The Sacred Ruins

Kings from the sea were crawling out of the ocean to explore the world beyond the water. It was hard to say how many creatures had evolved in the sea, because the ocean was simply too vast, and the species living within there were simply too many!

Chu Feng looked thoughtful. He sipped at the wine but was still lost in thought. "Do sea eyes and palace of dragon actually exist in this world? And what about the Islands of Gods [1]? Have they also come into being as well?"

In the meantime, Qi Teng, Ma Kuo, and Xia Lan were in an animated conversation in the neighboring palace. Xia Lan was one of the important guests from the Eastern sea. At this moment, she was being bombarded by Qi Teng and Ma Kuo’s flattery.

"Please excuse me for my lack of manners, Miss. I did not know that you were a king with four severed shackles. With that in mind, I can say with confidence, that with such power and strength, even you are very competent against that so-called Demon King Chu! When you think about it, it’s a bit laughable, isn’t it? What’s so special about Chu Feng when our Sister Xia can easily defeat him in battles!"

"Here, let me propose a toast! Let’s eat and drink until we enjoy ourselves to the fullest today!"

Qi Ten and Ma Kuo seemed to have a very deep-rooted prejudice against Chu Feng. They sounded very hostile when they mentioned his name.

Xia Lan laughed. She was shoving food and pouring wine into her mouth with disregard for any etiquette at all. In the meantime, she also asked...

Chu Feng was a little dumbfounded. Chu Feng had been bombarded by invitations from all the big companies in the country lately. Pre-Qin Institute wasn’t the only one who had been reaching out to him. Even if Chu Feng had the interest in attending these events, he wouldn’t have the time or energy to attend all of them. Some of these invitations would still have to be shunned and declined. But who would’ve thought that even when Chu Feng had done so in the politest way, these people would still hold a grudge against him?

Chu Feng couldn’t decide on whom to blame in this situation. "Am I being insolent and arrogant here, or are these people just way too self-important?" Chu Feng murmured to himself.

Then, the look on his face became sullen. "Insulting me behind my back? Who on earth do you think you are!?" Chu Feng mumbled to himself, "even the kings with six severed shackles would have to bow to me, let alone some nonentities like you!"

Chu Feng had been on a killing spree lately. Beasts that were as powerful as Chilin King and the Golden Lion King couldn’t stand a chance against him. Even the City of Vatican had been levelled to the ground. There was no-one who did not fear him.

The Western Punitive Expedition had made Chu Feng a celebrated fighter—one that ought to be respected by every person on earth.

Right at this moment, Xiong Kun and Hu Sheng returned. As they were just about to report to their "Grandpa Chu", Chu Feng shushed them.

"Laughable! Who the hell does he think he is?! As a fighter, he’s mediocre; as a person, he’s a laughable pile of trash! Someone will teach him a lesson sooner or later! And I hope he dies!" Qi Teng said. He sounded very pleased when he imagined Chu Feng’s death.

Ma Kuo nodded in agreement and said, "And guess what, the person who is going to teach him this lesson is sitting right in our neighboring palace with our brother, Qi Sheng. Oh, the almighty white dragon, I’m dying to see him beat Chu Feng’s arse so that I could see the look of resent and grievance on Chu Feng’s face. Ha ha... the invincible Demon King Chu? Now, let’s see how far your boasted ego could get you!"

The two laughed and cheered. They were having no scruples of anything.

Xia Lan looked at the two with a light smile on her face. "No, you’re wrong. Chu Feng wouldn’t stand a chance against my brother. My brother will tear him into a million pieces ... well... by ‘accident’ of course!"

Qi Teng and Ma Kuo laughed. They proposed another toast to her.

In the room next-door, Xiong Kun and Hu Sheng were listening in as well. Although their hearing might not be as good as that of Chu Feng, with some effort, they could still figure out what they were saying. Their faces turned pale.

"Let’s go have a look." Chu Feng rose from his seat.

