192 Chapter 191: Old Grudge (2/2)

”You lying bastards!” Hai Rong shouted. ”You know we don't have any weapons of mass destruction! When the royal family finds out…”

”Why would they?” Yuan Tian Ya scoffed cruelly. ”Once all your precious blacksmiths and Spirit Engravers are imprisoned, we can…uh, forge the evidence we need. The royal family will not be able to do anything.”

”…”

Lang Xie remained silent, refusing to be provoked by anything their enemies said. Yuan Tian Ya didn't care.

Instead, he used a footwork technique and appeared in front of Hai Rong, taking her by surprise. As she tried to defend herself, Yuan Tian Ya didn't attack. Instead, he casually turned away and suddenly departed.

He was heading toward Lang Xie.

”Blood Shadow, you only need to trap Blood Blades' Instructor Hai. You can leave Lang Xie to us,” Yuan Tian Ya ordered.

As if on cue, the co-leader of Divine Shadow Sect, Di Shi Jiu, suddenly swung his bone sword at Lang Xie.

The sword seemed to metamorphize into a brilliant flash of light, surging across the courtyard in destructive fashion and uprooting the trees.

That wasn't all.

Every building in the vicinity that was in the bone sword's path suddenly crumbled and toppled over. Amidst the exploding debris, a single eerie white sword beam lanced through the dust and explosions like a dragon. It rammed and knocked the collapsing buildings aside as it charged straight at Lang Xie.

While the dragon occupied Lang Xie's attention, Di Shi Jiu seemed to have disappeared. Surprisingly, it was Yuan Tian Ya who was following the eerie white sword beam, diving in its wake and striking at Lang Xie.

Lang Xie conjured a second blood spear that was much larger than the first and hurled it at the incoming sword beam. The crimson projectile pierced through the white lance and exploded violently, hurling more rubble aside from the sheer force.

However, Di Shi Jiu burst out of the explosion and punched Lang Xie, but the latter was ready for him. Raising a gauntleted arm, Lang Xie intercepted Di Shi Jiu's strike, and the two men vanished in a cloud of dust and stone, the earth unable to withstand the tremendous impact of their collision and the violent qi that swirled around them.

Hai Rong was unable to pay much attention to them, having troubles of her own. Facing Blood Shadow after the both of them sprang apart after a vicious exchange, sparks flying between them, she skidded to a stop and glared coldly at her opponent.

”Who are you, Blood Shadow?” she demanded frigidly. ”Or…am I perhaps supposed to address you as Senior or Junior?”

Blood Shadow grinned, and his murderous intent dissipated slightly. Surprisingly, his eyes turned gentle as he met Hai Rong's murderous gaze evenly, and he shook his head.

”If you want to, you can address me as Senior.”

”I know who you are now!” Hai Rong tensed when realization dawned on her. There was only one other person who could be her senior, but long ago, he had already…

But if what this man was saying was true, then…

”How are you still alive?” she gasped in disbelief.

”The murderer of our master, Lang Xie, is still alive. So how can I die first?” Blood Shadow chuckled frostily. ”We were all raised and taught by our master since we were young. Not only did Lang Xie fail to be grateful, he even betrayed and killed him. After being taught by Master for so many years, I am obligated to seek revenge for him, as his true disciple!”

”Master deserved to die,” Hai Rong snorted callously.

The gentleness in Blood Shadow's eyes vanished completely upon hearing her cruel dismissal. His aura surged with murderous intent as he clenched both his fists.

”Bitch! You deserve to die too!”

His shadow seemed to detach from him, wriggling in a disturbing manner and taking a life of its own. Emerging from the ground, it seemed to solidify as a blood-red demon, which then swooped down on a stunned Hai Rong.

”This is…Blood Arts: Materialization?!” Hai Rong's eyes widened in shock. She was unable to dodge in time, and could only hold up her Spirit Shield to block the attack. But the blood demon was so powerful that its one punch sent her helplessly hurtling out of the courtyard.

With an inhuman cackle, the blood demon dropped into a crouch before springing up in a single bound and pouncing after the defenseless, spinning Hai Rong.

Blood Shadow observed the fight for a moment, a smile curling across his face.

And then he disappeared from the courtyard as well.

*

”Seriously?”

I stared at the group of Divine Shadow Sect assassins in astonishment. All of them were crouching on the ground, immobilized, unconscious or dead. To be fair, they were frozen by a ton of ice, so I couldn't blame them.

Even so…

”You guys are so pathetic that you actually got defeated by me off-screen?”

”Seriously?” I couldn't tell if Tong Xue was questioning my remark or agreeing with me. From the way he was staring at the fallen Divine Shadow Sect assassins instead of me, I was pretty sure it was the latter.

