The Prodigies War

Chapter 684: Lump in the Chest

The world was gloomy and desolate. Dust and sand blanketed the barren land and decaying remains were littered across the area.

There was not a single blade of grass in sight. It was a vast expanse of grayness with a cloying smell of blood assaulting the senses from time to time.

Lin Xun’s movements were as leisurely and relaxed as drifting clouds. He seemed to have integrated with the world.

He was like a spider patrolling his own territory. His steps oozed with precision and skill.

It was a fighting stance. Beneath his seemingly leisurely and calm exterior, he was hyper-vigilant of his surroundings and ready to strike at any time.

“Everywhere beyond the campground is a battlefield, and constant vigilance and cautiousness are needed for survival!”

That was the third note in the manual.

“The undulating mountains and the crisscrossing valleys create a complex and changeable terrain. If I can’t fly in the air, I need to watch out for ambushes and sneak attacks.”

“There is no aeth power in this world. To maintain peak physical strength, I need to make use of any spare time to replenish my aeth power.”

“The smell of blood and rotting corpses linger for a long time in this area, which suggests that more than one bloody battle has broken out here.”

“……”

As Lin Xun navigated the area, he observed the surroundings, trying to understand the Blood Kill Battlefield, which was full of horror in its own way.

He held a high-grade aeth crystal in his hand, constantly replenishing the aeth power he had consumed on his journey. Even if the consumption wasn’t much, he knew that once a fierce battle broke out, a slight loss of physical strength might lead to the worst outcome.

That was a fighting instinct he had gained from Blood Kill Camp

A slash of blood red suddenly split the dark sky in front of him, which was as dazzling as a ray of light in the night.

Lin Xun cautiously walked forward, and before long, he saw an area strewn with corpses.

Blood seeped out from the corpses, soaking the earth. There were cultivators in imperial military uniforms, and there were also the grotesque corpses of the Magi Brute Race.

The smell of smoke still lingered in the air, indicating that a battle had just ended.

Lin Xun narrowed his eyes. He noticed that most of the empire cultivator corpses were mutilated and with many signs of being dissected.

Some had their hearts dug out, some had their heads severed off, some had their eyes removed, and some had their bodies split in half. Their organs had been taken away, leaving only their skin and bones.

There was even a corpse that had its tendon and bones plucked out, leaving only a puddle of flesh and blood!

The savage, bloody scene made Lin Xun nauseous.

In the end, he silently turned around and continued onwards.

“The empire cultivators lost this battle and different parts of their corpses were taken away as trophies!” Lin Xun concluded.

The animal skin manual once explained that military achievements on the Blood Kill Battlefield reeked of blood and were demonstrated by the number of savage trophies!

Not only the Magi Brute Race, but the empire cultivators would also take a part of a Magi Brute expert when they won a battle.

It was a show of military achievement!

Rumble!

Before long, a crack split the sky ahead and strips of light flickered and danced like auroras in the sky. It was a spectacular and beautiful sight

But Lin Xun was chilled to the core.

Void rift!

Under the seemingly magnificent beauty was a danger that could terrify even Life Death Stage Kings. Anyone swept into it would have no chance of surviving.

“Bloody, gloomy, chaotic, violent...”

Even though Lin Xun had a heart of steel, he still felt uneasy.

Everywhere in the Blood Kill Battlefield was a doomsday-like scene. The stench of blood and rotting corpses filled the air, and no life force could be seen.

A soft groan of pain came along with the wind, almost imperceptible, but it couldn’t avoid the detection of Lin Xun’s remarkable spirit sensing power.

Instantly, Lin Xun vanished from the spot.

Thousands of feet away, a figure was crawling forward in front of a low mound.

It was a heavily wounded woman. Her body was dripping with blood, her legs had been crushed by some kind of blunt weapon, and her flesh and skin were mangled. She could only drag herself along the ground with her hands.

She left a long trail of blood across the dusty ground.

Lin Xun watched silently for a while, and then, without a single word, he caught up to her.

It seemed that the woman sensed Lin Xun’s presence as she turned around with great difficulty, revealing a contorted, dirty and blood-stained face.

Her eyes were hollowed and bloody; her eyeballs had been gouged out.

Lin Xun remained calm as always. He could tell that the woman had been very beautiful before. Her facial features were very defined, and although her skin was marred by dust and blood, it still had a luminous quality.

But now, her legs were mangled, her eyes were dug out, and her body was covered with dust and blood stains. Crawling across the ground, she looked so helpless and in pain. She was on the verge of death.

Lin Xun noticed that the woman was writing something on the ground with her trembling blood-stained fingers. He couldn’t help but move forward to look closer.

Boom!

The woman’s body exploded!

A terrifying destructive force mixed with fragments of flesh and blood gushed out from the blast, sweeping over Lin Xun.

Lin Xun sighed as though he had predicted the scene. He vanished with a flash, evading the current of destructive air.

