Chapter 150 - Courting Death (Part III) (Patreon)

How many people were living in the Broken Maze?

To answer that, one needed to know how many beggars, the unemployed, criminals, and murderers had no place to live or thrive.

There were tens of thousands.

And how many of those remained in this forsaken place after the current mess started?

Despite Lucian's rampant killings and the yellow mist that followed, thousands upon thousands of people were still hiding within the Broken Maze, huddled underground in hideouts or fortunate enough to be far from the clashes, praying to the heavens that they could survive.

Their fortune only lasted as long as Wang Chen remained in the district.

Afterwards, when Lucian activated the Rune of Pride, they all died.

There were no Qi Condensation cultivators, no one with Dantians capable of solidifying Qi and generating the force necessary to keep their blood inside their bodies. Which meant that, from the moment Lucian activated the Rune of Pride until he killed Zha Nu, everyone else was already dead.

Tie Qiu and the Shuang brothers weren’t aware of it. Maybe if they knew, they would try to investigate their surroundings more.

A river of blood formed above their heads, concealed by the Earth Wind Meridian Mist. This yellow mist diminished their Qi perception and distorted their vision.

Because of their lack of information, the trio was caught by surprise when torrents of blood fell from the sky under Lucian's control. During its downfall, the blood mixed with the yellow dust, falling like a crimson sand waterfall onto the Shuang brothers and burying them in bloody mud.

Tie Qiu, however, fared far better, as all the blood near him rushed toward the iron ball. Then, with a single motion, he infused the ball with Qi and threw it toward the Shuang brothers, attempting to alleviate their pressure.

The chest-sized projectile cut through the air, blood, and mist, forming a spiral as it pulled everything toward itself.

Lucian, of course, didn't wait for them before acting.

After commanding the blood to fall, he absorbed a huge amount of it through the Rune of Greed, a crimson eye darting around the battlefield. Then, he straightened his body and activated the Rune of Lust, slowly infusing the surroundings with his intent.

His next target had already been chosen.

Rushing toward Tie Qiu, who had just thrown the iron ball, Lucian prepared another punch.

And he almost hit, but Tie Qiu dissolved into specks of yellow light, an iron ball taking his place and slamming into Lucian, who could only cross his arms in response.

Alongside the two brothers, a panting Tie Qiu appeared, smiling as he closed his eyes to control the iron ball, enhancing its strength. He had long been prepared to switch places with this powerful artifact!

Because of the sudden force of the last attack, Lucian's arms were broken, his body flying with the iron ball and crashing through the few remaining houses.

Blood of thousands of people spread across the ground, seeping into the ruins and painting the Broken Maze red, as Lucian stabilized his stance and dug his feet into the earth to decelerate.

Unable to feel his arms, he clicked his tongue and attempted to heal them with Qi and Blood Essence. Unfortunately, that would take time, and with the iron ball turning back toward him after getting more impulse, he had very little of it.

"Disperse!" he screamed, blood surging upward from the ground, lifting him with it while platforms of muddy blood formed beneath his feet, creating a pathway to his enemies.

On Lucian's forehead, two crimson thorns remained in the crown, and his arms hung uselessly at his sides.

Nonetheless, the rest of his body remained fully functional.

Quickly moving across the improvised platforms while blood flew at high speed toward the crimson drop in the sky, Lucian reached his enemies in seconds.

The iron ball trailed behind him, growing larger as it compacted blood, yellow dust, and debris again. It appeared that, when it switched places with Tie Qiu, it couldn't teleport anything but itself.

When Lucian arrived above the trio, he jumped in their direction. Then, the surroundings deepened into a darker crimson than the rest of the domain, infused with his intent.

Next, he heard the Shuang brothers roar, a shockwave striking his body and making his ears ring.

At the same time, Tie Qiu disappeared, and the iron ball surged upward from below, cleansed of blood and yellow mist. It was aimed at Lucian's falling form.

Do you think this will work twice?! Lucian thought, strengthening his intent and shouting, "Converge!"

Another thorn dissipated from his crown as blood rained down. This time, however, all of it seemed to have a clear target, and the torrent rushed to the iron ball.

After the blood struck him and drove him downward at a faster speed, under his command, Lucian said, his eyes and nose bleeding from the use of the Rune of Lust, "Stop!"

The crimson intent seemed to freeze the surrounding space.

The Shuang brothers and Tie Qiu felt their blood circulation stop for a brief moment before their Qi corrected the flow. They didn't know what was happening, but they weren't much affected by Lucian's actions.

Unfortunately for them, his goal wasn't to stop them for long.

The iron ball, now in a cocoon of blood, froze in place for a moment, long enough for Lucian to dodge its trajectory and fall directly above Shuang Bao.

Shuang Bao was the brother who was weakened by Lucian, forced to use a forbidden technique, and then briefly buried in muddy blood. At this moment, he was struggling to maintain a strong posture and hide his weakness.

But Lucian would not fall for such an act.

Lunging downward, he headbutted Shuang Bao, wrapped his legs around him, and plunged his fangs into the man's neck.

