aircannonsinc Chapter 20: Killing and Saving! Completing the Divine Test!
Chapter 20: Killing and Saving! Completing the Divine Test!
"Boss, hurry up, I can't wait any longer." A thin man in black robes rubbed his hands together, his voice urgent. "Fresh virgin blood is very nourishing."
Li Hun nodded and walked up to the bound little girl, who was no more than eight years old. The little girl was terrified, her face turned ashen, her lips trembled, and she wanted to cry but couldn't make a sound. She just stared at Li Hun with her big eyes wide open in fear.
The vengeful spirit stretched out its right hand, its five fingers forming a claw, its nails black and sharp, and slowly clawed towards the little girl's heart.
"No!" the middle-aged man roared in despair, struggling desperately, but the rope was tied too tightly and he couldn't break free at all.
A cruel smile curled at the corner of Li Hun's mouth.
Then, his movements froze.
Because a fist came from the side.
The fist was enormous, its skin bronze-colored and covered with fine, scale-like patterns. There was no fluctuation of soul power emanating from the fist, yet wherever the fist's force passed, the air crackled and exploded under its strain.
"Bang!"
The fist landed squarely on Li Hun's right cheek.
The vengeful spirit was struck as if by a charging rhinoceros, sent flying backward and crashing heavily into the wall of the ancestral hall. Bricks shattered, dust billowed, and he became embedded in the wall, spitting out a mouthful of blood mixed with a few broken teeth.
The ancestral hall was deathly silent.
All the men in black robes were stunned. They hadn't even seen what happened before their leader was sent flying.
Then they saw a tall young man walk in from the entrance of the ancestral hall.
The young man was dressed in a white, close-fitting outfit with a black belt around his waist. He had a handsome face, and his amber eyes gleamed with a cold light in the dim light. He shook his right hand, as if the punch he had just received had dirtied it.
"An evil spirit master?"
Long Aotian surveyed the black-robed figures in the ancestral hall, his voice calm, yet each word struck like a heavy hammer against their hearts.
"You've got a good eye for locations. You managed to find Bailipo, which is so remote."
"Who...who are you?!" A man in black robes snapped out of his daze and roared, his voice trembling with fear, "You dare touch someone from our Holy Spirit Cult? You don't want to live?!"
"I hit him, so what!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Long Aotian moved.
His movements were as swift as lightning as he darted through the ancestral hall. He didn't use any soul techniques, just the simplest punches, kicks, elbows, and knees. Yet, with each of these simplest movements, a black-robed man fell.
"Bang!"
With a single punch, he shattered the chest of a man in black robes, his heart exploding inside his chest cavity.
"Snap!"
With one kick, he broke the spine of another man in black robes, who collapsed to the ground like a dead dog.
"Pfft!"
With an elbow strike, he shattered the throat of the third man in black robes, blood and foam gushing from his mouth and nose.
In just over ten breaths, only three black-robed figures remained standing in the ancestral hall.
The three men were terrified and turned to run, but Long Aotian was faster. He flashed into the doorway, blocking their way, and then knocked them all down with a single punch each.
The entire process takes no more than thirty seconds.
Thirteen evil soul masters, including the vengeful spirit of the fourth-ring soul sect, lay on the ground. Some were dead, some were still breathing, but all had lost their fighting ability.
The vengeful spirit struggled to crawl out of the wall, half his face swollen like a pig's head, and half of his teeth missing. He looked at Long Aotian, his eyes filled with fear.
"Who...who are you?! Why...why are you attacking us?!"
Long Aotian ignored him and simply turned to look at the entrance of the ancestral hall.
"Junior brother, it's done. You can take care of the rest."
Dai Tu walked in from the doorway.
"What...what do you want to do?" Li Hun's voice trembled.
Dai Tu ignored him and walked over to another surviving evil spirit master.
It was a thin, black-robed man; he was the one who had urged the vengeful spirit to act. Now he lay on the ground, his chest caved in, blood gushing from his mouth, but he wasn't dead yet.
Dai Tu squatted down, looked at the man in black robes, and then extended his left hand.
The emerald light shone again, and the power of the Tree of Life surged into the black-robed man's body.
The man in black robes was stunned.
