Love Burning Amidst the Ashes. - Chapter 7 - Trapped at the Edge of the Thunderstorm

A chilling threat slithered from the lips of the old priest in the ash-gray robe, hissing like a venomous serpent. His voice cut through the thorny undergrowth and crawled straight into Xu Qing Feng’s ears.

“Come out! You filthy brats! I know you’re hiding in there! If you don’t get out now, I’ll burn this cursed place to ash! You can die together with the pile of rotten bones!”

Every word dripped with murderous intent, slicing into the already-strained nerves of Xu Qing Feng’s trembling heart. He curled deeper into the cold, foul-smelling thicket, sharp thorns stabbing into his skin—yet none of that pain compared to the agony tearing through his chest.

His older brother, Xu Qing Xuan, lay beside him with breaths so faint they were barely there. His face was as pale as funeral paper, lips tinted a terrifying shade of blue. The gaping black wound across his back—carved by the Yin Sha Thunder Sigil—still oozed a sinister, corpse-cold aura that devoured his life like a hungry beast.

Xu Qing Feng clenched his mouth shut, biting down on his lower lip until blood seeped out. The metallic taste filled his tongue.
It was the only thing stopping his rage—and his despair—from bursting out.

Brother… you can’t die! Father and Mother are gone… I can’t lose you too!

Fear, grief, and a wrath beyond anything he had known surged wildly inside him, ripping him apart from within. Outside, powerful enemies crept closer with every heartbeat. Beside him, his brother hovered on the edge of death.

He was like a cornered cub in a collapsing den, desperately shielding his dying kin. His red eyes lost their fear, replaced by a rising, feral madness. He clenched his fists until nails dug deep into his palms, bones creaking under the strain.

Enough!
If they had to die—he would at least bite back before the end.

“Why bother talking to them?” the leader of the riders snarled, irritation crackling in his voice.
“Two snot-nosed brats who haven’t even stepped into Qi cultivation! Pathetic cowards! You two—bring the fire oil. Burn them out. I want to see how long they last!”

“Yes, Chief!”
Two black-clad riders grinned wickedly. They unclipped the leather flasks from their belts, popped open the lids, and the sharp stench of fire oil filled the air, overpowering even the rot of the underbrush. They shook the flasks and splashed the thick black liquid over the outer bushes.

Ssshhh—
The sound of oil hitting the wet leaves made Xu Qing Feng’s skin crawl.

His heart leapt to his throat. He could clearly see the drops hitting the thicket only a few steps away. The stench clawed at his nose.

“Qing Feng… go…”
A whisper, barely audible, rose beside him.

Xu Qing Feng turned, shocked and relieved.
His brother was awake.

Xu Qing Xuan’s eyelids trembled before slowly parting. His unfocused gaze flickered with an unshakable resolve. His blood-stained hand pressed weakly—but firmly—against Xu Qingfeng’s chest.
His lips moved.
“Go… leave me… live…”

Silent words, heavy as mountains.
A final command from an elder brother.

“No…”
A broken whimper escaped Xu Qing Feng. Tears blurred his sight as he grasped his brother’s cold hand, shaking his head violently.

How could he leave?
How could he abandon the last family he had left?

And then—

“Ignite it.”
The chief’s command cracked like a death knell.

One rider laughed and hurled a torch into the oil-soaked thicket.

The torch traced an orange arc of death through the air—

WHOOOSH—!

Flames erupted, devouring the thorny bushes in an instant. Smoke billowed, wood cracked under the fire’s fury, and scorching heat stabbed through the thicket, burning Xu Qingfeng’s skin.

“Kh…khaa…”
Smoke filled his lungs. He coughed violently as tears streamed down his face.
Death was only seconds away.

“Brother! Hold on!”
With the last of his strength, Xu Qing Feng hoisted his brother onto his back.

He had to move.
He couldn’t die.
His brother couldn’t die.
Their vengeance wasn’t complete—they could not die here!

He threw himself forward—

KRAK! SRAAK!

The thick, thorny brush tore apart under his desperate charge! Thorns ripped through his face, arms, chest—fresh blood spilled instantly, hot and stinging. Smoke blinded him, but he forced himself onward, carving a bloody path.

“There! They’re coming out!”

“They’re trying to escape?! Dream on!”

The gray-robed priest formed a hand seal. Three yellow talismans floated into the air, humming with an icy, malicious energy.

