"Now descend into the darkness. Find yourself being unable to get rid of your rage, let it-"

"Are you done now?" Mao Lu interrupted.

"Huh." the voice was startled.

"I asked if you were done ranting already." Mao Lu replied back calmly. He breathed in slowly through his nose and exhaled.

"Y-y-you're not turning mad." The voice was confused.

"For a second there I thought I'd lose myself to all that negativity, but then my emotions just settled." A strange sense of calm was now emanating from Mao Lu, his aura had become similar to a cool breeze in a hot desert..

He'd been so angry and upset just a moment ago but now he felt serene and still.

" H-how are you so calm?" the voice asked, It's voice filled with disbelief and confusion.

"I think the reason I've calmed down, is because I realised, or rather I understood that you're right.

You're right, everyday I did feel helpless and lost. I was bitter and jealous, but this information isn't anything new to me. I know my own faults a lot more than you do. I know my main problems.

I bear with things too much. I give people too much leeway. I contain my anger when I shouldn't.

I'm not a perfect person, just like everyone else I get mad, I lie, I get upset, I feel pathetic, and I feel useless. And I admit that there was a time in my life where I had absolutely no idea where I was heading. I felt so empty and bitter, and I cried at the injustice of everything. I hated the people around me but the person I hated the most was myself. However, one day I opened my eyes and I realised that this is just life, this is what life is about.

Unfair things happen and it doesn't go the way you plan it to go. It's not just me but everyone has their ups and downs, even the most fortunate people in the world are suffering in their own ways. No one is different.

A lot of bad things happened to me but worse things are happening to others. I need to be grateful for the life I have now.

I realised that by living with all that anger I was making my life more miserable. I should live my life the best way I can and no matter what life throws at me I should get through it. I'll survive. I'll get back up again.

I accepted the dark feelings in my heart a long time ago."

A stillness descended around Mao Lu. The scene around him; Old Lady Chen, Jiang Chen and the people in the courthouse were all frozen.

Nothing stirred other than Mao Lu's shadow, which twisted, writhed and bubbled up like a balloon.

A moment later a figure stepped out of it. They stood in front of Mao Lu.

His skin was pale and green, his eyes were red, but other than that he looked exactly identical to Mao Lu, as if he were a mirror image of him.

"You are saying you accept all of this? So you won't be overwhelmed by me or succ.u.mb to me?" he asked.

Mao Lu smiled slightly, "Yes, I've already accepted you. I may not have wanted to remember you, but now that I have I accept you."

Mao Lu sighed as he gazed at this strange version of himself. "I admit that

I wanted to forget that people hated me at school, that despite all my studying all I ever got was beatings from my Father and the jealousy of my peers. I wanted to forget that I was so petty and jealous of Fei Bing Bing that I bullied her and vandalised her things and still pretended to be her friend. I wanted to forget that I secretly despised my Mother for always watching when my Dad got angry with me.

I wanted to forget all of it, but that isn't right. These negative emotions made me who I am today. You made me who I am. Ignoring you is ignoring all the progress that I have made.

I survived all these events once I can survive and grow from them again.

When I finish this trail I'll find Fei Bing Bing and I'll apologise to her and admit my past deeds. I'll go to my Father's prison and visit him for the first time after all these years. I will face my darkness, I will accept my faults. I will grow and improve from them.

Don't you ever think that I will succ.u.mb to you, or fall into weakness.

I am better than that."

Mao Lu's shadow laughed and whistled, "You have a steadier mind and a stronger will than I thought you did. You're someone that can admit their wrongs... What made you like this, what changed your heart and made you strong?" the shadow was curious.

Mao Lu sighed "I was bitter. Like I said before, I used to hate the people around me and myself. For a very long time I saw my life as worthless, and I only pretended to be happy, I only pretended to be coping. One day these feelings led to suicidal thoughts and I decided I didn't want to live anymore. I was tired of all the hate and frustration my heart, I was tired of pretending, I was tired of running.

So in order to die, two years I made the decision to confront the Gangsters who had been chasing me because of my Father's debt. I let them find me."

The scenery around Mao Lu changed into a new memory, this time he was sitting in a cage. He was squeezed and huddled next to many other people, a few of them being small children.

His hands and feet were bound by plastic rings.

Through the cage there was an operating room in the middle of an empty warehouse.

Cla.s.sical music played through a radio.

People in jumpsuits and overalls were walking around carrying boxes and rapidly putting them into trucks.

In the middle of all this were surgeons, dressed in blue with white masks covering their faces. People were strapped to tables in front of them, and these so called surgeons were slicing them apart like wolves.

Taking off their skin, taking their blood, their eyes, their kidneys, their livers and hearts and all kinds of organs. Which they neatly packaged into boxes.

Boxes that were taken by others and placed in those trucks, and driven to unknown destinations.

Amidst the cla.s.sical music, blood curdling screams could be heard before they descended into the silence of death.

Everyone in the cages shuddered as they watched what would soon happen to them.

A little girl held onto Mao Lu's hand and silently whimpered.

Each time they finished with a body they grabbed another person from the cages.

"The Gangsters found me, and they knew they wouldn't get any money from me, so they sold me to organ traffickers. I expected them to do this, and initially I was happy that I was going to die " Mao Lu said as he watched this memory.

"Yet the moment I was thrown into this cage I wanted to leave, I regretted my actions. I realised how self-centered and stupid I'd been.

'How could I not value my own life, why did I do this?' were the questions that ran through my head. All the people here were victims brought to this place against their will, what right did I have to willingly come here.

As I stared at the people dying around me I realised that I didn't want to die, that I wanted to live. I realised I'd lived my life wrongly, I should have been emotional when I had the chance. I should have expressed myself. I shouldn't have wallowed in my negative feelings of depression."

