章 8: Demon

*Things like sexism and racism are purely for worldbuilding and to make it more realistic. Thank you for your understanding.*

The Creation Deity had the intention to speak, but before he could, the red figure turned toward him.

They had been spectating the mortal Qing Fang for just over a week yet they had not spoken at all. The Creation Deity was still unknowing about anything to do with the red figure sat less than ten meters away from him.

However, this wasn't that long. To beings like the Creation Deity, days passed like seconds.

The red figure seemed to know what he was going to ask and stated.

"Although space and time are my servants, I still have to bend the knee to fate."

After speaking one sentence, the red figure looked back toward the mortal. He seemed uncaring as to what the Creation Deity thought of what he said. There was a hint of longing in his voice, as though he yearned to break the shackle called fate.

'Space and time are his servants?' The Creation Deity was quite puzzled. He, too, was a being that had transcended space and time but he would never claim to have authority over them.

Realising that the red figure was an existence that held much more authority than he did, the Creation Deity was eager to speak more with him. Although he had reached the peak, he felt that there was still more to cultivation.

He thought back to what the red figure said. 'It seems that the red figure is an agent of fate?' He cast a deep look toward Qing Fang. 'This mortal is fated to rise?' He still had further questions about the mortal and the mysteries of cultivation.

He wanted to speak, but not so soon. He didn't want to earn the ire of the red figure. He would leave it a few thousand years before he dared to bother him again.

So, he turned his eyes back toward the Universe he created. Since he created it, he had authority over every living being inside of it. He had the knowledge of every realm, every tree, even every blade of grass. He could watch all events simultaneously.

This was the power Creation Deities had. Even God Kings were dancing in the palm of his hand. And that palm was his Universe.

However, even such an existence was inferior to the red figure.

...

Qing Fang pulsed with an aura of pure savagery and desire to slaughter.

He glared piercingly at the Stage 4 cultivator. The anger inside him was unable to be soothed. It was uncontrollable.

Under the fearful gaze of the Stage 4 cultivator, who was slowly backing away so as to not anger the mad beast in front of him, Qing Fang kicked the floor and burst out with insane speed.

The pain from his previous injury was drowned out by his body begging to kill something. His eyes lost any trace of reason or sanity as they were replaced by immense bloodlust.

The Stage 4 cultivator felt deep fear set in as he realised the speed Qing Fang erupted with was higher than his own. 'How is this possible!? A Stage 3 cultivator with speed superior to me?!' To the Stage 4 cultivator, the scene in front of him was unbelievable. It had to be reminded that Shadow path was focused on speed rather than strength. Even a Stage 3 Shadow path cultivator should be faster than Qing Fang. However, he was currently faster than a Stage 4 Shadow path cultivator.

Since Qing Fang was faster than him, it also means he is unable to escape.

Refusing to accept this fact, the Stage 4 cultivator retreated with his fastest speeds while he sent daggers comprised of shadows toward the insane animal chasing him with thick murderous intent.

As he was charging, a dozen daggers plunged deeply into Qing Fang's torso and legs, however, he didn't even flinch nor pay it any attention. His eyes turned red as his only focus was on the prey fleeing before him.

When he saw this, the Stage 4 cultivator was in disbelief. 'This maniac! His desire to kill me is greater than his desire to live!!' As he thought of this, a shiver went down the Stage 4 cultivator's spine. No one had ever wanted to kill him this badly so fear started to emerge from within him.

At the sight of an enemy that is willing to forsake his own life to kill, the Stage 4 cultivator felt a primordial sense of mortal danger. A great desire to live surfaced. He felt as though for his whole life up until now, he had taken just breathing for granted. Right now, his only desire was to fly away from here and go to a place where he could feel safe. Thinking on it, when had he ever been truly safe? At any point in his life, someone could've killed him. He started to fear the thoughts of the people that were around him. If any one of them thought "what if I kill him right now?", he would be dead.

The Shadow path cultivator stopped thinking. He felt that if he truly opened himself to the dangers of the world, he would go insane. As they say: ignorance is bliss. There is a great price that comes with knowledge of the truth. Some people cannot handle it. They prefer to build a false reality inside their head to create a feeling of security.

