Chapter 536: That Generation’s Inheritance
Translator: Subudai11 Editor: Chrissy
From Wang Lu's point of view, the previous generation of elders of Spirit Sword Sect really had some problems.
From the management trainee program, there was already a clue—it was rare for a sect in decline, at a certain point in time, to have so many talented disciples. If it were other sects, they would take care of them really well. Yet, the previous elders of Spirit Sword Sect dared to throw all their talented disciples into the Savage Land to withstand the test of life and death, and beautified their Pull-up-the-Seedlings-to-Help-Them-Grow 1 into Jade-can't-become-tools-without-chiseling… To put it nicely, this was a lofty aspiration and high ideals. But to put it bluntly, they completely disregarded human life in order to achieve their goals.
Of course, considering that Wang Lu himself used this kind of hurting oneself to get ahead like heaven burning blood technique in the initial stage of development of Wisdom Sect, he would not comment on the human life part. However, there was no doubt that in the eyes of this generation of elders of Spirit Sword Sect, the lives of their disciples were not the top priority in comparison with the core important task of revitalizing the sect.
Of course, revitalizing the sect was a good thing. From the perspective of managers, as long as there were more pros than cons, then paying a certain price for the success of the sect was understandable. As for the failure of the management trainee program, the elders of Spirit Sword Sect couldn't actually be blamed for their strategic mistake—who could expect that from the Savage Land that had been tranquil in over thousands of years suddenly came a great Demon King who came from an unknown world?
However, at this moment, observing the moth-to-flame like Sky Mend Array, as well as those "Great Spirit Sword Sect Will Never Be Forgotten" heroic words, Wang Lu's view towards them became completely clear.
This group of guys were not simply having a problem, they were basically sick. Perhaps they grew up when Spirit Sword Sect was in the most stressed and the most difficult situation, so their attachment to the revitalization of the sect had reached the level of personal grudge. They did things at any cost, regardless of the consequences, and completely lacking in foresight.
The first was to conceal the strange situation in the Savage Land from the outside world. The elders obviously did not want the Union of Ten Thousand Immortals to know that the management training program that they sent had released a demon world's 'beast'. They planned to deal with it with their own strength first. When they discovered the strength of the opponent was far beyond imagination, and the crisis that it would bring was not the one that Blue River Region could afford, it had already been too late.
As for sacrificing the lives of all elders to make it up, it seemed to be tragic and stirring, but it was actually foolhardy. When the crisis had not yet fully passed, if they all died, who would give Ouyang Shang and the other disciples a shelter from the rain? Did they expect their disciples to fend for themselves? As for the words at the end, the 'will never be forgotten', they were even more like bullsh*t words rather than reasonable human words simply because the sect existed because of people. When the people were all dead, what was the use in leaving unwarranted reputation?
However, in any case, as the people have already died, it was useless to blame those corpses. The only thing that those living people need to consider was how to survive. For example, right now, Ouyang Shang and the others had to consider how to survive under the wrath of the Demon King.
They were not without a chance.
It would not be long before the news about all the Elders of Spirit Sword Sect being wiped out spread out—in any case, they were from one of the Five Uniques of the Union of Ten Thousand Immortals, so a number of high-level cultivators suddenly vanished could not be concealed. Let alone the disciples of Spirit Sword Sect that were left behind did not receive any order to conceal the news.
Once the outside world learned about the news, naturally, there would be foreign aid. This process would not be long, at most, it would be several months to a year.
However, for the golden generation who was in a desperate life and death situation, one more day was already a huge torture.
The tear in the sky had disappeared, the devils from another world no longer appeared, and even the black tide had been broken up. However, the demons of the Savage Land were still raging. And although the Demon King's strength had been greatly reduced by the purple dragon, to face a group of disciples, he still had an overwhelming advantage. Moreover, the Demon King had an unusual attachment to the golden generation.
For a demon who wanted to invade the Nine Regions by opening a portal to a foreign world but unable to accomplish it, what he could do was to kill as many talents in Nine Regions as possible, to weaken the strength of Nine Regions. In such a situation, the golden generation suffered such heavy casualties.
It was so heavy that Wang Lu couldn't even look straight at it!
After traveling back in time, because of Wang Lu's active move in the desert, it directly cut off the Demon King's plan to open the tear in the sky with the black tide, making the story directly went to the second stage. Later, Wang Lu worked hard for three years to eventually make a decisive life and death battle against the Demon King. Although in the end, he sacrificed himself, he kept most of the other people alive, and everything seemed to go well. For him, the tragedy of more than a hundred years ago was only a heavy story, and he had no intuitive understanding of it.
But now, he had.
In the real historical line, Ouyang Shang and the others did not stop the awakening of the Demon King in the desert. They weren't even fully aware of the hidden crisis in the desert and let it slip away for ten years. Thus, the Demon King managed to completely recover, and after a fight, he killed the monster wolf Fenrir. In the desperate situation, Fenrir was only able to leave behind a negligible kindling, and the Demon King was left with a wound that could not be restored for life.
The Demon King then absorbed the huge monster power of Fenrir and then coordinated with the black tide to tear a passage to another world in the sky. During this period, Ouyang Shang and the others tried to stop it without any effect. The road to return home was also blocked, so they could not send any news to the sect. Fortunately, there were elders of Spirit Sword Sect who were good at divination. When they notice the abnormality, they came forward and did not make everything irreparable.
