章 84: Chapter 84 - Crimson Demon!
"Xin..." Master Xiaodan towered over the young hunter, his body half-entombed into the earth. Near him, Lei was lying on the ground, groaning and squirming in pain.
What's done is done. I made my promise to Lei, I delivered.
Xin stared into master Xiaodan's eyes.
"Disciple Xin, was that a blood path dao shard?"
"I don't know. They said it regrows limbs, so I used it on Lei." Xin knew that master Xiaodan wouldn't buy it, but he didn't want to gift him an admission of guilt.
"That's a banned blood path method! You aren't allowed to act on your own! Did you consider the consequences? You could have killed him!"
"I'm sorry. Thought it was insect path. It was some sort of ladybug…"
"You're sorry?! You aren't sorry! You're staring at me like I don't fucking exist, the audacity! And you knew how to activate the shard! Oh, boy, you've got a problem!"
"Please check up on Lei. I'm trapped." Xin raised his arms. He didn't want to try and get out of the earth's grasp, master Xiaodan would probably find it offensive. Instead, he chose to stay trapped, but kept a confident demeanor.
"Shit." Master Xiaodan sighed, then closed the door behind him. "Let me see."
Lei was now unconscious, but a red piece of flesh burst out of his shoulder, quickly solidifying and covering itself in skin. A few moments later, he had a new arm. Xin was delighted.
"You should let it slide, master Xiaodan. I defeated five rank one masters, I helped the sect a lot today. Lei was also amazing. What are you going to do, cut his arm off? What's done is done." Xin spoke in a voice devoid of all emotion.
"You! Masters were right, you're completely unhinged, where is your sense of authority?" He slapped Lei's face, trying to wake him up.
"Let it slide and you have two sect heroes, punish us and the sect will lose face for no reason. What's the point? You know better, master Xiaodan."
The man puffed his cheeks and stared at Xin. In his sixty years of life, he only saw a few people as daring. What should I do with him? That little cunt...
"Sure, I'll let it slide. What else, want a kiss on the cheek?"
"Please let me out. I need to loot the people I killed."
"You dare! Five rank one masters? Is this not an exaggeration?" He raised his bushy eyebrow. Indeed, judging by the blue glow around Xin's armband, he attacked the rank ones and lost his mortal immunity…
"No, master. Shot two rank one masters on the walls, and caught an escaping one with a snakevine. Another one was stalking us in the house, invisible. Shot him. Then I defeated this crane style guy." Xin pointed at the corpse of the man, lying near Lei.
"Absurd." Master Xiaodan stared in astonishment. "We aren't chasing their retreat, and I closed the back gates. Get to looting. I'll check up on the troops." He quickly left the hut and loosened the earth's grip. Xin didn't even celebrate, just climbed out of the hole and stared at the floor.
Not just the rank ones, I also killed three mortals... The bald guy who was surrendering, and two youngsters who attacked me from the rooftop. The girl was somewhat skilled, around Yao Nang's level.
Tie. Xin felt his heart jump.
Could it be?
"Xi..." The young man whispered before Xin stabbed him.
Xin?
No, no! This is impossible! I'd... Xin started suffocating.
I'd recognize her!
Years ago, Xin attended a martial arts school. It wasn't just his father who taught him, he took private lessons, as well. Back then, he was madly in love with the daughter of a school master's assistant. She was smart and lively, cute and passionate at the same time, and stole Xin's heart the moment they met.
She had a best friend, Lang Tie, a girl with signature long silky locks, reaching her waist. Her father was a merchant Xin's father traded with quite often, and she herself was an aspiring martial artist. Xin hung out with her from time to time, when their companies met, but they weren't too close. He found her cute, but a bit dumb, and since he was smitten by her friend, he paid her no attention.
Well, now I killed her. Xin could barely breathe, he was crying in anguish. This is bullshit! This war is bullshit! I'm only crying because I knew her, but what about the others?!
"Fuck!" Xin cried out. He also remembered the guy now. He was a martial artist from a nearby school. Xin even sparred with him a few times, but won every time. What was his name?
Doesn't matter, I killed him! He's fucking dead!
"No! No!" Xin punched the wall with his fist, but the pain didn't go away.
"Xin? Are you alright?" Lei woke up unexpectedly, and reached out for him.
"I'm not! The people I killed — from Tealstone! Knew 'em! Aagh…" He kept sobbing, feeling absolutely betrayed by destiny. Killing the undead or even the yaoguai was different, and so was killing the bandits. It was hard to dehumanize the people he once knew.
"Shit. I once did a hit on a guy who turned coat — snitched and got two of ours arrested and tortured to death. I know how you feel..."
"It's not about you! Fuck, can you kill me? Or punch me out, get it to stop! Fuck." Xin pressed his fingers into his eyes to stop the tears, and could barely breathe.
"Brother... I'm eternally grateful for this new arm. Look." Lei tried distracting him. He moved his fingers with the elegance of a lockpicker. Somehow, it worked.
