547 Chapter 547: Revelation

I parried Lin Xuan Chi's spear with my crossed swords, stopping it from reaching my chest. My assailant clicked his tongue and jumped back as ice billowed out to freeze him. He was forced to shatter the ice that now rapidly spread over his spear.

Did this traitor think he could kill me so easily? How naïve.

"Before we start the usual fighting, do you mind if I ask a question?" I raised my right hand, Hei Yue still gripped in it. "Why are you spying for the vampires? Are you a member of the Crimson Blood Demonic Night clan?"

I glanced at the dead vampires on the ground, wondering if they were his clan members. It all added up. If they were from the same clan, then of course Lin Xuan Chi would plan a trap and organize an attack on Ling Xue Xiao and me.

"Nope. I'm from the Tang Sect, an affiliated branch of the Hunter Association."

I frowned. "Yet you killed Xue Xiao Senpai, a fellow branch member?"

"Of course." Lin Xuan Chi shrugged as he walked around me. I warily tracked his movements, keeping my swords raised between him and myself. The moment I let my guard down, he would attack me with that Godspeed spear technique of his. "She's part of the Tang Sect, after all."

I stared at him blankly. He sighed in an almost dramatic manner.

"My goal is to take revenge on the Tang Sect."

"Even though you belong to the Tang Sect?"

"Precisely because I belong to the Tang Sect!"

Lin Xuan Chi slammed his spear against the ground, raging. What was he, a child? Throwing a tantrum at his age, how embarrassing. Also, he wasn't making any sense.

"Even though we were part of the Tang Sect…they sacrificed my parents!"

"…I see."

I regretted asking. Now we were going into a flashback and there was nothing I could do to stop Lin Xuan Chi from ranting. On the other hand, I would very much prefer to sit back and listen than to suffer from a barrage of his spear techniques. The more he talked, the longer I could stay unscathed.

I briefly wondered if I should just subdue him with my Constellation spirits or Celestial Guardians. Truthfully, Lin Xuan Chi would just cut Taurus into shreds with his spear before my Constellation spirit could trample him, but he would get incinerated into ashes if I unleashed Vermillion Phoenix upon him. In the end, I decided not to kill him there and then, especially since I intended to make use of Lin Xuan Chi to bring me right to the enemy base.

For now, I should just go along with the flow.

"That sounds absolutely terrible! How dare they?!" I raised my voice and nodded sympathetically. Lin Xuan Chi showed no sign that he had detected any sarcasm in my tone and his head bobbed up and down vigorously from rage.

"It was. The Tang Sect betrayed me. They betrayed my family. I can never forgive them."

"Yeah!"

"How did they betray you and your parents?"

Lin Xuan Chi clenched his fists when he heard my question. Gritting his teeth, he glared at the floor, unwelcome memories welling up inside his head.

"Surely you have heard about the concerted attacks launched by the Dark Church across the Federation's cities? Five years ago, there was a city that was destroyed by them. The Bo City massacre."

"I can't say I have."

I probably read about the incident somewhere – the name sounded very familiar, but I was very hazy on the details. The hell? Wasn't Bo City from a web novel somewhere? Was my story suddenly transforming to Versatile Summoner now?

"The Dark Church led an alliance of demonic mages including the Crimson Blood Demonic Night clan, to attack Bo City in the south. They started by artificially triggering some sort of demonic rain that drove the monsters crazy and then had them invade Bo City to slaughter the residents. I think less than 10% of the civilians managed to escape."

Yeah, duh. That was why it was called the Bo City massacre. Also, I was getting overly anxious because this was starting to sound like a scene straight from another story.

Pretty soon, I would be the one massacred because of plagiarism or copyright laws…

"At that time, in order to save the majority of the Tang Sect and to evacuate the surviving civilians, the leader, Tang San, decided to sacrifice a married couple…"

"Huh? Tang San? The leader of the Tang Sect? Did we just move from Verstaile Mage to Soul Land (Douluo Dalu)?"

A glare from Lin Xuan Chi silenced any further questions I might have, and I shut my mouth to wait for him to continue his flashback.