However, the golden generation was already irreparable.
—
In the Northern Mountain valley, two girls wearing the uniform of Spirit Sword Sect were moving cautiously. Their appearances were ragged and distressed, but their eyes contained a steel-like resolution.
They were He Yue and Qing Shuang. He Yue was walking in the front, attentively observing a towering old tree. She reached out her hand and touched the rough trunk. After a long time, she frowned tightly and whispered to the person behind her.
"The mark that stayed here three days ago has completely disappeared… The demons have been here, we have to change our position."
Behind He Yue, a girl with a slender figure and a slightly younger look was surprised. "Change position again? Can we not? With great difficulties, we finally found a shattered Feng Shui line, so we are barely able to cultivate."
"Qing Shuang, that's enough! Is it more important to cultivate than to keep our lives?" He Yue raised her eyebrows, which shut the mouth of the girl named Qing Shuang.
The next moment, He Yue suddenly trembled as an unnatural redness appeared on her face. After which, she could not stop herself from puking out a mouthful of blood.
"Senior Sister!"
"The tree is poisonous, I was inattentive…" After saying those words, the right arm of He Yue had melted like a burning candle.
Obviously, He Yue was no longer stranger to this scene. She put out a distressed smile and put her hand on Qing Shuang's shoulder. The golden core in her Jade Mansion violently rotated and then she madly transferred her original true qi out.
"I will give everything to you… Go find Big Brother and live, along with my part."
Qing Shuang suppressed her tears, and then vigorously nodded. She then rotated her golden core and accepted the true qi of He Yue.
The action of the two was very proficient as if they had experienced many exercises. After a while, He Yue, who had been poisoned by the red blood poison, turned into a pool of dirty blood. Qing Shuang knelt down on the ground and bitterly wept in silence.
However, after only a moment, Qing Shuang wiped away her tears and stood up.
—
On a piece of shattered rock, Liu Sandao was bathed in blood. The corpses of demons in front of him piled up into a hill, but more demons rushed up to him without hesitation. Those demons were not of the royal family, but just some cannon fodder level demons. Weak in strength, but large in quantity.
When Liu Sandao's force was spent and his sword defense was broken, these beast-like demons rushed forward to bite him.
"Haha, demon bastards want to eat this father, this father will let you eat happily!"
With that, he exploded his own golden core. The bursting sword qi swept across in all directions, and hundreds of thousands of demons were stirred into meat sauce. Liu Sandao himself, however, left nothing behind, even his bones.
After Liu Sandao's death, a small flying sword, carrying a gleaming ball of light, staggered toward somewhere.
—
In the deep underground cave, three disciples of Spirit Sword Sect were guarding the entrance of the cave with a three sword array. They were struggling to resist the siege of thousands of demons outside the cave.
Not long after, the three of them felt their magical power spent and could not hold on for much longer. The leader among them bit his teeth.
"Wang Chenye, Xie Mingxian, you guys go first!"
"... Understood."
Then, the palms of the three men gently touched. The leader then spat out a ball of light in the center of his hand and then grinned.
"Remember to help me find a reliable person."
"Rest assured, Senior Brother Song."
After many sacrifices, the disciples of Spirit Sword Sect were no longer stranger to life and death situation. Wang Chenye and Xie Mingxian, without much hesitation, turned around and left. Then Senior Brother Song turned around and exploded the golden core in his Jade Mansion, which turned into thousands of flying swords, stirring up the winds and waves outside the cave.
—
Next to a crystal clear lake, Xie Mingxian supported Wang Chenye as they slowly walked. While they were walking, he borrowed the moonlight reflection on the surface of the water to treat his injuries. It was just that, it didn't take long for Wang Chenye to shake his head.
"... Junior Brother Xie, I don't think I can make it, don't waste any more energy to heal me."
"No! You have saved me so many times, how can I just watch you die without doing anything?"
"Consider this as my atonement… If not for me and Zhang Sheng, how could there be such a thing later? You guys were implicated by us… Of course, I'm a bit better than that kid Zhang Sheng; he is too unreasonable! He broke the important matter just because of a woman. Forget it, Senior Brother always said that a dying person should speak good things, so I will say nice things. Mingxian, you have to live."
With that, he stretched out his arm and laid his hand on Xie Mingxian's chest.
"Mingxian, there are some words that I actually wanted to say since a long time ago…"
"I'm listening."
"All these years, I haven't had a girlfriend, there's actually a reason for it."
"…"
"Haha, look how scared you are? Here, this is the remnant of Senior Brother Song. Oh, and mine too. Take them."
With that, an unquestionable warmth poured into Xie Mingxian's Jade Mansion through his chest. He opened his mouth and let out a trembling voice, "Who are you going to give it to?"
"Who else is left?" Wang Chenye's eyes turned dim. "Everyone is almost dead… Oh, that's right, just give it to little Wu. Big Brother always favored her."
"Wang Wu? But she…"
"Big Brother likes her so much, there must be a reason for it, so let's trust Big Brother."
"... Okay."
—
"... In the end, we are the only ones left?"
Ouyang Shang mirthlessly laughed.
"Zhang Sheng, Feng Yin, Liu Xian, Fang He, Zhou Ming, Lu Li, Guanhai, Wang Wu… There are only a few of you who are still alive."
"But, that is enough."
"Next, I have to do one thing, but before that, I want you guys to promise me one thing."
…