An oddity that could cure every illness in the world!
Its value went without saying.
Simply to obtain it—whether to treat important people and thereby gain money and power, or to use it oneself—would be excellent either way.
The premise, though, was that Guo Yan truly possessed such an oddity.
The triangle-eyed burly man in the lead looked through the rows of trees toward the small village house at the end of the village.
The front gate stood half open. In the courtyard, a man of about forty reclined in a lounge chair. Warm sunlight poured down over him, and he could not help narrowing his eyes.
At his right hand stood a small red square tea table. On it sat a transparent glass teapot and a porcelain cup, and beside them a fruit plate holding some dried fruit and snacks.
"Now this is what you call living in comfort." Guo Yan sat with one leg cocked over the other, a smile at the corner of his mouth. "Went into the city yesterday and planted a poison in that Sun Yuan. In a few days he'll have no choice but to come begging at my door. How much should I soak him for then? A small boss worth forty or fifty million—I'll have to take a million or so at the least, won't I?
"And that beautiful lady boss of Feiyue Company—heh heh. I'll make her crawl onto my bed, nice and obedient—"
His right hand patted lightly at the armrest. He gave a low chuckle and leisurely hummed a few lines of opera.
"Get ready to move. I'll tie him up first. Then you work him over and make him hand over the oddity." The triangle-eyed man drew a yellow rope from his waist and gave the order.
"Understood!" His three subordinates answered at once.
The triangle-eyed man led his men slowly out of the woods. When they were about twenty meters from Guo Yan's little courtyard, he flung out his right hand. "Go!"
The yellow rope unfurled on the wind and shot into the courtyard quick as a thunderclap, binding the bewildered Guo Yan tight.
The instant he was bound, Guo Yan felt every shred of strength leave his body. He wanted to cry for help, but his mouth could only make the faintest sound.
Tap, tap—
Footsteps sounded. He looked up and saw four powerfully built men walk into the courtyard.
"Who... who are you?" Guo Yan asked, with a look of terror.
The triangle-eyed man waved a hand. At once one subordinate drew a pistol from his waist and pressed it to Guo Yan's temple.
"Whatever you want—if I have it, it's all yours. Don't shoot!" A gleam flashed through Guo Yan's eyes as he hurried to speak.
The triangle-eyed man's brow furrowed. His right hand seized Guo Yan by the hair and hauled him up off the lounge chair. His left hand patted Guo Yan's face, and he said viciously, "Kid, don't you damn well try any tricks, or I'll slice the flesh off you piece by piece. You hear me?"
"I get it! I get it!" Guo Yan said quickly.
"Hmph!" The triangle-eyed man let go. Guo Yan collapsed limply to the ground. His face bumped the dry, hard concrete and picked up a smear of dust.
"Talk. A good-for-nothing like you—how did you suddenly turn into a miracle doctor?" One subordinate took out a sharp little knife, crouched beside Guo Yan's head, and asked, "Did you get your hands on something? Hand it over, and we'll let you go."
At those words, Guo Yan's heart jolted. So they really had come for the pendant! Those bastards dared to steal his treasure—every last one of them had to die!
He cursed inwardly, but his face wore a fawning smile. "I—I did get a treasure. Only, that thing was passed down from my ancestors—"
"Heh. Passed down from your ancestors? Not telling the truth!" The subordinate laughed in anger. Oddities had only appeared in the world for about a year. What passed down from ancestors?
He raised the little knife and was just about to bring it down on Guo Yan's left little finger when his body suddenly went stiff. Terror surfaced on his face. The next second his flesh melted away, and he became a pool of foul-smelling pus.
The triangle-eyed man and the others were badly startled and moved to shoot, but every one of them shuddered. Their whole bodies dissolved into several pools of yellow-green pus.
The moment they died, the rope binding Guo Yan came undone at once. Guo Yan climbed up from the ground, clutched the rope, and looked it over, saying with delight, "What a treasure! What a treasure!"
He wound the rope around his arm, looked down at the pus on the ground, and spat a thick mouthful of phlegm. "The likes of you thought you were fit to kill me? If I hadn't wanted to draw a few more words out of you, you'd all have been dead the first moment I laid eyes on you!"
After the cursing, he looked at the guns and other things in the pus, and a trace of worry showed on his face. "There must be important people behind them. They failed to grab me once, so they'll definitely come again. They're in the dark and I'm in the light. Trouble! Trouble! If it really comes to it, do I run?"
He brooded, then said hatefully, "Damn it. Push me too far and I'll spread poison over the whole world. If I die, everyone dies with me!"
Swearing under his breath, he bent down and picked the guns, phones, and other things out of the pus one by one.
