Chương 44: Lordship

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

The night was cold and bleak as if something dark and evil was lurking.

A slim streak of pure and white moonlight slipped through the cage of beasts and illuminated the city in a lifeless grey. The night was still as cultivators roamed the inner city and the occasional scream was heard from the dark and eerie slums.

Deep within the slums and amidst the sludgy ground that was wet with the shit and tears of poverty, an inconspicuous shack stood out from the rest as it had its makeshift door smashed to pieces.

If one were to look inside from the street, they would be horrified to see shrivelled corpses fill the room as an almost visible pressure seeped out from the shack suffocated anyone the closer they got. It would be clear that a monster dwelled within.

...

Chu Hua awoke from what she thought was a nightmare. Her eyes squinted as the dried tear stains leading down her cheeks became visible. They left clean trails that contrasted the rest of her face which was covered in dirt and dust.

Licking her dry lips without opening her heavy eyelids, she suddenly tasted something unfamiliar but distinctly recognisable. The inside of her mouth was drenched in it and it even covered her lips and trailed from the corners of her mouth.

Blood.

A sharp pain suddenly became more noticeable as Chu Hua felt like multiple blades were embedded in her breast, twisting and carving her insides and making her have short and bated breaths.

"Argh..." A tense groan of pain escaped her lips as she tried to open her eyes. It felt as though a weight was pressing down on her and accentuating the pain she felt in her chest, rising and falling at times while causing her straining pain.

The dark of the early morning hours greeted Chu Hua's dirt-filled eyes as she blinked and tears filled them, aiming to wash away the dirt whilst making her vision very blurry.

The darkness was all-encompassing and she felt that maybe her eyes would not adjust even given an hour. However, she could make out some objects in the abyssal dark.

Her mind was slow to wake but Chu Hua could definitely tell that she was trapped underneath something extremely heavy, preventing her from moving at all. Her left arm was stuck by her side while her right was held still over her breast.

She could not move at all.

Trying to move her legs, they had some room to wiggle but ultimately were trapped as well. She tried kicking them and flexed her muscles to the absolute limit until they ached with a piercing pain, causing her to give up with a strained groan that sounded mixed with tears.

"Help!! Help me! I need help!! Someone, please save me-aah!" Chu Hua suddenly shouted into the night, screaming for help. She hoped that someone would come and free her, saving her from wherever she was. However, her pleas were cut short as the pain in her chest suddenly grew as she shouted, making her squeal before falling silent with muffled whimpers.

Silently cursing herself and crying in the deep dark, Chu Hua felt scared. Would she be trapped here, left to die by starvation? However, Chu Hua was reminded by the pain in her chest that she might already be dying, she just hadn't realised it yet.

However, no more than a minute later, Chu Hua's eyes opened wide, staring into the dark with anticipation as she felt the weight upon her start to move. She could feel a multitude of small spasms and ripples with her whole body as she felt freed by the mountainous weight.

After all, Chu Hua was a peak Stage 2 Water path cultivator and could move hundreds of kilograms if she exerted herself. To be completely trapped must mean an extremely heavy weight was on top of her.

'Has someone come to free me? Did they hear my shouts?' Glimmers of hope flashed from Chu Hua's eyes as the weight almost completely lifted from her. The pain in her breast subsided substantially and she felt that it could finally heal if given the chance.

At this point, she knew that her ribs were definitely broken in a few places and may have even slightly punctured her organs. However, she could heal from it.

"Hello?" Chu Hua called out into the darkness with gratitude in her voice. Her memory was still murky and she was in pain. Every time she tried to think back, a terrible headache racked her head.

The slightest light from the moon was obstructed by the roof over her head and the slums had an absence of light of any form in the night, plunging it into scary darkness.

However, instead of hearing a response to her call, two red circles suddenly appeared in the dark. They were quite small, about an inch in diameter, but pulsed with a glowing crimson light.

Chu Hua just stared at the circles before she felt something press down on her right elbow. She moved reflexively, trying to pull away and squirming with her body lightly on instinct before she could think.

However, before she could even realise she was in danger, a large weight was directly put on her elbow, crushing it into segments! Her fingers twitched incessantly as her forearm began to turn purple since there was an immense weight crushing her elbow into the hard floor!

"Waaaaaaaaaa!" Chu Hua screamed out pathetically as she kicked and thrashed at what she could not see.

She took her other arm and tried to pry away what was crushing her elbow, only to feel a huge hand that was the size of her entire torso! She tried to push away the wrist that was as thick as her leg while whimpering desperately, like someone who realised they were about to die!

With immense anxiety in her wide-open eyes, she snapped her head to look back far above her in the air, where the two red circles were. Only now, she realised they were blood-red irises!

The drowsy eyes were not looking at her and did not even seem lucid, as if the beast they belonged to was in an extreme state of disorientation and exhaustion like it had gone through some unimaginable tribulation.

