Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 1301
"Do not say my mother's name!" Xin Xiaoqi shrieked. "You don't deserve to say her name, you shameless old dog!"
"You're right. I am truly a sordid, shameless, and a f*cking cowardly old dog. No. In front of the almighty 'angels', I am barely a dog but more like a fly that is caged inside an upside-down glass cup and cannot fly out however I try."
Xiahou Wuxin smiled bitterly and miserably. "You don't know. You don't know anything at all. Xiao Qin and I met again after so many years, so many incidents, so many vicissitudes of life. I thought that it was a grace of the heavens. I only wanted to try my best to live a peaceful life with her and with you. No matter how hideous the world out there was, I only wanted to prepare a peaceful, comfortable home for you. I would rather be minced a hundred times or delivered to the foulest laboratory in the City in the Sky than see her wounded in the slightest.
"But… it was she who begged me to kill her. We didn't have a choice!"
Xin Xiaoqi was shocked. Realizing that Xiahou Wuxin was probably not lying, she stammered, "What do you mean by 'she begged you to kill her'? What are you talking about exactly?"
"We could've lived an illusionary but beautiful life like a normal family." Xiahou Wuxin's eyes were unfocused. A nonexistent world and a beautiful life that never happened glittered inside his pupils. "But Xiao Qin saw something that she shouldn't have seen and discovered the secrets of the angels. One of the test subjects, probably because of the uncanny techniques that he had practiced, resisted the hypnotization of the high-intensity anesthetics and woke up on the way to Manjusaka. He also overheard the conversation among a few 'angels' and learned part of the truth of Manjusaka.
"The man was truly tough and brave enough. He killed a few 'angels' and struggled to fight all the way down from the top of the transmission tube. He was heavily wounded and bleeding hard when he fell right next to your mother. Then, he told your mother everything!
"The angels ordered that all the sinners who got in contact with the 'experiment material' be killed. I was made responsible for it! If I could not give a satisfactory reply, the most dreadful 'Madmen Squad' or 'Heavenly Eye Legion' in the City in the Sky would be deployed to deal with the situation. In that case, it would not just be the deaths of a hundred or so people but the complete demolition of Liberty City as an Elysian World!
"At that time, you were still a young and ignorant child, but the 'angels' couldn't care less about that. So, your mother did not have a choice. Either she died, or both of you would be killed.
"I—I tracked her down and told her everything.
"After learning the truth of the City in the Sky, she cursed me aloud like you are doing right now in her panic and fury. She chastised me for not being a human but an animal, a beast, a worthless b*stard… I pleaded guilty to all those charges, but I also told her that she must not go back and find you. Once she got in contact with you, you would be equally doomed!
"In the end, she understood everything and knew what was best for you.
"She begged me to protect you in any case. I promised her.
"I did it myself. I smashed her skull and destroyed her brains and soul, making sure that she would not suffer any pain or have any value to be experimented on.
"As for the other sinners who were involved with the escaped test subject, they were all sent to the City in the Sky to bear insufferable torture.
"Do you know that she was smiling when she passed away? Although it was a bitter smile full of worries and helplessness, I think it was much better than the two of you being sent to the laboratory in the City in the Sky to receive the inhumane experiments together, right?"
Xin Xiaoqi was dazed for a long time. She seemed to be both crying and laughing. In a trance, she shook her head hard, "I don't believe it. You are lying. If my mother asked you to take care of me, why did you exile me for so many dangerous missions outside for twenty years instead of letting me stay with you, and why did you never tell anyone our relation?"
"It was all meant to protect you," Xiahou Wuxin explained. "You think that dealing with the gangs and bandits was very dangerous, but the truth is, staying by my side would have been even more dangerous. If you stayed with me, you would have inevitably gotten in touch with tremendous secrets and entered the eyesight of the 'angels', who were certainly not willing to share their secrets with others.
"Have you never noticed that the disciples and subordinates around me were replaced every once in a while and the previous ones are all sent to the City in the Sky to 'enjoy their life'? Do you wish to be one of them?"
