Chapter 484 - The burning capital city

Chapter 477

/*unedited*/

The strong and humid air dampens a young man's face as the warship he is riding on skid through the water like a speed boat. The area of the great Xu River can prevent cultivators from flying. But with Shin Jiao's knowledge on engines and jet thrusters, it was easy for him to manipulate spirit stones turning them into fuel.

It didn't take him long to convert the warship and turn it into something else that is able to fly through the river of Xu. Though he is not confident about this plan as he is not sure whether something will attack his ship once it floated through the air.

Hence he opted out to make the ship go faster in water using a jet turbine engine powered by electricity converted from mana.

"Ahh… This speed is awesome…" Shin Jiao exclaimed as he ravels through his complicated feeling of elation and glee.

As an artificer, it seems that he has already adapted to the situation where he would feel happy whenever he made something new. This is whether it is something he had never made before or something that he already knew how to make.

And so while traveling, he slowly spreads his arms as he feels the humid air and the tiny splash of water as his huge warship skid through the water like a speed boat.

Another day has passed and Shin Jiao has already reached the peripheries of the outskirts of a huge city. And from where he stood he can see that something is happening. He can see clouds of black smoke rising up through the air from everywhere within the city. He also noticed the huge palace in the middle of the city having a scorch mark on its tall walls.

This only means that the battle in the city was truly terrifying. Since it has been days since it started, many have already perished and yet many are still fighting.

"Wow, I guess the uprising is truly determined to take down the king… Hmm… this is truly mind bugling… I truly wonder why they would take down a king that has given them peace, and selected to reinforce a regime that is sure to be a dictatorship." Shin Jiao thought.

But of course, he would not understand such a thing because he came from a peaceful world. And the attitude of those in power in the Si kingdom is a bit twisted. They truly believe that the strong should rule the weak; this is also the main reason why the empire didn't want to meddle with their way of ruling.

As Shin Jiao's ship neared the dock, he can already see its state. Most of its buildings are already burnt to the ground while others are ruined and seem to have been ransacked and emptied. Shin Jiao can also see many dead bodies littered all over the place.

"This city in the outside is already dead." He thought while looking at the gruesome scene.

"I wonder if the inside of the city is still fine..." Shin Jiao muttered to himself with lingering hope in his heart.

He truly didn't want the portals destroyed hence he is praying for it to be fine. Although he has received news that it was fine, he is not sure as another day has already passed.

Shin Jiao didn't hesitate and immediately absorbed the huge ship in his ring and carefully walked towards the city gate. On his way, he can still see many dead bodies and some have the stench of rotting flesh already with flies are all over the place.

Shin Jiao was not shocked at this scene and he just shook his head as he continues walking. Every now and then he would see small children and women in tattered clothing crying while hugging a corpse. However, he has no time to help them as these people are all the casualties of war. And he is no saint.

But of course, his heart is not made of stone and Shin Jiao can still sympathize with these people. He clenched his fist trying to get over his feelings as it seems that something deep in his heart is once again surfacing.

He suddenly saw a young face of a child and its innocent-looking smile upon seeing him, then the child's change of expression when it discovered that Shin Jiao was the enemy. When the child was about to cry out Shin Jiao heavily lifted his hand and with a heavy tug on his conscience shoot the boy dead.

This demon deep in the heart has once again surfaced making him feel a bit dizzy as he could not help himself but stagger and prop himself to the side of the dark gray wall. He tried to compose himself, but his mind was suddenly engulfed with the vision of the dead boy's face.

As the little boy moves his mouth in a desperate struggle for life, Shin Jiao slowly reads his mouth.

'Why… why did you shoot me…'

'Why did you shoot me, you bastard?!'

'Why did you shoot?!'

'Why did you?...'

'Why?'

'…'

The unknown voice echoed to his head as he found his consciousness about to fade. Unknown to Shin Jiao this is the thing that people called ascension.

Each nascent realm expert in the continent knew this and needed to prepare for such a thing before entering the world nascent realm and face the heavenly tribulation. However, this will only happen when they are about to ascend to the world nascent realms.

But for Shin Jiao who is an aberrant cultivator, his path is different hence he is now facing such a thing due to the disturbance in his heart. And so his heart demon immediately kicks in and taunts him once again.

"Get out of my head! Damn you… Get out of my head." Shin Jiao muttered as he sluggishly walks down the path in an unknown direction.

Shin Jiao began to fight against the demon in his heart as he tried to justify his actions and counter the taunting of the strange voices in his head.

'You are nothing but a weakling… you can't even save the person who raised you. What a disgrace…'

'You're a piece of trash and left your child to grow alone.'

'Haha… what a fool… your woman would also die. Just like how you killed me.'

'I condemned you!'

'You should be damned…'

The voices continuously echoed through his head which made Shin Jiao dizzy and uncontrollably walked. He didn't know when it happened but Shin Jiao found himself blacking out.

Everything was too sudden that it didn't even warn him. What Shin Jiao felt and heard felt all too real which truly shook his heart and his cultivation level was suddenly disrupted. The question that he wanted to ask is why did it happen to him now?

He has seen the same thing in the city of Dongxi, but it didn't affect him too much, so why now? As he muses through his mind, he was suddenly awoken by a strange light that's coming from somewhere. With heaviness in his heart and body, Shin Jiao slowly opens his eyes and saw the golden light of the sun.

He carefully looks around and saw that he is currently lying at the side of the road on the castle wall. Then the stench of rotting corpses assaulted his nose which made his forehead scrunch. As he continues to look around he found that he is lying inside a makeshift hut.

"Somebody helped me?" Shin Jiao muttered.

He then tried to use his absolute sense to check his body and found that everything is fine. However, when he tried to use his spiritual sense, a pang of pain immediately assaulted his mind.

"Damn it!" he muttered while gritting his teeth.

"What is happening?" he thought as he tried to pry his mind using his absolute sense.

And from there he can see that a small white transparent orb floating. Shin Jiao can also see that inside that orb is a small fetus-like thing. This made him feel surprised and confused at the same time. This is because these things only happen to infant soul realm cultivators. But this thing would appear inside their gold core. But since Shin Jiao doesn't have a gold core, he didn't experience such a thing.

However, now he was amazed and confused at the same time as the appearance of an infant soul in his mind dantian.

"Wait a minute… if this is true, then I can form my own nascent soul child, right?" Shin Jiao thought.

Having a nascent soul child is one of the trump cards of nascent realm cultivators. It is said to give them another lifesaving chance once they are killed.

Although it would take them many years before being able to form another solid body, it still can save them from certain death.

Shin Jiao didn't know this before as he didn't experience having an infant soul or a nascent soul form in him before. Suddenly an idea came into him.

He looks inside his ring and saw the corpse of the nascent realm expert. He tried to scan it and discover that his body doesn't contain a soul anymore.

"I guess I let him escape… Damn it. Anyway, if I see him again, he would be as weak as a child, Haha…" he chuckled.

However, Shin Jiao's mind was reeled to the present when he noticed a teenage boy coming towards him and enter the small makeshift tent.

"Oh, you're awake…" the boy said in a cold tone.

Shin Jiao didn't know who the boy is and wanted to ask, but he stopped as he noticed a group of soldiers checking the tents and grabbing some people. Many of those people are women and girls. This made Shin Jiao's aura turned cold.

The boy who suddenly sat down beside him felt his body shiver and he shifted his gaze to Shin Jiao who is looking at the direction of the soldiers.

The boy shook his head and wanted to say something when…