The Messenger of Death

Al shook his head and closed his eyes as he felt a slight headache coming on due to the situation he was in. Al then glanced at the GPS arrow on the Skin crawler's screen interface and saw that it was still pointing in a direction, the only difference is that the distance between him and what he was heading for was calculated as unknown.

['At least this still works… I think.'] Al thought hopefully.

He started walking towards the forest ignoring Sakura and Argus that were there to protect him. Although Al didn't like the idea of being followed by them, he was a bit glad that there were people here that he could use as meat shields when the opportunity comes.

Al chuckled at this thought. "It's probably thoughts like this that made my Karma this bad." As soon as said, he tripped and hit his head on the first tree just at the entrance of the vine forest.

-Thud!

Surprised by this, Al almost blacked out for a second there, but he quickly snapped out of it and tried to use his hands to cushion his fall.

-Crack!

A finger on each of his hands dislocated when they touched the ground. Al laid on his stomach with his eyes wide open in shock at what had just transpired. Clearly, something was messing with him and his surroundings.

Argus and Sakura looked at Al like he was crazy. There was nothing in front of him, so they couldn't tell how he tripped and hit his head on a tree.

"Are you… alright?" Sakura asked without thinking much about who she was talking to.

"Oh I am fine, are you okay, Miss delusional?" Al replied with a sarcastic tone.

As if the world was responding to his rude reply to Sakura, a little tree branch broke and fell on Al's head.

-Thud!

"Ouch!" Al exclaimed.

That wasn't meant to hurt normally, it was just a little twig, but the twig had pierced through the skin on Al's skull a bit, standing erect on his head. "What the hell is going on?" Al got back on his feet and retreated to the shores of the island. Keeping his distance away from the forest that seems to not like his presence.

Al removed the twig that stabbed into his skull and looked at it with anger. "Even as a mortal I would be able to notice this thing falling at me, how did I not sense it until it hit me?" He wondered.

Alex wanted to comment on their situation, but he didn't want to say anything and piss Al more than he has already done.

"This is just an example of what I meant when I said that Karma will decide for you when you are on this island." Mr. Guardian's voice reached their ears, speaking to only the three of them. "Although I didn't expect that your Karma would be like this, if not, I might have not invoked convergence of Karma here. Now I cannot interfere with your matters here even if I want to." He added.

"Then why did you let these two baggage come with me?" Al asked.

As soon as he called Argus and Sakura baggage, a long vine shot out of the forest from a tricky angle and flogged at Al. What surprised Al about this is that he could see it coming, but it was hard to move his body as if his limbs were filled with mercury.

-Whip!

Argus appeared in front of Al and caught the vine, he then pulled at the vine, thinking that this was done by someone and he was hoping to drag the person out of hiding. Unexpectedly, no one attacked Al, there was no resistance when Argus pulled on the vine.

A thick branch flew out of the forest and landed in front of Argus after he pulled. "Huh?" He said in confusion.

"As I said, this is an example of Karma deciding for you in this forest. I did say that what you do in this forest can still affect the state of your Karma." Mr. Guardian said, indirectly telling Al to be careful of what he says and does.

['Does that mean that killing that crazy motherfucker will get me into worse situations?'] Al wondered as his heart sunk.

"The reason why I asked these two to protect you is that I realized that you had the lowest cultivation base amongst everyone that I allowed to compete. After invoking Karma here, I was certain that your cultivation would drop, further increasing your chances of being killed, so I asked these two with higher cultivation to stand as guards for you against the other competitors… I didn't expect your Karma to be this bad."

Sakura smirked at Al, momentarily forgetting that he was a Class-1 bloodline holder. When she remembered, she fixed her facial expression, fearing that he might use that to crush her.

Since the Dragon flame bloodline in Alexander was the only one that had reached the third rank of the Blood Awakening stage, it was strong enough to have this kind of effect on people with higher cultivation than his. The lightning and spatial bloodlines are not able to have this kind of effect on people that are stronger than Alexander until they are also upgraded to the third rank of the Blood Awakening stage.

"Wow, I'm such a bundle of surprising elements. I wonder who wrapped a wonderful Christmas present like me up?" Al mentioned with a forced smile, pretending so that he doesn't get attacked by the unknown again. "Why can't you intervene, aren't you the overseer and a Sovereign?" Al asked, thinking that he could get Mr. Guardian to help him a bit with his Karma predicament.

"Your honesty shows on your expression so does your shamelessness. Is not that I can't intervene, but if I don't want the Heavens to punish me, I have to respect the forces of Karma, especially since I was the one that invoked a convergence of Karma here. I if give you preferential treatment as the overseer here, then I might have to face Divine lightning." Mr. Guardian said.

"What is Divine lightning?" Alex asked curiously.

"It is a form of Heavenly punishment, a tribulation that carries the wills and wrath of the Heavens. It aims to erase anything it attacks. Only a few can survive Divine lighting and I am not one of them, my chances of survival will be less than 1%."

"Then aren't you giving me preferential treatment by speaking to me?" Al questioned, a bit confused.

"No, you are not the only one that can hear me at the moment. The two people tasked with protecting you can hear me speak too, and besides, I am not speaking to you as the overseer of affairs here, but as a friend. So as long as I don't give you crucial information and help about anything concerning the competition everything will be fine." Mr. Guardian answered.

Al remained silent for a second, he had so much that he wanted to ask Mr. Guardian but since he was pressed on time, he had to weigh the important ones and leave the unimportant ones for the future.

"Then can I ask some questions about my Karma?"

"Sure thing, go ahead."

"Why is mine bloody red and theirs a lighter shade of red?" Al raised his right hand and pointed at the shade of red on his wristband.

"That's because their bad Karma is not as heavy as yours. They have done some bad, but not killed mortals carelessly." Mr. Guardian answered.

"Wait, so mine is like this because I've killed mortals?" Al asked in shock.

"Yes… Cultivators are blessed with great power… it is a different crime when a cultivator kills a cultivator and a mortal kills a mortal, but when a cultivator kills mortals, you will be overstepping your boundaries and will continue to accumulate terrifying bad karma. When the universe deems that your crimes are way too heavy, a Heavenly punishment will befall you. I suggest that you abstain from killing mortals."

"But I killed those mortals as a mortal!! Why is it so bad when a mortal killed a mortal!? I was born a mortal, I only became a cultivator after I awakened my bloodline." Al disclosed in frustration.

"What!?" Mr. Guardian, Argus, and Sakura exclaimed in surprise.

Their exclamations were for different reasons.

'How will a prince with such powers be born a mortal!? Class-1 bloodline bearers cannot give birth to a mortal! They are part of Heaven's favorites. Which royal family does this weird Prince come from?' Sakura wondered.

Similar to what Sakura was thinking, Argus, thought the same. 'How is this possible? Even if one of his parents is a mortal, the child of Class-1 bloodline bearer cannot be born a mortal.'

Mr. Guardian's train of thoughts differed from that of Argus's and Sakura's. He was well aware that Alexander's situation than they were. He knew that he has 3 different Dragon bloodlines flowing through him, but what he couldn't come to terms with is that 3 Dragons gave their blood essence to a single mortal.

'What did they see in Alexander that I cannot peer into?' Mr. Guardian thought curiously…