Book 21 Chapter 5

Plunging into Darkness

-Falling Phoenix

A storm is brewing. You twist the locked door against the harsh winds and let the storm in.

Tick! Tick!

There's a trickle of water running down the stairs. It's not rainwater. It's blood, the red liquid that, not long ago, was coursing through someone's body.

Blood was running down the stairs from the top. In front of the guest room at the top of the third floor. Blood was dripping down from there. The hallway on the third floor is already soaked with blood. The river of blood runs all the way down the hallway. At the end of the corridor, there was only one room. In front of him, two female maids lay dead with their heads in the blood. Both were hollow where their hearts should have been.

The river of blood was beginning in the empty seat of the heart. The doorway, once covered in white windowpanes, was now wide open with a red blooming flower, and the door was now firmly closed.

"Crackle!"

The man in black laughed. At that laugh, the girl instinctively flinched. Fear filled her pale face.

"Yes, why are you trembling so, Rin?"

The man asked.

"Oh… don't come."

The girl staggered backwards on the floor and cried out.

"Do you mean not to come? Should an uncle have to ask permission to approach his nephew?"

Nile raised his reddened right hand in a shrug and said in a pitiful tone.

Ding, ding. Puddle, puddle.

A dark room, with only the slightest glimmer of light seeping in from the hallway. Even in the darkness, the little bird fluttered its wings in a muffled squawk as it saw the blood-soaked hands. The bird hovered dizzily over the torch as Nathan approached the one-legged girl, Na Yerin.

"Sue, Uncle."

Poof!

His back was against the cold wall. There was nowhere to turn.

"Humming, humming, humming. How lovely it is to see you float like a bird in the rain."

Flash!

There was another flash of light.

Nile's eyes, white and bare, were tinted with an eerie light. Eyes that glowed with ugly lust. A vile, twisted mass of lustful thought flowed into Na Yerin's mind. It was already the eye of a wild beast.

"Hmph, those innocent eyes of yours are more deadly than poison, your flesh as soft as molten pearls, your fragrant lips as red as pomegranates… Hmph. Why do you drive me mad, Yerin, I can't stand it anymore, I can't stand it!"

In that moment, Na Yerin saw it stirring at the bottom of her uncle's chest. Thanks to the accursed dragon's eye, she could see it clearly. The instincts of an ugly wild beast that cried out for nothing but pleasure, pleasure!

A dense, sticky, filthy venom oozed from his body, a thick mass of toxins that wriggled and spread its tentacles like a giant poisonous worm.

"Good boy, good boy, come and run into your uncle's arms."

Nile's shadow grew larger and larger, enveloping Ye Lin's small body. She squeezed her eyes shut and cowered, crying out.

"Shh, no!"

Someone, anyone, please help me.

Puddle, puddle.

The only bird watching the spectacle stood still, flapping its wings.

"Hmph, hmph, hmph, hmph, hmph, hmph, hmph, hmph, hmph, hmph, hmph, hmph, hmph, hmph, hmph, hmph, hmph, hmph, hmph, hmph, hmph, hmph, hmph, hmph, hmph, hmph. So why not defile this body?"

Nile slowly reached out toward young Ye Lin. She trembled like a squirrel before a snake. She tried to backtrack to the right along the wall, but was soon blocked by another wall.

Nile was in no hurry. His lust and madness only intensified as time went on.

"I won't give you away to anyone, and soon you'll be hanging in my arms, shivering with pleasure. Heh heh heh!"

The smirk on his face grew even more sinister. His disgusting breath clung to Yerin's throat. She shuddered in fear and disgust. It was so frightening. So dirty.

"Please help me, please!

But her prayers went nowhere. She felt as if she were suffocating in the thickening madness, poison, and foul breath. A dark maw lay beneath her, waiting with its mouth wide open to swallow her whole.

"Dad!"

He howled with the last of his strength, and at the sound of the name, madness exploded in his eyes.

Iron!

Ye Lin's tiny body sprawled on the floor. Nie Tian slapped her roughly on the cheek, and she couldn't hold on and collapsed.

Boom!

Before she knew it, her back was slammed against the wall and she felt her vision go white again. Before she knew it, Nile had lifted her up with one hand and was shoving her hard against the wall. Her tiny feet flailed in the air.

Tingling right cheek, lips like they've been on fire, salty liquid on the tip of my tongue. My breath caught in my throat.

"Phew, that idiot will be too busy to come! It's just you and me here, and don't worry, we have plenty of time!"

Nile spat, his eyes blazing with madness. A drop of blood trickled from the corner of Ye Lin's mouth and fell to the ground.

"Oh dear, what a waste of a pretty face, but this one has a unique flavor."

Nile licked the blood that trickled down Yerin's chin with his tongue. She stiffened, unable to breathe at the sensation of a snake's tongue licking her face.

He gripped her slender throat with his left hand and slowly brought his right hand to the nape of her neck. A sharp shard of steel cut through, sending an eerie chill through her body.

"Hmph, then where!"

Nathan's sharp iron nails slowly traced their way down the center of her slender parish.

