Chapter 493

Chapter 493: Chapter 490: "He is the Most Pitiable.Su Ming’an took out the compass.

At this moment, the compass that could originally display Xiber’s location had malfunctioned; he couldn’t see the red dot representing her.

"...As expected," he said.

Shadow stared at him blankly, not knowing what he was looking at.

"Shadow, I ask you, has Bai Shen ever descended upon Qiongdi?" Su Ming’an straightened up.

"No," Shadow answered, puzzled as to how this man knew nothing about it. "Lord Bai Shen has never appeared. I... have been waiting for His arrival."

"Hmm," Su Ming’an said, "how old is Cici this year?"

"Ten, ten years old," Shadow replied.

Su Ming’an nodded.

He remembered that the previous Xiber looked about fifteen or sixteen years old.

Cici Zeven seemed to be her other name; she introduced herself as Xiber, he also called her Xiber, but others called her Cici.

So, had he gone back... five or six years ago?

Based on the current information, five years ago, Bai Shen was created by the faith gathered by the people, descended for the first time upon Qiongdi, and died becoming a shield against a sudden curse of filth that appeared in the sky, fleeting like a night-blooming cereus.

At this point in time, Bai Shen did not yet exist.

So, had he, while investigating an underground laboratory, accidentally entered some special instance?

He hadn’t realized when he had arrived at this timeline.

...No wonder Raven had suddenly disappeared.

Regardless, he decided to proceed with the mission; perhaps, like the night levels of "Demon King and Brave," this was merely an illusion.

After all, even Migael, the Time Controller, couldn’t backtrack to a certain range of time, let alone recreate this complete world of Qiongdi.

"Let’s go," he said to Shadow, "to save people."

"—Chase! Chase them quickly!"

During the night, the Guard’s angry voices echoed throughout the First Tribe.

Before them, a group of children ran swiftly.

Among these seven children, one child could control the wind; they sprinted on the accelerated Wind Tracks, twisting and turning through the streets and alleys, quickly leaving the cumbersome Guards far behind.

The girl named Keke kept throwing flames, like a team of arsonists who burned everything wherever they went, as if setting a mountain afire from its cavernous roots.

The entire Tribe was lit with bright red flames; frenzied fire waves followed one after another, mixed with people’s coughing sounds melding in the smoky flames and the nighttime Black Mist.

The surrounding Tribe members were either packing up to flee or frantically trying to extinguish the fire; no one could stop the children.

"Cough, cough, cough..."

Since the sealed buildings were destroyed, the Black Mist spread, and some Tribe members even began coughing up blood.

Gradually, there were no more sounds of Guards chasing behind the children.

The thick smoke obscured their vision, and they too began to cough due to the inhalation of the smoke.

"Keke, let’s stop..." One child couldn’t help but speak up.

Keke stopped throwing flames.

The fire had burned too fiercely; even she was a bit frightened.

The children’s group stopped at one corner of the Tribe, watching the hot waves roll, their expressions bemused.

After a brief silence, a child swallowed and spoke in a low voice.

"...Did we go too far?" he asked.

The Tribe in front of them was ablaze with towering flames, the night itself dyed with a smoky red hue.

They were already hot-blooded, found a seemingly reliable method of arson to divert the guards’ attention, and never intended to destroy the tribe.

But looking at the situation, the fire had burned a bit too fiercely.

Normally, small fires were easily handled by the tribe and would never escalate to such a terrifying situation.

The fire was inherently strong with a lasting burning ability, and they burst out from the underground passages unguarded. Knowing the flammable spots well, their coordination allowed the fire to spread like a tsunami across the First Tribe before the elders could react.

The bright flames had filled their vision, gradually blinding them.

"I... I..." Feng Qiqi suddenly turned pale.

"Qiqi, what’s wrong?" The children then noticed that Feng Qiqi’s complexion had worsened.

"I forgot something..." Feng Qiqi was trembling all over, "The current disaster period is the Flame Period. In this environment, the flames receive enhancements from all sides and become very difficult to extinguish..."

Upon hearing this, the children were terrified.

They had not considered this at all, only wanting to seize the opportunity to save others, but the fire had developed far beyond their expectations.

It seemed like... they had made a huge mistake.

A mistake they would regret for a lifetime.

