The Patriarch, His Horse And His Spear

The piercing cry scared every horse in the line, all standing on their hind legs in terror. Li Chengfeng was almost thrown off his horse. After struggling to calm his horse, he looked around. “What happened? What was that?”

Madam Xie also poked her head out of the carriage, asking, “What is happening in front?”

Li Chengfeng urged his horse forward. “I’ll go check…”

Before he could finish, the ground shook so hard all the carriages were bumped slightly into the air. Li Chengfeng’s horse stood on its hind legs again, finally throwing Li Chengfeng off.

Responding quickly, he did a flip in the air while keeping the reins firmly in his grasp so it would not run away.

Furious, he yelled, “What is going on?!”

Madam Xie was equally lost. When she saw Green Bead panicking and struggling to calm her startled horse, she screamed, “Calm down, calm down!”

Li Chengfeng realised the entire entourage was in chaos, only Su Yuehan was staring straight ahead in terror.

“What’s the matter?” he asked her, puzzled.

Su Yuehan turned to him, terrified. “I don’t know what happened but I know… livestock are usually only this scared when a fierce beast is around. A beast that could cause such a response must be…”

Before she finished, the ground shook harder than before. She almost bit her tongue at the jolt.

He then heard agonised wailing and screaming at the head of the line.

“MONSTER! RUN!”

“HELP, HELP!”

He instinctively reached over to retrieve his sword that was attached to the side of his horse. It was kept in a luxurious sheath, its hilt was ancient-styled. It was the heirloom of the Li family — the Brilliant Cleansing Moon Sword.

He shook the sword with the flick of his wrist, then kept the sheath back in the pouch by the horse. He then tied the reins to a carriage.

Clenching his teeth, he smirked. “Let’s see what animal it is! It came just in time to be slaughtered for my ancestors!”

Just as he spoke, Asparta suddenly came sprinting from the front, shouting, “Young Master, Run! Get off the carriage, run now! Agatha, run!”

Agatha quickly opened the curtains and yelled, “Asparta, what happened?!”

His voice was cracking as he shoved people in his way blindly, rushing straight towards Agatha. “It’s the Grim Stork, also called the Flying God of Death! The Grim Stork!”

As if to prove his point, a large shadow fell upon them all, and then came a deafening crash of something landing on the path ahead.

Ten metres away from the line stood a beast no one had seen before.

The monster was carrying a live person in its beak. It then closed its beak and the person was immediately sliced into two sections. Fresh blood spattered in every direction as his intestines poured out of his belly. A dent formed in the snow from the warm blood.

The crowd was terrified to their core. They let out deep wails and cries, then rushed back like madmen.

Green Bead was shocked too, though she reacted quickly by leaping off her horse immediately and running back in the same direction as the crowd.

The Grim Stork suddenly shook its tail like a chain, swinging across a huge radius and finally the tip pierced through the chest of the man who teased the girl. The man screamed as the tail lifted him into the air.

Just as he was mid-air, the Grim Stork slammed its tail hard into the ground!

Despite the inch-thick snow, the man was convulsing upon impact and before he could make another sound, it lifted a foot and stepped on him. Blood splattered out from under its claws.

Li Chengfeng, who was just talking about slaughtering the beast as offering, had his jaw on the floor. He was paralysed in shock, staring at the beast as large as a small hill!

This man who had never ventured far from Cheng’an City had never seen fierce magical beasts from the rest of the world, he was absolutely shaken to his core!

What was this monster?!

There were many mountains around Cheng’an City, therefore naturally there were many fierce animals nearby too. At just sixteen, Li Chengfeng personally killed a fierce tiger, then a black bear at eighteen. He did not think these ‘fierce beasts’ were a threat to him at all.

However, here was a five-metre tall, ten-metre long monster. Li Chengfeng knew he could not beat this monster even if he was an idiot!

In that moment, he felt a deep terror that turned his legs into jelly.

If a trained martial artist like him was terrified, then everyone had gone mad.

The entire entourage ran like madmen. Li Chengfeng felt like he was standing in the middle of a surging current, almost knocked down by the crowd.

These vulgar men usually loved a good fight to show off but only one thing was on their minds now: Run!

Li Chengfeng instinctively retreated. Behind him, Su Yuehand and Green Bead were helping Madam Xie off the carriage. Asparta was helping Agatha, panickedly explaining to Madam Xie, “Madam, run quick! We cannot outrun the Grim Stork but we only need to outrun these people!”

Madam Xie was also shocked. She was an intelligent, cunning lady but never would have expected this to happen today!

It was an absolute dominance within the power dynamics between the Zhan and Li family. It was the sun against the firefly. Even from such a long distance away, the sun was still the sun, and the firefly merely a firefly.

The sun could destroy everything with just one scorching ray; the firefly could be squashed dead with just one finger.

There was a loud ringing in Madam Xie’s ears. Asparta kept shaking her shoulders until she gradually snapped back to reality and heard the commotion around her.

“You mentioned this monster is called the Grim Stork? You recognise it?” asked Madam Xie when she recalled something.

He dragged Madam Xie as he ran along and said, ‘It’s a magical beast unique to the northwest! Extremely aggressive and terrifying! My people call it the Flying God of Death! Run, Madam!”

She was pulled to run but she suddenly resisted and yelled, “Chengfeng, my son! Run!”

Li Chengfeng stared at the Grim Stork, unmoving. He watched as the beast swallowed lives without reservation as he stumbled slowly backwards. He did not intend to fight it at all.

His back suddenly hit a wall. Chengfeng turned to see a large man riding on a tall horse. It was Li Chun, patriarch of the Cleansing Moon Sect!

The usually mad man’s hazy eyes were now sharp as a blade. Clad in exquisite armour and a long spear in his hand, he looked magnificent and dignified. He sat on his horse, spear in hand, and did not move!