Chapter 195 - Sun Xiuying
Out of the ten people that had suffered serious injuries in the tomb accident, one of them was Sun Xiuying, a guard under princess Hou Chin, who was the daughter of Hyson's master.
She had been serving as Hou Chin's guard for over seven years now, along with the other three female guards. All of them had gotten really close in this time and were more like sisters than anything else.
Hou Chin herself treated them very kindly and it was only in front of strangers she acted a bit 'aloof' towards them.
"GASP!"
Sun Xiuying suddenly woke up in the middle of the night. She was sleeping soundly until she saw that nightmare. Normally she wasn't very superficial but what she saw had truly shaken her to the very core of her being.
Many believed that the dreams a person had were a precursor to one of the many future outcomes for them. That's why even in the nightmares where a person was being chased around by something bad, they would always wake up before it ended brutally.
Unfortunately for Sun Xiuying, she had just seen her own death as clear as day. So suffice to say, it wasn't something she could just overlook.
*Cough*Cough*Cough*
She coughed loudly as blood sprayed out of her mouth. Out of the ten, her injuries were the worst but even she herself wasn't aware of how bad they really were.
All the damage done to her body was internal, barely leaving any external signs so even she didn't pay much attention to it until now.
"No no no," she shook her head in indignation.
"Hmm? What's wrong? Is everything okay?" Hou Chin who was sleeping in the same tent as her woke up from the commotion.
"No-nothing, I was just heading out to the toilet," Sun Xiuying shook her head quickly and walked out of the tent before Hou Chin could ask her anything else.
*Shiver*
As soon as she stepped out, an extreme chill descended upon her frail and damaged body.
*Cough*Cough*
Covering her mouth with her hand, she walked away from the tents with hurried steps in fear of waking up the others.
She walked through the white fog until the tents disappeared from her vision and she fell down to her knees, wheezing. With every breath, blood would come out in spades, coloring the ground beneath crimson.
It took her a good couple of minutes to regain her composure. She lifted her shirt and saw the black and purple blotches on her twisted abdomen. Several ribs were broken, piercing through some of the other organs.
Because of the urgency of the situation in the last few days and adrenaline, she hadn't even felt the pain until her body relaxed.
Her eyes became wet as drop after drop poured down her face.
"Daddy, I don't want to die," she mumbled with some difficulty.
Since the age of ten, she had been serving the Holy Mountain (Check authors note) without rest. All to make her father, who was a high-level elder in the Holy Mountain, proud.
But looking at her injuries, she knew it was too late for her.
She would never sleep in her own bed or even see her father again.
"Please, I don't want to die," she whispered while cradling herself. The cold suddenly became even more intense as the sound of footsteps came from the fog ahead.
With her face covered in blood, tears, and snot, she slowly looked up and her eyes widened.
"Daddy...?" she murmured looking at her fathers figure standing a few feet from her.
"I'm sorry, child. I sent you away when you were so young, all to please a master who cares for nothing but his own 'hatchling'," he bent down and lovingly caressed her face, "I, am truly sorry."
Her father's gentle voice did its job, comforting her in what were to be her last moments on this plane.
With her lifeforce almost depleted, Sun Xiuying was losing consciousness and would pass away any second.
"Daddy, I'm sleepy," her barely audible voice sounded in the dense fog as she slowly closed her eyes.
"Rest child, all will be well," her father's voice became deeper as Sun Xiuying took her last breath.
In the end, she died in the hands of the person she loved the most in this world even though they were trillions of miles apart.
****
Back on Beast World, her father woke up from slumber at the same time, covered in a cold sweat, "NOO! Xiuying'er!" the man's wailing woke up almost half the Holy Mountain that night.
****
Sun Xiuying's body went cold in seconds as the figure stood back up.
From start till finish, the figure's head was covered in pitch-black darkness.
Sun Xiuying had seen what she wanted to see. Her father for one last time, telling her that everything was going to be okay, that she wasn't alone, an eternity apart from her loved ones.
The fog swirled around her father's figure as he disappeared, and another person stood in his place. With gold engravings all over of his body and the same darkness over his face, a deep voice echoed in the fog.
"The trade is complete. The soul has moved on. In exchange for the solace, the body shall rekindle, feasting on the flesh of the living for all of eternity."
The figure waved his hand and a wisp of fog entered Sun Xiuying's body.
"Awaken and go forth, to spread the oldest word in existence...."
Sun Xiuying's body jerked and cracking noises came from her bones as they twisted and turned in unholy ways.
"...Death.." whispered the figure one last time before disappearing back into the fog from whence it came.
****
Jin Wang who had been staring at the statue for the last few hours finally blinked for the first time, and when he opened his eyes, the statue was nowhere in sight.
*Badump*
*Badump*
"I remember now!" he shot up from his seat in realization of what the figure was, and in turn, what this place entailed.