The world was pitch-black. There was no moon in the sky, no stars. However, a few fireflies that had survived Ye Xuanming's attack were scattered across the land. Only ten or so roamed this small patch of destruction, but their faint light was enough for Liu Xing’s eyes to see.

  Liu Xing stood before a pool of blood. In the center of the pool were the remains of a person. From her stature, it was a woman, one Liu Xing knew personally. It was the remains of Qing Lian. Her head had exploded, as if it were a water balloon pierced by a needle. There had been no great explosion that killed her, and Liu Xing hadn't seen it happen. He had only seen the blood burst from her neck and splatter on the ground.

  Liu Xing took a single step into the pool of blood. The moment his foot touches it, a chill seizes him and spreads throughout his body. It was as if he were being entombed in ice. Yet, his stomach and chest burned with painful heat as if his insides were being seared. The pain was agonizing. He tried to cycle his qi around his torso, but it was no use. His body was fine. Something was still suppressing his qi, but that was not the source of the pain. No, the pain did not originate from his physical body, but from his feelings.

  The blood beneath his feet felt slippery. He couldn't help but clench his hands, grit his teeth, and press his lips together. Tears began to fall from the corners of his eyes. He wiped them away with the back of his hand, again and again.

  This woman was abusive. She was not a good mother. Possibly the worst on the island. However, although she was not a good mother, she was still a mother. He remembered her words after she had hit Ye Xuanming with a piece of wood and before she died. She didn't want her son to die, even though her opponent seemed like a god to her. Moreover, he knew that none of this—none of her sorrow or hardship—was her or her husband's fault. It was a byproduct of the despicable man, Jin Wuyi. She had been a puppet her entire life. Strings had tied her down and guided her toward a certain goal. In the end, all of that had led her here. She was headless and dead, with a sad and sorrowful ending.

  "I am sorry," Liu Xing whispered.

  Though their meeting was recent, he had already decided she was one of his people, and in turn, he needed to protect her.

  But in the end, Liu Xing had failed, and Qing Lian had died.

  However, while her death weighed him down like a giant anchor, there was another burden that was even heavier.

  After standing there for a while, Liu Xing turned around. He closed his eyes for a moment and recalled the image burned into his mind. He had been fighting to the right of this spot, and Qing Yuan’s position had been several steps away from his current one. His death was not as gruesome, but only in appearance. In truth, his death had been crueler than his mother's.

  "Qing Yuan," Liu Xing called his name, extending his hand forward. Qing Yuan had been shouting and howling, crying in rage toward Ye Xuanming. His mother's death had been akin to being stabbed over and over again. He had sounded so pitiful, so hurt, that Liu Xing remembered it as if the world itself had trembled with sorrow. Right in this position, Qing Yuan had been forcibly transformed into a pill. Then, cruelly, Ye Xuanming had crunched him between his teeth, swallowed, and begun to digest him. Liu Xing remembered how helpless he had been, how pitifully weak against a mere seven or eight demonic cultivators at once. They were not that strong, and yet, he had failed to deal with them swiftly enough, and Qing Yuan had paid the price.

  The last words Qing Yuan had uttered were "I am sorry," to him, which was something that should have never come out of his mouth. Those were the words that he should have uttered to Qing Yuan. He was the weak one, the pathetic failure who could not save him. It was Liu Xing who needed to say "I am sorry," and yet, he could not utter such words. It was irrational, he knew, but saying sorry now felt cheap and trivialized Qing Yuan's death and his own failure. No, he didn't deserve to say sorry, because he didn't deserve to be forgiven.

  He clenched his hands and gritted his teeth. Ye Xuanming, that bastard, had come and consumed Qing Yuan as if he were a mere pill. He cursed that bastard and hoped for him to be incinerated by the heavenly tribulation. Anger shrouded him like a cloak, but then, a firefly moved toward a single spot, and that anger gave way to a pathetic sob. There, right below the flying firefly, was the trail of that damned black snake. To the side of that trail was scattered meat in the shape of ribbons. Pieces of fabric were mixed in with the remains, and he remembered the death of Su Nian.

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  That bright teenage girl, that playful yet mature kid, had not only suffered the loss of all her limbs but had also died a gruesome death. Her death was also burned into his mind. He would never forget the moment her body fell from the air and crumpled into a pile of ribbons; he would never forget her surprised expression before her death, nor the howl of her mother as she saw her youngest daughter's death.

