Chapter 20
Chapter 20
Treat Them as Practice Targets
The square returned to dead silence, leaving only the sound of the wind and the hissing of distant steam pipes.
“Just now... was it that collar that saved me??”
“Damn, without this collar would I have died here?!”
“Next time I go out I must bring it! This thing is useful!”
Scarlet Moon walked to Ling Xi, who was still crouching on the ground. She bent down and lifted her horizontally from the lingering terror of surviving the disaster.
“Miss?!”
Ling Xi cried out in alarm. Her body still trembled slightly, and she instinctively wrapped her arms around Scarlet Moon’s neck.
The stench of blood mixed with Scarlet Moon’s unique fragrance drifted into her nose, throwing her thoughts into complete chaos.
Scarlet Moon carried her and walked toward the edge of the square.
Among the corpses lying in pools of blood, the breathing rhythm of several showed an extremely subtle change.
“This world is very dangerous.”
Scarlet Moon’s voice spread across the entire arena.
It also made the hearts of those holding their breath skip a beat.
“Some clever little fellows, when faced with a crisis they cannot resist,
will use secret techniques to seal their vital signs and enter a state of feigned death, attempting to muddle through.”
She stopped walking and lowered her head to glance at Ling Xi, whose face was pale in her arms.
“So, you must learn to clear the battlefield.”
“Today, I will teach you.”
She merely raised one hand and covered Ling Xi’s right hand, which was clenched tight from tension.
A vast force flowed through her hand, gently pouring into Ling Xi’s body.
“Extend your hand.”
Ling Xi’s arm was controlled by that force, her palm aimed at the “corpses” in the square.
She could feel scorching energy gathering in her palm, the sensation like holding a sun that could explode at any moment.
“Look at them.”
Scarlet Moon’s voice was right beside her ear.
“The hatred has already been forged. If you do not kill them today, tomorrow they will think of every possible way to kill you, in ways a hundred times more cruel than this.”
“Treat them as practice targets.”
Scorching energy began to gather in Ling Xi’s palm.
“Do you still remember the chanting magic?”
Ling Xi responded in a trembling voice, “I… I remember.”
“Recite it.”
The hand covering hers tightened.
Ling Xi’s pupils contracted in fear, yet from her mouth, beyond her control, spilled the incantation she had just learned.
“【Floating heat…】”
The voice was her own, trembling, clearly echoing across the blood-soaked square.
Those mercenaries feigning death could no longer keep up the act when they heard it.
They saw the silver-haired girl held in the monster’s arms, her palm aimed straight at them.
“No! Don’t!”
“Spare us!”
Begging and screams mixed together.
Ling Xi’s arm was held steadily in place by that force, unmoving.
“【Heed my call…】”
The light in her palm grew brighter and brighter. The air warped from the scorching heat, letting out sizzling sounds.
She could feel that vast power, not her own, as boundless as the sea, being channeled through her body and shaped into a form of destruction.
The people lying on the ground scrambled desperately to flee, only to discover that their feet were tightly bound by shadows stretching up from the earth, rendering them unable to move.
They had become fixed targets.
“【Turn into arrows that scorch all things…】”
The final syllable was almost shouted.
She suddenly opened her eyes and thrust her arm forward.
Dozens of fireballs the size of basketballs shot out, trailing long tails of flame, covering the entire square.
Blinding orange-red light swallowed the entire field of vision, and the heatwave overturned the bodies that were still struggling.
Ling Xi instinctively shut her eyes.
When she opened them again, the square was already silent—or rather, no other living beings remained.
Ling Xi’s hand still maintained the casting posture. The lingering warmth in her palm reminded her that she had done this.
Although most of the power had come from Scarlet Moon, she had spoken the incantation, she had made the gesture, and the fireballs had flown from her palm.
Scarlet Moon set her down.
Her feet touched the ground again, her legs so weak she could barely stand.
Ling Xi braced herself against a nearby stone pillar, gasping for breath.
Scarlet Moon snapped her fingers, and the dark red light curtain began to dissipate.
Like melted syrup, it flowed downward from above, finally turning into specks of starlight that were scattered by the wind.
The sky outside reappeared, gray and oppressive, hanging low.
Scarlet Moon turned to look at her.
"Do you think what we did was too cruel?"
Ling Xi did not answer.
Or rather, she did not know how to answer.
To say it was not cruel? Those people had died so miserably—she had seen it with her own eyes and caused it with her own hands.
To say it was cruel? But those very people had just tried to kill her and Scarlet Moon.
"Then do you know," Scarlet Moon walked to the edge of the square and pointed toward the distant city district, "what she has done over these twenty years?"
Ling Xi shook her head.
"She used the power I gave her to establish her own forces in this city."
Scarlet Moon’s finger traced a circle in the air. "At first, she was indeed conducting research and making progress, but soon, the taste of power addicted her."
"She began recruiting these people," Scarlet Moon pointed at the charred corpses in the square.
"Mercenaries, fallen mages, fugitives, murderers.
As long as they were willing to sell their lives for her, she would take anyone."
"And then?"
"And then they became her claws."
Scarlet Moon turned around. "Did you see that warrior missing one ear?
He liked collecting trophies—organs cut from living people.
Ears, noses, fingers.
He had a special room, preserved with magic, filled with jars."
Ling Xi’s stomach began to churn again.
"That mage in the blue robe specialized in soul magic.
He would extract a person’s soul, stuff it into a doll, and then sell it to nobles as toys.
Those dolls would cry and beg for mercy, but their bodies were out of their control. They could only dance, sing, and do whatever their masters ordered."
"And what about Aina herself?" Scarlet Moon smiled. "She was even more interesting."
"She locked the genius mage who once humiliated her in a basement for a full twenty years.
Every day she kept her alive with healing spells, then used every method imaginable to torture her.
Mental torture, physical torture, magical torture.
She said it was repayment for the humiliation of that year."
"That woman is still alive now, but she has already gone mad.
Every day she repeats only one sentence: I’m sorry, I was wrong, please let me go."
"Aina also liked collecting materials.
Living organs, fresh blood, young souls.
She used these for experiments, trying to break through her own limits.
But her talent had already reached its end. No matter how hard she tried, she could not advance, so she vented her anger on those materials instead."
"In these twenty years, at least three hundred people have died at her hands.
Even more were tortured into madness."
Scarlet Moon walked back to Ling Xi’s side and reached out to lift her chin, forcing her to look directly into her eyes.
"Now, do you still think they died unjustly?"