Bab 23: Chapter 23

"BOINK!" Five loyal bodyguards formed a line of defense behind their young master.

"Escape quickly, Master Zhang Mu!" the lead guard shouted in alarm. He drew his sword and the men around him did the same.

Of course they were not too stupid to charge at Clark for they knew well enough that that would only result in their quick death.

Their actions were only to delay and hopefully restrict any attacker until their young master could safely escape from this tribulation. Alas, a fool wanted to have a fool's death in the end.

There was no remedy to be had if this was sadly the case.

"I am the Third Prince of Canta City! Let me see him dare lay a h...!" Zhang Mu words paused there. He looked down and saw a third arm has now protruded on his chest.

The newly introduced limb was thick with the smell of blood. Hot and fresh still.

'What happened? How could i...' these were Zhang Mu's last thoughts before darkness devoured everything that he was.

"MASTER ZHANG MU!"

The guards roared in panic and anger but before the final echoes of their despair eclipsed into silence once more, each and everyone of them was already bereft of something pretty significant to their continued existence.

Their hearts! It was already crushed into a mangled state.

There was an eerie hush in the scene.

Princess Ning Xi and her lovely servants, same with the trembling audience that was unfortunate enough to be around, laid witnessed as the silent perpetrator combed through the belongings of the dead.

"Are these five swords enchanted treasures, Nancy?" Clark asked after he pocketed the fallen guards weapons inside his inventory.

He remembered that there were magical tools in the Pill Pavilion that detailed how it could unleash fire and ice unto their enemies.

Thus, he decided to end the battle swiftly before these men could even bring forth such unwanted elements into battle.

"Negative, host. These items are normal creations made out of sharp steel and not imbued with any spiritual essence upon its crafting." Nancy replied.

'Well shit! All that hard work for nothing! This foolish young master better give me something precious to keep!' Clark cursed and took his time on searching every nook and cranny from Zhang Mu's corpse.

Upon this quiet stillness, Clark observed the shocked expression that the recent prince had sported in his death.

'All deaths are really ugly to look at.' Clark sighed. This was the reason why he chose to break hearts rather than the faces of his foes.

It was more humane that way and at least the families left behind would still have something decent enough to remember their dearly departed ones in mourning.

Still, robbing from the dead was a whole nother matter for Clark. It did not at all gave him any guilt whatsoever.

He even took a second run by to check if there was still someplace he missed on Zhang Mu's fallen husk.

'Ahhh... I only got a ring? Well, ten rings in fact!'

'Are all of these what i think it is?'

Clark's excitement almost bubbled out to the brim but since this was not the right place to tinker with his loot, it was better to, for the sake of propriety, do this this somewhere else.

Clark stood up and walked away from his slaughtered victims. At this point, even a needle drop could be heard with how silent everything and everyone was.

It was as if the world existed solely for the purpose of one man's actions. Each pair of eyes centered on Clark's every movement.

All people in the vicinity were too afraid to even budge an inch from their nailed spots, else they invite the attention of the dreaded scourge in their midst.

"Now where were we? Oh right... to the palace!"

"Shall we go, my beautiful Princess Ning Xi?" Clark gave another picturesque smile of his. Full of charm and enigmatic pull unto the other sexes.

Alas, Princess Ning Xi could not, for the life of her, take her eyes off the bloody left hand of Clark.

'What have i gotten myself into?' Ning Xi shivered when she realized her mistake.