59: Chapter 59 Sword Master, die!

Time seemed to freeze for half a second.

"Ugh..."

A sound, extremely short and like air leaking from a broken bellows, squeezed out of Poison Mistress's throat.

The light in her eyes flickered and dimmed rapidly, like a candle blown out by a violent gale.

Leaving only a bottomless void and unbelievable despair.

That once charming and beautiful face instantly lost all color, twisting into a frozen expression of extreme horror.

Ding Qing didn't even look at that distorted, dead face; he jerked his arm back!

*Slash!*

Amidst the sound of tearing flesh, the body that had just been exuding a poisonous allure collapsed limply to the ground like a discarded rag.

Blood quickly spread across the cold stone floor, forming a large, glaring patch of crimson.

He casually tossed the heart he had ripped out.

Like discarding trash, it slammed against a nearby stone wall with a wet thud, splattering blood before rolling into the dust.

It was clean, efficient, and suffocatingly cruel.

The entire burial chamber was deathly silent.

Qiu Shuzhen held her mother, her small face as pale as paper, her teeth chattering uncontrollably.

Her stomach was churning, and she felt as if she were about to vomit.

She looked at the silent, standing figure—a demon god whose Evil Qi had yet to dissipate—her eyes filled with unprecedented awe and terror.

Ding Qing's gaze fell upon the ice soul stone held in Poison Mistress's hand, radiating a faint blue chill.

He strode forward and reached out; the fist-sized, bone-chillingly cold stone fell into his palm.

He turned around without a second glance.

He casually tossed the treasure—one capable of inciting a bloodbath in the Jianghu—to Qiu Shuzhen as if it were a common pebble.

"Take it. Use it to stabilize her injuries," his voice remained low, devoid of any emotion.

Qiu Shuzhen scrambled to catch the ice soul stone.

It felt freezing to the touch, nearly frostbiting her fingertips.

She didn't have time to marvel at the miraculous nature of this priceless treasure; she looked urgently at Ding Qing, her voice trembling with tears.

"Big... Big Brother Ding! Outside... people from the Black Wind Stockade have come! The Li family... the entire Li family... there's fire everywhere... dead people everywhere!"

"Black Wind Stockade?"

Ding Qing's gaze beneath the brim of his hat suddenly sharpened!

The terrifying Evil Qi around him, which had just begun to subside, exploded like a barrel of oil ignited by a spark.

The temperature in the burial chamber seemed to drop instantly, and even the chill from the ice soul stone appeared suppressed by this pure killing intent.

"Where is the child?!"

Ding Qing's voice suddenly rose.

Like muffled thunder rolling through the chamber, it carried an unprecedented urgency and a bone-chilling coldness.

"The... the child..."

Qiu Shuzhen was intimidated by his sudden change in Aura, and her tears would not stop.

"I... I... the situation was critical. I only had time... only had time to hide the child. I was carrying Mother when she... she caught up to me halfway... I couldn't... couldn't take him with me..."

*Boom!*

An indescribable, violent Aura erupted from Ding Qing.

It was as if a slumbering primordial Vicious Beast had completely awakened.

The gravel and dust on the ground moved without wind, trembling incessantly.

The shadow beneath his long hair was as deep as a black hole, soul-stirring.

Qiu Shuzhen could feel that his gaze contained a light capable of incinerating everything.

"The Blood Corpse is heavily injured and has fled; it's temporarily safe here."

Ding Qing's voice was bone-chilling, each word squeezed out from between his teeth.

"Use that thing to suppress the injury to your mother's heart vessels and find a safe place to hide."

"Wait for me to return!"

Before he finished speaking, Ding Qing's figure turned into a blur that tore through the darkness.

With a piercing whistle of breaking air, he vanished into the depths of the tomb passage.

His speed was pushed to the absolute limit!

Qiu Shuzhen held the ice soul stone and her dying mother.

She stared in the direction he had disappeared.

She felt a chill of impending doom envelop her entire body.

