Chapter 63 - 65—Bait
Chapter 63: Chapter 65—Bait
Chapter 65—Bait
The children screamed with everything they had, throats burning raw, refusing to stop even as their voices cracked. More than a hundred of them shouted at once. Yet Lei Cheng, standing directly above them, never so much as flinched—he couldn’t hear a single sound. Even his life intent failed to sense them. The answer had been beneath his feet, yet an invisible barrier separated hope from despair.
The children fell silent one by one, realizing their cries weren’t reaching him. The silence felt even heavier than their cries. One by one, they appeared and left. Hope faded from their eyes as they stopped believing anyone would come.
Shadow fog drifted through the tunnel air. "Hhahah. My food, shout louder." It laughed eerily, switching between male and female voices.
At the sight of it, the children froze—then began collapsing into unconsciousness, one after another. Only a single girl remained awake, trembling.
"Not bad," the Shadow hissed, drifting toward her. She looked like a porcelain doll—porcelain skin, long crimson hair, dressed in a luxurious pink robe stitched with rose patterns. "Such soft skin." The Shadow Bizarre rubbed the kid’s face with its foggy hand. To the it, she wasn’t a child. She was simply another meal waiting to be claimed. The girl felt a chill as she trembled and hugged her shoulders.
It then settled onto her shoulders. "Ahh." She cried until her throat ached, until the chill radiating from the creature dimmed her vision, and she, too, slipped into unconsciousness.
The Shadow’s upper half cracked open beneath its crimson eye, revealing an endless black void strung with dark saliva. A long tentacle-tongue slid free and licked her cheek.
"So good. So tasty." It tilted its head upward, considering. "Still time left before I can feed, though. Should I play directly with the human instead?" It glanced toward the ceiling—directly above stood Lei Cheng.
It shuddered. ’No—he is too strong. Leave it be. You won’t find me anyway.’ For perhaps the first time in its existence, instinct overcame hunger.
It surveyed more than one hundred unconscious children around it. ’After this, I’ll take more. There are thousands of children in my domain. A few hundred won’t shake it—and I only need cute ones.’ To it, lives were nothing more than numbers.
In a city with more than a million kids, a hundred disappearing might not seem like much—but they were kidnapped, and their bodies were found daily, right at the moment when the flames of protection vanished. Because of that, the entire Azure Cloud City shook.
Above ground, Lei Cheng straightened, wiping sweat from his brow. ’I’m no different from an ordinary person. I tire far too quickly.’ He shook his head. He muttered, "Life Intent."
His body flared with green energy as he recovered his strength. His exhaustion vanished instantly. ’Now... where are you hiding?’
Hours ticked by.
"Young Master Lei." Zhu Lin stood silently near Lei Cheng, who threw a bright beam of green light into the air from his right palm.
Whoosh!
After reaching hundreds of meters, Lei Cheng felt his beam connect with something. It hit the boundary of the domain in the sky. He roared, "Life Exploration."
The green energy spread from the beam to all sides. Within a few moments, it expanded to one street, two streets, and within a few minutes, the entire domain’s sky was filled with green Life Intent.
Everyone glanced at the green sky in awe. The people who were tired from searching felt rejuvenated.
"My legs—they don’t hurt." An old man stood up and jumped.
"My back!" An old woman whose back was bent straightened all of a sudden.
"My scars healed." A beautiful woman clad in a white cotton robe rubbed her soft face and glanced at her reflection in the mirror.
People recovered from old injuries and lingering illnesses almost instantly.
"A miracle!" someone shouted.
"A miracle!" another followed.
One by one shouted with joy, "Miracle Creator!"
"Miracle Creator!" Their despair vanished as they began to believe that Lei Cheng could kill the shadow bizarre.
While they cheered with hope, Lei Cheng scowled. ’It’s not in the sky.’
The search continued—citizens hurling glowing stones into buildings, ponds, searching every alley the domain covered. By the fifth hour, Lei Cheng sat down against a courtyard wall, gazing up at the darkening sun.
