Chereads / The Devil Emperor From A Bloody Nobody / Chapter 21 - Shadows and Schemes: Chapter 21 The Almost Still Time

Chapter 21 - Shadows and Schemes: Chapter 21 The Almost Still Time

The drug store owner took a stack of money from the cash box and threw it on the thick-browed man's face.

"This is the last time. From now on, we owe nothing to each other and have no further connection! Don't blackmail me again! "

The thick-browed man smiled, bent down picked up the paper money, patted it, and put it in his arms. After blowing a kiss to the drugstore owner, he strode towards the door and prepared to leave.

But at this moment, the door was opened. A child holding a baby appeared in front of the thick eyebrows and the drugstore owner. Was he here for medical treatment? But why was the snowstorm that followed him so intense and cold?

The thick eyebrow didn't pay attention to the beggar-like child, and just snorted and got out of the way. The little beggar rushed to the medicine cabinet, and it seemed that he really came to see a doctor.

"Kid, are you here to see a doctor?"

How much money could a child have? But the drug store owner still glanced at the little beggar while counting the sales in his hands.

The little beggar didn't answer. Unlike other patients, he was not standing outside the counter. Instead, he ran straight into the inside of the counter, stretched out his hand, and grabbed the drugstore owner's clothes.

This behavior of the little beggar was baffling. The drug store owner was a little worried that this guy was here to steal money, so he protected the open cash drawer. Just when he was about to scold him, a fierce dog barking came from in front of the door. At the same time, a man with three dogs and a team of four soldiers broke in aggressively.

"Boss, what I did for you has been revealed! This is the reward you gave me, I don't want it anymore!"

The little beggar took out a gold coin that he had prepared a long time ago and stuffed it into the drugstore owner's hand. Before the drug store owner could react, the little beggar turned around with the baby girl in his arms and ran towards the side door inside the counter.

How would this go?

The thick eyebrows and the drugstore owner were stunned by these changes. But when the soldiers saw this scene, they already drew their swords, shouted, and attacked.

"It turns out you are the masterminds behind this! You dare to attack even the princess of the Elk Empire, now you will pay with your lives!"

The thick-browed man was not a kind person at the beginning. When he saw the soldiers drawing their swords, he instinctively drew out the short curved sword in his waist to fight back. The drug store owner hurriedly gathered the money and tried to escape. However, he was shot through the heart by a soldier's bow arrow and died suddenly. 

In the medicine shop under the snowstorm, there was fierce fighting. The thick-browed was highly skilled in martial arts and his sword skills were also good. Despite being surrounded by several soldiers, he managed to escape with wounds all over his body and fled towards the gathering place of his accomplices, and the soldiers immediately chased after him.

...

The next day, in the morning newspaper, there was news that the city guards had eliminated a hired killer organization.

...

The little beggar opened the back door, and another alley appeared in front of him. After observing for a moment, he immediately knew where he was and ran away again and disappeared at the sight of the soldiers.

"It's so fucking interesting. Human boy, following you is bloody thrilling and exciting! But, you may have no idea that, at some point, beasts are smarter and more powerful than humans. Can you survive in the final test?"

The voice laughed aloud, full of thrills. 

"I am so expecting, human boy."

The blood pupil in the sword glowed devil lit with excitement. Then, there was a banging sound from the door behind him. He was just a ten-year-old boy and had gotten rid of the chase of many adults. That was already an excellent performance. However, the physical limit of this little beggar did exist and even had been broken with his strong will to survive.

He was genuinely totally exhausted now. He almost had no time to breathe in the escape. He didn't want to run anymore, but he had to escape, or embrace his death. 

He didn't want to die in any situation. 

The door was slammed open, and the barking of dogs burst through. Three wolfhounds immediately lowered their heads upon exiting, sniffing the ground. They quickly picked up the scent of the fleeing beggar boy and, barking loudly, chased after him. Their barking, in turn, drew the attention of their vicious master, the man wielding a curved knife.

"Huh...huh...huh..."

His breathing began to become heavy, slow, and uneven.

The little beggar's steps were trembling violently. His sweat, frozen, blocked his capillaries and nerves, even preventing more sweat from escaping. His legs felt as if they had been filling with iron, each step bringing immense pain.

...

After running onto another main street, he finally collapsed from total exhaustion.

...

Snowflakes fell on the little beggar as if covering him with a white shroud. The little beggar raised his hands high and picked up the baby girl at the moment when she was about to fall, preventing her from being crushed.

