Chapter 1522: Oh How Cruel

　　In that moment, Meng Hao was floating in the air far up above. He was the only person on the first continent who didn’t seem to have been affected by the sudden disappearance of the energy of Heaven and Earth.

　　He looked down at the ninth incarnation of his clone, a complex expression twisting his face. He looked down at Yan’er with her disfigured face, and Perfect. He looked at the family down below, and after a long moment passed, he sighed.

　　At the moment, he still felt that the best thing to do was refrain from interfering.

　　A few months passed. Little Treasure, despite being blind, was very skilled in carpentry, which was a valuable skill in the frigid world in which they lived. Because of that, he was one of the few people among the refugees who was permitted to live inside the cave on the mountain where they resided.

　　There was little to eat, so Little Treasure slowly began to lose weight. It was the same with his wife. She was no longer beautiful like she had been, and her hair was plastered onto her like a wilted flower.

　　The truth was that in these deadly and critical times, Yan’er had the option of living a much better life, if she wanted. Despite having lost her cultivation base, her body still retained its regenerative powers, and as such, despite having disfigured herself, she soon recovered, and was beautiful just like before. A beautiful person like that could easily find ways to have a nice life, despite the disastrous state of the world.

　　Instead, she chose to disfigure herself again, and continued to do so each time she recovered. She would rather stay with Little Treasure and her daughter. They were her family.

　　It was just like the year when she had first laid eyes on Little Treasure, and realized that he was the reincarnation of the Master she had been searching for. Just as she had then, she murmured, “I’m here to protect you….”

　　Time passed, and things only got worse. It was so cold that people who stayed outside of the caves for too long would often freeze to death. Eventually, Little Treasure stopped doing any woodworking at all. He focused only on sculpting the ninth sealing mark. That was his focus, his obsession, his purpose in life. He never stopped.

　　He had already had a relatively low position among the refugees in the cave. Eventually, the most vicious people among the refugees decided that a carpenter wasn’t very useful, and Little Treasure’s situation got worse.

　　Despite her scarred face, Yan’er had a very attractive body, which made things even more difficult considering that they were surrounded by bored and tormented individuals who were losing touch with their humanity.

　　Worst of all, their daughter was now sixteen years old.

　　One night, Perfect went missing.

　　On that day, Little Treasure trembled. He felt as if his world had collapsed. His wife was also left trembling. The two of them left the cave to search for their daughter.

　　“Perfect….”

　　“Perfect, where are you…?” They called out miserably as they searched. Little Treasure couldn’t help but think back to the time he had been alone in the woods, and had wept in fear and anxiety. He was scared now too, but he forced his thoughts under control and reminded himself that he was searching for his daughter.

　　Eventually, he and Yan’er split up. He kept his hands on a wall, which he followed along, simultaneously calling out for his daughter. Eventually, he could tell that the sun was rising, and yet he hadn’t found a single clue.

　　No one helped them search. The others in the caves simply looked at them coldly.

　　“Perfect… My Perfect….” A bitter smile twisted Little Treasure’s lips as he continued to search for his daughter. Yet even his wife couldn’t find her, let alone him, a blind man. He couldn’t see the world, and as of this moment, felt more useless than ever. Completely useless….

　　Then he heard a miserable cry, a cry filled with despair. It was a cry that seemed to come from the lips of someone who wished to end their own life. It wasn’t Perfect’s voice, but rather, his wife’s.

　　A tremor ran through Little Treasure. Although his eyes were sightless, they were still bloodshot. He immediately began to walk toward the sound, which wasn’t too far away from where he stood.

　　He began to run. He fell. He hit his head on rocks. He was soon bleeding all over. But he continued to run. When he reached the voice, he heard a sinister laugh.

　　“Damned slut. You’re pretty ugly, but I’ve taken a liking to you, hear me? It’s your lucky day! Give me what I want and I’ll give your family a kilo of meat. What do you say?”

　　Up ahead, Yan’er was holding a dagger up to her own throat. She had been backed up against a cliff face by three burly men. If she had her cultivation base, she could kill them with a mere glance. But now, she was nothing more than a frail mortal woman.

　　Tears welled up in her eyes as the men inched closer. She bit her lip, and was just on the verge of killing herself, when she saw Little Treasure lurching her way, covered in blood.

　　She wasn’t the only one who noticed. The three burly men turned and started laughing.

　　“The blind man’s here! Great! You two grab him. Alright, listen up, bitch. Be a good girl for daddy, otherwise I’ll boil your husband in front of your own eyes and then eat him!”

