Heaven's Ichor

"A..a culti... Cultivator!" the old man felt shocked beyond belief that the youth that he was just talking to was a cultivator, and based on how he just disappeared like that, he must have known a Dao spell or it could've been an effect of his cultivation art but either way that didn't change the fact that he had questioned a cultivator about what he was doing.

"What if he held a grudge or came back for revenge, no one would stand up against a cultivator for him and even if they did, it wouldn't make a difference, it would just be another person for the cultivator to kill, and even if they somehow miraculously won, they'd be executed by whichever sect the cultivator belonged to, a mortals life was worthless compared to the the value of a cultivator's life.

Wrought by fear the middle aged man ran off, failing to notice the black clad youth just a couple of meters away from where he'd just been standing just moments ago. 

Releasing the breath he'd been holding in for a while, Astel scratched his chin, pondering about what had just happened, "was he really a cultivator and if he was why'd he turn to stare at me before leaving, does he know about the Mosquito Creature, what about Uncle's Dao spell, or was he just following me out out of simple curiosity. 

"Argh, why does life have to be so complicated" Astel groaned In his mind, without finding the answers to any of his previous questions, he found himself asking even more questions where which the answers were nowhere in sight.

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts lamenting on how often he'd been doing it recently, Astel continued on his journey to the green mountains. 

Passing by the dark, creepy alleyways, the grounds littered with trash and waste products, the rusted metal houses most of them abandoned, it's owner's fate unknown, the dark night solidifying the feelings of gloom and hopelessness into an almost palpable aura, yet horrible as it was Astel felt oddly free wandering about, no one around him, no one noticing him, just the the calm, quiet night sky surrounding him and the glowing radiance of the moon's light eneveloping him, Astel felt his worries disappear into tomorrow, his clear amethyst eyes shining with a poetic light.

"The blue moon shines, it's radiance spreading throughout the land, bringing light to the mortal world, encompassing all"

"The pitch black night sky suppressing the light of day, it's darkness devouring all that exists in the world, eneveloping all" 

As Astel recited, the colder his eyes became, the seed in his mind slowly growing... Picking up a withered flower, hidden in the shadows, seen only by him, Astel started reciting again. 

"The light taking just as much as its given, the darkness giving just as much as its taken, one inducing confidence and hope, the other growing fear and despair..."

The more Astel recited the more his eyes started to change, from clear, to cold, finally settling at indifference... The seed in his mind growing more and more similiar to the flower in his hand, eventually turning into a replica of the withered flower. 

"Labelled as good and evil, righteous and demonic, watching it fall, at the end of it all, only time can tell, who's right or wrong... 

Finishing his recital, Astel's eyes started returning to normal, his trance ending, feeling something change in his mind. 

Astel let out a deep sigh as he saw the state of the withered flower in his hand, petals almost all gone, the remaining ones discoloured, about to fall off, Astel softly spoke to it in a voice incomprehensible to others. 

"Dao spell — Night's Embrace..."

As Astel said those words, small tendrils of darkness rose from his hand and started enveloping the withered flower in his hand. 

If outsiders saw this scene they would feel sorry for the poor flower that got crushed, but Astel the caster of the spell knew what was about to happen, instead of getting destroyed, the flower slowly started recovering at a rate visible to the naked eye. 

A few seconds later, the tendrils of darkness started to retract from the flower, slowly fading away into the night. 

Looking at the withered flower again, the change was like the difference between Heaven and Earth, the withered appearance nowhere to be seen, a Black Rose taking its place...