by <unknown>
The bandits' raiding had yet to spread to this place, but it was already mired in chaos. A lot of the 'ants' had grown sharp claws and teeth, struggling and biting each other, trying to find a chance of survival among the torrents and turbulence.
The translucent 3D light beam and the rusty, lifeless metal world overlapped, allowing Li Yao to locate Xin Xiaoqi quickly. She was in an inconspicuous tool compartment surrounded by stench and sewers in the middle of a garbage dump.
Li Yao smiled and circled the tool compartment a few times while keeping Neltharion in the stealth state.
Since it was designed to be unattractive, the tool compartment was naturally not flawless and impenetrable. It was no trouble for Li Yao to find a gap and crawl in through it. He lurked in the corner and scanned the entire tool compartment.
There were only two people standing in the room but a whole ground of people who were dead. The floor in a corner had been dug up, revealing an enormous metal chamber that had been opened. Inside the chamber was a plethora of crystals, magical equipment, and nutrition drugs.
Of the two standing people, one was naturally Xin Xiaoqi, but the other was a white-haired, wrinkled, and hunched old man.
The old man's appearance reminded Li Yao of a dog that was struggling after it fell into water.
He was holding a dented chainsword as a stick, panting and coughing quickly. There were wounds all over his body. Blade injuries deep to the bones could be found on his arms and legs. The broken pieces of his armor were deeply embedded into his flesh. After every cough, a new vein would be cut apart, and plasma that was almost solid would spurt out.
His chest also collapsed deeply, as if all his ribs had been blown apart. The wound seemed to be the mark of a fist.
It seemed that everybody on the ground had been killed by him, and he had paid a grave price for that.
Li Yao sent the old man's image to the Fist King's crystal processor and received a positive reply. "Yes. He is Xiahou Wuxin, but why is he so much older after only such a short time?"
While Xiahou Wuxin grabbed his chainsword hard without letting it go, Xin Xiaoqi was holding two sharp daggers in her hands, too. The cat-like woman glared at Xiahou Wuxin with obvious fury.
The atmosphere between the senior and the junior was so intense that it might explode without even a spark.
"You've been manipulating me, jerk?"
Gnashing her teeth, Xin Xiaoqi was so exasperated that she almost could not refrain herself from jumping at Xiahou Wuxin and biting his nose off.
"Didn't you say that there was a way to send me to Manjusaka? Why do you say that there is nothing you can do now? You are even asking me to forget about Manjusaka. What the f*ck is that supposed to mean? Do you think that I won't kill you, old b*stard?"
There was no telling whether it was because of his heavy wounds or because he could not justify himself, but he lost the demeanor of the leader of Liberty City. Truly like a weary old man, he was utterly silent while Xin Xiaoqi cursed and rained her saliva upon his face.
"I've been working as your disciple for twenty years. I've been your disciple in name but your dog in reality for twenty years!"
Waving her daggers crazily, Xin Xiaoqi screamed, "Twenty years of life-and-death service, twenty years of hiding, I risked my life helping you with the most dangerous, sordid, and clandestine deals, and I did not get a single day of enjoyment in the Elysian World!
"So many times, I wandered among the major forces, among those tough bandits and thugs, to help you figure out the latest intelligence. Those people are all perverts, do you know that? Should my secrets have been leaked, I certainly would've been skinned and tortured by them!
"Our original deal was that you would send me to Manjusaka after I worked for you for five years. Then, after the five years, it was another five years. Then, another five. It's been f*cking twenty years, master!
"Alright. Let's leave the past aside and focus on this mission alone. Who did you ask me to deal with? The Fist King! The f*cking most dangerous, ferocious, and brutal 'Fist King' Lei Zonglie!
"Of your so many disciples, were any stupid and innocent enough to really sneak into the Fist King's army for investigation and to steal intelligence, even risking their life to lead the assassins from the Valley of Thorns to the Fist King's side to kill him? Even I do not know why I am lucky enough to be still alive at this moment!
