AGM 247 - Heart’s Inferno
Qin Wentian didn’t know of the incident that occurred in the Leng Clan. However, he had a feeling of extreme unease in his heart, and was unable to fully calm down. He didn’t know why he would suddenly feel this way, and it was as though his emotions were infected by another.
Qin Wentian also didn’t know his reason for feeling this way was due to his link to Little Rascal, and therefore his state of emotions was affected by what Little Rascal was feeling.
Qin Wentian was no longer in the mood to spectate the other matches in the Hell Arena. After exiting the arena with Chu Mang, the two of them departed immediately. Indeed, the Hell Arena was truly akin to Heaven for those that were powerful enough. The rewards that were paid out to combatants increased alongside the number of victories earned in their battle records, this was truly a place where Yuan Meteor Stones could be earned easily.
For Stellar Martial Cultivators, other than their innate talent and personal efforts, they would certainly cultivation resources as well. Yuan Meteor Stones can be used throughout the world, also serving as a universal currency. The majority of cultivators who weren’t from major established clans would have to depend on their own efforts to earn them.
“Where are we going?” Chu Mang asked.
“This place is nearer to the White Deer Institute, let’s make a trip to the Institute first,” Qin Wentian replied. He wanted Bailu Yi’s help with gathering some information reports on the Yan Clan. For example, how strong the Yan Clan was exactly, how many Heavenly Dipper Sovereigns they had, their status in the Moon Continent as a whole, as well as how strong Yan Tie was and so on. These were all information he needed to know.
The guard at the Institute’s entrance was extremely polite to Qin Wentian. After all, they had witnessed Qin Wentian walking together with Bailu Yi. Naturally they wouldn’t choose to offend him for fear of incurring the wrath of their young Miss.
Upon noting the arrival of Qin Wentian, Bailu Yi’s frosty countenance melted into a smile. “You’re back.”
“Mhm.” Qin Wentian lightly nodded his head, “I wish for your help to procure some information reports. Not long ago the Yan Clan tried to assassinate me and one of them was the Hades you fought before in the Hell Arena. He is the disciple of Yan Tie, the one that refined humans into Puppets. Eventually, I asked Big Bro Chu Mang to kill him. I wish to know how deep his relationship with Yan Tie was, and Yan Tie’s personal level of power.”
“Hades was killed?” Bailu Yi frowned. “Yan Tie’s public reputation was extremely awful, everyone termed him as a demonic freak. His character is sinister and ruthless, crafty and perverse, yet his attainments in the Dao of Divine Inscriptions are exceedingly high. As for his personal level of cultivation, he is not considered particularly strong and is merely at the fifth level of Yuanfu. Despite this, he could easily kill combatants of the same level by depending on his attainments in Divine Inscriptions.”
“Expert Divine Inscriptionists are extremely rare compared to powerful Stellar Martial Cultivators. In the Eastern City of the Moon Continent, Yan Tie can be considered a top-tier third-ranked Divine Inscriptionist. His character is extremely bizarre, and even the clan lord of the Yan Clan can’t control him. But for some reason, he doted on his disciple excessively, even to the extent of passing all his techniques to him. Now that you’ve killed his disciple, Yan Tie will definitely retaliate in madness.”
Qin Wentian furrowed his brows, it seemed that killing Hades was a mistake on his part. However, he wasn’t worried about Yan Tie’s retaliation. Qing`er was still in the shadows protecting him.
“How long before the exchange starts?” Qin Wentian asked again.
“About forty more days, you have to work hard, okay?” Bailu Yi smiled as Qin Wentian nodded in response. However, suddenly the sounds of ‘yiyiyaya’ rang out in his mind, the tone of the yelps seemed to be filled with a burning emotion that Qin Wentian couldn’t identify. He sensed that Little Rascal was already on its way to him.
Lifting his head, Qin Wentian stared in the direction of where he sensed the yelps were coming from and moments later, the transformed Little Rascal and Fan Le could be seen flying through the air. Fan Le’s eyes were bloodshot, as a terrifying heat containing immeasurable violence could be felt emanating from him.