In the sky, Huang Tian was thoughtful. "Poison... how did he deliver it? Through the air, or does a single glance poison a person?"
He thought for two seconds, could not figure it out, and simply stopped trying. In any case, he had no intention of showing his form in front of the man. He would go straight to—
Spiritual Pressure Impact!
Spirit Shock!
Wind Blades!
Thunder!
Ice Spears!
Raging Fire—
In an instant Guo Yan was struck by more than a dozen different spells. He did not even have time to scream before his whole body became a heap of blackened minced flesh. The wind blew once more, and even the ashes were scattered.
The little courtyard fell quiet at once.
Huang Tian did not rush to show himself. He stood steady upon the clouds, swept the courtyard with his divine sense, and watched in silence.
About five minutes later, seeing that Guo Yan had neither "died and returned to life" nor produced any abnormality, he drifted lightly down into the courtyard.
"Guo Yan, and every stitch of clothing on him, has been reduced to ash and smoke. Only this pendant is undamaged. It seems this is the oddity he possessed."
He picked up the blue pendant from the ground, then picked up the yellow rope from before. Next he looked at the several phones on the ground and ordered, "Xiao Guang, get into the phones. See if you can find their nest."
"Yes!" the Brain of Light responded.
After about thirty seconds, the blue pendant and yellow rope in Huang Tian's hands trembled slightly, turned into two points of light, and flew into his body.
"Oddities, sure enough." He smiled.
Just then the phone in his shirt pocket vibrated, and the Brain of Light's voice came through. "Master, their headquarters has been located. It's in Longze County, Shenghe City—"
"So they were in the same city as Guo Yan. No wonder they discovered Guo Yan's abnormalities earlier than the Oddity Management Association."
Huang Tian understood. Then, with a tap of his foot, he shot up into the high sky and flew swiftly toward Longze County.
At the same time, the Brain of Light said, "The organization is called the Heaven-Mandated Ones. They style themselves as those granted Heaven's mandate to rule the world. They are the shepherds, and humans are the lambs.
"The whole organization has two major leaders, named Qin Kuan and Liu Yu. Each possesses at least one oddity. The specific properties are unknown.
"Aside from the two major leaders, there are more than forty ordinary members, named respectively—"
About fifteen minutes later, Huang Tian arrived at the northern suburbs of Longze County.
The north of the city had only been developed in the past three years and was not prosperous. The suburbs were even more remote and quiet. Inside a private estate closed to the public, more than ten people were undergoing physical training, and several powerfully built men were patrolling around the estate.
"This is the place—"
Above the estate, Huang Tian hid in the clouds and looked down. A sweep of his divine sense. "Only twenty-some people are here. Fortunately, both Liu Yu and Qin Kuan are in the estate."
"Hm? Such dense spiritual qi?" Mildly surprised, he swept his divine sense into the estate's underground chamber and found a rich haze of spiritual qi filling it. "Spiritual medicine? Well, not strange. In the Age of Oddities, it's perfectly normal for an evil organization to have collected all sorts of spiritual medicines, spiritual materials, and potions."
Once he had more or less ascertained the situation inside the estate, he raised a hand, spread his five fingers, and gave a light wave downward.
Soundlessly, a transparent curtain rose from all sides, swiftly drew closed, and wrapped the entire estate whole.
This was a simple illusion formation. It could conceal everything that happened inside. Those outside could neither see nor hear.
After casually setting the illusion formation, he flicked his fingers again. In an instant, a sea of fire abruptly appeared above the estate!
The sea of fire churned, lighting everything below in a sheet of crimson.
Whoosh—
The sea of fire tilted, rolled downward, and crashed into the estate like a waterfall. Violent flames fell upon the bodies of everyone below and at the same time swept every part of the estate.
Houses, grass and trees, even the rockeries and strange stones all became dazzling torches, and then dancing ash.
The flames roared, scorching layer upon layer of ripples out of the air.
"Aaaah!!"
"It hurts!"
"Kill me! Kill me!"
Twenty-some lackeys rolled all over the ground as they burned, wailing and howling. The air was full of choking smoke.
Two men of no great build burst out of a collapsed house, faces blackened, clothes burned to scraps. They were Liu Yu and Qin Kuan.
The two looked at the sea of fire on every side and the thousands upon thousands of fireballs falling from the sky, and cursed at the top of their lungs, "Who is it? Get out here! You dare do this and not own up to it?!"
Whoosh, whoosh—
Hundreds and thousands of fireballs turned in midair and shot toward the two of them together. At the same time a great wind rose in the sky, and fierce wind blades screamed as they slashed in!
