Chapter 768
Chapter 768
“Your Highness, this is a gift from me to you.”
The book Xue Che presented to Ying Qi was no ordinary book, but a scripture carved from red sandalwood.
“This is the *Sutra of Calamity*, which I carved myself. It is my hope that Your Highness will find the will to strive and improve, even when faced with adversity.”
Ying Qi accepted the heavy scripture and opened it. Just as Xue Che had said, it was carved in his handwriting, and every stroke and hook of every character was as forceful as steel. But why was it so crimson? A faint sniff revealed the smell of blood, clear evidence that it had been carved with a blood-soaked knife. Whose blood was it? It certainly wasn't Xue Che's. In fact, Xue Che had carved it using the blood of his enemies. Every time he killed a significant foe, he would draw their blood and carve a page of the scripture. He had been doing this for over a decade, and he had already carved several volumes.
*Crimson blood used to carve a scripture? Xue Che, what is the meaning of this?*
Next, Xue Che brought out a blank red sandalwood book and a clean carving knife, saying he hoped this one could be filled with scriptures carved in the blood of Shen Lang, Jin Zhuo, Jin Mulan, and others.
*That upstart Shen Lang is always talking about living in a world without enemies. That is my ideal as well. I, too, wish for a world with not a single enemy left!*
Just then, someone came running in frantically from outside.
“My lord, my lord! Someone sent a box! They say it’s a gift from Shen Lang!”
Xue Che’s face twitched, but he did not open the box immediately. Xue Xue, who was beside him, said.
“Your Highness, why don’t you come play a game of Go with me?”
Ying Qi and Yan Ye left the room. Xue Che quietly stared at the box on the table, holding his breath.
*Absolutely not, it can’t be.*
As he repeated the word ‘no’ in his mind, he waved his hand lightly, and the box opened. Inside was the head of his son, Xue Fan. His eyes were open even in death, and a few words were branded on his face.
In that instant, Xue Che froze as if struck by lightning.
His son, Xue Fan, the heir of the Xue Clan, was dead. And his gruesome state was enough to imagine the inhuman torment he must have suffered before his death.
*Thirty thousand allied forces annihilated? What in the world happened? Naval warfare is extremely complex. The Nirvana Army may be formidable on land, but at sea, they are no match for the Xue Clan’s fleet. How could thirty thousand allied troops and two hundred ships be wiped out so soon after setting sail?*
Xue Che truly could not believe it. Inside the box was a letter, on which was written, “To be opened by Xue Che himself.” It was clearly Shen Lang’s handwriting. Since Shen Lang was a master of poisons, Xue Che inspected the letter thoroughly before putting on gloves to take it out and read it.
It was clearly a letter handwritten by Shen Lang. The writing in the letter Xue Che was reading was atrocious. He had never in his life read something written worse than a schoolboy just learning his letters. The writer had written as if the reader were an imbecile or illiterate. Xue Che sat there quietly, not moving a muscle.
* * *
Subsequently, more and more concrete news reached Xue Che. An astonishingly large tsunami had struck the Joy Island sea region. Countless pieces of ship wreckage, including flags and emblems of the Xue Clan fleet, were floating in the waters, seemingly smashed by the tsunami. Numerous bloated corpses had washed up on Joy Island, piling up like mountains. The news confirmed what Shen Lang’s letter had said: Yan Nanfei’s thirty-thousand-strong allied fleet had been annihilated. But the bad news did not end there; nightmarish reports came one after another. Shen Lang was continuously attacking the shipping lanes in the southern sea of Southern Continent Island. The Xue Clan’s patrol ships were almost all destroyed, and over a hundred merchant vessels had already been sunk to the bottom of the sea. It was a terrible nightmare. Like a relentless storm of thunder and lightning, it was wiping out everything the Xue Clan possessed.
*Is this even possible? Our Xue Clan’s mighty fleet just vanished into thin air? All our merchant ships are gone too? Has our family’s fortune, accumulated over decades, even a century, all turned to dust so absurdly?*
* * *
Xue Che sat quietly at the table again. In front of him was the head of his son, Xue Fan, and beside it, a plate of blood. It was blood he had squeezed from Xue Fan’s head. He dipped his carving knife in the blood and began to carve the scripture. But strangely, every single character he wrote seemed to be filled with a Buddhist aura of compassion. Of course, that was only how it appeared on the surface. A closer look would reveal that every character was suffused with a terrifying aura of death. It was like a portrait of a beautiful woman made from countless skulls—beautiful from a distance, but spine-chilling up close.
“Pfft!”
Xue Che nearly spat out a mouthful of blood that suddenly surged up from within onto the scripture, but he held it back for a moment, picked up a jar, and vomited into it. Then, he used his own blood to carve the scripture as well. After all, his own blood shouldn't be wasted, should it? For days and nights on end, Xue Che carved character by character, eventually completing tens of thousands of them. Afterward, he closed the scripture, walked to the door, and opened it. Dozens of pairs of eyes were watching him from outside. With a stoic expression, Xue Che asked calmly.
“What are you all staring at? Why does every one of you look like your parents just died? Xue Ding, come forward.”
