Chapter 32: Chapter Thirty‑One Loyal Servant……

Qiao and Ding shouted in alarm, screamed, and jumped up.

The purplish-black thick smoke clung to their skin, constantly invading their bodies through the pores; moreover, as they gulped down large amounts of the smoke while sucking Hong Laolao's life essence, the smoke entered their bodies through their mouths.

Their skin quickly turned purplish-black, large areas ulcerated and peeled, blood seeped from the flesh; newly emerged blood droplets were bright red but turned black pus-blood upon hitting the ground.

Having learned the Seizing Essence Secret Technique from Shi Lingqing and cultivated the Changsheng Sect's evil art, Qiao and Ding screamed shrilly as their immense life energy surged and boiled within, continually counteracting the poison's corrosion.

Watching their skin ulcerate, fresh flesh continually grew beneath the peeling necrotic patches, but the newly grown flesh repeatedly rotted and fell off.

Qiao and Ding screamed in rage and embarrassment; Qiao, whose half‑grown thigh had just emerged, found movement difficult, sat where he was, gritted his teeth, pulled out several small flying knives, and glared viciously at Shi Dian.

Ding strode forward, waving both hands; dozens of triangular spikes shot out, breaking the air and tracing mysterious arcs toward Shi Dian.

Shi Dian chuckled 'heh heh', slammed his wooden staff hard into the ground with his right hand, and dozens of fine, hair‑thin silver arcs of electricity shot from the staff tip, striking the triangular spikes precisely.

The electricity's power was immense; the triangular spikes, forged of hardened steel and further tempered by secret methods, were blown apart directly by the current. Amid the piercing explosion, specks of iron sprayed; Ding, who had just charged forward, let out a strange cry, his whole body flickering with tiny electric sparks as he convulsed and collapsed to the ground.

When the electricity shattered those triangular spikes in midair, a thumb‑thick current silently flowed along the ground like a poisonous snake, striking Ding's sole. The electric sparks crackled 'crack crack'; Ding desperately tried to struggle and jump up, but he could not control his body at all.

Qiao, whose body was still wrapped in the purplish‑black smoke, muttered a curse under his breath.

Just as Ding charged out, he could have grabbed Qiao and escaped the poisonous smoke together, but Ding did not do that; he simply rushed out of the smoke‑filled area on his own, without helping Qiao.

The deadly poison kept pouring into his body; the life essence he had just snatched from Hong Laolao was rapidly depleted, and Qiao's side flowed with large pools of filthy blood, while fresh filthy blood continually welled up from within him, a sickening sight.

Shi Dian staggered step by step toward Ding, who lay motionless on the ground.

Qiao tore at his throat and screamed: 'Lingqing… save me… Shi Dian, he, he, he's gone mad!'

Shi Lingqing, who was violently venting her negative emotions, shuddered, leapt up from the large pit she had violently broken open, and lightly landed on a crystal cluster several meters high, a dozen meters away.

Seeing Shi Dian launch a poisonous sneak attack on Qiao and Ding, unleashing divine power to severely wound them both, and now having reached Ding's side, he raised his wooden staff high, intending to strike Ding down…

Shi Lingqing shouted angrily: 'Shi Dian… what are you doing?'

Shi Dian turned his head, smiling at Shi Lingqing, and brought his wooden staff down heavily, piercing Ding's skull.

"Miss, I have guarded you for nearly ten years." Shi Dian smiled gently at Shi Lingqing: "Over these ten years, you have grown from a clueless little girl into a lovely young woman…"

Ding let out a piercing scream when he was killed.

Shi Lingqing stared at Shi Dian with a twitching face, her ten fingers spasming violently.

"Do you still remember the seed I gave you on your twelfth birthday?" Shi Dian spoke in an uncomfortably soft, soggy voice, while stepping toward Qiao, who was shrouded in the purplish‑black poisonous smoke.

"You dismissed that inconspicuous seed back then." Shi Dian smiled at Shi Lingqing: "You just tossed it aside… you don't know that I spent all my savings buying that seed from a secret merchant."

"You threw it away, but I picked it up, carefully and secretly nurturing it to sprout, watching it grow, bud, and bloom…" Shi Dian's smile was extremely tender: "The secret merchant told me that flower is called a sunflower—its blossoms are tiny yet beautiful, displaying many colors I had never seen before."

"Delicate, beautiful, fragile, evoking pity… just like you, Miss." Shi Dian's smile twisted a bit: "So, after it bloomed, I pulled it out whole, washed it clean, and ate it bit by bit."

In the poisonous smoke, Qiao shrieked sharply, slapped the ground hard with both hands, using the rebound to leap up, rolling and crawling outward to escape.

Shi Lingqing let out a sharp cry; blood‑red flames ignited all over her body, turning into streaks of afterimages that rushed toward Shi Dian.