Right after that, countless bone-chilling spears of ice crystal condensed in the vault of the sky. They tore the air with shrill howls and poured down like a rainstorm!
"Damn it! Why so many attacks!"
Liu Yu cursed, flung up a hand, and dense lightning wrapped him from head to foot, spreading as far as Qin Kuan and forming a curtain of thunder that shielded them tightly.
Qin Kuan's face was especially grim. "For now we can only count on you. If the enemy doesn't show himself, I can't kill him."
He possessed two oddities. One was auxiliary. The other was named the Heart-Piercing Arrow. Anyone he laid eyes on, the moment he willed it, would be pierced through the heart by ten thousand arrows!
Defense ignored! Realm ignored! It could be called unbeatable!
Unless that person's heart was not a vital point.
Relying on this oddity, he had never once failed in a fight to the death. But today of all days, the enemy attacking them would not show himself, and all at once he was at a loss.
"Does that man know the properties of my oddity, or is he simply too cautious to show himself?" Qin Kuan's heart was heavy.
Liu Yu, meanwhile, kept looking all around and overhead, trying to find where the attacker was. At the same time vast thunder erupted from within his body. Myriad thunder dragons and lightning serpents swept the wilds and the sky, clashing head-on with the sea of fire and the ice spears falling from above.
"Bzz—"
Just then Liu Yu went rigid. His consciousness felt as if it had been smashed by an iron hammer and sank into a dazed, chaotic state. Gaps therefore opened in the thunder enveloping them.
At that moment, biting wind blades slipped through the gaps and cut into Liu Yu and Qin Kuan!
"Pfft—"
"Pfft—"
The two men's bodies were immediately split in two. Red and white filth came tumbling out. Scalding blood sprayed in all directions and fell to the ground mixed with intestines and organs.
The two died, and the thunder vanished at once. But though the thunder had ceased, the sea of fire and the ice spears still shot downward, smashing into the bodies that had been cut in two.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—
Boom, boom, boom—
They smashed for a full three minutes before they stopped.
On the ground, a huge deep pit was revealed. The pit was charred black. Not a speck of bone or scrap of flesh could be seen. Only three things were wholly intact.
An arrow, a piece of warm jade, and a wooden scepter.
The arrow was the Heart-Piercing Arrow.
The warm jade had the power of resurrection. So long as the head remained intact, even if the heart exploded, one could return to life after five minutes.
The scepter could command thunder.
He raised a hand and beckoned, drawing the three oddities into his grasp. After he had held them for thirty seconds, they became three points of light and drifted into his body.
Looking over the devastated estate, Huang Tian's gaze was calm. He drifted down and stood before the basement door. With a thought, the door exploded with a bang. The passage lay revealed. He stepped inside, walked a few paces, and saw two secure cabinets within.
Pop—
The next moment the cabinets burst open, revealing the gold and antiques inside, and some precious medicines steeped in spiritual qi.
He took all of these things away. Huang Tian walked out of the basement, looked at the charred black corpses covering the ground, and considered briefly. "Evil must be rooted out completely. Xiao Guang, get into the phones of the remaining Heaven-Mandated Ones and send them an audio clip. Force it to play. The content is—"
"Understood!"
Somewhere, a member of the Heaven-Mandated Ones who was out on a mission felt the phone in his pocket buzz. He frowned, took the phone out, and was about to tap it open, only to see the phone unlock itself and bring up an audio clip of unknown origin.
"What the hell is this?" He froze, puzzled. "A virus? Has a hacker gotten into my phone? That can't be right. These phones are all specially encrypted—"
While he was still baffled, the audio actually began to play on its own, and it looped nothing but the same two syllables.
"Huang Tian! Huang Tian! Huang Tian!"
He looked blank, not knowing what this "Huang Tian"—August Heaven?—was supposed to mean, and instinctively moved to tap the audio shut. But no matter how he pressed, it would not close.
"Damn it!" he cursed, and was about to smash the phone.
Just then, in the air above his head, a vortex appeared out of nothing. A palm of spiritual power, crystalline as jade, reached out of the vortex and, bearing the force of rolling wind and thunder, struck down at his head!
"What is that?!"
Sensing the rush of wind overhead, he could not help looking up. When he saw that palm the size of a house, he immediately trembled in terror, his eyes straining wide, and a thought flashed through his mind. That audio—was it a meme-type oddity?
"!!!"
The next second, his head, his organs, his sinews and bones, his flesh and blood—
His entire body burst apart like a fully ripened berry, exploding into a plume of exquisitely beautiful blood mist, intoxicating to behold.
Chapter 234