Chapter 553 - Meng Wuyan (1/2)
“That’s him! That’s him!”
With his eyes lividly furious, Yang Qing looked nothing like the man he usually was. He clenched his fists so tightly that they cracked as he struggled to keep his boiling emotions and his reddened face in control. But with his injury now aggravated by the spike in his emotion, he choked and coughed up a mouthful of blood.
“Hold on, Brother Yang!” A man quickly helped him up while two others kept a close watch on their surroundings.
At the same time, Xiao Chen and Chu Qi maintained vigilance. His fingers gripped taut the hilt of his Blood Lotus Demon Blade as he scanned everywhere for any signs of their enemy, for he could not sense where was he nor where could he be coming from.
“That’s him! That MUST BE him!” Yang Qing howled, his eyes now flushed red and veins throbbed at his temples with raging madness. The enemy’s voice filled him with so much hate that Yang Qing looked as if he wanted to feast on his flesh and taste his blood.
“Heh heh heh heh… are you looking for him?”
The eerie voice resounded again. Only this time, the enemy showed himself. He stepped into the light, freeing himself from inside the darkness, gliding barely inches over the ground. His pale-white skin gave off a deathly luster, as was his blood-red lips, that everything about him reeked of the stench of a rotting corpse.
Behind him, stood another pair of men, both looking similar to him, but they were holding up a man between them; one of the three men whom Yang Qing had sent out earlier!
“Meng Wuyan! So it really was you!” bellowed Yang Qing with so much anger that his bloodied eyes threatened to burst. There was only so much his men could do to prevent him from lunging to his own death as they cried, “NO! NO! Brother Yang, calm down! He’s too strong! We won’t win him…”
“Heh heh heh…”
Meng Wuyan, the Chief of Wuyan Chamber—the Chamber of Nightmare—one of the twelve Chambers of Black Horn, smiled thinly. “Strange… strange indeed,” he said suddenly, “There is this smell… a smell that reminds me of myself… a scent that attracts me so of… immortality… undeath…” His scrutinizing eyes panned around and rested on Xiao Chen.
Chu Qi bolted and threw herself in front of Xiao Chen but was quickly stopped by his hand on her shoulder. He slowly eased her to his back. He felt only an indescribable dread from the enemy in front. He could not grasp how powerful he could be, but he was certain that Chu Qi would be no match for him.
“Brother, Brother Yang…” moaned the man apprehended by Meng Wuyan’s corpse-like underlings; he looked weak and impaired.
“Zhao Jiu!” Yang Qing who saw him now, growled through gritted teeth. Glaring at Meng Wuyan, he exclaimed, “What are you doing, Meng Wuyan! Release him!”
“Release him? Of course… but…” Meng Wuyan smiled viciously and he dragged Zhao Jiu forward. The sight of his man being tortured made Yang Qing grew angrier. “If you dare lay a hand on him… Meng Wuyan… I’m warning you…”
An anguish shriek of pain coming from Zhao Jiu cut him off. Yang Qing glowered with uncontrollable rage, “Zhao Jiu…!”
A sharp, black spike—that Meng Wuyan magically shaped with a pair of his fingers—speared through Zhao Jiu’s rib cage and abdomen. With his life ebbing away, the latter croaked, “Yang, Yang… Run…”
Before he finished, he erupted once more into another excruciating shriek. Meng Wuyan’s spike-like appendage burst inside Zhao Jiu and countless other tiny spikes pierced everywhere out of him that he resembled a sea urchin, destroying everything inside him. With his last breath, he groaned, “R-R-Run…” And his head hung limply on his neck.
“ZHAO JIU…!” Yang Qing howled. He would have thrown himself forward if not for his two men clinging desperately to him. Beside them, Xiao Chen hardly moved an inch. Their enemy was powerful. He might be able to win a fight with his full might. But he had only just got wounded and Guifeng remained too heavily exhausted before he could reappear.
“Heh heh heh…” A pleased Meng Wuyan withdrew his bloodied spike, swinging it and unceremoniously tossing Zhao Jiu’s corpse aside. “Yang Qing my friend… For so many years, you’ve escaped and I thought you’ve found somebody powerful enough to stand up for you. Is this the champion you’ve found?” He cast Xiao Chen a cursory smirk filled with disgust and contempt.
“Meng Wuyan… I swear I’ll kill you…” Yang Qing growled, his fists balled and his eyes bloodshot with fury.
Meng Wuyan let out a callous simper. “Heh heh heh heh… I daresay you made that same vow the last time we met. You were watching your sister being ravaged by my men again and again before her Essence Blood was finally bled dry by me then. You said those same words that time, did you not?”
“My sister… Yingying! ARGGGHHH!” Yang Qing roared like a nightmarish beast on the rampage. His voice thundered as he held on to his head as if to clinch on his last remaining shred of sanity even as his two men urged, at a complete loss, “Hold on to yourself, Yang! Calm down!”
Seeing this, Xiao Chen quickly sent a white bolt of his magic into his forehead and that finally calmed him down.
“Heh heh heh heh…” Meng Wuyan sniggered vilely again. “Don’t worry, I’ll never let you die… easily. You require some lessons. Lessons about consequences.”
He turned around and walked casually away, his entire form melting slowly into the darkness. His disembodied voice echoed as if from a distance, saying, “Take this back if you will. I’ll keep the other two for myself. The Wuyan Chamber has a need for fresh meat…”
“J-J-Ji Xiu… C-C-Chang Ning…” whimpered Yang Qing helplessly.
His face began to grow pale white under the influence of the poison. His hand groped at the darkness where Meng Wuyan vanished as he muttered the names of his two other companions and he fainted.