"Wait, wait! Wen Xui, I am your father, you can't kill me!" Gu Dan shouted, his voice trembling, his steps faltering as he retreated in fear, his heart drowning in terror.
"Spare you? Did you spare me and my brother? He wasn't even asking anything from you, only begging you to let me live, but what did you do? You killed him! Just because you reached rank 5, you thought you could take his life? What did we ever do to deserve this from you? Tell me, you bastard! Tell me! Tell me! Tell meeee!!!" Her voice cracked and rose into a mad scream, trembling with rage and anguish.
"Just the thought of not being able to speak to him again is killing me!!!" she wailed. Her voice no longer carried the innocence of youth but the broken weight of a near middle-aged woman. She tore at her hair desperately, her once soft strands now a tangled, wild mess. Though her body had aged, her mind remained frozen in the same shattered state—it never matured. She had no control over her emotions, no grip left on herself.
The thought of never seeing Wen Bo again clutched her heart like a molten metal chain. Her eyes were bloodshot, her tears flowing ceaselessly down her cheeks.
She stared forward, and in her haze of despair, she no longer saw Gu Dan standing there, the man who had murdered her brother. She stepped forward, then halted as a thought surged inside her. Slowly, painfully, she turned her gaze toward Wen Bo's lifeless body, sprawled helplessly on the ground.
She longed to collapse beside him, to mourn and lament her loss, but instead she turned her face away and stumbled through the village. She wandered like a mad specter, searching frantically for Gu Dan. She entered homes, stormed through streets, and every time she laid her gaze upon someone, they collapsed dead on the spot—close ones, strangers, it mattered not. She spared no one.
Her heart screamed for her to find Gu Dan quickly, to end him, to lessen the suffocating weight inside her heart. Yet the more she hunted, the more her brother's face haunted her, the more her desperation clawed at her soul. She understood that if she did not kill Gu Dan soon, she might never have the strength to.
She knew her condition too well.
She knew she was losing her mind.
She knew she was crossing the point of no return.
She knew she was utterly alone.
She knew her mind was slipping, losing the last fragile hold it had on sanity.
She knew madness was taking over.
She knew insanity was taking over completely.
And the very last thing she wanted to do before she was consumed was to slaughter Gu Dan—her brother's murderer.
She saw an elderly woman sitting slumped against the wall of a crumbling house. Deep wrinkles etched her face, her body frail as though she had lived beyond a hundred years. Her cloudy eyes, half-blind, blinked weakly in the dim light.
When the old woman heard footsteps, she spoke in a frail, wavering voice,
"Ken Do… is it you? Did you tell Wen Xui to protect her brother? They… they are going to kill him… and me as well."
Hearing this, Wen Xui froze for a fleeting moment, her senses flickering back. But just as quickly, she activated the Death Warrant and ended the old woman's life instantly. Though the woman's words carried sincerity and good intent, to Wen Xui they were meaningless now. She had no room for sympathy.
The moment the old woman's life ended, a storm was unleashed. Strange auras began to erupt across the island, seeping into the air, rising in eerie waves.
Wen Xui continued her desperate search for Gu Dan, but he was nowhere to be found. Her wandering feet carried her back to the very place her brother had fallen.
She collapsed beside Wen Bo's corpse, staring at his pale face as her tears dripped down, splashing against his lifeless face. The Death Warrant rested silently beside her, like a curse waiting to eat many more lives.
"Believe me, it was terrifying. Villagers and cultivators dropped dead as if they were nothing! Believe me! If I had stayed a moment longer, I would have been killed too!" Gu Dan's voice filled with fear as he spoke to Jang Tang, his tone frantic, his hands trembling.
"Stop joking around… how can something like that exist? Killing everyone instantly? Are you sure you weren't hallucinating? If such a thing really existed, wouldn't you already be dead?" Jang Tang scoffed, waving off Gu Dan's panic as though it were nonsense.
"You're right?… Why didn't she kill me? She killed everyone else instantly, and she hated me the most… yet when I ran, she chased me instead of ending me…" Gu Dan's voice faltered as the realization dawned on him.
"That's it! She must not be able to kill people of the same rank!" he shouted, his voice rising with sudden excitement, as though he had uncovered some great truth.
But before the thought could settle, both men froze. Their expressions changed drastically.
Jang Tang's eyes narrowed. "What's happening? Don't tell me… the formation has already activated…"
From every direction, they felt it—different kinds of auras converging, each rising like mist, each twisting together in unnatural colors. They rushed outside and witnessed an astonishing sight: streams of mist, vibrant and sinister, climbing into the heavens, as though the very essence of the dead was taking shape.
"Gu Dan, weren't we supposed to begin our plan at night to avoid complications? How did this happen so soon?" Jang Tang muttered grimly, his voice low and heavy.
"I already told you—Wen Xui has gone insane! She gained something horrifying, something that slaughtered people without her even lifting a hand," Gu Dan stammered.
"Hmm…" Jang Tang remained silent for a moment, his face darkening. Finally, he said, "Whatever. The refinement has already begun. We should head to where the greatest number of people died. And besides… what more could I ask for if the process has already started?" His eyes glinted coldly as he began to follow Gu Dan.
The colored mists spiraled together, forming a vortex that spun faster and faster. Slowly, the corpses scattered across the island dissolved into streams of mist, each one drawn into the growing vortex, save for a few specific bodies. The vortex's hunger grew fiercer, its speed increasing, its pull irresistible. Soon, every wisp of mist on the island was being devoured.
When the last body had been absorbed, the vortex shifted. Its size swelled, spreading above the whole island, and darkness descended like a suffocating shroud.
"No… this is bad. It's going to absorb those sixteen specific bodies soon. I must reach the place with the most corpses, and quickly," Jang Tang muttered, his tone sharp with urgency as he sprinted forward.
But suddenly, Gu Dan halted mid-run, clutching his chest. His body convulsed, and he vomited a mouthful of blood, his face twisting in terror.
"What happened?" Jang Tang inquired, his eyes narrowing.
"M-my… my rank dropped…" Gu Dan stammered in disbelief, his voice shaking.
"Hmm…" Jang Tang's eyes grew sharp and calculating as he heard this. But he did not stop. His thoughts were clear—he could not waste time. Without another glance, he left Gu Dan behind, muttering, "You said it was near the village gate, right?" His figure blurred as he sped ahead.
"What…what's happening to me?! Why did I suddenly fall to rank 4…" Gu Dan gasped, staring at the blood staining his trembling hands.
He felt it—the blue line in his void had vanished.
"No! I must obtain that ire at all costs. It must be me who escapes this cursed island, not Jang Tang! For this, I sacrificed my own son, I betrayed my daughter… everything was for this! I must have it!" His despair twisted into obsession, his fear drowned by greed.
Forgetting his sudden weakness, forgetting even his rank, Gu Dan's eyes locked on the direction Jang Tang had taken. Snarling, he forced his body forward, his steps unsteady yet filled with madness, chasing toward the village gate.
!|!*****!*****!|!