A Shocking Change in Mud Alley, Mortal Blood Ignites a Deathbound Resolve

Night.

In the outer city of Black Mud City, Mud Alley.

There was no moonlight overhead. The towering barrier of light formed by the inner city's grand array shot into the heavens, bathing this ruined, stinking alley in a deathly white glow.

The boundary between immortals and mortals was drawn crystal clear.

Inside the light barrier was spiritual energy that never dispersed year-round.

Outside it were flowing filth and the bones of the starving.

The cellar in the back courtyard was stifling and foul, the stench of yellow mud mixed with blood boring straight into their nostrils.

Zhang Elder and Fourth Li from next door squatted at the bottom of the pit, both covered in mud.

Beside them lay the corpse of the immortal city guard.

His throat had been smashed completely to pulp by a farm tool.

Fourth Li's hands shook uncontrollably. The broken iron shovel he had been using to dig slipped from his grip, fell, and struck a stone with a dull thud.

He hurriedly bent down to pick it up, but his knees gave out, and he collapsed into the yellow mud.

"Elder Zhang... we can't do this."

Fourth Li panted heavily, his chest heaving violently.

"Let's stop burying him! We can't cover up this smell at all. They have a Spirit-Seeking Compass—they'll find their way here sooner or later!"

Fourth Li clawed at his own hair.

"Let's run while it's dark! Get out of the city and try our luck at Immortal-Breaking Mountain. It's better than waiting here to die!"

Half of Zhang Elder's body remained hidden in the shadows.

He said nothing. His withered five fingers, caked in yellow mud, shot out and gripped Fourth Li's wrist.

The old man's strength was astonishing. His knuckles had turned bluish white from the force.

Fourth Li could not break free.

Zhang Elder released him and pulled the black stone from inside his tattered cotton-padded jacket.

It was a fragment that had broken off the thirty-thousand-jin City-Guarding Stele during the day.

The broken stone was still stained with blood that had sprayed from the guard's neck.

Thick blood covered its surface.

Yet before their eyes, the blood did not dry or clot.

Instead, it seeped rapidly into the stone.

The dark blood was swallowed by the stone in great gulps.

In only a few breaths, every trace of liquid on the stone's surface had vanished.

Zhang Elder's wrist sank.

After absorbing the blood, the fragment had suddenly gained several jin in weight, dragging heavily downward.

Several faint, dark-red archaic patterns emerged across the rough stone surface.

As the archaic patterns lit up, the icy stele fragment began to radiate a distinct warmth.

The heat penetrated the calluses in Zhang Elder's palm.

Zhang Elder pulled open his tattered cotton-padded jacket and pressed the warm fragment directly against his sunken chest.

Stone against flesh.

A savage, violent vitality poured straight into him through his weathered skin.

Zhang Elder's waist had been broken by an immortal master in the mines long ago, leaving him hunched and bent for decades.

At that moment, a dense series of crisp cracks erupted from his broken, misshapen joints.

A real, scorching heat surged through his spine.

The blazing energy dissolved decades of stagnant blood from old wounds.

His broken bones were forcibly pried apart and set back into place by that barbaric power.

With the grating of bone against bone, the old man's severely bent back slowly rose higher, inch by inch.

Zhang Elder straightened his back.

His broad shoulders fully unfurled, and strength filled the gaps between his shriveled muscles.

Fourth Li crouched beside him, his mouth slightly open. He had even stopped breathing.

No spiritual root.

No drawing in and exhaling spiritual energy.

An old mud-legged peasant with one foot in the grave had actually used a broken stone to heal his shattered waist in the blink of an eye and regain the physique of a strong man.

Fourth Li stared at Zhang Elder's ramrod-straight back.

The numbness and submission that had guarded his eyes for half a lifetime completely receded.

In their place was naked, overwhelming desire.

"Clang!"

A tremendous commotion suddenly erupted outside the alley.

