Revelation

From one moment to the next, Lei Mingxing was gone. 

And Jing Jiang's hand only grasped air, while his eyes barely caught two blurry shadows shooting into the air.

Shocked, he hurriedly looked around, trying his best to find Lei Mingxing but the only thing he saw were the panicked masses and nightmarish beasts cutting through said masses with their maws wide open.

Sweat was running down his spine and fear made his heart pound harder in his chest as continued to look around, but ultimately, he couldn't find her. Jing Jiang even had a faint suspicion that Lei Mingxing was actually no longer inside the plaza.

Also, remaining on the stage wouldn't do him any good.

After surveying the area for Lei Mingxing's whereabouts and watching the beasts' movements, the thought that all four of them were gradually closing in on the center of the plaza popped into Jing Jiang's mind, creating a sense of urgency that gripped his heart tightly.

Which meant that staying there any longer was like offering himself on a silver platter.

With this in mind, Jing Jiang quickly moved to the edge of the stage to jump off and try to get away. Of course, that would put him in danger of being trampled to the ground or shoved directly into the bottomless maw of a beast, even then, it was still better than staying.

Many of the other participants seemed to have thought the same, already fearfully joining the crowd, either tightly clutching onto their artifact or directly throwing it away in the hope of being just a little bit faster that way.

Now that he thought about it, Suan Bi was already gone, without leaving a trace.

Not that he really cared about that, he had other things to worry about, like escaping these things that had appeared among them like demons of the deepest pits of hell.

Catching souls to make them suffer the worst torment.

Shaking his head to get that terrifying image out of his mind, Jing Jiang hastily moved to hop down.

Just then, he heard a faint shout only a few meters away from him.

Whipping his head around, he saw his elderly father struggling to resist the panicked crowd with an exhausted and painful expression, almost getting knocked down in the process.

As if struck by lightning, Jing Jiang jumped into the crowd, running to his father as fast as he could. 

In the process, several shoulders were painfully knocked against his chest. Arms and even hands struck his face, not to mention all the different boots crushing his feet.

But he finally reached his father and immediately pulled the other behind himself, saving him from the overwhelming tidal wave of humans.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE, FATHER?! SHOULDN'T YOU BE AT THE FORGE WITH CHANG LIUYUN?"

The cries and screams of the crowd were so loud now that unless Jing Jiang shouted with all his might there was no way his father would hear him even when directly facing the other.

And although he was gasping for air, Jing Hai tried his best to answer his son, shouting as well.

"WE- hahh- WE CAME TO WATCH YOU! hah-"

Petrified by his father's words, Jing Jiang's eyes widened and he cried out in shock.

"WE? WHERE IS CHANG LIUYUN? DID YOU LOS-"

Jing Hai quickly shook his head, desperately shouting.

"NOT HIM, FENG GUANG! CHANG LIUYUN'S AT THE FORGE!"

Hearing his father's answer, the lump that had grown in Jing Jiang's throat melted away to some extent as a small sense of relief washed over him.

At least he hadn't lost Chang Liuyun as well, but that just meant they had to hurry and get back to the forge to look for Lei Mingxing.

"LET'S GO FIND UNCLE FENG AND GET BACK TO THE FORGE!"

As soon as he finished the last word, Jing Jiang already began pulling his father away behind him, looking around for Feng Guang while always keeping one fearful eye on the lookout for the gradually nearing monsters.

Finally, he felt fingers gripping his arm without letting go, and when he looked over he found the agitatly looking around Feng Guang.

Jing Jiang forced a small smile, happy to have found the other sooner rather than later, and also began to drag towards the edge of the plaza.

But when he tried to pull his arm, he was met with resistance and Feng Guang remained standing in place, unblinkingly staring at him.

"WHERE IS YOUR APPRENTICE?"

Hearing Feng Guang mention Lei Mingxing made Jing Jiang's heart sting with regret but there was no time to explain, so he simply shook his head with a complicated expression.

Once again, he tried to continue forward but this time Feng Guang clutched his arm so tightly that his bony fingers dug painfully into Jing Jiang's flesh.