At this point, Chu Hua was frozen in fear and trepidation. Her arm which had gone completely numb and purple from no blood circulation was unmoving as she squeezed her eyes shut. It was like she was trying to hide from a monster even though she was right before it.

However, a large thud shook the earth as the weight crushing her arm receded. Chu Hua wept tears as a quiet cry of relief as she gripped her crippled arm like clutching a babe to her breast.

A huge thud shook the shack once more and a loud crash sounded, and before Chu Hua could respond, broken planks of wood and clumps of mud fell all around her as moonlight flooded into the shack.

However, right after the roof of the shack was destroyed, a huge crash sounded, one that was much larger than the last few.

Chu Hua did not care to look and only shuffled along the floor and towards the smashed door of the shack. However, after a glimpse behind her, she saw the blurry figure of a huge behemoth dazedly lying on the earth, having even caused part of the shack to fall apart after it had fallen.

However, she had only seen a blur.

'Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! Please!!' Chu Hua began to beg for release as she neared the door every second, all the while hearing loud shuffling behind her. Her hair stood up at the uncertainty of the next second, whether she was going to escape or if she was going to be crushed by a huge foot!

Adrenaline pumped through her veins as she got livelier and livelier, crawling to the exit with extreme fervour.

'Come on, come on, come on... I can make it!!' The outside of the mud-paved street seemed so bright and heavenly compared to the ephemeral darkness surrounding the thing behind her. She did not even use her arms to crawl, as she was clutching her crippled right elbow into her chest, using only her shoulders to shuffle forward.

Her hair stuck to her forehead as sweat trickled down the side of her neck and behind her ear. Dust swept up to her face as she shuffled, urging her to sneeze, however, she suppressed it with all her might.

Then from behind her, she heard guttural gurgles and incomprehensible sounds, like the deep roars of a huge lion, but more like...speech.

'Oh my god, oh my god...' Chu Hua's thoughts raged as a fearful anticipation gripped her when she moved so desperately. The exit was so close to her, but the more she let her mind drift toward fear, the farther away it seemed.

The scraping and unearthing of the ground shook her but did not stop her from shuffling. However, after a moment, instead of loud crashing and shuffling; only loud thuds could be heard. Loud and rhythmic thuds reminiscent of footsteps.

Tears started to flow from Chu Hua's eyes as she believed she would be snatched up at any moment. And in her fear, memories started to surface. Memories of that man turning into that...monster. Memories of him about to tear her throat out, and then...darkness.

'It's him, it's him, he's gonna kill me, he's gonna eat me!!' Thicker streams of tears flowed from her eyes as a face with dark eyes and short black hair appeared in her mind. Only, the black hair started falling out and the teeth were replaced by huge gaping fangs the length of Chu Hua's fingers. The calm dark eyes morphed into a hungry and rabid red that made her shiver incessantly.

The deep guttural ramblings got louder and angrier before a deep roar emerged from behind Chu Hua! Huge crashes louder than anything before sounded as dust flew everywhere and small bits of debris peppered Chu Hua's small figure.

Chu Hua began to audibly cry as she weakly kept crawling until the door was only an arm-length away.

However, right as she was exiting, a massive explosion sounded and lit up the area behind her! Massive roars and thuds soon came after as horrifying screams followed!

And with bated breath, Chu Hua crawled away into the night as huge explosions of red flames and dust lit up the slums and destroyed rows of shacks behind her.

...

Black.

Qing Fang was pulled away from his dreams of the Huoyan Clan and thrust into darkness. It was a deep and disorientating darkness that swayed his head and blurred his vision, preventing him from seeing or even understanding anything.

There was...a shout? Something squirming in pain. Qing Fang struggled to understand.

He tried to get up, tried to prop himself up. However, as he did so, there was a shrill wail. It sounded like a woman in labour, screaming her lungs out.

Qing Fang tried to open his eyes, but could only see a blur. Even then, it was as if there was a blur within a blur.

'What the hell is happening? Oh...my head...' Qing Fang struggled to think, but as he tried, a headache with the force of a thousand waves thrashed about inside his skull.

'Ugh...' Qing Fang drowsily thought as his brain turned to mush under the migraine. He tried to stand up, planting his feet on the floor.

But wait, his shins went...in?

Qing Fang didn't know what was happening as he stood up straight only to smash his head on something and crush it to pieces. However, he stumbled from the shock and fell to the floor, landing on something else and crushing that also.

Starting up, Qing Fang tried blinking repeatedly and tried to register what he was seeing. However, it was like there was a shackle on his mind, preventing him from doing anything he wanted. He focused so hard his headache intensified and pain blanked his eyes.

"Ughak...ghak...ugh...ack..." Groans of frustration and exhaustion came from Qing Fang as he moved his limbs across the floor and stretched out to grab something, anything. However, anything he touched crumbled like wet sand.

Qing Fang just lay there blankly for a while, digging his fingers into the floor that was as soft as snow.

