Domestic Violence

The all-encompassing mist dissipated, revealing the county seat of Huizhou beneath it, now reduced to nothing but broken walls and ruins. In the center of the ruined city, the moment the mist blew away, Xu Yuan woke from his sluggish stupor. Lifting those pitch-black, ink-dark eyes that held not a speck of white, Xu Yuan watched the white-robed man walking slowly toward him, his gaze filled with confusion. He did not understand why the mist that made him feel so comfortable had vanished, nor did he understand why food always came to disturb him while he was sleeping. Yet as the white-robed man came to a halt half a meter before him, Xu Yuan suddenly caught the scent of the man's aura. He licked his lips, a parched, halting voice rasping out: "You... look very... delicious..." *Bang!* A dull thud suddenly rang out. Staring up at the azure sky, the confusion in the mind of the supine Xu Yuan deepened even further. Wasn't he about to devour this piece of food? Why was he suddenly lying on the ground? As he wondered, an indifferent voice suddenly drifted down from above: "Get up." Xu Yuan tilted his head slightly, his vision shifting upward bit by bit until he met the white-robed man's gaze looking down at him. For reasons unknown, the moment he met that gaze, a surge of inexplicable anger flared within him. He was going to tear this food to shreds, piece by piece, and then— *Bang!* Before his thoughts could finish, the white-robed man struck his lower abdomen with his scabbard: "I told you to get up." This blow gave the current Xu Yuan his first taste of the sensation known as pain. And it hurt tremendously, hurting so much that his body trembled uncontrollably. Under the acute pain, the fury in Xu Yuan's mind instantly passed the breaking point. He raised his left hand toward the man, a hoarse roar tearing from his throat: "You... You go die!" At the furious roar, the surrounding aura abruptly grew eerie. Out of the soil within thirty yards, countless resilient willow branches manifested out of thin air, lashing out at the white-robed man! Seeing this ability to create things out of thin air, a trace of surprise flitted through Feng Jiuxuan's eyes. But in the next instant, his scabbard struck downward once more. This time, it struck his raised left hand. The instant the scabbard met Xu Yuan's left wrist bone, an invisible astral wind swept outward. The willow branches that had previously bound the mature beauty so tightly she couldn't move were instantly sliced into dust. Indescribable pain struck again. Xu Yuan curled up tightly, clutching his struck left hand, muttering subconsciously: "Hurts... *hiss*... hurts... it hurts so much..." Yet the man had no intention of giving him any breathing room. That indifferent voice drifted down again: "If you don't get up, you can just keep lying there taking beatings." As the words fell, in Xu Yuan's peripheral vision, this man in snow-white robes raised the sheathed longsword once again. This time, without the slightest hesitation, Xu Yuan's figure vanished from the spot. Watching him suddenly disappear, Feng Jiuxuan's eyes flickered with brief puzzlement, but that confusion soon turned into a gratified smile on his lips. *Changtian can still use the teleportation sword technique from when he was human. It seems he still has lingering consciousness left...* Even as the thought crossed his mind, Feng Jiuxuan stepped casually to the left as though strolling in a garden, and swung his sword hilt back in a reverse strike. *Bang!* Xu Yuan had just rematerialized, preparing an ambush, but before he could react, the sword hilt struck him square on the temple. Time seemed to stand still. This blow stunned Xu Yuan's white-less eyes into momentary blankness. And the immense force behind it sent him hurtling backward dozens of zhang in an instant, crashing heavily into a heap of ruins within the city. A plume of dust billowed up, and all went quiet. Watching this, Feng Jiuxuan instinctively glanced down at his hand gripping the blade, hesitating. *Did I... hit him a bit too hard?* Soon, however, Feng Jiuxuan relaxed, sensing Changtian slowly crawling out from the dust. Xu Yuan clutched his struck temple, glaring with rabid, brutal eyes at the delicious food across from him. But the sheer terror radiating from the man kept him from daring to approach lightly again. Seeing this, Feng Jiuxuan walked slowly toward Xu Yuan. As he approached, he chuckled and asked softly: "Changtian, are you scared already?" "..." Watching the figure draw nearer, Xu Yuan raised his hand and abruptly shoved it straight into his own chest. In an instant, crimson blood splattered into the air. At this sight, Feng Jiuxuan froze in his tracks, his relaxed, easygoing expression hardening into unprecedented solemnity. Seeing the white-robed man stop, Xu Yuan curled his lips into a savage grin, the madness in his eyes intensifying as his voice rasped: "Looks like you're the one who's scared now." That aloof expression always provoked an inexplicable rage in him, but he was thoroughly pleased with the expression currently on the man's face. And next, he would make the man wear this expression forever, never able to take it off! With these frantic thoughts churning within him, Xu Yuan's hand, plunged into his chest, slowly drew out the willow ghost blade from within his body, inch by inch. As the willow ghost blade was withdrawn, the hideous wound he had torn open in his chest rapidly began to knit back together at a speed visible to the naked eye. Yet to Xu Yuan's confusion, once he had completely pulled out the willow ghost blade, the solemnity on the white-robed man's face vanished entirely. Gazing at the lad holding that rather bizarre wooden saber, Feng Jiuxuan felt a twinge of exasperation. Stabbing himself in the chest out of nowhere—Feng Jiuxuan had thought that even after turning into this state, the brat was still trying to threaten him with self-harm. Fortunately, it was a false alarm. *Still, looking at Changtian's current regenerative ability...