North Mang

The Luo family, an established lineage of Great Xia, had been exterminated by the Four Symbols Cult and the Blood God Cult. Not even a chicken or dog had been spared. Within days, news of the massacre swept across the land, shocking the world.

Although Zhao Changhe had already heard several people speak of troubled times at every turn, the world had not yet descended into complete chaos. Rebels rose everywhere, bandits ran rampant, foreign peoples watched like hungry tigers, great houses occupied their own territories, and ambitious schemers stirred restlessly... Yet a unified empire, Great Xia, still existed in name. These were the signs of a dynasty's twilight, not yet an age when rival heroes chased the deer of dominion.

Many had occupied mountains and declared themselves kings, but none had openly raised the banner of rebellion. They still remained mere "bandits" and "Demon Cults."

The defining watershed between this state of affairs and truly troubled times would generally begin with killing officials, rebelling, storming cities, and seizing territory. That would mean the court's authority had vanished entirely.

The Luo family had not been especially powerful, but it had a long history and counted as a lineage of recognized standing. It also had one particular distinction-rumor held that the Luo family had ties to the imperial house.

Zhao Changhe had heard Yue Hongling say as much as soon as he arrived. Although nobody could explain exactly what those ties were, they might well have been more than rumor. First Seat Tang had not even waited for his main force, instead rushing through the night to rescue them despite his illness. That alone was a kind of proof.

Now this local lineage connected to the imperial house had been wiped out overnight by the Demon Cult. It was no different from slapping the imperial family resoundingly across the face. It seemed to herald the full opening of the curtain on troubled times—wind filled the tower before the mountain storm.

And amid it all, a previously unknown name entered the public eye through Great Xia's wanted notices.

The killer, Zhao Changhe!

A thousand miles away, North Mang.

Snow filled the sky and blanketed a thousand miles of mountains, leaving everything white.

Zhao Changhe, whose name had just begun to spread, was currently feeling utterly fed up.

He stood atop a mountain in the biting wind, gazing into the distance. His clothes were thin, and he was freezing to death. Luo Qi stood beside him, both of them expressionless.

That day, First Seat Tang had been alone and ill. He could not force his way into the enemy ranks to take Zhao Changhe's head, so he had only taken Luo Zhenwu's body and left. Having offered his "pledge of allegiance," Zhao Changhe had naturally been brought back by the Demon Cult to join them. Luo Qi, who had been beside him, had been taken along as well, regarded as part of Zhao Changhe's group...

Clearly, Luo Qi had never intended to join any Demon Cult, but he had not dared run away either. He had reluctantly followed them here, his entire life turned upside down, and his face had remained dark throughout the journey.

Zhao Changhe understood his sour expression, but he did not think he had screwed Luo Qi over. After all, everyone at the Luo Family Manor had been killed. Without his intervention, whether Luo Qi could have survived was anyone's guess. Even if First Seat Tang could rescue Luo Zhenwu, how could he spare any attention for an outer disciple? Luo Qi's chances of being done for had been ninety-nine percent. To put it plainly, Zhao Changhe had also been saving himself; otherwise, the Demon Cult would have hacked him to death there.

Luo Qi understood that too. Despite his sour expression, he naturally accompanied Zhao Changhe wherever he went. Zhao Changhe was happy with that. After all, Luo Qi was the only familiar person he had now...

As for joining the Demon Cult, Zhao Changhe certainly had no qualms. Circumstances had forced him this far, so he might as well join. How much better than the Demon Cult could the Luo family have been?

The cultists had not gone around committing atrocities on the journey. They had simply brought the two of them back with great discretion. They rather approved of Zhao Changhe's actions and had been quite warm toward him along the way, praising him as "a true man." But Zhao Changhe still felt utterly fed up.

