Jackals

A blood-soaked, monstrous man acted as if no one else were there, slowly wiping away the stains beneath everyone's hostile gaze.

His arrogance and haughtiness rankled everyone, but no one knew who he was, and nobody dared make a reckless move.

Pang Jian's gaze remained fixed on the monster's chest. He hadn't seen the hideous Blood-Colored Phoenix Bird before the man had jumped into the lake.

"He's Dong Tianze!"

Zhou Qingchen furrowed his brows and identified the man with absolute certainty.

Su Yuntian and He Rong suddenly changed expression and whipped around to look at him. "Dong Tianze?!"

"Mm. No mistake. He's the Dong Family's killing blade."

Zhou Qingchen's voice was cold.

Luo Hongyan had been feeling uneasy, but when she heard that the blood-soaked monster who had emerged from Pit Well was Dong Qianfeng's adopted son, she relaxed.

No matter how powerful Dong Tianze was, he couldn't be the creator behind the three forbidden zones of the Cenji Mountains.

"That guy..."

Pang Jian's brow tightened as he scrutinized the man in the lake, his expression growing grave.

The young man washing the clinging blood from himself in Wulan Lake had clearly seen everyone on the mountain, yet showed not a trace of fear or apprehension. Instead, excitement gradually surfaced in his bloodshot eyes.

Pang Jian had seen that strange sort of excitement only in the eyes of the most vicious beasts in the Cenji Mountains.

Whenever the mightiest beasts spotted a pack of prey, their eyes shone with excitement, too.

The excitement in the man's eyes was strikingly similar to the gleam in a savage beast's eyes before it pounced on its prey.

Pang Jian immediately grew wary and asked, "Who is he?"

Han Duping gave a bitter smile. "A vicious little wolf cub who kills without restraint."

"The masked man you killed at Blackwater Pool was Dong Qianfeng, Dong Tianze's adoptive father." Zhou Qingchen's expression darkened, and he spoke with disgust. "He isn't a member of the Dong Family. When he was young, Dong Qianfeng brought him into the family and gave him the name Dong Tianze."

"The Dong Family never truly treated him as one of their own, either. They sent him through all their bloodiest trials."

"What made him formidable was that he survived every single one. Almost everyone who took part in those trials with him died by his hand, whether they belonged to the Dong Family or not."

"That was how he earned the Dong Family's recognition. Whenever they clashed with another family, he was the one they sent to kill people in secret."

"Even our Zhou Family lost quite a few people to him. The other families lost even more!"

Zhou Qingchen was visibly upset as he spoke of the man in the lake, his fury threatening to spill over.

"All six families hate him. He isn't even a true member of the Dong Family. He'll get what's coming to him sooner or later!" He Rong scoffed.

"And yet the Blazing Sun Sect took a liking to him and even offered him an invitation. But because Dong Qianfeng was expelled from the Blazing Sun Sect, he actually turned down their offer," Han Duping interjected.

He paused, glanced back at the gleaming White Tower, and continued, "Looks like the Yin Spirit Temple had already taken him under its wing. Otherwise, he couldn't control the Heavenly Spirit Pagoda!"

"The Yin Spirit Temple!"

Everyone was startled. After a moment's thought, they decided Han Duping's guess was probably right.

The Yin Spirit Temple of the Upper Realm was a sect powerful enough to rival the Blazing Sun Sect, and its origins were even more mysterious. It had almost no dealings with the Galaxy Alliance, the Blood Moon, or Red Mountain, and it didn't recruit disciples from the Seven Great Families, either.

Since Dong Tianze had allied himself with the Yin Spirit Temple and secured a path straight to the Upper Realm, he had no need to care about the Blazing Sun Sect or the Dong Family.

"If it's him, then we can deal with this."

Relieved, Luo Hongyan knew the most terrifying Soul Array in the White Tower had been destroyed, and Dong Tianze wasn't the person she feared. She was the first to leave the low hill.

As soon as she moved, Zhou Qingchen, who had broken through to the Xisui Realm, followed. "I've fought Dong Tianze before. I'm not afraid of him."

Seeing the two of them descend the mountain, Pang Jian immediately followed, watching Dong Tianze from afar with curiosity.

Dong Tianze, who was washing the blood from himself in the lake, suddenly plunged beneath the surface. When he emerged again, he had a Black Gold Dagger clenched between his teeth.

He must have stashed it somewhere beneath the island. Its handle was wrapped in sharkskin covered with shield-shaped scales, and its black blade curved like a crescent moon, glimmering faintly gold.

Strangely, nine holes ran along the crescent-shaped blade. When the wind blew through them, they made a mournful whistling sound.

"That dagger is called Ghost Chant," Zhou Qingchen said gravely.

