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Demonic Master
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Chapter 3: The Deserter's Reveal
Xiao Yue felt shocked when she heard the words that were spoken. However, she reigned her emotions in and didn't let anything show on her face. She wouldn't, and couldn't give him the satisfaction of getting a reaction from her.
He continued on regardless of her thoughts, "Let's introduce these children, why don't we? It's always easier to sympathize with those we know about. These two are orphans, depending on each other to survive in this brutal 'Red' city of ours. The younger one's name is Tang Ning. She's quite the comely demon. I don't know how these two managed to hide from me for so long... " She could see the shuddering of the kids from her cell. She clenched her fists. "But no matter, I'm sure I'll get to know all there is to you both in due time, won't I?"
He looked at them and licked his rough, chapped lips.
"Oh yes! Let's continue." He giggled like a child who got a candy, and she felt the need to retch. "The older one's name is Tang Hua. What a name for a boy!-"
Xiao Yue was stunned. Her mind blanked and she could only just faintly hear the man's continued blabbering. She knew that name. There could be many Tang Ning's in the world, but a boy with the girlish name of Tang Hua and a sister called Tang Ning? She was sure that he was who she thought he was.
She didn't expect to meet him here. In her previous life- when she had met him, he was already working under 'that' man. She looked closer. He had deep black hair and his skin was a bit tanned. She could definitely see the familiarity between him and the Tang Hua she knew, and the only contrast she could find were his eyes. They were not as sharp as they once were- when he was a veteran who had boundless experience.
She could never forget who he was. He 'was' her closest ally.
"Oh! It'll be great! I found and brought them specially for you, you know?!" The man looked even more ecstatic now that he had finished with his explanation.
While Xiao Yue didn't show anything on her face, she felt dread and guilt inside her. That last sentence... did her actions already have such consequences? She was the reason Tang Hua and his sister might die. She was the cause for which Tang Hua's spirited eyes were now filled with dread. She felt a heavy weight settle on her heart.
Her mind raced. She desperately tried to come up with a plan. She glared at the Red Butcher with malice, now unable to control herself. He wasn't looking at her, he was switching his gaze giddily- between the whips that lay on the weapon rack and the demons held down on the table.
The next instant, when the man's coarse, blood-coated hair whipped with his head, she saw it. Her eyes widened, and she finally understood how a man like him could still stay in power in the Red Vine City.
She started laughing.
Now, this got the man's attention. His smile dimmed and his previously giddy expression was nowhere to be seen.
The man walked up to her and spoke through gritted teeth, "While I appreciate some laughter, I don't want to hear it from a demoness bitch like you!"
She kept laughing, now holding her stomach and tears forming in her eyes. The veins on the man's head bulged, and a ferocious look started appearing in his eyes.
"What is it that you found so funny bitch?!" The man punched the bars of her cell for emphasis.
She slowly stopped laughing and the looked at him and mockingly clucked her tongue, "Tch, Tch. I didn't expect the great Red Butcher to just be another coward."
"What are you going on about, you cretin?!" The man's brow furrowed as he tried to figure out what had her laughing in his face. He would have thought she had already lost it if it wasn't for the light in her eyes. He would know after all, he knew it when somebody was broken.
"You're a traitor." The girl, Xiao Yue bluntly spoke.
The Red Butcher stilled. The words ringing in his ears. He whipped his head, looking the girl straight in her eyes, the ferocious look in his eyes stronger than before.
"What did you just say?!" He hissed, his voice now low and menacing.
"You're a traitor who abandoned the demons in the previous war. Everybody knows the demons' inclination to sin. However, the brutality inflicted upon you is unwarranted and only happened during the time of the Demon King of Tyranny. The only time this happens is..." She paused, looking the now pale-faced man in the eye. "when a demon was found to have betrayed and deserted those of his blood."
The man didn't move. The men around him had cold sweat forming on their backs. They inched away from the Red Butcher slowly.
Suddenly, the Red Butcher started laughing and she sighed in relief. She knew how such idiots went on their monologues. It looked she had hit his sore spot, and finally bought herself some time. The Red Butcher stopped laughing, a smile on his face, one that reflected the insanity he had within.
"Oh, you're right! I was a traitor! Why wouldn't I be?! Especially, when I get to have such rewards for betraying some no-names!" The man's face abruptly darkened. "But they found out." He continued through gritted teeth, "And they took everything away from me. Left me broken!"
The Red Butcher whipped his hand out and the head of one of his former subordinates exploded, drenching the room with his blood. The men who were trying to slowly inch away stilled.
The now-identified demon's face again had a smile splitting it. Xiao Yue found his instant mood changes creepy but kept her mouth closed. "So, you know what I did?! I broke many more. Especially those demons! I love breaking them! I won't be alone anymore, you know?! We'll all be together in this. Broken together!"
The man had slowly drifted closer to her and the pungent smell of blood was stronger than ever to her.
She looked him in the eye and spat, "Disgusting."
The man's eyes darkened, and his hand reached out for a whip before he swung with great force towards the girl lying on the table. Xiao Yue's eyes widened. The man was going to kill Tang Ning! However, the sound of whip hitting flesh never came. Instead, it sounded suspiciously similar to the whip hitting a wall.
Xiao Yue, although confused at the man's bad aim, almost breathed out a sigh of relief before she froze as she heard another voice.
"I agree. It is disgusting." The voice which spoke was regal. However, that was not what allowed her to predict who the owner of the voice was. The voice carried a hint of something dangerous underneath, similar to a sheathed sword. This voice- it's hidden of hint of steel, were all too familiar to her.
It brought many complex emotions within her. She started trembling and her eyes shook. Her fists clenched painfully at her side. 'That' man had finally arrived.
Tang Haotian. His arrival made her equal parts hopeful, nervous and dreadful.
Even until the end, he had been someone mysterious to her. A person whose depth she could never hope to imagine. In her past life, he was ruthless, calculative and dangerous. Way too dangerous. Had it not been for her special identity in his heart, she was sure she would be just another one of his victims. No one except Lu Ming had been able to escape his grasp, not even the Great Ancients. Lu Ming too, had only escaped with her help.
Her head whipped around to take a look at the younger Tang Haotian. She didn't know what drove her to do it- her curiosity of Tang Haotian, when he had not yet become the unfathomable expert he once 'was'? The place his presence took in her mind as her saviour and mentor? Or the Tang Haotian who once had great dreams- as Tang Hua once told her- before he had grown world-weary?
The stones of the wall behind from which the voice spoke were shattered just as her gaze darted to it. Tang Haotian walked inside, seemingly at no stress despite the situation he had included himself in, or the fact that he had just shattered a wall of stone with just his body- by walking through it.
His hair whipped around him from the shockwave of his actions, and his crimson-red eyes glinted with majesty as they swept their gaze around the room. When he glanced at her, the humans in the cells nearby, and the demons on the table, his gaze briefly softened, barely enough for her to notice it.
Her mouth parted slightly and she felt something wet on her cheeks. Tang Haotian's eyes softened even more, before they turned to look at the adult cultivators in the room, each one at a time.
"So... How would you fools like to be dealt with?" Tang Haotian's voice was low and menacing. Along with his powerful body- one capable of breaking steel rock- and threatening blood-red eyes, Tang Haotian was scary enough for even the most veteran of cultivators in the dungeon to gulp in fear.