Chapter 023 Li Xiao's Independent Side Story - Obsession (Part 8)

—Kill! Kill! Kill!

The deafening shouts echoed all around.

The firelight illuminated the child's dusty face, while also burning his eyes.

The child, panting heavily, staggered to his feet from the ring, but before he could even regain his footing, he was met with another blow.

The enormous body, reeking of stench and blood, suddenly swung its iron fist in this direction!

In a flash, the child could only roll on the ground, barely dodging the attack, while the force of the punch grazed the back of his head, kicking up his sticky, gray hair.

—Kill! Kill! Kill!

The cheers grew louder and louder, and flames soared into the sky, turning the dark underground arena into a fiery hell.

This was supposed to be a competition where the outcome was known from the start.

However, the onlookers went from initially showing little interest to becoming very interested, and now they are completely swept up in the excitement, cheering and roaring.

Everyone is eagerly anticipating that moment...

Once again, the exhausted child dragged his weary, thin body and crashed heavily to the ground.

—It hurts, it really hurts so much!

But he couldn't make a sound, only broken breathing, a heartbeat, and a buzzing...

The various sounds inside my body clamored together, and the surrounding waves of shouts seemed to be slowly fading away.

The child's stinging eyes widened in resentment.

The distorted faces that appeared in the field of vision, like a large swarm of writhing and shrieking worms, seemed to be eager to enjoy this feast for the eyes and the palate.

Am I... really going to die?

—Just as these guys wanted.

Click, my finger got stepped on.

Thud, my knees buckled.

...

Blood kept gushing from the severed limb and wounds; I felt so unwilling and in so much pain...

His emerald eyes were wide open, almost as if they were about to burst.

The reflection showed a gigantic figure, a hammer raised high, slowly rising and falling, almost imperceptibly so. In the instant the hammer tip touched the ground, the child knew he didn't want to die, he absolutely didn't want to die, so…

—Kill! Kill! Kill!

No one saw how the fire started; the flames engulfed the burly demon tamer and burned all the way from the arena to the stands.

The people who were celebrating just a moment ago suddenly began to stir and run away in panic.

The arena was still filled with the clamor of voices, but this time, the sounds coming from the crowd were cries and wails...

The fire burned for a long time.

After the flames subsided, it seemed that no one had survived.

A young man dressed in white stood before a patch of charred ruins, with his trembling subordinates beside him.

"Are you certain that no one survived?"

The man spoke slowly and deliberately, with a faint smile on his lips, but for some reason, it sent a chill down one's spine.

"Then, how about we make a bet?" the man suddenly said.

The subordinate stammered, then suddenly his legs buckled and he knelt down with a thud.

"I failed in my duties and did not keep a close eye on my men, allowing them to cause such a huge mess. I deserve to die. I am willing to accept punishment. I beg the sect leader to give me another chance. I... I will do my utmost to die for them!"

Her pale lips were slightly pursed, revealing genuine confusion.

"Why would I want to take your life for no reason?"

The man spoke softly as he stepped into the ruins.

Everywhere you look, there are corpses... charred, nauseating bodies.

You can even catch a glimpse of the terror on their faces before they die.

Some bodies were buried underneath, while others appeared to be intimately entwined together.

One can imagine how desperately they tried to escape, pushing, squeezing, and trampling each other, trying every possible way to break through the encirclement... Unfortunately, the arena gates had long been sealed and could not be opened before the end of the match.

This rule was originally intended to cater to the preferences of these onlookers and prevent the monsters from escaping and affecting the viewing experience, but unexpectedly it ended up costing these guys their lives.

The man walked slowly, looking around, his face expressionless, devoid of joy or sorrow.

It was as if what I was seeing was nothing more than an ordinary scene.

Suddenly, he stopped.

Where the arena once stood, only collapsed pillars and stone slabs remain, with a massive corpse lying face down on the ground.

The deceased must have been quite large in life; even after shrinking, he still looked like a small, raised hill.

"Move this aside," the man instructed softly.

As soon as he finished speaking, someone stepped forward, lifted the corpse by its head and feet, and carried it up completely.

The man stared at the small patch of space exposed beneath the corpse and raised his eyebrows slightly.

His subordinates followed his gaze.

Between the stone slabs and the arena railings, there lay a blood-stained, filthy thing, slumped there like a tattered rag... Despite this, there was not a trace of it being burned.

Just as he was wondering what was going on, he saw the sect leader bend down, reach out his hand towards the thing, and then slap it hard.

Then, the filthy thing suddenly twitched, and then made a very faint sound, as if it was about to wake up.

"He's still alive."

As the man slowly wiped his hands, he turned his face and gave a gentle smile to the terrified look in his subordinate's eyes.

"It seems your eyesight really isn't very good. If you ask me, keeping useless things is pointless, don't you agree?"

"..."

They did the eye-gouging work very efficiently, with almost no bleeding.

The man nodded slightly, stopping his subordinate from taking any further action.

If you miss someone, you'll have to gouge out their eyes.

However, this little devil who escaped death was a half-demon, and in his eyes, he could only be considered half a human at most, so one eye was enough... Besides, what use would he have for a subordinate who didn't even have one eye?

The subordinate, who had only one eye remaining, thanked them with a pale face and was helped away by his men.

Then, the man lowered his eyes, looked down at the half-demon at his feet, and said in a calm tone, "I know you're awake."

There was no sound.

But a pair of blue-green eyes opened from the blood-stained face and stared motionlessly at the person who was speaking.

With his snow-white robes and thin face, he looked like an ordinary human being.

The child heard the man speaking, his pale lips moving up and down, his voice soft and gentle, like a tender whisper.

The man said, "Either acknowledge him as your master, or die."

The man also said that they had wrecked his place and ruined his business, so a mere soul contract was a bargain for a child.

In short, from now on, she should listen to whatever the man says.

Finally, the man smiled and told the child that from today onwards, he, Yu Qingzhou, would be his master.

—Yu Qingzhou?

Li Xiao murmured the name repeatedly in his heart, and suddenly felt confused for no reason. If the person in front of him was Yu Qingzhou, then who was the Yu Qingzhou he knew?

Who is that Taoist priest?!

He suddenly felt dizzy, and when he opened his eyes again, it was already broad daylight.

Li Xiao pressed his throbbing temples and gradually recalled the incident yesterday when he helped the drunken Taoist priest back to his room to sleep.

Looking down at the bed, Yu Qingzhou was indeed still asleep, leaning against the pillow with half of her rosy face showing.

Li Xiao grew angrier the more he looked at it. Ever since he met this Taoist priest, he hadn't had a single good night's sleep, and now he was having nightmares.

The enraged boy suddenly stood up, walked to the bedside, and raised his hand to strike the Taoist priest, intending to avenge the arrow he had received in his dream.

The raised hand fell as lightly as a feather... Who taught him that he ultimately had no penchant for self-harm?

I was thinking it would happen sooner or later, but my fingertips touched something burning hot.

Li Xiao's heart skipped a beat.

Why is this Taoist priest so hot?