Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“Avenge your mother?” Xiahou Wuxin chuckled. There was no telling whether he was laughing at Xin Xiaoqi’s naivety or his own cowardness. “It is impossible for you to do that. You do not understand the dread of the angels and the enormity of the outside world at all. You do not even stand a chance in a billion.

“If you want to run away, perhaps I can try my best to help you with all my abilities. But if you want to seek revenge from the angels, I might as well give you a quick death right now, in case you are captured by the angels and tortured for twenty years in the laboratory before you are finally killed.”

“I am not going to run!” The confusion and sorrow in Xin Xiaoqi’s eyes gradually condensed into the fire of wrath. She glared at Xiahou Wuxin and shouted desperately, “The Land of Sins is only so large. Where can I possibly run to? Even if I can escape to the most distant corner in the Land of Sins, it is still a part of the Land of Sins, where I will still live an equally dark and hopeless life in panic, fearing that I may be captured by the angels every day! Is such a life any better than death? I’m going to die anyway, so I might as well die together with the angels!”

“When two opponents on par with each other challenge each other, that is dying together with the enemy. An egg that hits a rock is far from qualified,” Xiahou Wuxin said sadly. “Trust me. The angels do not care what you do or if you resist. All your anger and efforts are insignificant fun in their eyes. There’s no chance for you to succeed at all.”

“How do you know without even trying?” Xin Xiaoqi gnashed her teeth. “Have you never considered avenging my mother?”

Xiahou Wuxin’s eyes flashed, like candles that were nearly blown out in the cold wind. “I thought about it before, but it is impossible and will only get a lot more people killed, including you.”

Xin Xiaoqi stared at Xiahou Wuxin for a long time, her eyes hard, scorching, and sharp, until her master, the almighty leader of Liberty City, could not stand it anymore and moved his face to one side.

Xin Xiaoqi chuckled in the most scornful and disrespectful way.

“You are truly a f*cking coward and a piece of useless garbage.” Xin Xiaoqi snapped without any mercy. “Fifty years ago, when my mother was seized by the Blood Sand Gang, you chickened out and watched the woman you loved disappear in the smoke while doing nothing.

“Twenty years ago, you were the leader of Liberty City with unparalleled strength. There was a slim chance for you to take my mother and run away, but you still chose the most cowardly way and ended my mother’s life under the threat of the angels.

“Right now, you have clearly lost everything. You have nothing left to hesitate over except for the half-life that you have. But you still cannot summon the slightest courage. You do not even dare think about avenging my mother.

“It was truly wise for those high and mighty angels to have chosen you as their spokesperson because you are an out-and-out old dog, one that had been completely castrated.

“Did you know? In my younger years when I was still fooled by you, I cursed furiously on countless dark nights over why my birth father was such a rude beast, an insane lunatic, and a scumbag who considered my mother as a tool for his desires. Why were you not my father?

“You were so perfect in my mind at that time. You were powerful, dominating, and revered by everyone in the city, and you were not condescending at all when you came to our house. You were always so gentle and loving toward my mother. You don’t know how sunny my mother’s smile was when she looked at you. You were almost the only sunshine in our dark life.

“I kneeled and begged the heavens many times, wishing that I could trade my everything for a brand-new fate, where my birth father was not an animal but… you.

“But I was wrong. Hehe. How silly I was.

“Now that I think about it, you are ten thousand times more nauseating than the animals.

“At the very least, the animal, the scoundrel, and the scumbag was almost a man with a backbone. He was bold enough to hold his head high and face his inevitable doom.

“Whether he regarded my mother as a tool, a toy, or anything else, he had the courage to fight such an expert like you to the death to defend what belonged to him. Even before he was executed by you, when he clearly knew that you were the leader of Liberty City and that he was absolutely no match for you, he still cursed aloud until he was killed by you!

“You are a scoundrel without balls. You are not qualified to be my master… or my father. You do not deserve to be my mother’s man. My master, my father, and my mother’s man should be an iron-boned, unwavering hero. Even if it is not a hero but the beast-like guy, it will not be a eunuch like you who has kneeled for such a long time that you cannot keep your knees straight.

“So, do not stand in my way. Get lost!”

Xin Xiaoqi shoved Xiahou Wuxin off and struggled to her feet from the ground. On one knee, she took a deep breath and grabbed her short daggers hard, as if they were the only two items that he could count on in the entire world.

Not looking at the lackluster, devastated Xiahou Wuxin at all, she held her head high and strode out.