"The married couple was to serve as the rearguard, to fight off the overwhelming tide of berserk monsters and demonic mages for as long as possible to buy the rest of the Tang Sect enough time to retreat and escape. As a result of their defiance, they were brutally killed by Fan Fu Qing and his son, Fan Le Lao, in an extremely cruel fashion. I saw their butchered corpses, drained dry of their blood…I saw how they were strung up and crucified in the city square for all Federation citizens to witness!"

"That's terrible."

"And despite ordering my parents to their deaths, we weren't able to evacuate the majority of the civilians in Bo City! Less than ten percent survived! Ten percent! That fucking Tang San wasted my parents' lives for nothing! Nothing!"

You're still alive, aren't you? Isn't that proof that your parents' sacrifice wasn't for nothing?

I wanted to voice that out, but it was clear that Lin Xuan Chi was in no mood to listen to reason, so I merely nodded sympathetically and offered my condolences.

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"Are you now?! Are you fucking sorry now?! Don't fuck with me! What would you know?! Have you ever lost your fucking parents? Have you lived your life as an orphan? Tell me, what would you know about my suffering?"

"Everything. I'm a survivor of Bo City. I lost my family, my home, my memories…everything. I was adopted by my current father, but that doesn't mean I didn't suffer."

"Stop lying!"

I sighed. I wasn't lying, but no matter what I said, Lin Xuan Chi would never believe me. Also, I wished the dude wouldn't take his anger out on me. I wasn't the one who killed his parents or ordered them to their deaths. What did I do to deserve such resentment?

Lin Xuan Chi whirled on me, frothing at the mouth. His eyes were blazing, and his fingers were gripping his spear tightly. His mana was rising aggressively and the very air around him was buzzing and warping. I felt a chill run down my spine. This senior was not an opponent I could afford to underestimate.

"Ever since I was young, I have been molding myself into a weapon for revenge! There's nothing in me but hatred. Hatred not only toward the demonic mages and Dark Church, but also to the mages of the Hunter Association – especially the Tang Sect! That fucking sect who stepped on my parents' loyalties and callously discarded their lives!"

"Well said."

A round of applause sounded from behind Lin Xuan Chi. He immediately knelt when Xu Wu Cheng and Fan Le Lao stepped inside the warehouse, followed by their entourage.

I felt perspiration drip down my face. If I thought it would be difficult to fight Lin Xuan Chi before, my task had been doubled in difficulty by the appearance of Fan Le Lao and Xu Wu Cheng. Not only that, their fighting strength had been bolstered by their bodyguards. Though, if I were to be honest, I could probably incinerate the bodyguards with a single spell of Vermillion Phoenix's.

I pushed my glasses up as I regarded the newcomers. It was just as well. If I bet everything on this battle and killed a bunch of them, especially Fan Le Lao and Xu Wu Cheng, I could rescue Zhao Yan. I was looking for them anyway, so it was pretty convenient of them to come to me of their own accord. The only issue was where they held Zhao Yan, so I should ensure that I keep one of those bodyguards alive to bring me back to their base.

"I heard that you had trouble taking out your fellow sect member and an outsider, especially when the subjugation force we sent was wiped out."

"No, sir. I was planning to take care of it."

"…"

I watched the exchange with a bewildered expression. There was something wrong with this.

"Uh…are you a subordinate of the Crimson Blood Demonic Night clan?"

"Of course."

Fan Le Lao lazily stepped forward and placed a hand on Lin Xuan Chi's head. The latter winced, but did not resist.

"He's my loyal dog. In exchange for taking revenge on the Tang Sect, he swore an oath of loyalty to me. That's why he has been spying on the Hunter Association and feeding us information."

"…"

I couldn't help but cover my face with my palm.

"Wait. Wait, wait. Are you telling me you turned to the Crimson Blood Demonic Night clan for help to take revenge on the Tang Sect?"

"What's wrong with that?! They are the ones who betrayed my parents and ordered them to their deaths! I will never forgive them! I've lost everything. There's nothing inside me except revenge! Even if I have to sell my soul to the devil, I will make sure the Tang Sect is annihilated!"

