"M—my son…" tears escaped the wells of Long Nuhuang's eyes as she knelt before the crater where her child stood just moments before.
Long Huangdi stood by her side. Tears escaped him as well, but his expression was one of supreme fury!
The City Lord, seeing that everything finally calmed down, walked into the coliseum that was now in ruin.
After looking around, his expression turned to one of displeasure.
"Long Huangdi, what happened to the Destiny Scale!? Don't tell me that your son's phenomenon destroyed it!?"
When Long Huandi heard this, he nearly vomited blood in anger! Did this man not have any scruples!?
His son died literally moments ago, and he was worried about the damned Destiny Scale!?
It was because of that damned thing why he couldn't take his son away from here!
"City Lord, one can eat jade but not spew waste! My son has died while my wife is consumed with grief! We will need time to mourn!"
City Lord Weisheng Zhensheng's face only scrunched up in derision, "Hmph! Your son!? Look at what has happened to this place! We're lucky the entire city is still standing! If it fell, how many thousands of people do you think would have died!? Yet, throughout this disaster, only one person died. You call this grief? I call this a reason for celebration!" The City Lord sneered.
"You!" Long Huangdi was enraged at this shameless old fox who found joy in his misfortune.
It was no secret that apart from Li Ren, the City Lord Weisheng Zhensheng hated Long Huangdi.
The latter was much younger than the City Lord while his initial cultivation was stronger to boot.
City Lord Weisheng Zhensheng always believed that Long Huangdi was after his position and would use his stronger cultivation at the time to wrest the position away from him.
This was why during the last expedition taken to quell the rampage of magical beasts caused by the eruption within Dragon Domain.
During one particularly bad rampage, City Lord Weisheng Zhensheng and Long Huangdi were surrounded by a sea of beasts.
With their backs again the wall, Long Huangdi went all out and executed a powerful attack that left him momentarily weak and thus expected the City Lord to back him up to wipe out the beasts, but to Long Huangdi's horror, Weisheng Zhensheng took the chance to escape instead.
Surprisingly enough, Long Huangdi made it through and survived! However, he had suffered an attack that damaged his meridians and blood vessels, causing his cultivation to regress to what it was today.
Seeing that he was much weaker than even his fellow family leaders, City Lord Weisheng Zhensheng used this to suppress Long Huangdi constantly.
In addition, he knew that the man's son was extraordinary. Calling down something like that wouldn't have been good for the City Lord.
Something like this could only happen to herald the arrival of a prodigy or a demon, so he relished in the fact that it took care of itself.
The only thing he felt bitter about was the fact that the Destiny Scale was lost in the process.
"Bastard!" Long Huangdi was now angered beyond words. He couldn't even formulate a proper response to this shameless man's claim that this was a cause for celebration.
Suddenly, the sobbing sounds from Long Nuhuang faded away. She slowly stood up and her reddened eyes and tear-stained face landed in the direction of the City Lord.
When the latter saw this, his face turned slightly red in embarrassment. Which man would say to a woman's face that the death of her son that she carried for nine months is a good thing?
Thankfully, she didn't say anything to make it more difficult for him. She simply brushed by him, not wanting to look at him any longer, or anyone else for that matter.
Oddly enough, this was more shameful than if she actually berated him. Still, a shadow fell over the city today.
Many things would change in this city as well, but this story is best saved for another time.
…
So guess where I am. Well, I couldn't tell you if you were right or wrong cause even I don't know where I am.
After I got blown up, I didn't die; I got transported to some dark, dreary place. I'm guessing the lighting and the energy from the Destiny Scale ripped open a hole in space and flung me here. You know how normal cultivation logic goes.
The Destiny Scale that was on the outside is gone. I'm in a buttload of pain, and the worst part is that I didn't even land anywhere soft. I'm on something really hard and cold; I tell ya, the so-called good luck from the goddess doesn't count for crap here.
"I—Is he dead?"
"He looks dead. Look at his expressionless demeanour and dull fishlike eyes."
How rude don't these people know that expressionless MCs are totally in right now?
"I don't know, he kinda looks pretty heroic down there. Even if he isn't alive."
Now that person knows what they're talking about. I guess these people don't use the word cool, so heroic is the de facto cool substitute.
I tried my best to take in my surroundings. So it looks like I'm in a crater of sorts, created by a part of the destructive potential of the power that brought me here.