“What happened?” A vague sense of premonition tugged on his heart. Bailu Yi waved her arms at the guards that appeared upon seeing Fan Le and Little Rascal, signalling for them to return to their posts.
“Bzzz.” Little Rascal turned back to normal as that little body leapt into Qin Wentian’s arms, letting out incomprehensible growls.Qin Wentian gently stroked Little Rascal’s snowy white fur as he looked at Fan Le.
“Leng Ning is dead,” Fan Le murmured, and the temperature around him surged even higher.
BOOM! Qin Wentian felt explosions going off in his head. Leng Ning had died?
“No…” Qin Wentian shook his head. This was impossible, she was still fine when he left the Leng Residence. How could she have died?
However, Fan Le’s eyes were telling him that this was all real. Leng Ning was already dead.
Cracking sounds echoed as Qin Wentian clenched his fists, the lines on his face contorted as his eyes grew increasingly colder. A terrifying chill gushed forth from him, causing Bailu Yi to unconsciously take a step back, shivering. That peaceful looking youth was truly incensed at this moment.
“Yan Tie and the Leng Clan forced her to her death,” Fan Le continued, “Yan Tie’s disciple died so he went to the Leng Clan demanding for Leng Ning. The Leng Clan decided to give Leng Ning to him and made plans to capture you. Leng Ning wasn’t willing to be humiliated and thus, she chose death.”
The flames of fury boiled in Qin Wentian’s heart, his eyes emitting an aura of death even colder than ice, seemingly capable of murder.
“Leng Ning was a member of the Leng Clan. If Yan Tie’s disciple has died, he should look for me to settle the score instead. And as for the Leng Clan, for all their status of a major Clan, did they really decide to gift Leng Ning to Yan Tie to appease him?” Each of Qin Wentian’s words were bone-chillingly cold and the aura he exuded felt so demonic, to the extent that he no longer appeared to be human, but a demon incarnate instead.
“That was the Leng Clan’s choice. Not only that, they also wanted to sell you out, to renegotiate terms with Yan Tie.” Fan Le locked gazes with Qin Wentian, and in that instant, the simmering rage that flickered in both their eyes made them look extremely similar to each other. “Leng Ning knew that the Leng Clan would never spare her, so she allowed me to escape but chose to stay behind instead. She knew that no one in the Leng Clan would protect her from Yan Tie, and if she had chosen to come with me to look for you, the fury of both the Leng and Yan Clan would surely fall to you.”
“Leng Ning was afraid of being a burden to you.” Every sentence uttered by Fan Le was like a dagger piercing into Qin Wentian’s heart. “Thus, she decided to return. She said this to the Leng Clan, that you are the beloved of Bailu Yi and will participate in the Divine Inscriptionist exchange, representing the White Deer Institute. She wanted to scare the Leng Clan off from making a move against you. Now that’s she dead, the Leng Clan will no longer have a reason to look for you. Because of you, she chose not to escape.”
“Because of me?” Qin Wentian’s pain soared to a crescendo. That silly girl he met a few months back had chosen to give her life up for him?
“She said that this was her destiny, and it would have ended up the same way even if you had never appeared in her life. She didn’t want you to be burdened by her and thus she decided to accept her destiny’s arrangement. She also said…she had already fallen in love with you!”“She was in love with you.” Fan Le’s words pierced straight into Qin Wentian’s heart.
A gut-wrenching killing intent blasted out from him.
“Where is her body?” Qin Wentian asked, as he bore the pain.
“Yan Tie wanted to humiliate her by refining her corpse into a Puppet, hence, I burned it into ashes,” Fan Le replied in a low voice as he continued, “I want Yan Tie to die, as well as those from the Leng Clan that made this decision.”
“They will die.” Qin Wentian drew in a huge breath, gazing at the empty space ahead. It was as though he could see Leng Ning’s smile, scolding him for being a shameless braggart.