Wow, this guy's hatred ran deep. I could see the conviction in his furious eyes. But that wasn't the problem I had with this situation.

"No, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with wanting revenge. I'm just wondering why you would team up with your parents' murderers to take revenge on the Tang Sect. I mean, I get that you have a perfectly legitimate reason to hate the Tang Sect, but why are you not taking revenge on the guys who carried out the actual killing of your parents and teaming up with them instead?"

"That's…" Lin Xuan Chi was at a loss for words, but his expression turned livid. "D…don't ask stupid questions!"

In other words, he wasn't able to explain the ridiculous flaw in his logic. Who the fuck wrote this script? Was the author/artist of the original manhua on drugs or something? I wouldn't be surprised if his betrayal was a contrived plot device that the original manhua author/artist thought was a clever plot twist, but didn't really think through. And thus it ended up making absolutely no sense whatsoever. It was as if she didn't care about logic.

This was why I hated shoujo manhua.

"Well…" I glanced at Fan Le Lao, who was looking at me curiously before recognition shone in his eyes. "So what do you plan to do now?"

"I know you."

"Yeah, we've met."

Fan Le Lao burst out laughing and turned away. "There's no need to kill him. He's no threat to us."

"But he knows I'm a spy now."

Lin Xuan Chi sounded confounded by Fan Le Lao's sudden change in heart, but the vampire leader shook his head.

"So what? That's your problem. You will suffer the consequences for your own failure."

"But…"

"Enough. I am not going to sacrifice any more of my vampires for your selfishness. You already spent a sizable number of my elite forces on silencing these two children mages and got them annihilated."

Lin Xuan Chi lowered his head in shame, unable to refute what his lord said.

"I must protest, your highness."

This time, it was Xu Wu Cheng. He had dropped to a knee and bowed his head when speaking to Fan Le Lao. I cocked my head at his servile attitude.

��Lin Xuan Chi is correct. We should kill this loser as quickly as possible. He'll become a threat in the near future. It's best to nip the problem in the bud before it blooms."

The guy clearly wanted revenge for what I did to him over a week ago. Already I could see that he had prepared a countermeasure against me. Damn…I wished I had succeeded in killing him during the invasion of Saint Teresa Academy. As I suspected, he had become an extremely dangerous enemy. I sighed and shook my head while the vampire prince considered his subordinate's words.

"…very well. If even Wu Cheng says so, then I suppose I have no choice. I'll leave him to you. I should go back for now. Zhao Yan is waiting."

His eyes glinting malevolently, he gave Xu Wu Cheng a warning glare.

"However, if you lose more of our elite vampire forces, even you will not be able to avoid punishment. Make sure you remember that, Wu Cheng."

With a flick of his cape, Fan Le Lao turned and stalked off. More than half of the entourage followed him, but a substantial number of vampires remained in the warehouse, striding forward to back Xu Wu Cheng up. The red-haired vampire grinned before casting a dark look at Lin Xuan Chi.

"You'll only get in the way, spy. Leave."

There was such venom in the word that even an outsider like me could tell that Xu Wu Cheng didn't take too kindly to Lin Xuan Chi's presence. The blue-haired traitor said nothing, maintaining his impassive expression, and turned to leave. After all, his only goal was to ensure that I was silenced, and with Xu Wu Cheng taking charge, my death was a certainty. Lin Xuan Chi could leave me to Xu Wu Cheng. I wasn't his target, after all, since I wasn't part of the Tang Sect. therefore he held no grudge against me.

Once again, I didn't understand what went on in his mind. The idiot evidently didn't care about logic. I mean, who the fuck subordinated himself to his parents' murderers to take revenge on his sect? Wasn't he prioritizing the wrong targets of vengeance? This made absolutely no sense whatsoever. Did nobody ever proofread the original manhua to check for such inconsistenies and glaring plot holes?

"Yes, sir."

Lin Xuan Chi stood up and followed Fan Le Lao and the rest of the vampires. I glanced after the spy and exhaled tiredly.

"You sure you don't need his help?"

"You've lived long enough," Xu Wu Cheng remarked before he lashed out at me. All around him, his vampire subordinates attacked.