A Waste of Time-Chapter 103: Etched Hollows

The storm passed.
The sea of crimson Lightning receded back into its source, folding inward until only silence remained. When the haze of ruin lifted, the figure of Kirin emerged at last, its colossal frame dominating the shattered terrain. All that remained to testify to its ascension were the scars of destruction gouged deep into the earth and sky alike—a battlefield rewritten by the birth of a Magic Beast.
The crowd of mortals—villagers, merchants, caravan guards, and mercenaries—clung to life only thanks to the protective glow of Elder Ping’s Verdant-Bloom Talisman. They gasped in disbelief, wide-eyed at the absurd enormity of the creature. Kirin’s size had already been breathtaking before it devoured the boy’s silver Lightning, before he dared to summon thunderclouds and reshape the very weather of this autumn day.
But now?
Now the bird loomed more than twice as large as before. From its former height of fifteen meters, its body had swollen into a titan. Each feather shimmered with arcs of residual Lightning, wings casting shadows so vast that the mortals felt like ants crushed beneath a giant’s gaze.
Behind the beauty in the black dress stood Yan Ru and Yan Jia, their shoulders taut with unease. The ten Inner Disciples of the Sect shared their choice—none of them reckless enough to risk standing alone against such Lightning. For Cultivators in the Qi-Gathering Realm, facing a newly ascended Magic Beast was nothing short of suicide.
And the most bitter truth was this: none of the devastation had even been directed at them. It was only the passive aftershock of Kirin’s evolution, the mere ripple of a being declaring its ascent to the world.
Elder Ping herself was forced to weave Darkness Qi into her talisman, anchoring its roots deeper, reinforcing the veil that shielded the mortals. Without her intervention, even the passive storm would have snuffed them out.
Damn this kid,
the beauty thought with a sharp huff.
Even his mount is a pain in the ass. My ass!
Her scowl deepened when she noticed Kirin’s gaze. The Magic Beast, its crimson Lightning still sizzling across its feathers, had finally turned toward its master’s plight. Elder Ping’s heart grew heavy as she prepared herself. If this creature made a move to free the boy, she would be forced to intercept—and that battle could very well spiral into disaster.
But Han Ruyue, who had already captured Daemon, had no intention of letting her prize slip away. With a flicker, she appeared beside him, her hand pressing firmly against his shoulder. Calm and decisive, she readied to teleport them both behind Elder Ping’s protection.
Then she faltered.
Daemon was no longer in that monstrous form of three heads and six arms. His body appeared as an ordinary youth again. But Ruyue’s sharp eyes caught what others missed—the grey lines of her Void Seal trembled. The intricate Space Formation was under strain, fraying at its edges, struggling to contain the boy.
He damaged it this much?
Ruyue’s mind raced. Relief sparked in her chest even through her alarm—relief that she had caged him when she did. If he had directed that terrifying resistance toward her instead of the seal… she might have been the one broken instead.
Among the mortals, despair began to seep in. Villagers, merchants, and mercenaries exchanged haunted glances. To see the boy finally in an Immortal’s grasp—it was the fate they expected, the one that awaited any mortal who dared to stand against such beings. And yet… they couldn’t deny it. Their hearts, reckless and foolish, had hoped otherwise. They had wanted him to win.
Even if just for a fleeting moment, he had stood taller than men. Taller, even, than Immortals.
“Why isn’t it doing anything?” Liu Yuying’s voice quivered as she glanced at Kirin, which remained still, watching.
“More importantly—” Shen Li’s trembling hand pointed toward Han Ruyue. “Why hasn’t she come back yet? We should’ve fled by now. If that bird fights for its master, we’ll be torn apart.” His knees knocked, fear plain in his voice. Against such a Magic Beast, Elder Ping and her Beast Companion might hold their ground, but the rest of them? Collateral damage at best, corpses at worst.
And perhaps Liu Yuying would join them. Her earlier fight with the boy had drained her utterly. Though she had swallowed a Qi-Recovery Pill, she was still a hollow shell, her Wind Qi barely a whisper.
“Something is wrong.” Elder Ping’s voice was low, grave. Her Spirit Sense swept over Ruyue and Daemon, even as her gaze never left Kirin. “Daemon is resisting. She can’t move him at all.”
A collective hush fell. All eyes turned.
And in that silence, the boy turned his head. His hand shot up in a blur, closing around Han Ruyue’s slender wrist before she even processed what was wrong.
“You should’ve taken me when you had the chance.” His voice was calm, frighteningly calm. His neck cracked left and right, the sound echoing like ominous bells at dawn. “Now you’re stuck with me until we settle this debt. You owe me, at least, that much. Don’t you think?”
