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Join the ServerMiao Beisang’s words drove a spike through the last remnants of Wu Que’s sanity.
His hand, frozen in mid-air, trembled violently.
He slowly lowered his gaze to his daughter, lying in a pool of her own blood.
It was the face he had cherished for more than a decade.
Those eyes held a look he knew so well, a look he had always adored.
‘What… what have I done?’
“Aaaargh—!!!”
A roar, more beast than man, erupted from the depths of his throat!
His official robes disintegrated inch by inch.
Beneath his skin, black veins writhed madly as a pillar of crimson light descended from the sky, no longer spreading out, but pouring ferociously into his body!
A monstrous wave of resentment and blood-red energy formed a visible crimson vortex, enveloping him completely.
His blood-red eyes took one last look at his daughter on the ground.
The rage and madness were gone, replaced by an endless, dead emptiness.
With a great cry, he transformed into a streak of blood-red light and shot into the sky, ignoring everyone as he flew straight toward the heart of the formation—the cold stone of the execution platform.
Su Qinghan struggled to her feet; the blow from the scabbard had felt as if it had displaced her very organs.
She hurried to Wu Linlin’s side and drew several silver needles from her sleeve, preparing to staunch the bleeding and set her bones.
“Don’t… don’t worry about me…”
Tears streamed down Wu Linlin’s pale face.
She shook her head, and despite the excruciating pain, she used all her strength to clutch at the corner of Su Qinghan’s robes, instantly staining the fabric with blood.
“I’m begging you… go… go check on my father…”
Her voice was broken, laced with desperation.
“He used to… he used to be such a good man… the best magistrate Greenstone Town ever had… Please… save him…”
Su Qinghan sighed.
‘Save him?’
‘I should be thanking the heavens he didn’t beat me to within an inch of my life.’
‘The man had gone mad. He was beyond saving.’
But as she looked into the young girl’s eyes, brimming with both hope and despair, she couldn’t bring herself to say the words.
She lifted Wu Linlin into her arms and hurried to a nearby house where a light was still on, knocking firmly on the door.
The door creaked open to reveal a terrified face.
“Take care of her. Lock your doors and windows, and don’t come out, no matter what happens.”
Without giving them a chance to refuse, Su Qinghan pushed the girl inside and turned back toward the square.
In a few swift movements, her figure vanished into the night.
On the other side of town, in the mountain forest outside Greenstone, Lu Hongzhuang groggily opened her eyes.
A sharp pain throbbed in her head.
She reached up and pulled a talisman from her hair—it was now gray and utterly devoid of spiritual energy.
She recognized the talisman.
It was Su Qinghan’s handiwork.
A nameless fury surged through her.
‘That woman! She actually used such a cheap trick to knock me out and leave me here!’
‘It was to protect me, I suppose…’
‘But I’m still so angry!’
She sat up abruptly, stretching her stiff limbs, and turned to look toward Greenstone Town.
The sight left her stunned.
Above Greenstone Town, a massive pillar of crimson light shot into the heavens, dyeing half the night sky red.
An ominous aura washed over her, so potent it made her heart palpitate.
‘Something terrible has happened!’
Her thoughts immediately flew to Su Qinghan.
‘That woman… she didn’t go into the town by herself, did she?’
Then she shook her head.
‘No, she couldn’t have. Her legs are weak; she can’t even scale the town walls. There’s no way she could have gotten in alone.’
And yet, for some reason, the image of Su Qinghan’s face—always tinged with a hint of frailty, yet so cool and composed—refused to leave her mind.
‘No!’
‘I have to get over there, now!’
Lu Hongzhuang hesitated no longer.
She gripped her longsword and sprinted toward the blood-red light with all the speed she could muster.
In the center of the square, Wu Que landed once more upon the half-man-high stone platform.
He raised his longsword high, its tip pointing to the heavens.
He opened his mouth and began to chant in a voice that was both frenzied and grand.
“Heaven and Earth are my furnace, my body is the crucible!”
“A hundred ghosts are my fuel, their resentment the kindling!”
“Forge for me a demonic form, and with it, I shall storm the divine court!”
As his final word fell, the entirety of Greenstone Town began to tremble violently.
The wandering ghosts and specters that had been roaming the streets, blocked by the blood-red talismans on every door and window, unable to harm the townsfolk, now seemed to hear the call of their king.
They all turned in unison, transforming into streams of black smoke that surged from every direction toward the town square.
Hundreds, thousands of specters converged into a black torrent, howling through the air.
The scene was like a parade of a hundred demons, a true apocalypse.
“Gods above…”
Leaning on her saber, Liu Ruyan limped after Su Qinghan to the edge of the square.
She froze, utterly petrified by the horrifying spectacle before them.
Su Qinghan stopped as well.
Her heart sank as she watched the tens of thousands of specters flock toward Wu Que on the platform, like weary birds returning to their forest.
‘This is a huge problem.’
And just then—
The space above her head felt empty; the pair of fluffy white fox ears vanished without warning.
Behind her, the bushy fox tail dissolved into motes of white light and faded into the air.
An overwhelming wave of weakness instantly washed over her.
Her legs gave out from under her.
The meridians that had just regained sensation, that had carried her here in a frantic dash, fell silent once more.
She collapsed uncontrollably, kneeling on the ground with a soft thud.
Su Qinghan’s spiritual sense desperately called out to the little fox in her mind.
‘Jiu Li? What’s happening? Are you out of power already?’
‘I’m out… I’m all out…’
Jiu Li’s voice was as faint as a wisp of smoke, threatening to dissipate at any moment.
‘Really… not a single drop left…’
‘Hey, Qinghan… don’t you die on me… This fox… doesn’t want to die yet…’
Before she could finish, the faint connection between them severed completely.
Jiu Li had fallen into a deep slumber.
On the stone platform, Wu Que spread his arms, welcoming the endless torrent of specters.
Countless ghosts shrieked and roared as they burrowed madly into his body.
His skin stretched until it was transparent, revealing innumerable black streams writhing and slithering beneath it like twisted earthworms.
His body began to swell and contort in a grotesque display.
Yet he laughed maniacally, a sound filled with both endless agony and ecstatic release.
“Why?!”
He roared at the heavens, his voice no longer human.
“Why does no one and nothing ever go my way?!”
“On what grounds?!”
“In the capital, I placed first in the civil exams! First in the martial exams, too! So why was I sent to this backwater town to be a petty magistrate?!”
“Is it because I refuse to grovel and curry favor?!”
“Hahahahahaha!”
“Fine! What a wonderful imperial court! Just wonderful!”
He lowered his head, his face twisted beyond recognition, his eyes now nothing but pure darkness and venomous hatred.
“If I can’t test my way in, then I’ll slaughter my way in!”
“I’ll kill everyone who stands in my way! I’ll kill all those high-and-mighty corrupt officials! I will be the emperor of this capital!”
He threw his arms wide, and a black shockwave erupted from his body, blasting the entire stone platform to dust.
He hovered in mid-air, wreathed in black energy, like a demon god descending upon the mortal realm.
He let out one final, heart-wrenching question, aimed at the world and at himself.
“Why… Why couldn’t you support me? Why did even my own daughter try to stop me? I’ve done nothing wrong! Those corrupt officials have caused the deaths of countless people! I am merely turning the townspeople into my strength.”
“I only wish to carve out a brighter future for them! A world with no more corrupt officials, where every talented scholar can earn their position through merit! Wouldn’t such a world be beautiful?”
You’ve got to see this next! Looking For My Child's Father will keep you on the edge of your seat. Start reading today!
Read : Looking For My Child's Father
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