The Corrupted Heart and A Sinless Path

Chapter 6

The night glowed up in such eerie bright red-orange across the Deathly Summit and was filled with screams of terror instead of peaceful wind rustling the leaves. The women and children frantically dashed through the labyrinth of soaring fire with hands locked tightly. At some point, the fire spitted the warriors fighting against the enemies with swords clashing and slicing each other's flesh. As this caused the disturbance of the escapees’ route, they found themselves tripping over the lifeless bodies of their people and hence they couldn’t crawl away from the murderer despite the beg for mercy.

Layla rushed toward the royal castle on top of the hills as she couldn’t get away from the thoughts that would destroy her heart at any moment. She hit the break to witness the sparkling fires munching the castle gradually from all corners. In the hell beyond her with squinted eyes, a silhouette crawled reaching something beside it high above the platform behind the smoke. Layla then became electrified to be aware of the situation she was in therefore, she pushed through dodging the collapsing of structures without stopping.

“Mother! Father!” Layla screamed to see them dying as she flopped in front of them, covered with bleeding wounds pouring out.

“My sweet… darling. You… shouldn’t… be here,” the mother caressed her daughter’s cheek before the grim reaper took her life away.

“I’m here to rescue you. Come on!” She struggled to help them stand up no matter how much she changed the tactics until she burst into tears.

“You're gonna be alright,” the father barely spoke after he gently gripped her chin to face him.

“Please don’t leave me alone,” she cried while holding his hand to brush against her cheek without knowing the castle almost got burned entirely.

“We will always be there for you, we promise you that.” he said in a hurry before continuing, “This hairpin will help your journey.”

The father shakingly placed it on her palm and admired the beauty of her daughter for the last time. The pillar then started cracking and started to become faster as it grew to the ceiling, breaking structures showered them. They raised their eyes to glare at gravity trying to pull down the castle and he thrust Layla into the chest without warning to send her out safely. She observed in horror the collapsing burning castle burying her parents underneath as she stumbled on her back. She roared into the sky for the loss of her dearest people while clutching hard onto the hairpin to bang on her chest.

Layla snapped back to reality without realizing she was drowning for God knew how long the time had passed. Her heart ached too hard as if it squeezed the blood out so she reached out the light above her. She let out a loud gasp and floated near the river bed, away from the Biling Lake where she defeated the water abyss. Crawling out from the cold river with a brutal cough, her face crumpled as she clutched her clothes beneath the thumping heart.

“Guys, she’s over here!” Wei Ying waved his hands at the clans who were still flying on their swords before diving in.

“Are you alright?” Wei Ying asked her while wrapping extra clothes around trembling body for warmth.

“What kind of ridiculous question is that? Of course, she’s not!” Jiang Cheng threw his outrage at his brother.

“We just don’t know how capable she is whether she’s fine or not,” Wei Ying attacked him in front of everyone and they agreed with him, causing Jiang Cheng to almost swear at him.

Layla just smiled at his statement with steam vaping through her red nose and head hung low. However, The Twin Jades of Lan became more cautious near her after they witnessed the incident back then. Zewu Jun gave them the order to return to Caiyi Town for Layla’s treatment. Meanwhile, Wei Ying decided to throw a celebration of the defeat of the water abyss and everyone got excited by his brilliant idea. That was not the only reason but to get a hand on Emperor’s Smile one last time before the lecture resumed the next few days.