Am I Really This Useless?

"Gah, that hurts!"

A Pointing Profound Realm cultivator lay sprawled behind a boulder, baring his teeth in agony.

He had been struck by lightning badly!

Mostly because of where it had struck.

It had practically made chrysanthemums bloom across the mountains...

Damn it, he might have been at the third layer of the Pointing Profound Realm, with no weak cultivation to speak of, but he had never specifically "reinforced" his chrysanthemum! That strike had ripped his flesh wide open.

The scent of cooked meat mixed with that other smell, creating something especially bizarre.

Worst of all, strips of "electric snakes" were still slithering around his wound. That feeling was simply fucking exhilarating in the worst possible way!

"Big Brother, quite a few people have already slipped away."

Grimacing through clenched teeth, he turned to look at his brother, who was black as a soot-covered ghost. "How about we leave too?"

"This Moon Embracing Sect is fucking cursed!"

"..."

"Let's go."

Big Brother's face... well, there was no way for it to get any blacker.

With a "dark expression," he said, "Everything that happened tonight reeks of strangeness. If we stay any longer, I'm afraid..."

He was too embarrassed to finish the sentence.

He was afraid that his chrysanthemum would not survive either!

Getting struck on the head was nothing—he could endure that—but getting struck in the chrysanthemum was enough to make one's heart pound in terror. It might not kill you, but it scared the life out of you!!!

Even if things would return to normal after the lightning power dissipated, who the hell would want to go through that process?!

Maybe those pretty boys with a taste for men would enjoy it.

But he most certainly did not.

"Old Zhou, let's get out of here."

He got to his feet, ready to leave, yet he could not swallow his anger.

Your mother's servant girl!

He had spent half the night getting drenched for nothing—though he had not actually been rained on—and after lurking in this damned weather for so long, not only had he gained nothing, he had been shocked several times over.

Then, in the end, he had been struck by lightning for no reason at all?!

The more he thought about it, the angrier he became!

Bang!

Unable to hold it in, he raised his foot and kicked the boulder before him to pieces.

"Good!"

Though it had caused some commotion, Old Xu could not help but cry out in approval.

In Old Xu's eyes, if it were not for the fact that chrysanthemums were blooming across his mountains and he was inconveniently impaired, he would have given it a kick too!

But why had Big Brother not responded?

He did not understand.

Just as he was about to turn around, the world suddenly spun around him.

This...

Why was there a headless corpse here?

And why was it still standing?

And why did it look so familiar?

Bang!

His consciousness scattered.

"Big Brother" raised his foot.

Beneath it, Old Xu's head had been crushed beyond recognition. Even his Niwan Palace had been ground away.

He was utterly annihilated!

At that very moment, "Big Brother" suddenly shuddered.

Thud.

Old Xu's headless corpse lurched forward and collapsed, landing perfectly atop the shattered head.

Even so, the red and white matter strewn across the ground remained a horrifying sight.

"?!!!"

"Big Brother" was struck dumb with shock.

"How... how could this be?!"

"What have I done?!"

At that moment, he forgot to breathe; even his heartbeat nearly stopped!

"I... killed Old Xu?"

"Why?"

"This is impossible!"

Bang!

Splash.

He dropped to his knees in the mud, overcome with terror.

Bizarre!

Terrifying!

What he found most impossible to accept was that the two brothers had sworn a Dao Heart Oath: never betray one another, never raise a butcher's blade against a brother, or else...

Their souls would scatter and vanish!

"Ah!!!"

With a scream, he clutched his head. His soul was being torn apart, the sensation of dispersal washing over him, leaving him in unbearable pain and utter despair.

"Why did this happen?!"

"Why?!"

Fear, despair, rage...

But more than anything, regret.

If I had known...

If I had known, I never would have come.

Yet regret came too late.

His final thought scattered in the torrential rain, and he died with it.

Old Xu had been injured, but he should not have died so easily. Even a close-range ambush should not have succeeded so effortlessly.

But the problem was that both of them had sworn a Dao Heart Oath. If you killed me, it was no different from killing yourself.

That was why Old Xu had trusted his elder brother completely, without the slightest guard. Even as he died, he had never imagined that his own elder brother had struck him...

But where in this world were there so many "ifs"?

Those who kill would themselves die by violence. That was an eternal truth.

At the same time, several small-scale clashes erupted around them.

Yet they came quickly and ended just as quickly.

In almost every case, one or two people within a group suddenly turned violent and attacked those beside them.

No real casualties resulted, but their abrupt attacks instantly sparked a crisis of trust within their groups.

No matter how the attackers explained that they had no idea what had happened, how could the others believe them?

Even if they did believe them, it would only convince them further that the Moon Embracing Sect was unbelievably strange!

If they stayed any longer, they might not even make it out alive.

A prodigy was tempting, but only if one lived to claim her!

Otherwise, what did it matter whether she was tempting or not, or what peerless pills she might refine in the future?

"This place is too bizarre. The Moon Embracing Sect is evil as hell—let's go!"

"Let's head back first and discuss this at length."

"We need to go back and tell..."

"..."

Amid the pouring rain, several more groups of thieves retreated.

Liu Xun was dumbfounded.

The lightning just now had failed to injure them.

After all, their cultivation levels placed them among the strongest here!

Although other forces no weaker than the Liu Family had also sent people this time, they clearly had not taken the Moon Embracing Sect seriously. Thus, most of those they sent were cultivators at the third layer of the Pointing Profound Realm or below.

Therefore, nearly everyone present was under their "surveillance."

And because of that, they clearly discovered that eight or nine out of every ten people who had originally been here had already left!

Apart from their own group, only five or six groups remained. Most of them had already begun to consider retreating, merely unwilling to give up and thus still holding on.

Only those few feathered beasts still brimmed with killing intent.

But...

How had things ended up like this?!

He had clearly watched the whole time without even blinking!!!

It seemed Moon Embracing Sect had only sent out two elders, instantly taking out two people.

So why had things reached this point?!

I was clearly watching with my own eyes the entire time, so why couldn't I make heads or tails of it?!

But it seemed...

Had Father really called it?

Moon Embracing Sect was actually gradually gaining the upper hand???

This was fucking like seeing a ghost!

And not just any ghost, but a Ghost King-tier one!

But why?!

Liu Xun refused to accept it.

Why was it that he had watched from beginning to end and still understood nothing, while his father had not even come, yet had almost perfectly guessed the course and thread of events?

Could I really be this useless?

At that moment, the elder on his right spoke up in warning. "Young Family Master, prepare yourself. Those feathered beasts are about to make their move."

"According to the Family Master's wishes, we must..."

"I know!" Liu Xun replied with a dark expression.

Though he did not understand and could not figure it out, he had one virtue.

He listened.

Especially when it came to listening to his own father.

"Prepare to act. Take down those feathered beasts and befriend Moon Embracing Sect!"

Hearing this, the two elders both let out long breaths of relief.

They had only feared that this one... well, might suddenly do something foolish.