Chapter 401 Target Practice
The Peacock youths were smug and arrogant.
“Let me go!” cried the beautiful woman between sobs and shrieks.
The Peacock young man hugging her firmly wrenched at her lower chin roughly and snapped, “Quit acting innocent, you worthless trollop. Thank the stars that I even want you.”
Heads popped out of the pub. The other patrons of the pub looked displeased at the smug attitude of the Peacock youths, but no one dared to resist them.
No one dared to risk offending the Peacock race, not especially for an ordinary woman.
“Who do you think you are, bullying a weak woman?!” shouted the middle-aged man at them.
The leader of the youths looked at him, wearing a disdainful look, “Well, you’re right, worthless scum like you aren’t even worth bullying.”
“That’s enough, Peacock race! The Devil announced that we humans own Earth. You’re only guests here so behave yourself!” glowered the man.
“The Devil?” the leader’s face writhed with disgust and rage, “Don’t use that name, or I assure you you’ll suffer a quicker death. The Devil’s nothing but a fraud. Let him come. He’d not dare to meddle with the affairs of the Peacock race even if he’s here.”
“Peacock race? So what? What are you compared to the Wingeds? Did they not always take pride in being one of the greatest races here? The Devil easily butchered them all like slaughtering chickens!” bellowed the man. He might not be as strong as the Peacock youths, but he spoke with pride and dignity, which was more than one could say about the rest of the curious and busybody patrons who only dared to peep.
That angered the leader of the youths. His eyes gleamed with a hint of malice as he sneered, “Is it worth your life to save an ordinary woman?”
“It’s not a question of worth. It’s a question of blood. She’s ordinary, but the same red blood courses through her veins and that makes her one of ours and she’s not yours to defile.”
“Kill him,” growled the leader of the Peacock youths.
“Allow me,” said one of them, a handsome but wicked-looking young man. Chuckling, he said, “I can kill her, let alone defile her. One of our elders easily swallowed more than tens of thousands of your kind with just one mouthful and where were you then? Did you try to stop him? And for this offense towards us, you shall die.”
The youth, a Seventh-grade Peacock King, was confident that the Sixth-grade Human King was no match for him. Despite his outward appearance of a young man, he had reached at least two hundred years old.
“Ready to die?” he hissed sinisterly, his voice unusually cold and cruel, “Anyway, that was a question. Whether you live or die, it’s up to me, and I intend to start by tearing open that big mouth of yours.”
Chu Xun stood aside and watched with interest. The proud and pompous temperament of the Peacock youths hardly angered him not one bit because Chu Xun found himself a mount.
Whoosh!
With great speeds, lights of myriad colors burst around the Peacock youth and the gigantic likeness of a peacock appeared behind his back, spreading its wings wide majestically.
The middle-aged man held his ground warily, his Internal Breath churning in full readiness to retaliate. As much as he knew that his powers were too weak, but he showed no signs of faltering.
“Long Yi,” called Chu Xun quietly.
“Understood, sir,” acknowledged Long Yi, understanding Chu Xun’s gist full well.
His long cast-iron bow appeared in his grasp and his finger drew its bowstring to its fullest before letting go quickly.
Swoosh!
A white arrow-like energy bolt screamed through the air, streaking at the Peacock youth.
“ARRGHH!”
Blood sprayed out like a fountain and the youth grunted hard as the energy bolt speared through his heart, its force propelling him into the air. He turned back into his original form – a huge peacock more than a dozen meters long – before crashing down on the ground.
Thud!
The large peacock carcass struck the ground, the momentum of its fall splitting the earth open and rocking every building nearby furiously.
Everything fell silent and every man and woman watching the episode stood petrified like a stone.
The middle-aged man swiveled his head around with a horrified look, and he saw Long Yi.
Even the patrons in the pub were staring at Long Yi with shock and disbelief.
Coolly, Long Yi tucked aside his bow, ignoring them.
