Xiang Huaizhi: What Kind of Trash Is This?

Dozens of tears ripped open across the sky, and boundless demonic qi swiftly engulfed the entire mountain range. A pitch-black domain stood suspended midair like a dark canopy. The square domain was shrouded in absolute darkness—nothing could be seen within, and not a sound escaped. Yet within that domain, a one-sided massacre was unfolding! All four ranks of red robes—Chi, Mei, Wang, and Liang—had assembled, numbering a full twenty individuals! Beneath them, red-robed cultivators of the Heaven, Earth, Black, and Yellow ranks numbered in the hundreds. And the rest… Was an endless army of Abyss Demons. Such a formidable force was enough to obliterate any super faction! There were even two of the Liang rank alone… Abyss Demons ran rampant as far as the eye could see. The endless demonic qi served as their nourishment, while fallen cultivators fueled their advancement. As one side waned and the other grew, shrieks of agony rang out ceaselessly. Explosions, screams, wails of despair… A cacophony of chaotic noise flooded the minds of the cultivators, and a frenzied, bloodthirsty madness spread uncontrollably. Soon, spurred by the roaring commands of the Three Pavilions' covert operatives, tens of thousands of cultivators managed to form small bands to fend off the Abyss Demons. "Can any of you send a message back?!" "No! The domain cut us off completely!" "Watch your backs! Hold the line! The Pavilion Master will definitely find a way to save us!" The slaughter raged on. Mingled among the hundreds of red-robed cultivators were numerous experts of the Void Refining Realm and even the Body Integration Realm. *** Li Guanqi's face turned grim to the extreme, his voice ice-cold. "We've lost contact…" This time, the cultivators of the Six Domains were bound to suffer devastating losses. Li Guanqi could not help feeling a surge of mixed emotions. Human nature… This was human nature. Someone had acted out of genuine concern for them, yet their narrow-minded arrogance had blinded them. Little did they realize that in the end, it was their own conceit that doomed their lives. Li Guanqi narrowed his eyes. On the Tianji Chart, space warped slightly, and he finally breathed a quiet sigh of relief. *** Within a pitch-black hall, Sha rose slowly to his feet and walked toward the mysterious rear chamber. A moment later, he arrived at a freezing dungeon. Severed limbs and broken bones littered the floor amid pools of dripping gore. The stench of rotting flesh choked the air, and pitch-black demonic qi submerged the ground three feet deep like an icy river. Only a single, flickering candlelight stirred in the murky gloom. A fat youth, tortured beyond recognition, was suspended in midair with chains driven straight through his shoulder blades. The man strode toward him step by step, regarding the youth's hollow eye sockets with immense satisfaction. The fat youth's origin spirit still resided within his body, and his cultivation realm remained intact. Sha would never allow Tang Ru to die just like that; a dead Tang Ru was worthless to him. On the contrary, he had to prevent him from taking his own life. So he had sealed Tang Ru's dantian and soul, shattered every tooth in his mouth, and torn out his tongue. He had crushed his limbs and soaked him in demonic qi, leaving his flesh to rot away. His chest caved in, Tang Ru seemed to sense something in the murk. Using every ounce of his remaining strength, he slowly lifted his head. Feeling the presence before him, he opened his mouth and spat a mist of blood! Pfft! Sha lightly tapped his finger against the droplets of blood hovering in front of him, leaning close to Tang Ru with a chuckle. "Save yourself the petty tricks." "I'll ask you one more time. Inside Li Guanqi's sword coffin… just how many swords are there?" Tang Ru let out a ragged chuckle, a twisted, sneering grin stretching across his battered face. "You're… asking how many?" "Heh… I… don't know…" "If you've got the guts… kill… kill me…" Sha wasted no further words. He raised his hand, his five fingers hooking like eagle talons into the fat youth's crown. As his fingers sank into the skull, a mysterious pulse rippled outward, and the man murmured