Hu Sheng and Xiong Kun were trembling with fear. While Chu Feng was a fearless soldier who had fought in the Western Punitive Expedition, Hu Sheng and Xiong Kun were not. They didn’t know what danger lies ahead or if they would come out alive this time. And that’s why their faces had turned pale.

Xiong Kun went banging on the door. This stirred up quite a bit of resentment over on the other side of the door. Ma Kuo and Qi Teng were complaining, because they had ordered the waitresses not to disturb them unless they were called. "So, who’s banging on the door?"

"Maybe my brother?" Qi Teng responded. He had stopped complaining.

However, the look on his face soon grew cold after he opened the door and found a tall and sturdy young fellow standing there. "Who the hell are you? What are you doing here, banging on our door and disturbing our party?!"

Xiong Kun glowered at Qi Teng. He was fearless. Without saying a word, he stepped into the room and pushed Qi Teng out of the way.

"What the f*ck are you doing?!" Ma Kuo angrily shouted. He had come to the door as well and glowered at Xiong Kun.

But soon, he realized that something wasn’t quite right. Qi Teng should have fought back, or should have at least scolded at Xiong Kun, but instead, he was standing there stiff, dumbfounded with a pale face.

"Chu... Feng?!" Qi Teng found it difficult to admit what he’s seeing with his own eyes. He was so scared that he took a few steps back. His pupils constricted, fear was written all over his face.

Ma Kuo’s body was going backwards as well.

The two felt numb on their scalp. Shivers ran up and down his spine. Their adrenal gland was violently pumping adrenaline into their bodies. Muscles had tensed up, ready to either fight or flight.

Xiong Kun and Hu Sheng bowed as Chu Feng walked into the room. The two sneered at the terrified look on the faces of Qi Teng and Ma Kuo. "Don’t you know that Demon King Chu ought to be respected, no matter who you are? It takes courage for one to try to smear his name, and I admire your courage, but now it’s time for you to die!" the two looked at Qi Teng and Ma Kuo and gloated.

Chu Feng walked into the room with a cold and indifferent look on his face.

"Wel...Welcome, Brother Chu...Welcome to Yuan GU! We didn’t know that you were going to be here with us today. Sorry for not being able to attend to you earlier..." Qi Teng forced a smile on his face. He reluctantly made half of a step forward towards Chu Feng and greeted him. He bowed and scraped.

PAH!

Chu Feng slapped Qi Teng across the face. Qi Teng gave a blood-curdling scream. The force in that slap sent him into the air, and before he crashed into a wall, almost half of the teeth in his bloody mouth had fallen out.

"Why... did you do that, Brother Chu?" Ma Kuo’s face had turned pale. He was extremely terrified.

PAH!

Chu Feng delivered a second slap on Ma Kuo’s face. This one got him good. His face was almost ripped apart, and his mouth was filled with blood. Blood was mingled with the fallen teeth, and he himself was sent into the air as well.

The two screamed and cried. They writhed in agony. Not only had their teeth fallen out of the gum, their jawbones had also been shattered. The pain was almost insufferable.

"Smearing my name behind my back? Who on earth do you think you are? Have your parents never taught you not to talk like a bully if you can’t act like one? Well, here, I’ll teach you this lesson!" Chu Feng looked down at the two and calmly said.

The two were still tossing and turning in agony. They were embarrassed and angry at the same time. They were also fearful—who wasn’t fearful of Demon King Chu?

They would have never said those things had they known that Chu Feng was near.

However, they were angry as well. Clearly, Chu Feng was treating them as if they were just a speck of dirt on the ground. For Chu Feng, Qi Teng and Ma Kuo were less than a dog running amok out in the wild.

"Even the high-ranking officials from Pre-Qin Institute would have to bow to me when they see me, so who do you think you are?" Chu Feng coldly said.

Chu Feng’s words felt like a bucket of ice water that had come pouring down on them. It gave them chills from top to bottom, head to feet. Chu Feng was right. As a man who had levelled the entire City of Vatican to the ground and who had eaten the flesh of a Western dragon, he was fearful of nothing. Not even the boss of Pre-Qin could do anything to him, let alone some nonentities with the most generic name of Ma Kuo and Qi Teng!

