Chapter 734: She Thought This Way (Part 1)
These experts, whether from the military, the Heavenly Mechanism Pavilion, or the Ministry of Justice, had experienced countless life-and-death battles and witnessed many gruesome scenes. Logically, no matter how terrifying the sight, it should not have stirred fear in their hearts. Yet, the black-clad girl merely licked the blood from the corner of her lips, and they were overwhelmed with dread.
Some with weaker resolve even trembled physically. This fear transcended experience and reason, stemming from the deepest recesses of their souls, as if it were a mark imprinted upon the stars countless eons before their birth.
The black-clad girl stood in the snow, barefoot, with an iron chain dragging between her ankles. She looked like a prisoner, easily evoking pity. But at that moment, no one at the alley’s entrance could focus on such details; they were frozen into blocks of ice by the power she displayed and the coldness in her eyes.
In those glass-like pupils, whether madness or unease, recollection or timidity, after the rain of blood and scattered flesh, all had turned into indifference.
It was even indifference toward death.
This was too terrifying. Who was she?
Many had already noticed the girl’s eerie vertical pupils. Could she be a hidden great demon? And what was her connection to the White Emperor City?
Some instinctively glanced toward the wind and snow at a certain spot in the middle of Hundred Flowers Alley, where Xiao De, the strongest of the younger generation among the demon race, currently stood.
When they saw Xiao De, they were startled once more.
Xiao De looked very strange at that moment, as if struck by a severe illness. His face was pale, and despite the bitter cold of deep winter, he was sweating profusely. Countless wisps of hot mist rose from his hair and leather robe into the night sky, yet they could not conceal the terror and fear in his eyes.
As a demon general and a powerhouse on the Carefree Ranking, Xiao De was naturally confident. Even facing the invincible and despair-inducing Wang Po, he would never be this afraid... The only time he had reacted similarly was when he encountered the Demon Lord, disguised as a middle-aged scholar, by the Cold Mountain Stream!
Seeing this, the crowd was deeply shocked and silently asked that question again.
Who exactly was she?
Everyone stared at the black-clad girl at the alley’s entrance, filled with panic and unease.
Just then, another unexpected event occurred.
The black-clad girl suddenly bent over and began to vomit.
She retched continuously, as if she would only feel better after emptying everything inside her.
No one knew how long passed before she seemed to recover slightly and straightened up.
But when she saw the mess on the snow-covered ground, two blushes of shame and irritation spread across her pale little face.
She began stomping her feet repeatedly while muttering complaints, her black hair flying wildly. She looked like a little girl who had been provoked or wronged, very angry.
Her bare white feet kept stomping on the snow, and the iron chain clattered incessantly.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
It was as if thunder were exploding repeatedly at the alley’s entrance. The snow-covered ground shook, heaven and earth trembled, and the cold air squeezed violently before fleeing into the distance.
An unimaginably powerful aura emerged, tearing at everything with her every movement. Whether it was the softest wind and snow or the hardest bluestone, whether it was the formation newly set up the previous night or the three-hundred-year-old wall at the south end of Hundred Flowers Alley, everything under this terrifying aura was reduced to the finest fragments.
The court experts hidden in the night and snow dared not stay any longer. They were forced out one after another, shooting away like arrows into the distance.
For a time, the area outside the National Academy was filled with sounds of breaking air and terrified screams.
No one knew how long passed before the black-clad girl stopped stomping. She stood still with her head lowered, her slightly heaving chest rising and falling gently.
The accumulated snow at the alley’s entrance had completely vanished, and the filth she had vomited earlier was also gone, leaving only the ground.
More than a dozen deep cracks had appeared on the ground, with heat rising from within.
Through this outburst, she had calmed down somewhat, no longer as angry as before. But when she glanced at the blood on her hands and body, fury flared again in her eerie vertical pupils.
This time, before she could make any move, the court experts once again fled through the air, wishing they could fly out of the capital immediately.
Even the National Church experts farther down the alley instinctively retreated dozens of zhang.
Fortunately, she did not become frenzied again and remained calm.
She looked at the bloodstains on her body, and the extreme cold turned them into frost flakes, which then fell rustling to the ground.
This scene seemed simple, but to the Star Gathering cultivators in the night, it appeared like a miracle.
How much star essence true energy would it take to lower the temperature to such a degree in such a short time?
Even if a sacred domain powerhouse at the level of the Eight Winds and Rains could achieve this, who would waste so much star essence true energy just to get clean?
Witnessing this, the crowd was once again stunned and silently asked that question.
Who exactly was she?
...
...
The black-clad girl neither knew nor cared what people were thinking. She was utterly indifferent.
She walked into the alley, the iron chain dragging between her ankles, producing a crisp clinking sound that then turned into a dull boom.
The tea house that had once accompanied the National Academy through its rise and fall and witnessed many inter-academy martial competitions collapsed. The fallen tea house did not raise any dust, because countless wind and snow howled down from the sky, covering it with a thick layer in the shortest time, burying the rubble and dust beneath.
She walked against the wind and snow, and the wind and snow parted on their own.
As the purest, noblest, and perhaps only surviving Frost Dragon, wind and snow were naturally her subjects.
After crawling out of that abandoned well, she didn’t know where to go, so she came to the National Academy.
That was also because, before the pot of green leaves pulled the iron chain from the stone wall, she had made a promise.
Walking from North New Bridge against the wind and snow, she didn’t feel cold; instead, her cheeks felt slightly warm.
Because the feeling of freedom was wonderful, and also because she was about to see him, as a free person.
But as she approached Hundred Flowers Alley, she felt unease and fear, because she sensed many people hidden in the night.
Those people were considered strong among humans, though not enough to threaten her, they could still cause some trouble.
Yet her unease and fear had nothing to do with that. She was simply... afraid of crowds.
Many, many years ago, when she came from the warm southern ocean to this unfamiliar continent to find her father, she had been surrounded by many people.
She didn’t like crowds gathering around her like ants; it made her feel disgusted and uneasy.
She thought Chen Changsheng’s explanation was correct—it was called trypophobia.
She also disliked that, whether flying in the sky or walking on the ground, there would always be so many people pointing at her, shouting, yelling, and crying.
She didn’t understand. She hadn’t done anything. Why were these humans crying?
Because they were weak and afraid? Then should she feel sorry for being strong?
She thought this way.
...
...
(The voting on the WeChat public account was far more intense than I imagined. I thought Zhi Zhi would be far ahead, but I didn’t expect the other two options to have so many supporters, nearly reaching ten thousand votes, with the gap still within a hundred votes. Because of this, today’s chapter had to keep using “she,” even the chapter title, haha. Let’s end it at midnight tonight. The little black dragon’s name is entirely up to everyone.)