Chapter 280
Moon Lake (VI)
There was a lulling moment in-between the head falling down onto the ground and the body following, where nobody present uttered a sound, much less a word. It felt as though everyone was collectively trying to truly understand what had just transpired in the span of the blink of an eye. No, even less than that.
Wei himself was in utter shock, having never, not even for a second, considered that any of the kids could do... well, anything. Certainly nothing like that.
"W-W-WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!! WHO IS THERE?!! REVEAL YOURSELF AT ONCE! M-M-MY NAME IS JIN LEI, AND I'M THE FIRST SON OF THE ELDER LUANG OF THE HUNDRED FLOWERS SECT! I-I-IF YOU KILL ME, THERE WILL BE CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH YOU WILL NEVER SURVIVE!!"
"..."
The desperate, almost maniacal threat was met with utter silence as the kids' expressions shifted from those of anger to those of... bemusement. They were looking at Jin Lei rather... funnily, one might say.
"Is he stupid?" one of the young girls finally voiced out.
"He looks like he'd be stupid," the youngest girl said.
"Light! We don't judge people based on their looks," the boy who'd just attacked said.
"Oh."
"He sounds like he'd be stupid, though," the same boy said as everyone burst into laughter. Even the old man's lips were twitching, as though he was barely holding back.
"Y-you dare laugh at me?!! Vermin like you?!! KILL THEM! KILL THEM ALL!! SKIN THEM ALIVE FOR ME!!!"
"AAAGHHH!!!"
The roars exploded as Wei watched the collective might of Jin Lei's group descend upon the old man and the kids. Just as he was about to step forward, he found himself frozen, almost shaking in fear--his gaze met that of the young boy, perhaps fifteen at most, who had stayed at the back of the group.
It was as though those were instead eyes of the void itself, and they were telling him to not move an inch... and if he did, he would not survive it.
His friends must have felt the same, as they all stood rooted in place, their expressions identical--fear and confusion mixed, mostly--all while what they expected to happen... never did.
Though that strike was magnificent beyond reproach, they all thought it took the boy everything, perhaps even tapping into Life Qi within his heart, to execute it, and he did so because he felt enraged on behalf of his Master--wasn't he their father?!
Discarding the white lie told, Wei was certain that the boy was spent... but that wasn't the case.
Four people didn't even step forward to fight--the old man Lu, his 'brother' Lao, the kid that gave Wei the feeling of dread that even the Sect Master never could, and the youngest boy who observed it all with great curiosity.
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Others stepped forward fearlessly, and Wei quickly learned there was a reason for it.
The first one to shock him was the boy who struck with the sword--not only was he not spent, but Wei feared he barely used any Qi, as he stepped forward through the shadows and drew his sword once again.
Wei felt resonant Sword Qi alight his own view of it--he'd seen swordsmen wielding Sword Qi before, but it was never quite so... odd. The boy's attack seemed to both accelerate and stop all at the same time, yet before he could wrap his head around it, another head flew in a shower of blood.
Right by his side, a girl that seemed his age, donning a pair of strange-seeming gauntlets, stepped past his shadow and welcomed the attacker on his flank. She ducked underneath the slash of the blade and stirred her fist upward toward the man's jaw.
Wei watched in horror as the skin around the neck was pulled apart and the entire head was heaved so far back that it had lined up with the back. The neck was shattered, and the man was instantly killed.
Just over to her side was a slightly older boy who tore up a piece of paper that Wei first thought was a talisman--but it wasn't.
For that boy wasn't a cultivator but rather a Shaman.
Glistening, coral-colored flames erupted from a halo above him and rained down fire that seemed almost impossible to beat out. It pushed back the four that were to strike him and even set one on fire, slowly killing him.
The young girl--or, perhaps, woman--on the far left struck the last, and by far the most brutally. She didn't bother dodging or deflecting; she took on four attacks that would have rendered even Wei bedridden for a few weeks, shrugged them off, and brutally beat two people to death with just her fists.
And yet, the most horrifying was none of them--but rather the youngest girl that was centered behind them all. Whenever she'd gently lift her finger, a tendril of shadows would erupt and coil itself around the person, and they would scream until their lungs were torn as the tendril dug into their flesh like thousands of needles, tearing them from outside in.
It was brutal in ways that seemed to defy everything Wei had ever learned--and watching it all unfold left him both in awe and desperately hopeless.
He was, at the very least, twice the age of the oldest one among them--and even if there were a hundred of him, he felt, all of those kids could very easily beat him up.
He came to his senses rather abruptly; Jin Lei must have realized that they stood no chance and turned heel to run, but before Wei could even warn the group, that boy from the back appeared in front of Jin Lei, yanked him by the hair, kicked him behind the knee, and dragged him kneeling toward the old man Lu.
As he pushed the decrepit and shaking--though still alive--body of Jin Lei, Wei realized that everyone else... had died.
Thirty seconds.
It took just shy of thirty seconds to solve what had been haunting him and his friends for months.
And it wasn't as though it seemed to take any effort. Rather, most of the kids seemed utterly bored at the prospect of what they'd just done, as though it were the most common thing in the world.
... who the hell were these people?! There was simply no way they were some backwater family travelling to the Moon Lake for 'opportunities'. But he didn't recognize any of the arts they executed, and they didn't seem to have any unifying aspects about them. Rather, it felt like they were all central prodigies of completely different sects, and they've come together for some reason.
Except... that wasn't the case.
They all seemed to worship that man called Lu Qi, as the very first thing that they all did upon finishing the battle was walk up to him--
--no, wait, what are they doing? Wei pondered.
"Feng'er, didn't we tell you to cover Master's eyes?!" That was the oldest woman among them.
"A-ah! I'm so sorry, Senior Sister! Feng forgot!" the young boy spat out apologetically.
"You mustn't forget! Master has a very weak stomach, and even the sight of blood makes him queasy! It's our job as Disciples to take perfect care of him, understand?!"
"Y-yes, Senior Sister! Feng will make sure to always cover Master's eyes from now on!"
At the same time, he watched Lu Qi's expression turn dark as his eyebrows twitched repeatedly.
Wei held back, using almost three decades of his life's experiences to summon every ounce of strength that he had... just to not laugh.
Because he really, truly, unquestionably... wanted to laugh.