He could feel his chest wound healing rapidly. Broken ribs were joining together, ruptured internal organs were repairing, and lost blood was regenerating. In just a few breaths, the injury that had brought him to the brink of death was more than half healed.
"You...you saved me?" The man in black robes stared blankly at Dai Tu, completely bewildered by what had happened.
Isn't this person with that young man in white? Wasn't he here to kill them? Why...why save him?
Dai Tu didn't answer, but calmly asked, "Are you done?"
The man in black robes nodded subconsciously: "Okay... all done."
"That's good."
Dai Tu stood up, took a step back, and then raised his head.
A scarlet light shone in his eyes.
The dart pattern of the Mangekyou Sharingan quietly appeared and slowly rotated. An eerie, cold, and destructive power began to permeate the entire shrine.
Li Hun's face turned deathly pale instantly.
"What are you going to do...?"
The vengeful spirit didn't finish its sentence.
It moved because of the soil it was wearing.
He raised his right hand, his five fingers loosely clenched, and aimed it at the black-robed man who had just been healed.
"God's Might - Distortion".
"Click—"
A sickening sound of bones cracking rang out.
The black-robed man's body, starting from the waist, was violently twisted by an invisible force. His spine contorted like a pretzel, his ribs snapped one by one, and his internal organs spewed out of his mouth and nose under immense pressure.
He didn't even have time to scream before he turned into a shapeless mass of flesh and blood, limp on the ground, dead beyond any doubt.
The ancestral hall was deathly silent.
The surviving villagers were all stunned. They watched as the black-haired boy who had just been gently healing them now, like the Grim Reaper, expressionlessly crushed a person, his mind blank.
The vengeful spirit and the other surviving evil spirit masters were terrified.
What... what's going on here?!
Saving lives and killing people at the same time?
And what was the point of saving them? Just to kill them all again?!
"Your turn." Dai Tu turned his head and looked at the other surviving evil spirit master.
She was a female evil spirit master, who looked to be in her twenties. She was lying on the ground, her crotch wet – she had lost control of her bladder.
"No...don't kill me...I'll do anything...please..." the female evil spirit master cried out, her face covered in snot and tears.
Dai Tu walked up to her, squatted down, and extended his left hand.
The emerald light shone again, healing her wounds.
"Are you done?"
"Alright...alright..." the female evil spirit master answered tremblingly, a glimmer of hope still in her eyes. Had this young man changed his mind? Was he not going to kill her?
But she was wrong.
Dai Tu stood up, took a step back, and raised his right hand.
"God's Might - Distortion".
"Click—"
The female evil spirit master's body was also twisted into a mass of flesh and blood.
Next, the third, the fourth, the fifth...
Dai Tu, like an emotionless machine, repeated the same process. He walked up to an evil spirit master, used the Tree of Life to heal the other's wounds, asked, "Are you healed?" After receiving an affirmative answer, he took a step back and used Divine Might: Twisting to crush the other.
Every movement was precise, calm, and efficient.
There was no hesitation, no pity, and not even any extra emotional fluctuation.
It was as if he healed these people only so that he could kill them all again with his own hands.
The stench of blood in the ancestral hall grew stronger and stronger.
Several of the surviving villagers had already fainted from fright. The rest huddled in a corner, trembling, looking at Dai Tu as if he were a demon crawling out of hell.
Even Long Aotian frowned.
Although he had killed many people, he had never seen anyone like Dai Tu who both killed and saved, and then killed again...
This junior brother of mine... he's a bit of a weirdo!
Finally, only one evil spirit master remained alive in the ancestral hall: Li Hun.
Dai Tu walked up to the fierce spirit and squatted down.
The vengeful spirit had completely collapsed. He looked at the black-haired boy, at those scarlet, eerie eyes, and felt as if he were having a nightmare from which he would never wake up.
"What...what do you want to do..." The vengeful spirit's voice was hoarse, trembling with sobs, "If you're going to kill, then kill...why do this...why torture us..."
Dai Tu didn't answer, but simply stretched out his left hand, and a bright green light shone, healing the wounds on Li Hun's face and the broken ribs in his chest.
"Are you done?"
"Okay...okay..." the vengeful spirit answered instinctively, then immediately realized what he meant and shook his head frantically, "No! Not okay! I'm not okay yet! Don't come any closer! Don't—"