"The truth?" Bodhi stared intensely at Liu Yizhao. His pale lips twitched slightly as he asked, "I've asked around. You received word of the death of that youth, Huiyue Yin, in the mortal world. After that, you accompanied his parents to kill the specters for revenge. There's nobody else. I only gave you a chance to speak to confirm the facts."
"No, that’s far from the truth! I'm the only one who knows what's up, so if you kill me, all those specters would've died in vain!" Liu Yizhao was desperately clinging to his only lifeline.
"Then tell me."
"Spare me first, and we'll talk." Liu Yizhao's tears flowed uncontrollably. He was like a helpless chicken waiting to be slaughtered.
"Huh, there aren't that many people on the Flameyellow Continent. I can easily find out what I need to know. In fact, I can just go to Huiyue Du and Yusheng Luo for answers." As Bodhi spoke, the wolf's saliva kept on dripping onto the ground.
Though Liu Yizhao wanted to say something else, Bodhi kept hammering his fists into his body like he would a sandbag, breaking every bone and organ within. Even though he didn't outright die from the hits, he wouldn't last long. He wallowed in endless despair. When Bodhi tossed him to the ground, he slumped and flopped like a dead fish. He looked up to Bodhi, who now looked like the king of all things evil. The darkness and despair of the world seeped into every fiber of his being. He took a deep breath as death creeped toward him. Even as he struggled to breathe in, he couldn't stop his life from seeping away.
"Little You, eat him. Take your time. He won't die too quickly with his divine body," Bodhi said.
The wolf yelped and licked its snout. It opened its mouth and let its saliva drip on Liu Yizhao.
"If… if I tell you the real culprit… can you end this quickly?" He no longer expected to be spared; he only wanted the torture to end.
"Sure."
"It's Huiyue Du's daughter… Huiye Shi. You've met her. She plotted against her brother… and blamed the specters for it, making her parents lose their senses…." More blood gurgled out of Liu Yizhao's mouth.
"She isn't powerful enough to pull something like this off, right?" Bodhi did remember the girl, so the main actors of the show lined up with his expectations. He knew that this was the truth, as he had made sure to instruct Yi Jun and the rest not to touch a single hair of the siblings.
"Maybe… there is… another ascendant… Flameyellow…."
"I see. I guess that leaves two more heads to claim. One shall be Huiye Shi's, and the other her accomplice’s," Bodhi said, smiling.
"Now… end it quickly," Liu Yizhao pleaded.
"You'd want that, wouldn't you?" Bodhi said. The white wolf proceeded to nibble away at Liu Yizhao, causing him to howl in searing pain.
"Bodhi! How dare you not keep your word?!"
"Not keep my word? Did you keep yours when you slaughtered my kin?" He smiled, still seeing Liu Yizhao through the gigantic wolf's fangs. "This grudge that has been built up over two hundred millennia…. I’d initially just planned to kill all of the divine moonrace, but now I want all of them to die the same death you’re suffering! The results are the same, but the details lie in the process."
Bodhi smiled as he cried tears of blood. He watched as Liu Yizhao struggled and suffered, wallowing in despair as he was devoured. When it was finally over, he hugged the gigantic wolf, wiping his tears on its fur. "Little You, daddy's really lonely. You're the only one I have left in this world."
"Daddy…." The wolf turned back into the eight-year-old girl. She almost puked as she nestled against Bodhi.
"What's wrong?"
"I… I don't like this taste…"
"Then what do you like?"
"Grass. It tastes refreshing."
"After the debt of blood is paid, after you taste every single one of our enemies, I'll take you traveling around this world. How does that sound?"
"I'm looking forward to it," she said with a nod.
Bodhi hugged the girl tight, looking at the pool of blood on the ground. He knew the divine moonrace would definitely know of Liu Yizhao's death even if his corpse wasn’t found, thanks to lifesoul stones. "We should kill at least ten more people so that nobody suspects it has to do with the specters. As for Huiyue Du and Yusheng Luo, we'll mix them in with the other victims. From now on, we’ll start dying the entire Divine Moon Realm red."
The dreamy world was the very same one they loathed with a passion. "Huiye Shi, huh…."
Bodhi looked toward Huiyue Palace. His slaughter had just begun. Since the day the specters had returned, this was fated to happen. The only thing that changed was how cruel it would be.