softly, "Blood Technique: Soul Searching." Buzz! Tang Ru's body jerked and instantly stiffened, his head snapping back. The bloodless fat youth began to shudder uncontrollably. *** Far away in the Daochan Domain, Tang Wei's expression changed drastically. He pulled out a soul lamp, only to see its soul flame trembling violently. It flickered erratically, on the verge of snuffing out at any second! *** When the soul search concluded, Tang Ru was completely spent. Sweat rained from his body, and his limp form slumped so low that half his face sank into the black water. Beneath his mask, the man frowned slightly and murmured under his breath, "He truly doesn't know?" "Perhaps only Ye Feng, who has stayed by his side the longest, might know…" A trace of helplessness colored his tone. "Tsk. Hiding inside the Great Xia Sword Sect with Ye Xuan guarding the place makes things rather troublesome." "In that case, the only way is to force you out!" "I wonder who went to the Qilian Mountains. Xiang Huaizhi? Or the Green-Robed Swordsman, Nangong Xuandu?" "Or did Meng Jiangchu go in person?" "Heh, interesting…" His muttering gradually faded as he walked away. The black water surged, coiling over Tang Ru's body like writhing tentacles. The pain jolted Tang Ru straight out of his dead faint! "Ahhh! Kill me!" "Fuck your mother!" Tang Ru had barely any strength left even to scream. The stark white bones of his limbs were riddled with festering decay, tormenting him with agonizing pain. From the moment he was captured, he had never intended to live! Every waking second, he wished for death; only then could he ensure that Li Guanqi would not fall into enemy territory on his account. Yet now, he was powerless even to die… Things having come to this, he dared not imagine how his father would take it. Perhaps his two older brothers wished nothing more than for him to die sooner. Everything before his eyes was pitch-black; his world was swallowed by darkness. *So this… is what it's like… to be blind…* *It really is terrifying…* His thoughts drifted, and the faces of Li Guanqi, Ye Feng, and the others flashed through his mind. For some reason, he firmly believed that Li Guanqi would come! He definitely would! The candlelight died, leaving only Tang Ru's faint, rasping groans echoing in the freezing dungeon. *** Boom! A thunderous blast suddenly echoed across the blood-soaked Qilian Mountain Range! The earth trembled, and the red-robed figure wearing a half-black, half-white yin-yang mask snapped his head up. Crimson flames scorched a gaping hole straight through the barrier. A man clad in a fiery red robe descended upon blazing fire, his expression thunderous to the extreme. Xiang Huaizhi raised a hand, and in an instant, the sealing barrier formed of demonic qi vanished into nothingness. In its place arose a curtain wall of roaring fire spanning hundreds of li! Boom! A berserk pressure swept across heaven and earth, and in an instant, the Abyss Demons locked in slaughter with the cultivators burst apart! Plumes of fire erupted from inside the demons' bodies. "Hiss!" The ear-splitting shrieks of the Abyss Demons tore through the heavens, causing numerous cultivators to collapse to the ground in agony, clutching their ears. Xiang Huaizhi's narrowed eyes were brimming with icy killing intent. Tilting his head, he looked at the two figures wearing yin-yang masks and sneered. "Paltry vermin like you dare try to block me?" "Tell Sha to roll his ass out here!" A soft, effeminate voice slowly chimed in, shrill and grating. The figure raised a hand in an orchid-finger gesture, a pink dagger materializing in his palm. "You want our leader to come out?" "Heh, you're not worthy." Thump! The moment the black-masked red-robed figure finished speaking, the void far ahead shattered into dust. The arm he raised to parry snapped instantly. His body turned into an afterimage, rocketing backward at an impossible speed! A deafening explosion rang out as a massive crater hundreds of zhang wide gouged into the earth. Xiang Huaizhi now stood where the black-masked figure had just been. Reaching toward the white-masked figure, he mocked disdainfully, "What kind of trash is this? Nameless nobodies dare speak to me like that?"