"Is that ….?"
"Zhang Xiyu." Liu Lei gritted his teeth.
Aika sidled up to him. "Why is he showing his face here? Even after getting clobbered by our men. He's somehow never afraid to take some more."
Liu Lei did not reply. His face turned sour with every passing second.
Clobber? Zhang Xiyu? A few hours ago when he saw the cold bodies of his men littered around as if a hurricane hit them, Liu Lei couldn't decide between facing Zhang Xiyu once and for all or running away to some other hell.
"But then again, I can't even make out a single scratch on him."
Liu Lei's face turned even worse so Aika decided to keep going.
"Hey! Hasn't he gotten more handsome ever since he came back from the pit? Makes one regret for going easy on him. When I had him. Right between my arms-"
Thud. Shatter.
The servant fell to the ground, over the shattered cups which he was carrying. The intoxicated demons around them scrambled away nervously, not wanting to get caught between this duo.
". . . . "
"Alright I am shutting up."
Meanwhile in the other corner of the hall an unexpected reunion took place.
"It's been a long while, right?..."
The man turned to the speaker with confusion evident on his face.
". . . .Yutao."
"The Second Prince. . . . ?"
An unmovable smile was plastered on his highness' face as the silence stretched out. For some reason Yutao felt pressured to don the same expression. Only when their smiles started to turn into a grimace, did the Second prince open his mouth again.
"How are you doing? Ever since that day you've never met me."
"Why?" Zhang Xiyu who was currently being cornered in a similar fashion, by his former sponsor Yuan Hai was the recipient of this blunt question.
"I have nothing to say to you." Zhang Xiyu drawled out.
Yuan Hai was stunned. He had some idea of what kind of person Zhang Xiyu was but experiencing the man himself was another thing.
He had taken the difficulty to ask this guy, and gave him a chance to explain himself. Yuan Hai had never been treated like a little bitch before.
Still the prince controlled his rage, after all he did have more important questions to ask. With a light smile on his face he continued.
"I told you to not show me your face unless you have the thing with you. So it wouldn't be wrong to assume that you have it?"
"Hold on, slow down Fourth prince. Is this really the right place to talk about such matters?" Zhang Xiyu meaningfully looked around. That's when Yuan Hai noticed, they weren't as low profile as they should be. In fact, they were the prime nucleus of entertainment, eyes were on them from everywhere.
Yuan Hai maintained a poker face while gritting his teeth. It's been five decades since Zhang Xiyu has returned and this is the first time they're meeting, after fifty years. He didn't want to admit it but the only reason why they are meeting now is because Zhang Xiyu is permitting it to happen. Blood dripped down from Yuan Hai's enclosed fists. If he doesn't take his chance today with Zhang Xiyu, he will probably never see him again.
And so to catch this ghost, he cannot afford to wait for another chance encounter. Zhang Xiyu will be caught, right here. Right now.
Yuan Hai raised his voice for the spectators, "Friends and family! Let's drink one down for our stars of the day. To our Xiao Bai and the twelfth most luckiest woman! Cheers!"
"CHEERS!" "CHEERS!" "CHEERS!"
Under such scrutiny Zhang Xiyu was forced to stay there and drink down an entire bottle. Surprisingly, he wasn't irritated at this childish move by Yuan Hai. He rather felt amused, or was that the alcohol talking? Nonetheless, Zhang Xiyu waited patiently to see what card would Yuan Hai play next.
"With all due respect, What?" Yutao stood up from his seat with exasperation.
Ren Shan chuckled. "I know. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity. It's the first for me too. Hiring. . . that's the word for it right?"
Yutao wanted to crack Ren Shan's brain open and take a good look inside. With a nerve popping off his head Yutao asked, "This is your first time hiring?"
"Personally, yes. Normally I just ask my slave assistant to do such jobs for me. It's the same guy who hired you for the Kaigan Pit!"
Yutao made a mental note to absolutely annihilate that guy.
"So what do you say? Come back to where you started from hmm? We can talk about a suitable position for you?"
Yutao was absolutely speechless. This entire conversation is wrong. Where does he even start to dissect the abnormality of this proposition?
As if saved by the bell, Zhang Xiyu's voice resounded in his mind. It was a quirk given to him by the lotus' fragment - one sided telepathy. Only those lotus sisters would be nuts enough to give out such useless crap.
Leaving that aside Zhang Xiyu had sent him a message - 'I am playing a game with Yuan Hai. Might get late so you eat and go back home early.'
"Mr. Ren Shan, please excuse me. But we will have to cut our conversation short." Yutao spoke with a paper thin smile.
Ren Shan dusted his thighs and got up to leave. "Sure. How about you come to my palace this weekend? We will sort something out then alright?" Ren Shan patted him on the back and walked away.
Putting this matter aside for now, Yutao sprinted towards the center of the broiling chaos.
________________________________________________________________________________
"You know he's a weird one, this friend of mine." Yuan Hai spoke to the crowd.
