Murim Recurve

The old lady arrived at the terrace, making a general sweep of the surroundings to see if there were any eyes on her or the terrace in general. She had worn an armour to protect herself. And considering her age and the fact that she was within the city, it was an odd sight.

And even though she draped a gown over it, it was still odd enough the onlookers might gaze for a longer time just to satiate their curiosity. So, to prevent anyone from looking at her, the old lady waited and only made a move when she was assured there were no eyes on her.

She quickly arrived before the water tank, climbing up the short flight of stairs that trailed over the tank, arriving at its top. The cover on it was kept open as the old lady peeked inside, looking at her three children that were staring at the crate before them.

The crate was fully submerged underwater. They had arrived at this place at the crack of dawn and had hurriedly brought the crate into the water tank to be kept safe.

The old lady stared at everyone for a while, not speaking anything as she regulated her breath. Then, followed by a violent smack to her stomach, she spat out a tiny vial, the size of her little finger's nail. The vial was seemingly made with a material different from glass but was transparent.

And, contained in it was a jet-black rock, segmented into three pieces. They filled up the vial's interior. The old lady looked at the vial as she sighed, "I never wished to use this. It took us a decade to condense this vial."

She shook her head, "If only the three Sha reached complete maturity, I wouldn't have needed to resort to this. Unfortunately, this is our only choice to secure the mural."

She then turned silent, her face looking still, like a lake. After she breathed a couple of times, her face was suddenly suffused with unprecedented horror, as if she had witnessed the worst of the world.

The fear she felt caused her body to tremble uncontrollably; all the fear condensed and turned into Fear Qi, being siphoned out of her body the moment she opened the vial. The Fear Qi seeped into the three rocks within the vial, getting completely absorbed by them as the old lady uttered with great difficulty, "Secure…the…mural…"

She then gasped for air, closing the vial as she collapsed on the floor, barely inching her arm forth as she dropped the vial into the water tank. Standing within, Pal, the oldest of the three caught the vial, looking at the other two as he nodded, handing one rock to each.

Fear Qi Essence!

It was a precious material they had created to suit their agenda. Now, to obtain the mural, an item of greatest importance, they had no choice but to use all the Fear Qi Essence at their disposal.

The mural was something their branch in the land of Treka had discovered long ago. But, they didn't dig it out. Rather, they used mysterious methods to create a pathway to it within the ground. And, they conducted live sacrifices of the Kalki before it.

They then reaped the eyes of the fallen Kalki and inserted them into the mural through mysterious means. After that, they always captured the Kalki soldiers that they defeated in war and tied them to the mural.

And, as the Kalki soldiers felt fear, they began to generate Fear Qi. And this Fear Qi seeped into the mural, embodying the two Treka inscribed into it, condensing into something within them. Over the years, the Fear Qi slowly nurtured something within the mural.

As the mural was buried in a place near the border, it meant wars constantly took place on the ground. The blood spilled during it seeped into the ground and dripped onto the mural. The Treka were masters of the land, easily able to achieve this feat.

The blood of the Treka and the Kalki alike dripped onto it. And always, the Treka part of the mysterious organisation ensured at least two Kalki were tied to the mural, alive. So, they were subjected to the constant torture of being bathed in the blood of their allies and enemies alike.

This continued for 50 years!

After that, the respective branch was destroyed for some reason, and the information related to the mural was lost. Subsequent branches of the mysterious organisation had their respective schemes at play and hence hadn't managed to unearth any clues.

Moreover, they couldn't afford to do so, since the branch's destruction was rather high-profile and fell in the eyes of the Celestial Kings of the Treka.

Even though information about it was lost, the arrangement still existed. Therefore, as wars were waged, the blood of the Kalki and the Treka continued to drip onto the mural. And, as the eyes of the Kalki were placed within it, it formed a medium to generate and nurture Fear Qi, absorbing all the fear in the blood that the owners had experienced while dying.

Another 30 years had passed in such a fashion before the Kalki launched a raid into the land of the Treka. And while they were digging up the ground to set up a trap, they discovered the mural, bringing it back with them.

As they hadn't drilled or broken it, they couldn't discover the arrangements made inside. After all, from an external detection, it was only covered by a dense layer of Earth Qi and the inscriptions on it were vivid enough to inspire a Harmoniser into creating a Pranic Art.

And, as the Kalki soldiers brought it back into their lands, a couple of spies among them relayed the news to their branch, alerting them of the mural's existence. After referring to their records, and considering the time that had spanned, the worth of the mural had surpassed what it was initially created for.

When the news was transmitted to one of the Calamities that ruled their organisation, their branch was ordered to obtain the mural, no matter the cost. Unfortunately for them, their branch too was raided by someone, causing them significant losses.

So, they had no other choice but to take drastic measures by expending everything they had worked in creating. And one of them was the Fear Qi Essences that took them a decade to create.