Chương 64: This life... to abandon all sentiment
"Am I not kind?" he murmured with a hollow laugh, his voice sinking into the silence that swept across the grand hall. The sound died away, leaving a chilling stillness in its wake.
In the dark void of silence, he raised his left hand, which had tenderly caressed the lifeless body of the beast, and gently touched his cheek with a finger. Damp warmth met his skin—a tear, slipping from the face of Xiao Muyu.
"A tear…?" he whispered, retracting his hand. Feeling more droplets trailing down, he slowly drew his right hand from the gaping wound in the creature's abdomen and extended both hands, cradling the beast's neck as if embracing a beloved.
Seeking warmth, he buried his face in its soft fur. "I… am crying?"
"But… what use are tears?" he murmured after a brief silence, his desolate gaze lingering on the mother and child in the shaft of light at the hall's center. "Will tears bring Xiao Xue back to life?"
No answer met him. Only an oppressive silence responded—a silence colder than death itself.
Holding the beast's body, now chilling beneath his touch, Xiao Muyu seemed to reach an epiphany. He murmured softly, head bowed, "Tears… are they truly useless? What good is weeping? If tears could bring back everything, I would cry until my eyes went blind, until my tears were utterly spent... But they cannot."
He rose slowly, allowing the weight of the beast's head to fall against the cold floor, casting it one final, indifferent glance.
The expression on his face was gone, stripped bare. Even his once warm, hopeful gaze was cloaked now in an impenetrable frost of despair. The coldness in his eyes—a chill seemingly frozen for all eternity—carried a bleakness that chilled all who met his gaze.
Dragging his battered sword toward the exit, Xiao Muyu muttered words heard by none. "Tears… are useless. Since tears cannot mend what is lost, why do I still need them?"
Unbothered by the beast's blood staining his clothes, Xiao Muyu's silhouette faded into the dark corridor. "I need neither tears nor sorrow. From this day on, I, Xiao Muyu, will shed tears for no one."
The sun dipped low on the horizon, casting its waning light over a sea of beasts, restless and waiting outside the temple doors. Mighty Moon-Eater Wolves, sharp-beaked Sky-Eagles, even the lowly, dim-witted Saber-Toothed Tigers—all had gathered here. Creatures of all kinds, from the Winterwood Forest's lowest to its highest, converged on the temple.
From the mountaintops to the forest valleys, the beasts blanketed the land as far as the eye could see, all drawn by an inexorable force to the shadowed temple doors, a lure so potent it commanded their entire attention.
And then, he appeared.
A lone figure emerged at the entrance, a man whose face bore no expression, his gray-streaked hair framing a visage wrapped in a frigid, ominous aura. His clothes, drenched in blood, seemed to echo the lifeless red of the setting sun.
In his right hand, he dragged a long sword—its once-fine blade now battered, yet its edge gleamed sharply as it scraped across the stone, leaving a vivid, crimson trail in its wake.
The beasts stirred, recognizing him—Xiao Xue's consort, a man of human origin and unknown past. His appearance was like an unspoken signal: the battle within had ended. But where was their king? Where was Xiao Xue? And what of the Spirit Cat King, who had ventured in, unable to wait any longer?
In a flash, a young Spirit Cat, barely a half-meter tall, darted forward from the crowd. The other beasts knew it as the Spirit Cat King's offspring—a creature deeply bonded with Xiao Xue. Though its action breached their strict hierarchy, none of the Ninth Order beasts scolded it, aware of its anxieties and connection to the now-absent king.
Yet, as if to rebuke its disregard for protocol, Xiao Muyu's blade suddenly raised...
In the eyes of a thousand beasts, the sword gleamed faintly in the dying sun's light, stained in a crimson glow. The blade lifted high.
In that instant, time seemed to slow.
That gently raised sword arced through the air with a dreadful grace, aiming unerringly toward the young Spirit Cat, who leapt forward in innocent hope.
With brutal elegance, the blade severed the creature's body in two. Blood erupted, glistening like a macabre fountain against the fading light, as Xiao Muyu's face, hair, and clothing were splashed anew.
For a moment, silence reigned.
The beasts stood frozen, unable to comprehend the violence they had just witnessed. Then, as Xiao Muyu stepped closer, his bloodied sword lifted once more to impale a Seventh Order Crocodile Beast, breaking the trance.
The silence fractured into frenzied howls.
"Roar! Roar!!"
"Roar! Roar!!"
In an instant, the beast horde erupted into a frenzy of terror.
Ferocious roars echoed as countless creatures retreated, their gazes fixed on the cold, sword-wielding figure emanating a dark, menacing aura. Beasts at the forefront stumbled backward, while those behind, caught off guard, collided in chaotic disarray. The entire horde trembled, paralyzed by this ominous scene.
Yet a few brutal demon howls refused to flee; instead, they snarled savagely, charging forward against the tide toward the ruthless man slashing through retreating beasts. Detecting their approach, Xiao Muyu turned, his gaze falling on the demon howls clawing forward, blood-red eyes locked on him.
With a chilling sweep of his blade, an invisible, malevolent force surged forth, crossing the tumultuous crowd to strike down the five advancing demon howls.
"Skreech! Skreech! Gaah!"
The once-fierce beasts howled in agony as if enduring the deepest torment, their flesh corroding into bare bones before collapsing, their skeletal remains trampled into dust beneath frenzied feet.
The man stood unmoved, his chilling silence a stark contrast to the beasts' panicked uproar. In their eyes, he now appeared cloaked in an aura of profound, horrifying darkness. His mere presence struck terror, freezing them as though cast into hell itself.
Relentless, Xiao Muyu followed the horde's faltering trail, his blade rising and falling with methodical cruelty, blood of various hues scattering into the air, his expression as cold and merciless as a phantom of death.
"If I had not pitied that demon child, had not agreed to Snow's plea to take her in, none of this would have happened," he murmured, his gaze empty of emotion. "Compassion—it's a worthless burden. From this day forth, I will have none of it."
With another swing, more blood sprayed as his blade descended.
"Later, out of trust, I allowed you beasts to take Snow and that demon away from my and her mother's sight. And yet, my trust was misplaced. You failed to guard her, to even sense her possession by that demon's spirit. So trust too is a futile encumbrance. From this day forth, I trust no one."
A giant air-winged eagle screeched from above, diving down to quell the chaos. Unfazed by the nine-tier beast's assault, Xiao Muyu raised his head, his hand stretching toward the approaching eagle, fingers splayed wide. A dark force rose, an unseen net capturing the massive eagle mid-air.
With no chance to struggle, not even a scream, the ninth-tier beast's soul was obliterated by the ice-cold power, its mountain-like body crashing down, crushing several nearby creatures into pulp.
"In truth, all emotions are meaningless, nothing more than detrimental weights dragging us down. So… in this life, I abandon them all." Brushing his hair back, the indifferent man swung his sword with finality, cleaving a beast in two, his voice resonating amid the blood-soaked air.
"Xiao Muyu… is dead from this day forward."
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