Nightfall

The crowd screamed in horror and retreated back. Angry shouts were hurled forward. Ning Que waved the sword in his hands. So long as anybody dared to stand in front of him and Sangsang, he would hack at them.

The blood that had spurted over the floor of the lake grew. Miserable and painful screams sounded everywhere as limbs were chopped and guts were splayed. The image was incredibly brutal and cruel.

The Buddhism Sect had attempted to turn a commoner’s life into a heavy iron chain, locking Ning Que directly within the White Tower Temple to die. However, they didn’t know that Ning Que wasn’t the disciple of the Academy that they had imagined. He wasn’t the Eldest Brother nor was he the Second Brother. When needed, he wasn’t afraid to kill anybody.

Looking at this horrifying scene, the ascetic monk could no longer hold it back as he charged towards Ning Que with his staff. Ning Que welcomed it with his sword as his left leg silently kicked out from his garment, hitting squarely on the monk’s chest. He was kicked deep into the crowd as Ning Que shouted and chopped down.

Under the sharp blades were the hands of Master Qi Mei.

A golden light emerged from the 7 fingers before suddenly disappearing. The intense power from the mortal Buddha and the boundless Great Spirit within Ning Que’s body met again. A strong wind surged at the lakeside as the aura of the heaven and earth was disturbed. Everyone around was knocked off their feet like grass.

A line was traced on the dirt at the bottom of their shoes. Ning Que was shaken several feet behind, returning to where he had started brandishing his sword. Master Qi Mei’s body swayed slightly as he retreated half a step, his face pale.

It seemed like the monks of the Buddhism Sect would indeed fall into a hypocritical world at the end of the day. Ning Que wiped away the blood at his lips as he looked quietly at Qi Mei from a distance. He thought in his heart, “Since you have pushed me into the shura realm, you all shouldn’t be attacking now.”

At this moment, he noticed from his peripheral vision that the West-Hill Divine Guard had retreated into the surroundings of the crowd. They weren’t like the monks who were angrily staring at him from within the crowd.

The chanting of the name of Buddha sounded as Master Qi Mei looked at Ning Que who was drenched in blood. Looking at the podao in his hands that have killed dozens of people, he said, ‘I didn’t expect you to really use the knife.”

Ning Que pointed at the corpse with his knife and said, “You should know clearly that you killed these people. From the moment you asked them to disperse, everyone here who is dead was killed by you.”

He had been thrown back to where he first brandished his knife. The student that had been cut into half by him was still alive as he laid in the pool of blood moaning. Writhing half of his body, he was in a miserable rotting state.

Quni Madi and Lu Chenjia had both their hands tied with the ropes. They stood behind Ning Que and took in the bloody sight, their faces exceptionally pale. Lu Chenjia’s face, in particular, was as white as snow, looking at the body of the student that was only left with the upper half, her legs felt weak as she said, “Show him mercy.”

Ning Que stared silently at Master Qi Mei. His hands held the podao steadily as if he didn’t hear her words, or rather, he pretended not to have heard them.

Lu Chenjia stared at his back angrily and shouted, “He is going to die anyway. Why are you still making him suffer before he dies?”

Ning Que didn’t give the student that was suffering another strike as he knew clearly that to control the frenzied crowd, killing was no longer enough. This was because death was sometimes akin to taking a deep sleep. Before a corpse could rot, it couldn’t bring about the greatest terror to humans. At this moment, only extreme pain and blood was able to bring about an intense enough effect and lesser people will die today.

Quni Madi looked at his side profile and scolded, “You are indeed a beast!”

The lakeside gradually quietened down. The moaning of the student was still as clear and as people stared at the broken limbs and blood on the floor, they started vomiting. Another woman’s cries rang out.

Ning Que’s bloody and cruel actions had achieved the effect he wanted. The crowd was subdued, especially the hundreds of people at the front. Their faces were pale and they wanted to retreat back subconsciously.

“I understand why you all are willing to die and why you want to kill us. To you all, we are the murderer’s who let the world be destroyed. And if you all want to live, we have to die.”

Ning Que looked at the crowd and said, “But you all must be clear that if we are stopped from leaving today, your world will be destroyed today, you all will die today.”

He then looked at Qi Mei and said, “Earlier on, we fought and killed four people. You should be clearer than me that if we were to fight a huge battle, how many people would die. Hence, like I have said earlier, if you try and stop me later, the thousands of lives lost are your sins, not mine.”

With that, he carried Sangsang and pushed forward with his knife.

Seeing him walking over, the people at the front of the crowd screamed and retreated. Their faces were filled with terror and there was no longer any streak of courage within them. The crowd in the rear was immediately thrown into chaos.

Ning Que was covered in blood and was like a heavy rock that had fallen into a pond with a splash that had parted the water. A space of around several square feet was formed.