  Remembering all their deaths, Liu Xing's heart began to ache, as if something had blocked the veins near his heart, preventing it from pumping. The pressure built until it felt like it would expand and burst. It was so, so painful that he clutched his chest, grimacing. And yet, he knew that this, too, was not a physical pain. It was a pain that originated from his feelings. Even if he sliced open his chest and dissected his heart, he would not find a blockage there.

  Liu Xing decided that he needed to bury Qing Lian's and Su Nian's remains. He couldn't leave their bodies like this. However, he soon remembered that there were still other remains he needed to check on and retrieve, and so, Liu Xing began to walk slowly.

  As he walked, tears streamed from his eyes, falling from his chin onto the blood-soaked ground. His chest was so painful that several times, he had to stop and cry. Soon, he finally found the place where Hua Beifeng had teleported them back to the island. However, the place was wildly different. Instead of a small cliff, there was a mound of earth like a landslide, with splintered wood and shredded leaves scattered over it. Liu Xing didn't see any fireflies here; it was truly pitch-black, so he created a simple Lightning Missile and made it hover in the air.

  "Their limbs must be buried here," Liu Xing muttered, and without thinking, he began to dig with his bare hands. His logical mind told him he didn't need to dig manually. He was a cultivator, one who could command qi. And yet, he felt he needed to, as if to punish himself.

  Even though he didn't use qi, his body was that of a cultivator, and he dug easily through the earth. Soon, he found the first limb. It was a left hand, and when he saw it, he couldn't help but press his lips together and stop himself from crying again. Within an hour, Liu Xing had found all of his friends' limbs. Left hands, right hands, left legs, right legs—he found them all. Or at the very least, all that were buried in this place. He was ashamed to admit he didn't know exactly how many limbs had been severed. Some had lost only their legs, some their legs and one of their hands, while Su Nian had lost all of her limbs. So, to be sure, he dug for another hour, though he didn't find any more.

  As Liu Xing saw the piles of limbs before him, he finally decided to use his qi and project it outside his body. However, he still carried two severed arms in his own hands.

  As he hugged them to his chest, emotion overflowed, and the tears and frustration he had held back for two hours finally consumed him.

  "What a weakling," Liu Xing muttered. "What a pathetic man," he continued. "What a liar."

  At that moment, as he hugged the two severed arms to his chest, he fell to his knees, and the tears he had held back began to fall freely. Liu Xing began to sob. He was ashamed of himself. He was frustrated with himself. The sobs turned into a cry, and from there, Liu Xing began to scream and howl. The sound was loud and painful to hear, like the scream of a man whose leg was being crushed by a large boulder. It was also hoarse, as if his throat were on the verge of tearing apart from the strain.

  In that moment, sadness and anger and other complicated emotions mixed. And then, as he cried and screamed and howled, he shouted a vow. "Ye Xuanming, Ye Xuanhan, Nether Lotus Sect! I, Liu Xing, vow to kill all of you! To extinguish all of your lives from the face of the earth! Vengeance! I'll seek vengeance! I will never stop until every last one of you is dead!"

  He howled about revenge and vengeance again and again, until finally, his voice was spent. He rose from his knees and walked toward the spot where he had failed to protect his friends. There, he began to gather wood, used his lightning blade to cut it into planks, and began to create coffins—one large for Qing Lian, and smaller ones for Su Nian's remains and the severed limbs. Soon, the coffins were made, and Liu Xing began digging into the ground with his lightning blade. After that, he buried the remains and the severed limbs. Three mounds were the largest; the others were smaller. For the three mounds, he created tombstones by cutting a boulder and carving it with his lightning blade. One was for Qing Yuan. There were no remains of him, but he still created a grave. The second was for his mother, Qing Lian, and the third was for Su Nian.

  The rest of the mounds were nameless for one simple reason. Fang Ruxue and the others were still alive. And aside from vengeance, he also vowed to save them from the damnable Nether Lotus Sect. He would find out where their main base was, kill every member of the Nether Lotus Sect, and save them.

  As Liu Xing stood before the graves and finished praying for them, his eyes shone with sharp intent. He was no longer naked. Instead, he wore a purple robe he had taken from Qing Lian's body. To his surprise, it was his own. Even with some modifications, he knew it was his robe. He didn't know how the hell it had gotten here, but the blood-drenched purple robe was now a witness to his vow.

  In a few more hours, the sun would rise, and a new day would begin. At that moment, he would begin his quest for vengeance and to save his friends.

  "However, there's still unfinished business here."

  The Jin clan. That traitorous clan needed to pay for their betrayal. So, Liu Xing summoned his gun and willed invisibility to shroud him.

  keep the lights on.