Pang Jian gave a slight nod.

Splash!

Dong Tianze finally returned to the edge of Pit Well, bare-chested, his waist wrapped in the same kind of sharkskin as the dagger.

His upper body was covered in dense, earthworm-like scars. He had clearly survived countless bloody battles, enduring grievous wounds and stubbornly refusing to die.

After washing off the blood, Dong Tianze took the Black Gold Dagger from his mouth. His long, narrow phoenix eyes gleamed with a maddening intensity.

When he reached Shangguan Qin, he spoke in a gentle, melodious voice. "Auntie, all these people gathered on the hillside and secretly damaged my Heavenly Spirit Pagoda. You can't tell me you didn't know?"

Shangguan Qin trembled in horror and shook her head in a panic. "I didn't know! I don't know anything!"

Dong Tianze smiled softly, grabbed her dark hair, and turned her terrified face toward Pang Jian, Luo Hongyan, and Zhou Qingchen as they approached.

"Let me ask you again. While I was cleansing my bones and marrow with Black Tortoise Essence Blood, did you see them?"

Dong Tianze beamed at her, looking utterly harmless. His voice remained gentle and pleasant.

As she watched the three slowly draw near, Shangguan Qin was so terrified that her heart and guts nearly burst. She screamed without daring to lie. "I saw them! I saw them!"

"That's more like it. You know I've always liked people who tell me the truth."

As he praised her, he used the Black Gold Dagger called Ghost Chant to cut a deep, bone-revealing gash across Shangguan Qin's beautiful face, utterly destroying the looks she had once prided herself on.

"That's a little punishment for you."

He held her by the hair and spoke in his gentle, melodious voice, while doing the cruelest thing he could to her.

Shangguan Qin had no talent for cultivation. Beauty was all she had to offer, and now he was tormenting her in body and soul. Her face covered in blood, she screamed in agony.

Luo Hongyan stopped, frowning.

"Mad rabid dog!"

Zhou Qingchen roared.

Pang Jian's gaze turned cold. He had never encountered anyone as deranged and sinister as Dong Tianze.

"Auntie, wouldn't it be nice to stay here on the island with me?"

Dong Tianze was sickeningly mad, yet kept calling her "Auntie" with such warmth, as if he liked the title.

"Auntie's gone through two husbands in our Dong Family. You thought one was too ugly, and the other didn't know how to be romantic. Tsk, tsk. Yet you were so devoted to Ouyang Duanhai, a good-for-nothing with nothing but a pretty face."

As if he couldn't see Pang Jian and the others, Dong Tianze kept smiling and talking gently to Shangguan Qin.

"That useless Ouyang Duanhai got a drop of Phoenix Marrow, only to have it corrode his heart, didn't he?"

"In the Cenji Mountains, everyone who gets a drop of Phoenix Marrow eventually comes to this island to fight me. I cleansed my bones and marrow with Black Tortoise Essence Blood here because I was waiting for good-for-nothings like Ouyang Duanhai to find their way here and fight me."

"Auntie, the reason I kept you here was to wait for Ouyang Duanhai. I wanted to use your life to threaten him. Then I'd destroy your whole face with my own hands, right in front of him."

When he finished, Dong Tianze reached out and pinched the unmarked cheek on Shangguan Qin's other side.

"Kill me! Just kill me!"

Like a bird startled into flight, Shangguan Qin suddenly shrieked hysterically, flailing wildly with both hands.

Everyone, both on the mountain and below, fell silent. They watched Shangguan Qin and Dong Tianze, each lost in their own thoughts.

Shangguan Qin's family had arranged her marriage. She had first married a talented collateral clansman of the Dong Family. Though he was ugly, he had truly loved her.

Unfortunately, he died during an expedition into a secret realm. After his death, Shangguan Qin was assigned to another Dong Family member as a concubine.

Dong Tianze, whom Dong Qianfeng had adopted, was technically a member of the Dong Family. He had called Shangguan Qin "Auntie" from the start.

Who would have thought that on this lonely island in the Cenji Mountains, Dong Tianze had kept Shangguan Qin imprisoned and planned to use her life to threaten Ouyang Duanhai when he arrived, so he could kill him as quickly as possible?

"You say this is where you and that good-for-nothing agreed to meet. Do you really think you can wait for him here?"

Dong Tianze gave a soft laugh, his face full of anticipation. "I hope he shows up. I hope he gets to see what you look like now. My adoptive father used to have a handsome face, too. He was no less good-looking than that loser."

"My adoptive father pulled me out of a pile of corpses and gave me a chance to live. After I kill Ouyang Duanhai, I might give you to him. Maybe he'll like someone like you..."

Dong Tianze's humiliating words came to an abrupt stop.