Xin Xiaoqi shuddered hard, as if an invisible City in the Sky had covered her face tightly like bugs, making it impossible for her to breathe.
"Everyone who knows the secrets of Manjusaka has been condemned with a curse that can never be lifted," Xiahou Wuxin said. "None of them will end well, including me. So, I did not want you to be too close to me.
"I cannot protect you forever. In order to survive in the Land of Sins, the key is to be strong enough on your own! In the past twenty years, I sent you to the Land of Sins to carry out all sorts of missions, but the difficulties of the missions were actually progressive and in order. Through such a special training method, you would boast the ability to survive independently. I can tell that you have been trained very well. Since you have escaped from such a battlefield without being injured at all, there is probably a one percent likelihood that you can escape the hunting of the 'angels'."
"You've been training me in such a way? Either I have lost my mind, or you have lost yours!" Xin Xiaoqi shrieked. Then she was somewhat stunned. "The hunting of the angels?"
"Exactly," Xiahou Wuxin said bitterly. "Haven't you noticed that the 'angels' have completely forsaken me? Perhaps, after decades of 'loyal' service for them, I know too much information right now, and my loyalty is now questionable. Or maybe the shocking anomalies of 'Fist King' Lei Zonglie on the battlefield entail some great secrets that must not be learned by us. The bottom line is, I can tell that Liberty City is doomed. Everybody on the battlefield in Liberty City is doomed. The 'angels' will not allow anyone alive to escape.
"That is why I asked you to come here. You will camouflage yourself and pick up some useful tools. Then, you will go to one of my secret warehouses to take the truly useful assets and find a way to fight your way out of Liberty City for the one percent chance of survival!
"This is the whole truth. Believe me, Xiaoqi!"
Xin Xiaoqi stared at Xiahou Wuxin in a daze for a long time. Her clattering teeth were clearly audible even for Li Yao.
In a clink, her short daggers fell to the ground.
"I don't believe you. No truth ever came out of your mouth," Xin Xiaoqi mumbled. From her pupils to her eyeballs, from her eyeballs to her eye sockets, and from her eye sockets to every muscle on her face, a twisted smile gradually spread out. "I don't believe it. I don't believe it! I don't believe it!
"Hehe. Hehehe. This is all false. This is too absurd to be true. You are lying to me. All of you have been lying to me. The whole world is lying to me!"
She staggered to her feet and shook hard as if she were drunk. With a look of fascination on her face, she craned her neck, and her hazy eyes seemed to have pierced through the roof and the rusty clouds into a nonexistent heaven.
"Mom must be still waiting for me in the sky. She said that she had saved a lot of money through hard work up there. After I go to the sky, we will live a carefree and happy life.
"Mom is not dead. Mom gave me a music box as a birthday present last year. What a beautiful music box it was. There were two figurines on it that embraced and danced with each other, and it could spin! The Land of Sins couldn't have had such a finely-made item. So, it must be a gift from my mother!
"Mom, just wait. I'm coming for you right now. I am going to fly to Manjusaka for you…"
Standing on her toes, she danced forward to the door swiftly, as if she were not wearing a pair of ragged combat boots but dancing shoes with red diamonds.
Xiahou Wuxin gritted his teeth, dragged her back, and slapped her to the ground, staring at her without saying anything.
The cat-like woman was still wearing a frozen smile, but black mists were condensing inside her eye sockets quickly. Under her master's gloomy eyes, she finally collapsed.
"Mom is dead! Mom is dead! Mom is dead!" Xin Xiaoqi snatched her hair and wailed, her back as bent as a bow. "Mom! Mom! Mom!"
She cried so hard that she could barely catch her breath, with tears and snot spurting out at the same time. She also coughed hard and appeared to be seizing.
Xiahou Wuxin sighed in a low voice.
"If you really do not have the courage to run, I will send you to meet your mother right now," he said softly. "Just nod, and I guarantee that you will leave this world comfortably. You will be spared the miserably torture, and your body will never be insulted. You will go exactly like your mother years ago. How does it sound?"
"Mother…"
Dumbfounded and overwhelmed, Xin Xiaoqi seemed to be considering Xiahou Wuxin's proposal carefully.