Shi Dian waved his right hand, spewing a vast expanse of purplish‑black smoke from his palm, which formed a smoke wall blocking Shi Lingqing. Having experienced the smoke's cruelty, she hastily leapt upward, soaring a hundred meters into the air to avoid the smoke's direct assault.

Qiao had just burst out of the poisonous smoke when Shi Dian suddenly emitted a wretched, anguished cry.

His left chest, caved in and shattered, writhed violently; tiny electric arcs flickered, and his wound spurted large amounts of congealed blood and bone fragments. The wound where his left shoulder had completely vanished spewed countless muscle buds; in the span of a single breath, copious bodily fluids sprayed, and his left hand 'whoosh' grew out.

In a single breath, his completely shattered left arm was fully regenerated.

Shi Dian swept his left hand, seizing Qiao's throat. Qiao's eyes widened; he had just gasped the two words 'spare my life' when a bolt of electricity shot from Shi Dian's palm, causing Qiao's body to flare bright, countless ultrafine electric threads leaping and sparking across his surface, he convulsed a few times, and his body rapidly turned into a lump of charcoal about a foot in size.

He threw the charcoal that Qiao had become onto the ground, then stomped it to pieces with his foot.

He lifted his head, watching Shi Lingqing plummet rapidly from the sky, his smile growing ever more fervent: 'Miss, what I did to that pot of sunflowers is exactly what I want to do to you… I want to… bit by bit… taste you!'

"Of course, I'm not saying I want to kill you and actually eat you… that would be utterly disrespectful to you, Miss." Shi Dian's body shuddered violently, his formerly gentle smile twisting into utter hideousness.

"I want you; you are mine… in this lifetime, you are mine… Qianyu City was destroyed, the elders and fathers were all killed… only I protected you as we escaped… truly, the Fish God's blessing has destined you to be mine." Shi Dian grinned so wide his mouth corners nearly reached the back of his neck.

"I know my status is insufficient; I know I am merely a lowly family guard chief. So I have only been able to sneak looks at you, observe you, and think of you at night…" Shi Dian burst into laughter: "But now I can obtain you, I can possess you…"

He trampled fiercely on the ashes of Qiao, and Shi Dian shouted sternly: "Do you know? That day you lured them into betraying the Mist Blade, selling out their brothers—I was nearby… I could see how they treated you, I could hear your moans!"

Shi Dian clenched his teeth and laughed: "So they must die, they cannot live… but you, I do not despise you, even though you have been bitten by two stray dogs, I still do not despise you—who made me… love you this way?"

Shi Dian was like a madman; his speech was extremely rapid, and after uttering this long string of lunatic and foolish words, he did so in only a very short time.

Shi Lingqing dove down from the high altitude, her palms crossed; a single palm print condensed from blood‑red flame howled down from the air, like a fiery cloud heading straight for Shi Dian.

Shi Dian watched Shi Lingqing's palm print, then suddenly roared angrily: "Miss… don't you feel that I, who have awakened a divine gift at the brink of death, am far more useful than these two wastes? They can both have you, so why can't I?"

Shi Lingqing's body visibly stalled in midair for a moment, and the dozens of blood‑red flame‑formed palm prints instantly vanished.

Revealing her splendid figure, Shi Lingqing drifted down from the air, landing lightly before Shi Dian. She swayed her posture, stepped slowly to his front, reached out, and gently touched his chin.

Shi Dian, his whole body exuding killing intent and his eyes filled with gloomy malice, was like a dog that had just received its master's caress; his aura suddenly waned, his upright frame slightly hunched. He bent his waist slightly, wearing a smile as he looked at Shi Lingqing.

"Miss… that's wonderful. Qianyu City is destroyed, so no one can stop us being together anymore… I have power now, I have awakened power, I can protect you. No one will ever again treat you shamefully like those two damned wretches."

A tear slid from the corner of Shi Dian's eye.

He gazed deeply at Shi Lingqing's lovely face and spoke, word by word, with cutting resolve: "I will protect you; never again will anyone be able to harm even a single hair of yours."

Shi Lingqing let out a soft sigh, gazed at Shi Dian, observed him for a long while, then nodded gently: "So it turns out you have always felt this way toward me… I suppose, it's been hard on you…"

Shi Lingqing gave a light smile, pointed to Wu Tie who had leapt out of the great pit, and said lightly: "The ancient treasure in that hall is just that thing that looks like a shard of bone, and I also want this ancient saint's corpse."

Shi Dian's eyes instantly flashed with electricity; he jerked his head up and glared viciously at Wu Tie.

"Kill him, and offer me all the treasures I want… from now on you will be my most thoughtful, most intimate confidante." Shi Lingqing smiled like a blossoming flower and gave Shi Dian a flirtatious glance.

