Chapter 48: Transactions make the arrogant bow their heads and the powerful humble themselves...
"Father is selfish. Father can't save everyone. In the end... he could only let Qingdai take you and escape..."
“Jiang Yuhuo…I’m sorry for what happened before…You have to…live…You should…live more than anyone else…”
"Jiang Yuhuo, you are the most amazing person I have ever met."
...
Jiang Liuyun, Qingdai, Wuhu... familiar faces appeared before Xiao Jiang's eyes again.
Xiao Jiang tried desperately to move forward and get closer to them, but found that she couldn't move her body at all, and could only watch helplessly as everyone died in front of her once again.
"No! No!!" she screamed desperately, but no one listened to her. The black-armored soldiers continued to behead the Li Yue villagers time and time again.
The battlefield was engulfed in blood and fire.
The next moment, the scene suddenly turned into a pool of bright red blood, with blood gushing out continuously. She was standing far away from the edge of the pool, but the blood still spread to her feet, and she subconsciously stepped back.
"Help...help us!"
"Save me...I don't want to die..."
Xiao Jiang suddenly looked up and saw countless hands raised in the pool of blood. Many pale heads floated in the churning blood. Those who had been thrown into the pool were calling for her help, but they were quickly submerged by a wave of blood, only able to make intermittent cries for help.
Black, soft-bodied worms surged out of the tide of blood, dragging those who had barely managed to get to the top back to the bottom of the pool.
"Xiao Jiang... save me... save me..."
In the pool of blood, she saw Jinzhi's face. Her face was deathly pale amidst the crimson blood, and Jinzhi reached out her hand.
Xiao Jiang hurriedly reached for her hand, but the surging, undulating waves of blood made it impossible for her to reach it.
Until a giant black worm carrying the hand sank down...
Xiao Jiang frantically scooped at the bloody water, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't grab anything; it was all in vain.
Only one strong thought remained in her mind.
—Jinzhi is dead.
Like Qingdai, like the people of Liyue Village, she died in front of herself once again.
But there was nothing she could do.
There's nothing we can do, and we can't protect anyone...
She was a useless person, as weak as an ant, only able to be trampled on.
...
But I'm not willing to give up!
She used to be someone who could stand up and protect everyone; she used to be strong. But all that was taken away; she had nothing left, and she became even more useless.
The huge difference in their circumstances filled Xiao Jiang with intense anger and resentment.
Her innate power accompanied her as she grew up and gave her freedom. Now, how could she be content to be a useless person!
"Yes, that's right. The rule of this world is the survival of the fittest. If you are weak, the people around you are vulnerable. If you are strong, the people you want to protect will be safe. If you are strong enough, those you hate will become your food. This is an eternal truth, my child."
A deep, gentle voice whispered in her ear, incredibly seductive.
"To live in this world is to constantly pursue greater power. If you don't want to become someone else's food, you must first kill your opponents, kill endlessly, until everyone is afraid when they hear your name."
"Who are you?" Xiao Jiang asked.
The empty underground palace was devoid of any human presence; only the surging blood pool remained. The next instant, the blood transformed into a colossal wave that crashed towards her.
The androgynous voice chuckled softly and continued, "Are you still waiting to be given charity? Waiting for someone to fall from the sky and save you from your predicament? Hahaha... You once had that expectation too, but that person never came, did they? So... in the end, people have to carve out their own path."
"Come on, let's make a deal."
The giant waves that surged from the pool of blood engulfed Xiao Jiang, and she suffocated as she sank into the foul-smelling liquid.
"What can you give me?" Xiao Jiang asked.
"Hehehe... How interesting. You're the first person to ask me what I can give you, instead of asking me what I want? What a selfish child... I can give you the power you desire, to make you strong again. No, even stronger! So strong that you can kill everyone you hate. Hmm... Let me hear the names hidden in your heart. Ah, quite a few, aren't there?"
"Shut up!"
"Slit their throats one by one, watch their incredulous eyes, taste their pain... So you like killing like this, huh? How cruel. Doesn't it feel good just thinking about it?"
"Stop talking! What do you want?" Xiao Jiang roared, trying to drive the voice out of his mind.
The gentle voice drew closer, almost whispering in her ear, "I want very little. Just give me this body..."
In an instant, Xiao Jiang felt something brush against her face like a feather.
The voice began to murmur, "What a beautiful body. It's been so many years since I've seen a winged creature... Creation is truly biased, don't you think?"
"I do not understand."
"You don't understand why I want your body? Hahaha... How naive you are, not yet aware that beauty is a weapon. It can sway hearts, make the proud bow their heads, and make the powerful debase themselves. If it weren't for this body, do you think you would still be alive today?"
...
"Are you reluctant to part with it? But this body is useless to you now. I can hear your inner voice clearly; what you want is power. Without the spiritual veins, no matter how much you cultivate with this body, it will be in vain..."
"But it's okay, I can give you a new body."
The voice was incredibly seductive, lingering softly in her mind.
“…Okay, I promise you.” She heard herself say in her heart.
The next moment, the blood receded, and Xiao Jiang fell back to the ground.
"Alright, it's time to wake up."
