If he stopped moving now, however, they would not escape and be forced to fight the expert.
He turned his face away, and the man fell with a grunt, clawing at the earth to move a little further.
"Dad…?"
Crack.
"Damn it all."
Swoosh.
In an instant, the child was picked up by him, and the man who was dying on the ground, even as he began to lose his vision smiled, a few gastly words leaving his lips in a voice so quiet no one but he could hear in the chaos.
"Thank you."
Whoosh!
Swords of light fell from the sky forming a cage! Feng Wuqing turned back to look, and started to rush over, however, Shou Xi directly shattered one of the swords of the cage, a shadow flying out at breakneck speed!
"Save him."
Catching the boy in her arms, her sight was clear as day.
"Don't die."
"No promises."
"...don't die."
Without being able to say another word lest she be caught as well, Feng Wuqing rushed away at top speed with the crying child in her arms.
"Dad!" His voice cracked, shaking violently as his face twisted in grief, his arm reaching back in vain.
Shou Xin grit his teeth.
A new emotion began to rise, but it refused to be dulled even by his ever stronger blood.
Rage.
Like a spark at first, it soon began to burn his everything like a fire in a dry forest.
Several figures descended from the sky, their aura's at the peak of Mortal Chain!
Yet, the woman who spoke was above! He could not sense her cultivation at all!
"...Why do this?" Shou Xin's voice was low and strange, "Why rip loving families apart and enslave others so brutally when your own hands move mountains with ease."
It was not a questioning tone, but rather a demanding one, he sought answers.
"It is not a glorious thing. But it is necessary. The Wild States here in the Southern Direction have the greatest amount of untapped resources in all of the South. Without doing this, we will go from being the weakest direction, to simply being eaten up by the others," The woman said coldly, "It is because of these noble sacrifices, they can continue."
Hearing this, Shou Xin grinned coldly.
"Hypocrites," He spat venomously, "Acting like you do this for the Southern Direction, or like you care about any of this. All you do is try and gain support from the Exiled Court to expand. Your greed takes countless innocent lives the very same you profess to care about."
She looked down at him coldly.
"Take him."
The combined pressure of the three Ninth Chain Sword Experts of the Yan Clan pressured him as though he were beneath a massive hill. The difference in raw power was so large a gap that it could be said to be the earth and the sky!
He did not move.
"Terrified to death?"
One of the elders walked forward and swung his sword casually, seeking to take Shou Xin's sword arm.
The blade, the moment it connected to his flesh, rang out! A powerful defensive array appeared in front of him, a terrifying sword wave having been directly blocked!
Yet, it was as though he hadn't moved.
The sword artifact had, however, shattered in his hand.
At the same time, inside his body something changed, and he began to bulge all over! His Qi soared as he tried to suppress the Qi which had invaded through his own sword the moment it had touched him, however it was too late!
His soul within his Inner Sea which was like a boulder, was directly shattered!
The light vanished from his eyes, and a terrifying killing intent rose from every direction alongside the incredulous gaze of those experts.
In a single moment of carelessness, a Ninth Chain Expert of the Yan Clan had been killed by a Sixth Chain Expert!
Shou Xin, who has stood unmovingly, opened his eyes, a subtle tyrannical aura seeping out and diffusing in waves, causing those Mortal Chain Expert's to feel their hearts beating.
"Perish."
One expert shot forward, his sword directly plunging into Shou Xin's body!
However.
Swoosh.
The moment the sword entered his body, he struck out with Fukkatsu, taking the man's head before he could possibly react, his Sword Aura too weak, and his mind too flustered in his moment of rage to notice the blade that was waiting for him.
Having given up all defense, Shou Xin had lured the man into a blind offensive, the moment his sword plunged into him, he dropped his guard and Shou Xin took his life.
This is not to say the expert did not try and react, but Shou Xin's physique had tightened the moment the sword artifact impaled him, holding it for the extra breath it took to kill.
Blood dripping from the corner of his lips, Shou Xin still did not move, his bloodshot eyes staring directly at the woman who floated above.
He grinned.
His tyrannical aura intensified by many times!
The last expert didn't let down his guard, nor attack from up close.
Gathering Qi on his sword, he raised it high, seeking to directly cut Shou Xin down with no chance for a counter offensive.
Yet, another energy stepped in.
"Young miss, why?" The Expert looked at the woman floating in the sky, puzzled.
"We have lost two Elders to a boy in the Sixth Chain. How are we to explain this to their families?" She said calmly, "Capture him. The clan will decide his fate."
"Yes, Miss." The Elder looked at the youth, fear palpitating in his heart as he knew that he would need to find a way to capture him without killing him.