Shi Dian's face flushed red, veins bulged on his neck, his breath grew heavy. His gaze was like a blade as he swept it over Shi Lingqing's splendid form, then he strode purposefully toward Wu Tie.

Wu Tie had just jumped onto the ground.

He had heard the recent events clearly.

Qiao and Ding are dead; these two, whom Shi Lingqing had used and deceived into obtaining the Nine Palm Order and Hong Laolao, have actually died at Shi Dian's hands.

In this process, the deceitfulness of human hearts, the ugliness of human nature, the treachery and viciousness of worldly affairs—things he had never encountered before—were like successive thunderbolts, continually striking Wu Tie's heart.

It was like a pond, with drops of ink falling one by one, gradually tinting the water.

Having been pressed and fiercely attacked by Shi Lingqing, his five viscera and six bowels were shaken; Wu Tie strained to straighten his body, then drew a heavy breath. Watching Shi Dian stride purposefully toward him, Wu Tie pondered a moment, then chuckled a few times.

Wu Tie himself felt his own laugh was unpleasant; although there was no mirror, he imagined that this smile was also ugly.

"I never expected that in the end, it would be you two who survived." Wu Tie's mind was a bit fuzzy; he looked at Shi Lingqing, whose clothes had been melted by the blood-colored flames he himself had sprayed, then at Shi Dian, all disheveled. He had thousands of words to say, but finally only managed three: "Is it worth it?"

Shi Lingqing and Shi Dian stared blankly, then both burst out laughing.

Shi Lingqing laughed so hard she doubled over, nearly falling to the ground, she pointed at Wu Tie and laughed loudly: "I want to live… I want to go on living, higher than anyone else, splendid and boundless. You ask 'Is it worth it?'—you're joking with me?"

Shi Dian, laughing, approached Wu Tie, thread after thread of extremely fine electricity continually spraying from inside him, gradually turning into thumb-thick currents that surged across his body. Low rumbles of thunder continually issued from within Shi Dian, and he shouted loudly: "Is it worth it? For the young lady, I can sacrifice everything!"

Wu Tie still wanted to say something, but Shi Lingqing's pupils suddenly turned blood-red; she silently, like a ghost, swiftly floated behind Shi Dian, her hands like knives, viciously stabbing into the vital point at his back heart.

Shi Dian's body suddenly stiffened, and the electricity all over his body instantly dissipated.

He turned his head in disbelief, continuously emitting a "gege" sound from his throat.

Shi Lingqing looked at him gently and tranquilly, and softly said: "You haven't said wrong; you are merely a lowly family guard. I can let anyone enjoy my body, but you servants are not allowed."

"Do you know the characteristics of the Yuan-Seizing Secret Art?" Shi Lingqing laughed happily: "Besides seizing the life essence that shares the same origin as Red Granny and me, at my level I can also seize an innate divine ability and make it my own."

"The power of thunder and lightning is a pretty good innate divine ability. It awakened in you—why not offer it to me?" Shi Lingqing's laughter grew louder, and strand after strand of electricity continually flowed from Shi Dian's body into hers.

"You are a servant of the Shi Family of Thousand Fish City; therefore, everything you have is mine. Shi Dian, do you say this is the principle?" Shi Lingqing let out a light sigh: "As a servant, you have harbored designs on me since childhood—do you say you deserve to die?"

Shi Dian's body twitched violently; he gripped the wooden staff tightly with his right hand, several times raising it, wanting to attack Shi Lingqing.

Shi Lingqing looked at Shi Dian with a smile as lovely as a flower.

Shi Dian tried several times, but still did not strike.

Finally, Shi Dian looked at Shi Lingqing and let out a light sigh: "May you remain beautiful as a flower for eternity, forever young… Changsheng Sect… ha… Miss, to die for you, I truly have no resentment… You must surely live on well."

Shi Dian turned his body, looked at the silent Wu Tie, and softly said: "No more, don't let these dirty brats defile you……"

Shi Dian's body exploded, turning into a mass of blood mist.

Among them, a ball of blood mist the size of a human head was wrapped in countless fine electric threads; Shi Lingqing opened her mouth and swallowed that ball of electricity in one gulp.

Soon, fine electric threads began to emanate from Shi Lingqing's body, and a low rumble of thunder sounded in the air.

Wu Tie watched Shi Lingqing with discomfort, muttering to himself: "You guys, why do you have to make things so complicated?"

Shi Lingqing took a deep breath, then smiled and looked at Wu Tie: "If all those who obstruct and hinder me were dead, wouldn't the affairs of the world become much simpler?"

Amidst laughter and words, Shi Lingqing transformed into a mass of electricity entwined with blazing flames, howling as she slammed into Wu Tie.