Speaking of bizarre, the instant this drop of blood fell into the pond, what had been a light red color of pond water suddenly turned dark red as if it was indeed, a pool of blood.
Yang Qingshi chanted a series of incantations and the bloody pond started boiling over. Severed limbs and occasionally heads of the corpses would break the surface of the water.
As his chanting got louder, the movement of the bloody water became increasingly turbulent as if something was rising up from the depths.
At some point, the pale moon overhead had turned a deep shade of crimson.
This phenomenon was immediately noticed by the city guards who were still searching the capital. Upon closer observation, they actually discovered that clouds of crimson mist were gradually rising from the ground, thus staining the moonlight blood red.
“General, look over there!” One of the soldiers suddenly found the source of the odd phenomenon. It was coming from a mansion up ahead.
The Lieutenant Governor immediately frowned at the sight.
“Let’s go and take a look.”
Several hundred city guards rushed over.
“That’s the vice minister’s manor. Vice Minister Zhou!” The Lieutenant Governor was fairly well-informed when it came to the residences of palace officials.
“Knock on their door,” he ordered, and a soldier complied.
And yet, no matter how much he knocked, there no one came to answer the door.
“Something’s not right!” The Lieutenant Governor cast his deputy general a sideward glance. Understanding what the gesture implied, the deputy general ordered two of his most agile men to jump over the walls to investigate what was going on inside.
A long while passed after the two soldiers went in. Nothing seemed to be happening when all of a sudden, they heard tragic screams coming from inside.
“Tear down the door! Charge in!” The Lieutenant Governor knew something had gone terribly wrong the moment he heard the screams. Even if this was the residence of a royal official, they were left with no other choice.
Following a loud bang, the wooden gates burst open. Along with their pet beasts, the armed city guards poured into the courtyard and were immediately greeted by the foul, metallic stench of blood.
“General, should we inform Appraiser Lin about this?” the deputy general asked quietly.
After taking a moment to think in silence, the Lieutenant Governor nodded. He was one of the few people who had witnessed Lin Jin’s prowess. He was present during the battle at the Jade Dragon Temple. Having Appraiser Lin here in this abnormal situation would be much more assuring.
A soldier immediately left on horseback to relay the message.
Next, the troops started searching the vice minister’s mansion. There was no one around but the floor was wet with pools of dark blood.
They couldn’t find anything, that was until they reached the rear garden.
The troops that went to investigate were immediately dumbfounded by the scene.
One of their comrades, who had scaled the wall earlier was now a dried corpse. The other was grappled by a gigantic man, who was covered head-to-toe in blood. The monster chomped down on his neck and slowly started draining the soldier’s blood away.
The scream from earlier came from this man.
What’s worse was how this soldier was actually among the most skillful of his unit. His steel sword was plunged deep into the man’s body, but it seemed to have done nothing to stop him. Even when the troops showed up, he remained unfazed. His attention was solely on sucking the soldier’s blood.
Many of his comrades turned pale at the sight of his slow, painful demise. No one dared to move a single muscle at that moment.
After he was done, the giant man tossed the soldier’s corpse aside as if it was a piece of trash.
At first, it had only one large mouth on its head. Then, facial features began to emerge on the creature’s face.
The Lieutenant Governor walked over just in time to witness this very scene.
“What kind of monster is that?!”
Even the well-informed Lieutenant Governor was staring wide-eyed in disbelief at the creature ahead.
While it was definitely a humanoid, it also had the claws and tail of a beast. Below the layer of blood, it was covered in a layer of scales. The only thing human about the thing was its facial features, which were that of a human. It was big, about two feet taller than the average man.
“Fire your arrows!” Realizing that the creature was hostile the Lieutenant Governor decided that their best course of action was to kill first, talk later.
At his command, the archers immediately loaded their arrows.
A military bow had a high draw weight. The harder they pulled, the higher the velocity at which the arrow traveled. At such a short distance, and coupled with the razor-sharp arrowheads smelted from a unique blend of materials, they could easily pierce through steel.
In an instant, arrows rained down on the monster, who had nowhere to hide behind.
Sure enough, all arrows struck their target, lodging themselves deeply into the body of that strange creature. However, as if it couldn’t feel pain, the humanoid actually chuckled and spoke.
“My disciple, to think you actually used this forbidden sorcery to summon my clone to assist you. Very well, that I shall do! Hah! The strongest being in the capital of the Jade Dragon Kingdom is that old dragon who refuses to die. Other than that, no other Rank 4 beasts are worthy of being my opponent! But even if that old dragon shows up now, it will be futile! In fact, I don’t mind sending him to his demise in advance.”
Having said that, he struck at the soldiers nearest to him. His attack was so quick that no one managed to react in time. Several of them were bludgeoned to death in an instant.
Blood splattered everywhere and the now dried-up pond was gradually filling up again.
No one seemed to have noticed a thin stream of blood that connected the bottom of the pond to this strange creature’s body.
At that very moment, Lin Jin was rushing over.
Several other appraisers from headquarters had decided to come with him, including Tan Xun. After all, it was an incident that headquarters could not afford to ignore. Even if they decided to stay back, this group of old appraisers wouldn’t be able to rest well tonight.
Then, an arrow of command was fired into the night sky. The loud whistling of the arrow was accompanied by a ball of light.
“That flare is used only during emergencies! Something must have happened on General’s end,” the messenger soldier shouted.
This command arrow was visible and could be heard from every corner of the city, so soldiers from everywhere would rush over at once.
Lin Jin’s brows furrowed.
His instincts told him something was off.
Yang Qingshi alone shouldn’t be strong enough to force an expert like the Lieutenant Governor to fire the flare. That was unless Yang Qingshi had received strong reinforcements.
If that was the case, why didn’t they just help Yang Qingshi break through the city’s defense? Why did they have to waste time fighting the endless streams of troops inside the city?
However, despite knowing that something was wrong, Lin Jin couldn’t put a finger on what it was. He couldn’t stop the city guards from sending reinforcements either.
Hence, he could only hurry on his own.
Prior to this, he was being considerate of Tan Xun and the rest, but now, there was no time. Clouds gathered below Lin Jin’s feet and he rose into the air, speeding ahead of his peers.
His speed shocked many to the extent that their jaws dropped.
Lin Jin arrived at the location where the flare was fired in the blink of an eye. When he reached the vice minister’s manor, the smoke from that command arrow earlier had yet to dissipate.
Upon arrival, Lin Jin took a deep breath and immediately picked up a familiar smell.
The stench of the eight-headed viper.
“It really is here.” Lin Jin’s eyes narrowed. This time, he wouldn’t let the man escape, no matter what. Without another word, Lin Jin took out the Nebula flag he had refined and tossed it upwards.
“Nebula Barrier!”
