Held in suspension between Huan Yi and Taotie, Di Yi bore witness to the horrors below, trembling from head to toe and cackling in terror at what just transpired. Blood and headless corpses piled up on the ground, forming neatly arranged stacks and circles around Zi Shou, who just stood there, shaking like a feather. To the onlooker, it would seem as if fate was playing a cruel joke on the seventh prince.
But here, fate wasn't in control. The Demon Child was.
To get Wen Tianhua to surrender his Eye of Revelation, Huan Yi needed a carefully crafted plan and the right bait to perfect it all. Zi Shou was the bait, a bait that would not only enable Huan Yi to get his hands on Wen Tianhua's Eye of Revelation but also to turn the entire Yin Dynasty into his plaything.
Had this clusterfuck occurred in some dark alley, Zi Shou might have been able to escape blame. But in the middle of the merchant district? With thousands upon thousands of spectators coming and going? Even though the couple hundreds of bystanders that had seen everything from start to finish had also been murdered, there was no way to get out of this one.
No. In fact, it was precisely because these people had all been butchered that Zi Shou was truly doomed. At the very least, after calming down, those people could have attested to the strangeness of the situation. But with them gone, no one could prove Zi Shou's innocence. No one…except for his master, Wen Tianhua!
As this realization settled in, Zi Shou dropped to his knees. Despair filled his heart, and as his eyes turned red, the seventh prince pulled out a talisman. Meanwhile, the distant spectators rushed left and right, screaming for all to hear:
"Help! Help! In broad daylight, a royal prince is committing mass murder!"
"Please save us! A prince is on a rampage!"
It didn't take long before those words had spread to local law enforcement, climbing up the Yin court ladder. Holding on to his yellow talisman, Zi Shou gasped for breath, and as tears filled his brown eyes, the seventh prince crushed the talisman, causing a palm-sized crystalline pool to form above his fist. In that crystalline pool, a tall man that looked about 25, with long golden hair and radiant eyes, stood amidst a pile of gigantic sea monster corpses.
The man, Wen Tianhua, turned towards Zi Shou, and before he could open his mouth, his disciple broke into tears.
"Master! Your disciple was framed!" Zi Sou screamed at the sky, his tears streaking even as his voice reverberated across the street.
"Framed?" Confused, but quickly noticing all the blood and gore on and around Zi Shou, Wen Tianhua asked.
"Hundreds of people, including dozens of members of high nobility, all dead! In broad daylight! And it looks like it's my fault! Master, please save me! Otherwise, I won't survive the day!" As his shoulders slumped and his head lowered, Zi Shou cried, causing Wen Tianhua's eyes to widen in shock.
"What?!" Wen Tianhua couldn't believe his ears. And seeing even his master at a loss, Zi Shou lost his last hope, falling into an all-out frenzy.
"AAAAARGH!" The seventh prince banged his head on the bloodied floor, hoping that the next second, he'd wake up from this nightmare. Alas, as his eyes opened, the nightmare was still in session.
"Shou'er, no matter what, you have to calm down. Calm down, stay calm, surrender to local authorities, and wait for me to return from the Blight Sea." Following a moment of silence, Wen Tianhua said.
The words didn't satisfy Zi Shou, only adding to his grief.
"Surrender?! My father has been looking for an excuse to get rid of me since I was born! If I surrender, he will kill me!" Zi Shou snapped immediately. While some might believe that the true reason behind Zi Shou's secretive upbringing was that the royal family didn't want to expose their prodigy, that was only partially true.
There was a simpler, crueler and more important reason for all the secrecy, the reigning king of Yin: Zi Xian.
From the moment that Zi Shou was born, his father Zi Xian had been wary of his cultivation talent, fearing that he'd grow too fast and rise to overthrow him. But when Wen Tianhua recognized Zi Shou's talent and took him as his disciple, Zi Xian's fears ballooned to insane proportions. And on more than one occasion, the Yin king had tried to have his own son murdered.