Her clothes parted at the sides like a sharp blade. The man's lust and madness thickened to the point of explosion. Hot breath spewed from his mouth in a series of strange groans.

Yerin began to twitch and twitch. Her mind seemed to be fading. Or, rather, she wanted to fade away.

"Oh, Dad… please, help……."

A tear rolled down her cheek and fell to the floor.

Pop! Squeak!

Teardrops scattered to the floor along with the torn hem of her dress.

"Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

A scream, a piercing scream, rang out.

Wow!

Nathan's head whipped around, flashing with madness. A shard bouncing off the shattered door caught him in the arm and dropped him.

"Who are you!"

Nie Tian's grip was momentarily loosened as Yin Ying leapt into the room and grasped at Mac Moon like lightning. Ye Lin's body, pressed against the wall, fell down with a thud. The intruder picked up Ye Lin with his left hand and quickly teased the sword in his right hand, covering her body with the cloth on the table.

Nathan took advantage of the intruder's free hand and kicked him in the stomach before sending him flying backwards. After placing the stunned Na Yerin on the disheveled bed, the intruder turned away.

The light of the hallway flooded in through the crack in the door. Nathan could immediately recognize the intruder in the room.

"Tongue… brother……."

The man who had broken down the door and snatched the bird from his grasp was none other than his own brother, Nabaxian. His pale face was now trembling with rage.

"What is this, what is this terrible disaster, that I am your brother? If so, I am your nephew, and he is only twelve years old!"

"Uh, yeah, bro, so this is……."

"Chet, your plan has gone awry.

Despite his bewildered expression, his mind was sharpening his blade with ice-cold intensity. His right arm had already been surreptitiously tucked into his sleeve. Fortunately, Nie Baiqian was so preoccupied with his daughter that he didn't seem to notice that Nie Baiqian had a right hand.

"What kind of a beast is this!"

Finally, Nie Tian let out a roar. Realizing that things had already gone awry, Nie Tian swung his sword without thinking. It was a sword technique he had learned from Nie Bai Tian, the Hundred-Headed Sword Lightning Sword Technique, and his sharp attacks carried a distinct killing intent.

CHANG!

The older brother, who hadn't expected his younger brother to be so brazen and cruel, blocked the sword in horror.

"Wretch, you wield a sword without remorse, do you intend to do violence to your own flesh and blood?"

"Well, what's wrong with that? No more incestuous attack or incestuous murder, brother, he's already got nothing to hide."

The words of his cunning and unscrupulous brother sent a shockwave through Bai Chen's mind, and he felt like he had been stabbed in the back.

"You, you, where do you get off saying such things? Are you really my brother, the vice commander of the Sichuan Martial League? Are you not afraid of the heavens?"

"To heaven, to the vice-general, to the gutter! I have no name or anything, I'm just 'the younger brother of the Martial Lord,' and even though I'm the vice-general of Sichuan, I'm nothing more than a lowly trembler in front of you. If that's the case, you might as well destroy the whole thing."

Bai Chen's heart sank at his brother's unexpected outburst.

"Yeah, yeah, if we're going to mess with you, we should give you a taste of hell first! I've been thinking about it, and I've come up with a trick. I've been wanting to do this for a while, but I've been holding back, so I'm glad I did."

Bai Xiaochun's face flushed with anger as he listened.

"Is that your biological niece? Is that the only revenge you can come up with, to defile a tiny child who is suffering with a tender heart? No human being could come up with such a crass and devious method. Cancer, none."

Nie Tian's eyes widened as if he didn't know what she was talking about.

"You're only capable of such tricks because you're human. Otherwise, you'd be an immortal beast."

Hearing his sophistry, something completely snapped in Bai Chen.

"You're as bad as a beast! You've done nothing to deserve what you've become, you blame others and covet the position of master, and a fool like you will never be a master even if you try for a hundred years!"

"Hmph, it is the law of the mighty that the mighty become the mighty, and that includes me!"

Before he could finish his shout, Nile leaped. A flurry of flashes shot toward Nie Tian, but this time he was prepared, and Nie Tian's swords were useless.

After all, he had taught it to him, so he knew every single variation like the back of his hand. The game had already been decided, he thought to himself as he blocked his brother's blade again, his face clouded with sorrow. Two tears streamed from his graying eyes.

"I didn't teach you how to use a sword so ugly… You ugly bastard, I will take your ugly life with my own hands!"

Nie Bai Tian's sword shone brightly. It was a sword that was many times faster than Nie Tian's sword. It was truly a dazzling speed worthy of the name <White Spirit Sword Lightning Sword Style>. It was impossible to stop him.

"Crack!"

With a scream, Nile dropped his sword, blood trickling down his left arm.

"After all, in the end, I can't beat you at anything, Nabaxian!"

He no longer called Nabaxian his elder brother.

"You?"

"Crackle, crackle, crackle, we're not broken. You don't mean to tell me you still have some resentment?"

Bai Xiaochun flinched at his cynical words. Although his daughter's affairs and his brother's losses had turned his eyes upside down, he had actually been looking forward to it to some extent. Nile's words were a kind of confirmation. Nie Tian pointed his sword at him and shouted.

