Blood Sacrifice at the Hall of Law Enforcement!

The Xiao Clan.

Inside an elegant room.

"Get out! Get out!"

A blood-haired young man, his face twisted, roared at a group of servants.

Crash! Crash!

He had already smashed every table, chair, and furnishing in the room.

"Why? I took Ice Mystic Pills every day to prevent it! Why did I have to get this poor people's disease? This wretches' disease?!"

Xiao Chiyan tore open his robes. The sight of his flesh, covered in fiery sores, made his eyes nearly split open.

"How could it be this serious? Is this karmic retribution...?"

Bloody tears streamed down Xiao Chiyan's face.

"No! If there were karmic retribution, it would never be my turn! My father, my grandfather, the clan king—they're the ones who deserve retribution! Why me?"

Xiao Chiyan's face contorted as he roared in fury, "Heavenly Dao, you're unfair to me! This shouldn't be my fate!"

When he had finished shouting, he looked at the charred flesh covering his body and wailed in despair once more.

As he wept, his whole body suddenly trembled!

"It was him!!"

Xiao Chiyan's eyes widened as a scene flashed through his mind.

"Someone! Get my father here, quickly!"

He shouted at the top of his lungs.

"What is it?"

The moment his voice fell, a blood-haired middle-aged man pushed open the door and looked at Xiao Chiyan on the floor.

"Father, listen to me!"

Xiao Chiyan scrambled to his feet, overwhelmed with agitation and indignation.

But the blood-haired man thrust out a palm, and an invisible force of True Essence pinned Xiao Chiyan against a corner of the wall. "Just stand there and speak," he said.

"Father?"

Xiao Chiyan froze, looking at him and then down at his own body, covered in fiery sores.

A childhood memory flashed through his mind: his father holding him, caring for him in every possible way.

But now, his father seemed to stand as far away as the edge of the sky, looking at him calmly, as though he were an object.

Xiao Chiyan's heart was torn to pieces.

He was no fool. Of course he knew that from now on, his life would be one of isolation and strange looks.

That was his fate!

"Father..."

Xiao Chiyan lowered his head and called out again, tears falling like rain. "I just wanted to say that before I fell ill, Qi Lin, that evil man's descendant, sprayed me all over with the flames of a special forbidden art. I'm one hundred percent certain now that my Fire Burning Disease was caused by him..."

"I know."

The blood-haired man nodded.

Those words tore at Xiao Chiyan's heart even more. He raised his head numbly and met his father's eyes.

Though they were in the same room, his father at the door and he against the wall, the distance between them was a chasm he could never cross in his lifetime.

Father and son looked at each other for a long time, one with calm eyes, the other with eyes full of anguish.

"A son of mine, Xiao Ming, should not live like this," the blood-haired man suddenly said.

"So?"

Xiao Chiyan's whole body trembled as bloody tears streamed down his face.

"Be free of it."

The blood-haired man spoke.

"Hehehe..."

Hearing this, Xiao Chiyan laughed wildly even as he wept.

"Can you accept that?"

the blood-haired man asked.

Xiao Chiyan's eyes were full of blood. He raised his head, his face contorted. "You heartless, faithless beasts! You'll get your retribution too, hahaha..."

The blood-haired man watched him in silence.

"Sigh."

He sighed, then made a twisting motion in the air.

Crack!

Xiao Chiyan's neck twisted, his eyes bulged, and he died on the spot.

He died with his eyes open.

The blood-haired man swept his hand through the air, closing his eyes for him.

"Yan'er."

He stood outside the room, gazing at his son's corpse from afar, the blood-red color in his eyes deepening.

"Father will avenge you."

"Now that you're dead, there are quite a few people who deserve to die."

"Today, I'll start by holding a sacrifice for you at the Hall of Law Enforcement in the Divine Strategy Manor."

The Divine Strategy Manor, the students' quarters.

"Qi Lin."

Outside the courtyard, a youth taller than the courtyard wall waved to Qi Lin.

Qi Lin had fallen asleep on the stone table the night before.

"Is it dawn?"

He raised his head to check the sky, only to find the world still dim, shrouded in fine rain, with the faint rumble of thunder in the distance.

"Tang Biao, I'm coming."

Qi Lin quickly got himself ready, hung both the black wooden sword and the Azure Soul Sword at his waist, and went to the window to check on Qi Tianlong.