A young man in his thirties stepped out. He was very tall, with deep-set eyes and a hooked nose.
“Xue Ding, you have learned many things at Fudao Mountain recently. What was the most important thing you learned?”
Xue Ding replied to Xue Che’s question.
“Poison!”
“Did you learn how to use poison, or did you learn to be vicious of heart?”
“To be vicious of heart!”
Xue Che nodded.
“In truth, you were always more outstanding than Xue Fan. He only became the family heir because he was the legitimate son. Now that he is dead, you are the new heir of our Xue Clan.”
Xue Ding bowed deeply and replied.
“Yes! Thank you, Father.”
“The news you have all heard is not wrong. Our Xue Clan’s fleet has indeed been annihilated, destroyed by a great tsunami. And Shen Lang’s fleet has been frantically ambushing our patrol fleets and merchant ships, causing us immeasurable losses. The power the Xue Clan has amassed over decades has all collapsed in an instant.”
Outside, the hundred members of the Xue Clan who heard his words trembled. Until now, they had held onto a sliver of hope, but now the patriarch had finally confirmed the truth, making the news an established fact. Xue Che continued.
“But so what? Over a hundred years ago, our Xue Clan was nearly wiped out, with only three or four hundred people left. It was the Count of Jinzhou who saved our ancestors, and we went on to found the South Sea Sword Sect. Now, our fleet is gone, and thirty thousand men are dead, but do you think this is a fatal disaster?
Of course not. We still have the Southern Continent Island and hundreds of thousands of subjects. Nearly a thousand members of our Xue Clan are still alive and well. And we have the South Sea Sword Sect. We even have ten thousand guards in Southern Continent City. We have ties with Fudao Mountain and the Empire. So what if we’ve lost some ships, money, and soldiers?
We can get all of it back in less than ten years. Now, everyone, prepare for war! Shen Lang’s army will soon land and come to attack our Southern Continent City. We will capture them and kill every last one.”
After delivering this speech to the members of the Xue Clan, Xue Che handed the freshly copied scripture to Ying Qi.
“Third Prince, this is the scripture I just copied. I present it to you.”
Ying Qi bowed and said.
“Uncle Xue, thank you.”
* * *
Atop the highest rampart of the Xue Clan’s fortress stood only three people: Xue Che, Ying Qi, and Yan Ye. Xue Che spoke in a slow tone.
“Shen Lang’s army will be here soon.”
Ying Qi said.
“I will fight alongside the Xue Clan.”
Xue Che smiled and replied.
“There’s no need for that. Third Prince, an opponent like Shen Lang is a massive headache. At times, he can make one despair.”
Ying Qi smiled bitterly. He could be said to have fought Shen Lang from a distance, and he had suffered a painful defeat. Shen Lang’s raid on the capital of Chu and the new truce he forced upon the King of Chu had sent his own fame and prestige plummeting from the heavens to the earth. Then, at a critical moment, Shen Lang had revived King Ning Yuanxian, causing Ying Qi to be deposed as Crown Prince almost as soon as he had ascended. Could the blow he had received from Shen Lang be described merely as a fatal strike? The pain he suffered from Shen Lang’s attack was like being thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil in the eighteenth level of hell. Anyone else would have been finished instantly after suffering such agony.
Xue Che said slowly.
“It is because Shen Lang has mastered a power that the secular world cannot comprehend that everyone was forced to fight passively in the previous battle. For this battle, Your Highness need only watch. Since Shen Lang has come here, I will not let him return. I will execute Jin Mulan by a thousand cuts, piece by piece, right in front of him. Then I will stuff her dismembered body into his mouth and ask him if it’s delicious. After that, I will also subject Shen Lang to a thousand cuts in front of everyone, and I will leave the final, life-ending blow for the Third Prince to deliver.”
As Xue Che said these things, he showed no signs of anger. On the contrary, he spoke very calmly.
“Shen Lang knows nothing of our Xue Clan’s true power!”
* * *
Indeed, outsiders knew nothing of the Xue Clan’s power. Before Xue Che now were ten vials, inside which a strange green substance sloshed. They were all Gu-insects from Fudao Mountain. Each vial contained a liter of the insects, an enormous quantity.
“Come here.”
Xue Che beckoned, and a sixteen-year-old boy approached.
“Grandfather.”
The boy was Xue Che’s grandson, Xue Ming. Xue Che handed him a compound bow with a pulley system. This bow looked identical to the ones Shen Lang had equipped his army with. It was clearly a copy made by the Xue Clan. This bow, too, was a powerful bow with a two-*dan* draw weight.
“Shoot at that one over there.”
Xue Che pointed to an old man tied up over two hundred meters away. A woman was tied to the old man’s left, and a child to his right.
“Choose one and shoot to kill.”
At Xue Che’s words, the bound people began to beg.
“My lord, spare us, please spare us.”
“We’ve done nothing wrong. We have served you loyally.”
“Although we were once with the Jin Clan, didn’t we come with the young miss when she married into the Xue Clan decades ago?”
The sixteen-year-old Xue Ming drew the bow, aiming at the child two hundred meters away. The two-*dan* powerful bow was a compound bow, so drawing it was much easier than its weight suggested.
*Fire!*