Heavy black-iron war boots stomped across the bluestone pavement. Their synchronized footsteps made the ground tremble faintly.

Five immortal city guards carried dazzling spiritual-energy torches, illuminating the narrow Mud Alley as bright as day.

The guard captain at the front raised his foot and violently kicked in the broken wooden door of a nearby home.

The door splintered and crashed into the house.

"You lowly trash, why are you moving so slowly?!"

The captain's roar made the entire alley hum.

Then came a shrill howl of wind tearing through the night.

A barbed whip lashed down viciously.

The old woman next door screamed, her cry instantly piercing through the wall.

Dull sounds of flesh being torn apart came one after another.

The whip continued to crack.

The old woman's screams gradually weakened, then vanished completely. Only the heavy stench of blood drifted over the wall into the Zhang family courtyard.

Inside the cellar.

Zhang Elder reacted swiftly. He grabbed two large handfuls of yellow mud and smeared them over the guard's face, crudely concealing his original features.

Then he seized Fourth Li by the collar and forcibly dragged him out of the cellar.

The two of them hurriedly covered the wooden boards over it.

Zhang Elder crossed the courtyard in a few strides and returned to the ruined house.

His seven-year-old grandson was curled up in the corner of the bed, trembling.

Zhang Elder yanked the boy over and shielded him firmly behind his back.

"Bang!"

The Zhang family's tottering courtyard gate was kicked off at the roots, wood chips flying everywhere.

The guard captain strode into the courtyard.

He glanced at the sewage and excrement covering the ground, frowned in extreme disgust, then turned sideways to avoid the filth. His black-iron war boots landed precisely upon the clean steps.

The captain flicked his wrist.

A black-iron spear gleaming with cold light tore through the door curtain. Its tip thrust forward and pressed hard against Zhang Elder's throat.

Zhang Elder did not move.

The captain drew out a jade slip glowing with blue-green light from his waist and raised it high in one hand.

Driven by true essence, the jade slip lit up.

Without even looking at the people in the courtyard, the captain began reading aloud.

"The City Lord bestows mercy!"

"Today, young children of the outer city whose spiritual apertures have not opened are specially selected to enter the inner city!"

"They shall bathe in immortal grace and cleanse away their foulness!"

His voice echoed through the entire Mud Alley.

Every mortal in Mud Alley understood perfectly well.

The inner city's array wall had just been smashed down during the day. Where could any immortal grace possibly come from in the middle of the night?

They were clearly here to seize living people.

They would use the heart's blood of young boys and girls as fuel for the array, forcibly patching the cracks in the grand formation.

The little boy behind Zhang Elder burst into loud sobs, clutching the hem of his grandfather's clothing with both hands.

Impatience flashed across the captain's face as he cursed under his breath.

The spear in his hand tilted aside, its tip leaving Zhang Elder's throat.

His free left hand reached straight over Zhang Elder's shoulder and grabbed directly for the little boy's hair.

Fourth Li hid in the shadows behind the door.

Both hands clenched tightly around the pointed boning knife used for slaughtering pigs.

Cold sweat rolled down his forehead in great drops, splashing straight into his eyes and stinging fiercely.

Fourth Li moved one foot forward half an inch.

Then he sucked in huge breaths, his shoulders slumping as that foot drew back again.

The blade rubbed back and forth against his coarse cloth trouser leg.

Between cowardice and blood-fierceness, his mind underwent a violent struggle.

Zhang Elder lowered his head slightly.

The spear tip had just cut his skin, and beads of blood rolled down his neck.

The old man's left hand remained hidden inside his coarse cloth sleeve.

It gripped the scalding City-Guarding Stele fragment tightly.

Veins rose one by one across the back of his hand.

The archaic patterns on the stone grew hotter and hotter.

Zhang Elder suddenly raised his head.

He stared at the hand reaching for his grandson.

All the humiliation he had bottled up for half a lifetime drained completely from the old man's eyes.

What remained was nothing but pure madness.