* Beneath Feng Jiuxuan's returning smile, a trace of cruelty gradually surfaced in his eyes, his voice gentle and soft: "Changtian, I have something to tell you." Holding back the incomprehension and doubt in his mind, Xu Yuan slowly raised the willow ghost blade in his hand. With this gesture, countless black splashed-ink sword qi coalesced in the air, whistling as they wrapped around Feng Jiuxuan. The terrifying qi dynamic radiating from them practically shook the space around them. Looking at the familiar splashed-ink sword qi surrounding him, Feng Jiuxuan sighed softly: "You really haven't improved at all, have you? You didn't take a single thing I taught you in Di'an City to heart." Xu Yuan could not comprehend what the white-robed man was saying, but that did nothing to dampen his urge to slaughter him. The ghost blade slashed down: "Die..." Feng Jiuxuan did not unleash any sword techniques to break the attack, nor did he blast the sword qi apart with his life origin. He maintained his leisurely stride, walking toward Xu Yuan. The sword qi rained down from the sky, yet every single stroke was dodged by Feng Jiuxuan by the breadth of a hair. Those terrifying splashed-ink sword marks slammed into the ground, shaving nearly thirty yards off the devastated surface! And as the final streak of sword qi fell, Feng Jiuxuan tapped his foot lightly, crossing a hundred zhang in an instant to appear right in front of Xu Yuan once more. He looked closely at this familiar face, his voice exceptionally gentle: "Changtian, you seem much more resilient to beatings now. To deprive you of the ability to resist as quickly as possible..." With those words, Feng Jiuxuan lightly raised his fist and pressed it against Xu Yuan's chest, offering a faint smile: "...I'll just have to get a little serious." The next instant, he suddenly released an inch-force burst. *Buzz—* With the surging force poured into him, Xu Yuan went flying backward once again. Only this time, compared to before, he flew remarkably far, and at a speed slightly faster than before. His body flew in front while his soul chased behind. In an instant, his figure was blasted back nearly ten li, skimming across the ruin-strewn ground, smashing clean through the thick city walls of Huizhou County, and finally embedding into a mountain col outside the city before his momentum was halted! After the strike, Feng Jiuxuan did not choose to rush over immediately. Instead, he looked up at Lou Ji standing in midair and sent an indifferent voice transmission: "Lou Ji, Changtian might try to run. Head over to Zidu Prefecture first to make preparations. Our Prime Minister's Manor has its largest medicinal warehouse in Jingbei Province there. Once I've squeezed all that strange energy out of Changtian's body, I'll bring him to you." Hearing this, Lou Ji nodded slightly and cautioned: "Alright. Remember not to exhaust it completely. Right now, Changtian's life is sustained entirely by that strange energy." "Don't worry, I know." His words finished, Feng Jiuxuan flew leisurely toward the earthen slope where Xu Yuan had crashed. Xu Yuan had no idea what had just occurred, knowing only that after taking that punch, he had ended up here, and that his body seemed completely unable to move. Subconsciously glancing down at himself, he saw that his torso and limbs were completely twisted out of shape. *Creeeak... crunch...* Under his watchful eyes, a teeth-grating grinding of bones and the faint rustle of knitting flesh resonated softly. Promptly, an unknown power swiftly repaired his body. In just a few breaths, he was completely restored. Yet this brought him not the slightest joy; rather, irritation crept into his mood. A huge amount of the food he had previously consumed and stored had already been digested. Gazing through the air at the white-robed man flying unhurriedly toward him, Xu Yuan felt the urge to retreat for the first time. This white-robed man was very delicious. Devouring him would temporarily fill his belly, but unfortunately, it seemed he couldn't eat the man right now. If they kept fighting, he would probably end up very, very hungry. Rational thoughts lingered in his mind, but in the end, primal hunger gained the upper hand. Xu Yuan decided to try one more time; if that failed, he would flee. With this thought, Xu Yuan tightened his grip on the willow ghost blade. The qi dynamic around him surged violently as he unleashed his strongest sword strike toward the oncoming white-robed man—the very strike that had driven off that distasteful sphere-of-light woman. Seemingly an instant, yet seemingly an eternity. Wherever the invisible sword passed, trees toppled and the towering city wall was cleanly sheared through, sliding down as the slash swept right before the white-robed man. Yet just as Xu Yuan thought he had succeeded— *Clang—* The ring of a blade sliding from its sheath resonated across the entire heavens. Feng Jiuxuan's flight came to an abrupt halt. He drew half of his Qingyuan sword, holding it before him. Xu Yuan's strongest invisible sword qi was blocked directly by that exposed half of the blade, merely sending a ripple gliding across its surface... Witnessing this, only a single thought remained in Xu Yuan's chaotic mind. Run. Run fast. He couldn't beat this white-robed man. The moment the thought flashed through him, his figure vanished from the spot. When he reappeared, he was already a hundred zhang away, stringing together flickers and teleports as though they cost no Source Qi at all. In an instant, he had fled more than a dozen li. And that was merely the beginning of his escape. Sprinting and teleporting in tandem, he covered an unknown distance until the ever-mounting hunger within him pulsed incessantly, prompting him to gradually slow down and come to a halt on a hillside. Standing firmly on the earthen slope, Xu Yuan looked back toward Huizhou County, his jet-black eyes filled with sullen rage. Once he had eaten his fill, he would definitely hunt down that white-robed man again and tear his body to pieces, limb by limb! One day later, Zidu Prefecture, a secret chamber. Feng Jiuxuan held Xu Yuan—dangling limp like a dead dog—by the scruff, looking at the worry-filled Lou Ji as he asked in a low voice: "In this condition... he can still be saved, right?"