Free Web NovelLu Yibei carried Dragon Tang on her back and walked step by step away from the market. Just as she was about to step out of the market, she stopped and turned to look back.
As far as her eyes could see, the long street was enveloped in varying shades of “red”.
Deep red flowing light, scarlet blood... even the sky was tinged with a fiery crimson.
Lu Yibei stood at the street entrance, gazing at the devastated street. At that moment, a hellish scene unfolded before her eyes.
The neighbors who once lived on this street, now turned into bloody corpses, seemed to come back to life.
Gone were the joyful sounds of the past, leaving only chaos, slaughter, and evil devoid of humanity.
Enough, it’s already enough... Lu Yibei thought, closing her eyes, letting darkness swallow everything before her.
Thus, a great drought descended.
Suddenly, as if the scorching sun of midsummer had quietly risen, intense light enveloped the entire long street, and the rapidly increasing temperature warped the air.
Wisps of steam, as if their souls were pulled out by a force from the sky, dissipated into nothingness from the accumulated blood on the ground, the dirty mud, and even the cracks in buildings, before they could even touch the edge of the sky.
Faint sounds rose and fell, wood cracked, corpses collapsed, and hideous fissures rapidly spread between buildings and the ground.
Immediately after, with the crisp sound of pottery falling and shattering, sparks flew up, landing on the already mummified remains nearby.
The completely dehydrated corpses, at this moment, became excellent fuel, instantly allowing the flames to spread throughout the entire long street.
The blazing fire, like countless hideous long tongues, continuously licked the deep red flowing light floating in mid-air, which was invisible to the naked eye. On the burning long street, high-pitched wails intensified.
Dark debris and powder appeared out of thin air, battered by the scorching waves stirred up by the flames, and a turbulent storm shimmering with sparks swirled above the long street. freēwēbnovel.com
Lu Yibei still had her eyes closed, walking with her back to the vast flames, her crimson hair gently swaying like some rising aura.
At this moment, she finally knew how the tragedy of Yumen Pass, sealed for a thousand years with countless lives tragically lost, came to be.
Dragon Xiang and Hong Bian’s plan, from a certain perspective, was actually the best solution they could achieve.
Dragon Xiang and the more than one hundred Longxiang Army Armored Soldiers sealed ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) the Shaman King at the cost of their lives, and then Hong Bian sacrificed himself to the Divine Kingdom Jade Gate to maintain the vitality of the living beings in the city. This could at least last for several years, or even more than ten years.
If viewed solely in this way, they indeed did not lose.
However, they overlooked one point: Yumen Pass would not receive reinforcements at all, or rather, no reinforcements would come to support it.
The longer they waited, the less likely reinforcements would arrive!
The various jiedushi and garrison commanders who could come to Yumen Pass for support in a short time were repeatedly wavering between obeying and not obeying the Emperor’s orders. Would they willingly deplete their own strength to come to support after receiving a plea for help from the already deceased Dragon Xiang?
That Emperor, far away in Chang’an, who had just ascended the throne, was not like his Old Dad, who enjoyed the reputation of “Little Taizong”; he was an Emperor who left a record in historical books of “succession through incompetence,” and from a certain perspective, personally forced out formidable figures like Huang Chao.
Such an Emperor, upon receiving a plea for help, would probably not even glance at it. Even if he did, he would most likely just say, “Anyway, the Shaman King’s crisis has already been resolved, why bother expending effort to support?”
As for Dragon Xiang, Hong Bian Monk, and all the living beings in the city, if they died, then so be it!
Thus, the Divine Kingdom Jade Gate, unable to wait for reinforcements, completely became a stagnant pool. Over a thousand years, it was continuously eroded by the Shaman King’s power, gradually becoming turbid and black, emitting a foul odor, and growing ugly colonies. Then, after the initial colonies decayed, new colonies were born on their corpses.
Finally, only a group of the most ferocious, tyrannical, cunning, and hideous urban legend, adapted to this extreme environment, remained, wandering the once bustling and prosperous streets.
From this perspective, the Shaman King had not lost.
In this war, there were no true victors, only losers throughout the city...
“Boom—!”
The moment Lu Yibei reopened her eyes, a booming sound suddenly erupted from the street behind her, which was being consumed by flames.
The firelight violently vibrated, as if compressed by an invisible force, rapidly shrinking from the entire long street to a small area, and then from that small area to a dazzling point. Finally, with a flash of light, it vanished into nothingness, leaving only scorched earth stretching for several miles, billowing with thick smoke, winding within the city pass like a hideous scar.
The deep red flowing light that had enveloped the long street completely turned to ash, as if it had never existed.
