Chapter 389 Chop and Change
More than twenty chests were hauled up and left outside the gate of the Fire Dragon Palace.
“I’m afraid this is all the Fire Dragon Palace has,” said Yan Chong with a look of reluctance.
The Ninth Presbyter of the Winged race motioned one of his men to inspect the chests.
The elderly Winged did as he was told. He landed and strode to the chests and opened one of them. He took out a magical shrub and a bright glow of light shone in his palm as he consumed the nourishment of the enchanted plant as it withered at a visible rate before turning into ashes.
Satisfied, he opened the rest of the other chests and peered inside. When he was done, he turned around, looked up at the Ninth Presbyter, and nodded to him.
But the Winged leader looked hardly contented. Coldly, he glowered, “Is that all?”
“Indeed,” replied Yan Chong, “This is every bit of the treasures and valuables that we could find from every corner of the Palace, including the personal stores of every single member here. Feel free to send someone inside to check if you won’t take my word for it.”
The Ninth Presbyter nodded smugly and said, “Very well. At any rate, I doubt you’re even brave enough to try anything duplicitous.”
He landed and waved a hand, magicked all twenty chests into his Storage Ring.
Yan Chong, Lei Bao, and Long Ao all grimaced at the sight of the Palace’s valuable resources being taken.
With a contemptuous smirk, the Ninth Presbyter soared up to the air once more. Peering down at Yan Chong just as he would at insects, he said, “Remember. You are to spread the word about invincible might of us Wingeds.”
“Don’t worry about that. We’ll get right to it immediately and make sure the world knows about this,” said Yan Chong, feigning servility.
“Good. You might make a very good servant at that,” sneered the Ninth Presbyter derisively before he barked to his men, “Let’s go.”
“But sir, the Tenth Presbyter and the others are not back yet,” said an elderly Winged.
The Ninth Presbyter frowned at that. “We’ll just withdraw. Fire a flair after this to notify them of our departure.”
Meanwhile, Yan Chong and his companions were screaming on the inside: Go, dammit! Just go!
Meanwhile, inside the Palace, the acolytes were all rushing around to collect their personal effects. It would only be so long before the Wingeds discovered the hoax and they needed to get to Gujiang before the Wingeds returned to regroup with the Rock Sect.
The highly-disciplined Winged Legion maintained their neat formation even as they hovered in the air.
They turned around to leave, not without throwing insulting looks at Yan Chong and the others before they pivoted around, their wings beating heavily.
Just then, one of the elderly chieftains spied a dozen or so Wingeds scrambling this way.
“Wait, Ninth Presbyter. Look,” he said.
The Ninth Presbyter said nothing, save to fix a fierce glare into the distance. He had already noticed them coming.
The stray group of Wingeds caught up to them.
“What happened?” demanded an elderly Winged.
Between their terrified looks and missing patches of feathers, they looked like a flock of beaten chickens who had been fleeing for their lives.
“Where’s the Tenth Presbyter?”
“D-dead! They’re all dead!” cried one of the survivors, his voice trembling so badly like a piece of glass about to break.
“What?!”
Every Winged who could hear him thought their ears were deceiving them.
“What did you say?!” demanded the Ninth Presbyter loudly.
“They were all killed! The Tenth Presbyter and the others! You need to avenge them, sir! Please!” sobbed another Winged survivor.
“Speak clearly! What on earth happened?!” bellowed the Ninth Presbyter angrily.
The band of survivors told their story of what happened with each adding a sentence or two every now and then.
They recounted how the detachment of the Legion which had diverted away was killed by ordinary humans using guns and how a single man had almost decimated the whole detachment single-handedly.
“Are you saying that the Tenth Presbyter was killed by an ordinary human?!” gasped the Ninth Presbyter with evident disbelief.
“That’s no human. He’s a monster! A demon! The Tenth Presbyter had activated his Suan Ni tooth all to no avail. Instead, that man even took the Suan Ni True Blood from inside the tooth!”
“He even took Master Mo’s Reality Painting.”
Every Winged who heard them reeled with bewilderment. “What?! The prized heirloom of the Winged race, the Reality Painting, is lost?!”
