Seeking Truth with a Sword

Chapter 716 - 646: The Plague of Blood

Blood fog, thick as heavy curtains, segmented the workshops, and chaos spread everywhere within the city.

The fox-masked scholar on stilts cackled as he set houses on fire while the golden Buddha with a look of joy buried corpse after corpse into the Lotus Platform beneath him. Tens of thousands of insects gathered into the form of a demon’s face, wriggling through cracks in doors and windows to inject their eggs into victims who were anesthetized and swollen all over...

Ordinary people hid in wardrobes, firewood sheds, and cellars, listening to the sounds of chewing, screams, and wails coming from the street across or even from the neighboring house, daring not to breathe too loudly.

In East City, at the orphanage, there was an underground ice room for storing ice blocks.

"The court will come to save us, they will, just hold on a bit longer..."

Xia Erniang held two children in her arms, her murmuring voice so light that even she could hardly hear herself.

When the disaster struck, the orphanage was about to turn off the lamps when suddenly they were enveloped by blood fog. Monstrous beast-headed demons burst into the courtyard, slaughtering indiscriminately.

Xia Erniang led a group of children to hide in the ice room, narrowly escaping the carnage.

But the ice room was bitterly cold, and the thinly clad children could not withstand it. She held two in her arms, piled several around her, using body heat to counter the pervasive cold.

CLICK, CLICK.

The slightly sticky sound of footsteps came from above, as if treading through a thick pool of blood, eventually stopping directly above the ice room.

Is it, is it a demon?

Xia Erniang shivered, slowly withdrew her arm from the embrace of the children, stood up leaning against the wall, and felt around, finding the iron crowbar used for moving ice blocks.

She held the crowbar and stood in front of the wooden door that led to the ground above, listening with bated breath as the chain lock outside was being dismantled.

SQUEAK.

The moment the door opened, she swung the crowbar forward fiercely, but it was abruptly stopped in mid-air by a long saber.

The saber was held by a young military officer dressed in garrison uniform, followed by a group of soldiers, each with a lantern tied at their waist, armored and armed.

With the light of the lanterns, Xia Erniang also recognized that the military officer was her husband, Yu Wen Yuan.

A reunion between husband and wife should have been a joyous occasion, but the expression on Yu Wen Yuan’s face quickly fell from ecstatic to sorrowful. The soldiers behind him, too, showed looks of shock.

"Husband, what happened..."

The words Xia Erniang thought of in her mind came out as a sharp, hissing snake sound when she spoke.

She belatedly looked down at herself; the upper part of her body was normal, but her lower body had swelled dramatically, stretching out, growing yellow scales like a python.

The serpent tail extended deep into the ice room, coiling into a bundle to resist the cold.

Sections of children’s hands and feet stuck out from the gaps of the serpentine tail, connected to corpses that had been twisted and mangled long ago.

What have I done...?

Fear and regret flooded her heart as Xia Erniang turned her head to look at her husband, all the words in her heart turning into serpent hisses. Her originally oval face, amid the violent emotional turmoil and chaotic thoughts, also sprouted brown-yellow snake scales.

"Captain Yu Wen, let me do it."

Pei Jing walked up with a heavy face, patted Yu Wen Yuan’s shoulder, and drew the Canghai Sword from his waist.

"No!"

Yu Wen Yuan stepped to block in front of his wife, his face pale, saying, "There must be a way, she hasn’t completely turned into a demon..."

Before he could finish, a sharp pain struck the back of his neck.

Yu Wen Yuan looked up to see his wife’s facial features twisted grotesquely, her vertical pupils filled with a voracious craving for living flesh. Her cheeks were now adorned with tough tendons, and her mouth was open wide to its limits, as if she intended to swallow his head whole.

WHOOSH—

An arrow tore through the air, piercing Xia Erniang’s glabella, whose head had taken on the form of a snake. Her head reeled back forcefully, crashing into the solid ice of the ice room’s shelves.

