Chapter 5: Uncle Wu's Death and....Transformation!
Specks of blood dripped away from Direwolf’s body with each step he took towards Bai Yunfei and uncle Wu. Right behind him, the broken limbs and battered bodies of his recent victims littered a small portion of the ring. At the start of this fight, Direwolf felt like a demon walking away from a bloodbath, but now, it no longer felt like it, he truly was a demon!
When Direwolf’s eyes connected with Bai Yunfei, Bai Yunfei felt a tyrannical force of pressure assault him straight on, causing the very depths of his soul to tremble with fright. Now, his entire body was deadlocked and paralyzed with fear. With the sight of blood filling his eyes everywhere in front of him, Bai Yunfei could only watch as the terrifying demon step towards him one foot at a time.
“Yunfei, get up, we must run! You go that way, hurry!” Somehow managing to overcome his fear at the sight of Direwolf’s approach, uncle Wu yelled at Bai Yunfei to snap him out of it before running off to one side.
No sooner did he take ten steps did uncle Wu look back at Bai Yunfei. To his discovery, Bai Yunfei was still staring sluggishly at the incoming demon!
“Yunfei, run away!” Uncle Wu shouted out a warning, but it was to no use. Bai Yunfei simply didn’t hear him.
As of right now, Bai Yunfei was gripped tightly by fear. That was all he knew, and even the thought of ‘running’ failed to register in his mind. The massacre that befell the others continued to replay in his mind, and he could hardly fail to connect those people to himself. They had died, and now it was his turn. Death was coming!
By now, Direwolf was already very close to him!
Seeing that his shouts were ineffective in snapping Bai Yunfei out from his fear, uncle Wu looked at Direwolf, then to Bai Yunfei, and then to the hatchet in his own hands. When he looked back at Bai Yunfei, there was now a look of determination in his eyes. Running with all his might, uncle Wu rushed at Direwolf and threw the hatchet at him!
“You demon, try and kill me!”
For the sake of using himself as bait, uncle Wu would draw Direwolf away so that Bai Yunfei would have a chance to escape!
Tilting his body so that the hatchet would fly past him, Direwolf casted a glance at uncle Wu. It was a surprise to see that this man would come chase after him instead, but when he looked back to Bai Yunfei pensively, an evil grin began to creep onto his face….
Picking up a nearby mace from the ground, he then tossed it straight towards Bai Yunfei!
Still completely lifeless, Bai Yunfei could only watch as the mace come towards him; if this mace were to hit, death would be a huge possibility!
“Bang!” The sound of metal hitting flesh echoed throughout the ring, eliciting a gasp of shock from the entire audience.
Their shock wasn’t due to the fact that the mace had hit someone. It was precisely because the mace had hit someone else other than the person it was intended for. The mace, it had hit uncle Wu!
At the very last second, uncle Wu had made it back to Bai Yunfei’s side and pushed him out of the way!
With him taking Bai Yunfei’s place, the mace had slammed ruthlessly onto uncle Wu’s chest!
“Puuegh!” A mouthful of warm blood came pouring out from uncle Wu’s mouth to sprinkle into the air and then onto the mace before finally coming back down.
Some of his blood fell on the mace, and some of that hot blood came splashing onto Bai Yunfei’s face, but more importantly, while it was hot, all that he could feel on his mind was an icy-cold feeling.
All of a sudden, the entire audience felt as if it had gone silent. When Bai Yunfei looked at the downed uncle Wu, he could still see the look of concern the older man had for him….
Regaining the ability of movement, Bai Yunfei hurried to uncle Wu’s side. Holding him onto the ground, he knelt by the man’s side with a stunned expression, “Un—uncle Wu….?”
This sudden development had stunned the audience so much that many of them felt their breaths die up in their throat. Looking at Bai Yunfei, everyone started to whisper to each other.
Even Direwolf had stopped moving. Rather than walking towards Bai Yunfei, he stood there with a look of complete interest at the two figures.
