Chương 377: Ghosts of the Mine (XXIII)

The silence was... well, the silence was destructive. Honestly, I don't think I've ever quite experienced anything like it before in my life. The oddest bit was that nature itself seemed to 'play along', as all ambient sound that I was certain was there just a second before simply disappeared. It was as though a hand of God plucked all of us and plopped us down into an anechoic chamber.

I found myself in a sudden free fall, as I could practically feel the pulse of blood through my veins and sense my heart thumping within the hole we call a chest cavity (I think that's what we call it, anyway), but nothing more so than the increasing confusion and anger that began to bloom on the face of that man. Though the kids and I had largely reserved reactions, owing to the fact that we knew Long Tao well enough, others... were different.

Even Qian Shuren had her jaw come undone, as did five men by her side and all thirteen others accompanying the man. It was as though they were directly told the deepest, darkest secret of the cosmos that nobody else knew... and not merely heard the angry chattering from some young pup.... which begged the question. Why was Long Tao so angry with some random guy we just happened to meet? He mentioned 'blood' and 'sharing it' with 'her'.

The few clues, as well as the status window, lead me to believe it likely had to do with the 'Empress-Born' trait. Probably one of the people who betrayed him in the past just so happens to be this guy's mother. Is this really a coincidence? I mean, yeah, probably. But still, talk about cosmic rhyming.

"What... what did you just say to me?" I'm actually surprised the man didn't immediately try killing Long Tao, though. I suppose he was so shellshocked that somebody talked to him that way that something in him cracked and he suspected he imagined the whole thing.

"Just like that whore, your ears seem to be ripe with wax." Oof. Even I felt that one.

"I asked you--""WATCH OUT!!" Shuren called out but was rather late; by the time her voice arrived, so did the invisible array of energy aimed precisely at Long Tao's mouth. The latter, though, nonchalantly caught it between his fingers as though he were catching a stray fly. Which begged the question: just fucking how?!! Long Tao was just at Revolving Core Realm, no?! He didn't secretly break through to Demigod or something in the meantime, right?

And if he didn't, just how in God's name is he jumping four full realms, five, really, and catching an attack so casually?

"Oh? You actually caught that?" the man seemed surprised.

"Chun, what the hell are you doing?!!" Shuren suddenly exploded, the Qi around her rustling into a storm.

"Damn vermin dared--""--DID YOU FORGET THE PACT?!" Okay, this went beyond being just angry. Her entire body had turned vague from the sheer quantity of Qi blasting off her skin, and the ground below began to melt --as in dirt turned to sludge--under the pressure.

"ARE YOU SO ARROGANT AS TO IGNORE THE BLOOD OATH OUR ANCESTORS TOOK?!" If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

"... hah. Calm down, won't you? He's just some brat. Worst-case scenario, we can just kill them all. No... ha ha, it's their misfortune to be with you. I would have let them be if they begged, but seeing their vile nature... Heaven shan't punish me for punishing them. I shall be rewarded." Wow. What a recovery. The answer didn't seem to satisfy Shuren, but she didn't have time to act on it because Long Tao, blessed (cursed) he be, spoke up again.

"Looks like I need to make a statement." No, no, you already did. Just shut up, for once in your life.

"Since I don't like receiving gifts without giving anything back," he said, his lips cocking up into a smile.

"Here, I'll return it." He flicked his finger, and that array of energy that he caught blasted off so quickly that I couldn't track it, not even when I expected it. I immediately whipped my head toward that arrogant douche over there, but it was still a bit too late; his entire left side of the body was ripped asunder, blood shooting out as though from a fountain.

A half-destroyed ribcage visibly hung from the open cavity, within it a heart that was rapidly beating in a desperate attempt to pump blood to places that were no longer there.... wow. Holy shit. It took a second for everyone--including the man himself—to register just what actually happened, which is when the bloodcurdling scream tore open into the void.

"AAAAAGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" It was so loud and fueled with Qi that I felt my eardrums rattle, finding myself having to shield them with Qi. I immediately turned toward the kids, seeing if any one of them was struggling but... Yeah, well, I shouldn't have. Because their first instinct, apparently, was to look at me and see if I was struggling.... yeah. I should not have looked.

"YOUNG MASTER!" Y-young...? Really...?

"HELP ME!! HELP ME!! IT HURTS!!!" The most insane thing (well, saying 'the' most is overshooting a bit, since the entire thing is insane) is that his body remained standing. It just... stood there, bleeding, with his innards exposed for all of us to see. The thirteen companions all shuffled to the man but stayed just... standing there. I mean, how do you even approach this?

A good chunk of his body is missing, but he's alive and kicking--he'd probably heal fine if he just popped a few 'grand tier' healing pills, but their brains are so fried with the fact some nobody child dared attack (and, well, did that) that they can't think straight. In the meantime, Shuren, God bless her, was looking at us--well, at Long Tao and me, specifically--in a way that I'm kind of getting used to, to be honest.

It's a patented look of shock, horror, terror, awe, dread, panic, fright, trepidation--okay, that's enough, brain. It's not just the matter of what happened, but more so that she likely had certain opinions about us that were just shattered. And those opinions weren't even dismissive--I'm pretty sure she considered all of my kids extremely talented, but that's the caveat: talented. Talent presumes some future potential that is yet to be realized.

And yet, there was Long Tao, who she believes is a fifteen-year-old boy, nearly killing somebody she felt threatened by and doing it so nonchalantly it looked like he was too lazy to do it properly. The man continued to scream, the people didn't know what to do, and the entire thing... well, it was kind of comical, if I'm being honest. In fact, I had to look away and quickly stifle my laugh, but it didn't go unnoticed...

"Ah! Master is trembling!" eh? Dai Xiu, little bastard, what are you talking about?

"Little Feng, you failed again!"

"A-ah, I'm so sorry, Senior Sister; I forgot!"... I... I just...

"Quick, cover his eyes!" Wan Lan, you're just taking a piss, aren't you?

"And you, you damn bastards!" Oi, Light, please...

"Clean up that filthy blood already! Don't you see that our Master is suffering?!"

"That's right! What are you whining about like a baby?" Ah, Xi Zhao, even you...?

"You'd think you never got hurt while fighting. Tsk. Cultivators these days... so pathetic..."... you're all just fucking with me, aren't you? That's what you're doing, aren't you, you little bastards?! AAAAAGGHHHHH! I want to scream, too!