Blood lethal qi flowed, claiming lives wherever it went. An Jing was getting much more practiced with his lethal-qi sword. Even though his enhanced strength was temporary, he had still managed to kill enemies stronger than him. The more experienced he was in using his abilities, the more he would understand their fundamental qualities.

"Alright!" Yvelbane said in a tone of praise. "Seeing you slay these evildoers in this manner has really convinced me that you were the righteous bearer I had been waiting for all these years. An Jing, your martial talent is far beyond my imagination."

"Thanks for the praise." An Jing took a deep breath, his eyes still bloodshot from the intense fight. "We shouldn't be too glad about this just yet. Instructor Han and the others' absence will cause more people to come to check on them. We have to hurry up."

On the way towards the dungeon, An Jing saw the dark-gold dish that had fallen to the side. The Vitalboon Dish had landed on the ground quietly, spilling twenty-odd blood-brew pills on the ground. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

He recalled the medicinal sludge in those tanks and the faces of the people who had been eliminated before he slashed at the Vitalboon Dish. The lethal-qi sword flashed, cutting through the dish. As he did so, the expressionless An Jing felt an odd sensation that caused his muscles to tense up.

The sound of crying could be heard from the damaged dish as its luster receded, turning it back into a normal black-colored dish. An Jing's lethal-qi sword, on the other hand, glowed dark gold. Even though it didn't glow as brightly as before, the light it gave off seemed purer with an additional hint of unfathomability.

In his mind, An Jing suddenly discovered a completely different sensation that allowed him to control this fathomless lethal qi. He didn't understand the principles behind it, knowing only how to use it on an instinctual level.

"You're able to control soul lethal qi too?" Yvelbane sounded rather surprised. "It's not surprising that you can control blood lethal qi since you awakened the Pyrestar lifestar. However, soul lethal qi is associated with the Stablestar and Cyclestar. Does your lifearc involve more than just the Pyrestar?"[1]

The sword soul came to a similar conclusion as the manor lord, though it didn't seem to mind. "As expected of my wielder. The lifearc you've awakened is far from ordinary."

"I don't really understand this myself. They did seem really agitated to see my lifearc awakening."

An Jing proceeded towards the dungeon. Given his level of power, he no longer needed a key to open locks, opting to destroy them with his blood-lethal-qi sword instead. He pushed the main door open and entered the hellish place.

There was nothing but pitch darkness and the scent of death and decay. The uneven cobblestone floor was covered in dried bloody flecks as well as trails of black substance, a sign of something being dragged along the ground.

The children within had long run out of energy to groan or cry. The anhedonic that the demonic cult had used to keep them sedated limited their ability to move and numbed them. They couldn't end their own lives even if they wanted to.

An Jing started by unlocking the outermost cell. The shriveled girl looked weakly up at An Jing, a trace of fear and wild disbelief in her eye. "You... you are..."

"I'm An Jing, the senior disciple," he said, somewhat embarrassed about the title. The demonic cult's title felt rather insulting to him. Despite being the senior disciple, there wasn't much he had done to save many children. Still, he used it as it was the quickest way to get them to recognize him. "I've come to save you all. Quick, leave this place. It's not safe."

"Senior Disciple... Waaaaah!" After hesitating for a moment, she began to sob and hugged his hand tightly.

An Jing couldn't even imagine the intensity of the emotions she felt. All he could think of was the countless days spent within this dark place, fully steeped in the terror of watching one's friends disappear one after another. He thought of the struggle, the blood, and the rolling heads.

"I will take you all away from here." With his non-sword-wielding arm, he helped the bone-thin children out of the dungeon one after another. There was only one left. Only eleven of them were still alive in the dungeon. There should have been four more, but they had perished before he arrived. Their usual keepers didn't bring them medicines and food in time due to the ritual and sudden assault of the Crimsonguard.

Of the 248 children who had been brought into the mountain, 108 had been chosen to join the ritual, sixty-six of whom survived. There were 140 who were eliminated. It was unclear how many of those were kept in the dungeon or how many of those were made into blood brews. At the very end, only eleven of those remained, bringing the final count of survivors to seventy-seven. Fourteen of the survivors chose to leave with Bai Qinghan to join the cult, leaving only sixty-two.

If not for the anhedonic that kept the children sedated and listless, they wouldn't have been able to endure months of being kept within the dungeon even having experienced the hardship of the snow calamity. Their minds would have withered away long before their bodies did. They were still under the effects of the medicine, so they were in a rather obedient state. They listened to An Jing and emerged from the dungeon.

Perhaps the cult needed the children to be in a minimum state of health for the blood brew. They were thin, but not as bad as when they had been rescued from the snow calamity. There just wasn't much fat on their bodies. After leaving the dungeon, they recovered some measure of strength. The only thing that they needed time to acclimate to was the light outside.

"I know a small path that leads outside the manor. Wait a second..." An Jing had wanted to leave with the survivors as soon as possible, but he heard rushed footsteps. He wasn't sure if they were in a hurry to leave or not. "Somebody's here."

He leaped onto the wall and saw a group of cultists rapidly heading toward the dungeon.

"Five riders... and the Crimsonguard is chasing them from behind." He squinted and felt the aura pulsing within his body and his sharp lethal-qi sword. "It seems like we can't avoid this."

"I'll need you to wait here and defend yourselves." After telling the survivors what to do, he disappeared into the smoke.

"An Jing?" said an instructor from the group that recognized him. "Aren't you at the ritual—"

Before he finished, his expression changed at the sight of An Jing's cold glare and the lethal-qi sword in his hand. He immediately recalled that An Jing was aware of the eastern farm plots and began to realize something. "Wait, let me explain. Those medicines—"

The rider reached for his crossbow before he finished his sentence and signaled to his allies with his eyes to strike. Little did he know, An Jing's calm gaze turned into one of disappointment.

The rider also noticed the shocked looks on his allies' faces. What's going on? Before he managed to aim and fire the crossbow, his body fell to the side, specifically, only half of it. As blood seeped out of him, his eyes dimmed.

"I didn't want to have to strike. Why couldn't you just run after you saw me?" An Jing stepped on the rider's bisected body, crushing his spine. He had killed the rider with a single slash of his glowing sword. "Will the rest of you fight too?"

He raised the sword toward the cultists who were subconsciously backing away.

1. Stablestar is an alternate name for Saturn while Cyclestar is an alternate name for Jupiter. Saturn is associated with the 28 mansions in Chinese astronomy while Jupiter is associated with the sexagenary cycle. ☜