“It’s been so many years since I’ve seen such a young one. Haha, maybe there are no other people in the human race empire anymore.”

“It was such an obvious bait, but he couldn’t tell at all. How disappointing! Hurry up and kill him to get it over and done with.”

“I want his eyes.”

“I want his heart.”

“His skin isn’t bad, I’ll take it.”

A group of figures raced out of a pile of rotting corpses and bones.

There were both male and female, and they looked not much different from human beings except that they all had a mysterious brute totem rune engraved in different positions of their bodies.

One looked as strong as a mountain, with an earthy yellow totem rune covering their thick arm.

One was enveloped in mist and had water dripping from their body. Their eyes were also as blue as the sapphire sea.

One had a silvery-white body with fine bolts of lightning flashing around their long strands of hair, like the child of the god of lightning.

They were no doubt experts from the Magi Brute Race!

The Magi Brute Race was divided into nine tribes: gold, wood, water, fire, earth, lightning, light, darkness, and ancient tribes.

When Lin Xun was training in Blood Kill Camp, he had dissected the bodies of different Magi Brute Races, so he had a good understanding of them.

From one glance, he could tell that of the eight Magi Brute experts that appeared, five were Brute Warriors—experts equivalent to Spirit Sea Stage cultivators.

The other three were Great Magis, experts equivalent to Heaven Ascension cultivators.

Brute Slaves, Brute Soldiers, Brute Warriors, Great Magis and Enlightened Spirits were the cultivation stages of the Magi Brute Race, which corresponded to the five great cultivation states of the human race: True Martial, Spirit Dipper, Spirit Sea, Heaven Ascension and Cyclic Derivation.

As soon as they appeared, they surrounded Lin Xun and blocked all escape routes, wearing savage and mocking expressions.

The baleful aura and bloody smell emitting from their bodies indicated that they were not ordinary characters.

However…

Lin Xun completely dismissed them. He was still standing in the same spot, staring at the place of the explosion. Where the woman was, he could vaguely make out the blood-written sentence on the ground.

“I am bait, you are a fish, why are you not running?!”

The words weren’t a cry for help, but her last words before death. It was like the frustrated roar of a comrade, filled with anger and worry.

Her concern for Lin Xun made him tremble like a certain place of his heart had been struck. It felt incredibly heavy with indescribable hatred.

He thought of the woman’s festering legs, her bloody hollowed eye sockets, and the long trail of blood as she dragged her mangled body along the ground…

“As I thought, it’s the child’s first time on a battlefield. He’s scared out of his wits! Hahaha—” the Magi Brute experts snickered.

But they didn’t lower their guards and maintained pressure on the encircled enemy. They had the combat experience of veterans.

“I wanted to save you...but I didn’t expect...them to be much crueler than I thought...” Lin Xun murmured.

He took a deep breath and turned around, his black eyes filled with coldness and indifference. “You all deserve to die.”

“Attack!” The leader Magi Brute expert smirked ruthlessly and signaled with a wave of his hand.

They launched into action.

Boom!

A giant bone hammer whizzed down from the sky, smashing the surrounding space and aiming for Lin Xun’s head.

Pu!

Without even glancing at it, Lin Xun brought the Broken Blade up in an upward slash, and the giant hammer exploded and a bloody head hurled into the air.

A Great Magi had been killed in a split second. Even at death, the ruthless smile was still frozen on his face.

He didn’t have time to react. He didn’t even feel panic or fear. He was killed on the spot! The blade slashed across the air with incredible speed!

Pu!

As Lin Xun stepped forward, splendid starry light flowed around the Broken Blade.

A massacre was kicked off.

It wasn’t until after the second Great Magi was slaughtered that the others’ faces became skewed with shock and anger.

They screamed in a panic.

How could they not see how fast Lin Xun’s attacks were and how terrifying his strength was? Every slash of his blade severed a head!

Kill the chicken to warn the monkey!

The third Great Magi retreated decisively. He had fought hundreds of bloody battles and had years of experience on the battlefield. Of course, he quickly realized that the fish that took the bait this time was actually a savage shark.

Bang!

Lin Xun drew the No-Nonsense Bow and silently fired an aeth arrow. The fleeing Great Magi expert thousands of feet away collapsed to the ground.

Meanwhile, the other five Spirit Sea level equivalent Brute Warriors were trembling with blanched faces.

Chi!

Lin Xun didn’t waste time talking to them. The Broken Blade again swept up a river of silvery stars and slashed off head after head in the most direct and cleanest way, ending the battle within seconds.

However, Lin Xun’s heart still felt heavy, like there was a lump in his chest.

“This is the Blood Kill Battlefield!”

After a moment, he inhaled deeply, casting away all the distracting thoughts. He quickly picked up the spoils and left the battlefield.

The setting sun painted the sky as red as blood.