Tong Xue had gotten used to my strange sense of humor, after all.

”What the hell did you do?!” Hu Mei Er demanded, in the center of the ice, shivering violently. She wrapped her arms around her body, which emphasized her ample bosom, and desperately used her qi to stop the spreading of the ice that was creeping up her gorgeous body.

I shrugged. ”Stopping you guys cold.”

If looks could kill, I had no doubt I would be lying on the floor right now. To be fair, though, if looks could kill, I would have murdered Hu Mei Er with a gaze much earlier, so it wasn't as if it was a good thing. Would have made things a lot easier.

”I miscalculated,” she swore. ”I didn't think you would grow this powerful in just a few months!”

”You talk as if you know exactly how strong I was a few months ago,” I said sardonically. Hu Mei Er stared at me in shock and I shrugged. ”What makes you think I was displaying my real strength, even when fighting against Liang Shao Yang?”

”There's also the fact that you overestimated the power of your Divine Shadow Sect allies,” Tong Xue added, shaking his head in disappointment. Probably because he didn't get to fight at all, since I downed all of them with a single technique. ”Have you forgotten the strength of Blood Blades? We've been kicking the Divine Shadow Sect's ass all this while and winning one-sidedly, to the point where they have to beg the Martial Arts Alliance for help just to fight evenly with us!”

The situation was a lot more complicated than that, to be honest, but I wasn't going to take the wind out of my friend's sails. So I said nothing.

”As if I'll let this end here! I'll kill you! I swear, I'll definitely kill you, even if I don't get to kill anyone else!”

Before we could stop her, Hu Mei Er grabbed a Qi Burst Pill and popped it into her mouth. I began wondering where these guys get all their doping drugs and steroids from. Someone ought to clamp down on those illegal activities.

Unfortunately, it was too late in Hu Mei Er's case. In an instant, her qi swelled and exploded, and she broke free of the ice. Her body shimmered with pink qi and she lunged at me, thousands of razor-sharp Sakura petals dancing in her wake.

”Thousand Sakura Petal Scatter!” she shouted, thrusting her sword at me.

Her blade never reached me.

Clang!

”Kuh?!”

Hu Mei Er's eyes widened as her blade bounced off my Snow Aegis. She stumbled for a second, losing her balance. Being a martial artist, however, she was able to almost instantly recover her balance and straighten herself.

It wasn't enough.

At the moment when she was off balance and helpless, that was when she was most vulnerable and unable to dodge. Call me despicable, but I had no intention of wasting time on her, so I didn't hesitate to attack.

The six mobile turrets that had detached from Snow Aegis earlier hovered about and fired a concerted volley, the qi beams puncturing holes in Hu Mei Er's body as she tried to right herself. As she was off balance, she was unable to dodge, and the qi beams hit her with deadly precision, punching bloody cauterized craters through her vitals.

Her heart, her chest, her shoulders and her hips.

With a cry, Hu Mei Er fell, her body jerking in spasms and her eyes staring up lifelessly. Her nose was missing, having been disintegrated by the qi beam, a cauterized hole smoldering in the center of her once beautiful face.

”…!”

The Divine Shadow Sect members recoiled in horror, realizing that they had just pissed off the wrong person.

”Too late,” I said as I turned to them.

This might strike you as odd. I was merciless when killing Hu Mei Er, yet I spared Ling Qing Zhu's life. Well, the reason was simple. Ling Qing Zhu was clearly holding back when she fought me. While we traded blows, I realized clearly that she had no intention of killing me. I was never in any danger of dying – she might have sought to incapacitate me, but because of her misplaced gratitude toward me for saving her life during that expedition into the Nascent Soul Stage practitioner's tomb, she felt that she owed me and therefore couldn't bear killing me. Respecting that, I decided to let her and her fellow Incendiary Ifrit Sect members live if possible. Of course, I did end up killing a few of her fellow discples, but such casualties were inevitable during a battle of life and death.

On the other hand, Hu Mei Er quite clearly aimed to kill me. Unlike Ling Qing Zhu, who restrained herself, Hu Mei Er did everything in her power to kill me, and threatened Tang Qi Hong's life as well. The Divine Shadow Sect assassins were the same. If I wasn't able to defeat them, they wouldn't have hesitated to murder me.

That was why I showed them no mercy, gunning them down without a second thought.

Adjusting Tang Qi Hong in my arms as she mumbled something incoherently, I turned to Tong Xue, who was also carrying Lian Rou.

”Let's get out of here.”

”Leaving so soon?”

The both of us immediately jumped back as someone smashed the ground where we were standing on a few seconds ago.

Blood Shadow slowly rose to his feet, a cynical smile spreading over his masked face.

”Don't go yet,” he said mockingly. ”The fun is only just beginning.”