Chapter 96: Lin Ren.
Lin Ren was breathing heavily as he ran, Yun Yantian was running next to him, also breathing heavily. Yun Yantian was someone he had met while he was wandering the continent. They found that their personalities matched, so they decided to travel together.
Yun Yantian used swords to attack the opponents physical body, while he used attacks that corroded the opponents soul and mind. When they fought together, there was hardly anyone that could stand up against them.
They continued to travel together for some time, until one day they stumbled across a small village hidden within a forest. People from both the Human Race and Demon Race lived together in peace in that village. Many of the men who lived there carried old wounds of varying degrees.
After spending a few days at the village, they learned that the wounds were something they had sustained while they were fighting in a war. Once they tired of the constant fighting and killing, they encountered a woman from the Demon Race. She led them to this village and gave them a place they could live in peace, where they no longer had to fight and kill each other.
Not long after they were told this story, hell descended upon the village. A hell that the two of them had brought down on the village. A group of people clad in silver robes attacked the village, a dog swallowing the moon was embroidered on their chests.
Yun Yantian told Lin Ren that these people were from the Guo clan. From the rage in his voice, Lin Ren could guess that he had a heavy grudge with the Guo clan. One of the people from the Guo clan spoke to Yun Yantian, saying that they would put his God Gate to better use.
The group attacked the two of them, but they did not spare the villagers around them. The villagers were mostly wounded men and women, with a few children here and there, they had no way of defending themselves. Yun Yantian and Lin Ren fought hard, but there was nothing they could do.
Lin Ren and Yun Yantian had killed a few of the attackers, but they were still outnumbered. After only a short while of fighting, the people in the village were all dead. Seeing that not even the children were spared, both Yun Yantian and Lin Ren flared up in rage.
Lin Ren was especially furious. He was a simple wanderer, his parents had died while he was young, leaving him to fend for himself. A place like this village, that was so tranquil and welcoming, it felt like he had found something that resembled that warmth he had while his parents were still alive.
In his rage, he grabbed onto the head of one of the Guo clan people and furiously poured his Qi into him. While he was doing this, Yun Yantian threw caution to the wind and put all his focus into attacking.
Beautiful swords spawned into existence around him, moving like the wind as he flicked his fingers. And then, then there came a reaction. As one of Yun Yantian's swords dug into the chest of one of the attackers, a strange stream of energy left the body of the attacker, entering Yun Yantian's body.
Lin Ren had no time to wonder what this energy was, as he suddenly felt like his hands sunk into the head of the person from the Guo clan. He quickly turned his head and saw that his hands had indeed sunk into the head of his opponent.
But there was no blood, it was like his hands had turned transparent, they simply sank into the head of his opponent without resistance. Lin Ren pulled his hands back in shock, but was even more shocked when he saw a transparent silhouette follow his hands out from the head of his opponent.
The transparent silhouette resembled the man in front of him, and before he had time to say anything, the transparent silhouette entered his body. As the transparent silhouette entered his body, Yun Yantian had also finished absorbing the strange energy.
Qi suddenly started blasting out from Yun Yantian's body, bringing with it a whistling sound, like swords cutting the air. As the Qi blasted out from Yun Yantian's body, another blast of Qi was released from Lin Ren's body, bringing with it a wailing sound, like a mournful howl.
The Qi blasting forth from Yun Yantian's body gathered above his head, forming into a massive fortress cast entirely out of metal. the fortress was massive, but there was only a single soldier standing guard atop the walls.
The Qi blasting forth from Lin Ren's body also gathered above his head, but it did not form into a fortress, instead it formed a massive graveyard. The graveyard was massive, but there was currently only a single grave in the entire graveyard.
“I walk this earth once more, to shepherd all spirits to a peaceful rest.”
“The god of swords walks this earth once more, to cleave apart all evil.”
As the graveyard appeared, Lin Ren heard a hoarse and ghastly voice ring out in his head. What followed the voice was pieces of information, allowing Lin Ren to get a clear picture of the situation. The god of swords that the voice mentioned was Yun Yantian. While he was the one to shepherd all spirits to a peaceful rest, the god of ghosts.
