Chapter 78
Chapter 78
A sudden shriek tore through the air. Heat waves rolled outward as raging flames pierced the atmosphere, blazing red as blood and sweeping violently in every direction.
Xiao Huai stood at the heart of the inferno, completely unharmed.
The flames existed for him. They danced for him and slaughtered everything in his path.
The heat stirred a wind that lifted the hem of his robe, offering fleeting glimpses of his lean waist.
When the flames engulfed the crows, they screeched sharply. Blazing fire consumed their bodies, drawing shrill cries of agony from them.
Xiao Huai simply stood there in silence, the fire casting a delicate radiance across his tall, slender frame.
The crows struggled within the flames. Their burning feathers released an acrid stench, and their cries echoed through the inferno as though from a fiery hell.
Yet within that hell, a breeze lifted the loose hair beside the man’s ears and illuminated his face. He resembled a savior standing before the end of the world.
An elegant, gentle smile rested on his lips.
But his eyes were as cold and devoid of desire as the abyss.
One by one, the crows turned to ash and scattered across the earth.
No one dared step forward or speak.
Silence. Everyone stood frozen and perfectly still, watching the scene from a distance.
Flying sand dragged blazing fire through the air, roaring as it formed a towering wall of flame. Every living thing within it was reduced to ash.
At the heart of the fiery lotus, the overwhelming spectacle battered everyone’s senses. Almost every player trembled involuntarily.
In that moment, they forgot to breathe. They forgot their own heartbeats.
Xiao Huai’s faint smile seemed to bloom wildly in their blood and deep within their minds, a flower of bone belonging to the desert’s accursed god.
It slowed time and filled them all with terror.
And even more than that… fascination.
Xiao Huai did not know that the Gods’ Livestream had just placed him in a new traffic pool.
He was the only third-floor player to enter the recommendation feed for high-tier players.
That feed was populated almost entirely by experts from the eighth floor and above, amid countless battle-royale instances and blood-soaked horror games.
Yet his stream was the most interesting of all.
Several gods stopped before Xiao Huai’s livestream and watched him with keen interest.
They laughed and teased, “How interesting. This human is pretending to be an NPC.”
But the instant Xiao Huai unleashed Lethal Lotus, the pupils of more than five thousand gods in the livestream widened.
They had seen divine power.
The power of Victoria, the Goddess of Slaughter.
And that divine power came from an ordinary human, an ordinary player who was not even beyond the third floor.
The flames of Lethal Lotus were both elegant and violent. None of them would ever forget the sight of the Goddess of Slaughter wielding it.
But this time… a new human blurred their memory of Victoria’s Lethal Lotus.
It was as though he had been born to elevate everything he touched.
Bloodred fire filled his eyes and illuminated his face, its heat entwining with the coldness in his gaze.
Like countless threads, the sight ensnared and pulled at every heart.
The destruction he brought crushed everything in its path, yet miraculously, that very destruction carved open a breach made for desire.
The flames became bloom after gorgeous bloom, aggressively occupying every gaze.
And Xiao Huai stood at the center of them all.
Victoria, who had been quietly watching the livestream, trembled with excitement down to every cell. She reached toward the projection, wanting to touch Xiao Huai, but her fingers passed through him no matter how many times she tried.
Nothing could suppress her excitement and delight. She had known she would look forward to the day he used her blessing.
But she had never imagined he would be so perfectly suited to Lethal Lotus.
Beautiful. He was so beautiful she could not look away.
Black crows and flames. Death and rebirth.
Without hesitation, Victoria opened the tipping interface and sent him 5,000 Survival Coins, attaching a short message: [You have my favor.]
Only when the other gods noticed Victoria’s message did they slowly return to their senses.
The Goddess of Slaughter had truly bestowed a divine blessing upon a human.
Victoria had never liked humans.
Or rather, she liked treating them as disposable toys, throwing them away after a single use.
How could something disposable ever deserve her blessing?
And yet Xiao Huai…
He had received the first blessing the Goddess of Slaughter had granted in a thousand years.
Who exactly was he?
The smiles on the gods’ faces deepened. Curiosity, desire, and greedy hunger entered their eyes.
* * *
Cheng Shan stared in shock. Sun Xingye, who had devised the scheme, was equally frozen and did not dare make a sound.
How could an NPC in a third-floor instance possess such overwhelming power?
This was already boss-level strength.
Sun Xingye clicked his tongue. The plan had been his idea, and he would probably suffer for it soon.
Best to cut their losses. He hurriedly shouted at Cheng Shan, “Stop! That’s enough. Don’t waste any more Sanity!”
Then he tossed Cheng Shan a white potion.
Cheng Shan’s supernatural ability allowed him to command birds and beasts to attack a designated target. His backpack was an item capable of teleporting the animals to him instantly.
But commanding animals in battle consumed tremendous energy and corrupted his Sanity.
The white potion could purge the corruption, but it could not restore the enormous amount of energy he had spent.
He would only grow more exhausted.
Cheng Shan closed the backpack, and no more crows appeared.
The scattered birds that had not yet attacked Xiao Huai quickly beat their wings and fled the sea of fire.
At that moment, the sun began sinking below the horizon, its bloodred afterglow bathing the earth.
Xiao Huai’s icy gaze swept across Sun Xingye, making the man shudder.
Lethal Lotus gradually dispersed. As the flames died away, Xiao Huai walked slowly toward the group.
Some measure of shock and fear marked every face.
Bloodstains left by the crows burning in the fire covered the ground beneath Xiao Huai’s feet.
Under everyone’s gaze, he bent down and picked up a dead crow that had not been completely reduced to ash.
Then he approached Sun Xingye.
“Wh-what are you doing?” Sun Xingye’s voice trembled slightly.
Xiao Huai tilted his head and offered him the crow. “A gift.”
“…No, thanks.” Suppressing his fear, Sun Xingye looked away.
Xiao Huai suddenly laughed under his breath. The next second, he appeared directly before Sun Xingye, leaving only a few centimeters between them.
He looked down at him imperiously, the crow’s corpse clenched tight in one hand.
His lazy voice emerged from his throat. “Did I give you a choice?”
“Mmph…! Ah! Help!”
With a sharp smack, Xiao Huai seized Sun Xingye by the throat. The crushing force sent agony through the cartilage, and suffocation forced Sun Xingye’s mouth open in a scream.
He was given no chance to resist. The dead crow was already being forced into his mouth, ash and sand spilling across his tongue, stinging and burning.