue;

"Eh?" Dara was once again stunned;

"Quick… I don't have much time left!"

The First Elder said like as if he was using every shred of power and will he had to hold back himself from transforming back into a mindless Obun…

"You monsters! After slaughtering countless of us, you dare ask for our help!?"

One of the experts in the area began to rage as he rushed and bolted over towards one of the Obuns;

"Wait!"

Dara yelled whilst raising his hand up to stop the expert, but the expert didn't heed his words at all a he continued to move;

"Hmph! Who are you to-"

Schweein! Bam!

The man didn't even complete his statement before the sound of a sword unsheathing rang out, followed by the sound of something heavy dropping to the ground;

"Is there anyone else who is getting impatient!?"

A voice bellowed over the entire crowd as most of them took a step backwards, but those who didn't swallowed their next words with a gulp…

The person who had just beheaded the man who just lost his cool was the second strongest expert in the village at the moment, and it was the expert Dara had brought over to rescue his sister…

Then he looked towards one other burly man who had a short hair and a massive X patterned scar on his chest…

The man simply stood there with his arms folded on his chest and simply stood there with an expression that didn't reveal if her was actually interested in what was going on or not, but after not getting any form of reaction from him, the expert looked back at Dara before adding;

"You can carry on…"

He said as Dara gave him a nod of approval despite being almost 12 years younger than the expert;

"Why would you need our help?"

Dara squat down to the First Leaders height, but from a safe distance; one safe enough to give him ample reaction time should in case these guys tried something funny…

"It is a long story, but we don't have enough time…"

"I can see that you can absorb that energy directly without having any side effects, thus I would need you to absorb out of my body instead, so that I can possess enough time to tell you everything…" The First Obun Leader pleaded;

"Wouldn't that be akin to me weakening myself and strengthening you?" Dara frowned skeptically as he responded;

"Our cultivation Qi is within that energy; which means, the more you absorb from our body, the more our cultivation reduces…" The First Elder revealed;

"But why would you want me to do that?"

Something was off with the Obuns sudden surrender and until he found out just what it was, Dara was not ready to help anyone;

"We would rather be human once again without cultivation that be stuck with this life they have enforced on us…" The First Elder blurted…

"Unh?"

Many experts amongst the crowd gasped, not at the fact that an Obun was speaking their language clearly, but rather, want implications the statement had on everything;

Argh!

The Second Elder yelled in agony as the First Elder quickly removed his hand before looking to Dara;

"We don't have  much time, the secret I am about to tell you is one that can change the ladder of power within the entire planet of jok… So, I would need three things from you…" The First Elder said;

"Firstly, I will need us to take me to a private place where we can discuss this…"

"Secondly, You will support me by absorbing that energy out of me throughout the duration of my narration…"

"Lastly, after I have given you this information, you must help us all…"

The First Leader looked to the over 500 Obuns left and gestured to all of them whilst Dara frowned in thought, but after about 5 minutes, he looked to the expert he helped and made a permissive face;

The expert then looked towards the burly guy with folded arms, and then the burly guy shrugged his shoulders, looked to one of the experts around him and spoke;

"Stay…"

The he led Dara, the Expert and the First Obun to the back of the village after the pen where they keep their mounts [beasts]…

When they got to the area, the First Elder then stretched out his hand in a thrusting manner;

"No need… That won't be necessary…"

Dara simply stretched his hand and shook the First Elder and then began to absorb the dark energy within him, and in just less than ten minutes, Dara was able to reveal the man's true face based on the amount of the Dark Qi he had absorbed, but he on the other hand had his entire arm turn pitch black…

He staggered a few steps backwards and threw up a mouthful of pitch black blood, before looking to a nearby tree and then slamming his palm into it, pumping the tree full of Dark Qi as the tree began to decay at a speed visible to the naked eye…

But despite all that, Dara was only able to dispel a little of the Dark Qi as the rest of it was still as much as his elbow length…

The burly guy looked at Dara and began to feel some level of threat coming from him; especially from that left arm of his which was now pitch black…

He had witnessed Min Hong use that palm to end Ji Hai who he could at most duel to a draw…

"Start talking!" The other guy spoke as the First Elder began;

"Everyone thinks those who are banished into the Dark and Grey Lands are people who have committed heinous crimes that the Imperials have deemed guilty of…"

"But whilst that is true to some certain degree, it also served as a perfect opportunity for the Imperials to commit the most heinous crimes you could ever think of…"

"Genocide?" The burly guy spoke once again;

"That would have been better; at least those people would have died…"

"Slaughter them for sport?" The other guy added;

"That is bad, but doesn't come near to what I am talking about…"

"Then what is it?" Dara asked…