"Young Master Lei," the fat constable muttered.
"Another child?" Lei Cheng asked before Zhu Lin could speak.
"Yes." Constable Zhu nodded. Lei Cheng sighed, clenching his fists. Every half an hour, as the Shadow stated, it kidnapped a cute kid below five years old. They couldn’t stop it, nor detect it.
’It’s clever.’ He frowned. ’It never dared to kidnap in front of me.’
’It would be wonderful if Hua Mingyue were here,’ he thought, recalling how she’d pinpointed a hidden Xiao Ming’s location instantly when he’d struggled to find her within her domain. Even he eventually reached a point where he wanted a little help.
"Are these rocks even doing anything?" Zhu asked, holding up a small stone still glowing faintly green.
Lei Cheng opened his eyes. "They are. Watch." He snapped his fingers.
Screams erupted from within the crowd. Several people convulsed as green vines wrapped around them, and their bodies cracked open to reveal humanoid elemental creatures fused with human flesh—a half-meter flame with a young handsome man’s face burning at its core, a swirl of wind bearing a young beautiful woman’s features. Fifteen such creatures had been hiding, disguised among the people.
"How did you find us?!" the fire-creature hissed.
"No—I’m good at hiding," the wind muttered, his voice filled with disbelief.
Rest stood silent, since they figured out their end.
Lei Cheng snapped his fingers again, and all turned to dust instantly. The search had already achieved more than anyone realized. Many hidden elemental bizarre creatures were killed before they could deal a massive blow to Azure Cloud City.
"Effective enough?" he asked Constable Zhu.
"Extremely," Zhu Lin nodded with a wide grin, and quickly pocketed his own glowing stone. "Can I keep this one?"
Lei Cheng ignored the request, clapping his hands together. A pulse of white-silver light swept through Zhu, who blinked, disoriented. "What... was I doing?"
"Why are we standing here?" the people muttered, and froze.
They glanced at each other. They felt a chill down their spine and trembled. They rushed to their houses and closed them, panting. They could feel their hearts beating, almost breaking out of their chests. They forget why they were all together, and it was the reason behind their fear.
Lei Cheng dashed toward the inner city gates, stopping short where the invisible wall still blocked him. He turned back toward the outer city and snapped his fingers. White-silver light flared outward, and a shockwave rippled across every street.
When it faded, standing where Lei Cheng had been just moments earlier was now a four-year-old child—porcelain-white skin, striking royal purple long hair, dressed in white silk robes embroidered with sword patterns. Beside him stood a striking young man with long blue hair, ocean-deep blue eyes, and refined features, holding the child’s hand, fanning himself lazily. He was clad in a blue brocade robe.
Beneath them, hidden underground, the Shadow wobbled. ’Wait—what was I doing?’ It glanced around, momentarily forgetting itself, then looked up and caught sight of the child.
’So beautiful. I’ve never seen a human this exquisite.’ It licked its own body with its tentacle-tongue. ’I wonder how he tastes.’
It surged upward through the ground.
Lei Cheng—disguised within the illusion—smiled as it emerged. "There you are. Finally showing yourself."
The tentacle-tongue lashed out, coiling around the small body and hauling it into the air. The "father" beside them screamed, "Someone help my son!"
The Shadow grinned. "No one can save this child now, human. Wait until tomorrow for the corpse... no, skeleton." It flew off, clutching its prize, weaving through the outer city’s streets.
The creature flew with complete confidence, never once imagining that the prey in its grasp had willingly entered the trap. The hunter and hunted had exchanged places without either realizing it.
Lei Cheng, perfectly calm within the illusion, watched the streets pass below. ’Let’s see exactly where you’re keeping the children. Once I know, you’re finished.’
He paused. ’Wait—I still need to force its true body out to actually kill it properly.’
He studied the creature holding him—the black fog, the crimson eye, the void crack beneath it, which from the tentacle appeared out, and coiled around his small chest.
’How do I make it reveal its true form, and is it a clone?’
Lei Cheng was exactly where he wanted to be—inside the enemy’s hands.