Standing above me at the rim of the crater were 4 people.
As they slid down the crater's declining slope, I got a closer look at them.
Some had sharpened claws, which proves that they either had some skilful manicurists or a lack of them. In place of some human parts were animal parts, such as cat and wolf-like ears, fangs, dragon scales on the skin and so on.
These were some of the characteristics belonging to those from the Demon Race. Which meant that I was in the Demon Region… great.
Judging by their body shapes and demeanour, it was easy to tell that there were two males and two females.
One of the figures stooped down and placed his hands on my chest. A while later, he closed his eyes, as if to sense my condition. Either that, or he's feeling my heart.
"Hey, he's alive, but he is pretty badly damaged!" The youth stared on in horror.
"I've never seen this level of damage before. In fact, I have no idea how he's still alive! He's really lucky," he said in disbelief.
"Then why don't we bring him back to the village for the elders to take a look at him?" one of the girls in the group said shyly.
This girl was quite pretty. No, stunning was the right word to use. Even Qin Ling fell short a bit.
She didn't have animal or beast-like body parts like the rest.
Instead, she appeared entirely human, except for the fact that her hair was like materialised white mist that continuously waved and undulated despite the lack of wind. A few strands naturally curled down as they cradled her face, increasing her beauty even more.
Her skin was pale, white even, akin to the purest pearl. Her most striking features, however, were her eyes. They were entirely black, dotted with small lights, reminiscent of a moonless night with the stars on full display.
The other youth that remained standing shook his head in refusal. "You're too naïve, Shen Ling. He's obviously a human, he's lucky that we haven't killed him," he said in obvious displeasure.
Man, the level of racism here was no joke.
This youth was your average demon. He possessed fangs, sharpened claws, and all the usual tropes.
Demons were naturally gifted regarding body cultivation. It was said that some used the power of their body alone to reach the dao.
"Hey look at what he's resting on," the other girl spoke up, narrowing her eyes at my resting place. Her tone indicated that she was the leader of this small group.
"Oh, good God! I-Is that an entire bed of Cold Soul Ore!? What a lucky bastard!"
"Idiot!" The girl who brought it up slapped the youth who shouted in the back of his head. "What did the texts say about Cold Soul Ore? Look at the difference!"
The youth turned red in embarrassment when he heard this. Aware that the girl was ridiculing his lack of studies since he always snuck out to have fun.
Cold Soul Ore was an extremely rare kind of ore. It was entirely crystalline in appearance, practically see-through.
It possessed a natural affinity towards cold. Legends say that it was so cold that it could even freeze one's spiritual qi, hence the name. Using some of it in the creation of a weapon could increase its destructive potential several times over, whilst also allowing it to gain ice attributes.
However, this particular metal was dull. It boasted a black-greyish colour that appeared to have been irreparably stained by dirt. The only reason why the girl noticed it was because of the slight cold aura it emanated, letting her know it wasn't ordinary.
Lord knows I felt it and it was hella uncomfortable.
This youth probably felt it as well. This was why he foolishly thought it was one of the few peak-grade metal ores.
On the other hand, the girl knew that something was off because even though the cold aura felt weak, it also felt inherently heavy, like nothing could stop it.
After a while, the girl decided, to my great joy. "We'll bring this ore and the human back with us."
"Wait, senior sister, I can understand the ore, but why the human?" The young demon race disciple that chided Shen Ling for her naivety quickly asked.
When their senior sister heard this, her expression darkened. "Tie Lang, you dare to question me, the team leader!? You believe this young lady won't beat you up!?"
She puffed out her chest as she stared at him. Posing so as to appear more adult than she really was.
She was lacking in the adult department, if you catch my drift, but I'm not saying anything.
The youth named Tie Lang quickly apologised. "S—Sorry, senior sister Feng. Junior apprentice-brother was wrong."
"Hmph! It's good you know you were wrong," she didn't scold him anymore.
She quickly inspected me, since I had closed his eyes ever since one of them called them fishlike.
"It looks like he's knocked out. Guess his injuries were a bit too much. Junior sister Shen Ling and junior brother Jia Yan carry the human back. I'll take the ore back in my storage ring."
Listening to their senior sister, she took out a cart and placed Long Di on it. After Shen Ling performed some emergency first aid on me, they quickly went on their way.
Now I'm not complaining, but is this kidnapping?