Chapter 548 - 449: Kill Him
Chapter 548: Chapter 449: Kill Him
A month had passed since Xiao Mo’s Crossing the Tribulation.
During this time, just as Bai Ruxue had said, she and Qin Siyao took turns caring for Xiao Mo.
Jiang Qingyi also came to visit Xiao Mo frequently.
Although Jiang Qingyi looked displeased every time she came over, she always stayed for a long time.
With each passing day of recuperation, Xiao Mo’s body gradually recovered.
Finally, when Xiao Mo removed the bandages, he found new flesh had grown underneath.
Compared to before, Xiao Mo felt his skin was a bit fairer, and he looked a little better.
’No wonder Cultivators are generally much more handsome than mortals,’ he thought. ’After all, fair skin can hide a hundred flaws. As long as one’s bone structure isn’t too bad, it’s hard to be ugly.’
And after Xiao Mo’s Foundation Establishment, his physique had become much stronger.
Not only that,
Because Xiao Mo had spent a month reading Confucian School classics, he had actually managed to condense a strand of Vast Righteous Qi in his chest.
For now, Xiao Mo decided to major in Sword Technique, minor in the Confucian Dao, and use Fist Technique to temper his body.
This was not a wise choice for most Cultivators.
After all, a person’s energy is limited.
In the eyes of most Cultivators, mastering one technique was far better than knowing a myriad of them.
But because Xiao Mo possessed the Saint’s Heart and had received several rewards from the Hundred Generations Book that improved his Root Bone, he felt that cultivating all of them simultaneously shouldn’t be a major problem.
Once his injuries healed, Xiao Mo continued to cultivate on the Wendao Platform.
Jiang Qingyi also carried on as usual, continuing to teach Xiao Mo the Sword Technique.
Compared to when he was in the Qi Cultivation Realm, Xiao Mo’s learning speed in the Foundation Establishment Realm was much faster—so fast that even Jiang Qingyi found it a bit incredible.
Jiang Qingyi felt that Xiao Mo could even rival her, someone who possessed an Innate Sword Bone!
However, besides cultivating Sword Technique, Xiao Mo also spent time on the Confucian Dao and even studied Arrays, which only slightly slowed his progress in the Sword Dao.
As for the "Myriad Household Lights" that had appeared during Xiao Mo’s Crossing the Tribulation, although Bai Ruxue and the other two were extremely curious, they didn’t ask about it.
They felt it would be useless to ask.
Xiao Mo had been in the depths of the palace the whole time and hadn’t gone anywhere. He probably didn’t know what it was all about either.
Bai Ruxue believed the only explanation was that the Merit Xiao Mo had accumulated in his past life had not completely dissipated.
When Xiao Mo faced danger during his Crossing the Tribulation, the Merit of the Myriad Household Lights would automatically protect him.
This was also a form of karma.
Another month passed. Xiao Mo consolidated his Realm and prepared to advance to the Mid-stage Foundation Establishment Realm.
...
Meanwhile, in a town within the Liang Kingdom, a man in a black robe walked along the empty streets, heading out of the city.
A summer breeze blew past him from behind, rustling the lanterns hanging from the eaves and the wind chimes sold by street vendors.
But the once-bustling marketplace was utterly silent.
A rat scurried brazenly onto a tavern table before leaping down and disappearing into a hole.
The brothels in the city no longer echoed with the lilting voices of women; only colorful silk ribbons drifted on the wind, then slowly settled to the ground.
Overnight, all two hundred thousand residents of the small town had vanished.
This city had become a dead city, devoid of people.
Leaving the town, the man flew off in a certain direction.
Two days later, the man descended from the sky.
"Greetings, Sect Leader!"
The two disciples guarding the Sect gate at the foot of the mountain quickly bowed upon seeing the Sect Leader return.
"Mm."
The man nodded in acknowledgment and walked into the Sect.
Returning to the main peak within the Sect, the man arrived at a Cave Mansion.
He opened the entrance to a tunnel inside the Cave Mansion and walked down, step by step.
When he reached the bottom, the man activated a Technique, igniting all the surrounding torches.
Before him stood a massive stone statue, thirty feet tall.
A dilapidated Array was carved around the statue’s base. Rusted longswords were plunged into various points of the Array, like aged guards preventing whatever was inside from ever seeing the light of day again!
"Master!"
The man knelt on one knee and bowed to the statue.
The statue’s eyes glowed with a faint green light, and the mottled cracks on its body looked as if they were flowing with green blood.
"Have you brought the item?" the statue asked slowly.
"I have, Master." The man took a blood-red bead from his robes. "These are the souls of the two hundred thousand residents of Shitou Town. Please accept them, Master!"
"Good!"
As the word fell, the stone statue trembled violently.
The blood-red bead floated into the air above the statue.
The two hundred thousand souls within the blood bead wailed and cried ceaselessly, but it was all in vain.
Under a powerful suction, the two hundred thousand souls seemed to form a river, flowing into the statue’s mouth.
This continued for the time it takes half an incense stick to burn before the wails of the tormented souls in the stone chamber finally faded.
The bead, originally blood-red, turned a vibrant green before floating back into the man’s hand.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Ripples of Spiritual Power spread out one after another.
More cracks appeared on the statue’s body, and the rust on the longswords plunged into the Array grew even thicker. It seemed as if a light touch would cause them to crumble into iron dust and scatter into the air.
"Continue!" Greed flickered in the statue’s eyes. "I want more souls. Besides ordinary people, the more Cultivator souls, the better! Especially Cultivators at the Dragon Gate Realm or above! Do you understand?"
"Yes, Master!" The man nodded heavily, but a hint of difficulty flashed in his eyes.
The man organized his thoughts before speaking slowly. "But Master, your subordinate wishes to ease your burdens and capture more Cultivators for you. However, Loose Cultivators are not easy to come by, and their Realms are generally quite low."
"If I were to capture disciples from the mountain Sects, and their Sect Leaders and Elders were to find out, they would surely hunt me down and kill me."
"Your subordinate does not fear death, but I worry about jeopardizing your grand plan!"
"Hehehehe..."
The statue gave a cold laugh.
How could it not know what this Human Race Cultivator was thinking?
With a mere thought from the statue, a streak of green light entered the man’s body.
The bottleneck that had kept the man stuck at the Early-stage Nascent Soul Realm for five hundred years now actually showed faint signs of loosening.
Overjoyed, the man kowtowed to the statue. "Thank you for the reward, Master!"
"Rest assured, once I break free, your rewards will be plentiful! You just need to serve me well. Understand?" the statue tempted him.
"I understand, Master!" The man’s words were much more sincere this time.
"Alright, you may go. Besides collecting Divine Soul food for me, there is one more thing I need you to do!" the statue said slowly.
The man lowered his head. "Please give your orders, Master!"
"Not long ago, I sensed an aura that I find extremely repulsive. It should be somewhere in the north!"
Stone fragments crumbled from the statue’s body, ceaselessly gathering and coalescing around a single drop of green blood.
"Take this stone and head north. The closer you get to him, the stronger the stone’s reaction will be!"
"I want you to find that man,"
"and then!"
The hatred in the statue’s voice seemed to have been condensed over millennia!
"Kill him!"