“Yin Wind, bind their souls! Go!”

The talismans shot forward as three chains of ghostly gray light, slicing through the smoke—straight at Xu Qing Feng.

They wouldn’t kill him.
They would freeze his blood and paralyze his body.

Xu Qing Feng, exhausted and wounded, carrying his unconscious brother, could barely react before the freezing aura closed in—

Death struck again.
“AAARGH—!”
His scream of despair and fury tore through the forest. He turned, trying to shield his brother with his own body.

Why… why wouldn’t they stop?!
His parents were dead!
His home was gone!
Now they wanted to kill him and his brother too?!

Hatred. Rage. Despair.
All erupted inside him like dynamite—

BRROOOM!!!

The gray sky above the Corpse Burial Forest split open with thunder!

Sheets of rain crashed down like the heavens exploding.

At the same time—
A wild, blazing force surged from deep inside Xu Qing Feng’s body.
A force like a volcano erupting beyond control.

Lightning danced across his skin—blue and violet sparks crackling viciously.

“GRAAAAHHH—!!!”

He roared like a beast!

His eyes turned into blinding silver light—no pupils, no whites—only endless lightning.

The three talisman chains shattered before reaching him, swallowed by the storm erupting from his body.

The old priest froze, face draining of color.
“Th-thunder root? An innate thunder root?! Impossible!”

The riders panicked.

“Don’t be scared! He just awakened! Kill him now!”

Two riders lunged—one aiming for Xu Qing Feng’s head, the other for his brother’s exposed back!

But the lightning-driven Xu Qing Feng moved on pure instinct—
Pure, primal instinct to destroy.

“RRAAH—!”

He punched forward, lightning exploding from his fist like a raging dragon.

BRANG!!!

A streak of violet thunder pierced through the first rider.
He burned to ash instantly—his body disintegrating into black fragments.

He died in a single strike.

The second rider recoiled in terror.

“Useless trash!” the leader barked, fear shaking his voice.
He dashed in, sword glowing with fierce white light as he slashed for Xu Qing Feng’s chest!

The priest unleashed a second attack—earthen chains bursting from the ground to bind Xu Qing Feng’s legs!

A deadly two-fold strike—
A killing blow.

But Xu Qing Feng, possessed by the lightning within him, no longer felt pain.
No longer felt fear.
He only wanted to tear everything apart.

“DIE—ALL OF YOU!!!”

He roared and threw his fist forward, gathering every shard of lightning into the punch.

BRAGAAAR!!!

Fist and sword collided in an explosion that shook the earth.

Xu Qing Feng was flung back, blood gushing from his mouth, chest torn open by a deep slash.
The earth-chain talisman shattered.

But the leader staggered back too—his arm trembling, blood dripping from his hand!

He stared at Xu Qing Feng in horror.

“W-what… what is this monster?!”
At the very moment Xu Qing Feng was flung backward by the slash of the blade’s qi, his body shattered with the impact and blood burst from his lips. The wild lightning that had been raging inside him—barely restrained until now—was jolted awake by the grievous wound… and completely broke loose.

“AAAHHHHHH—!!!”

Xu Qing Feng’s scream tore through the storm, high and shrill, no longer sounding human. He crashed into a cold pool of mud, convulsing violently, trembling in brutal, uncontrollable spasms. Beneath his skin, streaks of violet-blue lightning writhed frantically, snapping and bursting without rhythm—like hundreds of maddened lightning serpents rampaging through his veins.

Raindrops didn’t even reach the ground before evaporating in the heat radiating from his body. The mud beneath him hissed, boiled, and spat white bubbles.

Backlash.
The backlash of an untamed power—had begun.

The lightning, having lost its path, turned and devoured its master instead. It rampaged through his fragile meridians like a reckless flood of molten lava; wherever it passed, channels tore, burned, and blackened. The pain—like millions of heated steel needles stabbing him from within—surpassed any wound a blade could inflict, slashing all the way into the core of his soul.

“Ugh… Brother…”

Xu Qing Feng fought for breath inside that hell of agony. His silver eyes flickered violently, dimming and brightening without stability, his consciousness tossed between a storm of lightning and the darkness of death. With the last shred of will, he turned toward his unconscious brother—just enough to let a faint, fragile light flicker in his gaze, like a drowning man finding a piece of driftwood.

He could not die.
He still had to protect his brother.
He still had to avenge the parents who were murdered.