Rivlets of blood continued to spill down from uncle Wu’s mouth and his chest was partially caved in with so much blood that his robes were already completely soaked with it.
“Yun—Yunfei….ah….you’ve finally….woken up….you mu—must run….”
“Uncl—uncle Wu….Stop talking, don’t say anymore….yo-you can’t die! Please….you can’t….” Bai Yunfei wiped at the blood coming out from uncle Wu’s mouth, but even as he wiped, the tears from his eyes began to drip down onto the man’s face.
“Ha...ha….Yunfei, worry not….I’ve no….no regrets….But you must…..you must live on….survive!”
“Do you understand…? Child, when I….when I first saw you, I knew….I knew that should we met on the outside….my granddaughter….if she were alive….I’d make sure….I’d make sure that you’d meet with her….you and her….you two would most certainly….most certainly be a happy couple! Ah….haha….” Either he had thought of a happy thought, or that his final moments were rapidly ending, uncle Wu’s words had came out with a rapid flow. But then following his words, the sounds of coughing came up. Not only was he coughing out blood, but parts of his internal organs were coming out as well!
“Un—uncle Wu….” It felt as if blades were cutting at Bai Yunfei’s heart. He didn’t even know what to say other than to repeat uncle Wu’s name again.
With one hand clasped tightly to Yunfei’s hand, the other trembling hand wiped away at Bai Yunfei’s tears with a smile on his face.
“Yunfei….you must….survive….no matter the hardships….don’t give up….remember my words...live on….live with a….a conscience!
“Ah….what a shame….in the end...I...I never...got revenge for...for Yu’er…”
The hand that was touching Bai Yunfei’s face finally dropped like a puppet with its strings cut...
“Uncle Wu….uncle Wu…!”
Repeating uncle Wu’s name mechanically now, Bai Yunfei could only look at the deceased man’s face. Even though it had only been half a day since the two had met each other, Bai Yunfei made sure that he’d remember uncle Wu’s face and etch this memory into his heart.
“Ah!!
“Aahhhhh!!!
“Aaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!”
Tossing his head back, Bai Yunfei let loose a heart-wrenching cry of sorrow to the heavens. Two red streams flowed down from his eyes—he was crying tears of blood!
On top of the terrace, Zhang Yang had a sadistic smile on his face as he looked on at Bai Yunfei with satisfaction.
The young lord Zheng was also looking at Bai Yunfei albeit with a different look on his face now.
Even the black-robed man had turned his head up to look at the situation in the ring as well….
On the other hand, Direwolf stared icily at Bai Yunfei. With the show done and over with, he continued onto his path towards Bai Yunfei.
But then he saw Bai Yunfei suddenly stop his scream and then slowly rise up from the ground. In his hand was the brick, and then he began to walk towards Direwolf himself!
For some sort of odd reason, when Bai Yunfei looked at Direwolf with those bloody-red eyes, Direwolf felt his heart freeze up with fear.
“Fear? Impossible…”
Shaking his head to snap out of it, Direwolf met Bai Yunfei’s pace to walk up to him. Since this was his final opponent, he was determined to slowly torment Bai Yunfei to death….
When there was practically no distance left between the two, Direwolf finally raised his right arm and aimed a punch at Bai Yunfei’s face.
But just as quickly, Bai Yunfei raised the brick and slammed it onto Direwolf’s fist.
Given Direwolf’s set of skills, he could easily dodge a brick if he wanted to, but he didn’t feel that it was necessary at all. A brick? He could shatter an entire wall of it with a single punch!
But breaking the brick and then the boy’s arm? That wasn’t a bad choice either. Determined, Direwolf’s lips curled upwards into a cold grin.
“Crack!”
The very first noise was the brick making contact with Direwolf’s fist.
The second sound wasn’t the brick being crushed however, it was the sound of his own fist being fractured!!
In complete and utter confusion, Direwolf looked at his bent fingers. For that moment, he had forgotten not only about the pain, but about his follow up!
Bai Yunfei on the other hand, had not!
