Chapter 261 - Bloodbath (1/2)

Five minutes remained before Chu Xun would come to make true of his threat.

Yet until now, no warriors retreated from Haiqing City with their battle pets.

A few sharp, piercing caws shot through the air and five snowy-white cranes flew towards the direction of Haiqing City, all of them gigantic specimens with wingspans that reached an incredible length of five to six meters.

They landed as one, and the motion of their flapping wings folding up was enough to whisk up a backdrop of sand and gravel behind them.

White cranes have always enjoyed being illustrious motifs in Chinese mythology and fables and the white coat of furs of these majestic birds made them look all the more impressive and magnificent. As soon as the birds came down, upon each of their backs, a group of young women came down, each of them dressed in white robes while possessing a divine and celestial presence that set them apart from common people.

Leading at the front was a middle-aged beauty in her early thirties, although she must be very much older than that, for she was a Human King.

“There are still three more minutes until the half-hour mark, Brother Mu. Do you not want to send your battle pet away, lest it be destroyed?” asked one of the Grandmasters loudly.

He was referring to a middle-aged man in his forties, whose battle pet was a mountain rodent the size of a large dining table with fur as stout and hardened as steel needles. Its large obsidian eyes gleamed dangerously as it bared its half-meter long fangs, threatening to rip any armor like ribbons.

“Humph. For a century, I walked with pride and dignity. Never have I seen anyone so haughty before. In fact, I’m interested to see how he would try to slay my battle pet.”

“Hahahaha… Me too. Such proud and arrogant words. Let him come. I’ll let my pet Xiaohuang to mind-control him into doing striptease for us,” added another warrior, guffawing loudly. His battle pet Xiaohuang was a one-meter-long weasel. It might not look as powerful and daunting as other battle pets or wild beasts, but as a minion of one of the main zoomorphic deities of Chinese myth, it was skilled in psychic attacks and that made it formidable enough.

The women whose gorgeous beauty looked as if they were fairies who descended from Heaven heard the men talking, their minds deep in silent thought. One of them pondered quietly, only for her eyes to shoot wide suddenly with dawning comprehension.

“Wait, where are you going…” the middle-aged woman gasped when she saw her student drifting towards the warrior with his giant weasel.

“My apologies, can I ask what are you discussing?” asked the young woman politely.

The warrior hardly expected one as pretty as the young woman would come to talk to him. Enlivened with spirit and his eyes gleaming exuberantly, he said, “Haven’t you heard, my lady? A man came just now and warned everyone to withdraw their battle pets away from Haiqing City, or he’d slaughter them all. Ludicrous, don’t you think?”

Hearing this, the young woman’s expression shifted slightly. She croaked a quick “Thank you” and hurried away to rejoin her group.

“We need to have our cranes leave this place at once, Martial Uncle,” she reported. She patted gently on her bird, bidding it to leave Haiqing City.

“What is this?” asked the middle-aged woman.

“There is no time, Martial Uncle. I’ll explain later,” said the young woman urgently.

The middle-aged woman firmly gave her assent, and everyone sent away their white cranes.

All five birds took into the sky and the young woman finally heaved a breath of relief.

“What’s going on, young Xuan?” asked the middle-aged woman again.

“Have you heard what were those men talking about, Martial Uncle?”

The middle-aged woman nodded. The men had been talking so loudly that it was hard to miss.

“Just you wait. They will be in trouble soon enough,” young Xuan smirked thinly.

“Just tell us. What’s going on?” her senior urged again.

“I have encountered a similar incident when I was at Gujiang City the last time. A warning came first, giving a half-hour for all warriors to dispatch away their battle pets. But the warriors all behaved exactly what we are seeing here now.” The young woman’s face flushed with a sudden fear. She took a deep breath to calm herself before she went on, “When the time finally came, hundreds of battle pets were dead. Slaughtered in a merciless bloodbath and any warrior who dared to defy this mass execution were wounded. Even the Ying Clan who once reigned supreme at Gujiang City was utterly ruined.”

This young woman was none other than Fairy Xuan, a young prodigy of the Xiangsi Pavilion who had met Chu Xun before twice.

The middle-aged woman turned horrified, and so were the young woman’s fellow students.

“But who would possess such unstoppable might?” gasped the senior lady. Cities and major settlements everywhere in this age abounded with hundreds, if not thousands, of warriors, and among them lurked numerous prodigies of renowned prowess. To slaughter hundreds and thousands of battle pets would mean antagonizing just as many warriors. But who would be capable of such madness? Not even famous Human Kings would dare venture such risks.

“The person who made such threats is Chu Xun. Chu the Devil.”

Soft and gentle was her voice, but it sounded like the toll of a bell in the ears of her senior and fellow students, that their eyes widened with disbelief and bewilderment.

Chu the Devil. Three merest words that belied the significance they carried. The very personification of destruction of carnage who had surfaced more than a decade ago, decimating orders, sects, and various organizations that dared cross his path and leaving bloodbaths in his wake. Then he disappeared mysteriously, only to resurface again, shocking the world once more.

“Small wonder there…” they grimaced quietly amongst themselves. Everything would make sense if the person behind all these slaughters was indeed the notorious Chu the Devil.

“Ladies, why have you sent away your pets? You didn’t have to do that. Not when I’m around. Rest assured that I will take care of that madman when he arrives. You should stay and see how I will wring off his head and feed it to my Xiaohuang,” said the warrior with his weasel, interrupting the women.

Warriors are also men, and men could never easily resist the charms of beautiful women. The presence of Fairy Xuan and her companions began to make any male warriors around to come closer with their mouths salivating.

“Don’t worry. Feel free to summon back your pets. No one will dare hurt you when I’m around. I’ll let him have a taste of Hell.”

“What an idiot that madman is, to threaten every warrior across Haiqing City. He’s either crazy or he’s a fool. Don’t worry, ladies. I bet he’s cowering in a hole somewhere now, regretting his action. But if he really dares to show himself, I’ll show him the meaning of Death.”

Scores of male warriors came forward to offer the ladies their assurances.

“The half-hour mark has arrived,” announced a voice loudly.

The warriors broke into fits of guffaws, all of them sounding derisive and scornful.

“So what if the half-hour mark has arrived? Here I am! And here is my battle pet! We are all fine! Just you wait, I’ll find out the person behind this and I’ll make him pay!”

This warrior’s battle pet was a gargantuan Tibetan mastiff at least three to four meters tall, its golden coat of fur giving off a stately luster in the bright sunlight.

But he barely finished when a loud bang struck, and a bolt of dark light hit the mastiff’s large head, splitting it into half with blood pouring out and flowing down its torso.

Everyone froze.

It took a while until everyone recovered from their stupor and looked.