214 Chapter 213: Cleaning out the City (1/2)
”Sure. The whole city is open to you.” I glanced at Lang Xie. ”There's no problem with that, right, Lord Lang Xie?”
”He seems absolutely loyal to you.” Lang Xie frowned and considered for a moment. ”As long as he doesn't try anything funny…”
”There you have it,” I told Tian Yu Di. ”Have fun.”
Tian Yu Di grinned. ”Many thanks, Sect Leader. But before that…”
He turned toward Liang Yang Zu's corpse, which, to be honest, was not much after the explosion. To everyone's horror, Liang Yang Zu's blood and the remains of his body were flowing toward Tian Yu Di and he absorbed the qi from it.
Blood Shadow's features seemed to shift and transform, and I could sense that little by little, his original qi was being integrated into Tian Yu Di's own. Tian Yu Di also drew the blood from several corpses around him until he turned into that bald old man I saw chained in the Spirit World. Still a little emaciated, and completely identical.
Evidently he had rearranged and modified Blood Shadow's body at the cellular and genetic level until it completely transformed into his original self. There was no trace of the original Yan Chi left, it had all been absorbed to constitute Tian Yu Di's newly reborn body.
Tian Yu Di continued to absorb more qi from the blood of the corpses around him, and integrated it into himself. He was wise enough not to absorb too much – for it would take far too long for him to assimilate all the qi and made it a part of himself, thus leaving him vulnerable – but enough to restore a huge portion of himself.
His white beard shrank, and hair began growing on his scalp. At first, it was longish gray hair, but they turned somewhat brown and regained a bit of luster. His wrinkles also vanished, and his body filled out, the once skeletal and emaciated figure become slightly muscular and a lot healthier looking. His eyes also seemed to glow fiercer than before, the amount of qi in his body reinforced substantially by what he had just absorbed.
Everyone witnessed this, and other than me, they felt an indescribable horror. The Great Elders and inner sect elders backed away subsconsciously from Tian Yu Di, and even the Blood Blades looked uncomfortable.
The three commanders of the invading forces who were still chained to the Spirit Engraved Pillars lost all color in their faces. Shi Jing Yun, Wu Tuo and Su Bai Xue, despite having witnessed many momentuous events, felt a tremendous amount of shock and horror when they saw Tian Yu Di work to restore himself.
Tian Yu Di turned to grin at them, as if drinking in their fear and savoring it. He licked his lips almost ravenously, his smile widening.
”Your qi seems pretty refined and purer than the others. I wonder how much more strength I can restore if I absorb your qi.”
”Old demon!” Su Bai Xue lost her usual composure and screamed at the top of her lungs, fear and disgust dominating her usually beautiful face. ”Just kill us if you want to! If you suck our qi, then we'll definitely return as ghosts and haunt you!”
”Hmph!” I snorted. ”What hypocrites. And did you not think that all the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect members, civilians and Blood Blades martial artists you've killed will not return as ghosts to haunt you? After all the atrocities you committed in Tushan City and our sect?”
The hypocritical Su Bai Xue fell silent, unable to refute my point, but Shi Jing Yun glared at me.
”Kid, it's much worse to have your qi sucked out than to be simply killed.”
”Really?” I asked skeptically. ”Dead is dead. How is dying from being slaughtered by you any different from dying by having one's qi sucked dry? Does it somehow affect your ghost in the afterlife or something?”
No one could give a satisfactory reply. Wu Tuo merely hung his head, not daring to meet my accusing gaze.
”Elder Tian,” I addressed my Ancestral Master. ”I'll leave the city to you. Leave not even a single invader alive. They must pay for their crimes.”
”Consider it done.” Tian Yu Di glanced at the surviving Blood Blades, who were mobilizing in force to clean out the city, and nodded in approval. Lang Xie had already gone ahead of us, leading a massive contingent of Blood Blades. ”Heh, I didn't expect that teaching an incomplete version of Heaven and Earth Absorption would end up creating a mini-Heaven and Earth Sect in this place! Sect Leader, you made the right choice in persuading me not to destroy your beloved Nine-Tailed Fox Sect!”
He then vanished with a gleeful whoop, streaking toward the direction of the city.
The moment he departed, everyone let out a huge sigh of relief. The pale, ghastly faces were slowly regaining their color.
”Fei Wu.” Luo Zhi Chang addressed me. He gestured for the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect members to follow him to a more secluded area, out of the hearing range of the three outsiders shackled to the Spirit Engraved Pillars. It was clear that he wanted to have a private, serious discussion regarding all that had just occurred. ”Where did this man come from? Is he also from the Heaven and Earth Sect? Is that why he is calling you Sect Leader?”
”That's right. He is my Ancestral Master from many generations ago.”
”Where did he come from?” the second Great Elder persisted, his brow furrowing. ”And I've never seen a person like him in the Heaven and Earth Sect before.”
I recalled that the Great Elders had lived a long time, and had probably witnessed the recent generations of Heaven and Earth Sect. They must have been familiar with the personnel in Heaven and Earth Sect, and someone of Tian Yu Di's formidable strength would hardly have gone unnoticed when they were at their peak, shortly before their destruction.