Today was perhaps the most unfortunate for them. They were caught scheming against the dragon-slaying hero red-handed.

"You two should really learn to find where your own limitation lies. My Grandpa Chu isn’t someone who a complete nobody like you can disparage and scheme again!" Xiong Kun scolded.

"You should know that you were sowing the seeds of your own ruin from the very beginning," Hu Sheng shook his head and said. He and Xiong Kun then stepped forward and stomped on Ma Kuo and Qi Teng.

CLONK!

It was the sound of fractured bones and broken ribs. Then, there came the sound of Ma Kuo and Qi Teng’s blood-curdling cry. The two had been frightened out of their wits. "Why is Chu Feng letting his men stomp on us? Is he going to kill us?!" Ma Kuo and Qi Teng asked themselves.

But soon, they found their answers. Chu Feng didn’t want to kill them; he just wanted them to suffer. At the moment, not a single bone in their bodies was intact. Everything had been shattered and fractures. The two laid on the ground lifelessly, like a cooked noodle.

"Demon King Chu?"

Only until now did Xia Lan open her mouth and said something; however, she still remained seated. She looked across the palace, gazing at Chu Feng. There was a strange look on her face.

As a woman, Xia Lan boasted a hefty build. She wore a suit of armor, which was dark red, displaying a cold and metallic glitter. Even her head was wrapped in a dark red helmet.

Xia Lan remained seated until Chu Feng turned to look at her. Xia Lan stood up. She was two meters tall. There were lights coming out of her eyes.

"Your brother, the white dragon, wants to kill me?" Chu Feng asked.

"That’s not true. My brother only wants to learn a few things from you through fighting. It’s hard not to get injured in a fight, and sometimes, injury can lead to death," Xia Lan said with a smile.

"Stop lying! I’ve heard what you said just then!" Xiong Kun scolded. He was a straightforward chap.

"No, I don’t think I’m lying about anything at all. Getting injured or even getting killed is normal for a fighter. A real fighter would never complain about the danger of a fight. Well, I mean, of course you can complain if you’re just a little p*ssy. Are a little p*ssy, Brother Chu?"

Xia Lan taunted. She was very conceited. She knew that Chu Feng had only severed four shackles, so she and he were pretty much technically on the same level. Therefore, Xia Lan didn’t seem quite threatened by Chu Feng.

Chu Feng responded by saying, "You and your brother both come from the sea. You and I have never met before. I don’t think there has ever been any bad blood between us, so go tell your brother, don’t try to challenge me. I’m sure he’s got better things to do, and I don’t want to become the enemy of someone I’ve never had any encounters with before. I’m sure that the reason for your brother’s willingness to fight me is that someone was trying to stir up troubles and use your brother as a gun to kill me."

Xia Lan seemed unmoved by Chu Feng’s words. She replied, "I think you’re overthinking the situation here, Brother Chu. My brother, the white dragon, isn’t someone who can be easily manipulated by someone else, and Qi Sheng is certainly not going to be able to manipulate him either. What I said is the truth. My brother only wants to learn a few things from you, and the only way to do this is through a real battle."

"Is that so? So, you think that your brother must have this fight with me, and that in the fight, he will certainly beat me then kill me?!" Chu Feng asked.

"Well, I can’t foresee what future lies ahead of us. Accidents do happen in a fight, and no-one could put their fingers on what’s actually going to happen," Xia Lan tried to play it down a bit.

Hu Sheng and Xiong Kun had a cold look on their faces. "How insolent these sea creatures are!" Xia Lan might sound casual and easy-going, but in reality, she was showing a really overbearing manner.

"Okay then, I get it. The fight is inevitable. Well, if that’s the case, then let’s have a little warm-up session between you and me. Didn’t you say you want to learn a few things from me as well? Come at me then!" Chu Feng said.

Xia Lan laughed. Suddenly, she rose from the ground and struck at her enemy. She moved as swiftly as a bolt of lightning and carried as much power as a thunderclap. Her fists went straight for the head, vicious and decisive.

