79. Despair
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(warning... there shall be violence!)
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Meanwhile, the dust cleared to reveal Luoyin standing beneath an aged pine, the brilliant sun rays boldly peeking through the leaves.
'This is...' He looked around. 'The hunting grounds...
'Not good!' His eyes suddenly widened in realization, as a feeling of anxiety washed over him, and he hastily searched the area.
"Yanyan!" He called out. She had just been with him on the platform, but he couldn't even sense the slightest hint of her aura right now. "Yanyan!!"
He had expected the attack, but hadn't considered that they might send them into an alternate space, and not just he and Weiyan, but likely anyone who had been on the platform at the time.
If the enemies went as far as sending them in here, then there were bound to be countless dangers awaiting, and the cold fingers of fear crawled around Luoyin's heart.
He hadn't felt real fear since his awakening, but it gripped him now, nearly clouding his vision, forcing him to recall those he had lost thirty thousand years ago, and how he had searched everywhere for Yan Liwei that day...
How he found only the dead...
And How he might lose his dear ones even in the present, their faces swimming before his eyes...
Xu Weiyan. Xu Min. Xu Wen. Xu Lian. Xu Lin. Tao Yun. Even Xu Haoyuan for Sect Leader Xu's sake...
'Not again...' Luoyin froze, falling to his knees in a moment of despair. 'I was stupid... I was careless!'
Who was he to come here and endanger these innocent people?
Like in the past, would his existence lead to the death of those closest to him...?
Would he fail to protect them, like he had failed to protect his father, older brother, little sister, and,
'Weiwei...' Her name came to his mind, but the name which escaped his lips was,
"Yanyan!" The thought of losing Xu Weiyan snapped Luoyin out of his frozen state, and he shook his head, rising to his feet.
What was he doing wasting time like this?!
'The air is poisoned!' He realized, and quickly held a hand up in a seal. It was a rare and powerful poison which filled one with anxiety, heightening their most innate worries and fears.
"Lunar Clarity!" Luoyin whispered, using a technique to dispel the air around him with a mild but constant flow of aura surrounding him.
He didn't fool himself... Poison or no poison, the fear of losing those around him was a real inner demon- a demon born of ancient events, but that 'demon' was only powerful as long as he was helpless.
Not now...
Now he would try his hardest to protect those who had drawn close to him!
'Cleanse!' He thought, and then instantly shuddered as a surge of poisoned blood poured from his lips.
It was then he saw it... A reverse summoning talisman tagged to the base of his robes.
'Oh?' Someone had wanted him to appear here specifically, and he had sensed a specific aura right before they disappeared from the Arena.
He tore off the talisman, then straightened, wiping his bloodied lips with the back of his free hand.
"Aren't you going to come out?" He asked aloud, his irises moving towards his left. "You went through so much to invite me here..." He turned.
"Right? Mo. Zhen." He finished as the talisman burned between his fingers.
A light snicker filled the silence and a familiar face stepped out from behind a tree.
It was indeed Mo Zhen, Zhang Cheng's half-brother from Huofeng.
'Hmph.' Luoyin hid a scowl. 'I was looking for you, and you brought yourself here?'
The sight of Mo Zhen only reminded him of the original Luoyin's miserable death, and of the pain he had awoken with in this body.
Mo Zhen brushed his elegant red and white robes aside as he strode to face Luoyin, sending him a smirk. "You're quite different from the snivelling sob you were last time."
Luoyin calmly returned his smirk, but it was void of any living emotion. "Hmmm, yes, you're right. I feel like something has changed since last time." He was nodding. "I feel like you're more useless now... What do you think? It's almost as if a slug can surpass you if it tries hard enough."
"You-!" Mo Zhen's face turned purple with an angry expression to match.
In terms of birth alone, the Mo family was prominent within Huofeng Sect, second only to the Central Huo Family. In terms of cultivation, he had grown as one of the top geniuses in Huofeng Sect, and his father was a highly-ranked Huofeng Sect Elder, so...
'How dare this roadside trash -?!' No one had ever dared to insult him!
But Mo Zhen forced a tight smile. "Hao! I commend you for breaking my poison formation, but I hope you know..." He raised a hand to the sky and two large crescent blades appeared, circling his wrist. "You won't leave here alive today!"
He directed the blades at Luoyin and they spun towards him at an impossible speed.
Luoyin ducked backwards, nearly parallel to the ground, and leapt away as the blades chased him.
"Hao qinggong! I thought you were utter trash!" Mo Zhen gave a small applause. "But keep it up! Your current expression is making me look forward to what face you'll make as I pommel you to death again!
"This time I'll ensure you stay dead! Worms like you have no chance of surviving my twin moons!"
The crescent blades spun out of sight but instantly returned, covered in deep purple flame-like aura, and they swept from different angles, splitting the air in elegant wide arcs, easily slicing through the trees in their path.
But Luoyin managed to evade them, leaping away or ducking whenever they came at him.
'Yuan Jing!' He thought, scouting with his far-seeing technique.
He suddenly veered to the left, dodging one of the relentless blades which cleanly sliced through a large tree where he had been.
Luoyin slid down a small cliff as the blades whistled after him, and so did Mo Zhen, who laughed at his futile efforts.
"Zhang Luoyin, let me tell you a secret..." He said, floating after them as his blades wreaked havoc, narrowly missing Luoyin each time.
"I hated your 'Zhang Furen' more than you did! She was my mother's biggest enemy, and father constantly maltreated mother for her sake... Logically, I should be thanking you, but do you know why I want to harm you, despite that?"
He suddenly appeared in front of Luoyin. "Because she at least had worth! She had built such an empire around herself!" He attempted a kick at Luoyin's chest, but Luoyin swivelled out of the way, then swiftly leapt away again as the blades spun after him.
