Chapter 32: The Righteous d*e from Speaking Too Much
Three minutes earlier, while Solang Pema was focused on Fu Xinyi, Luxianbei made his move.
He stirred the intense spirit energy fluctuation suddenly surging within him, executing the techniques of the Taihe Gentleman Sword Illustration to their utmost within his capacity, sending the unconscious bystanders out of the cinema hall one by one.
In this world, slaughter and d*ath play out continuously, with people losing their lives, their eyes dimmed, their bodies covered in dust, their names forgotten.
However, this does not mean that their lives are as insignificant as grass nor that their fates were meant to be so.
Though Luxianbei could not guarantee that he could take them to absolute safety, he at least had to move them outside the explosion range of the alchemical bomb before taking action.
Moreover, he could see that Solang Pema was not using her full strength against Fu Xinyi.
The stronger she became, the more Luxianbei could sense her father’s terrifying power, and anyone daring enough to attempt to ambush her father would not be as simple as he had just shown.
He ran wildly, controlling his paper cicada fairy to charge at Solang Pema while mentally summoning more paper cicada fairies to come from the hotel, repeatedly kicking open the doors of the emergency exit, delivering the unconscious people to relatively safe places.
“It is both mist and stars…”
A voice echoed in his mind, whispering in a way that, though it repeated the same sentence, hinted at countless girls murmuring about their different tragic pasts, their words laden with an intense thirst for bl**d.
Accompanied by the strange murmurs, Luxianbei felt something small and imperceptible within him tremble violently, releasing a cold and vengeful aura. The spirit energy was tainted by that aura, surging with a chillingly eerie rhythm.
“It is both mist and stars… the lips extinguishing the lights…”
Only three people remained in the cinema hall now, and the whispers in his mind seemed to grow clearer and stronger.
Luxianbei’s vision first blurred and then was covered by a faint, yellowish halo reminiscent of old films; all colors faded, leaving only red and black growing ever more prominent, the red vibrant as bl**d, the black deep as night.
With each breath, the smell of bl**d seemed to thicken, like a baited hook drawing his consciousness in.
“It is both mist and stars, her child, and the lips extinguishing the fire in darkness…”
The whispers became even more forceful beside Luxianbei’s ear, as if trying to imprint the words upon his soul.
This description of power…
d*mn, is the witch’s spirit energy about to go out of control? Luxianbei thought.
His body temperature continued to drop, leaving a thin layer of frost wherever he stepped. His will felt ensnared in a dark and hallucinatory cage, floating like smoke, hard to control, difficult to focus. Various chaotic and negative thoughts incessantly surfaced in his mind.
When he cradled the last girl drenched in bl**d before the cinema entrance, he almost couldn’t help but lean down to kiss her throat, then with his sharp tiger teeth, tear into her skin, greedily s*ck her warm bl**d, devouring all her beautiful dreams.
After placing the last person down and forcing himself to suppress the unusual impulse surging within, Luxianbei turned and ran towards the cinema hall.
At that moment, the whispers emerged again, no longer intense but exceptionally clear, as if a girl with a malicious smile was leaning on his shoulder, whispering in his ear.
“It is both mist and stars, her child, and the lips extinguishing the fire in darkness…”
The voice paused for a moment, then in the most ambiguous tone, recited a power description Luxianbei had never heard before.
“…it is the figure waking beyond the paradise, possessing eyes that can make all things beautiful or corrupt, yet lying in this morbid blossom, waiting.”
With the new description of power ringing in his mind, Luxianbei felt as though he had suddenly been locked in an iron maiden, countless spikes penetrating his body, causing immediate and intense pain throughout his limbs and bones, bl**d seeping from his pores to envelop him, and soon his consciousness was consumed by an unprecedented madness…
————
Huacheng, Department of Folk Culture Research and Management.
Jiang Li sat quietly at her desk, flipping through the documents on the changes in daylight duration over the past year. After a long while, she held the thick documents with a grave expression and let out a silent sigh.
In the past thirteen months, the daylight had shortened by 25’30”03, which was 3’20”17 more than the previous year’s statistics.
