Liana’s heart dropped as she watched Ruan’s sword pierce through Loshaar Lakir’s back, the blade emerging slick with blood.
The shock and betrayal in Loshaar’s eyes mirrored her own feelings, and she felt a wave of horror and disbelief crash over her.
“No! Grandpa!” she cried, her voice breaking with panic.
She realized at that moment the depth of Ruan’s cunning. He had never intended to battle her or halt her pursuit.
Instead, he had used her as a distraction, knowing that her sudden appearance would catch Loshaar off guard, creating the perfect opening for his strike.
As Loshaar crumpled to the ground, Ruan pulled the sword free, his expression cold and calculating. Liana’s mind raced, piecing together the events that had led to this moment.
Ruan had understood her well—her curiosity, her loyalty to the clan—and had manipulated her emotions to his advantage. He had known she would follow him back to the battlefield, driven by her need for answers and her concern for her clan head.
Ruan turned to face her, his eyes devoid of any emotion. Now they gleamed with a steely resolve. “With this, my grudge with the Lakir clan can be said to be settled,” Aksai murmured to himself.
The former rental Spirit farmer was glad he had let things take their due course instead of prioritizing petty revenge against the Lakir clan for mistreating him and all the other rental Spirit farmers.
Similar to the patience of an elder tree, he had focused on strengthening his roots instead of running around in vain. His patience had finally borne fruit.
***
The Lakir clan had not only mistreated the Spirit farmers by buying the crops at meager amounts but also used some of the poor and innocent rental farmers as test subjects in their Bloodfiend experiments.
Unlike Aksai, they didn’t care if the test subjects had committed any heinous crimes or not. They didn’t care if the test subjects were the clan’s enemies or not. As long as the test subjects were weak and could be easily bullied, they would qualify for the Lakir clan’s secret Bloodfiend experiments.
After all, at that time, the Lakir clan was still a well-respected clan in Wuyum County. So it didn’t do the shady experiments openly.
However, Aksai was well aware of what the clan was capable of. And Loshaar Lakir, being at the helm of the clan, was most responsible for the mistreatment of the rental farmers.
If Aksai hadn’t made use of the Everwood farm’s resources to pay the increased tax that year, he too would have been either enrolled in the Lakir clan’s private force or forced to become a test subject for their Bloodfiend experiment.
Not to mention, Aksai and his family had been extorted for money so much by the Mongoose that his father couldn’t even afford to pay for some pain-relieving medicines on his deathbed. He really died poor and miserable in his heart.
Aksai had watched his father toil away countless years from day to night serving as a rental Spirit farmer for the Lakir clan with practically no savings of his own. After his death, Aksai could only inherit a grand total of 4 Spirit stones, 2 of which his father had reserved for his own funeral.
The Lakir clan’s mistreatment of all the rental Spirit farmers had allowed the clan to prosper so much in Wuyum County. Countless rental farmers working under the clan had died because of its criminal negligence and underground experiments.
If Aksai hadn’t gotten his hands on the Enchanted Everwood Farm painting, he too would have probably died during the clan’s conflict with the Wilben clan or inside the secret realm.
Aksai had no plans to seek justice for all the rental farmers who had died under the Lakir clan’s reign in Wuyum County in the past. However, given an opportunity, he wouldn’t shy away from cutting the head of the snake that had tried to bite him when he was weak.
And that’s what he did. An opportunity presented itself to him, so he struck hard. And viciously at that. At this point, he looked even more demonic than his half-master Mao.
Of course, Aksai didn’t feel any guilt while killing Loshaar using deception. The man had killed so many rental farmers directly and indirectly during his reign in Wuyum County. He was responsible for putting people like the Mongoose in charge.
Later, this old man also forced some of the weak rental farming families to explore the secret realm so he could farm its resources without putting the clan members in harm’s way.
Aksai didn’t need to follow the usual code of conduct one usually offered to a fellow Spirit cultivator, even if they turned out to be enemies.
Respect should only be given to those who deserve it. And sometimes, one needs to give people a taste of their own medicine to make them repent in the afterlife.
***
“Hehehe. Why do I feel so good? This old man must have killed hundreds of poor souls. I feel like his victims’ souls are singing happy songs in my ears,” Aksai smiled lightly as he looked at the dying Loshaar.
Since Aksai had killed the clan head of the clan that had bullied him so much, he felt that a knot had been let loose in his heart. He felt extremely light and rejuvenated at this point as he saw Loshaar Lakir taking his last breaths.
Loshaar lay gasping on the ground, blood pooling around him, his life ebbing away with each passing second. Shen Ji and Kau Lou stood frozen in shock, their hope dissolving into horror as the reality of the situation set in.
Liana soon landed not too far away from Ruan and her grandpa. Her eyes were filled with rage and despair. “You… you vile evil man,” she uttered, the words catching in her throat. “You are despicable.”
Ruan didn’t flinch. He looked at her as if she was too naive to understand the realities of the world she was in.
“Well, your clan is the reason I became like this. I would have happily spent my time planting trees and farming if it weren’t for your ruthless actions against the rental farmers,” he said calmly.
Liana’s expression changed when she heard Aksai’s words.
‘Is… is he also one of the Lakir clan’s rental farmers? So there’s someone even more capable than Aksai Everwood among all the rental farmers that the clan used to employ?’
The Lakir clan had countless rental farmers working under its rule when it was at its peak in Wuyum County. As such, Liana didn’t think that Aksai and Ruan were the same people.
If someone like Aksai could become a Foundation Building Expert, there was no reason to believe that the same feat could not be replicated by others like him.
‘How… How many rental farmers has my clan wronged exactly? And could I have done something in the past to change the situation?’
Liana asked herself and sighed.
At this point, she couldn’t find it in herself to blame Ruan for Loshaar’s death anymore.
As one of the most talented scions of the Lakir clan, Liana obviously knew and saw with her own eyes how the rental farmers were treated by her clan. She had seen their poor condition and the way they were bullied by some of the clan members.
The Mongoose that Aksai was used to dealing with was the prime example of the corruption and criminal activities that ran rampant within the clan. Everyone knew about these things including someone like Liana. However, nobody could stop it for various reasons.
The rental farmers were easy to oppress and as their oppressors, the Lakir clan had benefited a lot. So much so that even some of the Purple River sect elders started coveting the clan’s possessions.
Of course, Mongoose obviously wasn’t the only one. There were many “bad apples” who didn’t get caught and prosecuted for their crimes in due time.
Liana wasn’t someone who enjoyed extorting the poor rental farmers. She also didn’t approve of using the Bloodfiend Art on innocents.
When she grew up and was given charge of some of the clan’s affairs, Liana tried to make a few changes within her clan. She stopped the extortion of poor rental farmers and prevented the forced conscription of the feeble under her command as much as she could.
Liana was the first person from the Lakir clan who didn’t try to extort Aksai after she took over the Mongoose’s job.
However, her lone efforts were obviously not enough. And before she could make significant changes within her clan, it was disbanded and lost its rights to claim Wuyum County as the clan territory.
‘Looks like my clan is doomed with Grandpa Elder’s death,’ Liana felt bitter thinking of the potential repercussions the clan was about to face because of Loshaar Lakir’s death.
Liana couldn’t claim that everyone in her clan was innocent. However, she knew the new generation of her clan was devoid of the sins of the past generation.
She knew that the weight of the accumulated sins of the past generation was going to fall on these innocent ones, and she couldn’t help feeling sorry for them.