Sunset Glow Slope

"...The blood letter arrived at noon today. Elder Cheng put it away. He didn't want you to know."

In the guest room, Luo Lan spoke rapidly, his face pale as he recounted everything he had just seen in a single breath. By the end, his voice was almost a sob. "That girl called A Heng, and her grandfather-Blood Butcher took them to the mountain god temple on Sunset Glow Slope. Blood Butcher said you have to go alone within three days, or else..."

He couldn't go on. Xiao Yan sat on the bed and listened quietly. From beginning to end, there was no expression on his haggard face. Only when he heard the words "her grandfather" did something stir faintly in the depths of his eyes. When Luo Lan finished, he was silent for a moment before slowly rising to his feet. His figure was still gaunt, his steps still somewhat unsteady, but the instant he stood, Luo Lan inexplicably felt the air in the room turn several degrees colder.

"Where is Sunset Glow Slope?" Xiao Yan asked, his voice calm.

"Thirty li west of the city..." Luo Lan answered instinctively. Then he suddenly realized what was happening and grabbed Xiao Yan's sleeve. "You're going? You've only just come out of seclusion! Your injuries haven't healed! Blood Butcher is at the Late-Stage Divine Soul Realm, and he has several Blood God Clan members with him. Going alone is suicide! I'll go with you! I'll ask granduncle to send people..."

"The blood letter said to go alone," Xiao Yan interrupted him. "If anyone from the Luo God Clan goes, A Heng will be the first one they kill."

Luo Lan opened his mouth, but no words came. Xiao Yan looked down at him, and a faint smile finally appeared on his calm face. He reached out and patted the youth on the shoulder. "Don't worry. I'm not that easy to kill yet. Help me with one thing."

"What is it?"

"Wait until I've been gone for an hour before telling your granduncle," Xiao Yan said. "Just tell him I've gone to Sunset Glow Slope."

Luo Lan froze. He didn't understand what Xiao Yan meant, but when he raised his head and saw Xiao Yan's eyes, calm to an almost frightening degree, he finally gritted his teeth and nodded firmly.

Xiao Yan said nothing more. He pushed open the door and walked into the courtyard. Outside the courtyard gate, several Luo God Clan experts standing guard saw him emerge and were about to step forward and question him. Xiao Yan merely glanced at them, and an inexplicable chill shot up their spines. Their steps faltered, and they didn't dare stop him.

Elder Luo Cheng was speaking with someone beneath a covered walkway not far away. When he saw Xiao Yan, his expression changed slightly, and he hurried over, a smile spreading across his face. "Mister Xiao, you've come out of seclusion? Congratulations! The clan leader gave orders that if you needed anything..."

Xiao Yan walked past him without stopping. Only as they passed shoulder to shoulder did he speak, his voice indifferent. "Keep that piece of cloth."

The smile on Elder Luo Cheng's face instantly froze. Cold sweat streamed down his forehead, and by the time he came to his senses, the gaunt figure had already disappeared beyond the gates of the Luo Shen Residence.

An hour later, deep within the Luo Shen Residence, in a secluded bamboo grove courtyard.

Luo Lan knelt outside the courtyard gate, his forehead pressed against the cold flagstones. His voice trembling, he recounted every detail of the blood letter, Elder Cheng's concealment of it, and Xiao Yan's departure for Sunset Glow Slope alone. The bamboo grove remained quiet for a long while before the tightly shut bamboo gate slowly opened.

Luo Tianshen stood inside the gate, still dressed in his drab gray cloth robe. There was no expression on his face, but Luo Lan distinctly felt that, at that moment, the bamboo leaves in the courtyard had all stopped swaying.

"He told you to wait an hour before coming to tell me?" Luo Tianshen asked.

"Yes..."

Luo Tianshen was silent for a moment, an indescribable look flashing through his cloudy old eyes. He understood what the young man meant. An hour was enough for him to reach Sunset Glow Slope, enough for him to settle the matter with Blood Butcher. If he won, the Luo God Clan would not have to openly fall out with the Blood God Clan for his sake. If he lost... that would be his own affair, and the Luo God Clan could still stay out of it. From beginning to end, the young man had never intended to drag the Luo God Clan into the mess.

"Get up," Luo Tianshen said indifferently. "Go fetch Luo Cheng. Tell him to kneel at the ancestral hall."

"Then... Xiao Yan..."

Luo Tianshen clasped his hands behind his back and looked west, where the evening glow was a vivid red. "There's no need to go. If he can't even deal with Blood Butcher, then he isn't worth teaching the Reverse Scale Spirit-Guiding Method."

