Chapter 141 – The Boy Who Watched Me Kill
The blood-drenched valley did not weep for its dead.
It sucked them dry.
Veins of once-living Qi pulsed beneath the surface—black, pulsing, erratic like maggots writhing in an open wound. Crimson mist curled over shattered bones and calcified roots. Cracked statues of ancient cultivators jutted from the earth, their expressions twisted in final prayers never answered. The wind moaned with half-formed syllables, as if language itself had been eviscerated here.
And Rin Xie walked through it.
Silent. Untouched. Sovereign.
His death aura had grown opaque, layered like volcanic obsidian. Every breath he took now reeked of entropy. Each step drew runes of withering onto the soil. His Death Core pulsed in synchrony with the valley's corruption, drawing in entropy, memory, soul-rot, and silence. He was no longer a visitor here.
He was becoming this place.
Behind him, barefoot and bleeding, staggered a boy with soot-colored skin and wide, glassy eyes. He said nothing. Had said nothing for three days. His clothes were rags. His left hand was missing. His ribs jutted out like broken branches. Still, he followed.
Always at a distance. Always quiet.
Rin never turned.
But he knew.