"It’s not a demon transformation,"

Several figures emerged from the darkness, their identity as supervisors from the Supervision Department declared by their signature black clothes and cone hats. One of them removed his cone hat to reveal the face of Ren Xin, an Instructor of Body Cultivation at the Academic Palace. "It’s the Bloodbath Demon Plague."

Bloodbath Demon Plague?

Upon hearing this unfamiliar and abstruse term, the garrison personnel were all visibly confused, while Pei Jing furrowed his brows deeply.

He was aware of the demon plague, which referred to ordinary people who, after prolonged exposure to high concentrations of Demonic Qi, not only survived, but were assimilated by demons. It was a common occurrence in the Ten Thousand Desolate Mountains.

However, the Demonic Qi in the surrounding environment was sparse, far from enough to cause such a widespread contagion, let alone enable demons to move about freely.

Unless... the key lay in the words "bloodbath" that preceded.

With urgency in the air, Ren Xin did not glance at the dejected Yu Wen Yuan on the ground, but asked Pei Jing in a grave voice, "Are the others scattered across the workshop districts?"

"Yes."

Pei Jing nodded. Before the disaster struck, many soldiers from the garrison had already been patrolling various parts of Chang’an City. After the onset of the blood fog, groups of them had been contending against the demons within their jurisdictions.

As for Pei Jing himself, the defensive forces at his home were not weak. Upon realizing that the demons swarming the city did not seem intent on specifically targeting the high-ranking officials but rather killed indiscriminately, he left most of his guards at home. Taking only a small squad with him, he left the Pei Mansion to join forces with the garrison, clearing out nearby demons.

"We also met other groups along the way, some headed to the Ministry of Justice to investigate the source, others to the Great Ming Palace to protect the Crown Prince. By the way, how is the Academic Palace faring?" Pei Jing added.

The garrison was not the only force in the city; there were numerous noble families like the Pei Mansion, which not only had family members who were Cultivators but also hired guards, bodyguards, and Tributes from outside.

All these forces combined could somewhat limit the destruction caused by the demon plague.

However, after hearing Pei Jing speak, Ren Xin’s face showed no hint of relief, only solemnity. "The Academic Palace is safe for now. How much strength do you have left? Come with me to seal off the Imperial City, we don’t have much time."

Ren Xin, along with several supervisors, rushed towards the Imperial City. Pei Jing quickly followed, pressing his hand on his sword and asking, "What’s going on? What exactly is the Bloodbath Demon Plague?"

"Spiritual Power doesn’t generate out of thin air, and ordinary people can’t suddenly become Great Demons no matter how much they are influenced. That blood fog originating from the Ministry of Justice, that’s the source of the demons’ power." Ren Xin spoke quickly, "If my predictions are correct, those who went to investigate the source of the blood fog by now... have likely become... bait."

Step.

Li Ang paused, stopping before the Shunyi Gate on the west side of the Imperial City. In the arrow slot of the Radiant Crossbow in his hand was a Light Talisman, radiating light much like a lantern, illuminating the surroundings.

The sturdy city gate, able to withstand the impact of a train, had been destroyed and shattered by a previous explosion. The Imperial Guards meant to defend the Imperial City were nowhere to be seen.

Only the unmanned Crossbow Cannons atop the city walls remained. They pointed at the ground in eerie silence.

An intense sense of foreboding emanated from the ruined gateway. The thick scent of blood was clear enough to be detected even from a street away.

Something’s not right...

Li Ang squinted. With his understanding of the operational system of Yu Country, he knew that in the aftermath of a disaster, Imperial Palace Tributors, the garrison, or scattered Cultivators from the Academic Palace would all spontaneously head to the Imperial City to investigate its cause.

But at this moment, the Shunyi City Gate, close to the Ministry of Justice, was deathly still, devoid of any sounds of battle...

After pondering, he removed the Light Talisman, extinguishing the light. With a short sprint, he leaped onto the city wall.

And then, he saw it—a world of flesh and blood.