Still humiliating Shangguan Qin, he glanced toward someone in confusion, then toward a familiar object.

At some point, Pang Jian had taken out a Bamboo Flute. He was waving it at Dong Tianze.

"The Emerald Jade Flute?"

Dong Tianze froze.

"After I pierced the man in the golden mask through the forehead with my spear, his mask shattered, revealing a face covered in scars." Pang Jian looked at Dong Tianze's bare upper body with naked disgust. "The scars on his face and yours look just as ugly."

Pang Jian had always been taciturn, yet he had chosen this moment to provoke a lunatic like Dong Tianze.

Zhou Qingchen and Luo Hongyan, who were closest to him, immediately glanced over with strange expressions, unable to understand why he would do that.

On the mountain, the Su and He families were also taken aback by Pang Jian's words. Their gazes, which had been fixed on Dong Tianze, involuntarily shifted to Pang Jian.

Su Meng clenched her fists, her round face flushed as she chimed in. "Guys covered in scars are so ugly!"

Luo Hongyan rolled her eyes and chided him. "That woman got what she deserved. Why are you sticking up for her? Her first two husbands treated her well enough, yet she still schemed to murder both of them for Ouyang Duanhai. A woman like that deserved everything she got. She has only herself to blame for ending up like this."

Pang Jian said quietly, "I just despise people like him."

Zhou Qingchen laughed in disbelief, then praised him. "You always manage to do something that surprises me—and earns my admiration."

Dong Tianze was stunned for a moment. Then he bared his teeth in a feral grin and suddenly bit into Shangguan Qin's snow-white neck.

Shangguan Qin screamed and struggled frantically, but she couldn't escape his grip. The more she struggled, the more blood flowed from her neck.

Like a bloodthirsty beast, Dong Tianze shuddered as he bit her neck, then quickly calmed down.

Dong Tianze soon let go. Without wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth, he casually tossed Shangguan Qin aside like a piece of trash.

He returned from his sick, deranged state to his calm, rational self, no longer letting anger and agitation warp his mind.

Only then did he look at Pang Jian calmly and ask in a gentle voice, "May I ask your name?"

"Pang Jian."

"Good. I'll remember that. You'll be the last one to die."

Dong Tianze nodded with utmost seriousness.

He stamped one foot down, and amid the earth's thunderous roar, he shot toward the low hill like a blinding streak of lightning.

A razor-sharp force split the air, as if cleaving the sky above Pang Jian in two. Even Zhou Qingchen's expression changed sharply.

Dong Tianze had leapt past Zhou Qingchen and Luo Hongyan, appearing on the low hill in an instant. He immediately began slaughtering the members of the Su and He families.

"Wuuuu!"

Ghost Chant, the Black Gold Dagger, let out a shrill, piercing wail. Dong Tianze moved like a specter as he darted among the members of the He and Su families.

One splendid head after another dropped like watermelons. Scarlet blood surged from the headless necks like waterfalls flowing backward, shooting into the air.

The blood-soaked, brutal scene left Su Yuntian and He Rong stunned. Su Meng, who had been so indignant just moments ago, now trembled all over, too terrified to utter another defiant word.

"Mr. Han, please save my daughter!"

Su Yuntian turned ashen with horror. Without a moment to think, he hurriedly shoved Su Meng toward Han Duping.

Han Duping, who had transformed himself into a giant silver ball, saw Su Meng stumbling toward him and cried out, "I might not be able to save her!"

"Su Meng! Get down the mountain and find Zhou Qingchen!"

As he watched his people's heads fall one after another, blood gushing from their necks like springs, Su Yuntian was terrified out of his wits and desperately urged Su Meng to run.

"What a beautiful sight."

Standing amid the corpses, Dong Tianze had time to admire the spectacular gushes of blood even as he slaughtered the others.

Blood splattered across his bare upper body, painting his hideous scars with a scarlet dye and forming a terrifying, sinister pattern.

He suddenly smiled up at the sky.

Looking at the "Spirit Sha" in the sky, which were capturing spirits and ghosts, Dong Tianze smiled. "I don't care who's controlling you. You dared to come damage my Heavenly Spirit Pagoda, so you're staying here."

"Wuuuu!"

He swung Ghost Chant, and the wind shrieked through its many holes. A magnetic field like the one within the Heavenly Spirit Pagoda suddenly formed!

A "Spirit Sha" refined by a Pulse-Opening Realm cultivator, along with the nearby spirits and ghosts, was dragged down and sucked toward the Black Gold Dagger called Ghost Chant.

In an instant, they all vanished into the holes in its blade.

Luo Hongyan, who had been completely at ease, frowned as she watched Ghost Chant drag down and absorb a "Spirit Sha."

Fresh new week—please toss me a vote~~