The Scum Is A ***

"When the moon reached its peak, the clouds turn red." A singer sang in a high-pitched voice as she sat in the center of the stage. "The wind weeps, stars become dim, the night goes darker." She plucked the strings of her liuqin and raised her head to look at the audience. The dancers behind her are waving their sleeves, their body swaying, while the light above them became darker to emphasize the lyrics of the song.

Some of the people in the inn, their attention was caught because of the melodious voice and the clear sound of the strings.

"The kingdom mourns, the queen is dead. And the king rages." She continued as she lowered her head, her voice becoming low, her tone sounds like she was mourning. "The wind becomes cold, the night became long, the dawn is naught." 

Cheng Sheng and Fei Yin sat on one of the tables and listened on the song.

"The king gone mad, he killed his child. The kingdom fell into chaos." The mood of the song became dark. The dancers behind her acted the scene in the lyrics. The audience became more hooked.

All are demonic cultivators present, except for Cheng Sheng, Fei Yin, and Wu Yuan who had gone to order their food, and the workers in the inn who are ordinary people. Thus, the demonic cultivators are hooked because of the violence in the song.

However, Cheng Sheng and Fei Yin felt their blood became cold and their heart sank when they heard the lyrics.

"The moon was dark, the clouds were gray. The land was red." The singer's voice became somber, as if she's about to cry. "Bodies fell, blood flowed out. The land was red." She finished.

Everyone applauded, except for Cheng Sheng whose body turned rigid, and Fei Yin who is closely watching Cheng Sheng's expression.

"What happened?" Wu Yuan asked when he arrived together with the waiter who was following him holding the tray with their orders. He noticed the strange atmosphere in their table.

Cheng Sheng immediately regained his calm while Fei Yin spoke. "The song." He just said before he turned back to Cheng Sheng who was watching the singer on the stage as she sang another song.

Fei Yin clearly heard the lyrics, and so did Cheng Sheng. Thus, he knew Cheng Sheng was affected by the song. Although what happened in the song is different from what Cheng Sheng experienced in the beginning, but he also felt familiarity since his ending is a tragedy.

Wu Yuan glanced at Cheng Sheng but he didn't force the other to answer and just sat on one of the chairs. However, the waiter serving their food suddenly spoke. "That song…" he said.

Fei Yin turned to the waiter. "Do you know that song?" he asked.

The waiter is an ordinary person, but his answer shocked them. "The song is called 'The Red King'." He said. "It is a folk song passed onto the descendants of the demonic cultivators." He told them.

Their eyes widened. "A folk song? 'The Red King'?" Cheng Sheng inquired.

The waiter nodded. "I was also curious about the song when I first heard it. It happened that a demonic cultivator passed by and saw me. He was in a good mood, so he told me about the song." He said. "The song is about the life of the last king of Wuran, Wu Ran." He told them.

Cheng Sheng, Fei Yin and Wu Yuan carefully listened.

"He was still in his mother's womb when he was killed by his father, the previous king, just because of a prophecy. The servant heard a cry of a baby when the queen was buried. As if she was possessed, well, maybe she was, she dug the queen's grave and cut open her belly. Then, his infant body covered in blood, the servant saw a child that is alive." The waiter narrated.

As they continued to listen, they felt the hairs on their body stood. They looked at each other, their gazes talking.

"When the child was saved, the calamity, as foretold by the prophecy, started." The waiter continued. "The king became insane, and each day he doesn't see the child whose whereabouts is unknown after the servant took him away, the king became more and more mad. Until, one day, the prince returned in the kingdom and killed the king, before replacing him on the throne. However, the citizens couldn't be saved, since all through those years, they became more and more deranged like the previous king." He said. "The kingdom became worse in the last king's rule, as everything became lawless, and everything ended with him." He finished.

Silence fell on their table. Wu Yuan gave the waiter a tip and the waiter, not noticing the strangeness on the three men, left happily after he earned an extra money.

"Do you think…" Wu Yuan spoke to break the silence. However, he didn't continue what he is about to ask. There's no need to ask. The answer is obvious.

Ming Ye is the last king of the Wuran Kingdom – Wu Ran. He was prophesied to destroy their kingdom, and he did. His father, the previous king, unwittingly fulfilled the prophecy by killing his son along with his mother while he was still in his mother's stomach. He thought, by nipping the bud before it blooms, he can avoid the prophecy to happen. However, in the end, their fate is inevitable.

After hearing Wu Ran's past, they finally understood his actions. However, the tragedies of his past causing him to suffer countless times don't justify his action. They are not a saint nor a monk to forgive and forget everything that happened. Retaliation on other people to vent your anger is never a solution.

After eating their food that has gone cold, the three of them left the inn and continued their travel towards the oasis drawn on the map. Although it looked far, but they didn't use their sword to fly to their destination. One, because it wouldn't consume much of their energy. Two, their sword glare would expose their identity as righteous cultivators.

Since the demonic cultivators' qi turned red, even if Wu Yuan's sword glare is red, but the color of the demonic cultivators' sword glare is deep-red. Also, there's Cheng Sheng and Fei Yin even if Wu Yuan won't be easily exposed if ever Wu Yuan used his sword to fly. 

The demonic cultivators around didn't find anything strange with them since each one of them minds their own business, which is fortunate for Cheng Sheng, Fei Yin and Wu Yuan. After three hours of walking, the ground beneath their feet suddenly changed. Their destination is near!

They could already see the golden color of the sand between the trees. Cheng Sheng jogged towards the trees, and the grassed under their feet slowly became sparse. Some sand has already stuck to their shoes, but they continued walking forward.

Suddenly, they stopped when they saw a house nearby. Well, not a house anymore because the roof has disappeared and the walls were broken. The broken-down house has walls splattered with blood that already dried. Even the trunks and the leaves of the tree around, as well as the grasses on the ground were not spared. It must have been a manslaughter. Definitely.

Cheng Sheng took a deep breath and turned to look at Wu Yuan. "Senior Wu. Where is the Nanli Sect?" he asked. He felt his chest becoming stuffy because of what he had seen. Because he has seen lots of broken houses like this, his emotions he suppressed reached their peak. "Senior Wu?" he called when he saw Wu Yuan didn't answer.

It took a while before Wu Yuan answered. "This is the Nanli Sect." he said.

"Huh?" Cheng Sheng muttered.

Fei Yin seemed to have realized it. "Sheng." He called. "This whole city… this is the Nanli Sect." he told him, his expression gloomy, as he looked ahead of them.

"What…?" Cheng Sheng muttered under his breath, his voice almost inaudible because of shock. He sharply turned and walked out of the grove. He held his breath when he saw the entire city under them, with the crescent-shaped lake at its heart.

The crescent-shaped lake is surrounded by many houses built atop the sand that constitutes the city. However, these houses, like the one they have seen earlier, were destroyed with blood covering their walls and windows, leaving the entire area desolate like a ghost city. Maybe because the ground was soaked with blood, since the water in the crescent-shaped lake nearby turned dark.

Cheng Sheng sucked in a cold breath while Fei Yin and Wu Yuan calmly walked to his side. Although they had already expected to see this, but the impact is different once you personally saw it. As they stared at the dark water of the crescent-shaped lake, it's as if they could see mutilated corpses floating above it.

They didn't dare try and see if there might be corpses that sunk on the bottom of the lake.