Eating the snow rushed into his mouth for the collapse and feeling the coldness of nature, the little beggar's breathing became heavier. His legs had cramped and he could no longer stand up. At this moment, he could only turn over and sit up. The first thing he did when he sat up was to hold the little girl in his arms and check on her condition.

She was sleeping...

Seeing this scene, the little beggar's cold eyes finally showed a hint of peace of mind.

The cruel voice roared and laughed excitedly from the nearby behind.

"Hahaha! Brat, it's finally my turn to punish you."

The beggar raised his head, seeing a face filthier than a sewer rat and three wolfdogs appearing in front of him.

The ice and snow cut into his skin, causing him pain. Night had enveloped the place, there were no pedestrians on the streets, and there were no lights on both sides of the road. All people nearby seemed to have disappeared and fallen into a deep sleep, leaving only the windy and snowy world outside, waiting for the death of the little beggar.

The vicious dogs with their wide-opened mouths full of saliva surrounded the little beggar, sticking out its tongue, showing its teeth, and drooling greedily.

Their owner played with the curved knife in his hand, mocked, and looked down upon the little beggar who could not move in front of him. Looking at this "prey" that had been arrested eventually, he raised his hand and chopped toward the beggar.

The blade cut a crack in the little beggar's cheek. But this was not because the little beggar was still able to dodge, but because the man was playing tricks on the "thing" in front of him, trying to see how frightened he would look. He just enjoyed the process.

The blood flowed out from the wound and smeared on the cold face, quickly turning into ice particles and freezing the wound. The little beggar's expression did not change a little. He just continued to stare at the person in front of him coldly.

"Ha, trash, you are really calm and tough humph? It seems that such a small wound can't scare you anymore, right? In this case, I will chop off all your limbs one by one, then chop them into pieces, and feed them to you! Hahaha! How about these? Since our princess already hates you and wants to kill you, no matter what I do, it won't matter, right?"

"Tch, boy, your numb expression really makes me sick! I don't believe you are really not afraid at all! Come on! Tear his body to pieces for me! Come on all!"

These vicious dogs got the signal and immediately rushed forward to the little beggar who had been surrounded, bared their teeth, and was about to bite into the skinny body...

No one could save him. At this moment, the little beggar just hugged the baby girl tighter...

...

However, at this moment, time seemed to be frozen.

Now the little beggar was holding the baby girl in his arms and looking at the vicious dogs in front of him. These open mouths were close to his nose, and he could even smell the fishy smell coming from these mouths.

The snowflakes stopped, and the saliva sprayed from these vicious dogs' mouths also solidified and hung in the air. At this moment, everything seemed to have stopped.

Meanwhile, the little beggar also could not move. He could only see, smell, and feel the weight of the baby girl in his arms, but he could not move. 

The paws of the two wolfdogs behind him were already on his shoulders. It felt so real, but he couldn't dodge it at all. He was not even allowed to turn his pupils, he could only stare at the wolfdogs and the two rows of their sharp teeth.

"Hey boy, isn't this ability of mine interesting?"

The evil voice representing darkness echoed in his mind. While everything was being stopped, including the little beggar himself, the bloody pupil at the hilt center of the devil sword suddenly opened fiercely, staring at the little beggar, mocking.

"First of all, I want to tell you. I did not pause time. Now, I just made your thinking ability increase more than a thousand times. This is also thanks to your ability and instinct to calm down even after your life is in such a crisis."

"..." The beggar didn't reply in his mind. (He could consider and communicate with the sword in his mind in this state.)

"Don't you understand, human boy? The stillness is only related to the physics aspects, not your brain's perception. "

The sword explained briefly.

"In this state, the thoughts you normally have in one second can be amplified by a thousand times, which means that now your thoughts within one second in this state equates to that within 1000 seconds in your normal state. "

"Boy, that's why you now feel this illusion that time has stopped. But in fact, the time around you is proceeding a thousand times slower than you, which means that it has become more time for you—a little more than sixteen minutes. So we can have this leisure time to talk to each other, do you understand? But if you perform nothing after sixteen minutes, you will still be chopped off your limbs and may be forced to eat yourself, HaHa! Isn't it amusing?"

"...What do you want from me? Or I have died now."

"That's how interesting you are! You always amaze me, Human boy"

"..."

"Let's enjoy your first cup of Bloody Mary"

...