BANG!

Chu Feng raised both of his fists to counter the blow.

Xia Lan’s fists suddenly "exploded", as if something inside that clenched fist of her set off a bomb. Chu Feng fixed his eyes upon her fists and noticed that she was holding a bolt of lightning! This lightning bolt emitted a blinding beam of light. The light rapidly grew in size, like a dome expanding over this region, and Chu Feng was about to be crushed under it.

There was a bead in her hand as well. It was this bead that produced the lightning bolt that Chu Feng had observed. This bead was Xia Lan’s weapon and her trump card. This bead had helped her one-strike kill every enemy she had ever encountered in the sea!

Xiong Kun and Hu Sheng screamed and cried. As mutated beasts, lightning, the mythical force unleashed by Nature, was something that they feared the most. This bolt of lightning looked like a punishment that God had brought down to this world. It made their scalp go numb.

Xia Lan was not just a woman, but she was also a vicious and cunning beast. She tried to catch Chu Feng off-guard as soon as the fight began. Clearly, she wanted to end Chu Feng’s life with just a single blow.

Chu Feng sneered at her desperate attempt to kill him. His palms suddenly glowed, then with a bang, Chu Feng’s hands gave rise to not just one bolt of lightning, but a jungle of them. The thunder that came immediately after the lightning shattered that bead in her hand. CLONK! The bead was broken into pieces.

Meanwhile, that jungle of lightning bolts came pouring down on Xia Lan. She was surrounded with nowhere to run. The thunder had shattered not only the bead, but also her internal organs. Xia Lan was like a sack of flour, enfeebled and incapacitated.

Suddenly, those lightning bolts became thousands of long spears. CHIIIIIIII! The spears penetrated through her chest, her skull, her abdomen, her legs, her arms, and her eyes. Her body had been turned into a sieve.

AHHHH!

Xia Lan gave a blood-curdling scream. She pulled herself out from the many spears that had pierced through her body, then she came tumbling down like a sack of minced meat. She was just like that bead of hers, shattered and ruined. Xia Lan couldn’t believe any of these.

What shocked her the most was that Chu Feng could unleash energy in the form of lightning and thunder ten times more potent than what her bead could unleash!

"Now I’ve seen your power, and I’ll bow to your superiority, Brother Chu! I’ll admit my defeat," Xia Lan struggled to speak.

Xia Lan had lost her human appearance and morphed into her original body form. She was a big lobster all along! Her body was over ten meters in length and was as thick as a water vat. Her body filled the entire palace.

"Wow, a big, fresh and tender lobster!" Chu Feng had a strange look on his face as he gazed at her.

"What do you want?!" Xia Lan had curled up into a ball. Her sharp instinct was telling her that bad things were going to happen, so she yelled, "the fight is over! I’ve learnt enough through this fight! I’ll admit my defeat!"

"Well, you’ve said it yourself. Injury or even death is something that a fighter should not be afraid of, unless he’s a p*ssy. If you think it’s honorable for a fighter to die a noble death in a noble fight, then why do you look so bothered by what I’m going to do?" Chu Feng said. In the meantime, he raised his hand, and between his fingers, there was a surge of energy. POFF! Chu Feng cut this giant lobster in half with his bare hand.

"Ahh..." Xia Lan cried an unearthly cry. The lobster was still alive, and even with only half of her body missing, it still looked full of life. There was a look of terror on that lobster’s "face". "Brother Chu, no! Don’t kill me! You’ll have to consider the consequence. Like you said, there’s no bad blood between you and me, so please let me go!" the lobster begged.

"Uh-uh, nope. I’ve advised you not to fight me before. It’s all too late now. We’ve got to finish what we’ve started!" Chu Feng said. He knew that if he set free this deadly enemy today, he would come bite his arse one day.

Xia Lan was extremely terrified. With that bead, she had been winning pretty much every fight against her opponents. Never had she run into anything like this back when she was in the sea. "Is this gonna be the end of me?"

