The moon hung high in the sky, and the lights were still on in the hall. A cold sweat broke out of Shen Lian and he sat limply on the floor. Qianmo glanced at Shen Lian lazily and closed its eyes, as though it was exhausted.
Shen Lian smiled bitterly. He did not expect that he would be saved by this demonic bird today. If he did not save Qianmo who was of unknown origin, the result would have been catastrophic today. Indeed, cause and effect completed the full circle.
He had done his best. The person in bloody clothes knew him too well and he did not have even the slightest bit of advantage.
Shen Lian refused to believe that the person in bloody clothes was the spirituality of the Blood Dissipating Sword. Moreover, his mentioned something about Shen Lian being outstanding, and if it was Ge Yuan or Hong Qianya, they would have been taken out already. It showed how familiar he was with Qing Xuan, as though he was a teacher-elder passing judgment on the two elders.
The appearance of the person of bloody clothes had led to some part of Shen Lian’s Mana being snatched away. This had something to do with a problem relating to Shen Lian himself.
He tried to withstand his tiredness and inspected his entire body with his spiritual consciousness. However, his search was unfruitful. There was no anomaly. Shen Lian knew that the person in bloody clothes could not have stolen his Mana just like that, and there was definitely a trigger that led to this. Unfortunately, he could not find out about it. It showed how advanced his opponent was, and his mysterious technique was not something that he could resolve.
Shen Lian closed the door with a wave of his hand, and the flames were put out. The hall fell into a deep darkness. The word, “Yuan” was giving off a red hue, and that added some blood-red atmosphere to the dark hall.
Shen Lian meditated for an entire night. Even though his Mana had not recovered yet, but his physical appearance looked different. One could even say that he looked like a new person. However, he realized that his bier was not as clean and clear as before. It was as though his mirror-like heart of Dao was tainted by ashes.
The blood light in the “Yuan” became more subtle. Though, the “Yuan” looked livelier, as though it was ready to jump off the page.
Shen Lian felt light as the smoke and came to the “Yuan”. As he touched the strokes on it, he felt as though someone had poured a bucket of ice water on him. He shivered from head to toe.
His thoughts entered into a weird place. It was as though he had come to a dark and dull world, and some place in this world, there was a raging sea of blood. In the depth of the sea, there was a long sword. It was ancient and dull. The scene in front of him flashed past, and Shen Lian could not tell for sure what had happened. At last, he heard the cries of a baby. It was in a village where the people were mostly clothed in animal skins and coats. As the baby grew up, the elders who were once strong became weaker and they could no longer battle with the tigers and leopards.
The baby attained adulthood and started hunting for the first time. On his first hunt, he ran into an extremely powerful black bear that had injured several hunters. Two young people around his age were slapped by the bear’s paw, and these were his closest playmates.
He asked the elders, where had his playmates gone? That was the first time he truly understood what death meant.
He did not want to die and he hated the feeling. The world was vast, and he heard from the oldest elder in the village that three kinds of people were immortal in this world. They were Celestials, Buddhas, and Saints. They were not trapped in the reincarnation cycle. However, it was difficult to encounter them as they lived in seclusion amidst the mountains and rivers.
The young person wanted to become someone like that. One day, he left the village where he was born and raised in. He set out to search for these Holy Deities.
The scene in front of him flashed past again, and Shen Lian saw Mount Qing Xuan. Mount Qing Xuan remained the same, and a Daoist who had clear features and wore a crown of stars was treading without a care in the world. He pointed in the void. Strands of green light flew towards the main peak, Taiyi. A palace was created on it, and that was Qing Xuan Hall – the place the chief was at all these years.
The Daoist was Grandmaster Yuan Qing, and Shen Lian had realized that too. In fact, the Grandmaster Yuan Qing used to be the sword that was buried in the raging sea of blood.
When he realized that, the “Yuan” jumped off the page and imprinted itself on the back of his right hand. The blood-red “Yuan” started to fade away, and it became a sword will that was hard to describe.
The sword will be full of life and seemed as though it can wipe off any living creature in the world. It traveled in his body and the Qi of resentful spirits that were hard to pinpoint appeared without any premonition. The Qi was immediately wrecked apart by the sword will, and no trace of it could be found. This was the resentment left behind by Xiao Shiyi after his death, and Shen Lian finally understood it. So this hint of resentment was the trigger used by the person in bloody clothes.
It was a sin to kill, and the resentment of the living creature would attach itself to the killer. Some used the resentment to power themselves up, just as how the tiger made used of the spirits of those whom it had killed. Some needed different techniques to eliminate the resentment in order to stop it from affecting their cultivation process.
Most expert Daoists would refrain from killing too many living creatures, as the resentment of the living creatures was considered as a karmic hindrance. In small amount, the karmic hindrance was negligible to cultivators. However, a huge amount of karmic hindrance would serve as a significant obstacle. Unless one had special martial exercises and remained unaffected, otherwise it would not be worth it to waste both time and effort to search for methods to eliminate it.
Chen Jianmei had killed a significant amount of living creatures and yet he remained unaffected. It would seem that it was related to the sword will that he mastered. The sword will could wipe out the resentment completely.
When the resentment was eliminated, Shen Lian felt that he was relieved of a great burden. Even more so, he was intrigued by the person in bloody clothes’ techniques. To think that he was able to invade into Shen Lian’s body through the resentment of the living creatures, and to beat Shen Lian with the Mana he stole from Shen Lian.
The person in bloody clothes probably had laid down some sort of techniques on the person killed by Shen Lian. This was how he was able to control the resentment left behind with his mind and to send it into Shen Lian’s body in an unnoticeable manner.
Everything happened for a reason. Shen Lian knew about this, but he could not understand the person’s motive.
Moreover, the Blood Dissipating Sword had something to do with Grandmaster Yuan Qing’s sword will, and this was even more confusing for Shen Lian. It seemed that the meaning of Dharma was activated by the essence of the Blood Dissipating Sword, and was turned into sword will. Shen Lian was benefited from it.
Chen Jianmei might have wanted to leave behind the meaning of Dharma to Shen Lian, or anyone who came from Qing Xuan back in that day. Shen Lian was not sure if Chen Jianmei predicted this, or if he was merely acting on instinct.
The door swung open slowly. It was Qianmo who opened the door by creating an air current through the flapping of its wings.
The winter snow fell, and the mountain was quiet. This was the kind of peace and quiet that Daoists often talked about.
Shen Lian saw Xiaoxun flying out to look for food. Indeed, the early bird gets the worms. But in this case, the early bird was catching worms for another bird.
The incident last night seemed to have taken a toll on Qianmo. It looked sickly even after it had woken up. It leaned on the door without much spirit.
Despite that Shen Lian still had not recuperated, he was not exhausted. With a wave of his hand, he sent Taixu Divine Qi in front of Qianmo. Qianmo was excited and opened its mouth to consume the Taixu Divine Qi immediately. Qianmo looked satisfied.