However, there were at least tens of thousands of people in the White Tower Temple. The crowd wasn’t a pond but rather, a sea. Besides the people at the front, most of them didn’t see what happened on the Narrow Bridge, they didn’t see the bloody images. The people at the back were still charging forward furiously. The waves of people that were retreating from the front of the Narrow Bridge were immediately pushed forward again, forming a higher wave.

Humans were strange creatures. They grew afraid because they could see, and they were unafraid if they had not seen. No matter how weak one was, with enough power, they will feel strong. The weak will become courageous and finally become a terrifying flood.

The crowd rushed to the front of Ning Que and blocked the road ahead.

Ning Que waved his knife again as fresh blood continued to spray.

Crying, shouting and swearing rang off the lakeside.

Ning Que killed the people in front of him while the rest wanted to retreat but were pushed to the front by the people at the back. When someone formed a path, countless brave souls from the crowd at the back would fill it.

Teacher was right. Once a crowd congregated, it possessed the most terrifying power. As there were too many, he couldn’t kill all of them. His knife landed and hacked an honest looking middle-aged man.

He then swept his blade across and slashed open the chest of another monk. He then took another step forward and thought to himself that even if he used the talismans and arrows, he wouldn’t be able to kill all of them.

Even if he could, Teacher and Eldest Brother wouldn’t agree.

This thought suddenly flashed across his mind but was instantly wiped away by him forcibly. If he were to die with Sangsang, Teacher and Eldest brother would need to kill even if they didn’t agree. As he thought about it, his wrists vibrated slightly as he swiped his blade up and knock away an old woman who couldn’t even walk.

Along the way, he didn’t know how many times he slashed his knife and how many people he killed. Sangsang and his body were long drenched in blood but there was still a large crowd in front of him. He couldn’t see the exit.

He took a deep breath and continued waving his arms, slashing at anything that stood in his way. Whether it was human or reason, at the end of it, he became somewhat automated and numb.

Looking at the incredulous expressions and the bloodied faces, he understood something that many have said: No matter how strong a cultivator was, it was hard for a single person to take on the entire world.

Because humans’ emotions could not be connected, their fear could not be connected. One couldn’t use one’s powers to subdue everyone. Hence, if one wanted to take on the world, one would need to kill enough people.

Ning Que had been killing people since young. Especially after going to the City of Wei, he had killed many horse gang from the Shubi Lake. Just by looking at his experience of killing people, there weren’t many others in the world who could compete against him. Even Ye Hongyu didn’t have the right to be compared with him. Hence, he was very clear that killing was a very tiring thing.

Even if one had a heart that was as immovable as a rock, as bone-chilling as the black jade from the South Sea and wouldn’t be moved by the bloodiness and death, one’s body would turn weary at the end of the day.

One’s psyche powers will be used up. The talisman paper will be used up, the arrows will be used up. The knife will turn blunt and even if it doesn’t, it takes strength with every swing of it. Most importantly, even though the recoil is small when the blade lands on human’s skin and bones, there will come a time when it hurts as it accumulates.

At this moment, the sharp blade of the podao had cut open many bones and the friction had caused heat to be exuded. The bloodied water on it was giving off a faint mist. Ning Que kept it into the sheath and started swinging with the sheath on.

Turning the sheath into an iron rod, he swept aside anyone blocking his way. Even though it was slower than hacking, it had unexpected results. Some of the people were hit into the air by it and fell back into the crowd. The crowd at the back became more chaotic and some of them even begin to trample each other.

A kid was squeezed out by the crowd and landed in the empty space in front of Ning Que. He sat in the pool of blood and cried. He was about 7,8 years old and from the way he sat, it seemed like his legs were trampled by the crowd.

The sheath that Ning Que held in his hands fell from the sky and landed on the boy’s head. Everything was quiet.

The crowd at the back was still noisy and chaotic and shouting continued. However, those nearby had quietened down subconsciously, staring at this image anxiously. They were waiting in shock for the bloody thing to appear.

Ning Que looked at the boy, he was expressionless as he waved the sheath gently and pushed him aside.

Sangsang rested on his shoulders, she was pale and weak. Looking at the boy crying on the floor in pain, she squeezed out a smile and said, “Quick, let’s go home.”

The boy sobbed and used his palms to help himself up before limping to the corner to hide. At this moment, he saw Sangsang’s face and remembered that she was the daughter of Yama. The whole winter, his grandmother had threatened him with this devil. He couldn’t help it as he screamed and subconsciously threw a stone in his hand towards that face.

At this moment, Ning Que was shoving aside a monk with the sheath and hadn’t noticed.

Sangsang was strapped to his back and even if she saw it, she couldn’t escape.

With a smack, the rock struck her forehead and fresh blood flowed down slowly.