Li Yao's soul released tremendous waves.
He did not hate Xin Xiaoqi, who still had some kindness in her heart, in the first place. After hearing the story of Xiahou Wuxin and her, he was even more reluctant to see the poor woman die just like that.
However, it seemed rather awkward to cough and introduce himself after eavesdropping their family business for such a long time.
While he was still hesitating, Xin Xiaoqi's unfocused eyes condensed again. She mumbled to herself, "No… I can't die. I must avenge my mother!"
Chapter 2030: Be a Real Man! |
"Avenge your mother?" Xiahou Wuxin chuckled. There was no telling whether he was laughing at Xin Xiaoqi's naivety or his own cowardness. "It is impossible for you to do that. You do not understand the dread of the angels and the enormity of the outside world at all. You do not even stand a chance in a billion.
"If you want to run away, perhaps I can try my best to help you with all my abilities. But if you want to seek revenge from the angels, I might as well give you a quick death right now, in case you are captured by the angels and tortured for twenty years in the laboratory before you are finally killed."
"I am not going to run!" The confusion and sorrow in Xin Xiaoqi's eyes gradually condensed into the fire of wrath. She glared at Xiahou Wuxin and shouted desperately, "The Land of Sins is only so large. Where can I possibly run to? Even if I can escape to the most distant corner in the Land of Sins, it is still a part of the Land of Sins, where I will still live an equally dark and hopeless life in panic, fearing that I may be captured by the angels every day! Is such a life any better than death? I'm going to die anyway, so I might as well die together with the angels!"
"When two opponents on par with each other challenge each other, that is dying together with the enemy. An egg that hits a rock is far from qualified," Xiahou Wuxin said sadly. "Trust me. The angels do not care what you do or if you resist. All your anger and efforts are insignificant fun in their eyes. There's no chance for you to succeed at all."
"How do you know without even trying?" Xin Xiaoqi gnashed her teeth. "Have you never considered avenging my mother?"
Xiahou Wuxin's eyes flashed, like candles that were nearly blown out in the cold wind. "I thought about it before, but it is impossible and will only get a lot more people killed, including you."
Xin Xiaoqi stared at Xiahou Wuxin for a long time, her eyes hard, scorching, and sharp, until her master, the almighty leader of Liberty City, could not stand it anymore and moved his face to one side.
Xin Xiaoqi chuckled in the most scornful and disrespectful way.
"You are truly a f*cking coward and a piece of useless garbage." Xin Xiaoqi snapped without any mercy. "Fifty years ago, when my mother was seized by the Blood Sand Gang, you chickened out and watched the woman you loved disappear in the smoke while doing nothing.
"Twenty years ago, you were the leader of Liberty City with unparalleled strength. There was a slim chance for you to take my mother and run away, but you still chose the most cowardly way and ended my mother's life under the threat of the angels.
"Right now, you have clearly lost everything. You have nothing left to hesitate over except for the half-life that you have. But you still cannot summon the slightest courage. You do not even dare think about avenging my mother.
"It was truly wise for those high and mighty angels to have chosen you as their spokesperson because you are an out-and-out old dog, one that had been completely castrated.
"Did you know? In my younger years when I was still fooled by you, I cursed furiously on countless dark nights over why my birth father was such a rude beast, an insane lunatic, and a scumbag who considered my mother as a tool for his desires. Why were you not my father?
"You were so perfect in my mind at that time. You were powerful, dominating, and revered by everyone in the city, and you were not condescending at all when you came to our house. You were always so gentle and loving toward my mother. You don't know how sunny my mother's smile was when she looked at you. You were almost the only sunshine in our dark life.
"I kneeled and begged the heavens many times, wishing that I could trade my everything for a brand-new fate, where my birth father was not an animal but… you.
"But I was wrong. Hehe. How silly I was.
"Now that I think about it, you are ten thousand times more nauseating than the animals.
"At the very least, the animal, the scoundrel, and the scumbag was almost a man with a backbone. He was bold enough to hold his head high and face his inevitable doom.