North Mang, North Mang... Of course his world had a place by that name, and it was fairly famous. When he first heard the name, he had thought this world followed the geography of ancient China. It did not. This North Mang had absolutely nothing to do with the Mang Mountain he knew. These mountains were deserted, with ice and snow stretching for a thousand miles. Even the city outside the mountains was a remote little place, nothing like the region around the Yellow and Luo Rivers.

This was not ancient China, but an entirely different world. He just did not know what it had to do with his dreams. Was it because this was the world of his dreams that its customs resembled China's, and its language was modern Chinese?

He did not know, but it hurt. Over these days of travel, he had slept and woken so many times without the slightest sign of returning to his own world. Zhao Changhe knew he really could not go back.

Zhao Changhe had never wanted to travel to another world. His parents were still at home. Screw transmigration-what he wanted most right now was to go home.

Whether or not killing that demoness would let him return... In any case, since the blind person possessed the ability to send someone between worlds, that meant he could likewise cultivate the ability to return. Clearly, his first priority was to learn about power as quickly as possible-for instance, opening the so-called profound passes of the human body. Only then might he glimpse a path home.

If nothing else, he would probably freeze to death here before anything happened if he did not start training.

Beside him, Luo Qi suddenly spoke. "Did you make such a spectacle of yourself for the Demon Cult's cultivation methods?"

Zhao Changhe turned to look at him. Luo Qi remained expressionless. Zhao Changhe shook his head. "What spectacle? I was avenging the innocent villagers of Zhao Cuo, and protecting myself too. Otherwise, both of us might have died there."

"Then you should have given a false name," Luo Qi said. "Why announce so arrogantly, 'The killer, Zhao Changhe'?"

Zhao Changhe laughed. "Why couldn't 'Zhao Changhe' be made up too? If I use a different name when I go out from now on, who'll know who I am...?"

Luo Qi choked on his words, then turned his head away without speaking. He looked a little cute.

Then Zhao Changhe said, "It's my real name."

Luo Qi said, "Fuck."

"I can't be bothered hiding my head and tucking away my tail. A real man doesn't change his name whether he stands or sits." Zhao Changhe flashed his teeth in a grin. "Besides, didn't you think that line sounded badass?"

Luo Qi stared, tongue-tied, unsure how to answer.

Just to show off?

At last, Zhao Changhe sighed. "Anyway, a real name or a fake one doesn't make much difference. I reckon wanted notices have already gone out everywhere. As long as the portrait looks reasonably like me, it won't matter what name I use... Hmm, let's hope First Seat Tang can't draw."

Luo Qi sneered. "First Seat Tang is famously accomplished in the zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting. His talent and looks are both without equal. He's renowned throughout Great Xia."

Zhao Changhe shrugged. "Forget it, then. It's done. What can I do about it now?"

Luo Qi let the matter drop and changed the subject. "Actually, people strive to climb higher. There's nothing strange about that... I just wonder whether you're a little disappointed that it wasn't the Four Symbols Cult that brought us back, but the Blood God Cult. The Blood God Cult isn't much better than the Luo family. Its foundations might even be inferior."

Zhao Changhe had originally thought he could join the Four Symbols Cult too. Clearly, the destruction of the Luo family had depended not on the Blood God Cult, but on the Four Symbols Cult's Vermilion Bird Venerable. The Blood God Cult had merely lent a hand. But once First Seat Tang left, the Vermilion Bird Venerable had also departed without another word. Most of those remaining were Blood God cultists, so naturally the two of them had been brought along to join the Blood God Cult.

They had not even followed Cult Master Xue to the Headquarters. They had merely been brought to the North Mang Branch, suggesting they were not considered particularly important.

Thinking about it, they really would not value him much. What prospects could an overaged young man with no cultivation at all, who had betrayed his master, possibly have? But the Demon Cult needed recruits too. Someone who had offered a pledge of allegiance to join them would naturally be regarded as one of their own. If they refused even someone like that, where did they expect to find recruits?