"—This is the divine fire sent down by Lord Bai Shen—Lord Bai Shen is angry!"

A female tribe member’s high-pitched scream suddenly arose from the thick fog, her voice filled with sadness.

"—Lord Bai Shen is angry. It is His fire from heaven. Our faith is not devout enough!"

Other tribe members also started shouting, their voices overlapping in the black mist.

"—It must be because the young tribe leaders, Sik Zeven and Chushan Zeven, ran away that Lord Bai Shen is enraged!"

"That’s right... this fire is our punishment..."

"All we can do now is to quickly perform the God Sacrifice Ceremony, throw their children into the magma, only then we can appease Lord Bai Shen’s wrath..."

"Elders! Save us, we are devout believers in Lord Bai Shen..."

Hearing these screams, the children looked distraught.

Feng Qiqi, upon hearing these voices, gritted his teeth in anger, surged up with force in his legs, and leaped onto a nearby hillside.

He took a deep breath, looked down from his height, and yelled at these echoing voices:

"—It’s not Lord Bai Shen who is angry! It was I who set the fire! Wake up!"

"—Don’t pin everything on the God Sacrifice Ceremony! It’s just an outdated ritual! Throwing children into the magma is useless—utterly useless!"

"—It’s not divine fire! It was I who set the fire! The God Sacrifice Ceremony is useless! How can you be so cruel as to throw a child into the magma!!"

His shouts were angry and sorrowful, but utterly in vain. The fire was too fierce, his voice couldn’t spread far, and no one was willing to believe him.

His voice was hoarse from clarifying everything, as if he was going to tear his throat apart.

The flames rose, and the dense black smoke entered his throat.

"—All of this, all of it was caused by me—cough, cough cough, cough cough cough!!"

He suddenly began to cough violently, his face already reddened by the flames.

Covering his mouth, his eyes filled with tears, he stared down at the raging fire below and saw one innocent tribesperson after another fleeing in the inferno.

Some of these tribe members had been burnt to death in their sleep, some cried over their burning homes as if drained of all strength, some collapsed in the smoke and never moved again, while others triggered a curse in the nighttime black mist, turning from living beings into puddles of mud...

Men, women, elders, children... they ran through the sea of fire, crying out as their loved ones fell one by one. Everything around them resembled hell.

The peaceful and auspicious ambiance before the succession ceremony was instantaneously incinerated.

The tribe members who had worked hard all their lives, hoping for a promising future, had all become fragile lives in this moment.

The flames and death did not spare them, regardless of their will to live or their status.

Feng Qiqi watched the tribe members he had known since childhood fall one by one in the flames, watched even the strong guards flee in disarray, his eyes gradually becoming empty.

At this moment, every cell in his body seemed to roar as if scorched by fierce flames, his brain strained to the utmost, and intense regret corroded his mind.

...It shouldn’t have been like this! It shouldn’t have turned out this way!

He had merely set a fire, creating chaos, that was all!

No one was supposed to get hurt, no one was supposed to die, the tribe’s formidable elders, they had the ability to suppress this fire!

...Why, why did it have to be the Flame Period of natural disasters...

He stood on the high slope, beside him were children constantly coughing, and as the Soul Stone had run out and extinguished, some had already started coughing up blood endlessly.

Keke began to wail loudly, a pair of black twisted braids trembling behind her head.

She felt that it was she, who was responsible for the fire, who had caused all this, she was the criminal who should have been thrown into the magma, why should the innocent Cici die, just because of so-called traditions and oracles?

Why did the adults not distinguish right from wrong, could it be that everyone became like that when they grew up?

As she cried, she suddenly began spitting out black mud.

Due to a strong emotional outbreak, the curse inside her was triggered prematurely.

"I’m sorry, I’m sorry... It’s all my fault... I caused all of this..." She cried and gradually stopped making a sound, nauseating sludge spreading from all over her body, like sprouts breaking through the soil tearing through her skin, twisted black lines began to spread all over her body.

She looked at her hands, filthy with dirt, and then at the other children looking at her with fear, turned around, crying and rushed into the sea of fire.

The flames engulfed her body, on the brink of the curse’s explosion, and her cries were gradually obliterated by the red flames.

Feng Qiqi blankly watched her silhouette disappear into the flames, watched her playful twisted braids catch fire, saw her slender body painfully burn in the sea of fire.

