“We are not scared of pain or trouble!
Gus said stubbornly, “We are not scared of death after everything we’ve been through. Are we scared of the truth?”
“Not necessarily, dear Brother Gus.”
Lu Qingchen smiled. “Both this world and other worlds are full of things that are more terrible than death. Sometimes, death is a relief.
“There, just like these ants.”
While talking, Lu Qingchen picked up three to five ants with his fingers.
The ants had been fighting hard a moment ago, but right now, they were lifted high into the air by a formidable existence that they could not understand at all and extended to the nose of Gus and Grey.
“They can die happily without knowing anything.
While he was talking, Lu Qingchen snapped his fingers, and the ants were immediately pulverized.
Then, Lu Qingchen picked up another three to five ants and placed them in his palm.
This time, he was not in a hurry to kill the ants. Therefore, after a moment of confusion, the ants immediately struggled hard to survive.
They crawled along the lines of Lu Qingchen’s palm, trying to figure out the outline of the ‘Palm World’ before they crawled toward Lu Qingchen’s torso and head along his wrist, as if they were trying to start a conversation with a higher-level existence such as Lu Qingchen. Some of the ants were even trying to jump down from Lu Qingchen’s palm and escape from the ‘Palm World’ that they found both incomprehensible and terrifying.
But all the struggles and efforts were meaningless.
“Do you see? Their exploration, struggle, survival, and combat, their heroism, their passion, their fearlessness, their groveling, their begging, their deception, all of it is meaningless.
Lu Qingchen sighed and said, “If the ants have really awakened to a higher level of wisdom and understand their situation, what benefits can they get other than bringing terror to them before their death?
Gus was stunned.
“But—”
Grey gnashed her teeth. “If the ants gain wisdom and strength of a higher level and understand their situation, they might be able to see the true face of the world and the gods and devils who control it. They might be able to resist and even get rid of the miserable fate of death!
“The believers of the ‘Mechanical and Steam Sect’ are determined to be a bunch of ants who have woken up and are ready to fight back. We will blow up the false mask of the so-called ‘Punching God’ with the great power of machines and steam and become the real dominator of the world!
“How interesting.”
Lu Qingchen closed his hands and crushed the struggling ants on his palms again. Then he blew the dust made of the broken limbs to the sky of the ant nest and said casually, “Whatever. If you want to do something before your death, it is your freedom. I don’t care. However, whatever you want to do, please hurry up, because a storm is coming.”
A storm was coming.
The storm on Red Phoenix Mountain was incomparably fierce. A moment ago, it was just a storm, but in the blink of an eye, the world was already filled with the howling of the wind and the pitter-patter of the rain. It was as if the mighty power of the gods and devils had shifted the entire ocean into the sky and ruthlessly smashed down upon the heads of humans.
The raindrops the size of fists were enough to knock a person out. The branches were broken, the mud was flowing, and the road that the animals had created was blocked. The zigzagging mountain roads became even more complicated, like a messy spider web.
The two siblings could no longer turn their heads. They could only support each other as they gritted their teeth and advanced in the pouring rain and mud.
Groups of pursuers arrived in the storm, too.
In the beginning, it was just the troops of torches that were raging like crimson dragons on the dark mountains.
At that time, the two siblings were hoping that it was just a routine hunting and training team.
But on second thought, even the craziest ascetics could not march into Red Phoenix Mountain in groups in such bad weather.
They must be hunting the ‘evil disciples’.
The siblings’ judgement was soon verified.
They had been half a day ahead of their pursuers.
However, due to the interference of the torrential rain, the mudslide destroyed the road and caused them to be lost in the depths of Red Phoenix Mountain, engaging in close combat with the pursuers.
Thankfully, the pursuers had been washed away by the heavy rain, too. They turned from groups of twenty people into scattered soldiers.
“Password. What’s the password for tonight?”
In the storm-like forest at night, visibility was extremely low. When the pursuers saw the two siblings through the shaking branches, they would use such a method to distinguish friend from foe.
The two siblings could not answer and could only run away.
A short encounter thus began.
“The traitor is there!”
“Don’t run away from the two heretics!”
Excited shouts and bloodshot eyes filled the forest.
Gus knew the pursuers. Many of them used to be his classmates in the Iron Fist School, but they had graduated a long time ago and started training in the major boxing gyms. Presumably, the training mission to hunt down the evil Cultivators was a condition for them to graduate from the boxing gyms.
The pursuers knew Gus’s sister Grey, too, and knew that she was one of the best experts in the younger generation of Red Gold Town. Whoever captured or killed Grey would win Grey’s glory. Therefore, they all lunged at her fearlessly despite the storm.
“We are not traitors!”
Gus defended himself in a panic.
“Trash, get lost!”
But his former classmate simply and crudely responded.
“You idiots who have been fooled by the Fist God!”
Grey shouted and turned around in the pouring rain, holding the chain crossbow with both hands. The bolts were emitting precise and soft mechanical sounds.
“What?”
The pursuers did not expect that Grey or anybody else could utter such outrageous vulgarities. After a moment of shock, they were even more furious. They punched at Grey’s face.
Grey sneered and opened fire. One burning bolt after another was fired.
“Careful, it’s an evil technique!”
The pursuers exclaimed and fled in all directions.
An iron-willed believer of the Fist God shouted, “Help me, Fist God!” and punched at the arrows. Their arms were either pierced through by the arrows or their fists turned into fireballs. They screamed in pain and fell from the sky into the dirty mud. There was no telling whether they were dead or alive.
The remaining pursuers were more and more shocked and infuriated. They did not hold back any longer and launched fatal attacks!
