RNP Chapter 2 Electrox, the Tree of Life Martial Soul!
Chapter 2 Electrox, the Tree of Life Martial Soul!
Rumble!
Thunder and lightning flashed, and torrential rain poured down... A boy stood atop a pile of corpses.
Rainwater washed away the bloodstains on his face, mixing with the thick, sticky tears of blood that kept flowing from the corners of his eyes, carving two hideous furrows into his face.
He didn't wipe it; he just looked down at the thing at his feet that was still twitching slightly.
No, that can no longer be considered a "person".
Zhu Ye lay prone on the ground, half his face sunk into the mud. His right arm was bent backward at an odd angle, the white bone spurs piercing through his flesh and protruding.
The left leg was completely gone below the knee. There was no bleeding at the cut because the blood had long since dried up. Only dark red muscle tissue and ruptured blood vessels were exposed to the rain.
He is still alive.
"Heh...heh..."
A hissing sound, like a broken bellows, came from his throat. Zhu Ye strained to roll his remaining eye upwards, trying to make out the figure standing above him.
Rain hit his eyes, he blinked, and his vision blurred.
But he still saw it.
The bastard he had trampled under his feet, the illegitimate son he thought he could crush at will, was now looking down at him.
His short, black, spiky hair was wet from the rain, strands clinging to his forehead, and his once sunny and youthful face was now expressionless.
In its large, round eyes, the eerie dart pattern was slowly rotating, its scarlet light flickering in the rain like will-o'-the-wisps swaying in the depths of hell.
"A monster..."
Zhu Ye used the last of his strength to squeeze out these words from his throat. He remembered what had happened in those few minutes, no, those few seconds.
That wasn't a battle.
That was a massacre.
The fifty elite White Tiger Army soldiers he brought with him fell like wheat.
The soldier was about to unleash his first soul skill when a bloody hole appeared out of nowhere on his neck, just as he raised his spear halfway up.
The captain attempted to activate his defensive soul skill, but as soon as the yellow aura lit up, a hole the size of a bowl appeared in his chest.
And then there was the adjutant. He turned to run, but after only three steps, his body broke off at the waist. As his upper body fell to the ground, his fingers were still twitching.
Dai Tu remained standing in the same spot.
Those scarlet eyes simply watched silently, and with each one they looked at, one died.
In the end, everyone else collapsed, leaving only Zhu Ye alone.
"I...I was wrong..." Zhu Ye's voice trembled, mixed with rain and blood foam. "Let me go...please...I can help you...I know the Duchess's secret...I know about the White Tiger Duke's mansion..."
Dai Tu squatted down.
Rain dripped from the ends of his hair and fell onto Zhu Ye's face.
"You don't know you're wrong, you just know you're going to die..."
He reached out and placed his hand on Zhu Ye's forehead.
"I just want you, and all of you, to disappear."
Zhu Ye's single eye suddenly widened. He saw it: the dart-shaped pattern in Dai Tu's eye began to spin wildly. The scarlet light intensified, almost overflowing its socket.
Then, he felt it.
It's not pain.
It means "does not exist".
From the point where his forehead was touched, his skin, muscles, and bones began to collapse inward. Not shattered, not melted, but more thoroughly, "erased" from this world.
It's like erasing pencil marks with an eraser, or rinsing away a sandcastle with water.
There was no process, no trace.
It simply "disappeared".
Dai Tu stood up and looked around.
The rain poured down harder, washing away the blood that covered the ground. Blood mixed with mud, pooling in the low-lying areas to form dark red streams that meandered along.
More than a hundred corpses lay scattered about, some belonging to villagers, some to soldiers, all soaked in blood and mud, indistinguishable from one another.
Dai Tu looked at it and suddenly smiled.
At first, it was just a low laugh, squeezed out from deep in the throat, suppressed and broken. Then the laughter grew louder and louder, finally turning into a hysterical roar, mingling with the thunder and rain, echoing amidst mountains of corpses and seas of blood.
"Haha...hahaha...hahahahahaha!!!"
He laughed so hard he bent over, laughing until tears streamed down his face—no, not tears, but blood-stained red tears that flowed from his eyes and left streaks of blood on his face.
If I had never seen the light... then I would have no fear of the darkness...
He laughed until he was breathless, then knelt on the ground, his hands bracing against the muddy, bloody floor, his shoulders trembling violently.
The sunlight over Konoha Village.
Arlene's smiling face.
Wang the Hunter's Pheasant Leg.
Aunt Li mended the clothes.
The tea brewed by the old village chief.
The blacksmith's son pestered him to learn how to throw knives.
These images flashed through his mind, one after another. So clear, so warm, as if they had just happened yesterday.
Then the scene shattered, replaced by a spear piercing a chest, a head rolling to the ground, the tip of a sword protruding from Arlene's chest, and her final, silent cry of "Run!"
"Light..." Dai Tu murmured, raising his head and letting the rain hit his face. "So light is so fragile. A single rain washes it all away."
He stood up unsteadily, staggered to Arlene's side, knelt down, and gently picked her up.
The little girl's body was completely cold and stiff. Rain lashed her pale face, streaming down her tightly closed eyelashes, as if she were crying.
