WBICDPH Chapter 10

Chapter 10: The Young King

The Collapsing Cloud Azure Flame roared toward “Shen Bing.” At some point, Shen Bing’s pupils had turned blood-red. He moved with incredible speed, using the cliff face to spring away in several rapid leaps, narrowly dodging the azure fire. At the same time, he reversed his grip and drew a hidden dagger from his sleeve, seizing the opening to stab toward Xiao Lanqi’s right side.

“Overestimating yourself.”

Xiao Lanqi first summoned blue flames to shield Lin Jin at his side before turning to meet the demonic cultivator’s attack.

All things in the world are divided thus: those who cultivate with beast bodies and gain enlightenment are called demons; those born with spiritual intelligence and able to sense the primordial chaos are called devils.

Devils cultivate using the turbid qi passed down from primordial times. The nobler the bloodline, the stronger the affinity with that turbid qi, and the purer the condensed demonic energy and spiritual power. For this reason, the devil race reveres bloodline above all else—so much so that even with differences in cultivation, one can still suppress another through bloodline alone.

Xiao Lanqi was gravely injured and had just expended enormous energy dealing with the beast tide, but even so, dealing with a piece of trash like this was more than enough.

The pressure of the Taowu aura and the Collapsing Cloud Azure Flame made the demonic cultivator instinctively want to submit. His movements stalled for a split second. Xiao Lanqi seized that moment, grabbed the man’s wrist, slammed him into the cliff wall, and stripped the short blade from his hand in one fluid motion.

The dagger was dark red throughout, with a small, inscrutable totem carved into the hilt.

Xiao Lanqi balanced it between his fingers, examined it briefly, then let out a soft scoff.

“The Twelve Guards of the Bright Candle? Looks like after plotting against me, Xiao Lancheng spent decades in control of Bright Candle Heaven and still amounted to this. Even the Twelve Guards have been replaced with trash like you.”

With a casual flick of his wrist, the dagger instantly reversed direction. With a sharp clang, it embedded itself in the cliff beside the demonic cultivator.

The blade shaved off half a lock of his hair and left a thin, elongated cut along his cheek.

“Young Lord,” the man said coldly, “you’re still just as arrogant and reckless as you were back then. Looks like ninety years at Ghost-Crying Cliff still weren’t enough to make you understand where you lost.”

What people were willing to like, willing to draw close to, had always been his elder brother, Xiao Lancheng. Back then, Xiao Lanqi had genuinely believed that his brother was so good that it was only natural for people to like him.

One memory stood out vividly from his childhood.

Once, when his mother told him to choose a few personal guards, he was examining a group of boys around his own age. Suddenly, chaos broke out nearby. A filthy young boy rushed over and threw himself to his knees before him.

“Young Lord! You’re choosing guards, right? Please—please look at me! Please choose me! From this day on, I’ll give my liver and brains for you, die ten thousand deaths without regret!”

Xiao Lanqi raised an eyebrow slightly. He said nothing, only reached out and tested the boy’s cultivation.

“I don’t know how you got in here, but your cultivation is too weak, and your bloodline is impure. You’re not fit to be my guard.”

The boy froze for a moment. Then he bowed even lower, nearly prostrating himself at Xiao Lanqi’s feet, his voice tearing as he cried,

“Young Lord, I know I’m lowly, but please—please!! If I’m not chosen, I’ll die! I’ll really die!!”

Xiao Lanqi found it baffling.

He tilted his head slightly.

“If you die, what does that have to do with me? I’m choosing guards, not slaves. You can’t even withstand ten percent of my strength—how will you fight at my side? How will you protect me? Your bloodline alone guarantees you won’t go far. Why should I keep a useless guard? And if I chose you today, what about those who truly have the ability but lose their place because of you? There are countless ways to survive. Since you claim you’d give your life for me in the future, why not use that resolve now and fight for yourself at this moment?”

After Xiao Lanqi said that, the boy made no further sound. He remained kneeling on the ground, his body trembling uncontrollably, faint sobbing still audible.

Whether the boy lived or died in the end, Xiao Lanqi never knew. He only knew that the boy eventually left, thanking him profusely, following behind his elder brother.

There were many incidents like this. Xiao Lanqi never understood social niceties, nor did he like wasting kindness where it served no purpose. Every time, it was his brother who paved the way for him; even when he caused trouble, his brother cleaned up after him.

Aside from his mother, his brother had once been the person Xiao Lanqi relied on most. Yet the trust he had given from childhood all the way to adulthood was repaid, just before his coming-of-age ceremony, with a wound, a seal, chains all over his body, and ninety years of extreme torment, helplessness, and despair at the bottom of Ghost-Crying Cliff.

Xiao Lanqi coughed harshly, forcing himself back to the present from the chaos of memory.

He had already been gravely wounded. That he was still alive after pushing himself this far surprised even him.

But the cultivation he had only just recovered had now fallen back to where it was before—worse, even.

Once again, he was forced back into his original form, still juvenile.

Xiao Lanqi staggered as he struggled to his feet. Dizzy and lightheaded, he vaguely made out another figure.

The scene before his eyes overlapped into countless afterimages. For a moment, he couldn’t remember who it was—but he knew he needed him.

He stumbled toward that person, dragging his injured body along, moving slowly, nearly falling several times.

That’s right. The Jade-Bearing Sacred Body. He needed him.

As long as he consumed him, he could live.

He had to live.

Driven by beastly instinct, Xiao Lanqi moved close to the man’s neck.

He heard the steady beating of a human heart and smelled the sweet, fresh scent of blood.

Humans were fragile. As long as he bit through the throat—

His fangs were nearly pressed against the pulsing vein at Lin Jin’s neck when the human beneath him moved first.

Lin Jin, groggily waking up, opened his eyes only to see the puppy leaning toward his throat.

His heart lurched. He snapped fully awake and, faster than lightning, copied what he’d seen dog trainers do in videos—clamping one hand firmly around the puppy’s snout!

“Bad dog!”

Holding the puppy’s mouth shut, Lin Jin shook it slightly and scolded,

“If you want attention, just act cute—no baring your teeth!!”

“?”