Chapter 483: Blood
A faint scent of blood hung in the air.
It was the smell of human blood—not pig's blood, nor chicken's blood, but human blood.
He walked slowly forward, hearing only a scattering of unfamiliar, low voices in the village. The people he usually knew had all vanished.
"Ah!" A scream tore through the false calm.
A middle-aged woman, drenched in blood, struggled to crawl halfway out of a house. From the bloody, human-shaped silhouette, Bai could vaguely recognize his neighbor.
Unfortunately, she hadn't crawled more than a few steps before collapsing unconscious at the doorstep from excessive blood loss. The blood on her body seemed to slowly flow towards a certain direction inside the house.
"There's another one here!" The man in black, who had been chasing the woman, couldn't help but shout upon seeing Bai.
"Just kill him, what's the big deal? With a Blood-Patterned Blade, is there really an ordinary person you can't beat?" A grumbling voice came from inside the house.
It was a burly, masked martial artist, holding a blood-stained blade that looked almost identical to the first.
"Are you insane? How could there be a Bloodline User from a Bloodline House in a remote little mountain village like this who could make a Blood-Patterned Blade react?" the masked martial artist retorted.
Although the masked man called Thirteen sounded somewhat disbelieving, he still immediately relayed the situation to the others, gathering his accomplices who were engrossed in plunder and bloodshed.
Bai did not stop their assembly, nor did he have any thought of rushing in to save anyone, because the familiar sounds of breathing that usually filled the air had long since completely faded away.
His powerful five senses, far surpassing those of ordinary people, and his photographic memory, had long ago allowed him to clearly remember the unique breathing patterns of everyone in the village.
He had returned too late; everyone in the village had already been killed.
"Kid, you already knew something was wrong outside the village, didn't you? Why did you still walk in?" The masked man at the head of the group, after his subordinates had surrounded Bai, asked in a condescending tone.
The blade in his hand was also subtly trembling, though he was forcefully keeping it under control with his grip. The sheer number of his subordinates gave him a false sense of security.
"What are Bloodline Houses? And what are Bloodline Users?" Bai, still holding the wild rabbit, asked in all seriousness, counter-questioning the man.
"I'm the one asking you!" As he spoke, the lead man pointed his left hand, which wasn't gripping the blade, and a crimson ray shot directly towards Bai.
But Bai seemed to possess prescience, shifting his body just enough to dodge the beam by a hair's breadth.
Unfortunately, the rabbit in his hand wasn't so lucky. The crimson beam grazed its backside, searing a thumb-sized patch of fur and skin clean off. The rabbit thrashed desperately in pain.
That ray of light stirred some thoughts in Bai.
"Why was there a beam of light?" He lifted the rabbit, pointing its singed backside towards the man in black. "Is that how you kill people?"
The black-clad leader froze, clearly not having anticipated such a reaction from the other party.
His group had slaughtered the entire village, yet the boy, the sole survivor, maintained an attitude of pure curiosity, asking about his method of killing.
Was he naive, or just foolish?
The black-clad leader stared intently at the boy's face but found no trace of hatred, fear, or sorrow. It was as if what had died just now were mere insects, not his relatives, neighbors, or friends. And those before him weren't enemies, but just a few passersby.
Bai's cold-bloodedness, ruthlessness, and composure instilled a bone-chilling dread even in these men, each of whom had already accumulated double-digit body counts.
They were cruel, bloodthirsty, and could slaughter ordinary people without any psychological burden, but they absolutely could not act so nonchalantly towards their enemies at the scene where their own relatives and friends had met their end.
A person indifferent to everything was simply too terrifying.
"You seem to be curious?" The young man remained expressionless.
Not a single man in black responded. The atmosphere grew increasingly oppressive in the silence.
The black-clad leader felt his heart pound faster the more he looked into Bai's eyes, for those deep, profound eyes seemed to see directly into everything hidden within his deepest thoughts, prying into his secrets. This intensified his feeling that this boy could not be allowed to live.
"No matter what, he's just a savage who doesn't even know what Bloodline Houses or Bloodline Users are. He must just be like this due to some innate talent."
"Damn it, why don't I have such talent! If I had even a shred of it, I wouldn't have to..." The leader's heart was filled with both envy and hatred, giving rise to all sorts of chaotic thoughts.
"Forget about the Bloodline Houses, kill him!!!" He lowered his head, trying his best not to look into Bai's eyes, then bellowed orders to his subordinates.
He had speculated that the young man before him might be a lost bloodline member of some high-ranking Bloodline House, and had even briefly hesitated, wondering if he should help the boy return to his family.
But after seeing those strange, emotionless eyes, the black-clad leader completely dismissed the idea. He was too terrifying; it was better to simply kill him and be done with it.
"Kill!!!" Upon receiving the order, everyone surged forward, attempting to blend into the crowd, using the herd mentality to numb themselves and hide the unease deep within their hearts.
"Your blades are afraid?"
The closer they got to Bai, the more violently the Blood-Patterned Blades in their hands trembled. The nearest few couldn't even grip them tightly.
The hilt's trembling frequency and amplitude were too great; with the slightest relaxation, the blade would likely slip from their grasp and no longer be under their control.
"Who exactly am I?" Bai's thoughts abruptly jumped to the question he pondered most often, as if the enemies before him were mere air.
"Die!" A man in black, clutching his Blood-Patterned Blade, roared and swung it at Bai, who was surrounded on all sides.
But he struck nothing but air.
Bai had moved outside the encirclement without warning.
"I always feel like I should be able to kill all of you instantly, but now I don't know why I've forgotten the method of killing. Can you remind me?"
"You!" If these men hadn't been so unread, they surely would have blurted out, "How dare you, you brat!"
...
"The true 'me' within this body seems to be on the verge of waking up."
Some inexplicable information began appearing in Bai's memory. He instinctively followed these insights, continuously teleporting through the crowd, dodging the omnipresent blades.
"What kind of monster have we encountered... Could it be some old immortal pretending to be young among the Bloodline Users?"
Although the Blood-Patterned Blade could enhance a user's combat abilities in various ways, it had a time limit. Moreover, facing a foe who could teleport infinitely, they truly had no confidence in how long they could last.
PS: Recommending a book, "Dominator of Tomorrow," written by a certain bigshot using an alternate account. It's a very interesting read.
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