Loyal Servant

Qiao and Ding cried out in shock and leaped up.

The dark purple smoke clung to their skin, relentlessly seeping into their bodies through their pores. It was even worse because a large amount of the smoke had entered their bodies through their mouths as they greedily absorbed Grandma Hong's life essence.

Their skin rapidly turned dark purple, large patches of it becoming rotten and peeling off. Blood seeped from their flesh, and the fresh red blood that welled up turned into black pus and blood upon hitting the ground.

Having learned the Essence Stealing Secret Art from Shi Lingqing and cultivated the Longevity Cult's evil techniques, Qiao and Ding screamed hoarsely as the powerful life energy within them churned and boiled, constantly counteracting the corrosive poison.

They watched as their skin rotted, and fresh flesh grew from beneath the decaying patches, only to rot and fall off again.

Qiao and Ding screamed in enraged humiliation. Qiao, who had only half-grown his thigh back, found it difficult to move. He sat in place, gritting his teeth, and pulled out over a dozen small throwing knives, glaring fiercely at Shi Dian.

Ding, meanwhile, charged forward, swinging his hands. Dozens of triangular nails shot through the air, tracing eerie arcs as they flew towards Shi Dian.

Shi Dian chuckled, "Heh heh." He slammed his wooden staff firmly onto the ground. Dozens of silver electrical currents, as thin as hair, erupted from the staff's head, striking the triangular nails with pinpoint accuracy.

The electrical currents were incredibly powerful. The triangular nails, forged from fine steel and tempered with secret arts, were actually blown apart by the current. Amidst the ear-splitting explosions, fragments of iron sprayed outwards. Ding, who had been charging forward, suddenly let out a strange cry. Tiny electrical sparks flickered all over his body, and he convulsed before falling to the ground.

As the electrical currents shattered the triangular nails in mid-air, a current as thick as a thumb silently flowed along the ground like a venomous snake, striking Ding's foot. Sparks crackled crisply. Ding desperately tried to struggle and jump up, but he couldn't control his body at all.

Qiao, still enveloped in the dark purple smoke, cursed under his breath.

When Ding had charged out earlier, he could have grabbed Qiao and pulled him out of the poisonous smoke together. But Ding hadn't done that, choosing instead to charge out of the smoke's embrace on his own, offering no help to Qiao.

The potent poison continued to invade his body, and the life essence he had just stolen from Grandma Hong was rapidly depleting. Large patches of foul blood flowed from Qiao's sides, and more fresh foul blood kept emerging from his body, a truly gruesome sight.

Shi Dian walked, staggering, step by step towards Ding, who lay on the ground, unable to move.

Qiao suddenly shrieked at the top of his lungs, "Lingqing... Help... Shi Dian, he, he, he's gone mad!"

Shi Lingqing, who had been furiously venting her negative emotions, shivered. She leaped out of the large pit she had violently created, landing gracefully on a crystal cluster several meters high, dozens of meters away.

Seeing Shi Dian use the potent poison to ambush Qiao and Ding, severely injure them with his divine power, and then walk up to Ding, raising his wooden staff to strike him down...

Shi Lingqing rebuked him, "Shi Dian... What are you doing?"

Shi Dian turned and smiled at Shi Lingqing. He brought his wooden staff down heavily, piercing through Ding's head.

"Miss, I've been guarding you for nearly ten years," Shi Dian said, smiling gently at Shi Lingqing. "For ten years, you've grown from an ignorant little girl into a woman, so beautiful..."

Ding let out a piercing scream as he was killed.

Shi Lingqing's face contorted as she looked at Shi Dian, her fingers twitching violently.

"Do you remember the seed I gave you on your twelfth birthday?" Shi Dian spoke in an extremely unsettling, soft, and gooey voice, walking step by step towards Qiao, who was shrouded in the dark purple poisonous smoke.

"You disliked that unremarkable seed back then," Shi Dian said, smiling at Shi Lingqing. "You threw it away casually... You didn't know that I had spent all my savings to buy that seed from a secret merchant."

"You threw it away, but I picked it up. Carefully, secretly, I nurtured it, watched it sprout, bud, and bloom..." Shi Dian's smile was incredibly gentle. "The secret merchant told me that flower was called a sunflower... The flower was very small, but very beautiful, with many colors I had never seen before."

"Tender, beautiful, fragile, evoking pity... just like you, Miss," Shi Dian's smile became somewhat twisted. "So, after it bloomed, I pulled the whole thing out, washed it clean, and ate it piece by piece."

In the poisonous smoke, Qiao screamed hoarsely, slamming his hands on the ground, using the momentum to spring up and scramble away.