Bailu Yi walked to Qin Wentian’s side, looking into his eyes as she sighed, “You have to be calm if you want revenge.”
Qin Wentian stared at her innocent face, her pure eyes sparkling like crystal, as though she could see through his thoughts.
“Stay in the Institute from now on. Regardless of the Yan or Leng Clan, they won’t dare to cause trouble here,” Bailu Yi continued.
“I’m going to kill Yan Tie.” Qin Wentian stared at Bailu Yi as he replied.
“Yan Tie is on the brink of insanity now, there is bound to be several experts beside him. And with the time of the exchange nearing close, the Yan Clan will definitely take Yan Tie’s safety seriously. If you really want to kill him, do it at the exchange,” Bailu Yi continued, “As for the Leng Clan, the reason behind their decision to forsake Leng Ning to appease Yan Tie, it was also for the sake of the exchange. If you kill Yan Tie there, the hope of the Leng Clan will shatter.”
Bailu Yi’s beautiful eyes were extremely clear, after which, she pulled on Qin Wentian’s arm. “Follow me.”
Qin Wentian remained motionless, Bailu Yi turned her gaze back to look at him. Her beautiful eyes seemed capable of melting the hearts of men. “Do you want revenge or do you want to die in a moment of impulse? At the very least, the Leng and Yan Clan can be considered the major powers of the Moon Continent’s Eastern City.”
Qin Wentian let out a long breath before allowing Bailu Yi to pull him along.
She led him to the mountain at the back of the Institute. There were countless patches of lush green grass, tranquil lakes, as well as a pleasant mountain breeze; the whole atmosphere seemingly had the effect of calming people’s hearts.He suddenly realised that on this long path that he had embarked upon, chances were high that he would meet many people and encounter many things. This world of cultivation was pervaded by gratitude and grudges, love and hatred. Some of those people may become his good friends, but would he even be capable of protecting them all? Just like Leng Ning, he thought that he could help her. But in the blink of an eye, she was already dead…
Qin Wentian gazed at Fan Le beside him. It should be extremely dangerous for him today as well.
Bailu Yi sat not far away from Qin Wentian, she could understand the emotions Qin Wentian was now feeling. Hot-bloodedness was something all young men had, and how could one remain calm when their friends were killed for the sake of protecting them? How could he not be angered? Not want revenge?
However, this was all useless. Power was the only thing that mattered.
Qin Wentian sat there, the terrifying aura he exuded gradually vanished as the flames of his anger seemingly dissipated. However, this was only temporarily hidden, it didn’t mean that his rage and thirst for revenge had disappeared.
The light wind gusted, blowing upon Qin Wentian’s face, fluttering his hair and robes. His eyes remained closed, as he simply sat down among the lush patches of grass.
This lasted for seven days.
After the seven days, the last hints of violence from his aura had totally faded away, as he emanated a feeling of calmness and peace instead.
He pondered over many things…
Opening his eyes, his gaze was bright and clear, appearing somehow different compared to before.
Qin Wentian lifted his gaze, staring at the drifting clouds in the sky. It was as though he could see Leng Ning’s smiling face, similar to how Leng Ning had seen him before the point of her death.
That innocent, straight-forward maiden was gone with the fleeting wind, yet even death wasn’t capable of wiping her out from his memories.
Within Qin Wentian’s body, his blood was circulating with increased momentum, forming a vortex within. The countless blood-colored seals in his bloodline thrummed, each of them emanating a crimson glow that contained a primordial-like, terrifying tyrannical energy.
However at this moment, that brutal and tyrannical intent within his blood seemed to be calm and at peace.Because in the centre of the vortex, strands of yellowish golden blood were slowly meshing together, transforming into something that resembled the flickering flame of a candle.
This candle flame seemed extremely weak, yet it had the power to calm the raging primordial power of his bloodline limit, causing this originally, chaotic internal world brimming with tyrannical intent, to become incredibly peaceful. This flame, was none other than Heart’s Inferno!