The old man stared intensely at the mark on Li Qiye’s forehead. When they crossed each other’s path, his eyes suddenly lit up.
“A sinkin!” He stopped, showing aggression.
The group also halted; their eyes fixed on Li Qiye. In the beginning, the majority of the group didn’t pay any attention to someone like Li Qiye.
“Senior, what’s a sinkin?” A young one heard this word for the first time and asked while staring at Li Qiye. [1]
“A sinkin is a banished tribe. Rumor has it that the ancestor of this tribe was a terrible evildoer, even the great progenitor of our academy couldn’t enlighten this person. Thus, this ancestor was banished. Their posterity, later on, is known as sinkins.” A middle-aged cultivator explained.
He had a high forehead and looked dignified. He carefully examined Li Qiye and couldn’t see anything evil.
“Senior, are you sure this young brother is from that tribe?” He asked.
“Absolutely!” The old man stared at the mark on Li Qiye’s forehead and said: “According to the ancient text, these sinkins have a mark on their forehead. That mark right there is exactly like the text description, so I’m certain that he’s one of them.”
“I’ve never heard of this sinkin tribe.” Li Qiye smiled and shook his head: “This mark is from an unexpected wound, not a symbol.”
“Excuses are useless.” The old man became serious: “When the great progenitor banished your kind to Repentance City, he hoped that your future generations would be able to change. However, they disappeared later on into the wild, no longer showing themselves to the outside world. Looks like this is true with you here.”
All eyes were on Li Qiye. Some of them had a glimpse of animosity.
After all, they came from the Academy of Light and instinctively viewed a member from a banished tribe as an enemy.
“I heard the ancestors of this tribe are all evil with darkness in their heart, some might be devils from the darkness. Their future generations probably belong to this evil affinity as well.” A relatively older youth has heard rumors about this tribe before.
“From the darkness?” Some youths staggered backward while their aggression intensified.
“How shallow. Let’s say that my ancestors are indeed sinkins, does that make me evil too?” Li Qiye shook his head.
“Hmph, hard to say, a dog can’t stop eating feces. You might be just like your ancestor.” A person glowing with holy light coldly uttered.
“Sinkins haven’t shown up for a long time so this is very surprising. This wildland had some changes in the last several days with darkness turning the land evil. Perhaps this is related.” “An old man became cautious.
“Maybe this is the work of their tribe.” Another suspected Li Qiye right away.
They began to crowd around him while slowly taking out their weapons.
“What do you want?” Li Qiye glanced at the group.
“Speak, did your kind do this?!” A youth shouted: “You must be scheming against our academy, or maybe your ancestors are still holding a grudge about being banished back then and want to return.”
“You have a rich imagination.” Li Qiye chuckled in response: “You’re wasting your talent by cultivating instead of becoming a storyteller.”
“Don’t run your mouth and surrender or we’ll let you have it.” The youth barked back.
“Senior, is this accurate?” The middle-aged man with the high forehead said with uncertainty. He found Li Qiye to be an ordinary person, not a big schemer with ties to the darkness.
“It’s better to be prudent.” The old man said: “A scout said that the situation deeper in there is extremely grave with rampaging darkness, worse than our expectation.”
“What should we do?” The man looked at Li Qiye.
After all, Li Qiye hasn’t done anything evil yet. They shouldn’t capture him just because he is a sinkin.
The young ones exchanged glances. Say, killing Li Qiye was an unreasonable decision. Nevertheless, they still had animosity towards him.
They have never seen sinkins before and had no feud with Li Qiye. However, the history of this particular tribe made them view him as a bad person with darkness in his heart - a preconceived prejudice.
“This is your light?” Li Qiye couldn’t help but laugh: “Not distinguishing between right and wrong and wanting to kill from the start just because a person is of a different dao.”
“Don’t try to twist the situation with words.” The glowing youth had a murderous glint: “He’s not one of us and definitely has nefarious intent especially with the darkness in his heart. He’ll cause trouble for sure. Kill him now to avoid needless complication.”
“So this is a student from the Academy of Light. How disappointing.” Li Qiye shook his head disapprovingly.
“Ignorant fool, insulting our academy? That’s even more deserving of death!” The youth unsheathed his sword, ready to kill.
“Don’t act blindly!” The middle-aged man yelled at him.
The youth begrudgingly listened while still pointing his sword at Li Qiye, waiting for an opportunity to strike.
“Senior, what now?” The middle-aged man asked.
“You are from the wildland? Where, exactly? Who are your seniors in the tribe?” The old man stared at Li Qiye before answering.
“Unfortunately, I’m not interested in answering you.” Li Qiye refused.
“Hmph!” The old man scowled, unsatisfied with a lack of response. However, because of his status, he wasn’t in a position to deal with Li Qiye.
“Let me capture him. He’ll spill everything right away.” The youth earlier became excited.
“What’s happening here?” Suddenly, a voice capable of swaying the soul came from above.
Light emanated and flowed like water before the coming of this speaker. It was as if a layer of white snow was covering the ground.
This light was warm and had a cleansing nature like a hot breeze amidst a world of snow. It could clear a lost traveler’s mind.
A girl appeared once the light dispersed. Everyone instantly bowed towards her with a look of reverence.
She was quite young, only slightly over twenty. Beautiful features, tall and thin - more than enough to make the fish and birds hide from feeling inadequate. Her white-snow dress accentuated her flawlessness. Most importantly, her hair draping over her shoulders was white as well. She looked like a princess from a world of snow.
However, the most noticeable part about her was her sacred glow.
The light followed her wherever she went. She even had a pair of wings made of light particles. When they flapped ever so slightly, these particles would rain down and chase away the darkness. She was a holy and inviolable beauty.
Both men and women stared at her in awe. Meanwhile, she had a group of followers behind her as well - clearly prodigies.
“Your Majesty…” The group greeted.
Despite the overwhelming holy light, a careful cultivator could also sense the dense presence of an imperial aura.
There was no doubt that she was a True Emperor. It’s just that she chose to converge this imperial aura.
1. I was going to use sinner in the first introduction, but sinner wouldn’t make sense in this context since the student wouldn't ask what a "sinner" is. The literal characters are sin + tribe. Creating a new word in sin + kin works well in the narrative although it might sound strange at first