Chapter Eighteen: Woman

A sudden gale swept through the cold, damp air. Li Kaishan sat at the very eye of the storm, gripping his blade with one hand. His scarred face, with its twitching, rough-hewn flesh, looked utterly savage and terrifying.

All at once, a stream of blue light burst from within him, serpentine and swift, swirling once around his body before finally settling upon his steel blade. Xiang Jiuxi, watching from the side, stared in stupefied disbelief—this blue light looked so familiar.

Before he could react, the blade, now wreathed in blue light, began to change. In a flash, it split in two, transforming into a pair of pitch-black, demon-faced hatchets.

Now looking upon Li Kaishan again, his upper garments were thrown open, revealing a body covered in tattooed patterns—an evil spirit, fierce and malevolent, inked across his torso. Beneath the demon’s feet lay a severed head, a pile of bloody, indistinguishable flesh stacked nearby. In its hand was a dismembered arm, and it feasted with ghastly delight. Most striking of all, at the demon’s waist hung a pair of hatchets identical to those Li Kaishan now wielded.

“If the young lord is so determined to die poorly, then let me grant your wish!” Li Kaishan’s eyes burned red, and a black, inky mist radiated from his body, making him seem the very incarnation of the tattooed fiend. With a furious glare, he advanced menacingly toward Xia Boling.

Xia Boling knew her fate was sealed. She snorted coldly and said, “Dead is dead—what difference does it make?”

Li Kaishan threw back his head and laughed maniacally, genuine pleasure and excitement bubbling through his voice. Mid-laughter, his expression turned icy as he fixed his gaze on Xia Boling. “You’re about to find out exactly what difference it makes!” he snarled.

With that, Li Kaishan leapt into the air, swinging his pair of demon-axes down toward Xia Boling. Hatchets were clumsy weapons by nature, and Li Kaishan was not a nimble man. Yet this leap was executed with hidden skill, placing him with uncanny precision above Xia Boling.

The twin blades gleamed coldly, their edges aimed straight at Xia Boling’s outstretched arms. If this blow landed, her limbs would be severed on the spot.

Xia Boling’s expression remained detached, fearless. Resigned, she closed her eyes, and memories of childhood flickered through her mind.

“Mother, I don’t want to wear boy’s clothes. I want to wear pretty dresses like my sisters. Please, please, please!”

“Be good, Ling’er. Until you have a little brother, no one must ever know you’re a girl. Do you understand?”

“But why?”

“Because your father is the Lord of Mount Yan, and only a legitimate son may inherit his title. If your uncles discover you’re a girl, they’ll try to seize the title, and many people will die!”

“I’ve lived by your rules for twenty years—twenty whole years of my life! What did it all amount to? I refuse to accept this!” Xia Boling’s eyes snapped open, and she roared at the sky with all her might, “What was the point of my twenty years? I will not resign myself to this!”

By now, the demon-faced axes were inches from her, the gory scraps still clinging to the blades clearly visible. The outburst spent, Xia Boling closed her eyes again, ready to let her life end in such a hasty, unremarkable fashion.

A thunderous crash shattered the silence. Air stilled, and Xia Boling, incredulous, opened her eyes. The scene before her made her pupils contract, hope flaring anew. Li Kaishan, moments before a storm of murderous intent, now lay motionless ten meters away, pinned beneath a boulder so large it would take several men to embrace.

“How could this be… Unless—!”

A short distance away, Xiang Jiuxi stood, panting with exertion and grinning in triumph. “Hah… you owe me two lives now!”

For reasons she couldn’t explain, this man before her drew out all the grievances Xia Boling had bottled up for twenty years, turning them into tears that now poured forth unstoppably. She covered her mouth to stifle her sobs, tried to form words of thanks, but all she could manage were inarticulate whimpers. In the end, she could only nod vigorously, like a pecking chick, in gratitude.

Seeing her cry so helplessly, Xiang Jiuxi was at a loss. He was about to step forward and comfort her when suddenly, his expression changed. Without hesitation, he lunged toward her.

Xia Boling, sensing the danger, heard a wild wind howling at her back. Instinctively, she twisted around to see Li Kaishan, somehow back on his feet, hurtling toward her with his demon-axes raised.

“Watch out! Move!” Xiang Jiuxi shouted as he dashed forward, legs exploding with energy. In a few bounding steps, he reached Xia Boling, wrapped his arms around her waist, and rolled them both to safety.

A deafening boom erupted beside them as Li Kaishan’s strike gouged a massive crater in the ground, making the earth tremble. Xiang Jiuxi, staring at the pit, asked uneasily, “Who is this guy? How is he so strong?”

Before Xia Boling could answer, Li Kaishan, wild-eyed and lost to reason, roared, “You infuriate me! I’ll chop you both into mincemeat!”

At the same moment, the black mist about him began to rise and condense, swirling until it took the shape of a towering giant—over ten meters tall, inky-black, its face twisted with rage, a maw full of fangs, and eyes like bloodshot abysses. One look from those eyes made both of them quake to the core.

“Mince you into meat!” the giant bellowed in unison with Li Kaishan. The mist surged again, forming another pair of demon-faced axes in its huge hands.

Li Kaishan raised his axes overhead, and the giant mirrored him, lifting its mountain-cleaving weapons high above.

“Is the Godstone on you?” Seeing Li Kaishan about to unleash his full power, Xia Boling asked Xiang Jiuxi in desperation.

At this critical moment, Xiang Jiuxi no longer thought to hide anything; he nodded.

“What color is it?”

“What? Oh… it’s been so long since I wore—”

“I’m asking about the stone’s color!”

“Oh, right!” Xiang Jiuxi hurriedly covered his embarrassment and stammered, “It was blue at first, but when I saw it inside my body, it had turned gold.”

Xia Boling could barely contain her excitement. She jumped up and shouted, “An Imperial Artifact! It’s an Imperial Artifact! We still have a chance!”

As she leapt, her hastily arranged clothing slipped, her heaving chest drawing startled glances. Xia Boling, flustered, shielded herself with her arms, but Li Kaishan had already seen. His expression mirrored that of the tall, thin man’s earlier—a moment of shock, then he burst out laughing, rocking with mirth.

He laughed and laughed as if he’d never heard a better joke, clutching his sides and gasping for breath.

Xia Boling’s face flushed crimson. After a long moment, she tore off her shirt completely and shouted in a thunderous voice, “I am a woman! I always was, and I always will be! To hell with your grand design! When I return to the Clouds, I’ll be the first to topple that bastard’s so-called grand design! Damn it! To hell with the grand design!”

With a hysterical, unrestrained roar, Xia Boling let out all the curses she’d never dared utter in her life. Her cry startled flocks of unknown creatures into flight, their shadows scattering into the wild unknown.