Shuang Tai, who stood beside his brother, roared and attempted to strike Lucian with the technique. However, too much blood was falling from the sky, slowing both him and the roaring Qi wave. The yellow dust was also detrimental, reducing the roaring technique's effect!

To make matters worse, the roar caused more crimson liquid and yellow dust to surge toward Lucian and Shuang Bao, pushing them away. Shuang Tai hurried up, but still took three seconds to reach his brother's location. There, all that he found was a mummified corpse kneeling on the ground, staring at him.

Too shocked by the sudden loss of his brother, Shuang Tai took a moment to notice that Lucian was gone. As soon as he came back to his senses, he searched for the nearby Qi deviation.

Lucian, for his part, was farther away. He was tracking Tie Qiu and the iron ball, both moving in roughly different directions, but towards the same goal.

The exit!

A few moments ago, as soon as Tie Qiu noticed Shuang Bao being attacked, he felt that his companion was done for. He quickly chose to abandon Shuang Tai and flee alone, hoping the latter would hold Lucian back.

No matter how much he wanted to kill Lucian, he recognized that the Falling Stars Palace had wrongly gauged the enemy's true strength, and that the Earth Wind Meridian Dust might as well be called Fart Wind for all it had done in this fight!

More importantly, Tie Qiu was arrogant, but not stupid. He was tracking the time, and in a few breaths, Shaung Tai would begin suffering the Earth Wind's effects, and Lucian would have only one target!

Inside this crimson domain, where blood surged up and down like an ever-changing waterfall, Tie Qiu was aware he was no match for Lucian. So, having decided to escape, he commanded the iron ball to fly along one path while he rushed down another, ready to switch places and flee from this crimson underworld.

If he couldn't recover the artifact, so be it. Losing it was better than losing his life!

"You are too stupid."

Lucian's devilish voice sounded inside Tie Qiu’s mind out of the blue. Caught off guard, Tie Qiu felt fear gripping his soul as he struggled to comprehend how Lucian could project meaning directly into his thoughts just as his Master could!

Acting on instinct, Tie Qiu switched places with the iron ball, which was already a distance away from him.

Then, he found himself surrounded by blood, yellow mist, and debris.

"Uh?"

Next, he felt a Qi deviation flow in front of him at the same moment he saw an open mouth with enlarged fangs emerge from the blood. Within less than a second, Lucian bit his neck

With wide eyes, Tie Qiu resisted the weakening sensation and commanded his Qi to force Lucian away. It was an unfortunate fact that he could not use the artifact while Lucian was draining both his blood and Qi, so Tie Qiu had to create some distance.

And as Tie Qiu used a Qi wave and Lucian’s body was flung to the blood wall, another command echoed through the Broken Maze.

"Disperse!"

The surrounding blood surged upward, crashing against their bodies as the crimson domain dissipated. The last thorn on Lucian's forehead faded away alongside the crown of the Rune of Pride.

Then, with the battlefield already saturated by his intent, Lucian sprung his final move.

Before the sphere of blood could dissipate, he commanded the hidden Rune of Greed floating across the battlefield to accelerate the draining process, while the Rune of Lust transformed Blood Essence into intent and projected it into the outside world.

More specifically, into the blood surrounding them.

Combining the Runes of Greed and Lust with the lingering effects of the Rune of Pride, Lucian enveloped both himself and Tie Qiu within a sphere of blood, yellow mist, and debris, slamming everything into a ball.

Whenever Tie Qiu attempted to use a technique or push Lucian away, blood crashed into them and pressed their bodies together, allowing Lucian to bite him again and again.

It took a few seconds for the cocoon of blood and debris to collapse into a foul pool, Lucian’s intent dissipating and revealing two figures still breathing.

Stepping onto the flowing mixture of blood and mud, which was no longer under his control, Lucian kicked the dried body of Tie Qiu, who was barely alive. After glancing at the corpse-like cultivator on the ground, Lucian stepped on Tie Qiu's legs and arms, breaking them.

Afterwards, he tracked the remaining assassin. It didn't take long for him to find Shuang Tai. But as soon as he saw the cultivator, Lucian frowned.

What's this? he thought, observing the man weakly crawling among blood and mud.

When Lucian got close enough, he could perceive through his Qi perception that Shuang Tai was suffering from a severe case of Qi deviation. It was nowhere near Lucian's own condition, but it was something that had not been present before.

Meanwhile, Shuang Tai seemed unable to recognize Lucian’s presence. His Qi perception had been severely weakened, and he was almost blind in the yellow dust. Besides, all of his attention was on keeping his meridians, chakra points, and Dantian stable.

Struggling to survive, Shuang Tai felt his mask being removed and his head lifted by the hair. Next, through the yellow dust drifting in the air, mixed with specks of blood, Shuang Tai saw a pair of crimson eyes staring at him with pure apathy, making his heart freeze.

In Lucian's gaze, he found neither joy from victory nor anger at having been attacked in the first place.

Only indifference.

Infusing his words with the manipulative power of the Rune of Lust, he said in his devilish tone, "Tell me everything."