Chapter Seven: Meaning

The instant Ai You died beneath Xia Yan’s blade, his gray flame could no longer withstand the countless savage forces assailing it and was extinguished entirely, the runes on his face dimming to a bleak shadow.

Then a torrent of energy struck him, driving him to the brink of death in an instant; he did not even have the chance to cough up blood.

His consciousness sank into darkness, and his body crashed to the ground, wounds torn open, blood staining him in ruin, his form relentlessly battered.

In merely a second, he must have been dead.

Even now, his corpse was still being lashed by boundless energy; his body was shattered beyond recognition, flesh and bone bursting apart again and again. At this point, he could barely still be called human, though he looked to be utterly dead.

Yet the enraged ability users continued their assault. They would not let Xia Yan go, not ever. They intended to blast him into so little that not even dust would remain.

This human had committed a taboo. He had killed Ai You before everyone’s eyes, and no one could accept such a thing. They could only wield the power in their hands and trample that corpse, which was already too mangled to bear looking at.

Weiwei stood in a private room high above, watching the scene below with a trace of pity.

This Xia Yan was simply too foolish. If he had not killed Ai You, he could have kept his life; that was Lady Emilia’s decision.

And yet he had defied her. His death was only natural.

Even so, Weiwei could not help but marvel. Of the few who knew the full story, she was one.

A year earlier, Xia Yan had made an agreement with the Lady: a decisive battle with Ai You one year later.

But at that time, Xia Yan’s strength had been very weak.

How weak?

Only at the level of the lowest-ranking Guardian member.

Against Ai You, that level of strength would only mean being killed in a single blow.

After all, Ai You represented the very pinnacle of Guardian power.

The gap between them required a great deal of time to bridge. Even for a genius, it would take at least five years, perhaps ten, or even longer. And yet Xia Yan had crossed countless obstacles in just one year and raised his strength to a level stronger than Ai You’s.

More than that, he had killed the director, Ai You, in a single instant, without paying much of a price at all. If this battle had been fair and just, it would have ended in his complete victory.

Although Weiwei disliked humans, she admired Xia Yan. This human was an exception; he was almost like a miracle.

No wonder the Lady had thought so highly of him. Unfortunately, it was already too late—the Lady had left in anger long ago.

The abuse continued, and Xia Yan’s appearance had long become too gruesome to behold.

“Enough!”

A cold shout rang out. Beside Xia Yan, space was torn open directly, and this pure-blooded demon emerged silently. Her expression was ashen and gloomy, a killing aura seeming to drift about her.

When the surrounding ability users saw this Lady appear, their faces turned deathly pale. They hastily halted their attacks and retreated in fear.

No one could have imagined that merely a skirmish among lesser figures would bring out a pure-blooded demon like her.

“The man is already dead. What’s the point of whipping a corpse?” Emilia snorted coldly, and the crowd stepped back even farther. Her body radiated an unrivaled aura, so terrifying that hearts seemed to freeze in place.

Pure-blooded demons represented absolute power, and Emilia was among the strongest of them. No demon, and no human of this district, would dare defy her.

If anyone dared say even half a word against her, before Emilia lifted a finger, the surrounding crowd would already have swallowed them whole.

Emilia glanced at Xia Yan on the ground, her expression still raging with fury.

You dare refuse to listen. This was not how things were supposed to end. But to kill your own kind in front of the demons, you were simply too arrogant, too reckless.

Xia Yan, did you really think I was merely indulging some twisted amusement when I arranged that duel with you one year later?

As a leader and ruler among demons, she was not foolish enough to act without reason. Everything had its logic, and this matter was no different.

She seized one of Xia Yan’s broken arms, and the space before her was torn apart at once. The two of them vanished from the arena, leaving behind a crowd staring blankly in shock.

Given the severity of Xia Yan’s injuries, he should have been beyond saving. But there are always exceptions.

The first was Xia Yan’s bizarre regenerative ability. As long as his heart was not shattered and his brain remained in place, he could still cling to life. So when Emilia saved him, he was not yet dead.

But such injuries should have made recovery impossible; he ought to have simply died slowly.

Thus there was a second reason: Emilia was a pure-blooded demon, the embodiment of peak power, and as it happened, she possessed healing abilities capable of treating Xia Yan’s wounds.

The third was the restorative serum developed by medical technology, able to repair human skin and cells and help the gravely injured regenerate.

These three factors allowed Xia Yan to barely survive.

Even so, he remained unconscious for a full seven days, and only on this day did he finally recover completely and open his eyes.

“Where am I?”

Xia Yan’s mind was still hazy. Many things from the past gradually surfaced in his thoughts. Vaguely, he remembered that the last time he woke from unconsciousness, he had seen Tao Lu. Her expression had always been so calm, and yet on that late night she had seemed lax and sleepy. When she saw him wake, there had finally been a hint of relief in her eyes.

But this was not District Nine. This was District Two.

Measured footsteps came from far away, drawing nearer and nearer. Xia Yan’s vision cleared from blur to lucidity. The furnishings and decor of the bedroom came into focus; after arriving among the demons, he had been living here all along.

“You’re awake?”

A voice that was fairly familiar sounded beside Xia Yan’s ear. It was Emilia.

Back when Xia Yan first came to the estate, Emilia had spoken to him once, and then for the following ten days, they had not spoken again.

Xia Yan turned his head in confusion. He could not understand why Emilia had saved him. If this was a game, then his duel with Ai You would have been the final chapter. No matter who lived or died, she should have remained indifferent to it all.

Yet a complicated light suddenly appeared in Xia Yan’s eyes. This pure-blooded demon looked angry and dark, utterly unlike her usual teasing demeanor. It was as though she truly were enraged.

For someone so high above all others, she had no reason to be angry.

Their gazes met. Xia Yan was not accustomed to looking directly into the eyes of such a powerful being, and so he simply turned his head away.

“Xia Yan, I already warned you not to kill Ai You,” Emilia said coldly. “Not only did you refuse to listen, you didn’t even leave time for anyone to intervene. You were far too reckless.”

Xia Yan remained silent. He could not afford to quarrel with a pure-blooded demon like this. That would be a foolish act, meaningless in every way.