The Art of Subduing Dragons

Chapter 40

When the mission was received, it hadn't been... hadn't been like this. How could it be just one night and...?" Bai Jing had never seen such a bloody and tragic scene. She struggled to say a few words but couldn't continue.

Her words made the other three's hearts tighten abruptly.

"If... if we..." Su Yu stopped after saying just four words, but what she wanted to say was clear to Ruan Li and Hua Xiu Wan.

Ruan Li took a deep breath and walked straight outside.

"Ah Li, where are you going?" Su Yu, feeling uneasy, hurried to catch up.

Ruan Li stopped and looked around. "I'm looking for someone."

"What kind of person?" Su Yu asked, somewhat confused.

Ruan Li glanced at her, frowning. "Earlier, Lord Zitan said someone came here to investigate. Although they didn't succeed, since they discovered the demons rampaging, it's impossible they left without doing anything. Just now, apart from the villagers' bodies, did you see any disciples of the Immortal Gate?"

Hua Xiu Wan suddenly understood and then shook her head with a serious expression. "I wanted to see if there were any survivors, so I checked the households south of the village carefully, but found none."

"I didn't see any either."

Ruan Li's expression grew grave. "Let's search again. I have a feeling we missed something."

"We'll split up and search. If there are any Immortal Gate disciples, there will definitely be traces of a fight," Hua Xiu Wan suggested after some thought.

Su Yu nodded and turned to Bai Jing. "Bai Jing, you stay with me. Ah Li, you and Xiu Wan go together. There's something wrong here. Don't act alone."

The group nodded, and the pairs set out to search again.

Ruan Li found nothing more; every household only had bodies with their hearts ripped out, a scene too gruesome to bear.

"Is this really a Shiyi Demon? How could it do such horrifying things?" Hua Xiu Wan's anger burned inside her, her face dark.

The demon spared no one, young or old. The thought of children among them made Hua Xiu Wan's heart twist with pain.

Ruan Li remained silent, her hand tightly gripping the sword, betraying her current emotions. In her life, she despised such acts of genocide and village slaughter, and the scene before her reminded her of what happened to the Dragon Clan years ago.

No matter how great the hatred or ambition, it shouldn't cost so many innocent lives.

At that time, she was still in her egg, protected so well by her father that she had no idea of the brutality outside.

Later, she had heard about the scene from the surviving Dragon Clan members. From their brief descriptions, she could imagine the horrors: newly hatched dragonlings and dragon eggs in the process of hatching, their parents skinned alive and their dragon pearls ripped out to protect the young ones.

The more she thought about it, the greater her hatred became. She stared at the young men and women inside the house who were protecting their young child. The empathy she felt was overwhelming, bringing her to the brink of losing control.

Hua Xiu Wan, originally consumed with rage, suddenly noticed something was wrong with Ruan Li. She glanced sideways and saw Ruan Li staring intently at a particular household, her aura heavy and cold with a hint of menace, her clothes billowing without wind.