She didn't dare hesitate.

Enduring the agonizing pain in her left arm and the numbness from the toxin, she dragged her mother and huddled into the shadow behind a giant stone pillar in the corner of the burial chamber.

She pressed the ice soul stone tightly against her mother's chest.

The bone-chilling cold indeed temporarily suppressed the blue-black poison veins spreading from the wound.

However, it also made Qiu Zhiruo's breathing even weaker and colder, like a flickering candle in the wind.

...

The moment Ding Qing rushed out of the tomb passage and stepped onto the ground, the sight that met his eyes caused the boiling killing intent around him to nearly turn into physical flames!

The once-grand Li family estate had now become a sea of purgatorial fire!

Raging flames soared into the sky, greedily devouring the ornate beams and painted pillars with a series of crackling pops.

Thick smoke billowed, obscuring the waning moon and staining the night sky a dark red.

The smell of burning flesh and wood, mixed with a thick, inescapable stench of blood, wafted toward him.

Courtyard walls had collapsed, and rockeries were shattered!

Charred beams groaned and twisted in the sea of fire like the remains of giant beasts.

Ding Qing's gaze ignored this burning Hellish scene as he rushed toward the side courtyard!

Along the way, he didn't say a word!

When the open courtyard gate appeared before him, the firelight reflected off his face.

The raging fire roared in the night wind, carrying billowing smoke.

Ding Qing stepped through the gate and into the courtyard.

His gaze was like two red-hot swords piercing through the smoke and fire.

Locking firmly onto the center of the side courtyard.

Amidst the fiercest, charred flames.

He seemed to hear a baby crying!

Ding Qing took a step forward.

The burning walls and rubble of the house in front of him exploded.

He plunged into the fire, rushing through the flames toward the place where the child had been hidden.

There, a small, curled-up charred silhouette lay glaringly among the embers.

He stood before that small piece of charcoal.

The air seemed to freeze.

He slowly knelt down, his movements showing a hint of imperceptible stiffness.

That massive, fan-like palm moved with an almost eerie gentleness.

Brushing away the covering ashes and flames.

Revealing the charred remains beneath, burnt beyond recognition and curled up like an infant.

The tiny body had long since carbonized; only the charred jade pendant, like the cruelest brand, confirmed the identity.

Blade Master!

This person, forcibly rescued from the death trap in the ruined temple.

The key upon which Ding Qing relied to deduce new laws, verify the past, and seek a chance at life.

The Blade Master, who should have grown and shone amidst the turbulent waves of the future...

At this moment, right before his eyes, he had turned into a piece of charcoal!

In the brief moment he was gone!

In Panshi City, where he thought the Li family was safe and secure!

At the hands of those worthless rabble he regarded as ants!

An unprecedented, bone-chilling yet soul-burning pain.

Gripped Ding Qing's heart fiercely!

It wasn't sadness.

But a monstrous rage at being mocked by fate and tightly shackled by the past.

A violent frustration at his own strength appearing so powerless before a predetermined path.

The past cannot be changed!

These words were like a red-hot branding iron, searing into his heart.

No matter how he struggled or intervened.

This death trap of the past had ultimately consumed the child who should have died in the ruined temple, albeit in a different way.

It was as if an invisible giant hand had coldly corrected the deviated trajectory.

"Heh... heh heh..."

A suppressed, low panting, like that of a wounded Vicious Beast, escaped from the depths of his throat.

His tightly pursed, blade-like lips were strained to the absolute limit at this moment.

In the eyes beneath the shadow of his long hair, the lava abyss completely boiled over, turning into a pure, all-destroying crimson!

*Boom!*

An uncontrollable, violent, and terrifying killing intent, enough to warp reality, erupted like a volcano that had been building up for ten thousand years!

"Ahhh!!!"

A sky-shattering roar, containing endless fury and the will to destroy, suddenly erupted from Ding Qing's mouth as he howled at the heavens.