"Still sleeping?"

Though he was speechless, he had important business to attend to and couldn't be bothered to wake her.

After closing the doors and windows securely, he hurried out.

Outside the door.

Tang Biao of the Tang Clan in the Divine Capital came up to meet him, clad in heavy armor. "Come on, let's go to the demon-slaying lesson. Every student in the Three Stars Pavilion has to attend today."

"All right."

Qi Lin walked alongside him.

"I heard that the person teaching us today and conducting the 'demon bone test' is a meritorious demon-binding master from the Demon-Slaying Headquarters," Tang Biao remarked casually.

"A demon-binding master?"

Qi Lin knew little about the Prison Devil or the Demon-Slaying Headquarters, and he had no idea what the demon bone test was for.

"That's right. Her name is Shen Xintang. She comes from the demon-slaying Shen Clan, a family renowned for its loyalty and sacrifice in Great Cang. They say nine out of ten ancestors whose spirit tablets are enshrined in their ancestral hall died fighting Prison Devils." Tang Biao spoke with solemn respect. "Their family has given so much for the Great Cang Kingdom."

"They deserve admiration."

Qi Lin couldn't help looking forward to the lesson.

"And I heard..." Tang Biao checked that no one was around before leaning close to Qi Lin's ear. In a curious tone, he said, "I heard that Lady Shen Xintang and Master Fu were lovers when they were young, and they caused quite a few storms back then."

"Huh?" Qi Lin paused, then asked curiously, "What kind of storms?"

"I'm not sure. Anyway, they broke up later." Tang Biao curled his lip. "Maybe the elders in Lady Shen's family looked down on Master Fu."

"Oh." Qi Lin paused. "That's a shame."

"I don't blame the Shen Clan. I look down on Master Fu too." Tang Biao looked at Qi Lin. "Yesterday, Xiao Ling'er smashed him with a stone table. He's a dignified master of the kingdom's laws, yet he didn't even dare dodge. Is someone so afraid of death worthy of Lady Shen, who's slain more than ten thousand Prison Devils?"

Qi Lin pressed his lips together and said nothing.

Tang Biao changed the subject at the right moment. "Come on, let's go to the Hall of Law Enforcement. Class starts at the hour of the dragon."

The hour of the dragon had arrived.

But the world was still dim.

Dark clouds filled the sky.

The entire Divine Capital lay beneath a black curtain, the leaden clouds hanging so low they made it hard to breathe.

"Good morning, Master Fu!"

Inside a flower shop along the street, a woman called out to a man whose thin clothes were already soaked through.

The man's eyes were clouded, his hair had come loose, and he moved like a walking corpse.

"Morning."

Master Fu managed to utter a single word with difficulty.

"It's raining, and you're not even carrying an umbrella, Master Fu. You really do follow your heart," the woman said with a smile.

Master Fu smiled at her words, a self-mocking sound escaping him.

"Oh, right! Master Fu, come in! I have a surprise for you."

The woman enthusiastically pulled Master Fu into the shop and pointed to a pot of flowers. "Haven't you always been asking me if I had any pale-yellow begonias? Look! They really do exist. This is a new variety! Isn't it pretty?"

Master Fu stared blankly at the vivid pale-yellow flowers, his gaze trembling.

"I named it 'Evening Breeze.' You're a learned man, Master Fu. What do you think?" the woman asked with a smile.

"Evening Breeze..." Master Fu lowered his head with a bitter smile. "Yes, it's a little too late."

"What are you talking about?" The woman rolled her eyes at him and carefully arranged the leaves. "The evening breeze isn't late at all. Once it comes, there's still a long, long night ahead. That's the time that belongs to two people in love alone!"

Master Fu's whole body shook. "The evening breeze isn't late, and a long night lies ahead..."

"Poetic, isn't it?" The woman was quite pleased with herself. She looked at Master Fu again. "Well? Will you take it home, Master Fu?"

Master Fu said nothing. He turned and stumbled out.

"Honestly, you could have just said you didn't want to buy it." The woman gave a little huff.

She liked the Evening Breeze begonia herself and continued tending to it.

Quite some time later, a breathless voice came from outside the door.

Master Fu stood there, his face covered in rainwater, pointing at the new variety of begonia.

"Shopkeeper, I'll take a pot of Evening Breeze."