Li Yuanyu was dozing off at the foot of the bed when he was suddenly awakened by loud cries and shouts. He rubbed his eyes, only to find the room filled with thick fog that obscured his view.
"Mother!" Li Yuanyu called out as he turned to look but found Jiang Yunu, his mother, gone.
Peering outside into the eerily dark sky, he noticed a bright moon.
"Strange," he muttered, stepping out the door only to find no ground beneath his feet. It emptied out and seemed to only extend into an eternal emptiness.
"Ah!"
Suddenly, Li Yuanyu felt the collar tighten around his neck as he was yanked up by the collar and thrown into a basket roughly. Looking up, he saw the towering city wall before him, realizing he was already outside the prefecture.
The middle-aged man he had seen earlier met his gaze with a grin. His pale complexion, blood-red lips, and hauntingly black eyes greatly unsettled Li Yuanyu.
"It seems my spell hasn't rusted too much... I can't kidnap others, but a child is still within my means!"
"You..!"
The man took out the copper coin from Li Yuanyu's chest pocket, carefully storing it away before stating firmly, "Since you took my coin, you must now follow me."
A startled Li Yuanyu protested, "Why are you taking me?! Are you an immortal?"
"No!" the man replied gruffly, his face contorting in anger immediately at the mention of an immortal.
"The so-called 'immortals' have killed your mother... do not speak of them again!"
Li Yuanyu looked as though he had been struck by lightning, staring in utter shock and disbelief.
"W-What... what are you talking about?!"
The middle-aged man chuckled darkly, stepping forward to brush his hand over the city gate. Suddenly, a pattern spread like water ripples... revealing the ghastly scene within the courtyard. Li Yuanyu caught a glimpse of the gore and cried out in shock, nearly fainting.
His little face turned deathly pale as he sobbed. The man, unmoved by his tears, said with a low chuckle, "My name is Jiang Boqing, and from now on... you will learn curse spells with me. What's your name?"
Li Yuanyu, still not trusting of this strange man, was naturally unwilling to follow him and began to cry louder. Seeing that Li Yuanyu would not stop crying, Jiang Boqing picked him up with a look of satisfaction on his face.
"Then I guess you'll have to take my surname and be called Jiang Yan!"
————
Li Xuanfeng flew along the Guli Road, noticing the five-colored brilliance flowing over Cloud Crowned Peak as if a formation had been activated. A sense of dread filled his heart and he thought to himself, Could it be that someone dares to cause trouble for the Xiao Family..? What's going on?
With doubts crowding his mind, Li Xuanfeng did not stop. He observed the city gate road below that was deserted with overturned carts, scattered clothes, and various foods left unattended, while unattended horses and cows grazed lazily as if nothing had happened.
His heart sank as he flew over the city walls of Lixia Prefecture, spotting bloody handprints covering the walls, as if countless people had attempted to climb over them; only to fall and burst their stomachs, splattering the ground below with blood-stained feces and urine.
It was not hard to find the small courtyard located in the alley, especially with how deserted the city now was.
Landing in front of the courtyard, Li Xuanfeng noticed a small goose crookedly embroidered on a piece of cloth hanging on the door that was stained with blood, swaying in the wind as if ready to take flight.
Creak...
The door was ajar. Pushing it gently, he caught sight of a white, tender little foot on the steps. It was cleanly severed at the ankle—the cut smooth and precise.
He recognized it instantly as the foot he had caught and caressed countless times under the covers—one of the pair he had once playfully teased, making Jiang Yunu blush and glare at him.
As a young man experiencing the beginnings of passion, he had always squeezed her feet and asked, "How can there be something so beautiful?"
Jiang Yunu, with her cute, round face, would always stare at him with her almond-shaped eyes in response as she turned her face away shyly.
Feeling as if he had been slapped in the face, Li Xuanfeng's eyes dodged the sight of the foot as if burned by fire, only to then catch sight of the bloody intestines hanging from the wall.
Collapsing to the ground, he picked up the foot as if in a trance and called out in a voice stricken with agonizing grief.
