Chapter 48: Survivors

  Blood Baleful Qi swirled. As the malevolent aura of the dead tio rise, the Death Bde in An Jing’s hand became much more densed.

  Even though this strengthening was only temporary, it truly was a Divine Ability that grew ever more exquisite the more one sughtered. The surging Baleful Qi allowed An Jing to delve deeper into uanding the essence of his Divine Ability.

  “Good!”

  Upon seeing this, the Sword Spirit’s tone rose. It praised, “Such a and effit demon-syihod—indeed worthy of being the ‘Swordbearer’ I have waited so many years to find.”

  “An Jing, your martial talent has exceeded my imagination.”

  “Thank you for the pliment,” An Jing said, taking a deep breath. However, the blood light in his eyes grew even fiercer. He spoke calmly, “But now is not the time to celebrate. After a while, when Instructor Han and the others don’t return, more people will definitely be sent here.”

  “We have to pick up the pace.”

  With that said, An Jing took a step forward and headed for the dungeon.

  On the way, however, he caught sight of the dark-gold vessel that had fallen to one side.

  The Life-Nurturing Vessel y quietly on its side, and more thay pellets of Great Blood Pills had rolled all over the ground.

  An Jing paused. He recalled the medie paste ier vat, remembering those faces. The blood light in his eyes fred, and he raised his bde, striding toward the Life-Nurturing Vessel.

  Boom!

  He swung the Death Bde, pierg through the dark-gold treasured vessel. Expressionless, An Ji a strange sensation, like pierg aremely resilient piece of flesh.

  The punctured vessel gave off a weeping wail, its luster fading away. It transformed into an utterly unremarkable bck iron tainer.

  Meanwhile, a streak of dark-gold glow fshed within An Jing’s Death Bde. Blood light surged up and snuffed out that golden glow, causing the bde’s radiao dim siderably—yet it became purer, with a faint touch of profound darkness in it.

  Within An Jing’s mind, a vague sense of how to manipute this deep, shadowy Baleful Qi took shape. He did not know the principle, relying purely on instinct—so it was merely a feeling.

  “You trol Soulbane Qi* too?”

  The Sword Spirit’s voice sounded somewhat amazed. “Blood Baleful Qi es from sughter, so it isn’t strahat your ‘Red Star’ Heaven-Ordained Fate could wield it. Soulbane Qi, however, is but one form of Spiritbane Qi, which falls uhe jurisdi of the ‘Two Stars That Guard the Year’—the so-called Zhen Sui (镇岁) Two Stars... So your fate isn't merely an ordinary Red Star?”

  Like the Medie Manor Lord, the Sword Spirit came to the same clusion. Still, it did not seem to mind. “As expected of my Swordbearer—awakened fates are never ordinary.”

  “I don’t really uand all that,” An Jing said with a slight shake of his head. “They seemed pretty worked up about it, though.” Then he tinued forward toward the dungeon.

  With his current strength, he no longer needed a key to open doors.

  A fsh of refined, blood-tinged bde light cut through the iron lock.

  An Jing pushed the gate open, stepping out of the light and into hell.

  It itch-bd gloomy. The air was thick with the stench of death and rot. The uneven green-stone floor was covered in crusted patches of blood, the bed stains running across it in all dires.

  Groans and sobs echoed. The children in the dungeon had long since lost the strength to cry out. The Demonic Sect used Heartless Water to weaken their limbs, leaving them so paralyzed that even suicide was beyond their ability.

  ch!

  An Jing severed the lo the outermost cell with a single sword strike. Inside was a skinny young girl. She looked up bnkly at him, her eyes filled with terror and a trace of near-madness. “You… you are…”

  “I am An Jing. Your Senior Brother.”

  That was how he introduced himself, though he felt a pang of shame using a title the Demonic Sect had bestowed upon him. To him, it was a bitter iroruly had dohing, saved few people.

  But now, for them tnize him as quickly as possible, he still used that o sole her. “I’ve e to save you. Hurry outside. This dungeon is unsafe.”

  “S-Senior Brother… Senior Brother… Wah—!”

  After a moment’s hesitation, she reized him and g to An Jing’s arm, bursting into loud, grief-stri sobs.