"Master, you wretched son of a b*tch. Tell me. Look me in the eyes and tell me how you swore to me before I snuck into the Fist King's army that you would absolutely send me to Manjusaka after the battle!
"Hehe. Hehehe. During the twenty years of suffering, struggling, and slaughtering, this is what I've been waiting for. Now, your force has collapsed, and you simply want to get away with it, huh? Not so easy!
"I don't care about it. Whatever the price is, whoever must be killed, I will go to Manjusaka! Find a way to get me up there, or I will really kill you, you scumbag!"
Xin Xiaoqi had gone completely mad. Her face had been rather clean and appealing in the beginning, but it was now more than twisted with all the protruding veins and her gritted teeth.
Xiahou Wuxin had been listening quietly. It was not until this moment that he vomited another black mouthful of blood. He appeared even more devastated than before, and even the chainsword did not seem enough to support his shivering body anymore.
Groping for the edge of the metal box, he sat down and smiled miserably. "Xiaoqi, I deserve to be killed by you. If you want to do it, just come here. But there is really no Manjusaka. You can just drop the idea."
Clink!
The leader of Liberty City who had been caught by desperation tossed away the broken chainsword and heaved a long sigh. Then, he narrowed his eyes as if he were recalling things from a long time ago. He seemed frustrated and ready to be executed.
Xin Xiaoqi was rather dazed by his frankness. Narrowing her eyes that were as green as a cat's, she stared at him warily with her back hunched. "What are you trying to pull? Playing hard to get? Don't think that you can kill me just because you have killed all your other disciples. You should know that I am different from those worthless trash. You are now heavily wounded and almost running out of blood. Even if I cannot kill you right now, I am at least confident that I can escape and tell everyone that our almighty leader of Liberty City is hiding here!
"Hehehe. You must've kept a lot of good things to yourself after decades of ruling Liberty City, mustn't you? I believe that the bandits who are killing and looting right now, including those who were loyal to you in the past, will be very interested in you and your treasures.
"Just tell me the way to go to Manjusaka, or I will really die together with you!"
"It doesn't matter now," Xiahou Wuxin said casually and looked at Xin Xiaoqi without any resentment, anger, or cunningness. "Everything is over. Nothing is going to help. It doesn't matter. Any place is a dead end. I am exhausted. Just let me die here in your hands.
"As for the secret treasures that I have collected over the past decades, they are yours in the first place. After you kill me, find the items that I hid in secret and figure out a way to escape Liberty City. This is the best I can do for you now."
Xin Xiaoqi was dumbfounded. She widened her eyes and looked at Xiahou Wuxin for a long time, but she still could not tell whether her old and cunning master was lying or telling the truth before he was going to die.
Biting her lips for a long time, she burst into fury again. "Don't play tricks with me. I am not escaping from Liberty City. I am going to Manjusaka. The City in the Sky! I am going there, no matter how difficult, dangerous, and challenging it is!"
"Did you hear what I said at the beginning?" Xiahou Wuxin said casually. "It's not that I am not willing to help you—I really can't help you. What you imagine to be the City in the City is not there at all. The peaceful, perfect heaven with everything has never existed. Where do you want me to send you?"
Chapter 2028: Complicated, Confusing, Heartbreaking |
> "Are you kidding me? Do you think that I am as gullible as the child twenty years ago?" Xin Xiaoqi burst into fury. "The City in the Sky is right there. It is like a glittering flower every night. Even a blind person can see it! Also, haven't you already sent a lot of people up there? Not just those who have accumulated enough contribution points by accomplishing the quests of the angels, even those who are willing to pay enough were smuggled up there by you!
"Hehe. You think that you have done those things without anybody knowing? Everybody on the street knows what you did. How can I not know it?
"Right. I get it. You are reluctant to let go of such a readily manipulatable fool like me because I am easy to be tricked and loyal to you without any complaint, right?
"While I suffered in the wretched Land of Sins, your other disciples, including those who could not accomplish a damn thing except for sucking up to you and making your life comfortable, were sent to Manjusaka by you and enjoyed their superior life. You were blind. You were truly blind, idiotic master!"
