Exodus Tales

  Exodus Tales

  As the golden light appeared, the black mist floated downward and landed upon the light. A burning, sizzling sound was released, coming from the points of contact between the light and mist.

  Chanting sounds rang out to accompany the sizzling, which he believed to be in Sanskrit. Wei Xiao Bei might not understand the language, but he could tell from the intonation that it was the Great Compassion Mantra.

  It couldn’t be helped. Wei Xiao Bei might not know much about Buddhism, but it was quite trendy to play the Great Compassion Mantra in the streets back when Wei Xiao Bei started working in Cui Hu. The loudspeakers of music shops would be blaring the Mantra both day and night. Wei Xiao Bei had the tune of the Mantra engraved in his mind even if he didn’t understand a single word of it.

  A distracting noise came from the black mist as the chanting started to get louder.

  Wei Xiao Bei immediately realized that the Mantra calmed the mind and made it difficult for any evil thoughts to appear, while the distracting noise irritated anyone who heard it. In fact, if someone were to listen to the noise for extended periods of time, they would become bloodthirsty and all of their negative emotions would be amplified.

  The two sounds weaved together, causing Wei Xiao Bei’s emotions to rise and ebb repeatedly.

  Fortunately, the effect of his powerful willpower manifested itself and suppressed his now disturbed emotions.

  Wei Xiao Bei could easily resist the effects of the noises, but that was not the case for Wei Xing Wu. He fell under the effects of the sounds after just two lines of chanting.

  His eyes turned bloodshot and tears streaked down his cheek, as though he were seeing something tremendously sorrowful. His hand reached toward his handgun, the one that Wei Xiao Bei had given to him for self-defense. His eyes were unfocused as he moved the barrel to his temple.

  Wei Xiao Bei snatched the handgun away from Wei Xing Wu. Seeing that his weapon had been taken away from him, Wei Xing Wu opened his mouth and bit down as hard as he could. It was a good thing that Wei Xiao Bei had taken away the false teeth which contained cyanide earlier.

  After failing to commit suicide twice in a row, Wei Xing Wu grabbed a fallen tree branch and thrust toward Wei Xiao Bei’s temple. Naturally, Wei Xiao Bei knew that his mind had been affected quite severely. He didn’t waste any time bothering with him and simply chopped the mercenary on the neck and let him fall unconscious.

  Meanwhile, the clash between the golden light and the black mist had reached its peak.

  As the Sanskrit chanting continued to ring, a golden Buddha statue the size of a palm suddenly floated out of Leng Xin Xing’s forehead. The statue opened its mouth and spat out a thin thread of golden light at the black mist, which looked like a golden needle.

  Suddenly, a humanoid figure also the size of a palm and completely shrouded in black emerged from the mist. Its appearance couldn’t be clearly distinguished due to the black mist surrounding it, but it immediately leaped toward the Buddha statue after appearing.

  Wei Xiao Bei watched on as the battle between the Buddha statue and the black humanoid unfolded, both terrified and apprehensive.

  It was important to note that Wei Xiao Bei did not sense the existence of the golden light or black mist on Leng Xin Xing before he entered the Dust World.

  If that was the case, then there was only one answer.

  Leng Xin Xing had run into some trouble after entering the Dust World.

  Perhaps that trouble had been a battle between two powerful beings. But now that Leng Xin Xing had left the Dust World, these two powerful beings were still continuing their fight using Leng Xin Xing’s body!

  Wei Xiao Bei didn’t intend to intervene until there was a conclusion to the battle between these two beings.

  Leng Xin Xing was not having a good time right now. These two forces were fighting each other and using his body as the battlefield. Others could not possibly understand how uncomfortable it felt to be him right now.

  It was clear that Leng Xin Xing could no longer control his body or even let out a cry of agony, his entire body covered in a cold sweat.

  This was a fairly gratifying experience for Wei Xiao Bei. Leng Xin Xing had provoked him when he entered the Dust World, which had truly angered him. Though he could not touch him right now, Wei Xiao Bei couldn’t be happier to see him suffer.

  Initially, the golden Buddha statue seemed to possess somewhat of an advantage and continued to shoot out golden light from its mouth, the black humanoid desperately defending itself as black mist dispersed from its body. If things continued at the current rate, defeat would be certain for the black figure.

  The black humanoid roared in anger, causing clouds of black mist to rise from Leng Xin Xing’s heart. The black figure inhaled and absorbed the black mist into his body, almost as if it had been injected with adrenaline. The black figure quickly turned the tides of the battle and started beating up the golden Buddha statue. The golden light that the statue was shooting out was corroded by the black mist upon contact.

  With the black mist from Leng Xin Xing’s heart reinforcing it, the black humanoid grew stronger and stronger. Soon, the black mist engulfed the golden Buddha statue and started to corrode it.

  The Sanskrit chanting became disorderly after the statue was corroded by the black mist.

  Even Wei Xiao Bei, who was spectating from the sidelines, could tell that the statue no longer had any power to resist the enemy’s attacks.

  Just as the Buddha statue was completely corroded, the black humanoid’s true appearance was completely revealed. It had a truly vicious appearance, yet if one removed its fangs and did away with the green tattoos on its face, the black humanoid would look just like Leng Xin Xing.