By the time everyone recovered from the momentary stupor, all they could hear amidst the deathly silence was themselves drawing long breathes of air.
That was a member of the Peacock race, and he was killed with just one shot with the serenity of a hunter at target practice.
Crack!
The leader of the Peacock youths glared at Long Yi darkly with unnerving malice.
“Do you know what you have done?” he growled with a steely voice as if holding himself back from lunging at Long Yi.
Long Yi ignored him. Chu Xun’s order was only to kill the Peacock, not to answer questions.
“Seems like you’ve not learned anything from the Wingeds,” remarked Chu Xun coldly.
The sudden utterance made everyone jerked their heads in Chu Xun’s direction, realizing for the first time that he was the true person in charge, not Long Yi.
Some began wondering who he was. But it did not take long. In mere seconds, looks of dawning comprehension emerged quickly before twisting quickly into horror and dread.
“That’s the Devil!” cried a voice, its owner’s face fraught with panic.
Those who had found Chu Xun’s appearance to be oddly familiar jumped immediately, shivering with fright when they finally put the name to his face and their eyes shot as wide as eggs.
Who would not know that name!? Even if anyone failed to recognize that face, there was no way anyone wouldn’t recognize the moniker of “The Devil”!
The faces of everyone around – especially that of the Peacock youths – spasmed and flushed with the colors of dread and despair.
The malice and rage on the face of the leader were gone, now replaced only with extreme fear.
The rest of his companions were already between sobs and tears.
“Leave this one,” Chu Xun pointed to the leader, his eyes scanning the rest of the band, “Kill the rest.”
With their smug and gloating looks utterly wiped off their faces, the Peacock youths now looked so pale and terrified that their entire selves were practically shaking like leaves.
With a wordless acknowledgment to Chu Xun’s instruction, Long Yi lunged.
“How dare you, Devil!?” shrieked the leader of the youths in his panic before Long Yi’s fist connected with his face, sending him crashing to the ground.
Long Yi’s greater strength easily dwarfed his might as an Eighth-grade Peacock King.
The rest of the Peacock youths – all of them Seventh-grade Peacock Kings, Long Yi effortlessly launched them up into the air with a litany of uppercuts.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
The rest of the Silver Dragon Guard did not sit idle; hails of white energy bolts soared like a white deluge of brilliance.
“Arggh! Argghh!”
One after another, the youths who Long Yi launched up into the air with his punches were shot by the energy bolts fired by the Silver Dragon Guard, turning into their original forms even before they came down and when they did, their gargantuan girths fell into a big pile that clogged up the road.
Screech!
A loud screech of a phoenix threatened to sunder even stone and steel. A gigantic phoenix shrouded in flames appeared in the sky, its thirty-meter-long wingspan fully spread in all its devastating splendor.
Rumble!
With one beat of its wings, it sent gales as sharp as blades sweeping forth that even the earth quivered as if in fear. The phoenix brandished its flames proudly like whips, reducing the large heap of peacock carcasses into ashes and embers that spiraled up into the skies.
The still-surviving leader of Peacock youths leaped into the air and transformed into his original form, eager to flee.
With a gentle kick of his forefoot, Chu Xun floated into the air and descended like the curving arc of a rainbow squarely on the Peacock’s back. He felt a shiver beneath him and the Peacock squawked fearfully and crashed to the ground, rocking the earth once more.
“Please, Devil! Mercy! Mercy please!” begged the Peacock, his voice practically breaking with the shattering of his nerves upon the much-dreaded realization that it could no longer escape.
Chu Xun motioned for Long Yi and his squad to step on the Peacock’s back.
“Let it be clear that I’m allowing you to leave not because I’m reluctant to kill you, but rather my need for a mount.”
“Very well… And your mount I’ll humbly be…” said the twenty-meter long animal in human tongue.
It truly was afraid beyond wits. If only it had encountered anyone else, the Peacock could easily rely on the bloody and brutal reputation of its race to intimidate anyone to its will.
