Against the Gods

Chapter 119 – Burning off the Curse

“Stop! Don’t hurt him! I’ll promise you anything as long as you let Zu’er go.” Feng Zu’er’s vitality was already unbearably weak, and now, he had also landed in the demonic claws of the villain; Feng Baichuan could no longer regain his former calmness. With a paling face, he raised his hand and shouted in panic.

“Then why don’t you immediately hand over the treasure you are guarding!” Black Demon mercenary roared in an almost deranged manner and a sinister look on his face.

“But… But we really don’t have any treasure…”

“You still dare to fool me, looks like you don’t want your son’s life anymore!” The Black Demon mercenary revealed a sinister smile, and the palm that was gripped around Feng Zu’er’s neck suddenly tightened. Even though Feng Zu’er was unconscious, his small and pale face still showed a pained expression.

“Stop!” Lan Xueruo took a step forward, pointing her sword at the Black Demon mercenary as her whole body trembled with rage, yet she simply had no method to help. Her heart was filled with hatred and regret; if she had listened to Yun Che and executed them, the current situation would never have occurred and there more so wouldn’t be any worries for the future. However, since things had already turned out this way, what use was there for regrets.

Behind her, Yun Che expressionlessly raised his hand with his palm facing that Black Demon mercenary, and indifferently spat out a word: “Explode!”

Fwoooosh!!

With a dull sound, a huge ball of blazing fire suddenly bursted out from the the Black Demon mercenary’s hindbrain and back. In just two breaths of time, the scarlet-colored flames had already burned through the vital vessels in his neck, causing his eyes to pop out and powerlessly release Feng Zu’er. His body collapsed on the ground as if it was a fallen stake as his life expired.

With Yun Che’s nature, he, without a doubt, wouldn’t actually let these dangerous “fish that slipped through the net” appear. These two Black Demon Mercenaries that had luckily kept their lives, were done so deliberately by Yun Che. Even though Star Scorching Demon Lotus had not harmed them, it had poured unignited profound energy into their bodies. Under the immense shock, even if they had sensed the profound energy that was poured into their body from the outside, they definitely would not be calm enough to force this foreign profound energy out. Under the appropriate timing, Yun Che would then ignite this profound energy, and light the phoenix’s flames from inside the body.

The reason as to why he left this two people alive, was to give an essential “lesson” to Lan Xueruo, and could also be considered as his good intentions and thought. It was because he didn’t want to see Lan Xueruo get hurt in the future from of her own overly soft-heartedness and kindness.

Feng Baichuan stared blankly at first, then rushed forward at top speed and held Feng Zu’er in his embrace. Seeing the current situation, the other Black Demon mercenary’s expression greatly changed, and ran away frantically while letting out a shriek.

Yun Che lowered his arm and slowly squatted onto the floor from over-exhaustion. A urgent low shout came from his mouth: “Senior Sister Xueruo!”

Looking at the Black Demon mercenary who was escaping further and further, Lan Xueruo’s right hand which had the Tiger Soul Sword in its grip, started to faintly tremble. Every single one of Yun Che’s words stabbed her heart like needles, and the earlier scene that made her regret sullenly flashed through her mind. She finally raised her right arm, condensed her profound energy, as the Tiger Soul Sword was shot flying at the back of the Black Demon mercenary’s heart… The instant the Tiger Soul Sword escaped from her hand, she turned her head around and closed her eyes.

Psssh!

The Tiger Soul Sword mercilessly pierced into the back of the Black Demon mercenary’s heart through his body, flew out from the front of his chest, and then nailed in a piece of boulder with a “clang”. The Black Demon mercenary collapsed onto the ground, never to utter another breath again.

The sound of the sword’s blade entering the body clearly traveled back, and caused Lan Xueruo to suddenly tremble. She shut her eyes tight and didn’t dare to open them for a long time. Glancing at the corpse of the final Black Demon mercenary lying far away, Yun Che gave a silent sigh in his heart, and said softly: “This should be the first time Senior Sister Xueruo has killed a person, right? The feeling of killing someone for your first time will be very terrible, and very painful. After this, one may even have nightmares for the few following nights… All of this, I know. If Senior Sister Xueruo was only an ordinary girl, I wouldn’t have let you do such a painful thing. However… even though I don’t know Senior Sister’s true identity, with Senior Sister’s disposition, manners, profound strength as well as that contracted profound beast that could be driven in high altitudes… Many signs are telling me that Senior Sister’s background must be nothing but extraordinary. Senior Sister is either from some large sect or from a noble family of an extremely high position.