The Ninth Presbyter could not believe this was happening. They could never risk losing the secrets hidden inside the Reality Painting that was the key to restoring the Winged race and the Suan Ni True Blood, a treasure of untold value.
“Lead the way,” he glowered.
They could not lose the Reality Painting, to say nothing of the secrets it carried.
Down below, Yan Chong and his comrades all shared furtive looks of doubt. “Humans killing Wingeds with guns?! What kind of far-fetched joke is that?”
They had experienced first-hand the might of the Winged race and their deadly steel-like feathers that could split even stone and metal. Yet even with such might, a human had, unaided and unassisted, routed a company of them.
Even to most of the Winged race, the Tenth Presbyter wielded powers and strength that only few could rival, and that he had been slaughtered like a dog was a feat only thought unbelievable and impossible before.
“Good Heavens Almighty… Has an angel from above come down to defend us?!” Yan Chong and his companions all thought with delight.
The band of survivors turned around to lead the bulk of the Winged Legion to where they came from when what they saw something closing in from a distance made them shrieked and caterwauled with fright as they flapped their wings and scattered to flee.
“Worthless scum,” bellowed the Ninth Presbyter, firing a sound wave that pummeled at the survivors, nearly knocking them off the sky.
Every head turned to look closely and a little white dot approached, growing clearer and clearer.
Yan Chong and his comrades watched with dubious stares.
They saw a Winged. A Winged that was carrying a man on his back like a beast of burden.
Angry cries resounded from the midst of the Winged Legion. None of the Wingeds were happy to see one of their own being used as a common mule.
Even from afar, one could almost make out how badly-shaken the Winged was, trembling under the feet of the human riding on his back. As much as he was afraid of his own kind and the punishment that might await him, he was more afraid of Chu Xun and he could only obey his wishes to approach the Winged Legion.
“Wretched fool!” hissed the Ninth Presbyter with such rage that his hairs almost stood on ends. His hand came up swiftly to fire a white bolt of energy.
Not only Chu Xun must die, even the Winged too for willingly carrying a human on his back. As far as the presbyter of the Winged race was concerned, that poor man had forfeited his right to remain a proud member of the Wingeds.
But the Winged carrying Chu Xun went pale. He did not expect that his own kinsmen would such callously seek his death.
Unfazed, Chu Xun’s hand came up to fire a purplish bolt of energy of his own. Both energy projectiles met but Chu Xun’s bolt easily disintegrated the white bolt of light and continued streaking towards the Winged presbyter.
That stunned the Nine Presbyter. His hand came back up again to fire another bolt at the incoming attack but the resulting explosion from the collision tossed him several meters backward.
“That’s the one!” cried the survivors, “He’s the one who killed the Tenth Presbyter and the others!”
The Ninth Presbyter stared at the faraway figure of the human. The brief bout they just had was testament enough of this human’s ungodly powers, making him the most dangerous human the Winged race ever encountered since emerging.
Shocked, Yan Chong and the others did not expect to hear any human to have such power aside from Chu Xun, to resist the Wingeds.
Just as long as he was human.
Chu Xun gestured to his Winged to land.
The Winged obediently rocked its wings and landed.
The rest of the Wingeds around stirred with immense resentment at one of their kind lying prone on the ground as the human lackadaisically stepped off his back.
“Dammit! You’ve forfeited the right to call yourself one of us!”
“What a disgrace! You’ve put us all to shame!”
“Take your own life! You’ve caused the whole race enough indignity!”
Cries and howls of anger clamored from the ranks of the Winged Legion.
The Winged who had borne Chu Xun all the way here hung his in shame, unable to speak.
“Shuddup, dammit! Speak one more word and I’ll destroy you!” hissed Chu Xun, his tone hardly rising at all.
His voice was nowhere near loud – nowhere enough to reflect the sentiment of his threat, but it was enough for the angry cries of the mob of Wingeds to instantly die down.
The Ninth Presbyter stared darkly at Chu Xun, his eyes betraying the malice that swirled in his mind, even though all he could do was keep a wary look on this unknown human champion.
Ignoring them, Chu Xun smirked and turned around and showed them his back to see Yan Chong and the others instead.