Before this great foe, the Shadow path cultivator felt as though all of his security was taken away. But then he thought, 'wasn't this death?' Indeed, death is being robbed of one's security and exposed to the truth, whether the one to do it is another being or time itself. No one knows what happens when you die, but to generalise it, you are exposed to the 'truth'. The truth can be whatever you want it to be, however, there is only one truth, right? Regarding this, mortals have no right to know. Only gods are exposed to the inner workings of the Universe.

Realising that the danger Qing Fang emanated had subconsciously made him think he was already dead, the Shadow path cultivator looked at him with horror.

The distance rapidly shrinking, the Shadow path cultivator madly sent daggers toward Qing Fang. Faced with the rain of daggers, Qing Fang only dodged those aimed at his head. All the others nestled deeply into his flesh as blood flowed like a fountain. Qing Fang was impartial to death kissing him on the lips. His only goal right now was to kill.

Under the desperate gaze of the Shadow path cultivator, Qing Fang sent spiderweb-like cracks along the earth with every step as he neared ever closer. Once Qing Fang's domain of death touched the Stage 4 cultivator, he reached out his bloodied hand and tightly gripped onto him.

Being caught by Qing Fang, the Shadow path cultivator realised he wasn't ready to face the truth in death. Those that were ready would have no fear in the face of death, but they were few. Unwilling to leave the plain of the living so soon after coming into existence, the Shadow path cultivator struggled madly and clawed at Qing Fang's arm that was latched onto him like a vice.

"No pl-Ahhhh!" A blood-curdling scream resounded for miles as the Shadow path cultivator's arm was ruthlessly crushed into powder and liquid by Qing Fang.

As the Shadow path cultivator's mind was diverted by the intense pain, the shadow daggers that were continuously tearing new wounds into Qing Fang abruptly stopped. They froze in the air before collapsing into black mist and disappearing.

"Hehehe."

A strange inhuman sound like laughter escaped Qing Fang's mouth. His sclera was completely red due to internal bleeding, making him look like a real demon. A scary grin was plastered on his face as he looked down at the pitiful person squirming in his grip beneath him.

'That's right... That's where you should be... Beneath me...'

Having restored the natural order, Qing Fang released his grip on the Shadow path cultivator's mangled arm. Feeling a taste of momentary freedom, the Shadow path cultivator crawled along the ground while groaning, desperately trying to put distance between himself and the incarnation of death itself.

Almost tasting the fear directed toward him, Qing Fang grabbed onto the legs of the pitifully crawling cultivator and jerked him backwards and closer to himself. Then, he placed his blood-stained hand and stroked the Shadow path cultivator's hair. A second later, he firmly grabbed ahold of it and pulled his victim off the ground and into the air.

"Ahhhh!" Another terrifying scream that sent the birds fleeing came from the wide-open mouth of Qing Fang's plaything. Under the grip of the demon, the Shadow path cultivator screamed like his only purpose in life was to create a fear-inducing screech.

And it worked. Any animal within a mile fled upon hearing the terrifying and desperate cry.

Qing Fang listened to the glorious symphony and basked in the sun shining down upon him. If only the other people basking in the sun across the world knew it was shining down on such a scene, what expression would they have?

At this moment, the Shadow path cultivator seemed to regain the light of life in his eyes as he created a massive spear above both of their heads. It seemed he no longer minded death so long as he killed the demon in front of him. He used all of his Stage 4 power in this one attack.

Qing Fang, who was basking in the sun, suddenly felt its light obstructed. He opened his eyes to see a huge spear pointing down at him and the Shadow path cultivator. It was one thousand meters long and twenty meters wide in the middle. The great spear occupied the whole sky as it aimed at its target. The spear could be seen for hundreds of kilometres all around as it carried the might to penetrate the heavens.

...

A Stage 3 cultivator was running through Tai Forest.

This was the other Shadow path cultivator that was tasked with retrieving the gold coins. He had already excavated them and was now searching for traces of his senior brother and the target. He wanted to find him quickly as he heard hair-raising screams come from the depths of the forest. Uneasy, he increased his speed to investigate what caused it.

