Chapter 316: Honey

It was as if a thousand or ten thousand beasts were suppressing their own rage; that pair of eyes hidden beneath the thick black mist was crimson to the extreme.

Roar!

A low roar resounded.

The Village Chief opened his mouth, his already dark and aged face turning pale all at once, looking at Chen Yan and Xue Qi in terror; he wanted to say something.

The pitch-black hand with which Xue Qi gripped his shoulder suddenly tightened.

Crack!

In an instant, the Village Chief's shoulder shattered and caved in deeply.

Amidst the startled cries of the villagers, he was slammed onto the ground by Xue Qi.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...

Thick black mist spilled out from Xue Qi's body, spreading continuously and enveloping the entire Slaughter-Cutting Village.

People felt as if they had stepped into a quagmire, unable to move.

The massive monster walked, growling in a low voice, a pair of crimson eyes churning with endless sorrow.

He looked at the charred, severed limbs and broken bodies scattered all around, breathing heavily; sorrow, like a surging river, caused his body to tremble incessantly.

One by one, the examinees were freed, no longer controlled by the Village Chief.

They looked at Xue Qi in terror, one by one, not daring to move.

Only one female student walked out, her body trembling; as if she understood Xue Qi's intent, she gathered the charred, severed limbs scattered around and piled them into a corpse mound.

Roar!

A roar that shook the surroundings rang out; Xue Qi knelt before the corpse mound, gasping for breath.

The black mist shrouding him slowly dissipated, turning into a two-meter-tall, raggedly dressed, cyan-black-faced male figure.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...

The cold wind whistled past.

The villagers of Slaughter-Cutting Village watched this scene, not daring to speak.

The Village Chief looked at Chen Yan and Xue Qi with malice, lying on the ground with a look of intense despair appearing in his eyes.

It was also at this moment that the cyan-black-faced man slowly looked at the Village Chief; he opened his mouth, harboring boundless resentment:

"Why?"

"Why, Father!"

The Village Chief's eyes were sinister; after casting a cold, gloomy glance at Chen Yan, he grinned hideously and said:

"Your actions in practicing the Youlan were too grand; everyone who developed Qi and blood in their bodies went to learn the Youlan from you."

"To help you all, the entire village saw villager after villager killed by ancient beasts, and you all..."

The Village Chief roared in fury:

"And you all still couldn't defeat the Fei Yi!!!"

He shrieked hysterically, recounting the stories of the past.

Xue Qi had discovered the 【Youlan】, and all the villagers in the village capable of generating Qi and blood followed Xue Qi to learn the 【Youlan】.

But precisely because of this, the Fei Yi within the Dream Abyss grew angry and sent a large number of ancient beasts to slaughter the village.

Year after year, the village could no longer hold on.

What made the Village Chief even angrier was that those ancient divine beasts that ate the villagers who practiced 【Youlan】 became even stronger and even harder to match.

But Xue Qi refused to surrender, saying to give him a little more time; as long as he completely mastered the 【Youlan】, he could solve everything.

He hid inside the stone palace; all the Qi and blood martial artists except for him died, and the people in the village could not enter the stone palace.

With no other choice, the Village Chief took people to kidnap his wife and daughter, intending to burn Xue Qi's wife and daughter in front of the stone palace.

The people in the village also hated Xue Qi immensely, believing that what Xue Qi brought was not hope, but endless darkness.

Xue Qi surrendered; he committed suicide inside the stone palace, but before he died, he watched with his own eyes as the angry villagers burned his wife and daughter alive.

With his final willpower, Xue Qi turned himself into an array puppet, intending to wipe out these villagers who caused his death.

But the Village Chief acted even more ruthlessly, dismembering the corpses of Xue Qi's wife and daughter and soaking them in secret medicine to turn the bodies into poison capable of corroding Qi and blood.

Then, he hid them inside the walls and wooden doors of the wooden houses.

The Village Chief laughed miserably, roaring.

"I was not wrong; I, Zu Lianhen, only wanted the village to survive longer, and what you, Xue Qi, brought was..."

He laughed out loud, utterly deranged:

"It was disaster."

Before the corpse mound, the cyan-black-faced man was silent, yet cracks burst out from the corners of his eyes.

Rage was accumulating, erupting.

He reached out his hands to stroke the corpses of his wife and daughter.

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle...

His hands were corroded, and charred spots appeared one after another.

"Ah!!!"

Xue Qi screamed, his hands smoking; he opened his mouth wide, his body rolling continuously on the ground.

"Hahaha!!!"

The Village Chief laughed out loud like a madman, his expression extremely twisted.

"Hahahaha, my son, you..."

His eyes turned gloomy:

"You are truly too pathetic!"

He gritted his teeth, making a grinding sound, the fury in his eyes no less than that of Xue Qi.

The villagers stood one by one in silence and terror, watching the suffering Xue Qi and the crazed Village Chief.

The Great Xia examinees stood in silence one by one.

They were shocked by the scene before their eyes.

Chen Yan's gaze was somber.

To fear and despair is to deceive the heart; to ignore evil is to lose one's conscience.

Was this what Lu Xunyang wanted to tell him?

This world is filled with endless malice!

Malice from the Ancient Gods toward humans, from humans toward the Ancient Gods, and from humans toward humans!

Endless malice, present everywhere.