……
The place Huiye Shi stayed at was called the Shiyu Compound. She had close to peak status among the Huiyue Clan, so she didn't have to squeeze in with the others. However, the place was far too delicate and it wasn't a vast field, so Xian Xian and Lan Huang couldn't come out and play. Lan Huang remained in the lifebound space and vented by running back and forth, greatly disturbing Ying Huo and Meow Meow. The two, along with Xian Xian's spiritform, left the lifebound space to catch a breath.
Once Tianming and Feiling arrived, Huiye Shi snuck the two into her place. She pretended to ignore Feiling and kept making moves on Tianming as she showed him around her beautiful residence.
"Sit down and lay off the flirting," Tianming snapped, getting her to shut up and shrivel up.
Huiye Shi had only wanted to test out Feiling's reaction, but she noticed that Feiling had ignored all of her attempts. It felt really frustrating, much like punching the air. The two of them seemed too closely knit for her to pry apart.
"What's up then? You don't care if I live or die? Be careful, because if the moon guide rats you out, it's over for you too," she snapped.
"This is indeed troublesome, but I have something else I need to ask you first," Tianming said, anxious about Ye Lingfeng's predicament.
"What could be more important than this?!" She rolled her eyes in frustration.
As Tianming had her life in his hands, he wasn't afraid of telling her of Qingyu and Ye Lingfeng's relation to him. "Do you know how I can save the Nightfiend you guys banished to the xenomemory space?" he asked solemnly.
"Huh? Did I mishear what you just said?"
"Just answer me."
"How are you related to him?" She began to recall that the Nightfiend had come from the chaos skyjail on the Flameyellow Continent. Tianming was also from that same continent.
"He's my little brother."
"But you don't even share the same surname! Not to mention, he's a specter!"
After seeing the specters, Tianming did have his guesses that the infernal soul race were in fact an offshoot of the specter race. They could use the abilities of lifebound beasts, had tough physical bodies, and could utilize battle arts. Given the many varieties and bloodlines of specters, the infernal soul race was probably one of those branches, likely from a different line than Bodhi. Not to mention, Ye Lingfeng was probably far more unique than the rest.
"Let's just say we're sworn brothers, alright? Now, answer my question," he said, slamming the table to hurry her up.
"Huh, so does that mean you escaped from the chaos skyjail too?" she said as she stared at him with wonder.
"What's that?"
"It's the 'brain' of the Flameyellow Continent, that sealed area that nobody can enter. The one sealed up by the Canal of the Dead."
"That's called the chaos skyjail? Is there a reason it's called that?"
"I'm not too sure myself. I only know it's a unique place. There’s probably fewer than ten such chaos skyjails that samsarans and above aren't able to enter. Nobody knows what secrets they hold. It’s a designation that’s been used since ancient times. Basically, it's a unique, but useless place."
Tianming committed it to memory. Even though he still had his doubts, his main focus now was Ye Lingfeng. Who knew what kind of pain or suffering he was enduring now? "Alright, forget the rest. Tell me how I can save my brother."
"Normally, you wouldn’t be able to."
"I'm guessing you're going somewhere with this?"
"I heard that before every criminal is banished, they'll leave a drop of blood behind. Through it, the controller of the xenomemory space will be able to track them down. However, this is only a contingency. Basically, only heinous criminals are banished within, so nobody’s needed to use that contingency before. I can't even be sure it's real. I'll ask my dad to confirm it tomorrow."
"Alright!" What Tianming feared the most was that there wouldn't be any hope. Now that there was at least a chance, he would do his best to bring about the result he wanted. "Where would the blood drop be stored?"
"Naturally, within the capital of the Divine Moon Realm, Divine Moon Skycity. It’s located at the center of the Eightmoon Skycities and is the heart of the divine moonrace. Huiyue City ranks last among the Eightmoon Skycities. The other seven are all controlled by the other Eight Great Clans. The Huiyue Clan is one of the eight, naturally."
"Alright, we'll go there then," Tianming said to Feiling.
"Do you think you can just waltz in? It's the heartland of the divine moonrace and the territory of the Divine Moon Royals! Even though it's a huge place, those who aren't of the divine moonrace aren't even allowed to travel there!" she said, rolling her eyes.
"Is there any way I can enter, then?" Tianming asked.
"Well, there's one! Let me take your hand in marriage!" She patted her chest and laughed heartily.
