Chapter 283 - The Scum Is Red

"Where do you think they are hiding?" Fei Yin asked through a whisper to Cheng Sheng. He, Cheng Sheng, and Wu Yuan are now out in the streets and had the hood of their black cloak down, covering their face.

Cheng Sheng didn't answer and turned to Wu Yuan. "Senior Wu, where was the Nanli Sect located?" he asked.

Wu Yuan frowned as he tried to recall everything that he knows. "I remember now." He spoke after a while. "Nanli Sect… yes. At first, their sect is forgettable, and so they are always overlooked. One, because of their small number. And two – " he said. " – because of distance."

"'distance'?" Cheng Sheng and Fei Yin both said.

"They are the farthest sect so far." Wu Yuan answered.

Hearing this, Cheng Sheng and Fei Yin fell silent and looked at each other. Because they escaped from Ming Ye in the Youxiwang Sect through the Shapeshifting Blanket, they don't know how far they have travelled as it was the Shapeshifting Blanket that carried them. Because they felt that the time they travelled was very short, they assumed they travelled only a fair distance. In actual fact, this was the first time Cheng Sheng used the Shapeshifting Blanket as a vehicle while he was wrapped inside, and so he doesn't know the speed of the Shapeshifting Blanket.

However, the words Wu Yuan spoke just now reminded them. They only knew that they have gone South, as that was what Cheng Sheng ordered the Shapeshifting Blanket to do, and that they must have bypassed the Qianxu Sect and the Nanshu Sect because of the vegetation around them when they arrived in the Nanli Town. But, they overestimated their judgement and underestimated the Shapeshifting Blanket's might.

Realizing this, Cheng Sheng fondly patted his arm where the Shapeshifting Blanket was wrapped around his arm underneath the wide sleeves of his black cloak.

"Father once had exchanged words with the Nanli Sect's master." Wu Yuan spoke. "I happened to pass by that time, and I heard that the Nanli Sect's master, Nan Pinghe, is a soft-spoken man and is jolly." He said. "Father asked him where is his sect exactly located, as he wanted to drop by to visit some time. Nan Pinghe answered that his sect is located between the 'green and gold'. What he meant is – " he turned to Cheng Sheng and Fei Yin. " – it is near the oasis." He told them.

"'green' for vegetation and 'gold' for sand, right?" Fei Yin said.

"Yes." Wu Yuan nodded.

Cheng Sheng took a deep breath and looked underneath his feet. Right now, the soil under their feet is compact. "Let's go see if there is a map sold around here." He told them. Because time was pressing in on them and they left in haste, they haven't brought a map with them.

With how things are going recently, how can they have the mind to think for a map? "Yes." Wu Yuan and Fei Yin nodded as they followed behind him, acting as his guards.

They are righteous cultivators, so they can't use negative qi, much less demonic qi. In order to act perfectly, they have to follow Cheng Sheng who has the Shapeshifting Blanket that, not only could eat negative qi and demonic qi, but also could release it. The negative qi and demonic qi it release are from the ones it ate, obviously. They remembered that when the Youxiwang Sect was attacked by demonic cultivators before, the Shapeshifting Blanket has eaten a large amount of demonic qi. Even if it is only negative qi, the Shapeshifting could 'process' the demonic qi and convert it to negative qi. However, it can't do vice versa, naturally.

After asking around, they finally bought a map. They can't help but sigh emotionally when they saw the map of the Huilong Continent. Farthest east is the Xinfaxian Sect while due west near the Central Plains is the Youxiwang Sect.

"'North is mountainous, South is evergreen. The Central is vast, the West is aqueous, and the East is verdant." Cheng Sheng read the inscription on the map.

The North Region is filled with peaks and mountains, as well as mountain ranges. The South Region is an unending forest. The Central is vast because of a large number of plains, thus it was also called 'Central Plains'. The West Region is aqueous because of rivers and lakes. Then, there's the East Region which has meadows and valleys, filled with green.

