The women and children guarding the town were still kowtowing, begging the Immortal Lords for mercy.
Yet even if they cracked their heads open from kowtowing, not a single passing cultivator cared.
At that moment, Ji the Fierce Bandit carried his sword toward them, picked up two pieces of broken silver from the ground, and tucked them into his robes.
Seeing this, the dim-eyed women and children immediately widened their eyes, then knelt and kowtowed. Their foreheads struck the stone bricks hard enough to make them tremble, but their bodies shook as they dared not speak.
They did not know whether the Immortal Lord before them had taken the money to spend it or truly meant to use it to save their people. Still, they did not dare ask, only continuing to kowtow.
"Stop kowtowing. I'm here to make money."
"I've never seen anyone kowtow when they're the ones paying to hire someone..."
"But you really are lucky, running into a poor bastard like me."
An old woman knelt at the very front. Hearing his words, her eyes went blank.
Because the Immortal Lord before her had only taken two pieces of silver, leaving most of the rest where they were.
Terrified, she could not help repeatedly pushing the silver toward him, hoping he would take it all as long as he could save her son.
The other women and children did the same, continuously pushing the silver on the ground toward him before resuming their kowtows.
"No need. What I took just now is enough."
"Don't Immortals always say us mortals' lives are cheap? Then it doesn't take that much silver..."
Ji You muttered as he followed the heavy Killing Intent forward. He discovered that Evil Spawn wandered everywhere across the desolate wilds.
The foothills in particular were packed with them, stretching all the way to the dirt path leading into the mountains.
These Evil Spawn should have been trapped within the mountains, unable to leave due to the distance restriction, but they had slowly begun moving outward.
Beyond a high slope on the other side of the dirt road lay Hongshan Mine.
Perhaps having sensed the aura of living people, the Evil Spawn wandering in that direction were even denser.
Ji You slowly reached the edge of the foothills and saw disciples from other immortal sects gathered there, also cutting down Evil Spawn.
However, they were only killing those facing toward the mountains. They had no interest in the mine; they had come because the Killing Intent hindered the circulation of spiritual essence and made Imperial Flight inconvenient, so they were clearing obstacles for entering the mountains tomorrow.
"There are too many. Killing them all is impossible."
"But carving out a bloody path still has some chance..."
"Yet if we only carve out a bloody path, whether we can save anyone remains unknown."
Ji You stepped through the black mist and sent his sword flying. Strolling as leisurely as in a courtyard, he pierced through the hearts of two Evil Spawn.
The immortal sect disciples clearing the path all froze at the sight.
Then they saw a howling tide of swordlight flashing ceaselessly through the black mist, already advancing thirty feet into the wilderness surrounded by Evil Spawn.
"Who... is that?"
"That's the uniform of Celestial Academy."
"How could someone from Celestial Academy possess such powerful sword intent?"
Ji You did not hear the discussion behind him. He simply continued swinging his sword.
After several rustling strikes, the Evil Spawn wandering along the outskirts collapsed one after another. He stepped over their charcoal-black corpses and continued toward Hongshan Mine.
Further in, the Evil Spawn had grown dense. Ji You did not dare be overconfident and waved a hand to summon two more swords.
Just as he had at Wanzhuo Mountain, Ji You used tides of swordlight to open the way, but never recalled his swords. With every strike, he shed all superfluous sword forms between plucking and taking.
Then he moved in an arc, cutting down all the Evil Spawn on both sides.
From the perspective of the immortal sect disciples at the edge, they saw a hedgehog made entirely of swords thrusting relentlessly forward, leaving them dumbfounded.
"It kind of feels like watching a pig demon chop down trees."
"But what a waste... this does nothing to improve one's realm."
"If each slash dealt nine-nine-nine damage, maybe I could become Sect Master tomorrow..."
After several rounds, Ji You gradually figured out the rate at which spiritual energy was consumed and replenished beneath the black mist.
Then spiritual energy surged beneath his feet, and he shot forth like lightning. In the black mist that had been silent moments before, sword tides suddenly erupted like scattered rosy clouds.
The Killing Intent's ability to suppress a cultivator's spiritual essence was indeed terrifying.
But even more terrifying was that his spiritual essence was not shattered.
After racing forward a hundred meters while swinging his sword, Ji You pierced the final Evil Spawn. Slightly out of breath, he rode the air down onto a short tree and looked toward the distant mine.
Hongshan Mine had high walls erected long ago. Evil Spawn gathered outside those walls, unable to enter.
Yet there was also a stretch of shacks beneath the walls, now torn apart into a complete mess.
Looking carefully, there were fragments of corpses scattered before the shacks, mixed with vivid red blood.
On the night of New Year's Day, many miners must have been celebrating inside those shacks, hoping their lives would improve in the days to come. In the end, they died there.
"There are too many Evil Spawn. If they get out, everyone in Central Province will be dead."
"But these Evil Spawn seem different from the ones at Wanzhuo Mountain. There are no signs that they are being controlled by anyone."
"Celestial Academy said they came to investigate the Evil Spawn, yet they are dead set on entering the mountains. The other sects followed along for some reason too, which means there must be another problem inside the mountains..."
"Once this job is done, I should find a way to leave. This is not a place to linger."
Ji You muttered to himself for quite a while. Then he suddenly saw another group of cultivators charging and fighting amid the Evil Spawn, and there appeared to be quite a few of them.
They had clearly fought their way in from the outskirts as well, but by now they could not advance another step.
More interestingly, there was a young man mixed among those cultivators, seemingly about Ji You's age. He clutched his head and kept dodging, looking utterly panicked.
The cultivators shielded him in their midst, apparently intending to retreat along the path they had come.
But unfortunately, the Evil Spawn were not things that stood still. The path they had carved out on their way in had already been blocked by Evil Spawn rushing over.
Thus, amid roars and collisions, the entire group was scattered. Two were even swarmed by Evil Spawn, pinned to the ground, and continuously torn apart.
The young man was frantic and helpless, his face deathly pale. The Evil Spawn behind him was about to pounce, and his life hung by a thread.
Seeing this, Ji You took out a bow and arrow from the Green Jade Gourd. After drawing the bowstring taut, he fired.
With a whoosh, the Evil Spawn's head was pierced through, the arrow flying past the young man's neck.
Seeing that he had been saved, the young man remained shaken for a long while. Then he immediately came back to his senses, looked at Ji You, froze for a moment, and cupped his hands in salute.
Pretty polite. Otherwise, I'd definitely charge you a hundred taels for saving your life.
Ji You muttered, but before long, his expression abruptly changed.
He had already cleared this area out. There was an open stretch before him without a single Evil Spawn, yet that clever young man was now sprinting straight toward him with a whole swarm of Evil Spawn in tow.
"Fuck, does he want me to shield him from the front?"
Before you continue