“Since you are situated at that kind of level, then it must be filled with struggles for power and position, as well as fighting and scheming. Senior Sister’s overly soft-hearted and kind nature might bring harm time and time again to Senior Sister, so much so that it may be fatal. I don’t want to see Senior Sister suffer this kind of harm. And so, Senior Sister needs to at least learn how to treat friends and enemies differently. This sentence, may sound very cruel to Senior Sister, but I believe that around Senior Sister, including Senior Sister yourself, there must have been some who had suffered irreparable harm due to Senior Senior’s soft-heartedness to enemies.”

Yun Che’s words made Lan Xueruo fall into silence. And as he finished saying the last sentence, her entire body suddenly shook before starting to tremble continuously for a long time; a painful expression had also appeared on her face.

After a long time, when she opened her eyes, Yun Che had already walked far away with the support of two young men from the remnants of the phoenix clan. Her gaze swayed for a bit, and a faint whisper leaked out from the corners of her mouth: “Yun Che… Thank you…”

————————————————

The incident with the Black Demon Mercenary had slightly injured the remaining phoenix clan’s vitality. But fortunately, even though it made several people’s bodies weak for quite a while, and some even became seriously ill, no one’s life had been endangered with Yun Che around. Yun Che had passed the the Phoenix trial, acquired the phoenix imprint, eliminated this crisis of the phoenix clan’s and also displayed such mystical medical skills to heal the several tens of clansmen who were in imminent danger. These past few days, everyone in the phoenix clan almost treated Yun Che as if he was a god and gave him the most extreme of respect and reverence.

And today, the giant snow eagle had finally awakened. It was now time for Yun Che and Xueruo to depart.

When bidding farewell to Feng Baichuan, Feng Baichuan’s face was filled with reluctance. He worriedly said while looking at Yun Che: “The reason why our clan had shunned the world for a long time and hid at this place that is cut off from the rest of the world, is because even though we have the phoenix imprint, we only possess an extremely weak power. If our entire clan did not go into hiding, this phoenix imprint, which cannot be hidden from others, would bring us countless troubles. However, we can’t even handle any few Nascent Profound Realm profound practitioners, and can only let them take advantage of us. Luckily, you guys were here for this incident or else our withered clan would have already been finished. Even though this crisis is over, I am extremely afraid; since our small clan is so weak, we won’t be able to prevent anything similar from happening in the future, and if an honored person like you does not appear next time… Sigh.”

Yun Che instead laughed and said to Feng Baichuan: “Clan Leader Feng, aside from bidding you farewell, there is another reason why I sought you out this time… and that is to help you remove the curse in your bloodline.”

This short sentence from Yun Che was like a clap of thunder that sounded right beside Feng Baichuan’s ears. His body trembled and the features of his entire face froze on the spot. Following that, his gaze trembled violently as he rushed to Yun Che’s front in an instant, tightly grabbed both of Yun Che’s arms with both of his hands, and asked with trembling excitement: “What did you say? What did you say… Could… could you repeat that?”

Feng Baichuan’s reaction was completely within Yun Che’s expectations. He looked directly into Feng Baichuan’s eyes, and sincerely answered: “Actually, the curse in your bloodline is very easy to remove; it can be removed just by burning it with phoenix flame. My profound energy was overly exhausted that day, so I didn’t dare use my profound energy recklessly. I’m only informing you about this right now because I have just made a full recovery today.”

While speaking, Yun Che suddenly raised his hand and pressed the dark red phoenix imprint on Feng Baichuan’s forehead with his right hand’s index finger. A small dot of phoenix flame quickly ignited on his fingertips, and then instantly rushed into Feng Baichuan’s phoenix imprint.

Feng Baichuan’s face revealed a trace of pain, but it had also only appeared for that instant. Subsequently, the color of his phoenix imprint suddenly started to change; from a dark red, it gradually became more and more vivid, until it became a scarlet colour that was completely devoid of any murkiness.

Yun Che withdrew his finger, as he looked at Feng Baichuan with a slight smile. Feng Baichuan then stretched out his trembling hand to stroke the phoenix imprint on his forehead that had become hot. He was excited and so moved that he didn’t know what to do. He spoke in a tearful voice: “The curse… has disappeared… It really has entirely disappeared.…”

Yun Che smiled and said: “After these past few days of nursing, everyone’s body should also have more or less recovered. Let’s take this opportunity and gather everyone in one spot; I will eradicate the curse imprint on everyone from its root.”

“Okay… Okay!” Feng Baichuan nodded his head as his eyes filled with tears. As he looked at Yun Che, the gratitude in his heart was so strong that it could not be described with any language. Yun Che had wiped out the Black Demon Mercenary Group, saved the lives of his entire clan, and removed the curse in their bloodline; essentially saving hundreds of their clansmen’s future generations! He allowed their entire clan to once again possess power and dignity! With the power to protect themselves, after the next generation, they would no longer have to sneakily hide in this desolate mountain range.