As a father, I just want to quietly watch you live a long life Chapter 1678 - 440: If Father Were Xi Xi, What Would He Do? The Temple God Reincarnation of Yun E and Zhou Peng [Monthly Ticket Request]
Previously on As a father, I just want to quietly watch you live a long life...
Crack, crack—
Up in the heavens, myriad thunderbolts exploded outward, crackling and thundering while threading through the pitch-black clouds like a spider's weave, savage and horrifying.
The shadowy city, so enveloped in gloom that one's fingers vanished in the darkness, got lit up by the dazzling flashes.
Yet right as that brilliance flared, the only sights revealed were the eerie mystic iron armor and the fiends of the Corpse God Cult, draped in dark robes and hoods, positioned atop the ramparts.
In the narrow lanes.
The chill bit deep, tension twisting the air to its breaking point.
Xi Xi, Yun E, Jin Taixui, and Zhou Peng, these four youngsters huddled together, their features still boyish and pure, but hiding a gravity never felt before.
"What are they... planning to do?"
Zhou Peng's nerves had him dropping his bun uneaten, crushed under an overwhelming burden.
Yun E shut her eyes tight.
Jin Taixui stayed quiet, his Five Fingers balled into a fist, fingers already brushing the blade at his side.
Xi Xi squeezed her hand into a tight ball, her expression turning profoundly somber.
"My father told me..."
Xi Xi's tone carried a heavy weight.
Her gaze stretched far, picking out among the Black Armor Guards a commanding presence.
Zhou Chiguo, formerly the top apprentice under Nan Lihuo, Zhou Daoyuan!
Regarded as Xi Xi's senior brother too, he had once risked everything for Master Nan Lihuo by heading to Jiangnan Dao to slay Ji Moli, only to end up... as the tool in Ji Moli's grip.
He even knelt to serve Ji Moli, stepping into the role of Ji Moli's foster son.
When one of Ji Moli's sons perished, he swiftly filled that spot and turned into Ji Moli's son.
Xi Xi held a deep memory of Zhou Chiguo, not for other reasons, but purely since he had been Nan Lihuo's pupil—this fact alone made her take notice of him.
"My father said... the Clone Technique that Ji Moli practices is utterly ruthless, formed from the essence of Blood Soul power, allowing Ji Moli's clone to match the full might of his true form."
"Still, this Clone Technique demands a conduit and a container; the conduit... comes from Blood Soul, drawing on a whole city's worth, whereas the container... is the carrier of that Blood Soul, someone sharing Ji Moli's lineage—his son."
A flicker of clenched determination crossed Xi Xi's small, fragile features.
Clearly, she had pieced together why such vast forces massed at the gates.
"Harvest Blood Soul! Build up strength for Ji Moli's clone, forge the conduit!"
Xi Xi let out a breath and declared.
Silence, an utter hush...
Yun E and the rest sank into quiet.
No questions came about how to harvest Blood Soul; it required no pondering.
The slaughter of the city!
Just as the blood debt with Nan Lihuo began, when Ji Moli's clone got destroyed, he naturally sought to form a new one, needing ample Blood Soul essence.
With Ji Moli now driven to insanity, he launched into open butchery.
Since Qi Tian City had unlocked, time slipped away for Ji Moli to rebuild gradually; he had to regain his power swiftly, thus... the city slaughter!
And Luoyun City stood as the selected target.
"Xi Xi..."
"Could it be... Ji Moli learned we slipped into this city, so he picked Luoyun City for the massacre, aiming to wipe us out in the process?"
A look of concern spread over Yun E's lovely visage.
If that held true, it spelled dire trouble for their group.
The idea made Xi Xi shiver faintly.
No surprise the killers from Corpse God Cult and Hunting God Pavilion had thinned out lately; their disguises might have played a part, but more probably, as Yun E suggested, once they knew of the group's entry into Luoyun City, those from Corpse God Cult and Hunting God Pavilion opted for a smarter strike against them?
"So... did we drag doom onto this city?"
Xi Xi's lips quivered, anguish twisting her face.
"Xi Xi, don't beat yourself up over it; even without your arrival in Luoyun City, Ji Moli would've targeted some other place for the killing..." Jin Taixui, usually so reserved, broke his silence.
He hated seeing Xi Xi suffer, so he offered words to ease her, providing a justification.
And it rang true.
Had it not been Luoyun City, some other spot in Jiangnan Dao's towns would face the carnage in the end.
"Naturally, it can't be dismissed that they targeted Luoyun City on purpose, and we just happened to be here."
Yun E added her own take.
Each view could fit.
"Slaughter a city... But Luoyun City holds tens of thousands of souls; is Ji Moli truly set to unleash such an atrocity?"
Xi Xi drew in a sharp breath.
Her young heart pounded with fierce turmoil.
This journey through the martial realm exposed her to a level of wickedness unlike any before.
Be it the Ascending Immortal Pavilion back in Guangling Dao City.
One Immortal Ascension Pill sparking chaos among countless cultivation clans, fathers trading daughters for a single Immortal Ascension Pill!
And here in Jiangnan Dao... raze a city to collect Blood Soul for clones!
Deeds like these... such depravity... how could they keep surfacing in the realm of mortals?
Her fist tightened, an unnameable fury surging through Xi Xi.
Bang—!!!
All at once.
A torrent of divine aura rushed from the wall's direction.
Xi Xi, Yun E, and the others jolted in alarm, swiftly masking their auras as they peered toward the wall.
There, the Corpse God Cult's villains in black robes and hoods unleashed a raging tide of Death Qi and Corpse Qi, then pulled out weapons swirling with Death Qi, lining them along the battlements, channeling their Movement, and abruptly the arrays whirred to life, spinning with a deep hum.