Fox Spirit: One Sword Sweeps the World

Page 32

The monster's voice suddenly lowered, losing its previous madness and resentment, leaving only an indescribable sorrow.

“I never intended to harm anyone. I just wanted to live peacefully with my mother and spend my whole life with her in our little home.”

His legs buckled, and he fell heavily to his knees on the gravel-strewn ground, his knees thudding with a dull thud.

He raised his hand with trembling hands; his rough palms, covered in calluses and scars, were now gently opened as if he were holding a fragile treasure.

“You have no idea how good she is… She’s so kind-hearted that she’ll carefully bandage a wounded bird with herbs.”

"When I encounter hungry little demons, they will share their food with me. Every night they will make up different stories to lull me to sleep and try different ways to make me happy."

"She is like a light in the dark night, like an angel untouched by dust."

The monster's voice was choked with sobs, and more murky liquid welled up from its damaged eye sockets, indistinguishable as tears or blood.

"With her around, every day of my childhood was filled with sweetness. Back then, I always thought that I would continue to be happy like this, and that I would grow up to be a kind monster like my mother, who would not hurt or kill anyone."

His breathing grew heavier and heavier, his chest heaving violently as if being crushed by an invisible boulder.

Suddenly, he raised his head and crawled down to Mu Qinghan's feet.

The withered tree branch-like fingers gripped Mu Qinghan's clothes and calves tightly, the nails digging deep into the fabric, and the broken cheeks scraped against the ground, leaving glaring bloodstains.

"Qinghan!" Upon seeing this, Mu Shenqi immediately stepped forward, intending to kick away the arrogant monster, but Mu Qinghan calmly stopped him with a raised hand.

Mu Qinghan lowered his eyes to look at the monster at his feet. The fox mask concealed all his expressions, and only his fingertips twitched slightly. He did not speak.

The monster gripped Mu Qinghan's leg tightly, its voice so hoarse it was almost inaudible.

“My mother told me, ‘Little Ping’an, all I hope for in my life is that you will always be safe and sound.’ She said, ‘As long as we treat the world kindly, the world will treat us kindly in return.’”

"But do you know what?"

“That day… was my mother’s birthday. I went into the deep mountains before dawn and climbed over several mountain ridges just to pick the most vibrant wildflowers.”

"I wanted to make the most beautiful flower wreath for her, to surprise her... but when I ran back to my nest with a handful of flowers, Mom... Mom was gone!"

"The contents of the nest were ransacked, and there were still traces of blood on the ground, which were the ashes of talismans commonly used by you human cultivators!"

He suddenly looked up, his damaged eye sockets staring intently at Mu Qinghan, his voice filled with despair, "Tell me, tell me, where did she go? Where did she go?!"

Mu Qinghan frowned slightly, his eyes behind the mask revealing a complex and unreadable expression. Faced with this heart-wrenching question, he ultimately remained silent.

"I chased after the trail of blood on the ground with all my might, not daring to stop for even a moment!"

The monster's voice trembled uncontrollably, its fingernails digging deep into Mu Qinghan's trouser leg, and beads of blood seeping from between its fingers smeared onto the fabric, leaving dark marks.

But Mu Qinghan remained completely silent.

"I was running and I was scared. I was afraid that the trail of blood would suddenly stop and I would never find my mother again; but I was even more afraid that the trail of blood would continue to extend—that would mean that my mother was bleeding and suffering!"

"She's most afraid of pain in her life; she'll even cry if she gets pricked by a thorn..."

"How much pain she must be in! How much pain she must be in!"

His lamentations were like a gust of wind carrying icy shards, making one's heart tighten.

The members of the masked group fell silent, their brows furrowed, their expressions behind their masks complex and difficult to discern.

The murderous aura that had been building up had faded somewhat, leaving only a heavy sense of oppression. Even the sound of the wind rustling through the withered trees sounded particularly jarring.

The monster suddenly stopped crying, and an eerie calm appeared on his damaged face. He slowly raised his head, his turbid eyes sweeping over the crowd in front of him. His voice was light and airy, yet it carried a chilling coldness.

"Finally, finally I caught up with the end of the blood trail. Guess where I found my mother?"

Before anyone could respond, he suddenly raised his voice, as if roaring or accusing: "It's the Celestial Academy! It's the Celestial Academy that you humans flock to for pleasure!"

"Celestial Academy...it's...Celestial Academy again..."

Deng Qiyue's expression changed drastically, and he subconsciously took a step back, the gravel under his feet crunching loudly.

His body trembled slightly uncontrollably, and his grip on the weapon tightened and loosened repeatedly.

Wang Quanba immediately noticed his unusual behavior and quickly reached out to support his arm, his voice filled with concern: "What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell? Are you alright?"

Deng Qiyue snapped back to his senses, bit his lower lip hard to calm himself down, shook his head, and his voice was a little hoarse.

"It's nothing, brother, I... I'm fine, I just suddenly remembered something else."

He avoided Wang Quanbaye's gaze, his eyes darting around.

"Celestial...Academy..."

Mu Qinghan spoke softly, his emotions unreadable.

"I searched frantically in the Celestial Academy, smashing and banging on doors in each room. The well-dressed humans thought I was a mad demon and chased me away with sticks."

The monster's voice was completely hoarse, each word laced with blood and foam, "Finally, I found my mother in the innermost, cold little room... She was dead, her body was completely cold..."

The seemingly casual word "dead" struck everyone's hearts like a heavy hammer.