“Wait, Xiaoqi!” Xiahou Wuxin called her drily. “Where are you going?”

Xin Xiaoqi stopped and was silent for a moment. Her daggers glittered like scissors behind her, ripping off a cloth which flew between the two of them like a moth. “You rescued my mother and me from the ‘Blood Sand Gang’ and looked after us for so many years. I will not deny your favor.

“However, I have also done so many things for you over the past twenty years, including sneaking into the Fist King’s army and guiding the assassins for you. However great the favor was, it has already been returned now, hasn’t it?

“Besides, you killed my mother, although it was her own wish… You are probably not to blame for that, but I do not think that I owe you anything right now.

“The scores have been settled. From this moment on, you are no longer my master. I am a woman who has risen in the Land of Sins through my own hard work. I do not have such a ballless master like you. You and I are like this piece of cloth. We are now done with each other!

“We will now go our separate ways. I will seek my revenge while you continue being a dog or a tortoise in its shell. I hope that the angles will let you continue to work as the renowned leader of Liberty City for your loyalty and relentlessness!”

Xin Xiaoqi finished her speech as quickly as possible and opened the door, as if she could not stay in the room for one second longer.

Xiahou Wuxin, however, struggled to move forward and pressed the door hard after opening his shivering hands. “Wait a moment.”

“Anything else, Leader Xiahou?” Xin Xiaoqi’s eyes suddenly turned extremely cold. With a scornful smile on her lips, she said, “Or maybe, if I want to deal with your master, I will have to step over your dead body?”

Xiahou Wuxin’s face looked like burnt rind, without the sign of the slightest expression. But his eyes could not have been more bloodshot as he said in a low voice, “It doesn’t matter if you do not respect me as your master, but I still have abundant assets and a very secret warehouse…”

“I will not have what you have wagged your tail for and begged from the angels.” Xin Xiaoqi gnashed her teeth. “Whatever I need, I will steal, rob, hijack, and con with my own hands in the Land of Sins. Haven’t you been teaching me that for the past twenty years?”

Xiahou Wuxin was rendered speechless. After a brief silence, he heaved a long sigh and said, “Right now, the angels have decided to destroy Liberty City, but it is still mayhem outside. Nobody knows that a cataclysm is falling upon them. Without enough gear, you cannot get out of here, much less avenge your mother. If you really want to avenge her, don’t act like a child and refuse my help.”

Xiahou Wuxin’s suddenly softened tone made Xin Xiaoqi’s body shake. She frowned, hot tears flowing out of her eyes again. She clenched her fists and said, “You know that I need help, too. Then, why are you only throwing me some cold magical equipment instead of helping me in person?”

“Don’t you understand, Xiaoqi?” Xiahou Wuxin mumbled. “It’s not that I do not want to help you, but because I am too large a target. Over the past few decades, I have learned too many secrets about the angels. They have to kill me!

“If I go with you, you will only be burdened by me. You will be captured, killed, or have an even worse outcome if you are with me.

“So, it is a better idea for us to go our separate ways. I will try my best to attract the attention of the angels and force them to dispatch most of their available forces to chase after me, while you will take advantage of the chaos and figure out a way to escape Liberty City. You will have to be responsible for your future path after your escape!”

Xin Xiaoqi was not a fool. She immediately understood what was going on after Xiahou Wuxin’s explanation.

Her dirty face was even paler than before.

“Do you understand now? If you do, just get yourself together and let’s go to my secret warehouse,” Xiahou Wuxin said. “Whether you want to save your own life or avenge your mother, you will have to get out of here first. Come on. It’s the gear that I have been carefully preparing since more than ten years ago for the arrival of such a moment!”

In a trance, Xin Xiaoqi simply allowed Xiahou Wuxin to change her clothing. In a short while, she was already disguised as an emaciated young man in ragged clothes before she was covered in a rusty, worn-out armor that actually had four layers and dozens of defense rune arrays in the middle.

Xiahou Wuxin also disguised himself as a dark, bald man who was short and fat. There were two crossed scars on his face that looked like two slithering centipedes.

Then, he covered the two of them with enormous cloaks. In the end, he took out two rings from the bottom of a box and, after thinking for a moment, gave both of them to Xin Xiaoqi.

Li Yao’s eyes immediately shone in great interest. They were Cosmos Rings!

“Let’s go!” Xiahou Wuxin said hoarsely. “Whatever happens outside, your master will find a way to get you out of Liberty City today!”