Lu Yibei stood still, looking down at the ground. free𝑤ebnovel.com
A vast, scarlet shadow rapidly emerged from deep within the ground, gradually approaching and converging at her feet, surging. The air vibrated deeply under the terrifying Spiritual Energy fluctuations, as if venting anger or loudly reprimanding.
Reprimanding her, for being a “kindred spirit,” why did she stand on the opposite side?
“If I had to say why...” Lu Yibei tilted her head, her face expressionless, “It’s because I am the reinforcement of Yumen Pass!”
After a thousand years, the Divine Kingdom Jade Gate finally received its reinforcements!
She, Lu Yibei, was the reinforcement!
Upon receiving Lu Yibei’s response, as if making a final threat, the blood shadow underground violently churned for a while before gradually falling silent...
“Tch!” Lu Yibei rolled her eyes. “Just impotent rage.”
Scared me to death! I thought it was really going to jump out and beat me up!
————
In a small civilian house in the west of the Divine Kingdom Jade Gate city, the small courtyard was filled with wooden racks for drying spices.
At this moment, those wooden racks had been knocked over by someone, scattering various spices all over the ground. A strong aroma diffused, but it couldn’t mask the pervasive scent of blood in the air.
A winding trail of blood, passing through the scattered spices, extended from the main gate to the depths of the small courtyard.
At the end of that blood trail, a tattered, blood-soaked young man lay in the center of the main house, leaning against the corner, breathing heavily. Beside him lay a bloody, mangled corpse.
Xie Erlang could no longer remember how he returned home.
When his consciousness awakened from a blur of red, he was already lying in the center of his own main house, and his elderly father lay beside him, already lifeless.
Holding the blood-soaked firewood knife, his eyes wide, he stared at the corpse on the ground, shaking his head incessantly, muttering nervously to himself.
“No... it’s not, I don’t know... I killed that beast... I killed that beast! Why? Why is it like this?”
Suddenly, his expression turned ferocious and vicious. He rushed forward a few steps and hacked wildly at the bloody corpse again.
“No! I didn’t kill my Old Dad! You’re not my Old Dad, you’re that beast! I’ll kill you, I, I’ll kill you!”
The brief moment of clarity did not bring Xie Erlang relief; instead, it plunged him into greater pain and terror.
In a daze, he returned to the front of his family’s spice shop, raising the firewood knife towards the one-eyed man’s back.
At that moment, his mind was filled with the words the one-eyed man had said to him in the past.
“Xie Erlang, isn’t it time to pay respects to your Old Dad again?”
“Xie Erlang, are you capable or not? If not, lend your daughter from the Li family to your Old Dad. In ten months, I guarantee you’ll have a chubby baby!”
“Xie Erlang, do you want your Old Dad to help you kill your sick Old Dad? Just give me half of your family property then, and I guarantee your elder brother won’t dare to say a single word!”
“...”
Xie Erlang couldn’t bear to listen to the one-eyed man’s malicious words anymore and forcefully cut off his head.
But then, a terrifying scene occurred.
The one-eyed man’s head, after falling to the ground, did not die on the spot; instead, it continued to speak mockingly and derisively.
The words grew louder and more noisy in Xie Erlang’s ears, as if they were trying to shatter his brain.
So, he raised his firewood knife again.
He didn’t know how long passed, but when he finally put down the firewood knife, most of the one-eyed big man’s body had already turned into a puddle of mud.
However, the whispers in his ears did not stop.
Voices came from all directions, and when he looked around, the entire street was filled with the one-eyed big man’s figure.
They were everywhere, regardless of height, weight, gender, or age, all bearing that repulsive face that he wanted to kill quickly. All he heard in his ears was “his” voice.
“Xie Erlang... Xie Erlang...”
He continuously swung his knife and fled, running away from the one-eyed big men who were constantly gathering towards him, just wanting the voices in his ears to disappear.
When he came to his senses, he was back home, and his long-sick father had already passed away.
And even now, the maddening voices in his ears had not gone away.
“Xie Erlang... Xie Erlang...”
As the voices echoed in his ears, Xie Erlang seemed to be guided by something beyond human comprehension, and a large amount of information flooded into his mind.
The slaughter within Yumen Pass was caused by a demoness who brought drought and disaster...
Yumen Pass would never receive reinforcements; continuing to wait would only lead to certain death...
In the near future, a group of chosen, devout people would regain their freedom...
To save Yumen Pass, one must retrieve the scattered remains of Hong Bian; those remains could bring about a miracle...
As this information flooded in, Xie Erlang, whose mind had been unusually agitated, gradually calmed down, and a calm yet eerie smile appeared on his face, stained with blood and shredded flesh.
“Thank you for the miracle’s guidance...” Xie Erlang muttered to himself, raising a hand to wipe the blood from his face, then grabbing the clothes from the wooden table, putting them on, roughly covering his body and face, and then quickly walking out of the house.
