NOVEL NEXT Chapter 128: Bloody... Murder?
Jiang Chen was cornered, weakened, and unable to regenerate. If anyone else were in his situation, it would be guaranteed death.
But... at least someone like him wouldn't die insignificantly.
If abilities were now off the table, then using pure skill alone was still a viable choice.
At least, until he bleeds out.
"DIE!"
Jiang Chen and the wretch continued to fight, but it couldn't even be considered a fight; it was more like a cat playing with a mouse.
Except the mouse was just a tiny bit more ferocious than normal.
CLACK!
CLANG!
Slice after slice, yet nothing even managed to scratch it.
The wretch was loving every second of Jiang Chen's humiliation, seeing such a proud warrior who managed to harm him now suffering from every little movement.
It was euphoric.
'C-Can't... feel my legs.'
Jiang Chen thought. His skin was starting to turn pale from both the blood loss and the void entering his body; he was slowly dying.
CLANG!
He swung his blade again, but it was caught in between the wretch's nails, easily swiping it and, along with Jiang Chen, to the ground.
THUD!
He landed on the ground hard, his sword landing feet away from him.
He tried crawling to it, trying to grab his sword.
But the wretch was already there, waiting for him, now adapting a human form as it squatted down to look at him with its smiling mouth for a face.
Continuing to mock and enjoy his torment.
"I expected more from someone who wielded the jade blade..."
The wretch grabbed the blade, holding and inspecting it.
"I wonder... why are you here so far from home?"
The wretch laughed, standing up and swinging the sword, testing its weight and sharpness. "You know... I might keep this; it feels better than just my claws."
"What do you think, mortal?" The wretch looked back to see how Jiang Chen was doing.
But it wasn't positive, for Jiang Chen at least.
He wasn't even looking at the wretch anymore; instead, he was just lying on the ground, looking at his side as the last flickers of his life tried desperately to cling to the living.
His fingers twitched.
'I am the Jade Swordsman.'
'The Seventh Dragon.'
'The one who defied his sect, walked barefoot across eight ruined kingdoms, and cut down a demon king at age seventeen.'
'So why can't I move?'
Jiang Chen's eyes trembled. Was this really going to happen? Becoming a warrior of great renown to just die at the hands of a wretch? The lowest-ranked creature of the void?
Yes, it was really going to happen.
"Goodbye..."
The wretch laughed, and with one quick swing of the jade blade, Jiang Chen's life was snuffed out permanently.
But it didn't come without consequence.
RUMBLE.
The moment Jiang Chen had died, nature itself had decided to avenge him, the color of jade, green, the color of life.
"What...?"
The wretch couldn't believe what was happening; the entire ground below him was shaking, and from the forest itself began to sprout strange figures.
Figures... that resembled the shape of an eastern dragon?
No... There were totems, totems strong enough even to restrain a dragon, something even a voidborne couldn't escape from.
"W-Wait...!"
Its protests were useless as the totems began to shoot out chains, binding the arms and legs of the wretch, leaving him kneeling in the snow just in front of where Jiang Chen held his last breath.
He wasn't supposed to die.
The Jade Swordsman...
Wasn't supposed to die.
***
[What a mess...]
"What...?"
Justinian was inside the inn, waiting, preparing for when the wretch would return, but it had been hours since Jiang Chen left to chase.
And there was nothing, not the wretch, not the swordsman, and not even a single presence of the void.
But... for some reason, the book of war responded.
[Good luck, you'll need it.]
***
Back at the wretch's location, the binds continued to wrap around his entire body, the chains constricting his humanoid form enough that void energy began to seep out.
He was slowly being drained dry by the totems.
The wretch had just unwillingly killed himself through the death of Jiang Chen.
"Foolish, foolish, foolish..."
A figure appeared in front of the wretch.
Its beauty was sublime, piercing green serpentine eyes and jade horns protruding from its forehead.
Its attire was intricately carved with various eastern symbols and texts; it was the attire fit for a royal.
No.
A God.
"The heavenly pact has been broken..."
The mysterious figure pressed a palm on Jiang Chen's lifeless chest, absorbing the body into itself as it licked its lips.
The heavenly pact...
It was a pact made by Jiang Chen at the end of the spinoff novel, where he stopped the invasion of the heavenly dragons by vowing to represent their will and justice in the world.
Becoming their vessel and peacekeeper.
And now here he was... dead and absorbed.
There was nobody else who could contain the heavenly dragon's power.
"D-Dragon..."
The wretch whimpered.
A dragon was a divine being; it was similar to the pantheon of the gods, like Arethrus, Mithral, and the rest.
But they were from a completely different mythology that resided in the East; usually, they wouldn't even have authority over this continent, but with the death of Jiang Chen from a voidborn of these lands.
That restriction was now null.
"Die."
The figure... no... the dragon uttered, instantly detonating the wretch's body.
From a simple murder in a simple town, to a creature of the void and a swordsman that wasn't even supposed to arrive yet.
And now a heavenly pact that wasn't even meant to be broken.
All of this... happening from a simple murder mystery.
***
Maria's amulet began to glow even brighter back at the inn, which in turn made Maria intensely worried.
It only glowed like that when powerful divine energy was present.
"W-What's going on...?"
She muttered under her breath, looking at the amulet, and seeing the diamond just placed on its center slowly turning green.
"Is that... Jade?"