　　Yan’er looked over at Little Treasure, and the dagger she held trembled. As two of the men walked forward to grab Little Treasure, the other one grinned viciously and closed in on Yan’er.

　　It was at this point that Little Treasure suddenly smiled. It was a very vicious-looking smile, considering that his face was spattered in blood. He suddenly rose to his feet, seemingly bursting with strength. It was as if all the potential strength of his life force had erupted. His teeth ripped into the neck of one of the men, who had been completely unprepared to be so viciously attacked by a weak blind person. He screamed, clamping his hands down onto the wound. Off to the side, the second man gasped.

　　Little Treasure’s ear twitched, and then he pounced onto the screaming man, madly ripping one chunk of flesh after another out of him. The burly man who had been advancing on Yan’er let out a bellow of rage, and was about to leap into the fray, when Yan’er lunged and began to stab her dagger into his back over and over again.

　　The remaining man instantly fled, his face filled with terror.

　　The maddened Little Treasure had ripped so many bloody chunks out of the man’s skin that he was now dead. Little Treasure stumbled forward until he found his wife, whom he wrapped up in his arms. Together, they wept.

　　They never found their daughter. When they returned to the cave, the other refugees looked at them with fear. In a world which seemed to have reached the end of days, people only feared ferocity and repulsiveness.

　　The more repulsive, the more terrified they would be.

　　Later, people told them that during the previous night, a group of young men had kidnapped Perfect and taken her away.

　　Originally, it had been assumed that Perfect would never be seen again, whereas the young men would. However, after day broke, even the young men didn’t return.

　　As for what exactly had occurred, people had their suspicions, but no one knew for sure.

　　Of course, nobody in the caves knew that at the bottom of the mountain, in another set of caves, a group of four corpses was already growing cold.

　　They were four young men, whose faces were plastered with expressions of terror and disbelief.

　　At first, Meng Hao had decided not to interfere with the life of his clone’s ninth reincarnation, not even when it came to his relationship with Yan’er. But as time went on, and the ninth reincarnation’s life changed, Meng Hao started to waver.

　　Then, Perfect was kidnapped by the four young men, and Meng Hao simply couldn’t stand idly by. After all, the daughter of the ninth reincarnation was also his own flesh and blood.

　　He took Perfect away to the ninth continent. Meng Hao was the Ninth Paragon, leader of the Ninth Sect, and with that status, all he had to do was tell the other Paragons of the Ninth Sect that she was his daughter.

　　That ensured that Perfect would have a respectable status for the rest of her life.

　　As for the ninth reincarnation, the purpose of his life was to complete the Ninth Hex. And Yan’er was an adult who could make her own decisions. She had her own Karma.

　　But Perfect was innocent, and didn’t deserve to be subject to such bitterness on the first continent.

　　Meng Hao looked warmly at Perfect, then turned and left the Ninth Sect. He returned to the first continent, and the caves. There, the day was growing brighter.

　　From that moment on, things changed for Little Treasure and Yan’er. They had shown their vicious side, especially Little Treasure, who despite being blind, had ripped a man to death with his teeth. When people saw the corpses of the men they had killed, they gasped.

　　The small group which had previously bullied Little Treasure was left completely shaken and afraid.

　　In the days to follow, Little Treasure and Yan’er eventually learned of the four corpses in the other cave. Other people confirmed that those were the four young men who had kidnapped Perfect.

　　They had been dead for some time, and yet there was no trace of Perfect. It was as if she had simply vanished.

　　Although it was a bitter end to the matter, at least Little Treasure had hope. For some reason, he was convinced that Perfect wasn’t dead, and was in fact more blessed than she had ever been.

　　Because Little Treasure was blind, he couldn’t see the look on his wife’s face as they stood above the corpses of the four young men. At first she looked confused, and then, somewhat dazed. She wasn’t sure who had rescued Perfect, but was convinced that whoever it was had been a very powerful person. Despite the fact that the current state of Heaven and Earth made it impossible to unleash one’s cultivation base, that person must somehow have been able to leave the first continent.

　　In that case, it meant that Perfect was most likely safe.

　　However, the entire matter was still a heavy blow to Little Treasure. He was struck with a deadly illness which rapidly deteriorated his body.

　　When the end of days struck the world, falling ill was like a sentence of death. Yan’er worked herself to the bone to take care of him. A year later, he actually recovered, but by that time, Yan’er was like skin and bones.

　　The truth was that without his wife, Little Treasure would definitely have died.

　　He had never been inclined to words, but after his illness, he spoke even less. Most of the time, he focused on sculpting. He had been working on the sculpture for decades now, to the point where it was as smooth as glass and as dark as night.