Abyssal Awakening

"Urg…" Groaning softly, Jin could feel his consciousness returning.

Even before he opened his eyes, he felt something soft beneath his head.

A pillow?

What happened?

Right… He called Alice heavy and felt like he was about to cross over to the afterlife in the next moment.

But that still doesn't explain this soft sensation. It felt familiar in a sense…

Like what his mother used to do for him when she would play with his hair.

Could it be? A lap pillow?

"Ohya? The young man is awake now." A deep gruff voice sounded out.

Realising something was wrong, Jin snapped his eyes open and saw a buff middle aged man leaning in close, observing his complexion.

"If you stare so hard, I'll get shy." The man blushed as Jin immediately rolled away and jumped to his feet.

"If you can make that kind of movement, there shouldn't be anything else wrong with your body. Thanks boss, here's the promised extra." Alice smiled towards Jin before turning to the middle aged man.

Catching a small pouch with some coins that Alice threw towards him, the man smiled and gave a respectful bow before entering his shop again.

"What happened?" Jin asked, sitting opposite Alice while making sure all his belongings were still there.

He wasn't missing anything except for his weapon which was next to Alice right now.

"Don't worry about it. Do you want to continue the lesson or should we take a break first?" Alice asked.

The fact that she almost killed him with that attack should probably be kept a secret.

It wasn't her fault that he asked such a rude question. Yep, it wasn't her fault at all. If anything, he should say sorry for asking such a question. Definitely.

Thinking about it for a moment, Jin nodded his head.

"Can we continue the lesson please?"

"Of course. Let me think… I have a decent judgment of your instincts and senses now. Your mastery over your martial art is a little low but I assume that's because you haven't fought against people often. Judgement is pretty good… Hmm… the best way to hone your instincts is probably through exposure." Alice thought to herself while pouring herself a drink.

"During our travels, I'll keep you exposed to my killing intent at certain parts of your body. You should use this time to familiarise yourself with how it feels. Once you get a hang of that, I'll mix in some attacks and your options are A, sense where they're coming from. B, dodge out of the way or C, parry it.

"Achieving these should allow you a brief insight into what the zone is like. Naturally, I'll also do a demonstration for you since I can't expect you to figure it out without a reference."

Standing up, Alice walked away from the table and stopped around 3 meters away.

Just as Jin was wondering what she was doing, he felt a surge of killing intent erupt from Alice. Just the intent to harm was enough to cause him to hallucinate a gruesome death as the skies turned into a blood red with his entire body breaking out in cold sweat.

Fading away after a moment, Jin didn't even realise he was holding his breath and panted heavily.

"I filled my Zone with killing intent just now. Most of the time, you won't be sensing this. I'm just making it easier for you to recognise the boundary. Instead, sensing a zone requires both experience and instinct. You have to use these two to accurately gauge the distance of safety and the sudden expansion of the zone."

Expanding her zone once more, Alice flicked her finger, confusing Jin when the glass next to him was suddenly cut in half.

"You were in my zone just now but I didn't release my killing intent. That's what I meant by trying to sense the boundary and potential danger. Had my target been you, you would've died before you even understood what happened to you.

"Therefore, our first task for your training would be to hone your senses." Alice 'smiled' as Jin suddenly felt a chill down his back.

He unconsciously clutched his stomach as the phantom pain of being punched there persisted.

As they were packing their things away, Alice asked Alyss a single question.

'Do we have a Sigil that can heal?'

Folding her arms, Alyss was silent before curving her lips up into a smile.

'We do. It's not very potent but if you keep things toned down and limit yourself to physical hits, it'll certainly help.'

'Perfect.'

Instinctively, Jin felt another chill and jumped away, surprising Alice as she watched him look around in confusion as well.

"Are you alright? Did you hit your head or something?"

"Erm… Yeah, I'm fine. Weird…" Jin frowned, unsure as to why his body suddenly had the urge to run away.

Shaking his head, he suppressed this urge and figured out where they were before making their way to the next destination along their journey.

There were three requirements for Alice's route.

1: Places to drink alcohol.

2: Nice scenery to match the drink.

3: Places to attack.

One would usually think that number three would be the most important considering the context of her goal but it was actually number 1.