"Like it? Wait." Xin opened the window shutters, letting some light in. "Your eyes!"
"What's with them?"
"Red. Crimson. And the hair, too!"
"Shit, seriously?" Lei stood up and ran outside. "Anyone got a mirror?"
The crowd gasped. What's with Lei?
One of the captives cried out:
"He's a crimson demon! Look at his eyes and hair! He captured Tigerman Lou and backstabbed Bloodhound Zhuo!"
"Shut the fuck up!" A rank one master punched the back of his head.
Someone handed Lei a small pocket mirror. He looked at his reflection.
A symmetric, somewhat mild looking facial expression, giving him an aura of teenage cuteness. A strong jawline to compensate, giving him a more manly look. Crimson red eyes, both the pupil and the iris merging into a big red dot, contrasting with the white sclera. Crimson red hair, drenched in blood.
"Master Lei, are you alright? What's going on?" Yao Nang ran up to him, worried. She was only slightly injured.
"Alright? I'm great! This new look is so cool! I don't mind being called a Crimson Demon, hehe. Sounds rad!" Lei boasted and acted upbeat. In reality, he felt a huge sense of relief. It will be great, not seeing HIS eyes in the mirror every morning! My cunt of a father, whoever you are, I finally got rid of your last trace!
"Lei, what happened? Explain!" Yao Nang was weirded out. "Wait... your arm?"
"It kind of grew back. Stand aside, I'm going looting." He pushed her away.
Yao Nang stood there, shocked. Lei didn't ask if she was alright, he didn't care to explain anything. He looked like a demon now, and carried a fancy flying sword! What's going on? She felt confused and neglected.
***
Xin checked the alchemist Luli's hut. Completely empty and devoid of loot. Fuck, they stole everything, even the minor instruments. He then checked up on the two dead masters. Five spirit stones on the grandpa. That's it? Stupid fuck, almost killed me, but doesn't even have a weapon to loot. Xin spat on his corpse.
He checked the beheaded grandma medic. Other than the bag of holding, she only had a dagger. The bag of holding was quite interesting, though. The space inside was flexible, and could fit his crossbow and his glaive at the same time!
Inside of the bag of holding, Xin found some wood path materials, a decent collection of healing herbs and another dao shard. It looked like a nail-sized seed, with a hieroglyph on its back that said "plant reinvigoration". Oh, this one might be useful, but I have no idea how to activate it. Should talk to Lei about splitting the loot from these two.
Wait! Xin stood up and sprinted towards the longhouse he killed the ambushing master in. There was already some rank one master sitting on the floor, standing above his corpse. Behind him there stood several disciples. Murong Zhan noticed Xin and followed him inside.
"Disciple Xin." A young master bowed to him and performed a martial gesture. He bowed quite low, in recognition of Xin's combat achievements. The fact that Xin was looting corpses in his condition clearly weirded him out, though.
Xin ignored him and kneeled over the dead master's corpse.
"There was a ring on his finger." Xin stood up, furious. "Did you steal my fucking loot?"
"Easy, easy!" The master raised his hands. "You're forgetting yourself, disciple."
"Forgetting himself?" Murong Zhan walked in, his chakrams glowing. "Want to get your head sliced off just like he did? Give us the ring, and all the other loot that was on him! And upstairs, too! It's our loot, we didn't have time to pick it up!"
"We were too busy carrying your fat lazy asses, holding the whole flank by ourselves. Give me the fucking loot, seriously." Xin waved his crossbow around, but didn't point it at the master. Would be too much, probably a crime. The rank one master looked Xin in the eyes, trying to gauge the situation.
"What are you waiting for? Remember, we know what loot was here, if you hide it from us, we'll make you suffer." Murong Zhan was furious, a bunch of commoners are stealing his loot!
"It was a mistake, disciple Xin. Here." The rank one master approached Xin and opened a bag of holding, taking out a green jade ring. "It's yours."
Xin lowered his hand into the master's bag of holding, and took out three spirit stones, clearly not a part of the loot.
"These were also in his pocket. Now fuck off."
The master stood there, astonished. Is this disciple extorting him? It took him a moment to process what's going on.
"Master, is this right? Let's complain to master..." One of the internal disciples was interrupted by Murong Zhan walking up to him.
"Scram. All of you."
"Fine, we are leaving, good masters." The whole group hastily retreated.
Xin smirked and approached Murong Zhan.
"How do we split this one? I noticed and gravely injured him, but you finished him off." Xin added "gravely" to mean "I had him without you".
"Give me the stones, keep the ring. Deal?"
"Good enough. Thank you, brother. Nice job on the battlefield, by the way."
"You can't seriously do what you just did and praise me. Everyone's whispering about you. Good to know you didn't tilt after failing your breakthrough."
"I did, actually. I just somehow kept going. This crossbow technique is something else. But my crossbow is almost broken, its shoulders aren't meant to bend like that."
"Poor you."
"Hehe, let's keep looting." In these moments, Xin even forgot about his breakdown minutes earlier.
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