Free Web NovelChapter 29: Chapter 29—Toying
Chapter 29—Toying
Thud! Thud!
Lei Cheng ran through the streets at his absolute limit.
He cut through the market section of Azure Cloud inner City without slowing, turned into the wealthy residential section, and kept pushing. His body blazed with green energy—Life Intent, steady and unwavering, wrapping him like a second skin. His expression was utterly calm. Not a drop of sweat on his face. Not a single ragged breath. His lungs moved in slow, even rhythm as though he were out for a leisurely walk.
’I can maintain my maximum strength for hours with this Life Intent—perhaps days.’
Even Lei Cheng felt a little impressed.
Beside him, Hua Mingyue walked. Not running—walking, at what appeared to be an entirely ordinary pace, hands loosely at her sides, yet somehow matching his full sprint without the faintest effort. Lei Cheng glanced at her sideways, mildly baffled. "What is the situation now?"
Hua Mingyue opened her third eye for a single moment—then closed it. She shook her head. "Xiao Ming has gone berserk. She has ordered everyone killed."
’What?’
Lei Cheng tried to force more speed out of himself and found nothing left to give. He was already at his ceiling. He turned to Hua Mingyue, voice tight. "Why don’t you go ahead and stall her—just for a moment, until I arrive? I’m not asking you to kill anyone. Just stall."
His father’s face kept flashing before him. ’Just be safe. Father, please just be all right.’
Hua Mingyue shook her head. "This goddess cannot help you in that way."
"Why?" His voice rose sharply. She had been at his side all morning—guiding him, warning him, protecting him in her own way. He had come to depend on her presence without quite realizing it. He looked at her with something close to pleading.
Hua Mingyue exhaled quietly. "For reasons this goddess cannot explain right now, I cannot unleash my full strength. But knowledge, information, within my limits—that I can still offer you."
Lei Cheng clicked his tongue, his mind already moving. ’Enemies tracking her signature? Weakened by her Bizarre cultivation? Or injured?’ He had read enough to estimate, but he didn’t know which it was, and he didn’t have time to find out.
"Fine," he said. "Just keep informing me of the situation as we go."
Hua Mingyue nodded softly. "The bird cultivator has fled." She paused, adding with a hint of disdain, "This goddess is disgusted by him. He chose survival above everything else."
"Everyone cares for their own life," Lei Cheng replied simply.
"True," Hua Mingyue conceded. "But he could have saved the vine cultivator. Or at least a few of the mortals on the ground."
"He likely judged that they would slow him down." Lei Cheng said it indifferently. He felt nothing wrong with the bird cultivator’s choice—when life was threatened, everyone focused on themselves first.
The moments burned past as he ran. Then—finally—the gate of the Xiao household came into view.
He entered the courtyard at full speed and stopped dead. Bodies lay all around. "Xiao Ming—!" His voice tore out of him—raw, instinctive—the moment his eyes found her standing in her fox form among the carnage.
Xiao Ming’s cold smile widened. "How dare you, human," she said softly, "fool me—and break the faith I bestowed upon you?"
Lin Mei’s claw was raised at his father’s throat.
’Wait. Damn it. Damn it.’
He hissed under his breath. ’Looks like I’ll have to burn a little more lifespan.’
He murmured—barely moving his lips. "Illusion Intent."
He sensed his lifespan falling.
Lin Mei’s claw drove forward. Lei Feng’s head dropped sideways at a grotesque angle, his neck hanging by a thread. Blood poured from the wound in sheets, splashing and streaming across the ground.
Lei Cheng exhaled and moved without hesitation. He dashed forward, crouched beside his real father’s body—who lay in the open—and slipped his arms around him. He pulled him aside quietly, carrying him out of the center while every fox in the courtyard watched, grinning.
In the foxes’ eyes, Lei Cheng stood motionless in the middle of the courtyard, staring at his father’s broken body, hollowed out with shock and grief—exactly as they had planned.
Xiao Ming’s laugh rang out bright and cruel. "Lei Cheng, you dandy—how dare you reject the grand faith I bestowed upon you?"
Beside her, the Ninth Elder did not even bother looking up. He was still eating—the vine cultivator’s remains now, having long since finished with the lion-claw cultivator. Not even bones had been left of that one.
Lin Mei grinned and spat toward the illusion of Lei Feng’s bleeding body. "Young Master—oh, Young Master Lei Cheng. How dare you fool me, and Young Miss Hua? Your father is dead now because of your own actions."
On the side, the real Lei Cheng pressed two fingers gently to his father’s neck. He felt it—the heartbeat, faint but present and steady. He let out a slow, quiet breath.