At this rate, it might really turn out as rumored, that this world would fall into eternal night in a couple of decades.
The situation was concerning.
Setting down the daylight duration document, she was about to pick up the paperwork on spirit energy fluctuation and the black night erosion level when a sharp wind suddenly blew in through the window, followed by excited cheers from Bai Kai in the courtyard.
“It’s snowing! Time to play in the snow, wahoo~!”
Since Luxianbei completed the Hundred Demons Walk and became the King of Urban Legends, it hadn’t snowed in Huacheng after the early winter snow, and Bai Kai, having prepared snow toys in advance, was almost bursting to have a snowball fight with some girls before going home for a real celebration.
Men remain boys at heart until d*ath, this saying couldn’t be more accurate.
Though there was now Xing Yuan managing things, he couldn’t have a second battle, but the first had to happen.
Upon hearing Bai Kai’s cheers, Jiang Li stood up, put on her coat, leaned on her cane, and limped to the window to look outside.
A thick blanket of lead-colored clouds had piled up in the sky at some point, and large snowflakes fell softly, blanketing the Siye Society’s small garden in white.
Bai Kai was running around like a husky seeing snow for the first time in its life.
Before long, he inexplicably produced a set of four winter clothing items—down jacket, scarf, earmuffs, and knit hat—to warmly dress the girl squatting in a corner.
“I had these ready for you ages ago, Number One! Be careful not to get buried by the snow; we’ll have to dig you out come spring, and your corpse will stink!”
“…” Mushroom Girl stared sullenly at Bai Kai for a long moment but eventually managed to suppress the urge to plant two poisonous spores on him. She nodded slightly and said softly, “Thank you.”
Then Bai Kai continued to cause a ruckus, and as the snow accumulated thicker on the ground, he began rolling up snowballs. Li Xuan came from the entrance of the shrine, and before he could make out the scene in the small garden, he was suddenly hit on the side of the head by a flying snowball.
“CNM Bai Kai! Are you trying to d*e?” Li Xuan shouted angrily, bending down to scoop up some snow to throw at Bai Kai.
“Little Li, how can you talk like that? Hey, you missed, you missed!”
“d*mn it! Bai Kai, you’re still human? You stuffed rocks in the snowballs!?”
“Everyone move aside! I’ll take care of him!” With a loud shout, An Qing dashed out from somewhere, holding a snowball the size of a small car.
Bai Kai, “!!!”
“Boom——!”
With a loud bang, Bai Kai, Li Xuan, Mushroom Girl, and even An Qing herself were enveloped in white snow thrown up by the enormous snowball.
Watching the scene of her colleagues joyfully frolicking in the small garden, Jiang Li, who had originally sensed something was off, felt her mood lighten, and a faint smile crept onto her lips.
At that moment, she wished he was there too. Jiang Li thought, looking up at the sky.
Snow fell silently and peacefully.
————
A violent tremor and shock erupted, flames and thick smoke soaring into the sky.
Silence returned after the booming noise, and the boiling air danced with charred dust, eventually transforming into tiny snowflakes that fell upon the walls, the ground, and Fu Xinyi.
She looked up at the man who was about to take her life.
He had been enraged by the earlier explosion; he probably wouldn’t hold back any longer…
This time, she feared her fellow disciples who had come to assist would get dragged in as well, Fu Xinyi thought.
The imposing figure, radiating a suffocatingly powerful spirit energy, staggered closer through the smoke.
Below her feet, within the walls, above her head, in every corner, it seemed that the spirit energy churned up a cold storm.
In an instant, Fu Xinyi found herself lost in an ancient glacier, with endless snowflakes swirling around her, surrounded by desolate mountains, a feeling of solitary desolation pressing down on her heart.
As if in a daze, she noticed more and more snowflakes falling from the sky, accompanied by the rumbling sounds, as the entire valley shook; a white tsunami came pouring down.
She had no doubt she was trapped in this illusion constructed by spirit energy. It wouldn’t be long before she lost her warmth and became a “fresh frozen” corpse, yet there was no spark of resistance in her heart.
Just like humans facing an avalanche.