The little girl holding onto Mao Lu's hand was pulled out of the cage. She squealed and cried. Mao Lu winced as he watched her being forced on that b.l.o.o.d.y table.

"I prayed that if I made it out alive, I would be better. That I wouldn't succ.u.mb to the bad feelings I had. That I would be stronger. I swore I would be stronger."

Mao Lu himself was pulled out of the cage and slammed onto that table. His limbs were strapped.

His forearm was cut, he screamed as they put a tube in his arm and began taking his blood.

One of the organ traffickers took a large scalpel and sliced open his abdomen.

It was at that moment when sirens could be heard and police officers rushed in from all corners.

"Somehow, even though I didn't deserve to, I did survive. I came out alive despite many others dying. My prayers had been heard.

I decided in this moment that I wouldn't let any obstacle push me down. That I was going to be more stubborn than ever. I was going to live my life properly."

Mao Lu stared at the Darkness, "So no matter what horrible memory you show me next, I have already accepted it, it won't bring me down. I'll adapt from it, I'll learn from it, and I'll grow from it. I won't shy away from my Darkness, it has made me who I am today.

Don't underestimate me."

As Mao Lu said this the scenery changed, and Mao Lu was standing on the surface of a still black lake. Everything around him was pitch black.

"I see." The Darkness said, "I most definitely underestimated your tenacity. And I can tell you mean every word. You try to be a good person but you don't pretend that you are one, you're no hypocrite. You have the strength to admit your faults and see them through, a trait that rare in many. I see that there is no point in making you relive the rest of your troubling times. You've proven you have the resolve not to be fettered by them. For someone so young, you have had much more spiritual and mental growth than many other Gatekeepers thousands of times your age.

You pa.s.s."

The other version of Mao Lu melted back into shadow and wrapped itself around his hands.

"For your unbreakable stubbornness; your flexibility to adapt, your ability to grow, and your tenacity to proudly carry your darkness, I shall give you the first piece of your True Weapon. I'm sure you can already guess what it is."

In Mao Lu's hands he felt something heavy appear.

It was a Longbow, well it was only the upper and lower limb, including the sight window, arrow rest and grip. It was missing the string notch, the bow string and any arrows, but it was still a Longbow.

The slim and elegant lines of the handle were made of a thick dark wood similar to Amazaque, Ash and Padouk woods. The black limbs were made of a smooth flexible metal which gleamed like they were laminated with a combination of Maple and carbon fibers with a middle insert of Ash wood. Of course it only looked similar to maple and Ash or carbon fibres. The actual material felt much stronger. The tips seemed to be made of a phenolic material, in the colour of black.

The bow was extremely heavy, heavier than the bows Mao Lu had used in the past. Mao Lu had also focused a lot on compound archery when he'd been training, he had used traditional bows before but he wasn't used to them, yet despite that it felt extremely comfortable to hold.

The grip felt like it molded perfectly into his fingers. He hugged the limbs of the bow.

As he did this the bow melted into his skin, and disappeared into his body.

"When you complete the trial you can summon it at will." the darkness said.

As it said this a doorway appeared on top of the still black lake.

It rippled and glowed an eerie blue.

"Now it is time for you to move on to the second stage."

Mao Lu nodded. "I'm ready."

___________________________

INSIDE CREED'S SOUL CHAMBER

In this strange cage the pa.s.sing of time was hard to grasp.

Chàng Bo couldn't tell whether he'd been there for days, years or only a few minutes.

His mind was racing the entire time. Why did Argenti imprison him, what questions did they want him to answer?

He'd told Mao Lu everything he'd known, well almost everything. He hadn't told him about the system.

Did they bring him here because they wanted to know about the system?

He felt like this was all for a different reason than that, if they were after his Sovereign system there were other ways they could go about this.

He wondered if Mao Lu knew he was being kept here, probably not. If Mao Lu was in on this there would be no reason for Argenti to wait until after they were separated to capture him. Not to mention Mao Lu just wouldn't do that to him….he wasn't the plotting or backstabbing type...and he loved him.

Chàng Bo was getting more stressed out thinking about this. "Regardless of why they're doing this the worrying part is that I don't know what they're plan to do with me after they get the information they want. To Gatekeepers I'm nothing, the only one that was protecting me was Mao Lu, without his interruption they might just kill me and get rid of the evidence. I need to escape." he thought.

But how?

Currently his soul was separated from his body. He was trapped in a soul chamber, once a spirit was trapped inside one of these it couldn't escape unless it was let out from the outside.

Also where was his real body. Even if he managed to get out of the soul chamber, if he didn't find his real body within 48 hours he'd end up becoming a wandering spirit and who knew what kind of creatures might prey on him.

Then, even if by some miracle he was able to escape the soul chamber and find his body, he still wouldn't be able to escape. He wouldn't be able to because of Creed.

Creed was a Saint stage pract.i.tioner, someone even his father would have to bow down to and show respect.

Chàng Bo didn't have a chance of defeating him. The most he could do was run from him, but a Saint stage pract.i.tioner would find hunting a Dao stage pract.i.tioner, the same way a cat found chasing mice. Easy. Chàng Bo didn't stand a chance with his current abilities.

He began to feel rather hopeless.

"Chàng Bo…." a small voice whispered, it was as quiet as a pin drop.

Chàng Bo looked around in alarm.

"Chàng Bo…" it whispered again, this time it was right next to his ear.

"I can help you escape. I'm on your side…."

"Who are you!?" Chàng Bo asked quietly.

"A friend…"

"You're not my friend" Chàng Bo snarled, "What's do you want?!"

"A friend of your Mother….. Here to help….."