It was only thanks to the combination of Wen Tianhua, the Zi and Wen clan elders, that Zi Shou had managed to escape his father's murderous clutches. But now, should Zi Xian be given such a golden opportunity to get rid of Zi Shou, how could he let it go?
"Shou'er, as your master I beg you, please do not run! You are the number one talent in the history of the Zi clan, arguably even more outstanding than your dynasty founder. Regardless of what crime you might have committed, the elders of the Zi clan will not allow anyone to kill you!
The Wen clan elders also rely on you for their wolfish ambitions, so they too will not allow anyone to kill you! You have the backing of the two most powerful clans of the Yin Dynasty and are Wen Tiahua's only disciple! As long as you keep your back straight and refuse to buckle, even your royal father cannot touch you!
But if you run! If you turn tails now and flee, not only are you giving them proof of your guilt, but you're also giving them the opportunity to murder you and blame it on a botched chase, or worse…they can just make you disappear!
Listen to me Shou'er, this is the most critical moment of your existence, the turning point that decides if you will become a king for the ages or just another tyrannical scumbag! Be a man! Stand strong and steadfast in your belief of your innocence! No one can touch you!"
Wen Tianhua roared, and from the depths of the Blight Sea, his voice boomed out, blasting across the land, and reaching all the way to the Eastern Province.
Like many of the other royal relatives, Zi Xian was presently in Linzi to offer his blessing to the Wen and Dongfang clans. Aware that he couldn't instantly come to his disciple's rescue, Wen Tianhua had no other choice but to warn the king, the Zi and the Wen of the positions they now had to take.
Moved by his master's words, Zi Shou held back his tears, gathering his resolve.
"Wow…Wen Tianhua is a good master." Genuinely impressed, Taotie commented.
"From the depths of the Blight Sea, he has managed to rekindle the fighting spirit of his disciple while keeping those that'd aim for his life in check. Not bad.
But while on the surface an impressive move, in essence, it's just a power play. To kill that fighting spirit for good, all you have to do is to shatter the balance completely," Huan Yi said, and bumped his fists into one another.
[Convergence of Thousand Ghosts]
Instantly, from the hundreds of corpses piling up around Zi Shou, loud wailing sounds and unbearable screeches boomed out, causing the distant spectators to scatter even further away. Two dozen Congenital realm officers from the city guard rushed to the scene, brandishing armored fists and massive broadswords as they rushed at their prince.
"Seventh prince! Stop this madness at once!" They pleaded in sync. Their words had no effect. The souls of hundreds of deceased, including the Nangong bodyguards and junior aristocrats, rose from the corpses, all with scarlet eyes that shed blood tears as if lamenting their fate.
About five hundred souls broke down into a whirlwind of spectral flames, concentrating into Zi Shou's right hand to become a burning spectral blade.
"Ghost Blade? I have cultivated a Ghost Blade? How?! Who…who is doing this to me?! AAAAAAAAAAAARGH!" Zi Shou roared in grief.
A weapon that only senior demonic cultivators knew how to refine, the Ghost Blade was a spiritual blade that gathered the lifeforce of hundreds of dead people into one insidious weapon of mass destruction.
And as if the seventh prince didn't have enough problems, the Ghost Blade, echoed its master's fury, spontaneously firing a blast of hellfire that reduced all 24 officers into ashes!
[Karmic Fusion]
Again, Huan Yi bumped his fists, fusing the Ghost Blade and Zi Shou's karmas together. From now on, even if he wanted to, Zi Shou wouldn't be able to get rid of it.
In the instant that the Ghost Blade fused with his karma, even though he didn't understand what was going on, Zi Shou had the firm conviction that he would never be able to get away from this demonic weapon. And as he swept the surroundings, all hope disappeared from his heart.
"Master…I am sorry. Your disciple failed you!" Zi Shou whispered at the talisman before tossing it into the spectral fire and bolting into the distance.
"Shou'er, no!" Wen Tianhua's words fell on deaf, his voice vanishing subsequently.