As soon as the command was given, Xiao Jiang immediately opened his eyes.
A biting cold swept over her almost instantly. She sat up and looked around. She was no longer in the Blood Pool Palace; she was in an outdoor forest. The night was deep, and she could only see sparse tree shadows.
She touched something hard and unresponsive. Looking down, she saw it was a frozen human leg.
Xiao Jiang immediately jumped up and took a few steps back.
Only then did they see that the place where she had been lying was piled up haphazardly, and that was none other than a corpse.
Those who were slightly more presentable were wrapped in straw mats, but most, like her, were simply thrown onto piles of corpses and left to lie in the open, waiting to become food for wild dogs or some other animal.
It turned out to be a mass grave.
Did they think she was dead? So they dumped her here like trash.
What about the Golden Branch?
Xiao Jiang returned to the place where she had been thrown away and, sure enough, saw Jinzhi next to her.
"Wake up, Jinzhi. Wake up..." Xiao Jiang picked up her head, patted Jinzhi's face and called her name, but Jinzhi did not respond.
She pressed her hand against Jinzhi's neck; her pulse was still beating.
Xiao Jiang breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness, he was still alive.
She helped Jinzhi up, put her hands over her shoulders, and let her weight fall onto her back, preparing to carry Jinzhi away.
But she misjudged her own abilities. Jinzhi was taller than her, and before she could even stand up, she stumbled forward and fell to the ground.
"Should we still bring this child along? She probably wouldn't want to wake up to find you in a different body..."
The voice from her dream appeared again, a real, tangible voice, not something she imagined, but something she heard with her own ears.
Was it not a dream after all?
"Who is it? Who is speaking?"
Xiao Jiang pricked up his ears and looked around, only to hear the mournful howls of wild beasts in the distance.
In the darkness, she saw a shadow darker than the night itself.
"You just agreed to make a deal with me, have you forgotten already?"
The shadow suddenly appeared in front of her, startling Xiao Jiang.
The dark shadows gathered like smoke, coalescing into a shape roughly resembling a human. It had no face, no hands or feet; rather than being human, it resembled a black cloak floating in the air, constantly emanating wisps of black mist.
"I've promised, so I can't go back on my word."
*
The night grew deeper. There was no moon tonight, the clouds in the sky were thick, and the darkness on the ground was so heavy it seemed impenetrable.
Two figures plunged into the wild mountains on the outskirts of the city. One was fat, the other thin; one was leisurely, the other hurried.
"Where are they? Where are those two big guys?" The thin man asked incredulously, searching high up on a hill. His voice was very young.
"You put it there yourself, and you can't find it?" The fat man couldn't stay relaxed any longer and walked over to the thin man to search as well.
"I definitely left it here, there's no way I could have misremembered." The thin man scratched his head, seemingly trying hard to recall.
"Won't it have been carried off by jackals?"
In the dead of winter, there's not much to eat in the mountains, so that's a possibility.
"No, the jackals wouldn't just target those two; they didn't touch the others."
"You little brat, how could you leave two young girls in a mass grave? Sigh..." The fat man tapped the thin man's head lightly with a bamboo flute.
“Those people are watching us closely; we have to go all out. You taught us this, Master.”
He struck her on the head again with the bamboo flute, this time with more force. "Damn it! You don't think before you act, but you're quick to shift the blame."
The thin man pressed the spot where he had been knocked on, but he wasn't angry. "I sealed their entire aura, so these people shouldn't have been able to tell they were still alive. Without unsealing them, they wouldn't have woken up on their own, so they couldn't have left quietly, could they?"
The thin man took out a tinderbox from his pocket and lit it.
The firelight illuminated his face; it was the young man who had tricked Xiao Jiang into going to the manor to feed the Gu worms.
He waved his hand in front of him. The next moment, that ordinary face transformed into a handsome young man with striking features and a refined demeanor.
His expression changed, and the boy's lively and restless nature became even more apparent. He examined the corpses in the mass grave, looking them up and down, face by face, very carefully. Once again, he realized with despair that the two little girls were indeed gone.
"Oh no, oh no, oh no... I hope the wolf didn't really carry me away. I'm so guilty now." The boy kept muttering to himself and frantically turning over in his hands on the ground. He remembered the little girl who had bitten his hand and her fierce eyes. It would be a real shame if she died like that.
"If I had known, I would have just raided their hideout and tortured them to extract a confession. That would have surely gotten them to reveal their identity."
Zhang Zhenyang snorted coldly, "So what if you get the information? If the people upstream refuse to admit it, what can you do? Rushing to seize their key point will only alert them."
The young man's expression also darkened. Yes, after searching for so many days, they had a general idea of where the Gu worms had ended up, but without direct evidence, no one could touch that powerful family.
"Then we'll wait five days. When the men arrive, we'll catch them red-handed."
The boy changed the subject, "Master, let's go search in the nearby beast dens. Maybe we can still rescue those two little girls."
"Not necessarily." Zhang Zhenyang sensed something and sniffed. "The aura here is a bit off; it doesn't seem to be left by wild animals."
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Author's Note: The next chapter will be the real battle! But I need to reach my word count for the rankings, so I'll take a breather and resume alternating updates every other day.
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