"What’re you guys waiting for? Move, move, move!" Chu Feng yelled to Xiong Kun and Hu Sheng.

"Huh?!" Xiong and Hu looked confused.

"Wash it, clean the meat, and put some dressing on top of it, then cut her into a few parts for different ways of cooking. We can steam her in a pot, or fry her in sizzling oil or even cook her into a broth or a bowl of congee. Then, go find some good wine for me. What a waste if we can’t eat her flesh, right here right now?" Chu Feng said. He had thought of three ways of cooking this lobster just from the top of his head.

Hu Sheng and Xiong Kun had chills running up and down their spine. Now, they had truly seen what a monster Demon King Chu really was. Xia Lan was a king after all. Was he really going to eat a king like this?

"Are you... sure?" Hu Sheng was a prudent man. He was suggesting that Chu Feng should think through this carefully. Xia Lan was a king from the sea, and if she were to be eaten alive like this, it was gonna offend a lot of sea creatures.

Chu Feng calmly replied, "Yes, I’m sure. What am I not sure about? She isn’t going to forgive you for letting her go; instead, she’s going to come back and haunt us forever if we’re letting her go. And if we can’t let her go, then let’s eat her!"

Ma Kuo and Qi Teng were watching as all of these were happening. They had almost fainted. They finally knew what kind of monster they had boldly provoked.

This was terrifying!

They found it hard to believe that Chu Feng would just casually cook and eat a king like that!

Ma Kuo and Qi Teng were trembling in fear. Their faces were pale.

"God Chu, you need to think through the ramifications of what you’re going to do!" Hu Sheng said.

Then, he added with a low voice, "Pre-Qin Institute will not be happy with this either."

"Well, should I care whether they are happy or not? I’m not happy either!" Chu Feng said. The look on his face had grown cold. "Do you have any idea as to what is happening? I’m being schemed against by these pawns from Pre-Qin Institute! Well, you know what, even this isn’t going to be the end of it. I’ll speak to the high-ranking officials from Pre-Qin Institute and ask them if this is their idea!"

Ma Kuo and Qi Teng were both lying on the floor. The two of them had been frightened out of their wits. They thought that the punishment on them was enough, but who would’ve thought that they had somehow unwittingly made Pre-Qin Institute the enemy of this Demon King Chu.

"It’s all our fault, God Chu! Please punish us if you still have any resentment! There’s no need to raise the problem to our superiors!" the two yelled.

"You’re not worthy enough, son. I only talk to the people who are on the top!" Chu Feng coldly responded.

This was a good opportunity for him to establish prestige amongst these big companies. It was time to teach them the lesson that he ought to be respected under all circumstances. It was time for them to step down from their arrogance and bloated pride and start to realize that just because they’ve extended an olive branch to him, it didn’t mean that he would have to accept the offer. This was going to a good lesson for them to learn!

"I’ll kill this sea creature today, and Pre-Qin Institute is going to deal with the aftermath of the situation. If they can’t deal with the aftermath, then I wouldn’t mind paying a visit to their institute!" Chu Feng said.

Chu Feng was right. Qi Sheng was the one who started all of these mess. He wanted to kill Chu Feng, and the white dragon was his gun. None of this was Chu Feng’s fault. Therefore, no-one was going to stop him from eating the lobster meat today. He would leave Pre-Qin Institute with all the headaches.

"NOOOOO!" Xia Lan cried.

However, Xiong Kun and Hu Sheng paid no heed to Xia Lan’s desperate cry. They had received their order. They cut their knives and forks deep into the lobster’s meat and started digging out those glittering lobster flesh.

Soon, the palace was filled with the delicate fragrance of cooked seafood, the intoxicating smell of wine, and the fishy smell of fresh blood.

...

[1] (According to the Classic of Mountains and Seas, Mount Penglai is said to be on the Islands of Gods in the eastern end of Bohai Sea, along with four other islands where the immortal lives) and the legendary Japanese mulberry tree (the legendary Japanese mulberry tree grows in the ocean where the sun is supposed to rise)