"However, what is the southmost region called?" Cheng Sheng asked and looked at the vast empty space with small hills made of sand in the bottom of the map. Surrounding the continent on the north, east and southmost sides are bodies of water.

"It is a pity that we haven't met Qian Lin again, or we could've asked him about the southmost region of the continent." Fei Yin said. "Maybe he might know something. After all, they are the nearest ones in this region." He said.

Cheng Sheng sighed as he nodded in agreement to what Fei Yin said. "We could also ask Shu Mu, but we don't even know where he is." He said before he paused when he remembered that Shu Mu gave him a talisman before after he helped him solve his problem of being poisoned by the Nuhuo Pill.

"Sheng, did something come to your mind?" Fei Yin asked when he noticed the change in Cheng Sheng's expression.

Cheng Sheng didn't hide it from him. "Yes. Do you remember that Shu Mu gave me a talisman as his token of gratitude after I solved his problem with the Nuhuo Pill from which he was poisoned?" he asked.

Fei Yin nodded. "Yes." He answered. That was also the mark of Cheng Sheng's friendship with Shu Mu.

Wu Yuan who was listening to the side subconsciously nodded. Sun Yi has told him about this, as one of Sun Yi's 'interesting tales' he tells him in the form of storytelling.

"I just thought if I could use it to ask help from Shu Mu." Cheng Sheng honestly said. "However…" he bit his lip.

Fei Yin started and his expression turned serious. "We can't have one more person accompany us. Three's already a crowd." He said. "Also, for now, we can find an alternative solution for this."

Wu Yuan nodded. "Use it when we're already grasping at straws." He said. "Use that as our last resort when we're at our wit's end." He added.

Cheng Sheng. "…" can you not jinx us? He thought and glanced at Fei Yin whose expression also turned strange after hearing Wu Yuan's words. "Let's go." He just said.

The two men nodded. "Yes." They answered. Then, the three of them followed the direction towards the oasis written in the map.

Youxiwang Sect, Xiwang, West.

"When the moon reached its peak, the clouds turn red."

A soft hum can be heard in the silence inside the room.

"The wind weeps, stars become dim, the night goes darker." 

In the middle of the room, a man was hanging on his wrists tied by ropes.

"The kingdom mourns, the queen is dead. And the king rages."

The man's clothes are torn, revealing his hideous and deep wounds that stained his torn clothes with blood.

"The wind becomes cold, the night became long, the dawn is naught."

The man is unconscious, and his feet are above the ground. His body is swinging.

"The king gone mad, he killed his child. The kingdom fell into chaos."

The man slowly opened his eyes with his eyelids shaking.

"The moon was dark, the clouds were gray. The land was red." 

In his dark pupils, he saw a man is approaching him.

"Bodies fell, blood flowed out. The land was red." The man sang. With his deep voice, the song became eerie.

The man hanging by the ropes didn't speak.

"Once upon a time, there was a child whose birth is foretold as a calamity. The king, his father, being a superstitious person, believed the prophecy and had his wife, the queen, to be executed together with the child in her stomach." The man stood before the man who is hanging by his wrists. "The king can have other child with the other women, so the queen was executed. Then, when she was buried, a servant heard a cry of a child. She followed the child's cry and found herself in the cemetery. As if bewitched, she dug the queen's grave and then ripped open the queen's belly. There, she saw an infant breathing amidst drowned in blood. The thunder roared, the lightning struck, the rain poured and the ground shook. The child was born." he said. "The servant took away the child. The moon turned red, and the king became insane. He killed his mistress and everyone in the palace. He had the guards look for the child. The servant, however, cleverly escaped the kingdom and went to her hometown. Every day the child grew, the king was eaten by his fear and anxiety. He forgotten his kingdom, abandoned the law and ignored his people. The people grew scared each day until the crimes increased, and after some time, the whole kingdom bathed in its sins."