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A blinding bolt of heavenly lightning struck the black blade and infused its heart with power—it gleamed eerie light. Dense, gloomy clouds began to stir, and soon, a sea of black had enveloped Yong’an’s skies entirely. Countless faces, arms, and legs roiled within the storm, as if hell had moved to the heavens.
Right then, the last sliver of the sun sank below the horizon.
Xie Lian lay on the ground. His eyes reflected the roiling black clouds and the sky torn by flashing lightning and squalling thunder. White No-Face walked away, and the black sword dropped to the ground with a clang.
It was like millions of horses were shrieking and howling in the clouds—an apocalyptic parade. Throughout the streets and alleyways, the citizens were confused and alarmed by the cacophony and came outside to see what was happening.
“What’s going on?”
“What’s all that noise?”
“What the hell?! What’s that in the sky?! Is that a human face?!”
“It’s chaos! It’s a bad omen—the world is ending!”
Xie Lian was covered in mud and grime, and he stumbled as he crawled off the ground. “Go home! Go back to your houses! Don’t come out! Go home—run!” he yelled.
Human Face Disease was about to be unleashed once again!
Xie Lian frantically waved his hands while White No-Face stood to one side and chuckled softly. Xie Lian whipped his head around and glared at him in fury.
White No-Face tucked his hands into his sleeves and said with easy calm, “Why so angry? You can’t turn back now, so why not just enjoy the sweetness of revenge? Your hands wrought this—you should appreciate your handiwork.”
“…You really think I can’t do anything about this?” Xie Lian said.
“If you have a plan, then please, go ahead,” White No-Face replied.
Xie Lian drew in a deep breath, then he picked up the black sword on the ground and approached the crowd on the street.
Everyone recognized him as the crown prince of the previous dynasty who had been lying in the street for the past two days—a living ghost, an ungodly god, an inhuman human. They all backed away cautiously at his approach.
“All of you, stop where you are!” Xie Lian barked.
Although he was covered in mud and grime from head to toe, there was a strange aura about him. For some reason, everyone actually stopped.
“Do you see those things in the sky?” Xie Lian asked.
The crowd nodded unconsciously.
“Those are vengeful spirits that will trigger a plague of Human Face Disease,” Xie Lian continued. “Very soon, it will erupt once again!”
The black sea of clouds was indeed terrifying, and the people watching didn’t need much convincing to believe his words. Horror gripped the crowd.
“H-Human Face Disease?!”
“Why has it returned?!”
“Could it really be…?”
Some were at a complete loss, some turned around and hoped to flee, but most of them stood where they were, apprehensively waiting for Xie Lian to say more. But he had no more to say—he only gripped the sword and raised it to the crowd.
The crowd jumped back in fear the moment he raised that chilling weapon, but Xie Lian barked again, “Take this!”
The people could only gape, mute with fright.
“What…?” someone choked out.
Xie Lian held the sword like that, offering it to them under the pouring rain. “As long as you stab me with this sword, you won’t be affected by the plague,” he said grimly.
White No-Face’s smile seemed to falter. A moment later, he asked with relative calm, “Crown Prince, have you gone mad?”
The people were bewildered as well.
“What… What are you saying?”
“Is he crazy?”
“Take the sword and stab him? Really? What is he pla
The crowd babbled and muttered, and White No-Face suddenly burst out laughing.
“Have you lost your mind? Or do you miss the taste of being pierced by a hundred swords—no, I’m afraid this time it will be ten thousand. Open your eyes and look properly at the sky!” His voice quickly lost all its mirth as he pointed up.
“The vengeful spirits have enveloped all of Yong’an! If you want to ‘save the common people,’ all of Yong’an will need to stab you—you will become nothing but a puddle of flesh within a day! This foolishness is no different from when you tried to defy the heavens and create rain! Do you really think you can save everyone?”
Xie Lian kept his back turned to him. “If a day isn’t enough, let it take a month. If a month won’t do, then two months, three months! If I can’t save ten thousand, then I’ll save a thousand. If I can’t save a thousand, then I’ll save a hundred, or ten, or even just one!”
“Why?!” White No-Face demanded in outrage.
Xie Lian raised the sword with both hands and roared to the skies, “I don’t have a reason—just because I want to! Even if I explained it to you…” He cocked his head to glance at him. “…Useless trash like you wouldn’t understand.”
His condescension and disdain were too obvious and cut too deeply. White No-Face couldn’t retain the calm in his voice as he said, “You. What did you call me?”
Xie Lian pointedly ignored him and turned calmly to the crowd. “Just one stab and everything will be all right. I won’t die—you’ve all seen that for yourselves over the past two days. However, everyone is only allowed one turn with no messing about, and you all must listen to my instructions. If anyone tries to start anything, I’ll smash your head. Trust me, I can smash a hundred of you with one hand.”
White No-Face was incredulous. “The useless trash who brought ruin to his kingdom dares to call me useless trash?”
No one dared take the sword in Xie Lian’s hand, but no one dared to flee either. As he was ignored, White No-Face sank deeper and deeper into anger.
“…Very well,” he said coolly. “Then I will sit back and watch you be ruined by your obstinance. However, no matter how this ends, you’ve brought it upon yourself. I hope you don’t fall apart and come crying to me in regret.”
As the people shuffled around and waffled in confusion, the black clouds in the sky grew denser by the minute and pressed down heavier; they seemed ready to collapse. The shrieking cries of countless human faces were so loud, it was like they were right beside their ears.
Finally, one father was so scared he couldn’t take it anymore. He dragged his child over and took the sword. “I… I’ll give it a try with my Xiao-Bao, I guess…”
The others in the crowd were still hesitating, and they exclaimed in surprise, “You’re actually going to do it?!”
The father seemed just as hesitant, but he braced himself and stammered, “But… But…I really don’t think he’ll die! I’m sorry, buddy, I’m really sorry! My Xiao-Bao…”
He raised a hand to cover the eyes of the small child in his arms and forced him to grip the black sword. White No-Face didn’t interfere, just chuckled mockingly.
Xie Lian clenched his fists and waited for the pain to seize him. In his head, he told himself, It’s all right. I’ve already been hurt so many times, I’ll get used to this soon enough.
But just as the black sword was about to pierce his gut, someone unexpectedly knocked it aside.
The pain Xie Lian was expecting never came. Instead, he heard a loud, clear, “You can’t!”
Xie Lian whipped his head around to look. The one who had knocked the black sword off course was the water merchant!
The water merchant had been in the crowd, but he stepped forward after his tolerance was exhausted. “Well, this is an ugly sight. Can’t you see that huge bloody spot on his stomach? Are you really sure this won’t kill him? And even if he doesn’t die, he’ll clearly still bleed!”
The father scrunched up his face miserably. “But…but…”
The water merchant’s wife subtly elbowed him again, but the water merchant turned and admonished her with a hushed, “Stop poking me! If you have a problem, we’ll talk later!” Then he turned back around. “Besides, for all we know, we could contract the disease from stabbing him. So let’s not just stab blindly, huh?”