  Wei Xiao Bei could sense an extremely dangerous power slowly rise within Leng Xin Xing’s body.

  Without any hesitation, he struck with his right hand and pressed Leng Xin Xing against the ground.

  Boom!

  A cloud of blue plasma suddenly erupted, it’s source being Wei Xiao Bei’s hand. It enveloped Leng Xin Xing in the blink of an eye.

  An extremely tragic cry could be heard from within the plasma, it was so loud that it even made Wei Xiao Bei feel as though his eardrums were about to burst.

  The blue plasma disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared, revealing Leng Xin Xing’s terribly electrocuted and scorched body.

  Yet, while Wei Xiao Bei confirmed that Leng Xin Xing was truly dead, the black humanoid figure cloaked in black mist appeared once again.

  Wei Xiao Bei could tell that the black figure was badly injured, as the black mist around it was very thin and the aura it was radiating was severely weakened.

  Suddenly, the black figure merged with the black mist and lunged toward Wei Xiao Bei.

  Extreme warnings of danger were going off in Wei Xiao Bei’s mind. There was no doubt that he would end up just like Leng Xin Xing if he was hit by the black mist.

  Just then, an intense sense of hunger came from the Fledging Life Altar that had assimilated into Wei Xiao Bei’s left hand. Its target was the black mist lunging toward him.

  Wei Xiao Bei did not hesitate at all. He raised his left hand and placed it in the way of the black mist.

  As Wei Xiao Bei reached out with his left hand, the black mist turned to flee, almost as if it had run into its natural predator.

  That said, it was too late now. Wei Xiao Bei’s left palm split open and several dozens of flesh threads shot out. They bound the black mist in the blink of an eye and forcefully dragged it back into the palm.

  This was a fairly shocking sight to behold, as the tangible flesh threads were actually able to bind the formless and intangible black mist.

  As the black mist was pulled into the crack, a pained howling could be heard from within it. The crack in his hand then shut completely and vanished without a trace.

  Wei Xiao Bei could feel a sense of immense satisfaction from the Fledging Life Altar.

  Wei Xiao Bei examined the Fledging Life Altar and discovered that it had entered a deep sleep after devouring the black mist. It no longer gave any reaction to his actions, even including when Wei Xiao Bei tried to probe it with his consciousness.

  Still, it seemed like the sleeping state of the Fledging Life Altar wasn’t a bad thing.

  Wei Xiao Bei threw the matter to the back of his mind and decided to examine Leng Xin Xing’s corpse.

  Leng Xin Xing was completely and utterly dead. There were no vital signs at all, and over eighty percent of his body had been cooked by the plasma, some of it even becoming completely carbonized.

  The issue had been concluded for the time being.

  After digging a ditch and burying Leng Xin Xing’s charred corpse, Wei Xiao Bei woke Wei Xing Wu from his slumber.

  What Wei Xiao Bei never expected was for Wei Xing Wu to become slightly dull-witted upon waking up. It was almost as if the man had experienced some tremendous trauma.

  As such, Wei Xiao Bei had no choice but to bring Wei Xing Wu back to the base.

  Judging from the documents he had found, the members of Ash Gray wouldn’t return within the next week.

  Wei Xing Wu only appeared to be slightly more energetic after a nap.

  Wei Xiao Bei could approximately figure out what had caused Wei Xing Wu’s condition.

  The noise from the black mist had undoubtedly stirred some memories that Wei Xing Wu had hidden deep in his heart. If one were to be a little more abstract, they would say that Wei Xing Wu’s demons had been awakened.

  Moreover, these memories were probably memories that Wei Xing Wu was completely unwilling to face. That was why he had been overcome with the impulse to commit suicide. Of course, the act had most definitely been aided by the noise.

  It was fairly simple to come to this conclusion. Wei Xing Wu would not be an orphan for no reason, so there must be a sorrowful past to his story.

  Wei Xiao Bei didn’t pursue the issue with Wei Xing Wu. At the very least, it seemed like the mercenary had managed to untie some of the knots in his heart. In the end, it could be considered a good thing.

  Wei Xing Wu still retained some memories of his attempts at suicide and knew that Wei Xiao Bei had saved him. As such, his attitude toward Wei Xiao Bei became slightly more friendly after he recovered.

  One should know that Wei Xing Wu had always tried to avoid non-humans like Wei Xiao Bei.

  It was noon and Wei Xiao Bei was preparing to cook. Suddenly, an expression of joy appeared on his face and he left the cooking to Wei Xing Wu.

  As a mercenary, Wei Xing Wu had some experience with cooking. After all, when you are fighting a war you don’t get a cook assigned to you. Most of the time, you eat dried rations and cook for yourself whenever you want something better.

  However, after eating a meal prepared by Wei Xiao Bei, Wei Xing Wu started to utterly detest everything he had eaten before.

  Having him cook for himself once more was truly putting him in a difficult spot.

  Wei Xiao Bei couldn’t be bothered with Wei Xing Wu’s thoughts at the moment. He headed straight for the freezer, opened its door and started taking out all of the beef stored within.

  The Fledging Life Altar had ended its deep sleep and was sending signals of hunger to Wei Xiao Bei.