"You are completely wrong," Xiahou Wuxin replied calmly and expressionlessly. "I have lied to you about many things, but I never lied to you about one thing. You are truly my most trusted and appreciated disciple, which is why I never sent you to Manjusaka.
"The other random disciples that I recruited, including those who approached me with ill intentions for all kinds of interests and those who are lying around us right now, were never regarded as real disciples by me. That's why I agreed to their request to go to the City in the Sky without any hesitation."
Xin Xiaoqi was completely confused. Hiding behind the two short daggers, she stammered, "What do you mean?"
"It is true that 'Manjusaka, the City in the Sky' hangs right in the firmament in a seemingly tangible place, but it is not a heaven for the sinners in the Land of Sins, and it does not have the prosperity, peace, and happiness that you imagine."
Xiahou Wuxin smiled so bitterly that he seemed to be shedding tears of blood. "There has never been a sinner who enjoys their life in Manjusaka. They become test subjects. The only difference is whether they are dead test subjects, deeply-narcotized test subjects, or living test subjects. Nothing more.
"All the sinners that went to Manjusaka while they were still alive were not greeted by good days in the legendary heaven but infinite, endless torture in hell.
"They would receive the most miserable experiments and tests. Their every muscle, every vein, every nerve, and every fragment of their soul would be separated. Even their physical body would be cut into tens of thousands of 'meat pieces' as thin as paper, which would then be scanned layer by layer to figure out the evolutions and mutations that had taken place inside them.
"Trust me. Compared to the bizarre, ghastly research procedures in Manjusaka, even the most evil, mad, and perverted bandit in the Land of Sins is as harmless as a three-year-old child.
"Hehe. Since those who approached me with ill intentions and those who wanted to buy their way up into the heaven with fortune were determined to be killed, should I refuse their offer? But you… you were different. You know it."
Xin Xiaoqi was stunned for a long time.
The tips of the daggers in her hands shivered softly.
"What nonsense are you talking about?" the cat-like woman mumbled. "You're lying. I—I can tell. You are lying to me, right? Master, tell me that you are lying."
"I have lied to you for twenty years, but not this time."
Xiahou Wuxin closed his eyes in pain and took a long breath. He struggled to say, "Everything I said is true. The entire Land of Sins is just an enormous laboratory and test field. The high and mighty angels use the sinners to test their magical equipment and techniques. They also play some bizarre games by treating us as chess pieces and toys.
"They are in need of a lot of fresh 'test materials' every day, including the mutated beasts and the experts with a high combat ability. If they captured the prey on a large scale, the efficiency would be low, and the resistance of the sinners would easily be raised.
"They do not care about our lives, but if the precious test subjects are damaged on a large scale or stop training according to their plan because of the negative emotions, the progress of their experiments would be affected.
"Therefore, the angels came up with the solution to promote a nonexistent heaven and to attract the experts in the Land of Sins with the lie that they would be able to go to the heaven after accumulating enough contribution points.
"First of all, those experts would capture the mutated beasts. Then, the experts and the mutated beasts would be delivered up there at the same time. The efficiency would be high, and there would be little resistance. Most of the experts were still ignorant when they were lying on the operating tables, still dwelling in the fantasy that they would enjoy peace and prosperity forever as angels!
"In the Land of Sins, very few sinners know part of the truth. They are the rulers of the Elysian Worlds like me. Hehe. What kind of 'ruler' or 'leader' are we? Like you, we are just dogs for somebody else.
"We help the angels get enough fresh, strong test subjects. We help them maintain the order of the Land of Sins. If somebody sees through the loopholes of the enormous laboratory, we will lead someone to suppress and eradicate them, cleaning up all the mess caused.
"In return, we can slightly enjoy the truly good items leaked from the Heavenly Rails to maintain the exuberance and the extravagance in this small world, as you have seen with your eyes.
"This is the truth. Just wake up, Xiaoqi. There is no such thing as heaven in this world. Above the Land of Sins, it is just another Land of Sins that is vaster, darker, and eviler!"
"I don't believe it! I don't believe it! I don't believe it at all!"