Yet, as he was thinking, tens of people appeared from the trees, the emblem of the Yan, a serpent eating its own tail, engraved on their robes.
A mishmash of people at the Second to Sixth Chain.
Having heard her order as they arrived, they looked at the dying youth and sensing his cultivation, they did not hesitate.
The experts eyes widened as he reached out, "Wait!"
Killing intent flared out of the crowd, and in an instant they all sensed it.
A powerful suction force.
Shou Xin's tyrannical aura shook! Fukkatsu rose out from his hand and flew out seeking to decapitate the Yan clansmen!
Swoosh.
Clang!
However!
The Elder made his move, catching Fukkatsu directly with his own sword, he was neither careless nor let his guard down.
A genuine Ninth Chain Expert guarded them, and the fear which had appeared in their hearts for that instant vanished and their killing intent flatlined as they regained their composure.
Yet, in the midst of the fighting, Fukkatsu suddenly turned back!
It flew directly for Shou Xin's throat!
"Sorry." He muttered as he began to fall forwards, his body no longer capable of withstanding the immense Qi raging in his own body. If not for the Sword Mound and the harmony, it would have directly killed him long ago.
"You think I'll let you just die so easily?" A cruel voice rang out, and it was as though space had been locked down.
Fukkatsu's edge stopped not a foot away.
Even his fall had slowed to a stop.
Many of the clans men's faces paled in horror.
Space Law.
Looking up they found the woman smiling coldly.
"You are very interesting." She waved her hand, and the countless people there all died, crushed by her immense power.
Landing before Shou Xin, who was stopped in the middle of his fall, she continued.
"So your the one my Senior Brother has been raging on about here in the east?" She squinted, "Ah, don't be upset. I didn't step in earlier because I thought it was just too interesting. Though I must say, you're really nothing special, huh."
She squinted harder, and he felt a strong feeling invading down to his very bones.
"Bone age of nineteen, potential of a practitioner. Yet, Sixth Chain. Oh dear, and has Cursed Chains? And a cursed physique! What terrible luck for one person to have yet also what good luck to have arrived here with such terrible talent, but why is your soul showing you as a black haired youth?" She muttered on, "Is it magic?"
Waves of energy washed over him.
"No, not that," She felt confused until her eyes flashed with pity.
Shou Xin's head ached, but it was not too terribly painful, he had felt so much worse.
"...So much hardship. So much struggle. But also so much triumph, and unyielding resolve. Conviction down to the very soul."
She pulled the sword him his body, and his features slowly began to recover as his Sixth Stage Physique was quick to heal without the Qi of the Ninth Chain to stop him.
"My name is Quan Qidao of the Hidden Hand. Do not forget it, cursed kid."
With a wave of her hand, space distorted and he found a second corpse, one that looked exactly like him, a fake.
He understood.
She was sparing his life.
"Who is your Senior Brother, my benefactor?" Shou Xin grit his teeth as the pain still rocked him.
Quan Qidao glanced his way and smiled.
Then, disappeared.
Left standing alone, Shou Xin set himself straight, and began the long march home, though each of his steps were vast, it would still take time.
—
The Exiled Court.
A world where the most heinous of villains from the Outer and Inner Court are sent to, as a punishment for their crimes, locked away to rot on a world incapable of holding the Endless Dao's might, limiting what they can do.
Split into four directions, the area of this world under control of the Exiled Court itself, which was put in place by the Inner Court as the guards of the only natural Great Path entrance, which would allow one to step outside the world.
A prison world.
"Senior Brother!" A woman stepped out from space on a cloud of dust, "He's alive!"
"Good." That Senior Brother said as he stood at the tip of a massive sword mountain, "He is going to the Demon Realm."
"Yes. I checked his memories and…" Her lips pursed suddenly and she shook her head,"...sorry! I know you said not to, but it was too tempting! That child should be pitiful, but he is not. He wanted to know your name, Senior Brother!"
"Did you tell him?" He turned his face half way around, revealing a heaven defying beauty which would make both men and women fall into deep sleep and kingdoms crumble.
"No!" She turned her eyes upwards.
"Next time," That Senior Brother slowly stood up, his head turned upwards where a massive shadow had appeared, thousands of demons had gathered, their strength untold!
He lightly touched the sword at his waist, there was no noise, and then suddenly space began to crack and then shattered like glass!
The countless demons were caught in it, and directly eviscerated, turned into nothing but that which flows on the breeze, not even a mist remaining.
"You may tell him this," His smile could knock away the walls of any woman's heart and shake even the sturdiest keeps, "He is the only other one like you."
—
"We have finished evacuating into the Demon Gate." Liu Gang cupped his fists.
