Chapter 172: Human Emperor’s Pardon

Chapter 172 -169: Human Emperor’s Pardon

The early hours of the morning. South Sea City. Twenty-fourth Middle School.

The empty school building was deathly silent.

“TAP… TAP… TAP…”

A slender young man in a green suit and grotesque makeup staggered down the hallway.

Moonlight streamed through the windows, casting over a hundred shadows from his body!

The shadows struggled, wailing silently.

The young man was a mobile soul-pinning stake, binding all those shadows to him!

Terrifying. Bizarre…

Behind his grotesquely painted face, a flicker of apprehension was hidden.

Relying on his Shrinking Inches ability, he had spent the last hour lurking in various corners of the campus, observing in secret.

He had already located the Seven People and witnessed them kill.

Within twenty minutes, the Seven People had already killed three individuals.

One in the administration building, one in the cafeteria, and one in the teacher dormitories.

They would strike any human they encountered, killing them with a strange Dark Power.

It was a power he absolutely could not resist.

Yang Xiao had also figured out a few patterns to the Seven People’s killings.

First, the Seven People moved slowly, just like normal humans.

But when they encountered ‘prey,’ their speed became incomprehensible, impossible to track even with Shrinking Inches.

‘Hmm… It’s like the speed of light, almost approaching Spatial Teleportation.’

Second, the Seven People’s power was immense, strong enough to drive him to despair.

However, when the Seven People killed, they needed to perform a simple ritual.

Only after the ritual was complete would they obliterate the person.

Third, and most crucially.

Yang Xiao noticed that the Seven People’s murders followed a discernible pattern.

They weren’t moving and killing randomly, but rather moving clockwise across the campus.

The school building seemed to be the ‘center point.’

…

Yang Xiao stopped at the dance studio.

He hadn’t come here by chance.

‘If the Seven People are truly moving clockwise from the school building as their center point, committing their deeds…’

‘Then the school building must have been the location of their first murder.’

After entering the school building, Yang Xiao had followed a person’s scent all the way to the dance studio.

Strangely, the scent vanished upon reaching the studio.

He peered inside, his eyes filled with confusion, and sniffed the air again.

“There’s no scent of a shadow, either.”

‘Why didn’t the victim leave behind even a fragment of a shadow?’

‘A shadow is the shell of the soul. Even if the soul is scattered to the winds, the scent of the shadow should remain.’

Yang Xiao stood at the doorway, arms crossed, rubbing his chin and muttering to himself,

“It seems they’re doing more than just simple murder.

This so-called ‘purification’… could it be the complete erasure of a person’s body and soul?”

Mulling it over, Yang Xiao stepped into the dance studio.

The moment he took a step inside, a chill ran down his spine.

The hair on the back of his neck stood on end, goosebumps erupted on his arms, and the shadows at his feet stopped their struggling and wailing.

Cold sweat dripped from Yang Xiao’s temple as he slowly turned around.

When he did, his soul nearly flew from his body!

Standing in the doorway were seven silent, black-robed figures!

Yang Xiao swallowed hard, forcing a friendly expression.

“Hey, you guys. School’s out. What are you still doing here?”

The seven black-robed figures paced toward him.

Like seven Ghosts walking in the dark.

Yang Xiao slapped his forehead.

“Silly me. Dressed like that, you must be the school’s dance practice team. It’s not like you’re cosplaying, right?

So dedicated, practicing this late. I’ll be sure to write a letter to your teacher to praise you.

Well, I’ll be going then. Don’t want to disturb you,”

Yang Xiao said, backing toward the dance studio’s window.

He glanced back and saw the Seven People following him at an unhurried pace.

Yang Xiao feigned annoyance.

“Hey now, no need to see me out, no need. Why be so polite?”

After saying this, Yang Xiao formed a hand seal and lunged for the dance studio’s window.

He activated Shrinking Inches!

Yang Xiao instantly shattered the window and glanced back at the Seven People.

The Seven People had already reached the window and were watching him impassively.

Yang Xiao formed another hand seal in mid-air, and his figure vanished, speeding away from the school.

The Seven People took a single step forward in unison.

The next second, they appeared at the school gate, hovering in the air behind Yang Xiao.

One of the black-robed figures placed a hand on Yang Xiao’s shoulder.

…

Back in the dance studio.

A shadow slid down from the doorframe and landed on the floor.

The shadow rose from the ground, shifting from two dimensions to three, its form taking shape as its eyes glinted with mockery and disdain.

“You were supposed to be moving clockwise, yet you deliberately returned to this classroom.

This is also the place where you committed your first murder… Hehehehe… Is this place really that important?