If there was a sect there but no drink stops or scenery, Alice didn't want to bother with it.

Of course, if the route was towards one of the major sects, she'd begrudgingly accept.

"If we travel through this path, we should be able to reach the swallow tail sect in about 2 days at our current pace. There are a few small sects and houses on the way there and there is a city on the route too." Jin explained while checking out the map.

The swallow tail sect was part of the six sects, boasting a martial art that heavily focused on speed and swift strikes. It wasn't the kind of swift strikes that was commonly used with hidden weapons but rather attack speed.

In terms of martial arts, it would be classified as primarily revolving around their unique footwork and paired with complimentary sword styles and so on.

"Speaking of which, why don't we take the carriages? We would be able to get there in a few hours with good scenery too." Jin asked curiously as Alice never mentioned why she wanted to travel by foot.

Thinking about it for a moment, Alice asked if he had a talisman or something similar on him.

Once he handed her a talisman, he felt a sudden surge of energy burst out as she immediately threw it into the air.

*BANG!!!!

"As you can see, anything I touch that's made by Suyin is destroyed in mere moments. Since we met at the port, I'm sure you heard about the sudden terrorist attack that blew up a building right?" Alice mentioned as Jin's pupils constricted and stared at Alice.

"That was me teehe~" She gave him a peace sign along with a grin while his smile twitched.

Thankfully, he didn't carry many talismans since he couldn't afford them. Otherwise, when Alice grabbed him, he might've blown up then and there.

Just thinking about it sent a chill down his spine as he couldn't help but wonder if choosing to join Alice was the right choice or not.

But when recalling her strength, he dismissed this worry. When is it that you get a chance to follow someone this strong? Not only that, she didn't want him for some weird purpose either.

He wasn't going to be used as a cauldron for refining medicine or a human storage for Abyss blood either. He was simply acting as a guide.

"But if we are ever in a rush, I have alternative means of travel. I just want to enjoy the nation a little you know?" Alice smiled, walking ahead. She wanted to fully embrace the feeling of freedom.

Hearing this, Jin ran after her with a smile when a sudden wave of killing intent washed over him, causing his movements to suddenly freeze up and trip over on the ground.

"If you keep freezing up in the face of killing intent like that you'll die ya know?" Alice smiled, lifting him up using some blood threads.

Jin wanted to say something but decided not to.

It wasn't like he was unfamiliar with killing intent but there's no way her's was normal! Your next chapter is on My Virtual Library Empire

###

Wiping away the sweat on her brow, Qiu Qiu glanced at the broken dummies with a frown.

More. She needed more control, more lethality.

This still wasn't enough to defeat Alice.

"I was wondering what might've caused little Qiu to hole herself up in the training grounds for days. Facing a bottleneck?" An older gentleman smiled as Qiu Qiu glanced over with surprise.

Leader of the Demon Extermination Squad!

Just as she was about to kneel, the old man stopped her with a single wave of his hand.

"So what's gotten you so troubled? Perhaps I can offer some advice."

Thinking about it, Qiu Qiu decided to recount what had occurred at the port.

Her battle with Alice, the perfected Killing Arc that she revealed and her strange state during that last attack.

Listening carefully without saying anything, the old man didn't expect Qiu Qiu to meet this kind of opponent and live to tell the tale.

Especially if his theory was correct.

Grabbing a wooden sword, the old man weighed it in his hand before turning to Qiu Qiu.

"By chance, did the young girl perform this kind of strike?" He asked, expanding his zone and reaching the state of unity.

Immediately, Qiu Qiu felt a familiar sensation wash over her as her instincts kicked into overdrive.

*CLACK!!!

Widening her eyes, she didn't expect herself to attack the leader out of nowhere.

"Ah! I'm sorry! I don't know what came over me!" Qiu Qiu apologised but the leader waved it off with a smile.

"It's fine. So you want to defeat this kind of opponent do you?" He asked as Qiu Qiu nodded her head.

There was a fiery resolve in her eyes as the old man nodded in appreciation.

"Follow me, I'll show you to one of my old training grounds. It should help you achieve what you are seeking."

It's rare that a disciple would have such a fire lit under them after facing a user of the state of unity. Since this was the case, he won't let her determination go to waste.