Dai Tu reached out, wanting to wipe the rain off her face. But his hands were too dirty, covered in blood and mud, and the more he wiped, the dirtier they became. He panicked and rubbed his hands hard on his clothes, trying to clean them, but his clothes were already soaked with blood.
He rubbed and rubbed until his palms turned red, but he just couldn't wipe the blood off.
"Arlene..." he whispered, his voice trembling, "Brother will wipe you clean...you won't be dirty anymore if you wipe it clean..."
"You woke up after I dried you off, right?"
"Wake up, brother will take you to buy some candy... Grandpa Zhang at the village entrance just got some new maltose, you said you wanted some..."
"Arlene... wake up..."
no respond.
There will never be a response.
Dai Tu held Arlin's cold body, burying his face in her small shoulder. He wanted to cry, but his eyes were dry and painful, and only blood was still flowing.
Then, the excruciating pain struck without warning.
It felt like countless red-hot iron spikes were simultaneously piercing his eyes, churning wildly inside. Dai Tu groaned, curling up and convulsing all over.
The world before his eyes began to blur, spin, and shatter. Crimson kaleidoscope patterns flickered wildly in his eyes, flashing on and off like a candle flame that might be extinguished at any moment.
His soul power surged wildly within his body. In the battle just now, he had forcibly activated the power of the Kaleidoscope, causing his soul power to surge from level seventeen to level twenty. However, his body simply could not withstand this power. His meridians were groaning, his blood vessels were rupturing, and his internal organs were being torn apart.
Especially the eyes.
His consciousness began to fade.
Before he was completely plunged into darkness, he vaguely heard a voice.
It was very distant and ancient, as if it came from the end of time.
"Holding the sun and moon in my hands, plucking stars from the sky... There is no one like me in this world..."
……
The Starry Sky Forest, on the other side!
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Star Dou Great Forest, a divine sense descended upon the Douluo Continent. It was none other than Ilex... He had originally sensed a young man with a spiritual eye absorbing a powerful life form... and thought he could go there to heal his injuries.
However, he unexpectedly sensed the overwhelming killing intent from Dai Tu's side... A feeling of pity and sympathy arose in his heart, and he immediately turned around.
Electrolux came over, and then he saw those eyes.
Those scarlet eyes, swirling with eerie patterns.
"What terrifying power," Electrox muttered to himself. "These eyes hold not only power, but also a curse. If this continues, the child's soul will be devoured by these eyes, ultimately turning him into a monster that only knows how to kill."
He was silent for a moment, thinking about everything that had happened to him.
"So be it." Electrox sighed softly, his illusory figure beginning to blur. "Since we've bumped into each other, it must be fate. I can't let this child follow in my footsteps."
Electrox reached out, and although it was an illusion, his fingertips did indeed touch Daitu's forehead.
"Child," he said softly, his voice gentle yet carrying an irresistible force, "do not let hatred completely blind you."
A cool, gentle power flowed from Electrolux's fingertips into Daito's body.
The power, like melting snow in spring, flowed gently through his parched and cracked meridians, soothing his raging and out-of-control soul power, and finally gathered in his eyes, gently enveloping those kaleidoscopes on the verge of collapse.
Dai Tu was startled.
The excruciating pain in his eyes began to subside. The hatred that had been burning his very soul was extinguished as if by a spring of clear water; though it was still raging, it was no longer out of control.
The crimson kaleidoscope pattern slowed down its rotation, eventually settling into a slow and regular rhythm.
"The power of killing intent is too strong; it needs to be balanced..."
Electrox turned to look at Daitu's left hand, where the faint image of a slender sapling was slowly emerging.
The sapling was only the height of a palm, and its three tender leaves trembled in the rain, looking as if they might break at any moment.
"Interesting..." Electrox's eyes lit up.
He stretched out his other hand and placed it lightly on the sapling. This time, he released not a cool and gentle power, but a pure and ultimate power of light.
Golden light emanated from Electrolux's palm and flowed into the sapling.
The sapling trembled violently, and then began to grow, sprout branches, and grow leaves at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The trunk grows from about the thickness of a thumb to about the thickness of a wrist, with branches sprouting one by one and tender green leaves unfurling one by one. Faint golden veins appear and spread on the trunk, like veins or some kind of ancient runes.
A vast, boundless, and vibrant energy awakened from the sapling.
No, it can no longer be called a "sapling".
Its trunk is straight, its branches and leaves are lush, and every leaf is emerald green with a pale golden light flowing through its veins.
"Now I will use the power of light as a guide to help it complete its first evolution. From now on, the Tree of Life will counterbalance your eyes, protecting your last glimmer of clarity when you fall into complete darkness."
Electrolux withdrew his hand, his figure now almost transparent.
"This is all I can do," he said softly, his voice carrying a sense of relief mixed with a hint of regret. "The rest of the journey is up to you."
"Remember, child, hatred can be a driving force, but it cannot be everything. Your eyes bear destruction, your tree nurtures life. These two forces within you are both in conflict and in balance."
"Don't let destruction... devour you."
As soon as he finished speaking, Electrox's remnant soul transformed into specks of golden light and flowed into Dai Tu's brow.
One last sentence resonated deep within his soul:
"My name is... Electrolux."
Then, everything fell silent.