Furthermore, if Heaven and Earth Sect had such a powerful member fighting for them, then even the Martial Arts Alliance wouldn't have been able to defeat them a few years ago! No, they might even get annihilated, especially if Tian Mo had combined forces with such a terrifying demonic martial artist!
Fortunately, Zi Shou De stepped in, having guessed the gist of everything.
”He must be the demonic shadowy existence that you mentioned to me before,” he said. ”The one you claimed was hiding underneath the Spirit Engraved Pillars.”
”You knew about this?” Zi Da Ji asked him. Zi Shou De shook his head. ”Just a few weeks ago, when Fei Wu was communing with the Spirit Engraved Pillars and absorbing the knowledge of ancient martial arts from them. He had requested me to upgrade the spiritual defense of his Spirit Shield, citing the demonic existence as the reason.” He shrugged. ”We both agreed that it wouldn't be a good idea to raise an alarm, so I promised him to keep quiet about it.”
Zi Da Ji nodded. She might not be happy about her husband keeping secrets, but if it was done as a promise, then she could hardly complain.
”He's from over nine hundred years ago.” I briefly filled them in with what I knew about Tian Yu Di's past. ”But I succeeded in convincing him to let go of his vendetta against Jiu Wei Hu, and he recognized me as his leader.” I took out my Golden Dragon Medallion and stared at it. ”Even though I didn't want anything to do with this, I had no choice but to play along. Otherwise I would never be able to persuade him to listen to me and help.”
”You did the right thing,” Zi Da Ji assured me.
”The old demon is almost as old as our Nine-Tailed Fox Sect.” Luo Zhi Chang sighed gravely. ”Jiu Wei Hu is the founder of our sect, who created our sect upon discovering these nine Spirit Engraved Pillars. To think he went and sealed such a horrifying monster under them…I can scarcely believe it!”
”I think the reason he did that was precisely because he knew only the Spirit Engraved Pillars had the power to seal him.” Zi Shou De had a calmer and more objective outlook regarding the situation, and was nodding thoughtfully.
”You're probably right,” I agreed.
”Even so…” the third Great Elder looked as if he had a huge headache. His expression scrunched in worry. ”With an ancient, qi-sucking demon now going to stay in our Nine-Tailed Fox Sect, and even given a position in Blood Blades just like that…aren't we just giving the Martial Arts Alliance more weaknesses to exploit?
”Even without Elder Tian, the Martial Arts Alliance never had any intention to show us mercy,” I countered. ”They came up with an outrageous accusation like us harboring weapons of mass destruction and the like. Do you think they care if we have a powerful demonic martial artist in our ranks or not?” sighing, I shook my head. ”And let's be honest. If Elder Tian wasn't here, it's possible that Nine-Tailed Fox Sect would have fallen by now. And all the Great Elders would have been assassinated by Blood Shadow.”
The leaders of the sect fell silent.
I was aware that the Great Elders would find it very difficult to accept an ancient demon like Tian Yu Di. They couldn't even accept Xue Jian. On the other hand, Tian Yu Di didn't do anything as blatant as indulging in cannibalism and feasting on human flesh while drinking human blood. Even so, they found his sucking of qi equally disturbing.
I wondered how they would react if I told them that I had learned and used the exact same technique, Heaven and Earth Absoprtion. It was what I used to annihilate Ba Yun and about one hundred members of the Chinese Parasol Tree Sect. furthermore, it wasn't just Tian Yu Di and me. All of Blood Blades had learned Heaven and Earth Absorption in its incomplete form. If they were against Tian Yu Di based on principle, then surely they would have to disband Blood Blades.
But that was something I would tell them later. I had a feeling that both Zi Shou De and Zi Da Ji already knew that – Zi Da Ji, after all, was the commander of Blood Blades and she surely recognized the total similarity between our techniques and Tian Yu Di's complete Heaven and Earth Absorption. They would be more amenable to Tian Yu Di becoming a major force in our sect. But the Great Elders had suffered more than enough shock for today, so I didn't want to give them a heart attack by revealing the secrets of Blood Blades.
Fortunately, the Great Elders weren't stupid…well, actually, they were. They had made so many stupid decisions regarding Liang Shao Yang, and a lot of other judgemental errors that seemed more contrived to create drama and tension in the plot rather than judgement befitting people of their advanced age and wisdom. Currently, they moved according to the latter (probably because the plot required them to), and acknowledged that we couldn't survive without Tian Yu Di's help. Not if Nine-Tailed Fox Sect was to survive the next onslaught.
”Fine.” Luo Zhi Chang sighed. ”Let's take it one step at a time.”
*
Outside Tushan City, at the Heavenly Fire Mountain Range, many camps had been set up. Armored Fighting Vehicles, trucks, rovers and scout vehicles had been parked neatly in large formations, their engines idling as they were spread out across the grass.
This group was Dark Asura Sect's reserve force. They were waiting reinforcements from Heavenly Way Sect and Green Dragon Sect, who had also been mobilized by the Martial Arts Alliance to join the invasion.
Atop one of the scout vehicles, a single lady stood atop the cupola and peered at Tushan City through her binoculars. Given the distance, despite the magnification, she couldn't see anything or make anything out clearly.