Shi Lingqing screamed. Blood-red flames ignited around her, and she transformed into streaks of afterimages, charging towards Shi Dian.

Shi Dian waved his right hand, and a large cloud of dark purple smoke spewed from his palm, forming a wall of smoke to block Shi Lingqing. Shi Lingqing, having witnessed the ferocity of this poison, quickly leaped up, soaring hundreds of meters into the sky to avoid the direct onslaught of the poisonous smoke.

Just as Qiao emerged from the poisonous smoke, Shi Dian let out a sharp, pained cry.

His sunken, shattered left chest writhed violently, and wisps of electric light flickered. Large amounts of clotted blood and bone fragments spurted from his wound. His completely vanished left shoulder wound erupted with countless flesh buds. In a single breath, a large amount of bodily fluid splattered, and his left arm grew back with a 'swish.'

In a single breath, a shattered and broken left arm was completely regenerated.

Shi Dian waved his left hand and grabbed Qiao by the neck. Qiao's eyes widened. Just as he managed to utter the word "mercy," an electric current shot from Shi Dian's palm. Qiao's body suddenly lit up, and countless extremely fine electric currents jumped and sparked on his skin. He convulsed violently a few times, and his body rapidly turned into a charred husk about a foot in size.

He dropped the charred husk that was Qiao onto the ground and stomped it into powder with his foot.

He raised his head, looking at Shi Lingqing rapidly descending from the sky, his smile growing more exuberant. "Miss, what I did to that pot of sunflowers is what I want to do to you... I want to, little by little, bit by bit... taste you!"

"Of course, I'm not saying I want to kill you and eat you whole... That would be too disrespectful to you, Miss..." Shi Dian's body trembled violently, and his originally gentle smile suddenly became incredibly ferocious.

"I want you, you are mine... in this life, you are mine... Thousand Fish City was destroyed, the old master and the lords were all killed... Only I protected you as you escaped... Truly blessed by the Fish God, you are destined to be mine." Shi Dian's smile stretched so wide it almost reached his neck.

"I know my status isn't enough, I know I'm just a lowly family guard leader. So, I could only watch you secretly, observe you, think of you at night..." Shi Dian burst into laughter. "But now, I can have you, I can possess you..."

He stomped forcefully on the charcoal dust that was Qiao, and Shi Dian said sternly, "Do you know? The day you lured them to betray the Mist Blades, to betray their brothers, I was not far away... I could see how they treated you, I could hear your moans!"

Shi Dian gritted his teeth and smiled, "So, they must die, they cannot live... But you, I don't mind, even though you've been bitten by two stray dogs, I don't mind. Who am I to... love you so much?"

Shi Dian was like a madman. He spoke at an incredibly fast pace, finishing this long string of insane, idiotic words in a very short time.

Shi Lingqing dove down from the sky, her palms crossed. Handprints formed from blood-red flames roared down from the air, descending upon Shi Dian like a fiery cloud.

Shi Dian looked at the palm prints Shi Lingqing unleashed and suddenly roared, "Miss... Don't you think that I, who has awakened my innate divine abilities at the brink of life and death, am much more useful than these two wastes? They can have you, why can't I?"

Shi Lingqing's body visibly froze in mid-air for a moment, and the dozens of palm prints formed from blood-red flames instantly dissipated.

Revealing her beautiful body, Shi Lingqing slowly descended from the sky, landing gracefully in front of Shi Dian. She swayed her body, walked slowly to Shi Dian, reached out, and gently stroked his chin.

Shi Dian, radiating killing intent and with evil in his eyes, was like a puppy receiving affection from its owner. The aura around him suddenly dissipated, and his straight posture slightly stooped. He bent down slightly, looking at Shi Lingqing with a smile.

"Miss... It's so good. Thousand Fish City is destroyed, no one can stop us from being together anymore... I have power now, I've awakened my power, I can protect you. No one will ever treat you like those two damned bastards did, so shamelessly."

Tears slid down Shi Dian's eyes.

He looked deeply at Shi Lingqing's pretty face and said word by word, with absolute certainty, "I will protect you. No one will ever be able to harm even a single hair on your head again."

Shi Lingqing sighed softly. She looked at Shi Dian, observing him for a long time, and finally nodded gently. "So, you've always felt this way about me... It must have been hard for you..."

With a faint smile, Shi Lingqing pointed at Wu Tie, who had just leaped out of the large pit, and said casually, "The Ancient Treasures in that great hall, the one that looks like a pile of shattered bones, and this Ancient Sage's corpse, I want them all."

Sparks immediately shot from Shi Dian's eyes. He abruptly raised his head and glared fiercely at Wu Tie.