That belief—small, fragile, yet impossibly stubborn—clung on like a glowing ember refusing to die in the heart of a raging storm.

—

“He’s helpless! Lightning backlash! Now! Kill him! Take the talisman!”

The old gray-robed priest—seasoned by decades—recognized the fatal condition instantly. Greed twisted across his wrinkled face. Suppressing the blood still churning in his chest from the lightning blast, he formed a seal. Frost gathered in his palm, shaping into a razor-sharp ice spike.

The remaining black-armored knight finally broke free from terror. Seeing Xu Qing Feng twitching helplessly on the ground, lightning rampaging across his body, he roared and charged with blade raised high.

The middle-aged commander steadied his numb arm and summoned his qi once more, letting his weapon flare with lethal white light.

Three killers—all cultivators of the Lian Qi Realm—closed in at the same time, converging on a Xu Qing Feng who could barely breathe, let alone fight back.

A dead end—absolute.

—

Xu Qing Feng curled within the freezing mud. His torn meridians made his entire body tremble violently. Every slight twitch tugged at the gaping wound on his chest, splitting it further until the bone beneath showed. Blood mixed with rain, forming a chilling crimson pool around him.

The lightning within him pierced, ripped, burned. His vision dimmed; his silver eyes flickered like lanterns whose flames were about to die.

The priest’s ice spear was complete—cold enough to freeze the soul.
The knight swung his blade—heavy with killing intent that chilled the air.
The commander raised his weapon—qi gathering for a death strike.

Three deaths… locked around his throat.

Can’t… die…
Brother… Father… Mother… Revenge…

That tiny flame of will flickered—fragile, yet unextinguished.

And then—

BOOM—!!!

Lightning even wilder than before exploded from Xu Qing Feng’s body! In an instant, a savage surge of dark violet light erupted like a volcanic detonation.

There was no target.
No control.
Only the raw, destructive eruption of a power on the brink of annihilation.

The blast swept outward in a massive ring—vaporizing rain, hurling mud into the air, carving deep charred marks into the earth. The air stank of ozone and destruction.

“No! Retreat!!”

The old priest’s face drained of color.

The knight at the front?
He only saw the purple glare rushing toward him—

And then nothing. His body vanished—flesh, bone, armor—reduced to drifting ash.
The explosion swallowed both the priest and the commander.
They were hurled across the earth, bones snapping, blood spraying.

When it finally ended, the forest had become a wasteland of scorched earth.
The ground was black, steaming, rain hissing as it touched.
The priest’s corpse lay twisted, eyes frozen in disbelief.
The commander lay sprawled—alive, but utterly broken.

And at the center of the devastation…

Xu Qing Feng lay motionless.

Faint sparks crawled weakly across his skin.
Blood poured from the widening gash in his chest.
His face was pale as burial cloth. His breath thin as thread.

But the worst wound… hid inside.

All his meridians—already fragile—
were now burned to cinders.
Destroyed.
Charred.
Dry.

A power that was never his… had demanded its price.

—

He didn’t know how long he lay there in the rain and mud.
A second…
A century…

Then—his finger twitched.

Slowly.
So painfully slow.

Like a seed cracking stone, his sheer will pushed him back from the brink. He crawled—dragging himself toward his brother.

When his hand finally touched Xu Qing Xuan’s wrist—feeling the faintest pulse—
a dim light rekindled in Xu Qing Feng’s eyes.

His brother… was alive.

That was enough.
More than enough.

With a body that should have been dead, he lifted his brother onto his back.
Every movement tore open his chest wound; every breath was a heated blade stabbing into his ribs.

He endured all of it.
Because his brother lived.

And that life had to be saved.

He took the dead knight’s belt and strapped his brother securely to his back.
He took the old priest’s black compass—some instinct whispering its importance.
Then he rose.

One step.

Then another.

Like a wounded wolf refusing death, he dragged himself through the misty rain, far from the hunters.

—

He hadn’t gone far when a faint sound drifted from within the fog.

saa… saa… saa…

Footsteps?
Dragging?
Many of them.

Xu Qing Feng instantly crouched, breath held tight.
He lowered his brother onto a pile of leaves.
His hand tightened around a small silver blade.

His eyes—bloodshot, fierce—pierced the mist.

Pursuers?

Or… something far worse that lived within this cursed forest?

The fog churned.
The footsteps grew clearer.

Then—
Human silhouettes slowly emerged from within the mist…