"Hmph. Useless!" Mo Zhen scoffed, giving chase again.
As a child, his father had once turned to him.
"Don't think I haven't noticed the eyes with which you look at that woman..." Lord Mo had said. "I won't stop you. But if you harm her while she's useful to us, I'll kill you first!"
Lord Mo had turned away. "If you want her head, grow your own worth! Only the worthy are permitted to topple a giant!"
At present, an ugly scowl settled on Mo Zhen's brows.
"What is your worth, Zhang Luoyin?!" He demanded. "I hate seeing a struggling worm the most! What right did trash like you have to crush my undefeated foe?!!"
He opened his hands and the twin blades zoomed into them, then he leapt towards Luoyin, even faster than the blades had been, but Luoyin dodged by a hair's breadth.
Mo Zhen stopped, spinning the blades around his fingers, and Luoyin stopped ahead, finally turning to face him again.
"Zhang Luoyin, let me tell you, even if father didn't attack now, I intended to sneak back and kill you!" Mo Zhen said. "Him assigning this task to me simply proves even the heavens are sick of your pathetic existence! They are on my side!"
He planted a foot, releasing his aura, and a dark purple seal with two rings appeared, causing the ground to rumble.
Profound Tier Nine, stage eight...
Mo Zhen was just a step away from becoming an Elder.
"I commend you for surviving so far, but I'm a little tired of chasing you around, so I'm going to destroy you now..." He said, swinging the blades forward. "Whirlwind of Fangs!" He yelled as he leapt towards Luoyin.
In the air, Mo Zhen was spinning with the blades, faster than almost any eyes could follow. The speed and force rattled the trees around them, making Mo Zhen indeed resemble a fearsome whirlwind of blades.
"Farewell, Zhang Luoyin!" His voice echoed around, as the whirlwind grew larger in Luoyin's irises, but...
"Hmph." Luoyin raised a hand and waved downward...
"What-?!" All that speed and momentum was instantly halted, and Mo Zhen suddenly found himself crashing painfully into the ground, with enough force to dent it quite a distance.
His body seemed to weigh a thousand tons - a thousand tons which had just smashed into the hard ground, causing the large dent and mile-long ridges to rupture in every direction!
It felt like every single bone in his body had broken, and there was so much blinding pain that he wheezed in confusion.
It was as if his body was being crushed, and he could barely move a finger.
"W-?!" *wheeze* "What di-?!" *wheeze* "What did you do?!" He managed, as Luoyin's feet began approaching.
"Arrogant..." Luoyin spoke softly. His feet stopped right in front of Mo Zhen's face, and he looked down at him with an expression void of emotion.
"I hate listening to full-grown brats throw a tantrum. You're surely almost thirty, but here you are whining because someone killed an enemy before you. Tsk tsk tsk..." He shook his head.
"Lucky for you I was worried for my comrades, so I let you make all that noise, while I ensured their safety..."
While the blades chased Luoyin, he reactivated the seals he had placed on the others during the tournament's Second Stage, and he located them with the seals, using Yuan Jing to ensure each was safe.
As he ran and evaded, he also placed hidden flags around, creating a teleportation formation which would activate once they were all within it.
Xu Haoyuan and Li San didn't have his seal, but thankfully, Xu Haoyuan had appeared in the same place with Xu Lin.
But that left Li San...
"No way --!" Mo Zhen's pathetic wheezing cut off Luoyin's thoughts. "It's impossible!" *wheeze* "There's no way," *wheeze* "... trash like you can defeat me!!"
He struggled to raise his head. "Ah! I get it! You must have used some sort of formation to defeat me, right?!"
But Luoyin crouched and smiled at him. "No. For you I used a direct spell..."
He tilted his head, as if in thought. "Weren't you just saying you intended to sneak back and kill me? What a coincidence! I also intended to find you, but you brought yourself to me...
"I don't like harming creatures, but several beings under the sky insist on being heartless, often viewing the lives of others as lowly or insignificant... Since you killed 'Zhang Luoyin' in such a brutal way, shouldn't you experience something far worse?"
"No...!" Mo Zhen's eyes widened as he wheezed. He was beginning to feel as if his entire body was collapsing on itself, with unbearable pain which nearly blinded him. "Y-- y- you're not Zhang Luoyin!" *wheeze* "W- Who are you?! What did you do to m-?!"
But he began to spasm and gurgle as blood poured from his mouth and every hole in his head.
Meanwhile, Luoyin glanced up to find the auras around Mo Zhen becoming clearer as Mo Zhen neared his end...
They were people- ghosts and evil spirits - who couldn't approach Mo Zhen, likely because of a protective seal on him.
Luoyin looked back at Mo Zhen, his smile cold enough to rival winter.
"Hmph. Compared to you, Zhang Cheng can actually be considered a righteous saint. He's just a spoiled bully, but you...? There's a long line of dead souls trailing behind you, all murdered for your own selfish purposes, and they've been screaming for your blood since this morning..."
At the Arena, it had been their cries that made Luoyin realize the auras were people.
"As a benevolent former deity, I must hear their cries." He continued gravely. "So for the first time, I used my 'Thousand Ton' spell on a person... Right now, every single inch of your body is desperately trying to crush the ones beneath it.
"Even an immortal might not survive it, much less a cruel and arrogant mortal."
Luoyin stood up and walked away as Mo Zhen breathed his last, and the Spirit-binding Seal appeared on Luoyin's wrist, one of the last two arrows vanishing without ever being activated.
"Go to the underworld and kowtow to Zhang Luoyin, his mother, and all those you've killed... Then remember to be a good person in your next life."
With Mo Zhen gone, Luoyin had just one grievance left...
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