"Apologize!"

"Apologize for what?"

Nile asked, a sneer in his tone despite his pain.

"I don't expect you to apologize to me. But you must apologize to that child, to that child whose scars you have left will never be erased!"

Where Bai Xiaochun pointed, there was a small girl who had somehow regained her senses and stood up, her eyes wide with fear. It seemed that if she made eye contact, she would faint again.

A cruel smile formed on Nile's face.

"I apologize, Yerin, I apologize, I apologize, I apologize, I apologize. I'm sorry I couldn't teach you the taste of adulthood, and one day I'll be sure to cut into your bodacious flesh and give you a good cuddle. Ban de si!"

Shake.

Yerin collapsed. A flood of black malice swallowed the young girl's soul. It was not a shock she could withstand, the sticky, thickly concentrated mass of malice that crashed into her broken heart again and again. All colors, all sounds, vanished from the world. The light was gone. She herself was gone. There was nothing left.

"Yes, you!"

Bai Chen was aghast, having never thought of such a thing. But he was more worried about his daughter than he was about what he would do to her. The words were the final straw, and his daughter's condition was strange. Alarmed by his daughter's condition, Nie Tian's attention was momentarily drawn to her. Nile Chen seized the moment. To create this opportunity, he had once again carved an indelible scar into his young niece's psyche.

Boom!

The clash of steel against steel echoed through the room, cutting through the downpour. It wasn't a sword or a knife that struck Nie Tian down with such force; it was Nie Tian's new right arm.

"Oh, my God!"

Barely parrying the attack in time, Bai Xiaochun was stunned, realizing that his brother had a newly sprouted right arm. He still couldn't believe what he was seeing, even though they were still sword to sword.

"What, you're surprised that what you cut off in cold blood sprouted back?"

A sneer tugged at the corners of Nile's mouth.

"Not you!"

One realization led to another, and another, and another.

"You got it right!"

At that moment, Nile's sleeve tore apart, unable to withstand the force of the sword, and it was revealed. A bloodthirsty beast, made of thirteen thousand pieces of cold iron!

"Frenzy of the West Wind……."

A hiss escaped from Nabaxian's mouth. Nie Tian's joy at seeing his brother in such a state of dismay was almost unbearable.

"Hoo-hoo, I thought you were here to find out about Xu Tian's whereabouts, so it's a good thing!"

Nile's sneer reached a fever pitch.

"For I am the new West Heaven who will destroy you!"

Click!

The black beast revealed itself, its hundreds of scales razor-sharp.

"This is……."

Bai Chen's thoughts could go no further.

West Wind Light Symphony.

O's.

West wind frenzy.

A gigantic windstorm raged through the hall like a madman.

"Yes, Yerin!"

Bai Chen quickly looked at his daughter. Her young daughter, who didn't know martial arts yet, was too helpless to withstand this much pressure.

"It's the first reproduction in ninety years, let's get it!"

Salcho, who had claimed thousands of lives during the Ten Thousand Blood Tax, was once again on the rise.

Nabaxian hurriedly unleashed the most powerful of his defensive formulas to stop the raging storm in its tracks.

White Soul Sword Thunder Heavenly Sword Style.

Righteousness (奧義).

Thunderbolt (雷網白裂).

There was a blinding flash of white light, forming a network of brains.

The storm and the network crashed into each other, battling fiercely for momentum. Sparks and roars swirled in one place. But the struggle ended without a single victor.

"Chit, did you offset?"

Nile grumbled in a disgruntled tone, the blade he had honed with hatred still not sharp enough to cut down his foe.

"Chet, it's not finished yet!

The Western Axis of the Four Seasons of Destruction! It seems that time was too short to fully master Xu Tian's martial arts.

"Shit!"

He hadn't been the only one to grow stronger over the years. He wished he hadn't been so arrogant as to neglect his training now that he had risen to such a high position! It pained him to lose such a golden opportunity, but he refused to be deterred. This fight would be meaningless if it didn't end with his own thorough and decisive victory.

"We'll have to save that for another time, brother!"

Without waiting for an answer, Nile Chen held out his left hand.

Quack!

A thunderous boom erupted from his seat.

"Frenzy!"

It was a blade that his brother had once bragged about when he was a renowned white wind swordsman. Moreover, the direction in which he shot his tension was the direction of the daughter he loved so dearly.

"You bastard!"

Bai Xiaochun quickly flung his body out and caught the tension. His hasty movements didn't completely halve the power.

At that moment, Nathan was thrown backward by the recoil.

Quack!

The windows shattered with a loud crash, and Nile ducked behind the ferocity of the storm.

"Are you okay, Yerin?"

As he turned his head to look at his daughter with a worried expression, a chill ran down his spine.

"Yerin! Yerin!"

His eyes, once as clear as the stars, were now clouded with a black mist. Her daughter, slumped over in bed, stared blankly out of her clouded eyes, frozen like a statue.

"Yerin, wake up, Yerin!"

Ye Lin's mind had already closed.

She was engulfed in darkness, descending into a black hole of despair.