Volume 1, Chapter 83 – Getting Away

Cao Ping followed the elders out of the mine, utterly shaken. In the Chengtian Domain there actually existed a force that even the Sacred Martial Immortal Sect could not afford to provoke, and yet it was so little known.

Once they exited the mine, the group quickly took the Flying Star Sect disciples and left this troubled place.

Not long after, three more streaks of light flew in from the horizon and stopped right above the mine.

They were three men of about the same age, all around thirty and dressed in gray robes.

With a single glance at the many corpses lying scattered on the ground, the three men’s faces changed drastically. They entered the mine, spread out, and began searching the area.

After about half a quarter of an hour, the three, having investigated the tunnels, gathered again in front of the bisected corpse of that middle-aged man.

One of them was holding a body that had been split cleanly in two, along with half a broken sword.

“What on earth happened here?” one of them frowned, confusion written all over his face.

“Qingsong was at the fifth stage of the Innate Realm. Even an ordinary martial artist at the sixth stage would find it hard to deal with him. Whoever struck him down can’t be underestimated.”

The man holding the corpse lowered it, picked up the half-broken sword again, and said,

“This flying sword of Qinghan’s was an upper-grade artifact. Even facing a supreme-grade artifact, it shouldn’t have ended up like this. The one who attacked must have used a true treasure. It might even have been an Earth Fiend Realm expert.”

“Not necessarily. If an Earth Fiend Realm expert had made a move, there would have been no need to use a treasure at all. Two casual moves would have been enough to crush Qingsong and the others.”

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The last man crouched down and gently closed the dead middle-aged man’s wide, staring eyes. Looking at the mixed trail of hoofprints and footprints on the ground, he said,

“There were quite a few people on the other side, and judging from how deep the prints are, they should all have been wearing heavy armor. There shouldn’t have been many Innate Realm martial artists among them, or they wouldn’t have needed to gang up on those few disciples still in the Body Tempering Realm…”

Talking as he went, he stood up and moved to the edge of the mine, where he crouched again. “Besides the group that killed Qingsong and the rest, there should have been a second faction present.”

The other two came over, studied the mass of footprints at the mine’s edge, and one of them said,

“Judging from how dry the mud in these hoofprints is, they cannot have left long ago. Should we follow the tracks?”

The crouching man shook his head. “We should not.”

The footprints on the ground were a tangled mess, layer upon layer, looping around and around yet all confined to a single area. Clearly, whoever they belonged to had been wary and dared not move about freely.

What was more, there were no signs of arrival or departure among this whole patch of prints. It was obvious this group had descended from the sky, and that there were Innate Realm martial artists among them.

For a group that included Innate Realm martial artists to be too wary to move at all meant that the side facing them could not be simple. With their opponents’ strength unknown, charging after them would be sheer folly.

After a short pause for thought, the crouching man spoke. “You two take the bodies back first. I will survey the area a bit more.”

Once the two streaks of light had vanished over the horizon, the man left behind began exploring the surrounding mountains.

Soon, he reached the small village at the foot of the range.

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Seeing that the settlement was empty, he was not surprised. He had already received word of the village’s slaughter.

“To manifest great divine wisdom in this filthy, evil world, to know the Dharma of suffering and joy, and be led to Prajna Paramita…”

Suddenly, waves of Buddhist chanting sounded in his ears, growing clearer as he approached.

“From kalpas long past to lives yet to come, may they return to the Thirty-Three Heavens and never again fall into evil paths…”

A medium-sized wooden platform had been set up in the center of the village, with nearly a hundred corpses laid out neatly upon it.

A young white-robed monk sat before the platform, rolling a string of prayer beads between his fingers. A faint Buddha light shimmered behind him as he murmured sutras, a torch planted in the ground at his side.

“So be it… so be it…”

The white-robed monk opened his eyes. There was not the slightest trace of human emotion in them, only boundless great compassion. He looked upon the world like a god or Buddha in the Nine Heavens, full of pity for all below.

The moment the man was brushed by that gaze, his mind churned. His past deeds unfurled in his head like a painted scroll slowly opening.

From the nervous, fearful anxiety of his first kill, to becoming numb and indifferent after countless slayings.

From being forced to kill, to killing of his own accord.

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As each memory surfaced, a crushing sense of guilt and sin filled his entire being, and his spirit nearly collapsed under the weight.

Fortunately, the white-robed monk only glanced at him once before shifting his gaze away.

When he came back to himself, the man was drenched in cold sweat. His expression was panic-stricken and his face deathly pale, as if he had just been through a serious illness.

“Demonic monk!”

With a strangled shout, he spun around, even forgetting to summon his artifact, and bolted.

The compassion in the white-robed monk’s eyes slowly faded. Watching the man’s retreating back, he softly chanted a Buddha’s name, then picked up the torch next to him and tossed it onto the platform.

Tongues of flame rose, yet there was not the slightest trace of smoke. In utter silence, nearly a hundred corpses were burnt to nothing, not even ash remaining.

In the end, the place was left bare, the platform and all the bodies gone without a trace.

When he was done, the white-robed monk took a waterskin from his robes, opened it, and poured it out. Clear, bright liquor flowed down.

The wine inside the skin seemed endless, showing no sign of stopping. Only when a small pool of wine had formed on the ground did the white-robed monk put the skin away and turn to leave.

His steps were unhurried, yet in the blink of an eye he had left the village and disappeared along the mountain path, leaving behind only a faint voice, passing judgment on the man from that brief glance.

“Shrouded in murderous blood-evil, after death he will not enter the cycle of rebirth. He will fall forever into purgatory, burned by the karmic red lotus flames to wash away his sins… so be it…”

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…………

Shi Lan led Wang Ning and the rest of the Demon-Suppressing Army, practically traveling day and night without rest.

On the way, Shi Lan also rode her artifact and changed direction with the group several times.

Not until they were nearly ten thousand li away from the spirit crystal vein and she was sure there were no pursuers did Shi Lan finally slow down.

She had already set up several formations to seal spiritual qi on those cloth bundles. Otherwise, with that many spirit crystals gathered together, the sheer density of spiritual qi would have drawn far too much attention.

Along the way, Shi Lan did not pass by those in need without helping. Whenever she could, she lent a hand, and her reputation points climbed back up by over a hundred, leaving her with a deficit of less than three hundred.

Wang Ning and the others did not know the truth behind Shi Lan’s actions. They simply thought she was truly acting out of kindness, and their goodwill toward her grew greatly.

When they had first met, Wang Ning and the others had seen how sharp and decisive Shi Lan was in battle and how she did not hesitate in the least to kill. They had thought she was no different from the other female officers of the Demon-Suppressing Army, even harsher in her methods than many men.

But after spending some time with her, they discovered that Shi Lan had a touch more humanity to her than any opposite-sex comrade-in-arms they had seen before. At the very least, her heart was much softer.

Their reasons for joining the Demon-Suppressing Army were nothing grand. Put bluntly, it was still for the sake of military merit and that sliver of a chance to rise above the crowd.

They could not do as Shi Lan did, helping others without asking for anything in return, but that did not stop them from liking this kind of good person.