As soon as he broke Direwolf’s hand, Bai Yunfei leapt forward with the brick outstretched to smash it onto Direwolf’s head!
By the time Direwolf snapped back to awareness, the brick was already too close to his head for him to dodge—would his head be broken as easily as his fist had?
“Don’t fuck with me!”
Instantaneously, the energy that Direwolf had previously been faintly aware of suddenly exploded outwards from his body and then over his head. The skin around his face and head began to throb slightly before suddenly growing harder somewhat….had it grown stronger really?
“Eh?” A happy look appeared on Zhang Yang’s face, “Has he broke through?”
“Pow!” Came a sound.
The brick made contact with Direwolf’s head, but this time, no bone had been broken.
“I’m safe! And I...I’ve broke through!”
Elation filled every inch of Direwolf’s mind, but he tried to quash that feeling down for the time being to focus on the match. A malevolent sneer appeared once more on his face as he lifted his hand for a counterattack, but suddenly, a pang of dizziness struck him!+10 Additional Effect: Attacks have a 1% chance of stunning the target for a maximum of three seconds.
(If attacking the head, the chance of stunning increases to 5%.)
Activation successful!
“Eh?” Another sound came from the terrace, but this time, it was the cloaked man who spoke!
“Uncle Qin, what’s wrong?” Lord Zheng asked.
“I thought I felt that...that brick have soulforce coming from it…”
“What? Could that brick be….be a soul armament! Impossible!”
“Hm….perhaps it was because of Direwolf’s awakening. His step into the Soul Apprentice realm must have sent some soulforce around itself and confused even me….that youngster’s soulforce seems to be awakening too. It’s slightly weaker, but there was still a change….perhaps I was wrong.”
The sudden pang of dizziness left Direwolf at a complete loss. Because of that, the transformation over his head had been released, forcing his head to revert back to normal.
For a second time, Bai Yunfei’s brick came at his head!
“Crack!”
Ah.
This time, there was the sound of bone breaking.
Direwolf stumbled backwards, but Bai Yunfei came again with a third strike!
This time, not only was there the sound of bone breaking, but blood came splurting out too!
Dizzy beyond belief, Direwolf no longer found himself able to maintain standing and came crashing down to the ground.
Bai Yunfei’s eyes were bloodshot still and he made no moves to stop where he was. Hopping onto the down Direwolf, Bai Yunfei straddled him and began to wail at the man with the brick!!
When the dizziness finally receded from his head, all Direwolf could feel was pain….
And then when his vision came back, all he could see was a brick!
And then, he felt nothing more—he knocked out completely this time—this was to say, he’d never have the chance of ever waking up again.
On the third strike, Bai Yunfei had slammed it down onto Direwolf’s face so that it’d knock him out cold.
Over and over again, he slammed the brick onto Direwolf’s face.
The entire audience was silent. Everyone could only stare at this brick-wielding kid in absolute shock; Zhang Yang, lord Zheng, and even uncle Qin included….
It was hard to say which swing of the brick had killed Direwolf, even Direwolf himself would never know the answer, let alone the audience.
No one knew how long it took for Bai Yunfei to finally stop since he could no longer feel that sensation of ‘brick meeting face’....
His eyes were no longer crying, but his face was still wet with blood. Raising a hand to knead his eyes, Bai Yunfei could finally see clearly.
Stunned at his handwork of Direwolf beneath him, Bai Yunfei was motionless. Then, silently, he stood up and walked to uncle Wu’s corpse. Lifting the corpse up, Bai Yunfei turned back to Zhang Yang and spoke.
“I’ve won. Let me leave….”
Having been stared down by Bai Yunfei’s icy eyes, Zhang Yang found himself unable to stop his heart from beating rapidly. But then he snapped out from his fear quickly with a still trembling body and a squirming face.
Looking at first to Direwolf’s corpse and then to Bai Yunfei, a sinister look appeared on his face.
Pointing a shaking finger at Bai Yunfei, Zhang Yang cried out hysterically.
“Men! Guards! Kill him, kill him at once!!!!”