Like a glass statue that had just been shattered, Xin Xiaoqi staggered back a few steps. She shook her head hard. Then, as if she had grabbed a life-saving straw, she waved her arms crazily and shrieked, "What about my mom? Wasn't my mom sent to Manjusaka by you? She sends birthday gifts to me every year. That—that pink ribbon, the music box, and the beautiful red dancing shoes!"
"They are all selected carefully by me and sent to you after I duplicated your mother's voice and handwriting," said Xiahou Wuxin.
Her face pale, Xin Xiaoqi breathed heavily, as if she might pass out at any moment. She pressed her wrist crystal processor hard.
"Th-then, how do you explain this?"
The crystal processor shot out a mystic ray, which dispersed in midair into a slightly blurred 3D light beam.
In the background of the picture, there was a small, delicate garden, where all kinds of flowers were blossoming vehemently, with butterflies and dragonflies dancing among them.
Right before the flowers, a middle-aged woman who was very similar to Xin Xiaoqi, except that she was slightly older and plumper, was looking at her with a smile.
The atmosphere in the picture was peaceful and quiet, utterly different from the bloody Land of Sins.
"You said that my mom was living a great life in the City in the Sky. She is also working hard to earn more money so that our family will be reunited and live a peaceful and happy life after I go to Manjusaka one day."
With tears inside her eyes, Xin Xiaoqi begged, almost crying, "You brought gifts to me for her every year and photos. So many photos of my mother. I've waited twenty years. I am about to reunite with my mother. Just let me go there, master. Don't lie to me anymore. Just let me meet my mother again!"
Xiahou Wuxin was silent briefly. Then he said, "Xiaoqi, you are a smart girl. I don't believe that you have never been suspicious about it. It's just that you are never bold enough to ask despite your suspicions, right?
"Just wake up. Your mother is already dead. She died twenty years ago. Handwriting can be duplicated, sound and images can be fabricated, and even dynamic videos can be synthesized easily."
Xin Xiaoqi shook so hard that countless cracks seemed to have appeared on her pale face and her shivering body.
; Her cat-like eyes, on the other hand, suddenly became deeper than ever, like a black hole that could absorb all vitality.
"H-how did she die?" Xiao Xiaoqi asked, overwhelmed.
"I killed her," Xiahou Wuxin said calmly. "Her skull was smashed in one punch. Her brains and her soul were completely shattered in that moment. She died the quickest death without the least pain. Everything was ended."
Xin Xiaoqi stared at Xiahou Wuxin for a long time.
Xiahou Wuxin stared back at her, but his eyes were somehow unfocused, as if he were looking through her at a woman that had been dead for a long time.
Xin Xiaoqi was dumbfounded for a moment. Then she suddenly screamed and turned from a cat into a leopard. She knocked Xiahou Wuxin to the ground. Grabbing him by the neck with one hand and holding the dagger high with the other, she shouted, "I'm going to kill you!"
Xiahou Wuxin's head bashed into the ground heavily, but he sighed in great relief and closed his eyes, waiting for the arrival of death.
Xin Xiaoqi's dagger trembled in midair for a long time, but it did not fall. She simply grabbed Xiahou Wuxin's collar and shook the man hard while she roared, "You want to die? Not so fast! Tell me everything. Why did you kill my mother? Weren't you in love since childhood? Didn't you meet each other again after being separated for almost thirty years? Didn't—Didn't you say that she was the only woman that you had ever loved? Say something, you old b*stard. Why did you do it?"
Below the garbage dump, deep inside the broken tubes, Han Te and Liu Li poked Li Yao's iron shell after he did not move at all for a long time. They asked, "What's going on now, Grandpa Yao?"
"What is going on now is an intriguing, soul-stirring family drama," Li Yao said in a low voice. "It is truly a complicated, confusing, and heartbreaking one. Just let me watch a little longer."
Chapter 2029: A Fly That Does Not Have a Choice |
"I didn't have a choice. Neither did Xiao Qin!" Every dried tear of blood on Xiahou Wuxin's face was shivering. "She had to die!"