"Whether he regarded my mother as a tool, a toy, or anything else, he had the courage to fight such an expert like you to the death to defend what belonged to him. Even before he was executed by you, when he clearly knew that you were the leader of Liberty City and that he was absolutely no match for you, he still cursed aloud until he was killed by you!
"You are a scoundrel without balls. You are not qualified to be my master… or my father. You do not deserve to be my mother's man. My master, my father, and my mother's man should be an iron-boned, unwavering hero. Even if it is not a hero but the beast-like guy, it will not be a eunuch like you who has kneeled for such a long time that you cannot keep your knees straight.
"So, do not stand in my way. Get lost!"
Xin Xiaoqi shoved Xiahou Wuxin off and struggled to her feet from the ground. On one knee, she took a deep breath and grabbed her short daggers hard, as if they were the only two items that he could count on in the entire world.
Not looking at the lackluster, devastated Xiahou Wuxin at all, she held her head high and strode out.
"Wait, Xiaoqi!" Xiahou Wuxin called her drily. "Where are you going?"
Xin Xiaoqi stopped and was silent for a moment. Her daggers glittered like scissors behind her, ripping off a cloth which flew between the two of them like a moth. "You rescued my mother and me from the 'Blood Sand Gang' and looked after us for so many years. I will not deny your favor.
"However, I have also done so many things for you over the past twenty years, including sneaking into the Fist King's army and guiding the assassins for you. However great the favor was, it has already been returned now, hasn't it?
"Besides, you killed my mother, although it was her own wish… You are probably not to blame for that, but I do not think that I owe you anything right now.
"The scores have been settled. From this moment on, you are no longer my master. I am a woman who has risen in the Land of Sins through my own hard work. I do not have such a ballless master like you. You and I are like this piece of cloth. We are now done with each other!
"We will now go our separate ways. I will seek my revenge while you continue being a dog or a tortoise in its shell. I hope that the angles will let you continue to work as the renowned leader of Liberty City for your loyalty and relentlessness!"
Xin Xiaoqi finished her speech as quickly as possible and opened the door, as if she could not stay in the room for one second longer.
Xiahou Wuxin, however, struggled to move forward and pressed the door hard after opening his shivering hands. "Wait a moment."
"Anything else, Leader Xiahou?" Xin Xiaoqi's eyes suddenly turned extremely cold. With a scornful smile on her lips, she said, "Or maybe, if I want to deal with your master, I will have to step over your dead body?"
Xiahou Wuxin's face looked like burnt rind, without the sign of the slightest expression. But his eyes could not have been more bloodshot as he said in a low voice, "It doesn't matter if you do not respect me as your master, but I still have abundant assets and a very secret warehouse…"
"I will not have what you have wagged your tail for and begged from the angels." Xin Xiaoqi gnashed her teeth. "Whatever I need, I will steal, rob, hijack, and con with my own hands in the Land of Sins. Haven't you been teaching me that for the past twenty years?"
Xiahou Wuxin was rendered speechless. After a brief silence, he heaved a long sigh and said, "Right now, the angels have decided to destroy Liberty City, but it is still mayhem outside. Nobody knows that a cataclysm is falling upon them. Without enough gear, you cannot get out of here, much less avenge your mother. If you really want to avenge her, don't act like a child and refuse my help."
Xiahou Wuxin's suddenly softened tone made Xin Xiaoqi's body shake. She frowned, hot tears flowing out of her eyes again. She clenched her fists and said, "You know that I need help, too. Then, why are you only throwing me some cold magical equipment instead of helping me in person?"
"Don't you understand, Xiaoqi?" Xiahou Wuxin mumbled. "It's not that I do not want to help you, but because I am too large a target. Over the past few decades, I have learned too many secrets about the angels. They have to kill me!
"If I go with you, you will only be burdened by me. You will be captured, killed, or have an even worse outcome if you are with me.
"So, it is a better idea for us to go our separate ways. I will try my best to attract the attention of the angels and force them to dispatch most of their available forces to chase after me, while you will take advantage of the chaos and figure out a way to escape Liberty City. You will have to be responsible for your future path after your escape!"
