The Luo God Clan's Guest

As night fell, Xiao Yan entered the gates of Luo Shen City, carrying A Heng's grandfather on his back and holding A Heng's hand.

The guard at the gate instinctively reached out to stop the three of them, but when his eyes met Xiao Yan's, his outstretched hand inexplicably froze in midair. By the time he came to his senses, they had already walked into the shadows of the gate passage.

Xiao Yan did not return to the Luo Shen Residence. Instead, he went straight to the Luo Pill Pavilion.

Elder Qin had been roused from sleep by an apprentice. The old man threw on an outer robe and hurried downstairs. When he saw the blood-soaked old man on Xiao Yan's back, he asked nothing, immediately had a quiet room cleared, and personally examined and treated him.

"Three broken ribs, and his internal organs have been corroded by blood baleful Qi. Fortunately, he was brought here in time, and he was given a pill to protect his heart meridian first..." Elder Qin frowned as he inserted his needles. "He won't die, but he'll need a good long while to recover."

As he spoke, he looked up at Xiao Yan, a question in his eyes.

"The Blood God Clan did it," Xiao Yan said calmly.

Elder Qin's hand paused slightly. He asked no more, only sighed and lowered his head to continue inserting needles.

A Heng had stayed by the bed the whole time, her small body curled up on a low stool as she clutched her grandfather's withered hand. Her eyes were swollen like peaches from crying, but she had not made a sound. Only when Elder Qin said "he won't die" did her body, taut for the entire day, finally relax. Leaning against the edge of the bed, she fell fast asleep.

Xiao Yan covered her with an outer robe and took another look at the old man, whose breathing was gradually growing steady. Only then did he tiptoe out of the quiet room.

In the Luo Pill Pavilion's covered corridor, the night breeze was cool. He leaned against the railing, gazed at the statue of Luo Shen glowing faintly in the distance beneath the night sky, and let out a long breath.

Inside him, his meridians throbbed in waves. That Flame Splitting Wave Ruler and that Eight Extremes Collapse had nearly squeezed dry the tenth of his Spiritual Energy. Now, the space outside those three hundred and sixty reverse scales was empty, with only the Dou Qi that had yet to be assimilated churning slowly.

Yet his heart was surprisingly calm.

"Blood Butcher-you didn't kill him?"

Elder Qin had come out at some point. Standing beside him, he asked in a low voice.

"I crippled him," Xiao Yan said. "His dantian is shattered. He can forget about ever fighting again."

Elder Qin fell silent for a moment, then shook his head. "What you did will bring more trouble than killing him. Blood Butcher is the grandson of Xue Li, an elder of the Blood God Clan. That old bastard Xue Li is fiercely protective of his own. You crippled his grandson; he won't let this rest."

"I know," Xiao Yan said calmly.

"Then why did you still..."

"If I'd killed him, the Blood God Clan still wouldn't have let it rest." Xiao Yan turned to look at Elder Qin. "But if he lives, every day he looks at his crippled dantian, he'll remember today. He'll remember what he did to an old man and a little girl."

Elder Qin opened his mouth, but in the end said nothing. He merely sighed inwardly. A young man like this, on the Blood God Clan's side, would be a vicious wolf. But on the Luo God Clan's side... perhaps he would be a mountain.

He looked at the young man before him. The expression on that haggard face was calm, without a single ripple, yet he could distinctly sense something beneath that calm that he could not see through: something cold and hard.

That night, Xiao Yan did not return to the Luo Shen Residence. He sat in the Luo Pill Pavilion's covered corridor all night.

In the latter half of the night, A Heng woke once and wandered out of the quiet room in a daze. When she saw him sitting beneath the railing, she paused, then sat down beside him, hugged her knees, and rested her head against his arm.

"Brother Xiao..." she said softly. "You shouldn't have come."

"Why?"

"There were so many of them, and that red-eyed one was so fierce..." A Heng's voice trembled. "At the temple, I kept begging Heaven, begging it not to let you come."

Xiao Yan looked down at her and smiled. "But it seems your Heaven didn't hear you."

A Heng sniffled, wanting to cry and laugh at once. In the end, she buried her face in her knees and said in a muffled voice, "Brother Xiao, from now on... I'll cultivate hard. I don't want to be taken away again, and I don't want to drag you down again."

"You didn't drag anyone down," Xiao Yan said softly. "I was the one who implicated you."

The girl said nothing more. She simply leaned against his arm, and before long, she fell fast asleep again.

Xiao Yan sat there without moving, all the way until daybreak.

Early the next morning, a group of people arrived outside the gates of the Luo Shen Residence.

More than twenty Blood God Clan experts in dark red robes stood before the residence gates, bristling with killing intent. At their head was an old man whose hair and beard were both red. His face was gaunt, his eyes crimson, and a sickeningly thick stench of blood hung around him. His presence was countless times stronger than Blood Butcher's. Wherever he passed, even the two white jade statues flanking the gates seemed to be stained a faint red.