"Most of you might not know this but Xiyu here was my representative in the last Kaigan Pit." he grinned.
"What is he talking about?"
"Everyone knows that. We all saw it on the broadcast."
"My nephew who was born yesterday knows that."
Zhang Xiyu fought the urge to facepalm while Yuan Hai ignored the whispers. "He wasn't one of us. Born a human and entered our realm as a ghost. But after centuries of living in this realm…."
"One can't say whether he belongs to us or them." Yuan Hai turned to Zhang Xiyu.
"This prince suggests a proper initiation of our friend to Hell! Are you ready to test your true nature Zhang Xiyu?" Yuan Hai grinned broadly.
"Human or Demon?"
The inebriated demons yelled with excitement. "Let's do it! Show this earthling bastard just what us hell folks are about!" "Yeah bitch!"
Zhang Xiyu was used to facing the immense gravitational pressure in the pit, and the spiritual pressure of countless monsters. This was the first time he was facing the onslaught of the infamous peer pressure.
Yuan Hai couldn't understand what was so funny about Zhang Xiyu's situation that the man in question was chuckling about. I'll allow him to laugh for now because soon he won't be able to.
Suddenly, the crowd parted away to make way for someone. A tall man dressed in emerald green lazily walked up to them.
"Allow me to be the Pallbearer of this round Xiao-Huai." Ren Shan enthusiastically smiled.
Yutao, who was about to go into the very center, halted his steps and briskly turned around to hide behind a pillar.
Why does it feel like I am avoiding an ardent suitor?
He skeptically looked at the trio who were cooking up a very shit plan. Of course I will protect Zhang Xiyu if the time calls for it. But does he even require my help?
Ceaseless chatter of the mob divided him from the trio's conversation.
At any rate I am here to support him. Right behind this pillar which I think is close enough...
Zhang Xiyu was blissfully unaware of the inner turmoil brewing inside his associate's brain whom he had supposedly sent away. Rather he was a bit stumped at his own situation. I said I could handle Yuan Hai alone, but where did this mantis come from?
Zhang Xiyu sighed heavily, I shouldn't have sent Yutao away...
"Hey! What are we playing?!"
"Rhythm of Screams? Warmth from your cold heart? Skull Ball?"
"Yo man! Skull Ball's a classic yo."
Yuan Hai coughed over the incessant speculation which in turn went silent. The curious gazes now piled on to the trio.
"We will be playing….."
"Summoner's Death." The two Princes of hell cracked a smile.
The hall turned suffocatingly silent. The once curious and excited gazes suddenly turned very fearful.
"This….this….does he want to ruin our entire decade?!"
"That's it! Another ten year long curfew! Like father, like son!"
"Aw man, Skull Ball's way cooler, you bastards."
"If you may…." Ren Shan's voice projected throughout the long hall, the voice filled with vibrato shut their mouths up while their ears rang.
Ren Shan patted Yuan Hai's shoulder. "Leave them to me."
Yuan Hai nodded and obediently stepped back. Only Yutao noticed him lightly brush off his shoulder. After a few moments of Ren Shan enraging the crowd against Heaven with points such as 'The Heaven looks down on us' and ' They shut down our mega hit tournament ', the fickle crowd lost their bubbling fear and jumped on the bandwagon of 'Summoner's Death'.
Ren Shan looked pleased with himself as he turned to Zhang Xiyu who appeared to be drowsy. Ren Shan's cold voice pierced through his daze, "So here's how we play the game. Summoner's Death is a game of immense concentration, speed and agility. From time to time there are our devotees on Earth who long for us to step into their world. They are so considerate that they even set up a tear in time-space fabric on their end, big enough for us to enter."
"But due to the insane scrutiny that Heaven puts us under, everyday, our valuable tours to Earth have taken a nosedive. No one prestigious from Hell has set foot in the mortal world since…..? Five thousand years?"
"But mortals think that the lowly creatures that pass through those tears are one of us."
"Even now, if we were to manifest our entire energy in the mortal world, we would get caught immediately. They have this alarm system up there. They sent a video, a long time ago." Yuan Hai chimed.
Zhang Xiyu nodded, indicating that he had seen it.
"So to keep it down to just a game, the player has to send a thread of their conscience to one of these 'seances', make sure that Heaven knows nothing about it, kill the chief summoner, and get back their soul as proof."
"Question."
"Yes, Mr. Zhang?"
"How are we determining the winner?"
Ren Shan's eyes twinkled "Of course by who completes the task successfully. But in the favorable case of a draw, the one who expelled the highest mana in the mortal world would be the winner."
"And I take it that the winner gets a prize?"
Ren Shan looked even more amused. "Why would a simple party game have a prize? It's just for fun. Let's keep it light Mr. Zhang."
Light? Yes, I'll light this fucker on fire when I am done with this.