"Alive."
The tension in his chest finally loosened. ƒreewebɳovel.com
In the foxes’ vision, the illusion of Lei Cheng stood perfectly still in the center—pale, stricken, undone by what he had just witnessed. Exactly as a grief-shattered young man should look.
"Now—die."
Lin Mei flashed forward, crossing the gap in an instant, and drove her Fox Claw straight through the illusion’s throat—ripping clean through, beheading it entirely. The head flung upward into the air, blood trailing behind it in an arc. The body pitched forward and landed face-down. The severed head bounced and rolled several meters away. freёwebnoѵel.com
Every fox in the courtyard erupted into laughter. "Hahahah!"
The real Lei Cheng rose quietly at the side. He cracked his neck once. "You’re injured," he said, watching Lin Mei. "And still this cocky."
Lin Mei was still bleeding across most of her body—the vine cultivator’s earlier strikes still marking her, though the flow had slowed to a minimum.
The illusion Lei Cheng, which she had just beheaded now, dissolved—revealing, in its place, a middle-aged male fox whose neck had been ripped apart. Lei Cheng watched it happen, the faint curve of a smile on his lips.
’One down.’
Then Lin Mei turned—and something shifted in her face. Her expression rewound, resetting itself precisely to the moment Lei Cheng had first walked through the gate. She raised her claw and tore through the fake Lei Feng’s neck, who was a young female fox in reality.
Thud!
The fox’s head was ripped out and fell to the side, blood gushing out like rain. All the foxes around her kept smiling as before—as if nothing had happened, not even sensing their fellow member’s death.
Xiao Ming and the Ninth Elder, however, paused.
Lin Mei repeated the same movements again and crushed another fox’s neck.
Swish! Swish!
In the span of a single breath, she had moved through the crowd of fox cultivators and killed half of them before the Ninth Elder’s mind could catch up to what was happening.
"Illusion," the Ninth Elder scowled, his voice rising.
Xiao Ming’s lips parted slightly. "This dandy can use illusions? How? Can’t only Bizarre Creatures wield this kind of power?"
"Is he a Bizarre Cultivator?" the Ninth Elder frowned.
"No, Elder." Xiao Ming shook her head, eyes narrowing, fixed on a figure that appeared to be Lei Cheng. "He carries no Bizarre Qi."
"No Bizarre Qi—then—" The Ninth Elder’s voice hardened. "Wait? He’s radiating Bizarre energy as though it could erupt from his body at any moment."
The two exchanged a sharp look. "His illusion is too powerful."
Lin Mei, oblivious to their exchange, continued her loop—she flashed in front of another fox and crushed the neck clean.
Then the Ninth Elder vanished from Xiao Ming’s sight.
Xiao Ming blinked. She tilted her head. ’Wait—what was I doing?’ The thread of memory had snapped. She stood still, disoriented. ’I ordered Lin Mei to kill everyone. Then I came here. Then—’ She rubbed the side of her head. ’What happened between those moments?’ She looked down at her hands, golden fox claws extended. ’I changed to my original form.’ She stared at her own claws in quiet disbelief.
Then a face appeared in her vision.
Lei Cheng—standing directly in front of her, expression light and unbothered. "Did you like my present?" he said pleasantly, lips curved upward. "I broke the mark."
Xiao Ming snarled and launched herself at him—blazing with golden energy, fully committed, absolutely certain.
In reality, she lunged at the Ninth Elder.
And in the Elder’s own vision—it was Xiao Ming, wrathful and blazing, screaming as she closed in. "Celestial Fox Enhancement! Celestial Fox Claw!"
He raised his claw and blocked.
Both claws connected—and Xiao Ming’s entire right foreleg went numb on impact. She jumped back, staring at her shaking arm with wide eyes. "How—how could he be so strong?"
The Ninth Elder straightened and scanned the courtyard in every direction, scrutinizing. "How could a human wield power like this? Even Nie Hua was affected. And where is he—where is he actually standing?"
No one could find the answer.
And by that point, Lin Mei had already finished her work. Every fox in the courtyard was dead—every one except the Ninth Elder and Xiao Ming.
Silence finally returned to the blood-soaked courtyard.
Lei Cheng, meanwhile, had crossed to where Mo Yong and Mo Ming lay. He stood over Mo Yong, raised his foot—his leg glowing with cold black light. "Death Intent." He activated it and prepared to stomp down.
"No—stop! Don’t kill him!"
Hua Mingyue’s voice cut through everything.
Lei Cheng froze.