That serenity—the lack of anger, of panic—was more terrifying than rage. It froze the crowd. It froze her.
And then his body expanded.
In the blink of an eye, Daemon towered over her once more, his frame swelling into a giant of three meters. Three heads loomed downward, six arms spreading outward like pillars of war.
Two massive hands clamped her wrists, two seized her ankles, stretching her limbs wide. Another hand wrapped around her narrow waist, its span so broad it circled nearly to her back. The sixth engulfed her throat, thumb and fingers pressed firm against the delicate column of her neck, promising to snap it like a twig should she dare move.
Han Ruyue did not. She could not.
“I’ve got to hand it to you,” the giant’s voice boomed. Not raised, yet heavy and vast, it rolled across the battlefield like a thunderclap. “You taught me a valuable lesson.”
Han Ruyue froze.
Her slender body dangled helplessly in his monstrous grip, her limbs stretched wide as if strung to an invisible rack. She was like a fish tossed ashore—gasping, eyes wide, her throat caught between his fingers. Every breath was a rasp, yet the thought of resistance never even crossed her mind.
I’m at his mercy.
The words echoed in her mind as her eyes flickered upward, caught by the triple threat of his three faces looming close. His expressions were carved with frightening calmness, but in them she glimpsed something else—an echo of maturity that gave her an unbidden vision of what he would look like as a grown man. Her heart fluttered despite her terror.
So that’s how he’ll look when he grows up… he really is quite—handsome.
Her eyes widened in horror at her own thoughts.
What in the world am I thinking? Not the time. Not the place.
Confusion spread across her spirit, so potent that she might have blushed outright—if the blood rushing to her head under his crushing grip hadn’t already turned her face crimson.
One of Daemon’s three heads turned, his gaze descending on Elder Ping. From above, her hourglass figure in that flowing black dress was outlined with every curve of mature charm, and his deep voice thundered:
“Lady Ping. I believe—”
“Whoa!” someone shouted from the crowd.
“He disappeared!” another gasped.
“He’s using the girl’s ability?” a merchant stammered.
“Is it because he’s holding an Immortal?” a guard guessed in awe.
The ignorant mortals erupted into chaos. What they had just witnessed was the boy’s three-headed, six-armed giant frame vanish and reappear—no longer on the ground, but standing atop Kirin’s talons, high above them all, still clutching Han Ruyue in his enormous hands.
From there, his words carried down like the voice of judgment itself.
“It is about time for you to release my two servants,” Daemon said, his tone deliberate, each syllable sinking into the silence that followed the thunder of astonishment. He turned Ruyue in his grasp, her limp body forced to face her fellow Sect Disciples. His hand at her throat never eased. “We both know what your intentions were. After my fight with this pretty little thing, you were going to act against me anyway.”
The Sect disciples stiffened under his gaze. None spoke.
“So let’s swap hostages first,” Daemon continued, his other head casting a steady glare toward Elder Ping. “Before we settle things.”
The words rolled out like a decree, his voice amplified by the vast body of the Asura Form.
“If you win,” he said coldly, “then you can drag me back to your Sect. My servants go with Kirin.” His grip on Han Ruyue tightened, just enough to remind everyone of his advantage. “If you lose… then you return to your Sect empty-handed. You can always come back later—better prepared for me. And for Kirin.”
His three mouths curled into a grim smile. “But you will pay the price of forcing me to confront you here. You interrupted my work at the Smithy. My time, you see… is valuable.”
The mortals below stirred, hearts pounding with a powerful sense of déjà vu.
They remembered.
Not so long ago, the same audacity had stunned them when the boy—still a mortal youth then—ordered his maid Yan Jia to strip Qi Ying in front of all, including the Qi Clan, including his own father Qi Yuan the Patriarch. That day, after crippling the man who had dared involve his mother in vile schemes, the villagers whispered the same thought:
This kid is insane. Suicidal. Who would dare to offend the Ten-Thousand Beast Mountain?
But this time… things were different.
No longer did they all see madness. Not after witnessing him stand, again and again, against impossible odds. Not after watching him seize an Immortal disciple in his very hands, his giant form a living defiance of fate.
Now, more than a few villagers clenched their fists and whispered in the shadows of their awe:
Go on, boy. Do it.
Bless your bones if you fall. Bless your soul if you don’t. Either way, you’ve already become a legend in our eyes.
His towering silhouette against the gloom, Kirin's titanic body behind him, and Han Ruyue’s trembling figure in his grasp—it was the image that would burn itself into their memory for the rest of their lives.
The mortal who stood taller than Immortals.
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