The Peacock had only its poor fortunes to blame for meeting the Devil. The only person who could kill and slaughter anyone without any scruples and the one person in the world who did not fear any of the Lost Races. With its life now in the noose held by the very hands of the Devil, the Peacock could only submit without qualm or query.
The rest of the onlookers did not breathe easy until Chu Xun and his men finally left on the back of the gigantic peacock.
The mere notion of Chu Xun’s brutality was like the weight of a mountain that left everyone suffocated with fear and anxiety, nevermind his powers and magic.
“Thank you, Immortal Chu!” cried the middle-aged warrior into the direction where Chu Xun had disappeared with brimming exuberance.
“Don’t mention it. You were a hero.”
Chu Xun’s disembodied voice echoed from afar.
The man’s face blushed with a bright pink shade. His hands trembled with excitement. Chu Xun called him a hero. It was an honor beyond measure.
Eyes looked his way with envy. To be hailed a hero by the Devil himself was a privilege few in the world enjoyed.
The giant peacock made great progress, flapping its wings as best as it could to race at great speeds.
Chu Xun cast an enchantment that kept away the winds and the noises.
Long Yi had been stealing glances at Chu Xun, looking as if he wished to say something.
“Just spit it out,” Chu Xun threw him a glare.
“These people… They look so afraid of you,” said Long Yi after hesitating.
“They don’t call me the Devil for nothing,” Chu Xun chuckled, “The infamous and notorious Devil.”
“A name that reeks of blood and cruelty,” observed Long Yi.
“It’s not the name that’s bloody and cruel, but rather the fame that has been fertilized and enriched by the blood of my enemies.”
“Did you kill many?”
Chu Xun nodded without answering the same question that Qi and the children of Silver Dragonsville had asked before.
“But… Is it good to kill so many people?” Long Yi asked uncertainly.
“Are you afraid of killing?” Chu Xun chortled lightly.
“No!” he answered firmly, giving Chu Xun a hard look of resolve, “Give the word, Master Chu Xun, and I will kill whoever you name.”
Chu Xun giggled and nodded, “Be ready then. A fierce battle awaits.”
The Peacock was very quick. Despite the short delay at Pingshun, they managed to reach Qingcheng by dawn.
The Peacock was so tired from the exertion that it was practically spewing froth and saliva when it finally landed. But it could not afford to slack off – not when the single-most dangerous person on Earth rode on its back. A single kick from him could easily blast him to kingdom come.
Chu Xun asked for some directions and ascertained the location of Silent Hill before they set off once more.
Grey dawn peeked at the horizon, heralding the coming of a new day.
From atop the skies, they could see all of Silent Hill, a long and windy mountain range resembling the snaking trunk of a dragon that sprawled over the hills.
All of Silent Hill spread across the vista, spanning from north to south with one end a dense and ancient jungle while the other, a deep bottomless abyss.
Cries and roars of wild beasts could be heard over the thick boughs of the jungle while the bottomless ravines at the far end of the mountain range were as silent as a crypt. The unnerving contrast was almost uncanny.
It was here within the fastness of Silent Hills that the Broken Souls Cult was said to have taken up refuge.
“Can we fly up higher?” asked Chu Xun.
The Peacock skirted atop the side of the ridges of the bottomless abyss and when it flew over its opening, a sudden fear gripped the animal as it began to beat its wings violently.
Dark and sinister was the chasm that no one could see how deep it reached. Yet, like the ravenous appetite of a wild beast eager to feast on its prey, a strange, invisible force reached up to drag whatever it found into its darkness.
A sudden force from nowhere was drawing it down and if Chu Xun had not acted quickly enough, the gigantic bird and everyone would have plummeted down into the chasm.
“To the other side!” Chu Xun barked.
The Peacock obeyed quickly and scrambled to the other side to find trees so tall that they obstructed the Peacock from spreading its wings wide.
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