Translator: Storm in a Teacup
The ground began to shake furiously and cracks crawled out. Soon, several wide grooves appeared on the territory of Ding Hai Sect. The houses and trees were all collapsing. The low hill was flattened in an instant. Luo Jianqing and Xuan Lingzi felt that the whole world was shaking and sensed strong power!
Luo Jianqing reacted quickly. He took those ordinary people indulged in lust to the foot of the mountain.
A black shadow surrounded by pink gas rushed towards the sky. A gold light shined between Xuan Lingzi’s eyebrows, as he shouted, “There is no way out!”
Then, a golden sword light towered and illuminated the sky at dawn. The gold light transformed into a golden web, capturing that black shadow.
When the black shadow fell on the ground, Luo Jianqing finally saw its face.
It was a vine with strange appearance and ten thick and long tentacles. On each tentacle grew countless suckers, from which the pink gas diffused. Sticky liquid was gurgling from suckers, like disgusting sewage. Even if shackled by Xuan Lingzi’s golden web, the vine was still trying to get rid of it, yet its tentacles were cut off by sword Qi once and once again.
Seeing that, Luo Jianqing said seriously, “It’s a fifth-level demon!”
Xuan Lingzi looked down at the demon and asked coldly, “Who sent you here?”
The fifth-level demon was equal to a Gold Core cultivator. Although it couldn’t talk, it could send messages between minds. Yet it didn’t give any response, just struggling. Ultimately, after a terrible roar, its ugly, sticky body started to swell and then exploded! Bang, the pink gas filled each corner of the territory.
Xuan Lingzi flickered his sleeve and all the gas disappeared. It couldn’t hurt others anymore.
After the explosion of that demon, the crazy ordinary people at the foot of the mountain finally calmed down. Most of them fell into sleep, except two, who were hopelessly gazing at the sky with half-opened eyes.
Sun was about to rise, and the tranquil, oriental horizon was tinted in cyan. Light was breaking through darkness, as if it was desperate to get rid of the constraint of the dark night so that all the secrets in darkness could be exposed.
Watching the dawn approaching, the two lying on the ground held each other’s hands. Before the sunrise, they closed their eyes for good.
Luo Jianqing witness this scene when he reached here.
It was a man and a woman, with some resemblances in their looks. Both of them were delicate and pretty, but their skinny bodies were teemed with injuries. They had been worn out from copulation. Seeing their bodies, it was even hard to tell that were human. They didn’t know who killed them to the last minute of their life.
Luo Jianqing gave out a deep sigh and burned their bodies.
Some people woke up after two hours, yet some remained in a coma for six hours. When they knew that Luo Jianqing and Xuan Lingzi saved them, they just nodded numbly and walked away. Only two young girls trembled, put on their clothes and walked to Luo Jianqing. The shorter girl asked, “Sir… Have you seen Sister Yu?”
The taller one also asked, “Sir, have you seen a man and woman who look alike?”
Luo Jianqing hesitated. He recalled the scene of the woman and man dying hand in hand, who stopped breathing before they could see the sunrise. After a silence, Luo Jianqing said, “Yes, they woke up early and have left.”
The two girls beamed. They thanked Luo Jianqing and Xuan Lingzi again. They intended to kowtow, but Luo Jianqing stopped them. Lots of energy had been taken from them. It was already a miracle for them to survive, although their lives would be shortened. Before the girls left, Luo Jianqing transferred some spiritual power to them as nutrition to their lives.
As they walked away, Luo Jianqing could still hear them, “Sister Yu and Brother Liu were trapped there for the longest time. It’s so good to hear that they’re still alive. Hadn’t been sister Yu, I would have killed myself the first time I was raped by the bustard, and I wouldn’t have had the chance to see him punished.”
“Exactly. Sister Yu and brother Liu are good people. It’s a pity that they have left, or I will thank them for their care and concern. Brother Liu stole the bustard’s pills for me, which kept me alive, but he was tortured by the bastard for that for three days.”
“Forget it. The nightmare is over. When we return home, we have to find them and thank them in person.”
…
Their figures faded away. Unlike other people, the two girls didn’t look like the walking dead, but what they said made Luo Jianqing upset.