Had Zhao Changhe been a few years younger, or already possessed powerful cultivation, he might have been given a decent position. Instead, a ritual was taking place inside, and they were not even permitted to watch. They could only stand outside in the cold wind.

"I'm not disappointed. Having somewhere to go is enough. Staying with the Luo family would've meant getting wiped out anyway. What else could I do?" Zhao Changhe did not dwell on the subject, instead asking, "Are you still angry with me? We've been traveling for days. Are you ever going to stop pulling that face? I wasn't the one who destroyed the Luo family. Without what I did, don't you know perfectly well whether you'd still be alive? Unless you're so blindly loyal to Luo Zhenwu that you want to avenge him?"

Luo Qi sighed. "As you said, the Four Symbols Cult and the Blood God Cult destroyed the Luo family, not you. What could I blame you for? It's just that my life has been thrown into chaos, and the road ahead is unclear. I'm in a bad mood. I'm not deliberately giving you dirty looks. I hope you understand."

Zhao Changhe did understand, but he asked another question. "Then do you hate the Blood God Cult? You were born into the Luo Family. Were your parents... there?"

"Heh..." Luo Qi shook his head. "My parents have been gone for a long time... I just find it strange. Why exactly did they want to wipe out the Luo family?"

Why they had destroyed the Luo family might indeed be important. Zhao Changhe quickly thought of his second "Position Card" from when he had crossed worlds. Since his "Eyes Behind the Head" really worked, the Position Card could not have been shooting at nothing. It had to be connected to the Luo family. Perhaps he could ask once he had truly joined the cult...

Then Luo Qi said, "The Blood God Cult isn't as mysterious and unfathomable as the Four Symbols Cult. It's quite active in the world, often recruiting all kinds of bandits to pillage everywhere... So they distinguish between formal cult members and affiliated bandits. It's hard to say what treatment we'll get... If you manage to join formally, lend me a hand in the future."

So that was why he had taken the initiative to ease the tension. Zhao Changhe was the one who had rendered a service and stood a good chance of being admitted to the cult. Luo Qi did not.

Zhao Changhe understood that too. Earlier, Yue Hongling had mistakenly believed that the black-clad men who slaughtered Zhao Cuo were bandits affiliated with the Blood God Cult, because their martial arts were all crude tricks that revealed nothing of their origins. Clearly, if he was only recruited into that sort of position, it would be utterly useless.

Just then, the concealed door behind them opened a crack, and someone called through it, "The branch chief wants the two of you to come inside for a talk."

Here it comes, both of them thought. They exchanged a glance, then turned and entered.

A concealed door lay beneath the snow and ice in a mountain hollow. Behind it, a narrow path wound downward into the depths of the mountain.

The space within the mountain was neither large nor small. A pool of blood encircled an altar, with room beside it for several hundred people to participate in a ritual.

This was the Blood God Cult's Sub-Helm ritual altar. Many more bandits were not permitted inside and could only build a stockade to live in on the mountain amid the wind, snow, and ice.

At that moment, torches burned brightly around the blood pool. Over a hundred formal cult members sat in a strange formation around its edges, praying in silence. The Sub-Helm chief stood upon the altar, chanting words to the effect that their operation had gone smoothly under the Blood God's protection.

So this was a religious cult, not a martial sect.

But judging by what he saw now, there was nothing mystical about the scene, no surging waves of blood. It felt a little like mere superstition.

"Are there gods in this world?" Zhao Changhe asked Luo Qi quietly.

"Yes." Luo Qi was certain. "Nobody's seen a true god, but there are plenty of miracles... Everyone believes."

"What miracles?" Zhao Changhe hurriedly asked.

He had already felt that this should not be a world of low-level martial arts. Otherwise, how could he explain the blind person's ability to send someone across worlds?

Luo Qi gave him a strange look. "You don't know?"

"I don't."

"You fucking live in this world, and you've never seen the Book of Troubled Times!"