However, frustration gripped him once again as he struggled to stand up once more. However, it seemed as though now he stood tall, he had four arms? He had more limbs than he remembered but could not grab things with the new ones, only move them. Like a baby giving his arms a first good look, he thought without understanding one bit.

Qing Fang still felt that "something" above his head that he crashed into before, causing him to crouch awkwardly. However, his legs suddenly moved weirdly and caused him to stumble forward, completely decimating that "something."

Qing Fang looked down at his body in a blur and focused on his legs with a weird glare. Like before, it seemed they went...in?

'Three bends instead of two?' Thoughts that no intellectual could make sense of were thought by Qing Fang in this moment.

'Argh...no matter. It hurts to think...' Qing Fang thought as he struggled to use his weird legs. Stumbling forward a few paces, Qing Fang suddenly bared his fangs toward two blurry small figures that had suddenly appeared.

And then...an explosion appeared out of nowhere and caused Qing Fang's upper body to recoil backwards like he had been punched.

...

"Boss Zheng, why do you care where that guy goes at all? Isn't he only Stage 2? How could he attract your attention?" A man's voice sounded in the darkness of the slums as he followed a tall figure in a tight battle robe.

"That's none of your business." A stale voice replied, clearly with dislike toward the man who asked.

"Whatever. I don't care where you drag me if you can meet the quota that the big boss gave you. I'm just here to help after all. But man, that's gotta be tough, huh? A thousand women and a rare beast as well? Now that's a lot of pressure." The first voice, belonging to a slim and fit man in a hooded robe and trousers replied goadingly.

The corner of Boss Zheng's lips twitched as he turned back violently and grabbed the hooded man by the collar, smashing him into a nearby wall. However, the hooded man just put his hands up with a smile on his face.

"Little Jiang, do they call you little because you're a little shitbag? The big boss told you to help me, so shut your fucking mouth and do what I say. That, or I advise him to cut your pay." Boss Zheng's green eyes stared into Little Jiang's unwaveringly as the latter just smiled awkwardly.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I'll do what you say." Little Jiang said with a chuckle. "Oh, and they call me Little Jiang because I became a captain in the organisation when I was this big." Little Jiang continued while holding his hand just above his waist.

"Hmph." The huge figure of Boss Zheng snorted coldly as he released Little Jiang and continued to move in the darkness.

"So, who is this guy anyway? We're supposed to be filling your quota, not chasing some pathetic Stage 2." After a few minutes of silence, the annoying voice of Little Jiang sounded again, causing Boss Zheng to shut his eyes and exhale slowly in suppressed anger.

"I think he works for the City Lord." Zheng said tiredly.

"Oho? That guy? Never seen him but he's supposed to be super scary, ya know? Even the big boss said he might not be able to beat him. But then again, everyone knows the big boss is humble. I mean, he doesn't even show his face to the public; no one knows who he is!" It seems that for every word Zheng speaks, Jiang responds with ten.

"That's why you should shut your mouth, little shitbag." Zheng said with a chiding tone. He couldn't believe this idiot was a captain like him within the organisation.

"It's Little Jiang." Jiang said laughingly.

"Sigh."

"So, this Stage 2, right? Surely if the City Lord wanted a spy in our organisation, he would send someone a little stronger, no? At least Stage 4?" Jiang spoke ponderingly.

"That's why we're gonna force this guy to tell us who his colleagues are." Zheng spoke each word depressingly. He was not usually like this; Little Jiang just took so much energy to tolerate.

"But what if he doesn't know? Thought about that?" Jiang questioned in a playful tone as if he was smarter than Zheng.

"Well, if he doesn't know then he doesn't know. We'll still have gotten one of the spies. Sigh, can you be quiet now?" Zheng groaned.

"No." Jiang bluntly said.

However, just as he was about to carry on, a large crash sounded a few hundred meters away, precisely from where the cultivator they were following was supposed to be. Without looking back, Zheng sprang forward with immense speed. And without talking sarcastically, Jiang followed.

Moving hundreds of meters in a few seconds, Zheng and Jiang weaved through alleys before they arrived at a half-destroyed shack, a few dead bodies and an almost-dead girl.

"Is that the guy?" Jiang said solemnly while keeping his eyes on a huge white figure stumbling a dozen meters away from him.

"Yes." Zheng said sternly while casting his gaze on a man with a large hole in his chest and grey skin as if all of his blood had been drained. "A shame this thing killed him. What the hell is it? Looks to be some sort of demon but lacks a darkness that all demons have."

"Whatever it is, it's strong." As Jiang said this, a small compressed explosion manifested in his palm and shuddered violently, wanting to explode outward. A smirk crept up his face. "But it's still not strong enough."

As soon as Jiang finished whispering those last words to himself, a small but incredibly powerful explosion that could instantly kill a peak Stage 4 smashed into the huge white figure.

*3,107/3,000 words*