They were however apprehensive and nervous. “Who is he? Is he here seeking fault with us?!” After all, Chu Xun had made his fair share of enemies through his years of swashbuckling exploits.
“Very good. It seems that you’ve not been idle in my absence.” Chu Xun nodded approvingly.
WHAT?!
The curt remark left Yan Chong, Lei Bao, and Long Ao stunned. Their faces beamed with exuberance coupled with looks of comprehension as they finally recognized Chu Xun.
“Master!?” Yan Chong gasped uncertainly.
Chu Xun nodded again to confirm himself and his facial muscles began writhing and convulsing to change him back into his true appearance.
“It really is you! Master!” cried all three of them.
There was no longer any need to keep his identity disguised. He only masked his true appearance before because he wanted to get a better grip on the strengths of the Wingeds.
But the Wingeds did not know why the sudden jolt of surprise and joy for Yan Chong and his comrades. With Chu Xun turning his back to them, they did not know what was going on. “Is this man a friend of the Fire Dragon Palace?”
“WHAT ARE YOU STARING AT!? LOOK SOME MORE AND I’LL DIG OUT YOUR EYES!” bellowed Lei Bao out of nowhere.
The Wingeds stared at him blankly, oblivious as to what caused the sudden change in Lei Bao’s behavior.
“I’ve been waiting for days to get back at you birdbrains for surrounding us!” said Long Ao loudly.
Only then they realized: this lone man who had single-handedly routed the Winged Legion was none other than Chu Xun himself, and with his return, the Fire Dragon Palace would have nothing to fear.
Chu Xun spun on his heels.
The Wingeds were all dumbfounded for seconds when they got another look at Chu Xun. “How did he change his appearance so quickly?! He looked no different from any common man just now and now, after the blink of an eye, he looks just as beautiful as one of us Wingeds?!”
“This explains a lot about human’s natural and duplicitous propensity to chop and change!”
“The Devil,” the Ninth Presbyter growled.
Chu Xun’s lips curled into a grin, “You’re brighter than you look, I guess.”
The presbyter of the Winged race was more wary than indignant that he did not reply. He recognized Chu Xun only because of the intelligence they had gathered prior to assailing the Palace. All chieftains of the Winged race had studied him and his battles closely.
But they knew that Chu Xun had disappeared for three years. “What caused him to reappear suddenly?!”
“At any rate, that would explain why these lackeys suddenly turned fierce!”
The Wingeds all stirred uneasily. Even with their late emergence from hiding, they were no stranger to the harbinger of death and carnage that was the Devil Chu Xun.
And none of them expected right off the bat, Chu Xun had slain a company full of Winged legionnaires.
“Hail, Devil!” the Ninth Presbyter managed himself, struggling to keep his malice and resentment in check. Chu Xun’s powers had far outstripped his expectations.
No other name had left quite as much impression as the Devil’s. Much they had learned about him. Yet still, many, if not all, of the Wingeds doubted him. “How powerful can a human be,” said many with scorn. “All he did was vanquish a number of lesser orders and organizations before his tale got blown out of proportion.”
For this reason, the Wingeds did not disclose that they held Chu Xun in contempt and disregard. As far as the Lost Races were concerned, the Devil had only earned his moniker because he had not yet met his match from the midst of the puny rabble he had been mingling with.
But today’s display had overturned their expectations, shattering their perception of the Devil with the force of a sledgehammer. They had never been so wrong before. The Devil did not earn his fame for nothing.
“Ain’t it rude for you to be flapping your wings up there while you’re standing right in front of the gates to my house?” Chu Xun said to the Wingeds loudly, frowning.
The eyes of the Ninth Presbyter swirled with apprehensive wariness. The brief exchange with Chu Xun just now had effectively struck fear into him.
With a wave of his arm, he signaled for the Winged Legion to land.
The tacit order was hardly welcomed by the rest of his kin. Landing on the ground was a taboo for any Winged, to say nothing of giving up their advantage of air superiority for them who were natural in aerial combat.
Nevertheless, the entire Legion knew better than to disobey the direct command of the Ninth Presbyter and they reluctantly descended and stepped onto the hard soil of the ground.
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