"WHERE IS SHE?!"

He screamed with a rage that neither Jing Jiang nor Jing Hai had ever seen from him before.

Frightened, Jing Jiang unconsciously spilled the news.

"SHE WAS TAKEN."

Feng Guang's eyes went dark with visible despair for a moment before he unexpectedly let go of Jing Jiang and turned to get back into the crowd.

But this time it was Jing Hai who caught his foolish old friend before pushing against Jing Jiang to urge him to hurry along.

Jing Jiang followed this silent instruction and made his way through the crowd even faster, carefully avoiding the monsters to the best of his ability.

Meanwhile, Jing Hai was tightly hugging the wildly flailing Feng Guang with grit teeth. Clueless as to what had suddenly gotten into his previously so dispirited friend.

Finally, with a lot of fortunate coincidences, they were able to reach the edge of the plaza and dive into the mostly calm side alleys.

Glad to get away from the chaos behind them, Jing Jiang attempted to start running so they could reach the forge a bit faster, but was once more stopped by the two behind him.

"STOP! LET ME GO!", Feng Guang screamed, digging his heels into the ground with an angry but also weirdly desperate expression on his face, "I have to find her! We can't leave without her!"

Despite that, his gaze was determined

Baffled, by how stubborn Feng Guang was about rushing back into certain death, Jing Jiang couldn't hide his anger and fear any longer.

"Are you crazy? We can't! And she isn't here, she was taken by someone who can fly, there is no way they're still in the plaza!"

But Feng Guang only became even more angered by Jing Jiang's words, his eyes glinting with a provocative light as he opened his mouth.

Unfortunately, Jing Hai interrupted him before he could say anything more, his gaze sharp.

"Also, why do you suddenly care so much about Lei Mingxing? It's not like you to worry so much about someone you don't even know."

Instantly, any insults Feng Guang planned on throwing at Jing Jiang got stuck in his throat and his pupils trembled, tears welled up in his eyes. His previously so aggressive demeanor disappeared without a trace and his whole person seemed to wilt, like a dying plant, with an expression so frail and sorrowful that the Jing father and son almost forgot that the other was everything but frail at Controlling Consciousness stage.

"Please... you have to let me go..., she is my granddaughter, I can feel it. She has the same metal element as her mother. I can't lose her again...", Feng Guang's voice sounded choked as he spoke, doing his best to repress the wicked mixture of elation and loss that threatened to overwhelm him.

But the Jing pair couldn't care less about that, Feng Guang's words shaking them to their very core, as if he had just announced that he was actually the Heavenly Emperor himself.

Still shocked, Jing Hai had to swallow several times to feel like he was able to speak again, finally interjecting:

"But that can't be, she has a fire root and she doesn't look like Xiao Riri at all..."

Feng Guang only strongly shook his head in response.

"No, I know it," the more he said it out loud, the firmer his voice and gaze became," she might use fire Qi, but there is also a metal root and although she doesn't look like her mother at all, her appearance is extremely similar to her scoundrel father's!"

After Feng Guang ended his explanation with a convinced face, the three stood around speechlessly for a moment, Jing Jiang and Jing Hai silently staring at him.

Until they got interrupted by a scream that sounded uncomfortably close to them.

"Doesn't matter," there was a slight tremble in Jing Hai's voice as he started pulling his son and Feng Guang forward again, "Jiang'er said that she isn't here anymore, but there is still her husband and he could be in big trouble... I don't think Lei Mingxing would appreciate her lover dying because we didn't go help him!"

The words husband and lover hit Feng Guang like a brick, Jing Hai could tell by his friend's face that looked like he had swallowed a toad whole, but he just felt like it was his own fault for repeatedly putting them in danger because of his donkey-like stubbornness and began dragging the slightly dazed Feng Guang away. 

They ran through the alleys as fast as they could, soon reaching the forge but what met them was a startling sight.

Marks of combat and struggle, evidence of the usage of several different artifacts, but ultimately, not even the smallest sign of Chang Liuyun.

Only a few corpses and the slightly battered carriage with a restless and frightened horse that was still bound to the knob of the backdoor.