She had heard many accounts of avalanches before, but when she actually faced a snowstorm created by spirit energy, she couldn’t help but exclaim, realizing the world had such a terrifying silver-white giant wolf, and despair enveloped her, her heart deadened.
Solang Pema watched her silently from the side, like a nine-color snow lotus blooming on the sacred snow mountain, having witnessed countless deaths throughout the long years, his gaze as indifferent as snow.
Just then, a slender, pale hand suddenly emerged from behind Solang Pema, like a carefree swipe of ink, bringing wisps of smoke and cold air, seizing the back of his head, fingers slowly tightening, causing his skull to emit a mournful crackling sound of pain.
Following that, the hand suddenly jerked upward, as if pulling a radish, lifting the stout body off the ground and throwing it backward.
Then…
That figure turned sideways, delivering a fierce stomp right onto Solang Pema’s chest.
“Boom——!”
With a loud blast, the ground cracked, and the hulking body sank halfway into the earth. As he struggled to rise, a pair of delicate fingers struck like lightning; he had just raised his head when it was suddenly jerked back, an eyeball exploding into a small spray of bl**d.
“Ah——!”
Solang Pema covered his eyes, letting out a pained scream, yet inside he felt a wave of relief.
He could sense that the girl who had suddenly attacked him was attempting to target the weakest part of his head, aiming to pierce through his skull. Had it not been for his potent spirit energy, giving him enough strength to withstand, he would already be a corpse.
……
Looking at the once mighty and imposing man, who let out a grunt of pain under that blow, Fu Xinyi felt faint, as if bl**d were pouring from the sky, dyeing the snow mountain bright red, and immediately the snowy illusion collapsed.
His spirit energy fluctuation had been interfered with by another force!
In the collision of powers, that man had fallen to a disadvantage?
Fu Xinyi thought in confusion, staring up in a daze, and saw the silver-haired girl.
She wore a gorgeous long dress in shades of blue, her youthful form beneath it seemed to silently sing a seductive nocturne, while her crimson eyes gazed at the fallen Solang Pema, a tempting yet fierce smile curling at her lips, “You, look into my eyes!”
The words seemed to hold a kind of magic as they reached his ears. Solang Pema instinctively looked up, and the moment his gaze met those crimson eyes, his body shuddered as if struck by lightning.
Fear.
Not only was he staggered by the looming murderous intent, but also by the horrifying suppression of spirit patterns.
Since joining the Siye Society, drawing the “Snow Lotus” spirit pattern, and pursuing power away from the Siye Society, before completing it by spilling bl**d through slaughter to elevate it to the “Nine-Color Lotus,” this was the second time he experienced such terrifying suppression.
The first was from a spell in the hands of that legendary man; this time it was purely the suppression of power.
Under the gaze of those eyes, he saw scenes of past slaughters replaying vividly before him, and through the terrified bl**d-stained faces, he glimpsed something even more sinister and mad.
In a daze, it seemed he found himself back on the snow mountain he had visited the first time he sought materials to draw spirit patterns, standing atop the snow mountain.
Beneath the white snow, there were countless buried bones, and suddenly those bones began to move, grasping at his ankles and wrists, climbing up his neck and head, brutally tearing at his body.
Urban legends can d*e too.
Thus, in the past, Solang Pema had not believed in things like karmic retribution, but in that instant, he clearly felt that those he had once killed were coming to demand his life.
bl**d felt as if it were about to freeze, flowing sluggishly, and a biting cold spread within his body.
That cold was not like the sharpness of the snow mountain, but an evil, filthy chill, as if he were touching a body just taken out of a freezer.
Solang Pema realized that if he didn’t do something soon, he would quickly d*e.
In moments of life and d*ath, humans always instinctively make one last struggle.
Thus, in that instant overshadowed by d*ath, Solang Pema pushed his spirit energy to its peak.
He began to squirm violently like an earthworm pulled from the soil, ignoring the cracking sounds coming from his bones, breaking free from Luxianbei’s suppression.
As he broke free, watching the strange scene in front of him dissipate, he, with extensive combat experience, immediately reacted to how the opponent had used a power akin to hypnosis or charm to trap him in an illusion.