Zhang Xiyu who regularly sent his envoy Yutao to the mortal world, knew exactly how hard it is to hide his cultivation in a place devoid of it. It's like hiding a rack of cash in an empty white room. If it weren't for the Lotus sisters' kindness and extremely mysterious powers, right now Yutao would be under the famous Ice Flame torture bed of Heaven. A device containing pure white destruction. It's said that the Ice Flame torture bed can even burn out the sins of Satan and turn him into an honest young man. Satan from the West hell is yet to make any comments on this claim.
Zhang Xiyu had no plans of reaching Heaven. Luckily, Yutao had recently made a trip there so he still had this year's month-long protection from Heaven's detection. Later he will go back to those old hags and force them to stop being so cheap about these abilities.
Regardless of his situation, Yuan Hai and Ren Shan should not be aware of it. In fact, they expect him to fail gloriously. Except for the royal family, no other person would have the skill to pull this.
They were testing him and better yet wanted him dead. No, Yuan Hai was testing him. But why did Ren Shan want to kill him?
"Alright since I proposed this, I'll go first. You can understand the game better by watching me." Yuan Hai cracked his neck and rolled it around.
The spectators wisely cleared out the middle of the hall where Ren Shan stood in the center. Ren Shan drew a vertical line in the air which created a floating volatile rod. "A crack of this size should be safe enough. Yuan Hai!"
Ren Shan through a palm sized stone towards him which he effortlessly caught. "Let your chi pass through this." Yuan Hai nodded. A silver thread shot out of his finger and pierced through the stone, finally going inside the crack. At this point Yuan Hai was no longer conscious of his surroundings. His entire concentration was wrapped around that delicate thread which was weaving through the fabric of time. One little distraction and he would face some serious damage to his dantian.
As the stone was acting as a reflective medium, it projected the live situation on Earth on a large screen for everyone to see.
The blurry image came to life. Deep inside a dark cavern, anxious chanting echoed. The entire ground was covered in randomly placed straight lines. When looked at carefully, it was an intricate pentagram which covered the dusty floor. Men and women surrounded the pentagram, kneeling in the prayer position. The ominous chanting only intensified after the chief summoner dragged in an unconscious young girl by her hair. The red flames mounted on the wall reflected her tear-stained face and the black ink that circled around her throat.
The cult made this sacrifice to entice their 'gods'. Unbeknownst to them, the demons were drooling over all of them.
"They look even more delicious in their original form." A few demons slurped.
"In this form…..unlike the flimsy ghosts...we can fuck and eat them"
The demons snickered with delight but mindfully restrained their excitement. No one wanted to bear the blame in case Yuan Hai fails the task.
Soon the slim thread emerged from the ground. The thread resembled a snake as it climbed up to the roof. The connection was made and its stability was ensured. With his eyes closed, his lips pulled up into a perverse grin.
The thread suddenly turned blood red as the chanting grew more passionate. The chief summoner cackled in delight and pushed the girl towards the thread. The girl fell to her knees and looked at the long red thread with stupefaction.
"Tasa Mammon on ca lirach!" The chants grew louder as the long thread approached her. She felt that time has stopped and it is flowing at double the speed at the same time. No one noticed when the thread reached behind the girl.
Trembling, the girl turned to look back but the thread burst into an intense bloody mist. Her perspective broke in half and slid down to the ground. Everyone stared in awe at the girl whose body was cut vertically into two clear halves.
"Lord Mammon", they cried out as they kowtowed brutally on the floor.
But 'Lord Mammon' was in quite a hurry. The mist condensed into an arrow and rushed straight at the chief summoner.
"My Lord- kgh" , the chief summoner's eyes rolled on the ground and met with the girl's single one.
At this point, the rest of the cult were standing blankly in their places, not even having the time to register the events that just occurred. Didn't the chief summoner say that Mammon would be here to grant them happiness beyond any human can imagine? Why is that person's corpse now lying cold, drenched in their own blood?
The red mist dissipated with the same rate as it had entered. Yuan Hai then promptly returned back without sparing a glance at their trembling jaws or wet shoes.
When Yuan Hai opened his eyes a clear voice announced, "Success! Record twenty-seven minutes!"
He opened his eyes slowly as if coming out of a trance. The thread gradually rescinded but it had something attached at the end. Among the ruckus caused by the drunk demons, a lost ghost quivered.
The chief summoner's face, which was accustomed to staying under a large black cloak, was now exposed to the viewers. Yutao frowned at the desperate middle aged man, it reminded him of that psychopath he just killed. The fact that this trash brutally ended a young promising life just for a phony ritual deeply depressed him.
The summoner looked around at the boisterous atmosphere with caution. "Where am-"
No one gave a shit about what he had to say. In the blink of an eye, a demon who felt peckish chomped down on the fresh soul.
Yuan Hai averted his eyes to look at Zhang Xiyu. The smug satisfaction which was difficult to hide quickly dwindled into exasperation. Zhang Xiyu, who was supposed to look restless, looked like he couldn't wait to go to bed tonight.
Unable to hide his rising annoyance, Yuan Hai sharply quipped. "It's your turn, you bastard."