Chapter 306: Revenge Is Sweet
Ye Jun coughed violently, wiping blood from his chin as he strained his blurry, dust-caked eyes toward the figure hovering in the center of the ruined hall.
At first, the golden-red haze obscured his vision.
But as his breathing shallowly evened out, the brutal, sharp contours of the man’s face snapped into focus.
The hellish red eyes, the midnight-black beard, the suffocating demonic aura, it was a face that belonged to a nightmare.
He searched his memory frantically, matching the underlying bone structure with someone he knew.
Suddenly, a violent shudder wracked his frame. His eyes bulged in pure terror.
"Y-You... P-Peng Kai..." Ye Jun rasped, his voice cracking before exploding into a terrified scream.
"PENG KAI?!"
Peng Kai threw his head back, his dark laughter echoing off the collapsed pillars like a chorus of damned souls.
"Hahaha! Excellent! I am so glad you still remember the man you drove into the dirt!"
"You... how... why have you come back?!" Ye Jun stammered, his blood running cold.
Peng Kai didn’t bother answering.
Instead, he turned his crimson gaze toward Zhao Tianxing.
A sickening smile of profound gratitude spread across his face, revealing blood-stained teeth.
"I must extend my deepest thanks to you, Brother Zhao," Peng Kai purred loudly, his voice echoing for every survivor to hear.
"Without the compromised array disc you provided, my strike would never have pierced the Grand Guardian Wards so cleanly."
"WHAT?! WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!" Zhao Tianxing roared, his face draining of all color as sheer panic seized his chest.
"When did I ever give you an array disc?!"
In an instant, Zhao Tianxing felt the burning, lethal glares of every surviving elder lock onto his back.
Turning around in desperation, he met the most terrifying gaze of all, Meng De’s eyes, dripping with cold, murderous fury.
"Uncle Meng! I swear on my cultivation, I have no idea what this monster is talking about! I didn’t do this!" Zhao Tianxing shrieked, backing away.
"You absolute traitorous bastard!"
A furious, blood-choked roar cut through the chaos.
Bai Ruolan, her robes torn and stained, stumbled out from the inner chamber.
Tears of pure rage seemed to fill her eyes as she pointed a trembling finger at Zhao Tianxing.
"The Union gave you everything! Union Leader supported your division above all others, and this is how you repay us?!" she screamed, her voice breaking with visceral grief.
Without giving him a chance to respond, she unsheathed a sword and lunged straight at Zhao Tianxing, her attack dripping with desperate, unbridled killing intent.
High above the battlefield, standing silently atop the shattered roofline of the left wing, Shen Yu observed the chaos beneath his Phantom Steps aura.
A dark, amused smirk pulled at his lips as he watched the little alchemist play her part to absolute perfection.
Gently tossing a small, cracked brass array disc in his palm, Shen Yu wiped a faint trace of sweat from his forehead.
It was this very disc, secretly procured by Bai Ruolan from the Blacksmith Division’s reserves days prior, that he had just used to forcefully jam the building’s defensive ley-lines for those crucial five seconds.
Down in the smoldering courtyard, Peng Kai’s booming voice drowned out Zhao Tianxing’s frantic pleas.
"Do not fear, Brother Zhao!" Peng Kai called out with a dark chuckle.
"I won’t let these hypocrites harm a hair on your head. Once I clean up this trash, I will take you to Master’s sanctuary. He will reward you with the same fortune he gave me, a path straight to the Nascent Soul realm!"
He paused, his red eyes turning cold and cruel as they snapped back onto the pinned Treasurer.
"Of course... right after I finish my business here."
SWOOSH.
In a blur of dark red motion, Peng Kai materialized directly in front of Ye Jun.
Before the Treasurer could even scream, Peng Kai’s massive, talon-like hand shot forward, clamping around Ye Jun’s neck like an iron vise and lifting his trembling body high into the air.
Ye Jun kicked his legs wildly, suffocating as he stared into the hellish crimson eyes of the man he had once ruined.
"WHY?!" Peng Kai growled, his voice dropping into a guttural, terrifying register that shook the stone floor.
"Because I am back for blood! For every elder you slaughtered, for every inch of my clan’s legacy this fucking Union stole!"
He leaned in closer, his midnight-black beard brushing against Ye Jun’s twitching ear.
"I would have loved to take my time, peeling your skin layer by layer, bone by bone... but sadly, my schedule is quite tight today."
"STOP! RELEASE HIM!" Meng De roared, his late-stage Golden Core Qi erupting like a volcano as he lunged forward, desperation driving him to save his Treasurer.
"Wait... wait... ugh... it was not—" Ye Jun gasped out through choked, desperate breaths, his clawing fingers feebly beating against the iron vise crushing his windpipe as he felt the talon-like grip tighten to a fatal threshold.
CRACK! BANG!
Before Meng De could bridge the distance, Peng Kai’s fingers tightened with brutal, explosive force.
With a violent, savage jerk, Ye Jun’s head was torn clean from his shoulders!
A high-pressure fountain of crimson blood erupted into the air, thoroughly drenching Peng Kai’s heavy black robes and painting his rejuvenated, scarred face in hot, metallic gore.
Meng De froze mid-stride, his feet skidding across the blood-slicked stone, his eyes bulging in sheer, unadulterated horror at the headless corpse dropping like a sack of rocks onto the marble floor.
Slowly, deliberately, Peng Kai raised a blood-drenched hand.
He dragged his thick fingers across his cheeks, smearing the crimson across his face, before slowly bringing them to his tongue.
He closed his eyes, his dark frame trembling slightly as he savored the copper taste with a manic, blissful grin.
"Ah..." Peng Kai rasped, his eyes snapping open to reveal two burning, hellish pools of crimson that locked directly onto the trembling Union Chief.
"Revenge really is sweet."
With a terrifying, beast-like roar that shook the very foundation of the ruined building, he shot forward, launching himself directly at Meng De!
-x-
A/N:
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