Sunset Glow Slope lived up to its name. Every dusk, as the sun sank in the west, the entire slope was dyed blood-red, as though blanketed in the evening glow. That was how it had gotten its name.

When Xiao Yan reached the foot of the slope, it was just dusk. He stood there for a moment, looking up at the mountain god temple dyed red by the evening glow. His soul perception quietly spread out. There were seven presences inside and outside the temple: five cold and tainted, one faint and aged, and another, small one that was trembling nonstop.

He had ridden no mount, nor had he flown on bone wings. He hadn't even stopped to catch his breath along the way. Just like that, step by step, he had walked thirty li of mountain roads from Luo Shen City to get here. He needed the journey to thoroughly stabilize the tenth of his Spiritual Energy he had just assimilated. He also needed it to let his heart grow completely cold.

At the top of the slope, the dilapidated mountain god temple stood silently amid the blood-red evening glow. At its entrance, two Blood God Clan members in dark red robes leaned against the doorframe, yawning. When they saw the figure walking toward them alone from the foot of the slope, they were startled. Then one turned and rushed into the temple, while the other tightened his grip on his saber and stared at Xiao Yan with cold eyes.

Xiao Yan paid them no attention. He simply walked step by step up the overgrown path toward the top of the slope. He did not walk quickly. The weeds beneath his feet silently withered and curled after he passed, finally turning to fine ash that scattered in the evening breeze.

"He's here, he's here! That brat really came!" A burst of laughter came from the temple. Then four figures emerged through the temple entrance, half of which had collapsed. Blood Butcher was at their head. Arms folded across his chest, he stood on the steps and looked down at Xiao Yan, his dark red eyes full of mockery and satisfaction.

"I thought those turtles hiding in their shells in the Luo God Clan could protect you for life," Blood Butcher said with a grin. "What, couldn't bear to abandon the old man and the little girl?"

Xiao Yan stopped thirty yards in front of the temple. His gaze passed over Blood Butcher and the Blood God Clan members behind him, reaching into the temple. Inside the dim hall, beneath a headless clay statue of a god, a small, thin figure bound with hemp rope struggled to raise her head. The instant she made out the figure outside, surprise and joy appeared on her tear-streaked little face, followed by fear, and finally a heart-rending cry.

"Big Brother Xiao! Don't come over! Hurry and leave! They're going to kill you!"

Xiao Yan looked at her, then at the motionless old man lying beside her. The old man's chest was still rising and falling faintly. He was alive. At that moment, Xiao Yan's fingers tightened slightly inside his sleeve, his knuckles turning white. He remembered that bowl of black medicinal broth, remembered the words "It's good that you're awake," and remembered the two crystals at the city gate, warmed by the girl's tight grip.

He withdrew his gaze and looked at Blood Butcher. "I'm here. Let them go."

"Let them go?" Blood Butcher roared with laughter, rocking back and forth. "Are you stupid? You think I went to all that trouble to lure you out just to exchange you for them?"

His laughter stopped abruptly, killing intent surging in his dark red eyes. "I want you on your knees, writing out the formula for the Poison-Dispelling Pill, one word at a time. Then, right in front of this girl, I'm going to crush your bones, inch by inch. Once you're dead, the old man and the little girl..." He glanced back into the temple and licked his lips. "I won't waste them either."

Xiao Yan listened quietly. The evening glow grew redder and redder, its color reflected on his face and in his eyes, dyeing those pitch-black pupils a deep, dark red.

"Finished?" he asked. Blood Butcher froze, but Xiao Yan had already raised his right hand, palm down and fingers slightly spread. A faint glimmer flashed across his Storage Ring, and the next instant, a broad, heavy giant ruler, pitch-black from end to end, appeared in his hand out of thin air. Its tip hung down and touched the ground lightly.

Thud.

The ground on Sunset Glow Slope cracked apart silently, centered on the tip of the ruler. Fissures spread rapidly like a spiderweb, reaching Blood Butcher and the others' feet in the blink of an eye.

The smile on Blood Butcher's face froze completely. The Blood God Clan members behind him turned pale and instinctively took a step back. The giant ruler looked utterly ordinary, with no glow of Spiritual Energy at all, yet a mere touch from it had cracked the slope into such a state. The weight and force it held were simply inconceivable!

The Heavy Xuan Ruler. This heavy ruler, which had accompanied Xiao Yan all the way from Wutan City to the pinnacle of the Dou Qi Continent, had appeared in his hand once more for the first time since he came to this world.

Holding the Heavy Xuan Ruler, Xiao Yan raised his head and looked at Blood Butcher on the steps. For the first time, a trace of an icy smile appeared on his haggard face.

"Then it's my turn to speak."