Right when he was about to search a different area, he saw a majestic and grand spear fill up the whole sky to the right of him.

With no hesitation, he quickly headed in that direction.

...

Looking up at the spear that cast a shadow across the whole forest, Qing Fang wasn't scared at all. He looked into the eyes of his victim and saw the resolution of sacrifice if he could manage to kill himself.

Faced with this gaze, Qing Fang just grinned.

Then, with a violent jerk of his hand, he ripped off the scalp of the Shadow path cultivator. The body of the cultivator fell to the ground with a pain-filled expression and shivered slightly before falling into eternal stillness.

After that, Qing Fang looked back up into the sky and saw no spear.

The action of ripping off the scalp of the cultivator, and revealing the white skull underneath, killed him. Not because of the injury itslef, but due to the pain.

Qing Fang glanced down at the cultivator lying dead on the floor. His mouth was fixed open in a soundless scream as his eyes only showed pure terror and pain.

Qing Fang wanted to laugh, but he unexpectedly grunted instead. Feeling strange, he looked down to see his whole body riddled with bloody holes.

His eyes suddenly shrinking to pin-size, clarity and reason resurfaced in them.

He instantly fell down to his knees. He couldn't help it. He lost all the previous indomitable strength in his body while only searing pain remained. It was taking everything he had not to collapse face-down onto the body of the Shadow path cultivator.

Now that his reason had returned, Qing Fang chastised himself. 'What the hell were you doing?! Life is the prerequisite to everything! How could you throw it away?! Stupid! Stupid!' Looking back on the previous minute of his life, Qing Fang only felt shame. He had betrayed himself in gambling with his future and for what? The death of an insignificant character? Qing Fang wanted to reach the peak of strength. What he did just now went against everything he stood for.

Turning his attention away from his thoughts and onto his body, he only saw blood flowing endlessly from the many wounds on his body. Looking deeper, Qing Fang marvelled at how his heart remained uninjured. This time, he was truly lucky. At Stage 3, although the body had strengthened tremendously, the brain and heart could still usher instantaneous death if destroyed.

Cultivators no longer had to worry about their hearts being a weak spot at Stage 6 while the brain required Stage 8 cultivation.

Not daring to let any more blood flow even with his high vitality, Qing Fang formed a membrane of water on the numerous holes on his body to keep the blood inside. Looking at the ground beneath his knees, he saw a lake of blood already formed due to his injuries. The blood flowed like tiny rivers as he started to feel drowsy. After the strength and adrenaline left his body, the effects of massive blood loss were starting to show.

Qing Fang struggled to stay awake. He had to get away from this area soon. From the way the Shadow path cultivator was fighting before things spiralled out of control, Qing Fang felt like he was stalling. If that was the case, he was definitely not safe staying here. No to mention his disastrous injuries, Qing Fang didn't know how many people were rushing toward him right now. If it was another Stage 4 cultivator, Qing Fang might die here today.

Struggling to get to his feet with the pain impairing him, Qing Fang froze as he heard a voice come from right behind him.

"Qing Jinfeng, stall a bit longer. Qing Dong Cai is headed to your location right now."

Turning around slowly, Qing Fang was confused to see no one. The voice sounded from right behind him, yet nobody was there. The only person within his vicinity was the Shadow path cultivator, and he was already dead.

Thinking back on the words that were said, it sounded like some sort of order? With a suspicious bearing, Qing Fang shuffled his injured body toward the body and searched it.

Within, he found a storage bag and a metal amulet.

Qing Fang instantly recognised it as a communication amulet. He had been meaning to get one of these for a while now, however, they were just too expensive. Realising the voice came from this, he quickly pocketed them and wanted to quickly flee.

From the voice, he knew more enemies were heading his way. He probably would've had much more time if a giant spear didn't reveal his location. Looking at the corpse with loathing, Qing Fang tried to stand up.

A few minutes later, Qing Fang had an anxious expression as he just couldn't move his leg. It wasn't that the pain was stopping him, but the muscles within his legs, his thighs in particular, were severely damaged and would take a long time to heal. Due to this, he couldn't stand and could only stay in his kneeling position.

