Chapter Eighty-Eight: Soul-Devouring Palm

A maid, arriving at the worst possible moment and witnessing a servant being slain, let out a piercing scream. Turning at once, she meant to run and alert her master.

Among Minister Fang’s men, a masked warrior in a rain hat moved with startling speed. Before the maid had taken more than a few steps, he was already before her, so fast it made her eyes widen in shock.

Seeing her mouth open to cry out, he seized her throat in one ruthless motion, drew his sword with chilling calm, and drove it straight through her chest.

Blood seeped from the maid’s lips. Then she toppled sideways to the ground, staring blankly ahead as life fled her.

At the sound of the commotion, the steward of the Li household rushed out with an iron staff, leading the other servants with him.

Minister Fang’s men came charging forward with blades in hand, and the two sides plunged into a savage brawl. The steward knew a little martial arts; he swung his staff and forced a path through them in only a few exchanges.

Looking again, the useless underlings who knew only how to gorge themselves on other people’s food had been beaten black and blue, sprawled in every direction on the ground and howling in pain.

But not every man in Minister Fang’s employ was worthless.

One fighter leaped out wielding a pair of short blades. With only two strikes, he drove the steward back, then followed with a chain of kicking blows that sent him flying several paces away.

Li Da had rescued the werewolf and was hiding nearby in the shadows. Seeing the steward and the servants wounded, he was about to rush out to help.

At that moment, the werewolf suddenly reached out and clutched his arm, clearly reading his intention and stopping him from going.

She was already terribly weak. Her eyes remained only half open, and her lips had gone pale. The palm strike she had taken from Minister Fang had injured her internal organs; she knew she had not much time left.

Still gripping Li Da’s hand, she placed something into it. He looked down and saw a small wooden figure, carved by the werewolf in the likeness of the old woman.

Only the upper half had been finished; the lower half remained uncarved, and now there would be no chance to complete it. She wanted Li Da to deliver the little carving to the old woman in her place.

Li Da’s heart ached unbearably. He nodded, took the wooden figure, and tucked it inside his robes. Seeing this, the werewolf forced a smile.

“You won’t be all right! You won’t die! You can’t...”

Li Da seized her by the shoulders and cried out in agitation. She smiled back at him, but then a sudden pain shot through her chest. Turning her head, she coughed up a mouthful of blood.

Outside, the master of the Li household, Li Laishun, pushed the door open and leaped into the courtyard. Seeing fools daring to run wild in his home, he drew his sword and cut down several of the rabble at once to show his authority.

His cultivation had already reached the upper sixth rank. With only a few easy sword strikes, he killed so many that none of the others dared advance again.

Just as he thought the intruders amounted to no great threat, a masked man in a rain hat appeared and struck out with a palm.

Li Laishun answered with a palm of his own and took the blow head-on.

The two streams of true energy collided, but in the end the masked man proved slightly stronger. Li Laishun was hurled backward, and his palm was swallowed by a dark, sinister aura. His flesh began to rot away at once.

“What a vicious technique! Why do you know the palm art of the Hall of Corpse Souls? Are you one of them? No—impossible! The Hall of Corpse Souls was already destroyed. That cannot be!”

Li Laishun’s eyes flew wide. He had only tried to meet the strike, never imagining that his opponent would use a forbidden art lost for many years, a wicked technique once wielded by a great fiend.

In less than a minute, his hand had completely decayed. The flesh was devoured by the black aura, leaving stark white bone exposed.

He gave a raw cry and, without hesitation, severed the arm himself to endure the pain. If he had not done so, the corruption would have spread through his whole body.

It was the Soul-Withering Palm of the Hall of Corpse Souls. Only those who had joined the Hall of Corpse Souls and practiced the Path of the Evil Ghost could use such a technique.

They offered their flesh to ten thousand specters, enduring the wails of countless malignant spirits and the torment of body and mind in order to gain dark power.

By coating their own true energy with soul-devouring corruption, they could consume cultivators of insufficient rank who lacked the means to resist. Those above the master level, however, could ward it off with overwhelming true energy.

“Da’er, run!”

Li Laishun knew full well that the Li family was likely facing its doom. He only hoped his son could escape.

Even with one arm gone, he did not retreat.

“You all run too. Take Madam and go!”

Sword in his right hand, Li Laishun shielded the servants behind him. Their eyes brimmed with tears as they looked at him. The steward ordered them to take the madam and flee, while he himself resolved to remain at his master’s side.

From having nothing, begging in the streets, and being taken into the Li household for shelter, to being trusted with the post of steward, he had long wanted to repay that kindness.

Though Li Laishun often wore a stern expression that made him seem distant and forbidding, everyone knew he was the kindest and best master in the world. And toward his son, Li Da, his fatherly love was so deep it overflowed.

In truth, whenever Li Da stole money from the household to relieve beggars, or gave away the fine things his master had especially brought back for him from afar, Li Laishun saw it all. He simply pretended not to know and quietly indulged the boy’s wishes.

When Li Da was small, he had often been beaten by his father. Even then, it had only been because his father wanted him to grow up sensible. Even if his son hated him for it, he had accepted that long ago.

After every beating, the old master would specifically order the steward to bring the finest healing salve and apply it to the boy’s wounds. And when his son refused food in protest, he was so heartbroken that he could not eat either.

As for the werewolf and the old woman, the master had known about them all along. He had never treated her differently because of what she was. On the contrary, he had felt even more pity for her, because as a parent he could look at the werewolf and understand her pain.

Only the old woman was stubborn and proud; she usually found work herself on the streets to earn money and survive, needing none of the master’s charity and refusing it if offered.

The day the werewolf fell ill, the physician summoned by the servants to treat her had actually been one of the master’s friends, sent by him.

Soon after, the madam was pulled away by the servants and led toward the back gate. When she saw her husband with one arm missing, her heart broke; she wept until her eyes were red and swollen and refused to leave, and only by the servants’ desperate efforts was she finally held back.

“Hand over the werewolf, and I will spare you!”

Minister Fang stood nearby, his eyes still terrifyingly red, the fury in his heart beyond words. He had given everyone one chance; he had no desire to slaughter them all.

“Go!”

Li Laishun shouted again and charged at Minister Fang with his sword. Just as the blade was about to pierce the man’s chest, the masked warrior moved in once more and caught the sword between his fingers.

Condensing dark energy into his palm, the masked man gave the blade a mere squeeze and crushed it to pieces, then turned his hand and struck Li Laishun flying.

It was the Soul-Withering Palm again.

The clothing over Li Laishun’s chest where the palm had landed instantly shredded. Black energy wrapped around his body, then ignited into a black flame that consumed him from head to toe.

“No! No!”

The madam was beside herself with grief. She cried out and rushed forward, only to be held tightly back by the servants.

As she watched her husband burned away by the black aura until nothing remained but a scatter of ashes, her strength went out of her, and she collapsed to her knees on the ground.

Seeing his father killed, Li Da could no longer restrain himself. He burst from the house, grabbed a sword from the ground, and with a furious shout stabbed at the masked man’s back.

Another palm strike flashed out.

Just as that blow was about to land on the son, the madam finally broke free and rushed forward, placing herself directly in his path.

Li Da stared in horror as his mother was struck in the back. He was so stunned he could not move. He tried to reach for her, but he could not outrun the speed at which the black energy devoured its victim, and in an instant she too was burned to ashes.

Kneeling on the ground, Li Da could no longer hold back his sobs. His whole body trembled with rage as he glared at the masked man.

He was just about to rise and fight back when Minister Fang drew his sword and pressed it against his throat, then turned to the werewolf and warned her:

“If you do not come out now, I will kill him!”