After a long gaze, Luo Jianqing sighed deeply and asked in a hoarse voice, “Master, we are no more than thirty miles away from Tai Hua mountain, why…why can such things exist here? If we hadn’t heard that someone was taking money from ordinary people and come for a check, or if the ones came here had been some weaker cultivators, this place… this place would have never been found and those people would have dead!”
Xuan Lingzi held his hand silently.
Luo Jianqing continued, “There are more than a dozen of ordinary people. They are human, just like those cultivators. How can they use the spells of a demon to torment their compatriots?”
Xuan Lingzi clutched his fist and grabbed Luo Jianqing away.
Luo Jianqing, “Master!”
Xuan Lingzi sighed and turned to him, “There is not, and will not be a true peace between human and demon. Xuan Tian Continent is not boundless, but both human and demon have to live on it, so demons will always harbor unkind thoughts on us. They are extremely good at covering their tracks, so even I have to concentrate my mind to spot them. The demon you just saw must have been deployed here for hundreds of years to spy my Tai Hua mountain. I’ve never seen any demon like it, but…you have to know that there are considerable demons more horrible that it.”
Luo Jianqing lowered his head and asked, “So…there is no kind demon?”
Xuan Lingzi first shook his head but then nodded, “There is, but on the battleground, it is a war between two races. There are also vicious cultivators among human. Even in the Fiend Cultivators, you have told me that one of your friends have never killed anyone, while you have also met the Fiend Cultivator that has killed hundreds of thousands. The creatures in this world cannot simply be divided into good ones and bad ones, yet once you are in a war, you can only see enemies.”
Their trip to Ding Hai Sect was a shock to Luo Jianqing. He had intended to deal with the cultivators that bullied ordinary people, but never expected that things would end up like this.
Xuan Lingzi wrote a letter to Tai Hua mountain to detail what happened, and asked Sir Hao Xingzi to thoroughly check whether there were other demons around Tai Hua mountain. He also recommended Sir Hao Xingzi to discuss with other sects to comb out all the demons hidden in thirty-six states.
The next day, Luo Jianqing and Xuan Lingzi packed up and continued their journey.
When they checked out, the manager smiled, “Sirs, why don’t you stay in town for another couple of days? The cultivators of Ding Hai Sect will come here to collect taxes in a month, maybe you can meet them then.”
Hearing that, Luo Jianqing said calmly, “You don’t have to pay taxes anymore.”
The manager was shocked, “What?”
Luo Jianqing smiled rigidly, “I’ve heard that Ding Hai Sect decided to move out.”
After repeated confirmation, the manager was crowing with delight. Luo Jianqing never knew that a man in his 50s could be so happy. He told the news to everyone in the town. Some said that they didn’t believe it, but after they saw sage-like Luo Jianqing and Xuan Lingzi, they were convinced in heart.
The manager held his wife’s hand with tears in eyes, “That’s so good. That’s so good! We don’t have to work like a horse to pay them taxes. Bao and Yu can also come home. They don’t need to do the toil in city anymore.”
Hearing that, a customer laughed out, “Manger Liu, your daughter is 18 this year, right in her youth! I heard that lots of people came here to propose marriage last year, but she followed her brother to the city to make money. If she can come back this year, she can marry a good man.”
Manager Liu burst into tears and kept laughing, “It’s good for everyone! The Ding Hai Sect have extorted us for so many years, but we finally make it. Now that they have gone, it’s a blessing!”
Luo Jianqing looked at them with complicated feelings. Then he turned to Xuan Lingzi.
Xuan Lingzi also looked down at him.
They left quietly amidst the cheering of people.
Outside the inn, the serene sky was so clear. A slight breeze rose, wafting the leaves of trees.
An hour later, people in town found that Luo Jianqing and Xuan Lingzi had left. The manager and his wife returned to the inn as they wiped tears. When they reached the inn, they found two cinerary caskets on the table.
One was anonymous, while the other one was stuck with a slip, on which wrote: Yu.
After a long silence, the couple were chocked with hopeless tears. Even the Heaven would be touched by their sadness.
Half a year later, two beautiful girls came to the town. After they heard what happened, they voluntarily supported the couple and became their adopted daughters. But that was what happened afterwards. Before that, Luo Jianqing and Xuan Lingzi had entered another prosperous city.