Mu Qinghan's hands, which were placed at his sides, suddenly clenched, and the magical power gathered in his palms almost leaked out uncontrollably.

He took a deep breath, then slowly released his fingers, his fingertips trembling slightly, his eyes beneath the fox mask were frighteningly gloomy.

"How did you die?" His voice was lower than usual, carrying a hint of suppressed coldness, breaking the deathly silence.

Upon hearing this, the monster suddenly burst into laughter, a shrill and desperate laugh. Its damaged cheeks convulsed violently from the laughter, and blood mixed with tears streamed down its chin.

"How did he die? Who knows?"

He stretched out his rough hands and counted them one by one, his tone light and casual, yet every word was piercing.

"Her two legs were broken and twisted at strange angles; her stomach was ripped open with a sharp object, and her internal organs spilled out onto the ground; her two arms were also cut off and thrown in the corner; a deep, bone-revealing gash on her neck was still slowly oozing cold blood... Tell me, did she die from the pain first, or from those fatal wounds?"

Which place exactly?

He raised his head, his cloudy eyes staring straight at Mu Qinghan, as if waiting for an answer, or as if forcing him to face the bloody cruelty.

The surroundings were deathly silent; even the wind seemed to have stopped blowing.

The members of the Masked Gang remained silent, their grip on their weapons tightening unconsciously, their hearts filled with complex emotions.

Mu Qinghan lowered his eyes and didn't speak again, but his aura grew colder and colder, as if the air itself was frozen.

"Later, a Taoist priest came."

The monster raised his hand and touched his battered cheek. When his fingertips touched the exposed muscle, his body trembled violently. "That Taoist priest was incredibly powerful. His long sword gleamed with golden light. He didn't even lift his eyelids, and he scraped off half of my face with a single stroke!"

He paused, as if he were back in that heart-wrenching moment, "I was in so much pain I almost fainted, but I only had one thought in my mind—I can't die! I can't just die like this! I haven't avenged my mother yet, I have to run!"

"I endured the excruciating pain of half my face being torn apart, and with my last bit of strength, I ran wildly into the depths of the mountains. The Taoist priest probably thought I was just an injured little demon who couldn't cause any trouble, and he was careless and didn't catch up, allowing me to escape by chance."

The monster's voice suddenly turned fierce, and its grip on Mu Qinghan's trouser leg tightened abruptly.

“From that day on, I swore an oath before my mother’s remains!”

He suddenly looked up, his battered face contorted with rage, radiating a fierce aura of malevolence.

"I will make all hypocritical humans taste the suffering that my mother and I endured! I will capture you one by one, torture you mercilessly, make you scream in agony, and let you experience what it means to wish you were dead!"

Chapter 42 Commitment

"I pity you, but you still have to die."

Mu Qinghan's voice was resolute.

He slowly raised his right hand, which was holding the longsword, the blade gleaming with a cold silver light in the dim light.

Magical power flowed through the sword, radiating a sharp and fierce aura.

“If you really want revenge, you can go find the villains who committed the violence back then and that Taoist priest, but you chose to target an innocent girl.”

His eyes turned cold, and his tone was full of sarcasm.

"In the end, you're nothing but a cowardly bully who only knows how to transfer his pain onto the weaker ones."

"You...you're talking nonsense!" The monster was hit where it hurt, and it trembled with anger. Its broken cheeks twitched violently. Just as it was about to pounce, a cold light suddenly flashed by.

The next moment, the longsword slashed down with precision, so fast that the movement was impossible to see.

With a soft "plop," the monster's body was split in two, blood gushing out and splashing onto the gravel ground, instantly staining a large area of ​​land red. The corpse fell heavily to the ground, lifeless.

"I will make my own judgment on right and wrong."

Mu Qinghan sheathed his sword, slowly turned around, his gaze sweeping over the crowd, his voice carrying a hint of cold killing intent.

“I will personally deal with those maggots in the Dao Alliance who collude with evil deeds; I will also uproot the Heavenly Immortal Academy, a place that harbors filth, and leave no future trouble.”

He paused, his aura growing increasingly fierce, an extremely terrifying killing intent swirling around him as if it were tangible, even the air seemed to freeze.

"I will not spare a single person who deserves to be killed or any evil that deserves to be eradicated."

This astonishing killing intent sent a chill down everyone's spine, and they even vaguely sensed the threat of death, instinctively taking a half-step back.

"Qing...Qinghan, are you alright?"

Mu Shenqi was the first to react, speaking cautiously with a hint of worry in his voice.

He had never seen Mu Qinghan so cold, as if she had become a completely different person.

Mu Qinghan closed his eyes briefly, and when he opened them again, most of the murderous aura around him had subsided, but a trace of coldness still lingered in his eyes.

He shook his head, his voice regaining some calmness: "I'm fine."

Then, he looked at the woman tied to the stone wall and said, "Let's rescue her first. Once this is over, let's go back."

"You killed a demon on my turf without even telling me?"

Before he finished speaking, a sudden gust of wind swept up from the eaves.

A fleeting shadow streaked across the moonlight, and Shi Kuan's figure suddenly appeared in the center of the roof ridge.

He didn't move an inch, yet an invisible aura seemed to suddenly spread out from his body.

Everyone's throat tightened, and their breathing became difficult.

That was the majesty unique to the Demon Emperor.

A demon emperor, with all demons submitting to him.

"Demon...Demon Emperor!"

"The Demon Emperor of Northern Mountain..."

Mu Shenqi's Adam's apple bobbed violently, and his palms were already sweating.