"It's you..."
Tears flowed uncontrollably as he moved forward, picking up two smooth limbs that were once his lover's arms. However, in doing so, the foot he was holding fell from his grasp. He picked it up hastily and continued forward.
He saw her bloodied rears, long black hair, globs of flesh that looked like breasts, and finally half of Jiang Yunu's face...and her once cute and round almond eye.
That eye, which was once filled with hope, was now lifelessly dull. It was no different to the eye of a dead fish—empty and void of emotion.
As he kneeled, still holding her dismembered parts gently in his arms, the world seemed to sway before him. The past figures of his father Li Xiangping, Old Xu, and countless others whom he cared for flashed before his eyes, seeming to form an endless row of figures that only signify painful yet tender memories.
Finding the lower half of her face in a corner, he painstakingly reassembled her, his hands trembling as he did so. He poured her shattered teeth back into her mouth carefully.
"Wait for me... my love," he whispered.
And with that, he closed her eyes gently.
He bit his lip so hard that it bled.
He bent down and planted a kiss on her cold lips, his blood staining her pale ones with a flush of red. With the gentlest voice that he did not know he was capable of, he murmured softly, "It's my fault! I'm a fool! I don't deserve to be the one alive... I'll make sure to avenge you, my love..."
"I don't care who did this to you... whether or not it is a young master of the immortal gates or a fiend of the Devil Dao... I'll kill them! Just wait...just wait! I will avenge you!"
He rose and swayed a little on his feet, clearly still in a daze. His eyes blazed with a terrifying intensity. His body burned—from the top of his head to the tips of his toes—as if he had drunk two jars of liquor.
"I'm not burying you yet because I'm afraid... I'm afraid he might escape. I'll go ask around and then come back for you."
He was whispering to the severed head... that was split into two on the ground.
Turning around, he took the cloth that was embroidered with the little goose from the wall. He held it carefully in his palm and flew up, soaring over the mountains of corpses and seas of blood below, heading toward Cloud Crowned Peak.
————
Xiao Ruyu stood stunned on the mountain peak feeling both empty and sorrowful, when a cold voice broke the silence.
"Li Xuanfeng has come to visit... I kindly request the elder to open the gate."
Before Xiao Yongling could speak, a startled Xiao Ruyu exclaimed, "This is bad! There are still members of the Li Family in the prefecture..!"
Seeing Xiao Yongling's stern face and his silence, Xiao Ruyu quickly thought, Li Xuanfeng must be furious... I can't let him confront Clan Uncle. If he speaks out of turn and causes offense, it could lead to a rift between our families!
Thus, he boldly volunteered, "Clan Uncle! Leave this to me."
Xiao Yongling stroked his chin and nodded slightly, evidently also having considered the situation.
Xiao Ruyu then flew down to meet Li Xuanfeng, his expression mournful as he called out to him.
"Brother Xuanfeng!"
Li Xuanfeng appeared calm, showing no emotion as he spoke quietly.
"What happened down there?"
"The Golden Tang Gate invaded... slaughtering our Lixia Prefecture. My family dared not resist," Xiao Ruyu answered nervously, casting his eyes downward.
"I understand," Li Xuanfeng replied with a curt nod, lifting his head to meet Xiao Ruyu's gaze and startling him. Gone was Li Xuanfeng's usual carefree demeanor, instead, it was now replaced with an unfamiliar and chilling ferocity.
If Chen Donghe were here, he would be stunned too. This expression, which had appeared thousands of times on Li Xiangping's face, now marked Li Xuanfeng's, transferring the same sinister look to his visage and sending shivers down one's spine.
"Which way did they go?" Li Xuanfeng asked simply.
"East..."
Just as Li Xuanfeng took to the wind and was about to head east, Xiao Ruyu yelled out to stop him.
"Brother Xuanfeng! Don't be rash!"
Biting his lip, Xiao Ruyu stood frozen for a moment before also taking to the skies, deciding to follow Li Xuanfeng eastward.