Memories gradually blurred, the girl with the bright smile, slowly fading away.
"Oh, aren’t all women the same?" The soothing noise of the Meat Worm interrupted Qing Pu’s reminiscence.
"She" faced setbacks and might hide to cry. But her, she would lick her wounds, growing stronger with each defeat. Color Worm, your master has gone to train, you cannot slack off either. Let me, a Diamond Level Summoner, properly train you and unleash the true Dark Techniques of your Divine Worm clan," Qing Pu’s laughter, alongside the wails of the Gold-eating Worm, echoed endlessly in the Star Sea.
The Mo Xi Treasure Book was still emitting a faint light.
In the sky, the stars were dim, and the last gleam of light was blocked by dark clouds.
The night air, mixed with a suffocating murderous intent, quietly spread.
"Huff, huff," rapid panting sounds, with wild grass being trampled and clothes being torn by thorns, were especially grating in the desolate night.
"I must tell the group leader, we can’t let the brothers die in vain," a blood-soaked hand grabbed the tree, and the low bushes immediately shortened.
In the night, the man’s ragged clothes and marred body were shockingly evident.
His left arm appeared as if gnawed by some sharp-toothed beast, a large piece of flesh gone, revealing the underlying bone.
Two fingers of his right hand were broken, only able to hold a five-inch Ring Blade with difficulty by pinching it between his thumb and index finger. If one looked closely, one could see a mark of a Mid-level Spiritual Artifact on the blade.
At this moment, this old mercenary at the Dark Earth Peak was utterly cornered.
His vision was blocked by a large amount of blood.
There was no sound behind him.
Even so, he neurotically kept looking back, with each step he took, as if his footsteps were like the ceaseless swinging of a pendulum.
Finally, the last bit of Dark Power of the old mercenary was exhausted, he leaned against an old tree with wrinkled bark, his body slid down, he closed his eyes, his mind left blank.
He felt a slight itch on his neck, as if bitten by a mosquito.
A red spot rapidly expanded on his neck.
"Plop," a hand, resembling gnarled tree branches, penetrated through his throat, the old tree behind him came to life.
Behind the old mercenary, as if a syringe was inserted, his skin and flesh shriveled, soon, just hanging like a sun-dried bat, all dried up.
That hand, after piercing through his throat, did not retreat immediately, it groped downwards, until a flash of sparkle fell from the old mercenary’s body.
At night, especially under the faint moonlight and dim starlight, the Devil Crystal, radiantly gleaming all over, fell to the ground, appearing especially dazzling.
"Hehe, it’s not, still not this one. Weak Dan Demon, you thought by giving the Devil Crystal to someone else, pain and disaster would stay away from this sinful continent, you are wrong. The nightmare has just begun. When the devil’s scythe beheads the strongest on the continent, the whole land will turn into a bloody marsh," that thin hand picked up the Devil Crystal, swayed and disappeared into the pitch-black night, as if it had never appeared.
The corpse of the old mercenary lay in its original place, on its almost unrecognizable clothes, there was a badge symbolizing the "Ni Huo" Mercenary Group.
On the same night, in Little Shang Palace, the Youlian Palace after a great fire had turned into ruins.
Rubble was everywhere, and the bones of the Dark Beast had already been burned into powder.
"Purple Brilliance Fire, Divine Court, I will never let you go," the Feise Empress Dowager stood in front of the ruins, appearing more enchanting at night rather than her daytime beauty. She was dressed in a black robe, her eyes carrying an indescribable evil aura.
"Consort Your Highness, you need not worry. That foolish King Fa Xiao Yun has already agreed to build another palace, ten times more luxurious than this one, and as for those Xuan Beast Bone Carvings, your servant has already started acquiring Xuan Beasts," whispered the Female Official, transformed from a she-wolf, comforting her.
"Not worry, you say it so lightly. You think what I lost was just a palace and a few dozen Blood Refining Bone Carvings. She disappeared, huh, it must be her kind that came calling, but no matter, I have predicted she will definitely return," the Feise Empress Dowager thought she had set up a flawless Bone Carving in the palace and a Killing Cage in the Water Pavilion, but still, there was a leak.
First, came the unexpected masters from the Divine Court, then the great fire at Youlian Palace.
Today, amidst the chaos, the Divine Brilliance Fire appeared, and she, being careless for a moment, forgot about the Purple Lotus mixed among the Water Pavilion’s Red Lotus, and could not imagine that the Purple Lotus would disappear that day.
Furious about who exactly saved Princess Zilian, the Feise Empress Dowager could hardly contain her anger.
The night continued, with a "hiss," the oil lamp extinguished.
After hearing steady snoring from an elderly servant sleeping outside, Yue Chen sat up in his clothes.
He quietly pushed open the window.
A dagger appeared in his hand, and he rolled up his sleeve, his arm as tender and flawless as a segment of lotus root.
Under the dim starlight, a purple lotus seed was embedded in his palm.
Sweat broke out on his full forehead.
Trickling down his cheeks, like tiny waterfalls.
The dagger angled at forty-five degrees, the blade pierced into his arm, and with a scoop upward, blood burst out, leaving a series of fine scars on his arm.
The purple lotus seed bathed in blood emitted radiant light.
Yue Chen took a breath, the scars on his hand disappearing at a visible rate, eventually turning a light pink.
Staring at the purple lotus seed, the boy’s face, quite rarely, showed a bit of somber sadness as he faintly said, "After all, I couldn’t escape it, could I?"