He blankly watched all of this.

He suddenly realized.

...He truly.

Had made a mistake, a very, very regrettable mistake that would make him regret for a lifetime.

He had caused everything to veer off track.

He had forced his sister to be prematurely put on the execution stand.

He had caused the Divine Festival, which had no choice but to be conducted.

His actions, desiring a good outcome, had led everyone to the worst possible end.

At this moment, without listening carefully, he knew that everyone running in the sea of fire was unanimously saying—

"Hurry up—hurry up and let the God Sacrifice Ceremony begin!"

"Just throw that child down, and Lord Bai Shen’s wrath will be appeased, and the heavenly fire will be withdrawn—"

They said.

The heavenly fire was punishing them.

Hurry up and throw Cici down.

The scorching air rushed into Feng Qiqi’s airways, making it difficult even to breathe.

Listening to the cries of the tribespeople coming from all directions, he suddenly understood—a deity that cannot save them, isn’t a deity at all.

—Even if He is crowned with the title of a deity, even if He is recognized by the tribespeople, but cannot protect them, and never truly appeared, Bai Shen—is not a deity at all.

...From then on.

He would never again believe in anyone who claimed to be Bai Shen.

At this moment, his gaze gradually changed from anger, blankness, sorrow, and then it shifted.

"Feng Qiqi, where do we go now?" a girl asked, her whole body trembling with fear.

Feng Qiqi turned his head to look at a dazed boy.

This boy didn’t talk much, usually just grinned, he was much bigger than the others, slightly older, and very muscular, like a burly strongman.

An old, worn axe lay crookedly by his side, and he counted the small stones in his hand as if they were treasures.

"Chang Sheng," Feng Qiqi called out the sturdy boy’s name, "could you please use your ability to protect them and escort them out?"

"Oh."

The sturdy boy named Chang Sheng responded blankly, appearing somewhat foolish.

"And what about you? Qiqi, aren’t you coming with us?" a buzz-cut child anxiously asked.

The situation had already spiraled out of their control; all they could do was try their best to escape. As for saving others... they were incapable, as the thick fog obscured their vision.

They had transformed from innocents into sinners.

Whether intentional or not, they had indeed caused this disaster.

Discussion of redemption or judgment would have to wait; their priority was to stay alive.

"I..." Feng Qiqi said softly, "will not go."

"Not going? What will you do here then?" the buzz-cut child grabbed his hand. "Let’s go together! Your parents will be fine! Your father is the next heir to the Clan Leader, and if you leave, the elders won’t come to forcibly take you!"

Feng Qiqi was silent for a moment.

The scorching air poured into his windpipe, burning his chest.

He was almost out of breath.

When he spoke, his eyes were red and his voice was incredibly hoarse:

"...what about Qianqian? What will happen to her?"

The children closed their mouths.

At this moment, only the God Sacrifice Ceremony could pacify the people’s anger and sorrow.

Whether it was useful or not, it had to be conducted now.

The wildfire had escalated its urgency, bringing it to the forefront.

They had caused this outcome.

The elders, unable to capture Feng Qiqi in the fire, could only seek out Qianqian, who still resided at the Stone Fortress, as both of them were the tribe’s most gifted individuals—one of them had to be sacrificed to the lava.

It was likely that by now, Qianqian had already been taken away by the elders, who had not appeared in the fire.

They must have already headed to the volcanic vent at the rear mountain.

Feng Qiqi turned around.

His face was devoid of smiles; the moment he saw the disaster, he had lost the demeanor of someone who once proclaimed himself as the "Dark Demon King."

He had indeed brought upon the people the "judgment of falling into Hell," including his sister.

To him, this was darker than pitch black, more painful than agony, more terrifying than death.

He held the Black Blade in his hand and walked towards the rear mountain.

"Qiqi! Where are you going?" a child shouted out loud.

"I’m going to replace Qianqian and calm the people’s anger," he said.

He had always hated the God Sacrifice Ceremony the most.

But in the face of disaster, he was the most powerless.

He was the most pitiful.

He walked away from the screaming children, alone into the fire.

The dark energy danced around him, flames dodging his steps, everything split apart by the Black Blade in his hand.

—The "Annihilator" swung his blade.

All things made way for his path.