A Seventh Grade Sovereign and elder of the Blood God Clan, Xue Li.

Behind him, two Blood God Clan members carried a stretcher. Lying on it was none other than Blood Butcher. His face was ashen, his eyes lifeless, and dried blood still clung to the corners of his mouth. His once towering body had shriveled like a dried corpse.

"Luo God Clan!"

Xue Li's furious shout, infused with immense Spiritual Energy, exploded like rolling thunder over the Luo Shen Residence. It made the eardrums of countless people inside ache, and even pedestrians on the distant streets staggered backward.

"The little bastard who injured my grandson yesterday is in your residence! Hand him over!"

"If you don't hand him over today, my Blood God Clan and your Luo God Clan will fight until one of us is dead!"

An uproar erupted inside the Luo Shen Residence.

Before long, the gates opened and several Luo God Clan elders hurried out. Leading them was a plump, ruddy-faced elder named Luo Feng. He glanced at the Blood God Clan members bristling with killing intent outside, then at the emaciated Blood Butcher on the stretcher. Cold sweat immediately beaded on his forehead.

"Elder Xue Li, let's talk this over, talk this over..." Luo Feng said with an ingratiating smile. "I'm afraid there may be some misunderstanding..."

"Misunderstanding?" Xue Li sneered and pointed at Blood Butcher on the stretcher. "My grandson's dantian was shattered and his cultivation completely destroyed. He's a cripple for life! And you call that a misunderstanding?!"

"That little bastard is a guest elder your Luo Shen Residence is keeping, isn't he? Your clan leader, who's shut away in seclusion, arranged it personally, didn't she?"

"I'm standing right here today. Are you handing him over or not?"

Luo Feng's expression changed again and again. The elders behind him exchanged glances.

One thin elder leaned close to Luo Feng's ear and lowered his voice. "Elder Feng, he's just an outsider of unknown origins. It isn't worth tearing off all pretense with the Blood God Clan for him... The clan leader is in seclusion, and Elder Cheng has been punished by being made to kneel in the ancestral hall. If this gets out of hand..."

More and more cold sweat gathered on Luo Feng's forehead. He secretly glanced back into the depths of the residence. All was quiet there; no movement came from the little courtyard in the bamboo grove where the clan leader was in seclusion. After hesitating for a long while, he finally gritted his teeth and turned to a servant inside the residence. "Go, bring that Xiao-"

"There's no need."

A calm voice came from inside the gates.

Everyone froze and turned toward the sound.

A slender figure was walking slowly along the corridor beyond the gates. He wore a plain long robe brought by a servant of the Luo Shen Residence, and his face was still somewhat pale. Yet his steps were unhurried and remarkably steady.

A richly dressed youth followed beside him, his face full of anxiety. It was Luo Lan.

Xiao Yan walked to the gates and stopped beside the Luo God Clan elders. He looked up at the old man with red hair and beard, then glanced at Blood Butcher on the stretcher. His expression remained calm.

"I'm here," he said.

Xue Li's crimson eyes locked onto him at once, the killing intent in them almost taking tangible form.

"It was you?"

"It was me."

"Good, good, good!" Extreme rage made Xue Li laugh, and he said the word three times. The stench of blood around him abruptly surged severalfold. "I'd like to see how many heads you have to lose, you little bastard!"

He stepped forward, and a withered hand, trailing a towering flood of bloody light, clawed down at Xiao Yan's head!

It was a full-powered strike from a Seventh Grade Sovereign. The air tore wherever that claw passed, letting out a piercing shriek. Even the Luo God Clan elders standing beside Xiao Yan were forced back again and again by the pressure, their faces deathly pale.

Xiao Yan stood where he was, unmoving.

Luo Lan cried out in alarm behind him and tried to rush forward, but the pressure made his knees buckle, forcing him to the ground. He could only watch helplessly as the bloody claw drew closer and closer.

It was not that Xiao Yan did not want to move. In his current state, faced with such a claw, he simply could not move.

He merely raised his head and calmly watched the bloody claw. There was no fear in his dark eyes, only a cold calculation. His right hand had already closed quietly around the Heavy Xuan Ruler inside his Storage Ring.

Even if he died, he would tear a piece of flesh from that old bastard.

But just as the bloody claw came within three feet of his head,

a faint voice suddenly drifted out from the depths of the Luo Shen Residence.

The voice was not loud, and even sounded somewhat aged. Yet the instant it rang out, the hand wrapped in a towering flood of bloody light was forcibly stopped in midair.

It was as though a great invisible hand had gripped it tight.

"A guest of my Luo God Clan,"

the voice said slowly,

"is not yours to demand, Blood God Clan."