Chapter 641 - Storm of the Abyss (XIV) (Patreon)

The kids were a battering ram--if battering ram was made out of pure anger and unfiltered burst. As we made our way through the winding corridors of the auction house, and as I began to realize if they ever rebuild it, they'll go with a completely different design as this is just fucking stupid, kids just... blazed through everything.

With Lan'er at the front, she was a metaphorical and a literal tank--in the span of the past ten minutes, she'd been cut, pierced, set on fire, frozen, had been electrocuted, and even choked out by a strange art that seemed to have cut the oxygen around her, but none of it, not one of them, even slowed her down, much less stopped her.

The more I look at her, the more terrified I become, to be honest. Then again, most of my kids scare me in their own ways.

Zhao'er with his boyish gnawing at the unknowable, holding within his fingers a stroke of a sword so powerful it could end practically everything.

Xiu'er with her playful duality; on one side a child, on another a berserk monster capable of ripping people apart with her bare hands.

Lao Shun, too, scared me in his own way--that heart demon of his wasn't going away. He's been with us for years, and I've never seen that man cultivate; whatever demons are tearing him apart within, he seems incapable of ridding them.

However, even among the terrors, Lan'er is slowly climbing the ranks. I don't think she'll ever top them--the first few spots are decidedly reserved for Long Tao, Light, and Eternity, I suppose--but her unbridled, wanton thirst of death and destruction... it's scary.

As we made our way through the hallways, we plastered their walls with blood--dry, cracked stone was washed with scarlet, turning oily and darkened. Even the tall ceilings weren't spared as, despite standing good ten to fifteen feet off the floor, some of the blood sprayed so far upwards that it reached them. And it would then fall down, drop by drop, like the most morbid rain.

Bodies stacked and lined the edges, though there was one strange bit: after leaving the hall with the twin dragons or whatever they were called, we haven't come across anyone else. Or, at least, anyone who was alive.

There were more bodies already there than the number we were creating, and even reaching another hall didn't change that.

This one was about half as large as the latter, with only four tall pillars holding up the flat, rectangular ceiling. The descent from the entryway was some ten steps deep, blending into a flat canvas on top of which some sixty bodies were laid, none of whom were cloaked. A bad feeling washed over me as I couldn't make out any other figures besides one who was sitting leisurely at the center of the entire hall.

Unlike others, he wasn't cloaked or masked; it was a man who looked to be in his forties, with a short, unkempt hair. He was wearing loose, cyan robes and was currently chugging a flagon of something, stopping only when we descended the stairs, his bizarrely white eyes looking at us. They stirred and twisted, a singular black dot in each like black ink washing around the white background.

The staring contest didn't last for long, perhaps a second or two, before he tossed the flagon aside and slowly stood up, stretching and yawning.

"You have a choice," he said. "Make a camp over there in the corner and stay silent until this all blows over, and we can all go our merry way. Or, you can attack me. And die. It's a stupid death, so I recommend the first option. Don't be fools like all these morons."

I frowned, immediately using my Dao Sight and regretting it a bit.

[--Dao Sight used][Target: Pan Tu][Age: 28,399][...][Host is not strong enough to view the rest][Spend 4,000 CP to partially view target's status window?]

It costs four times as much as the last guy, and though the kids did beat the other one relatively handily, it's not like the cost is proportional to the strength. Just because he costs four times as much doesn't mean he's only four times stronger.

"He's definitely a stub, too," Shufen said. "But..."

"I'll go," Long Tao, ah, sweet Long Tao. "Rayce, back me up."

... eh?

"Of course, Senior Brother!" I'm always relieved and worried when Long Tao steps forward.

For one, the only time he ever steps forward is when there's literally no other choice. And now he's even asking Rayce to back him up, which likely means he's not confident in doing it without some extra juice from a Shaman.

"Hm? Are you really sending a child to test the waters?" the man said and sighed as Long Tao slowly walked towards him. "The world has truly gone mad, hasn't it?"

"Aren't you part of the lot that heralds the madness you lament?" Long Tao asked, extending his arm out as a sword appeared in his hand.

"I'm part of nothing and no one," the man said. "Merely a hired hand, I'm afraid. I'll give you one last chance: I don't like killing children. I've learned that it stains a soul. So, while I'm still being nice, go back, whack those old farts over their heads for sending you out, and wait for it all to end."

"I'd love to avoid fighting you," Long Tao said as he stopped some forty yards from the man. "It'll be very annoying. Alas, you were hired by someone who angered my Master. And angered me twice as much. So, they must pay. Nothing against you; you were simply in the way."

The man's eyebrows twitched as his lips stretched out into a grin.

"Funny. You're a funny little boy. Alright. Fighting me will be annoying, you say? Very well. Let me annoy you, then."

The man's fingers flared with flames as the entire hall suddenly got hot--it was as if we walked out from artic air into a freakin' sauna. It was so searing that the air bent and distorted under the heat, my skin tingling with a burning sensation.

Rayce split a few parchments apart at the same time, flurry of lights shooting out in parabolic arcs and converging at Long Tao. For a split second before they became blurs of light, I heard him sigh.

He was the first to move, shooting forward like a bolt of lightning and spinning out with an extended sword. A ripple of energy burst outwardly from the movement alone, yet it was still not fast enough. The man spat backwards, kicking out with his feet as roaring, amber flames surged from their soles, turning into a vanishing flood dragon that burst toward Long Tao. The latter converted the momentum of a spin into an upward dash, kicking off with his feet at the same time, cutting through the dragon and immediately bounding toward the man, swinging downward right away.

Sword Qi blasted every which way as the man landed, flurry of flames outpouring from underneath his feet and from his fingers, forming an uneven sphere of fire that blew outward, destroying the arrays of Sword Qi. Long Tao's sword met the barrier at the same time, cutting through it after a moment; by then, though, the man had burned backwards, trail of emerging flames the only thing left in his wake.

They suddenly paused as Long Tao landed, forty feet of distance between them yet again.

"... you're no ordinary boy, are you?" the man asked, cracking a smile.

"..." Long Tao didn't offer a rebuke, which was unlike him.

"No quip? Let's see the depths of this unordinary boy, then, shall we?"

Hm.

Hmmmm.

Hmmmmmmmm.

... don't I have a literal Phoenix with me who had chewed and swallowed literal Dao of Fire?