She seemed to be a witch-type urban legend, with hypnotism and charm as common innate skills.
Of course, an illusion could k*ll, just as he constructed a half-real half-illusion snow mountain, where life perished in the storm.
He believed this girl also had ways to claim a life even within an illusion.
Thinking this, Solang Pema quickly retreated, steadied himself, and looked up at the uncertainly gazing girl, daring not to look directly into her eyes.
“Who are you? Why did you attack me?”
He tried to control his tone, but there was still a tremor in his words.
“Me? Just a passing witch, as for why I attacked you…” Luxianbei said nonchalantly, glancing over at the electronic clock nearby, “Because the movie is about to start, and you’re messing around here, delaying my viewing.”
If participating in the ambush of Lu Ming was Solang Pema’s most serious crime, then delaying Luxianbei from watching the long-anticipated “Love and Magical Girl 3” was a sin of a higher order!
Solang Pema, “???”
You want to k*ll me just for delaying your movie?
They say witch-types are often ancient creatures that have lived for hundreds of years, struggling through love, and tend to be extremely twisted psychologically, and it seems that saying is not incorrect.
However, compared to the distorted and malevolent entities that were all foggy in the head, witch-types at least could communicate.
Solang Pema thought, glancing unseeingly at Fu Xinyi in the distance, and said solemnly, “This witch, I am here only to k*ll this one person, after which I will leave. Do as you wish.”
It was as if she hadn’t heard Solang Pema’s words; Luxianbei turned to Fu Xinyi and coldly said, “Miss, may I borrow your sword?”
“Uh, oh, sure.” Fu Xinyi nodded dumbfoundedly.
As soon as the words left her mouth, she saw Luxianbei swoop down to pick up Fu Xinyi’s soft sword from the ground, the spirit energy fluctuation suddenly intensifying, unleashing a tidal wave of bloody hostility as he mercilessly charged at Solang Pema.
Though she acted domineeringly, she knew her suppression of Solang Pema wouldn’t last long.
The recently awakened full charm ability, if used consecutively on the same target, would experience a significant reduction in effect, and within her body was still a power of the hundred-armed giant waiting to explode and shatter her.
So, even if it disappointed her that she couldn’t engage in some trash talk before killing, she had to act swiftly.
It is said that villains d*e from saying too much; Luxianbei felt that her barely righteous character, if she talked too much, might end up getting killed as well.
“……”
This crazy woman!
As the sharp attack bore down on him, Solang Pema cast a deep glance at Fu Xinyi and retreated in panic.
In the face of this witch-type urban legend, he had no absolute confidence in victory, and his chances were pitifully low. If he could retreat, perhaps abandoning the mission to k*ll a minor preparatory member of the Siye Society wouldn’t be a bad choice?
After a moment’s thought, Solang Pema gritted his teeth and shouted, “In that case, I will not disturb your enjoyment of the movie; I will let her go and depart.”
However, the response he received was the descending blade of a sword.
The Taihe Gentleman Sword, unleashed in its nearly perfect state, whipped up gusts of storms, attaching to the soft sword, and as Luxianbei continuously swung the sword, the sound of the wind roared, booming like thunder.
Watching Luxianbei’s swordplay flowing like ink yet powerfully striking, Fu Xinyi’s eyes widened; in her lifetime, she had never seen her senior sister execute the Taihe Gentleman Sword so fluidly.
But why does she know the techniques of our Dachunyang Palace? Fu Xinyi pondered.
Solang Pema, wielding his curved kn*fe, was forced back step by step until he was cornered. Blinded by rage, he was about to charge forward desperately against this woman who wouldn’t listen to reason when suddenly, a loud noise came from nearby, and two figures crashed through the cinema hall’s wall.
It was a man and a woman; the man looked pale and haggard, while the woman had a pair of rabbit ears.
“Brother Bai Ma, there’s no time left! Why are you still… Oh cr*p! What is she doing here?”
The Miss Rabbit, who had been dispatched for support, saw Luxianbei nearly going berserk, her heart jolting, and she exclaimed in shock.
