World Carnage
Cheng Yan watched a giant earth bear rise and encroach until he deemed it necessary to cast his domain, trapping the bear in place. He clutched his fist and bang! Earth fragments rained down. Xiao Ran and Yu Mo could not believe that was all it took for Cheng Yan to obliterated a monster on par with Yi Qianshu. Evidently, they had severely underestimated Cheng Yan.
“First Brother!” Mu Yu called.
“Mu Yu? You two, as well…” Cheng Yan turned to face the incoming group. “How did you find your way here together?”
“Using this.” Mu Yu displayed Reflection Compass.
Cheng Yan swept his across the group and then stopped on Mu Yu. Understanding what the look meant, Mu Yu stated, “I’ll explain.”
Eyes on Xiao Ran and Yu Mo, Cheng Yan demanded, “Xiang Nan, release them. You two still want to hunt me?”
“Hmph,” snorted Yu Mo.
Xiao Ran gave Cheng Yan a palm and fist salute. “We admit defeat to you and your brothers.”
Cheng Yan acknowledged he heard with a nod and then said, “We’ve all been too complacent. We need to return to Third Heaven as soon as we can.”
“We must find Lie Shang, Ximen Buxing, Wanwan and Gu Yitian ,if nobody else,” asserted Mu Yu.
“And one more person,” Xiao Ran declared.
“One of yours?” Xiang Nan questioned.
“No, I am the only one from my shadowless race. I didn’t want my other kin to die in here. You need to find someone by the name of Chu Xiachi.”
“You know him?” Mu Yu queried.
“You could say we’re friends. It’s just that our paths have diverged at this stage. He wants to protect Third Heaven, while I want to sit out. Even so, I don’t want him to die.”
Mu Yu tacitly acquiesced as he did want to pay Daoist Chu Buqu back for lending a hand in the past.
“According to Reflection Compass, Wanwan and Ximen Buxing are the closest. I assume their yin and yang natures linked them up.” On the way to the duo, Mu Yu inquired, “First Brother, what is this place? Did Shifu ever mention it to you?”
“… He did, but that was a long time ago. Ancient Battleground was once a prosperous world until an accident left it in this dilapidated state.”
“Is it a parallel to Third Heaven?” Xiang Nan queried.
“Shifu didn’t tell me that much.” Hesitant at first, Cheng Yan finally asked, “Coming home?”
Xiang Nan bit down on his lips and shook his head.
“It’s my fault for not fulfilling my duty as your senior.”
“It’s not. Part of growing up is finding our own paths.”
Cheng Yan turned to Mu Yu. “At least, one person has come home.”
Xiang Nan glanced over to Mu Yu, deciding to keep the latter’s secret for him.
***
The fiend race saw Archfiend Qinglong’s resplendent palace as the lotus in the mud, the ray of hope in the darkness, yet they were not aware of how gloomy the atmosphere was in there on this day.
“The foreign races successfully invaded in the end, huh?” commented Archfiend Qinglong, irritably tapping on his throne.
Archfiend Baiyuan opined, “According to our scouts, Third Heaven continent has become the hunting ground for the foreign races already. Since Bai Jie has found a way around Perfect World, there is nothing stopping them from massacring residents of this heaven.”
“Are they killing humans?”
“They’re torturing humans. Killing their prey straight away is a waste to them as it would only provide them with a soul and corpse.”
Zhuge Xiaosheng stated, “I must go back!”
“You’ll stay here!” Archfiend Qinglong ordered.
“My job was solely to deliver Eternally Youthful Ku Mu’s message, not to help you with the ruin. I can’t feign ignorance when humankind is in peril.”
“The only thing your return will do is give them another Ascension Realm slave. Ku Mu sent you here to help us consolidate the ruin’s formation. You are to stay. What can you do when even we are powerless?”
“So poking the ruin isn’t enough? You want to watch my race be enslaved? Do you know what being in the same boat means?”
“Of course we do. That’s why we need to think. You’re one of the best formation casters there is at the moment with Mu Yu trapped at Ancient Battleground. You must take up his mantle!”
“My duty is to protect the human race, not the fiend race!”
Archfiend Baiyuan persuaded, “Zhuge Xiaosheng, Ku Mu will protect mankind. You have another job. Ku Mu is your patriarch’s father. I assume you know what he’s capable of. He trusted you with the ruin, so that is what you will do. If you leave it be, Third Heaven’s doom will be cemented… It’s vexing that Tiangan is in Third Heaven Palace’s hands; it’s unlikely we’ll be able to have his aid in eradicating those insects with celestial preservation energy now.”
Luanfeng chided, “If only you weren’t so darn careless in the first place. If you waited for me, you wouldn’t have ended up getting mauled on top of losing Tiangan.”
Archfiend grumbled under his breath.
As everyone stopped to brainstorm for a while, Zhuge Xiaosheng broke the silence. “What are the chances of Mu Yu escaping Ancient Battleground?”
The archfiends turned to each other. Archfiend Qinglong heaved a big breath. “Miniscule at best. I would barely make it out if I even could. Based off their current cultivation, I wouldn’t be optimistic.”
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