Hu Manor (Arc 1)

Trigger warning: blood, child abuse, torture

The floor of the room was made of stone, and there was an array on the ground. At the center of the array, there was a pile of young children, bleeding.

Most of them were unconscious, but a few were still awake. Their eyes fluttered weakly but they did not let out a sound.

The floor was thoroughly soaked with blood, just like the fourth floor of Xiang Si's pagoda. The familiar, smell made Feng Yongrui want to retch. There was a single guard standing at the edge of the array.

He was wearing exactly the same bluish clothes like the guards from the pagoda. The guard gave a large yawn and then complained under his breath because he was unlucky and got the night shift.

With experienced movements, Zhong Weimin knocked out the guard. He immediately flopped unto the ground and lay motionless.

Other than the guard, there was no one else in the room. Hu Feizi was nowhere to be seen. The four of them took off the invisibility spell.

"The array is still absorbing the blood from the children," Zhong Weimin explained in a low voice. "As I've said before, this array isn't the complete version, so it's unstable."

"Ma Bo," Feng Yongrui called. "Don't step into the array no matter what happens, in case it triggers your Demonic Constitution. You should just stand guard and alert us if anyone is coming."

Ma Bo nodded and unsheathed his sword, standing guard in front of the door. Meanwhile, Zhong Weimin was moving his fingers and muttering an incantation to forcibly stop the array.

When he was done, the array no longer absorbed the children's blood. Feng Yongrui and Hou Renshu stepped into the array and brought the children to the side.

The children who were still awake looked at them blankly, not quite understanding the situation. Thankfully, the children didn't make any noise or show any signs of protest.

After all, if the children made too much noise or began crying, they might be discovered.

Zhong Weimin administered first aid to the children, sealing their wounds and using a healing spell to preserve their lives. Seeing everyone working, Ma Bo left his post and helped taking care of the children too.

Feng Yongrui used his "super vision" from the System and scanned the children's brains. He was right -- each one of them had a Gu worm inside their brain.

Speaking of Gu worms, Feng Yongrui clenched his fists when he thought of Ya'er.

After Feng Yongrui had extracted the Gu worms and brought the kidnapped children home, he and his disciples had immediately returned to the Immortal Pathway Sect.

However, two days later, Feng Yongrui recalled that he hadn't extracted the Gu worm from Ya'er. He hurriedly flew over to her house, but he found out that she was dead.

Dead!

Feng Yongrui was upset for a very long time, and so he buried this memory deep into his mind. Now, seeing these children with the Gu worm inside their heads, Feng Yongrui inexplicably felt a bitter feeling inside his chest.

There were about fifteen children in total, and Zhong Weimin and Ma Bo had finished treating all of them. They would have to bring the children outside before anyone came back and found out about the situation.

It took them 3 rounds to bring the children out of the secret room. During that time, Zhong Weimin and Ma Bo would stay in the room while Feng Yongrui and Hou Renshu carried the children outside.

Feng Yongrui had bought an item from the System, which was called Invisible Box. The box was really large, and once they were outside the secret room, Feng Yongrui would place the children inside.

The box and its contents would stay invisible to other people's eyes. Only Feng Yongrui could see, touch, and use it.

When all the children had been moved away, the four of them returned to the secret room to talk about the array. Ma Bo wanted to destroy the array on the ground, but Feng Yongrui felt it wouldn't be enough.

Even if they destroyed this array, the Hu family would still be able to recreate the array.

"Let's just destroy the Hu family entirely," Zhong Weimin suggested with an evil smirk.

Feng Yongrui's lips twitched. As expected of a former Supreme Demon Lord...

"Actually, Host, I think destroying the Hu family is a good thing," the System spoke. It had been quiet all this time, but it suddenly started speaking.

"The Hu family is up to no good. They hut innocent people but act like righteous heroes. They're disgusting," the System spat.

"Well..." Feng Yongrui hesitated. Destroying the Hu family? Didn't that mean killing every single family member, every single servant that worked for the Hu family, and so on?

Argh... wasn't this the same as murder?