He couldn't use water to drag his body away as his body had reached the breaking point. He was unable to conjure any water at this moment. He could maybe control it if it was already present, but there was none.

Because of this, Qing Fang could only let himself fall to the ground reluctantly and crawl along the floor using his relatively usable arms. Qing Fang's goal was the water of the lake. The whole battle had happened on the grass clearing next to the lake that was surrounded by trees on three sides.

Due to his Water path cultivation, Qing Fang could breathe underwater by controlling the water to create air pockets. Thus, right now, his best option was to hide deep in the water. Since he couldn't use his body to escape and he didn't know how much time he had until more people came, Qing Fang used all his strength to quickly crawl towards the shimmering water.

The scene was silent, a contrast to earlier. Only quiet shuffling could be heard which was Qing Fang dragging his body along the green grass toward the water. He didn't have to worry about leaving a trail of blood leading to the water as he already sealed his wounds.

Finally touching the refreshingly cold water with his fingers, Qing Fang didn't relax and even sped up in entering the water.

Finally submerging his entire body within the lake, Qing Fang felt his wounds tingle as they started to heal. At this rate, he should be completely healed in an hour. He controlled the water with his slowly returning strength to let air bubbles flow down toward himself. He was at the bottom of the lake, around five meters down, and the water parted for a bubble of air that was one meter in diameter.

Finally taking a breath of air after entering the lake, Qing Fang finally relaxed. The various fish could be seen swimming around him as he thought about his situation.

'That Shadow path cultivator...' Thinking on it now, he realised that he could've been followed the entire time. As Shadow path was specialised in stealth, even Qing Fang knew he could be trailed without knowing. From this, Qing Fang feared the worst and assumed that they'd been following him since Qingshan City.

It was obvious that the only reason he would be followed is if elder Li Shan ordered it. Inwardly griping at how he threw himself into a huge conspiracy, Qing Fang determined that the voice he heard before was elder Li Shan's.

'But that means...' Qing Fang realised that if he was being followed the entire time, then his stalkers knew where he had hidden the gold coins. Indeed, they had already been taken back by the Stage 3 cultivator, Qing Doing Cai.

Cursing his terrible luck, the fortune he felt from his heart being uninjured was negated.

Being in a bad mood as he only had losses and no gains, Qing Fang swore he would kill elder Li Shan in the future.

However, sudden movements above the water surface attracted Qing Fang's attention away from his malicious thoughts. With his improved vision, he could see through the water relatively clearly. However, if one was to look inside the lake, they wouldn't see him. This was because Qing Fang had covered his body with the sand on the floor, making him look a part of it.

Looking at the person who had come, Qing Fang saw another man who was dressed in similar robes to the Shadow path cultivator he killed. Qing Fang concluded from the order elder Li Shan gave through the amulet earlier that this was Qing Dong Cai.

He saw Qing Dong Cai approach the body of the Stage 4 cultivator which lay motionless on the grass with heavy steps. It was obvious that Qing Dong Cai was deeply affected by the revelation of his comrade's death. He looked around before putting the scalpless body into his storage bag after changing the expression on his face from a terrified one to a resting one.

Qing Dong Cai was currently stood within the pool of Qing Fang's blood and staring at the sky. Qing Fang didn't know what he was thinking but it was likely about his fallen comrade, Qing Jinfeng.

Looking at the situation, Qing Fang suddenly saw an opportunity to kill this man. Qing Dong Cai would likely search for his whereabouts after mourning his comrade. Qing Fang was not totally confident in his hiding place and absolutely did not want to be discovered before his injuries healed. However, there was an even bigger reason. This cultivator that just showed up is definitely the one who retrieved the coins. If Qing Fang killed him, couldn't he take them back?

Already deciding to kill him, Qing Fang planned to control the pool of blood Qing Dong Cai was standing in to catch him off guard and quickly kill him. Qing Fang thought that he could probably control the blood. After all, there was water in the blood, right? In fact, blood was mostly comprised of water, so Qing Fang thought his chances of being able to control it were high.

Reaching out his hand, he tried to form a spike that would impale Qing Dong Cai in the heart from behind, killing him easily and quietly.

However, when he tried to put his brilliant plan into action, his eyes widened to the extreme.