The Souleater Banner in Patriarch Kugu’s hand was a superior-grade spiritual artifact that could almost be considered a celestial artifact. Allegedly, it had been forged using a thousand souls of people who had died wrongful deaths. Anyone devoured by it would have their soul torn apart by countless malevolent spirits, doomed to never find release even in death.
Mo Tianliao looked at the black flag with gold foil. “The Souleater, huh… That’s just a piece of trash.”
“I beg your pardon?!” Patriarch Kugu blurted out in shock.
Mo Tianliao’s fingers moved ever so slightly to trace the gnarled tree root on the ground. “Old Man Kugu, do you remember what you did when you begged me to make that banner?”
The color instantly drained from Patriarch Kugu’s face.
Mo Tianliao had told him that this Souleater Banner needed blood from the hearts of forty-nine blood kin for it to become one with the divine soul of its wielder. Accordingly, the patriarch had slaughtered his entire clan, and when that still wasn’t enough, he’d killed seven of his beloved concubines. Never in his wildest dreams had he expected to hand the bottle of fresh blood to Mo Tianliao, only for the guy to nonchalantly draw a pattern with it and tell him it was actually the same using the blood from their fingertips; he’d simply preferred the aesthetics of using blood from the heart.
This incident had become an insurmountable weight on Patriarch Kugu’s heart—it stunted his cultivation progress for a century.
“If someone this twisted were to possess a divine artifact, it would spell doom for the whole cultivation world,” sighed the elder of Qingyun Sect. The other cultivators from the various orthodox sects nodded in agreement.
While the demonic cultivators couldn’t care less about the Qingyun Sect elder’s rhetoric, they had to agree with him. The demonic path had always consisted of a loose band of individual powers. If someone with as volatile a temperament as Mo Tianliao had a divine artifact in his hands, they could all forget about living peacefully in the coming days.
A benevolent-looking Buddhist cultivator put his palms together. “Amitabha. Venerable One, you should just end your own life.”
Feeling little paws clawing away at his back from the tree hollow, Mo Tianliao couldn’t hold back a faint smile. “Celestial artifacts are few and far between. Have you folks ever seen one?”
A sick sense of foreboding came over the crowd. They had been hot on Lord Duantian’s heels for over a month, and they’d taken heavy casualties from the man’s countless spiritual artifacts. Now his trove of treasures finally seemed to be exhausted, and they’d cornered him in this secluded valley, but was it possible he still had another trick up his sleeve?
Before they could react, the dark cliffs on both sides suddenly came alive in a bright burst of light. The lush grass underfoot transformed into bloodred spikes, and countless rays of mystical light shot up from the cracks in the ground. The earth shook.
“Honored guests, behold my masterpiece.” Still leaning lazily against the trunk, Mo Tianliao flashed them a breezy smile, like he was just inviting them to his house for a cup of tea.
Screams erupted from the crowd as the mystical light shredded several cultivators into a mist of blood.
“Stop it, Duantian!” Realizing what was happening, the Qingyun Sect elder summoned his flying sword and leaped into the air. Those with higher cultivation followed suit, but the weaker or slower cultivators were not so lucky. Before those in the air could sigh in relief, though, a hum reverberated through the air. A barrier of light like an inverted wok formed, spanning the tops of both cliffs and cutting off their escape routes. Then it began to shrink and close in on them.
“Oh no! If we touch that dome of light, we’ll also end up…” Terror gripped their hearts at the sight of the severed limbs strewn all over the ground.
“This is called the Annihilation Valley, a superior-grade celestial artifact with a zero-miss record.” Mo Tianliao introduced his masterpiece with great relish. It was the perfect tool for mutual destruction, so named because everything in the valley would be obliterated, regardless of status or cultivation level. Even the celestial artifact itself would be destroyed.
“Duantian, you lunatic!”
“Oh, Venerable One, please spare us! We only did such a foolish thing because we were instigated!”
“Please, Lord—”
“Duantian!”
Curses, pleas, and screams filled the air along with spray after spray of blood.
Mo Tianliao slid down the trunk and pressed his face into the fist-sized hollow, the only safe spot in the valley. He had meant to leave his last will there, but it had ended up as the perfect place to leave his cat.
“It’s a good thing we haven’t signed a blood pact yet,” he whispered, planting a kiss on the furry head inside. “Take care of yourself when I’m gone. Don’t let anyone catch you… Learn how to catch fish on your own, and don’t get so caught up in playing that you skip meals…”
His nagging voice grew softer and softer. He had sustained a fatal injury three days ago, and it had finally become too much for him. Slowly, his eyes closed.
“Mew?” The white kitten patted his face, but the fool who always smiled and nuzzled him when he woke him up never opened his eyes.
The light dome overhead was drawing closer, and it wouldn’t be long before this silly fool would also be reduced to a bloody mist. The kitten anxiously pawed at Mo Tianliao’s nose; when he didn’t react, he tentatively leaned over and licked him.
Look, I’ve licked you. Stop pretending to sleep, or I’ll beat you up! Oi!
But the affection it expected never came, only an increasingly blinding light.
Boom! A thunderous explosion rocked through the mountain, turning the entire valley into ruins. Rocks toppled. Grass burned to cinders. Severed limbs littered the ground, and blood flowed in rivers. Only a bare, stunted tree stood tall and untouched.
You’ll be mine from now on…
Whoa, can you believe a pretty kitty like this is a boy?
From now on, your name is Pawpaw. Stop scratching me. Ouch, ow, ow, ow…
Your Lordship, it’s time for fish. Give me a kiss—ouch, ow, ow, ow…
“Mew…mew…”
The kitten’s tiny cries echoed across the empty valley for a long time, but the man who would always unashamedly lean in for a clawing was gone.