Inside Thousand Faces City, screams echoed one after another through the streets.
A nauseating, deformed monster had suddenly appeared in a crowded area. The patrolling guards had quickly discovered it and smashed it to pieces.
However, to their utter surprise, the fragments of the aberration remained highly active, spreading contamination everywhere.
A mass of dark-red flesh lunged from the ground, crashing into a patrol car flying at a low altitude.
The car's windshield shattered, and the guard in the driver's seat was dragged out through the window by a deformed arm protruding from the meat. His agonizing screams rang out across the entire street.
"What is this thing! Ah, it's biting me!"
A middle-aged woman's voice erupted from the crowd. Her husband was desperately trying to pull a thumbnail-sized black fragment off her leg. The thing was clinging to her skin like a leech, and the pus oozing from its edges had already corroded a hole the size of a fist in her trousers.
"Don't touch it! Whatever you do, don't touch it! If you're contaminated, there's no saving you!" A guard in a black uniform rushed over, the light of a spell already glowing in his hand. But he suddenly stopped because he saw numerous grey-green scales sprouting from the woman's neck.
"Run! Get out of here!" someone shouted.
The crowd fled in all directions.
The guard captain arrived at the core area where the aberration had fallen with a squad of men. Three large fragments of the creature lay scattered on the ground, each half the height of a person, still squirming and slowly shifting their shapes.
The captain condensed a fireball in his palm and launched it at one of the fragments.
The fragment exploded, bursting into countless smaller pieces.
Each piece was alive, launching itself in every direction like a swarm of bees emerging from a hive.
The captain unleashed several more Fireball spells in succession, each one accurately hitting a fragment, until a foul soot filled the air.
The captain's throat began to itch. He reached up to touch it, only for his fingertips to brush against a patch of coarse, hard keratin.
Looking down, he saw grey, fish-like scales growing from the palm of his hand.
Terrified, he tried to scream, but the sound caught in his throat.
The chaos spread rapidly. Some people flew into the air to escape, but the sky was no safer; contaminated birds circled at low altitudes, waiting for a chance to pounce on anyone alone.
The glass curtain walls of the buildings shattered, raining shards down from above. The streets were filled with things that, once contaminated, no longer looked human.
At that moment, the sky outside Thousand Faces City began to change. A murky purple-black hue spread through the clouds, which began to rotate, forming a massive vortex.
The center of the vortex was pitch black and bottomless, like an eye peering down at the earth from the depths of the universe.
A sinister, otherworldly power was seeping out from that eye.
Simultaneously, another power erupted as five-colored light soared into the sky, spreading out to confront the black eye.
Where the two forces collided, space began to warp, letting out a piercing shriek.
The entire Thousand Faces City trembled. The floating building complexes swayed back and forth, and many of the sky-bridges connecting them snapped. Shards plummeted from the heights, crashing into the streets below and kicking up clouds of dust.
Alarms blared everywhere.
...
Inside the Ximen family main building, everyone felt the crushing pressure weighing down from above.
The foulness made their very bones ache with discomfort. Even from a great distance, the aura was nauseating, causing dizziness and blurred vision.
Many clan members crowded by the windows, looking out at the sky torn apart by the black and five-colored light.
"The Family Head is fighting the killer outside the city," someone said.
No one dared to approach and watch. The power there was too overbearing; the mere aftershocks made it difficult to breathe.
They could only catch glimpses of two streaks of light—one black and one multicolored—colliding in the sky at speeds the naked eye couldn't track.
With every collision, a shockwave rippled outward from the center, sweeping across the entire city.
Everywhere the shockwaves passed, the glass of buildings shattered and paving stones were ripped from the streets.
Ximen Qing stood with his hands behind his back, looking at the sky outside the city. His expression was calm, but his fingers were trembling slightly inside his sleeves.
He wasn't worried about his father's safety. Instead, he was calculating how he could exploit the situation if his father happened to "accidentally" die in battle.
He glanced back at the others in the assembly hall. The second-born daughter was also staring intently out the window with a curl to her lip, clearly hoping for their father to drop dead as well.
The Ninth Young Master leaned back in his chair, idly twirling a pen.
The other clan members had anxiety and unease written all over their faces, unable to tell which way the situation would develop.
No one spoke in the hall.
Outside the city, the shifts in the energy tide became increasingly violent as the black and multicolored lights repeatedly clashed.
The two forces were locked in a struggle, neither seemingly able to completely overwhelm the other for the time being.
This stalemate lasted for a long while. Then, at a certain moment, the black and multicolored lights suddenly expanded simultaneously, blooming for an instant before rapidly returning to tranquility.
There was no explosion or roar. The black and the multicolored light vanished at the same time, and the sky returned to its normal color. The wind stopped, and even the air became still.
No one dared to move. They were all waiting for the result.
A deathly silence persisted in the hall for three minutes before Ximen Qing was the first to speak: "Send people to investigate."
His confidant took the order and left, returning a moment later with a pale face. "The space outside Thousand Faces City is in total disarray. We cannot sense the Family Head's aura, nor can we sense the aura of the killer."
Whispers broke out in the hall. The Ninth Young Master asked expressionlessly, "So, they took each other out?"
The Second Miss sneered. "Are you hoping Father is dead?"
The Ninth Young Master glanced at her. "What difference does it make if I hope for it or not? He's gone anyway."
Ximen Qing slammed the table. "Presumptuous! My father's life is uncertain, and you already start talking like this? Your conscience has been eaten by dogs!"
The Second Miss leisurely straightened her cuffs. "Big brother, stop playing innocent. The ambition in your eyes is impossible to hide."
Ximen Qing's expression shifted slightly, but he didn't argue.
Having been suppressed by his father for so long, he could finally let it all out today!
At that moment, an elder from a side branch stood up and said, "According to the clan rules, if the Family Head is unable to continue fulfilling his duties, the eldest legitimate son, Ximen Qing, shall serve as the Acting Head until the Family Head returns or is confirmed to be unable to return."
The Second Miss immediately stood up to object. "Acting Head? Who made that rule! My father is only missing, not dead. Even if someone is to act in his stead, it should be decided by a public discussion of the clan council, not by one person's word."
The Ninth Young Master added slowly, "Second Sister is right. We don't feel comfortable with Big Brother acting alone."
Ximen Qing looked at the two of them coldly. "When did you two hook up?"
Neither the Second Miss nor the Ninth Young Master denied it.
Ximen Qing sneered. So they had joined forces?
Heh, two concubine-born brats. Even if they joined forces, how could they ever compare to someone as legitimate through and through as himself!
Rate on N.U.