Lin Ren moved his head slightly, matching his gaze with Yun Yantian. They both nodded their heads and sprung into action. Yun Yantian waved his hand, a massive sword appearing in the air above him. Lin Ren also waved his hand, causing the transparent silhouette, the soul of the man he had just killed, to appear in front of him.
The sword and the soul shot towards the group from the Guo clan, who were still shocked at the spectacle. The sword slammed into them, cleaving two of them in half before it crashed into the ground, raising a cloud of dust. The soul let out a grating screech as it entered the cloud of dust.
Yun Yantian and Lin Ren did not stay around to check up on the result, both of them turning around and running away as fast as they could. They had just grown more than just slightly stronger, but there was still no way for them to beat the entire group of people on their own, so they chose to flee.
They continued to run, only resting when they found places that seemed safe. But the people from the Guo clan were hot on their tails, never letting them rest for too long. They continued to run for over a month, with barely any rest. Had they been normal people, they would have collapsed dead already.
After running for over a month, the two of them were completely exhausted, their legs felt like they were nailed into the ground. The two of them matched eyes once more. They gave each other a resolute nod as they stopped running and turned around to face the chasing group of people. They were standing on a vast plain, there were worse places to die.
“If we die here, I can assure you that my friend Yao Jun will get revenge for us.”
Yun Yantian turned his head and gave a slight grin to Lin Ren as he spoke, still as carefree as ever. Lin Ren simply nodded his head in response. He had heard Yun Yantian mention this Yao Jun before, especially in this month that they were running.
He apparently held the Demon God's Gate, and had awakened it even earlier than them. Lin Ren was not as confident in this Yao Jun as Yun Yantian, but Yun Yantian assured him that if he ever met Yao Jun, he would understand.
The group from the Guo clan stopped not far from them, carefully eyeing them. After this one month of chasing, even they were completely exhausted. They slowly moved closer to them, bringing out their weapons as they did.
And just as Lin Ren was preparing to charge forward with Yun Yantian, something fell from the sky. A loud sound resounded as something crashed into the ground amidst the group of people from the Guo clan, raising a cloud of dust that covered the entire group.
While Lin Ren and Yun Yantian stood there in shock, the dust dispersed with the wind, revealing the scene within. Lin Ren considered himself a fearless and resolute person, he did not even flinch when he and Yun Yantian decided to make one last stand. But the scene before him, it sent chills down his spine.
Amidst the group of nine people, two new people had appeared. One of them was a beautiful girl with mesmerizing pink eyes and charming multicolored hair. She was clad in a tight fitting green qipao. A nearly transparent multicolored sword rested in her hand, drops of blood dripping from it. There were two bodies on the floor in front of her, each one with a hole in their throat.
The arm holding the sword was covered in a transparent crystal armor, wich formed the image of several snowflakes on her shoulder. She had clean skin and her lips curved slightly upwards, forming a soul stealing smile. Lin Ren felt that if he looked at ther for too long, his soul would be stolen from him.
She was holding hands with a male youth. The male youth was slightly shorter than Lin Ren, and his body was slightly thin and pale, looking exceedingly weak. He had long purple hair and ghostly gray eyes that seemed to stare straight into Lin Ren's soul.
Except for his head, upper arms, and thighs, the rest of his body was covered in pitch black armor. He even held a pitch black sword in his other hand. The sword looked incredibly simple, having none of the beauty that Yun Yantian's swords had. But the sword released a terrifying feeling, it had a tyranny that belonged solely to it.
The youth had a faint and mellow smile on his face, it was the kind of smile that calmed down anyone who looked at it, making them feel like everything was going to be fine. But there were long tendrils of darkness extending out from the shadow beneath him, each tendril piercing through a different person.
Even the person at the middle stage of the 2nd Mortal Earth had been pierced through like he was nothing. The contrast between the smile of the youth and his actions brought a shiver down Lin Ren's back. He knew who this was, Yun Yantian had talked about him several times, even given a description of how he looked. Yao Jun, the Demon God.