Where could your true forms be? It’s just so hard to guess!”

Its silhouette was strikingly similar to Yang Xiao’s.

This was one of Yang Xiao’s shadows.

The shadow-Yang Xiao began to search the dance studio.

Anything suspicious could be the true form of the Seven People. It could be one of the Taboo Items.

He muttered as he searched,

“I have hundreds of shadows. Take your sweet time ‘purifying’ them.

Trading my physical body for your true form? A worthy bargain!”

Yang Xiao knew.

His physical body would certainly be eliminated by the Seven People.

But their killing process was slow; it wasn’t as simple and brutal as a quick slice to the throat.

The time they spent performing their short ritual was his only chance to find their true form and defeat them.

He wouldn’t lose out either way.

As long as he had one shadow left, he could possess another corpse and make a comeback.

But there was too much junk cluttered around the dance studio.

Yang Xiao cursed under his breath,

“Damn women are so troublesome, and the places they hang out in are just as bad!”

Just then, he spotted an inconspicuous staff in the corner.

A joyful smile spread across Yang Xiao’s lips as he walked over.

“You’re the ugliest thing in here, the least likely thing a woman would use.”

He snatched the staff.

Suddenly, Yang Xiao’s pupils constricted!

He felt his physical body being rapidly erased the instant he touched the staff.

Yang Xiao whipped his head around, his eyes instantly filling with terror.

The corners of his eyes twitched.

“I-I didn’t expect… you have a fourth rule.

If your true form is threatened, you accelerate the killing ritual and return to its side.”

In the blink of an eye, the Seven People were before him.

They circled Yang Xiao, each black-robed figure extending a hand toward him, beginning their short, bizarre ritual.

One of the black-robed figures spoke in a hoarse, evil voice,

“Wrath…”

The next second, a tangible, viscous darkness oozed from the black-robed figure, enveloping Yang Xiao…

Yang Xiao’s eyes went wide with terror.

“I… I’m going to be purified too? Sir…”

Yang Xiao wasn’t afraid of death.

His true shadow was on Jiang Chaosheng’s wrist.

However, his physical body had already been erased. If this final shadow—the last one besides his true form—was also erased, he’d be in deep trouble.

To regain his ability to act, his true shadow would need to possess another body.

To do that, his true shadow would have to leave Jiang Chaosheng.

And if his true shadow left Jiang Chaosheng, he would lose his means of immortality.

Just as the darkness completely enveloped Yang Xiao, a golden ‘Pardon’ character shot out from one of the black-robed figures.

This was the same black-robed figure who had just purified the Evil Crow a short while ago.

The golden ‘Pardon’ character pulsed with an overwhelming divine light that actually dispelled the darkness!

Unable to look directly at the golden, divine light of the ‘Pardon’ character, all seven black-robed figures bowed their heads.

It was as if… they were paying homage, offering their highest respects to the character!

They were clearly the resentment of the Holy Son, a curse from the Western Emperor.

Even Angels would have to bow to mindless curses like them.

And yet, they were showing the utmost reverence for this ‘Pardon’ character!

Yang Xiao, still shaken and horrified by the scene, knew he couldn’t delay. He took advantage of the Seven People’s strange behavior and fled immediately.

Ten minutes later, the Seven People raised their heads, slowly paced out of the classroom, and went to search for their next prey.

…

「One hour earlier…」

The Evil Crow struggled furiously within the darkness.

But no matter what it did, it couldn’t resist this power that resembled a law of nature.

Finally, the Evil Crow was swallowed into the black-robed figure’s body.

In the boundless darkness, the Evil Crow suddenly discovered something terrifying.

This darkness was a door!

Or rather, something like a teleportation array.

The darkness was like a flushing toilet, pulling it into another world!

‘No wonder the Seven People can erase a human’s body and soul from the world!

Where is it taking me?

Hell?

No, that can’t be. Rumor has it that the Western Heaven and Hell don’t get along. Even the Western Emperor couldn’t have issued a curse related to Hell!’

The Evil Crow’s eyes were filled with terror.

It wasn’t just fear of the unknown.

It could see its own feathers, its own flesh and blood, its own bones being siphoned away by the darkness and funneled into that other world!

All that remained of it now was a blue soul.

Suddenly, from the depths of its soul, a ‘Pardon’ character shimmering with divine light shot forth!

The darkness stopped teleporting the Evil Crow.

The darkness, as viscous as a swamp, held the Evil Crow’s soul fast within its boundless expanse.

The Evil Crow regained some of its composure and stared intently at the ‘Pardon’ character.

Three words appeared in the Evil Crow’s mind.

Human Emperor’s Pardon!