  An Jing could not tell how maions were tained in that wailing. He could only imagihe endless nights trapped in this dungeon, watg friends and panions taken away one by one, o return—isoted terror, moments of resistance, blood, rolling heads…

  “I will take you all away.”

  He gave a quiet promise, holding his sword in one hand while using the other to support her. She was so light she was almost nothing but bones. Gently, he brought her out of the dungeon.

  came the person. And then the . Until at st, there were no more.

  Only eleven young survivors remained alive in the dungeon. There should have been four more—but they had died. Today was the day of the ritual, and because the Red Armuards had unched a sudden attao one came to deliver food or medie, so they died before An Jing arrived.

  Two hundred forty-eight children had been brought deep into the mountains.

  Among them, one hundred-eight had been chosen to participate iual. Sixty-six survived.

  One hundred forty were rejected. Who knew how many of them had ended up in the dungeon, being the “flesh medie” used as s freat Blood Pills. In the end, only eleven of these remained.

  Thus, there were seventy-seven survivors in total. Fourteen of them had chosen to leave with Bai Qinghan and join the Demonic Sect, leaving sixty-two behind.

  If not for the Heartless Water suppressing the children’s minds and bodies, even those who had ehe Northern Frontier’s Frost Camity would likely have long since colpsed during these months in the dungeon.

  Now, still uhe lingering effects of the drug, most of these children remained retively “obedient,” following An Jing’s instrus to exit the dungeon.

  Probably because the Demonic Sect still hem for medial use, the children—though skinny—were actually slightly better off than they had been while fleeing the north. They simply cked any body fat.

  Ohey were out, they regained a little strength, though their eyes couldn’t hahe light and ime to adjust.

  “I know a small path that leads out of the manor… Wait?”

  An Jing had inteo take the survivors out of Hanging Fate Manor as quickly as possible, but soon, he furrowed his brow.

  He heard footsteps—urgent, though it was unclear whether they were fleeing or rushing in. “Someone’s ing…”

  An Jing leaped upward, using a support beam for leverage to reach the top of the wall. He saw a small Demonic Sect squad moving swiftly in the dire of the dungeon.

  “They’ve got five riders guarding them… and Red Armuards chasing from behind?”

  Narrowing his eyes, An Jihe Internal Energy still surging in his body, as well as the sharper presence of his Death Bde. “Seems there’s no way to avoid this.”

  “You all, stay right here and protect yourselves.”

  He said this briefly to the survivors behind him. Then An Jing lifted his foot and moved.

  Dust billowed. In the blink of an eye, his figure vanished.

  “An Jing?”

  The small Demonic Sect squad retreating toward the Eastern Mountain Farmnds sehe rush of wind. A leading rider spotted An Jing and reized him, momentarily stunned. “Aren’t you supposed to be iual—?”

  Halfway through speaking, his face ged drastically. Because he saw the calm, near-indifferent look in An Jing’s eyes—and the Death Bde in An Jing’s hand.

  He also realized what An Jing’s presence here, with that expression, truly implied. “Wait, let me expin. About those medic—”

  Before he could finish, his hand darted toward the hand crossbow at his waist, while exging gnces with the others, signaling them to act.

  Yet he failed to noti Jing’s eyes shift from calm to disappointed.

  He also failed to notice the other four staring at him in utter horror.

  What… happened?

  Before he could raise his crossbow, his body was already lurg to the side. Half of his torso fell to the ground, blood spurting everywhere as the light in his eyes faded pletely.

  “I didn’t want to fight at all… Why couldn’t you run away the moment you saw me?”

  The Death Bde gleamed. An Jing had struck first, killing in one blow. He strode forward, stepping on the rider’s corpse and crushing his spih his foot.

  “Are you going to attack, too?”

  He spoke softly, sword in hand, tinuing to advan the Demonic Sect group, whose faces had drastically ged as they instinctively backed away.

  (End of Chapter)

  *The terms I transted as Soulbane Qi (魂煞) and Spiritbane Qi (灵煞) don't have "Qi" (气) in them, but I found it hard to properly vey the meaning and have the terms flow smoothly when used in versation which is why I decided to add it.