"All of our most important things have also been moved, the Baikan defensive formation is about to break." Yui Luo cupped her fists as well.
Feng Wuqing, the barbaric beauty in a red dress, stood beside a child not much older than perhaps eight.
"The refugee's are past as well." She slowly nodded, a grave look on her face.
Perhaps they could not feel it, but the powers outside the Baikan's defensive formation were quite formidable, each of them no weaker than the Sixth or Seventh Chain.
It had been several days already, and Shou Xin had not arrived.
Yet.
As she worried about the countless people who were still fleeing into the Demon Realm, her body flickered.
Where she stood, only a foot print was left!
—
"W-, what are you?!" If blood was to be described as the color red, than this was a canvas with little creativity.
Whoosh.
Another life was taken by the edge of a hidden sword.
In the ambush, several Seventh Chain Experts had been directly killed whilst they had their guards down, their arrogance turning out to be the end of them before they could show their fulls strength.
In white, bloody robes, a young man with what looked to be flood dragon shadows coiling around him, slaughtered wantonly.
Man or woman, no one was spared.
The entire force which had come to attack, was directly killed by his hand.
"I cannot leave anyone alive," His knuckled whitened, "The innocent are sinless, but who is innocent."
His pupils shrank.
Whoosh.
The final life was taken.
There was no special moves, nor unique fanfare to be seen. Simply violence incarnate, a sea of blood which made a once vibrant forest canvas into a simple, crude image.
Click.
"Xin!" Yet, just as the scenery had settled, a young woman exploded onto the scene, her barbaric strength knocking the serene young man a half step backwards, "Your alive!"
Indeed, the young man-, nay, Shou Xin.
Shou Xin looked serene as he wrapped his arm around her.
"I came back as fast as I could."
"...your slow."
"I know."
After that short exchange, the two disappeared.
—
Hiding in the Demon Realm, deep within a canyon rife with violent energies and turbulent winds, countless clansmen of the Shou Clan, and refugee's from the Sword Stone mines congregated.
Bull demons surrounded them on all sides their undead eyes bloodthirsty, raging against the living in their dead state.
Yet, as they were about to fight, terrifying waves of Qi diffused in all directions!
Bull Demons were not afraid of anything, not those here who were Undying Soldiers raised from the Miasmic Qi spread out in this ancient battlefield. However, as that Qi diffused, their eyes began to shine and they ran!
"You cannot escape."
Countless swords appeared in the sky hanging, creating a net of sorts! In a moment, as though stars exploding in their greatest moment, those swords dove at breakneck speed!
The Bull Demons which were originally great in number and strength, became nothing in number and less than nothing in strength.
Eviscerated!
"Patriarch!" Yui Luo rushed forward alongside Liu Gang.
"Patriarch…" Bloodshot eyes and the Miasmic Qi thick, emotions ran high and many teared up seeing Shou Xin, the Patriarch of the clan, once again.
They saw the emblem on his back, and felt safe.
With a temperament like still water and the disposition to match, he looked over them all causing a hush to fall over them.
"This place is Dragon's Row."
Gasps rang out almost instantly.
Who did not know of the mighty and fearsome dragons which could crush entire nations and even threaten the Great Path?
Who did not know of those terrors which could blot out the sky and destroy the world?
Who did not know?
Dragons.
"This canyon," He turned slightly, "What is it's name?"
They looked at him strangely, who was he talking to?
Some astute people however, guessed that there was a hidden expert around, and began to scan around!
"Baylens Rest."
A voice of tender flowers and burnt buildings, a contrasting thing that inspired fear but also curiosity.
"No one would ever call such a place home. If not for your little formation, these people would all be dead to the wind alone."
"We will call it home." He replied stoically, "There is no other home, fit for us."
Jesting in a situation like this, those clansmen who had been around the longest, and were quite morbid in their humor began to chuckle and laugh.
The Shou Clan was never people who stood on the side of justice.
They first gathered for food and protection, killing innocent people only seeking some salvation to keep it all.
They stayed together for the bonds they forged.
They killed for those bonds as well, be it woman, man or child.
These were not, by any means, good people.
To call them an evil clan, would be quite the accurate statement.
The path of the Shou was bathed in blood, after all.
Knowing this, those clansmen looked around, starting to warm up to the place a bit more.
"From this moment forward, we are no longer the Shouai Shou Clan," A tone as serene as the waters edge on a breathless night, "We are the Shou Clan of Baylens Rest. We will change training methods as well. I will teach you all."
"..." They looked at him grimly, but at the same time with some relief.
"You will all arrive at Mortal Chain and Mortal Physique."