"Besides, some people in the Hu family might not be bad people. Take Hu Zemin, for example. I think he's just a victim... Even though he is cold and fierce, he isn't necessarily involved with his father's misdeeds, right?"

Before Feng Yongrui could hear the System's reply, the door to the secret room was opened and two people entered the room.

It was Hu Feizi and Hu Zemin!

All four of them were surprised, but they had no time to hide. They could only stand there as Hu Feizi glared at them.

Hu Feizi was a stout, middle-aged man. His hair had yet to turn white with age, but his beard was already turning gray. He had a few fine lines on his face, and his demeanor was like one who had saved the world and deserved to be worshiped.

Meanwhile, Hu Zemin was standing behind Hu Feizi with a meek and docile appearance. His face was pallid and sickly, giving people the impression that he could be blown away by the wind.

When Hu Feizi saw the four strangers inside the room, his eyes grew dark. He scanned the room and frowned when he couldn't find the children.

"Hmph! Who are you? How dare you trespass into my Hu manor late at night?" he yelled gruffly.

Feng Yongrui's eyes turned cold. So this was the man behind all of this. Feng Yongrui didn't have any good feelings about this person.

"Why do you have to know who we are?" Feng Yongrui retorted and unsheathed his blade.

"In any case, all you need to know is that we'll be the ones sending you off to hell!"

With a sharp cry, Feng Yongrui flew forward and attacked Hu Feizi with all his might.

"Master..." Ma Bo was worried, but Zhong Weimin patted his hand to reassure him.

Feng Yongrui and Hu Feizi fought for some time. Hu Feizi's swordplay was swift and his footwork was really good.

Meanwhile, Hu Zemin did not stay idle either. He flew over, unsheathed his sword and attacked Hou Renshu. The two were engaged in their fight, swords clashing and metal clanking.

Feng Yongrui found that, although Hu Feizi's cultivation was below his, Hu Feizi was actually gaining the upper hand! Feng Yongrui felt this situation was familiar, and then he remembered.

That day, when he was fighting with Xiang Si, the System told him that Xiang Si had an artifact that made him stronger! If his guess was right, then Hu Feizi was carrying that same artifact.

Feng Yongrui knew he had to get rid of the artifact first, so his sword moves became faster and more intense.

"System, do you know what the artifact looks like?" he asked.

"Host, do you really think I know?" the System asked in anger.

...Well, that made sense. The System was so terrible, it definitely didn't know anything useful.

Hu Feizi made a sharp turn and lunged at Feng Yongrui. Narrowly avoiding the blade, Feng Yongrui twisted his body and blocked the blow with his sword. It seemed like Hu Feizi was getting more and more aggressive.

Meanwhile, Zhong Weimin and Ma Bo were watching the fights and staying on standby. Amongst the four of them, Zhong Weimin and Ma Bo's cultivation levels were the lowest.

Although Zhong Weimin was once a Supreme Demon Lord and he had a lot of knowledge, at the moment he wasn't strong enough. So he and Ma Bo decided to stay in the sidelines, rather than rushing over to help and then getting in the way instead.

Zhong Weimin had thought that, for Feng Yongrui, suppressing Hu Feizi would be no problem, but he saw that Feng Yongrui was actually the one at a disadvantage.

Zhong Weimin paid close attention to Hu Feizi, and then Ma Bo tugged at his sleeves.

"Weimin," he whispered. "Just now, the blood in the array was absorbed again."

"What? But we've already disabled the array, right?" Zhong Weimin cried, turning his head to look at the ground.

Ma Bo was right. The array was working again! Zhong Weimin became flustered. Did his skills degrade so much that he couldn't even disable an array properly?

At that moment, they heard a cry. Feng Yongrui had managed to land a blow on Hu Feizi, drawing blood. Instead of feeling upset, Hu Feizi scoffed and muttered something under his breath.

The array on the ground lit up, and the blood that had been pooling on the floor was suddenly sucked into the array at high speed.

Zhong Weimin's eyes were as wide as saucers, and he finally understood.

"Hu Feizi has an artifact! And that artifact is link directly to the array, so that he can become stronger than you!"

***