They can be defeated, but they will not dissipate until they condense once more into a new crystal somewhere.

He looked at his own hands.

He is the Master of Will, destined to eradicate all malice in the world.

But, can malice truly be ground away?

Ten thousand generations are all ink, only I am white!

Can Lu Xunyang do it?

Does he want to become the Great Sun that illuminates all, to become the light amidst the endless malice?

Can he?

Beside his ears.

Curses, roars, and savage laughter resounded.

Xue Qi became increasingly irritable and increasingly furious.

The entire Slaughter Village was like a boundless, churning sea of blood, about to whip up monstrous waves in the next moment.

Boom, boom, boom, boom!!!

The sound of Qi and blood exploding rang out; the suppressed wild beast was about to erupt in the next moment.

"Daddy..."

A girl's voice, like silver bells, rang out.

Xue Qi's face, which had been almost twisted together, suddenly relaxed.

A faint fluorescent glow emerged from within the pile of corpses, and the phantom of a little girl, about five or six years old, dressed simply and with a pretty face, appeared.

It was merely a faint wisp of a soul.

The remnant souls that had been cruelly severed by the Village Chief and imprisoned in individual wooden huts gathered together.

Xue Qi opened his mouth wide, endless sorrow brewing in his eyes.

"Daddy, I missed you so much."

The little girl cried, two lines of shimmering tear tracks sliding down as she gently hugged Xue Qi tight.

"Woo!"

Xue Qi mumbled, his body stiff.

"Woo!!!"

He let out a cry of endless sorrow, like a giant whale.

Following that, another light-shadow appeared from within the corpse pile; it was a woman of ordinary appearance, about thirty years old.

"Xue..."

She murmured, hugging Xue Qi tightly along with the girl.

"Woo!!!"

Xue Qi's body trembled, and a smile intertwined with pain and happiness appeared across his entire face.

Within his embrace, the souls of his wife and daughter were slowly turning translucent, slowly dissipating.

Having been sealed and tortured for so many years, the mental energy of Xue Qi's wife and daughter had long reached the end of its dissipation.

They were dissipating just as they had appeared.

But no one spoke.

They just watched the family of three embracing.

Even the Village Chief, who had been crazily roaring the whole time, now opened his mouth, saliva flowing out; he watched blankly, unable to say a word.

"Woo!!!"

The crying was mournful!

Xue Qi knelt on the ground, filled with endless regret.

"Am I right, or am I wrong!"

He spoke in a daze, filled with despair.

Was his existence good or bad for this world?

Why did Heaven have to treat him this way?

"Daddy, I love you."

The little girl said, her faintly dissipating phantom slowly kissing Xue Qi on the cheek.

"Woo!!!"

"Xue, like little Suyuan, I have never blamed you."

The woman said, a gentle smile appearing on her face.

It was as if all the hardships had never caused her to harbor any resentment.

Dots of fluorescent light emerged upon the two souls, gradually dissipating into the dark night.

The Village Chief watched, his pair of cloudy eyes widening, his expression twisting, unable to speak.

Yet, at the very last moment when the little girl's phantom dissipated, a pair of lively eyes looked toward the Village Chief:

"Grandpa."

The Village Chief's body trembled; he watched in disbelief, turning rigid.

He could endure all insults and hatred.

He was incomparably strong and had never felt he was wrong.

But this cry of "Grandpa" completely shattered all his defenses.

He opened his mouth wide, tears and saliva flowing out, his entire being sinking into endless madness:

"Heavens, why on earth must the heavens treat us this way!!!"

He stretched out his hands, wanting to tear through the purple-black sky, exerting force continuously.

Surges of mental power erupted, rushing through every part of his body, causing cracks to appear on his physical form.

"Pfft!"

He spat out blood, bloodshot veins burst in his eyes, and blood spilled from his entire body.

The next moment.

Boom!

Self-detonation!

The shockwave of the self-detonation rolled outward.

The villagers screamed one after another, in utter despair.

The great existence who had led them to survive until now was dead.

No matter how sinister the Village Chief was, to the people of the village, he was an incomparably towering existence.

But, the Village Chief was dead.

Xue Qi was still alive.

They were in utter despair.

Xue Qi stood up; at this moment, he did not look at the villagers, but instead looked at Chen Yan and spoke slowly:

"Fellow traveler."

His voice drifted into the wind; at this moment, only Chen Yan heard it.

There was still pain on his face, but he looked at Chen Yan:

"You helped me; you completed the transaction between us."

"Youlan is the reward for you."

He slowly stretched out his hands:

"But Youlan does not exist."

Chen Yan frowned, but Xue Qi continued:

"I once went to the Dream Abyss to spy on the Fei Yi and learned Youlan; Youlan is within me."

"I will only perform three moves hereafter, executing Youlan three times to evolve all the mysteries of Youlan; whether you can learn it depends on yourself."

Chen Yan's eyes flickered slightly; so that was how it was.

The Slaughter Forest never had the 【Youlan】 technique; what existed was only Xue Qi, who had learned 【Youlan】.

Poor Yu Changsheng.

Chen Yan whispered in his heart.

"Actually, Youlan is not important," Xue Qi continued to speak:

"What is important is... is..."

He fell into deep thought, pondered for a long time, yet remained utterly bewildered:

"It is honey."