"Kill him and offer me all the treasures I want... From now on, you will be my most trusted confidant," Shi Lingqing said with a smile like a blooming flower, giving Shi Dian a flirtatious wink.

Shi Dian's face turned red, veins bulging on his neck, his breathing becoming much heavier. His gaze was like a knife, sweeping across Shi Lingqing's exquisite body before he strode towards Wu Tie.

Wu Tie had just landed on the ground.

He had heard everything that had just transpired.

Qiao was dead, Ding was dead. These two traitors, used by Shi Lingqing to deceive the Nine Palm Commander and Grandma Hong, had actually died by Shi Dian's hand.

In this process, the treachery of human hearts, the ugliness of human nature, the cunning and venomous ways of the world – these things he had never encountered before struck Wu Tie's heart like bolts of heavenly lightning.

It was like a pond, with drops of ink falling in, slowly changing its color.

After being suppressed and fiercely attacked by Shi Lingqing for a while, his internal organs shaken, Wu Tie struggled to stand upright, taking a heavy breath. Looking at Shi Dian striding towards him, Wu Tie pondered for a moment, then let out a few laughs.

Wu Tie himself felt his laughter sounded unpleasant. Though he had no mirror, he imagined this smile must look very ugly too.

"I really didn't expect that only the two of you would survive in the end," Wu Tie's mind was a bit hazy. He looked at Shi Lingqing, whose clothes had been burned away by his own bloody flames, and then at the disheveled Shi Dian. With a thousand words in his heart, he finally asked only three: "Was it worth it?"

Shi Lingqing and Shi Dian froze for a moment, then both burst into laughter.

Shi Lingqing laughed so hard she almost fell to the ground, pointing at Wu Tie and roaring with laughter, "I want to live... to live, to be high above everyone else, glorious and magnificent. You ask 'was it worth it'? Are you joking with me?"

Shi Dian, on the other hand, laughed heartily as he advanced on Wu Tie, wisps of extremely fine electric light constantly spewing from his body, gradually forming thumb-thick currents that surged and flowed around him. A dull thunder rumbled from within Shi Dian as he shouted, "Worth it? For Miss, I can sacrifice everything!"

Just as Wu Tie was about to say something else, Shi Lingqing's eyes suddenly turned blood red. She moved silently like a ghost, rapidly floating behind Shi Dian, her hands like knives, plunging fiercely into Shi Dian's vital spot in his back.

Shi Dian's body stiffened abruptly, and the electric currents all over him instantly dissipated.

He turned his head back in disbelief, a gurgling sound constantly coming from his throat.

Shi Lingqing looked at him gently and serenely, saying softly, "You weren't wrong. You are just a lowly family guard. I can let anyone enjoy my body, but not you servants."

"Do you know the characteristics of the Essence Stealing Secret Art?" Shi Lingqing smiled happily. "Besides stealing Grandma Hong's and my shared life essence, at my current realm, I can also steal a unique Divine Ability and make it my own."

"The power of lightning, a very good Divine Ability. It awakened in you, why didn't you offer it to me?" Shi Lingqing's laughter gradually grew louder, and strands of electric light continuously flowed from Shi Dian's body into hers.

"You are a servant of my Thousand Fish City Shi Family, so everything you have is mine. Shi Dian, isn't that the truth?" Shi Lingqing sighed softly. "As a servant, you harbored desires for me since childhood. Tell me, do you deserve to die?"

Shi Dian's body convulsed violently. He gripped his wooden staff tightly with his right hand, and several times he raised the staff, wanting to attack Shi Lingqing.

Shi Lingqing watched Shi Dian with a face full of smiles.

Shi Dian tried several times but did not attack.

In the end, Shi Dian looked at Shi Lingqing and sighed softly, "May you be beautiful forever and live eternally... The Longevity Cult... Ha... Miss, to die for you, I truly have no regrets... You, you must live well."

Shi Dian turned around and looked at the silent Wu Tie, saying softly, "Never again, let these dirty brats defile you..."

Shi Dian's body exploded, turning into a mass of bloody mist.

Among it was a fist-sized clump of bloody mist, enveloped by countless extremely fine electric currents. Shi Lingqing opened her mouth and swallowed this clump of electric light.

Soon, extremely fine electric currents began to surge from Shi Lingqing's body, and a low rumble of thunder echoed in the air.

Wu Tie looked at Shi Lingqing with distress, murmuring to himself, "Why did you guys have to make things so complicated?"

Shi Lingqing took a deep breath, then smiled and looked at Wu Tie. "If all those who obstruct me and hinder me are dead, wouldn't the affairs of this world become much simpler?"

Amidst her laughter, Shi Lingqing transformed into electric light entwined with fierce flames, whistling as she charged towards Wu Tie.