True Man Ling looked down at You Su, who was unable to break free, and walked over unhurriedly.
Looking into the young man's defiant eyes, he stretched out a foot and viciously stepped on You Su's face, as though crushing an ant.
True Man Ling bent down and leaned close to You Su's ear, speaking softly:
"Stay right here and wait patiently. I'll go bring your junior sister and Mistress back to keep you company."
You Su clenched his fists at those words, blood seeping from his palms in thin streams. He struggled with all his might, but it was useless. All he could do was watch helplessly as True Man Ling left.
You Su was a cautious person. He had noticed something amiss the first time True Man Ling appeared, because his timing had been far too perfect.
How could someone who raised evil creatures, someone who casually used other people's lives as props in a show, possibly have come to save his junior sister and Mistress?
And who could save them? That foolish junior sister? Or Mistress, who did not even possess cultivation and had cut me down after falling into evil? Or perhaps someone who would risk letting everyone learn that they had been corrupted and seek help from others?
They only had me to rely on!
You Su felt the blood in his chest nearly boiling. He sensed a terrifying tremor within his body. The tremor grew faster and faster, surpassing the rhythm of his breathing and the beat of his pulse.
His vision began to darken, and the darkness grew ever clearer. This was not the chaos he knew, but a night sky strewn with starlight.
You Su greedily inhaled a deep breath of the dawn air. The wounds on his body healed at a speed visible to the naked eye. Beneath his torn robes, lumps of flesh of varying sizes writhed and swelled, setting his severed right arm back into place.
You Su could feel it clearly: all of this was the power of that piece of rotten flesh!
The scarlet liquid binding him began to steam, transforming into blood mist as dense as ink. Within it, You Su slowly rose to his feet, like a fiend crawling out of hell.
True Man Ling had noticed that something was wrong long ago. The composure had vanished from his face. He had seen countless monsters, but none had ever exerted more pressure than You Su did now.
"Fuck, what the hell are you?" His pupils contracted to pinpoints. This was the first time he had felt the urge to retreat.
You Su locked his gaze on the trembling True Man Ling. Recovering his sight in the real world for the first time, he finally realized what a blessing it was to be able to see. If he could not personally watch True Man Ling die with terror on his face, what a pity that would be.
"Don't come any closer!" Seeing You Su press forward step by step, True Man Ling unconsciously retreated in tiny steps. Suddenly, he formed a hand seal and launched a surprise attack. "You want to die!"
A fire talisman that reached the heavens came rushing straight at You Su, its might extraordinary. But You Su neither dodged nor retreated, because he discovered that he could actually see the pathways of Mystic Qi circulating within the fire talisman with perfect clarity. At a glance, he could see where its vital point lay.
With nothing more than a casual stroke of his sword, the fire talisman vanished into thin air.
True Man Ling stared at the scene in astonishment, then continued raising his fingers and forming one hand seal after another:
"Cloud-Turning Rain-Covering!"
"Wind-Fire Confluence!"
"Bone-Melting Silk-Entwining!"
"Hold him down for me!"
Yet none of it could hinder You Su in the slightest. Before any of the techniques could take effect, You Su had already pierced through them.
True Man Ling looked as though he had seen a demon. Trembling, he kept backing away until he accidentally tripped over a pebble and fell to the ground, sitting there and shaking his head without pause.
He regretted it bitterly. Why had his soundproof Formation Technique worked so well? In the past, he had tormented others wantonly in this place. Now the tables had turned, and he was going to die here without making a sound.
There was a genuine evil ghost here! Where were those damned people from the Evil Warding Department? Who would save me? I'm fake, damn it!
Don't panic. I can run! I have the Ruyi Wind-Controlling Technique! My realm is higher than his. I can definitely escape!
Just as he secretly gathered Mystic Qi into his feet, a sword flash streaked past. A huge gash suddenly appeared on his withered ankle, and dark-red blood flowed out.
The Mystic Qi flowing through True Man Ling's body was like rows of white blood vessels, and You Su could see every one of them clearly.
Suppressing the excruciating pain, True Man Ling crawled forward with difficulty. Despair devoured him. He had to escape. He had to stay alive!
He had never been talented. The Condensing Water Realm was already his limit. But he had been lucky: during the great battle of the divine mountain's Evil Purge, only he and his master had survived from their sect.
He had waited fifty years for his master—not out of loyalty, but because his master was his only chance to turn his fortunes around! He had been a freak despised by everyone since childhood, an evil cultivator whom the orthodox path wanted dead. Only by following his master could he trample all those people beneath his feet!
He was about to follow his master and become the ruler of the Five Continents. How could he die here?
A sword pierced through True Man Ling's withered hand, nailing him firmly to the ground and shattering his delusions.
True Man Ling let out a miserable scream. He tried to cover the wound that would not stop bleeding, but the sharp sword radiance made him flinch.
"Talk. Why did you target us?" You Su asked the question he most wanted answered.
True Man Ling's mouth opened and closed, but his words were impossible to make out. You Su had no choice but to bend down and lean closer to hear him clearly.
He was not afraid of a sneak attack from True Man Ling. The moment he detected any abnormal movement in the Mystic Qi within True Man Ling's body, he would respond immediately.
Suddenly, the despondency in True Man Ling's eyes vanished, replaced by a frightening gleam. His lips moved as he chanted an obscure incantation. He even pulled out a rusty bell and shook it repeatedly, a victor's smile playing at the corners of his mouth.
But he was stunned to discover that You Su had not shown the reaction he expected. Confused, You Su quickly reached out and seized True Man Ling by the throat, stopping him from making any further sound.
True Man Ling stared at You Su's neck, his expression shifting from shock to terror and then to wild laughter. He laughed so violently that he began coughing.
"What are you laughing at?"
"Fuck, your whole sect really is full of good people! Hahaha!" True Man Ling laughed miserably. "I thought you were all on the orthodox path, and I even planned to control you with evil creatures and make you destroy yourselves. I never imagined I had completely misjudged you!"
"The evil corruption on my junior sister and Mistress—was that your doing?" You Su burned with fury. His grip tightened around True Man Ling's throat until the man's eyes bulged, almost popping out.
"Cough, cough... I didn't do anything to them... I only acted against you... The Dream Centipede seeps into its target's neck and makes the host dream an utterly realistic dream. I only wanted to drive you insane, so you would personally form a Formation Technique and kill your entire sect. Only now did I realize how badly I had been mistaken..."
You Su vaguely guessed the truth. His brows drew tightly together. "Explain yourself!"
"You still don't understand?" True Man Ling's tone was pitying. He spat out another mouthful of filthy blood. "I just tried to control you through the Dream Centipede, but there was no response at all. That's when I realized the Dream Centipede inside you had already been purged."
"You've never seen the dreams the Dream Centipede made for you, yet you could see the Lantern Ghost. That can only mean one thing."
"Your junior sister and Mistress had been corrupted long ago! And the evil creatures inside them are even more poisonous than the ones I raised! The evil beings you saw weren't fake dreams I made for you—they were fucking real! Yet you foolishly kept trying to save them, clinging to your wishful thinking. It's fucking hilarious, cough, cough... But now look at you. They got you corrupted too! What a pity. It's too late for you to regret it now..."
True Man Ling let You Su hold him by the throat, his eyes venomous. He feared death, but he feared even more that his enemy might live on happily. Now that he had discovered the truth, he felt indescribably exhilarated.
But contrary to his expectations, he could not find the slightest trace of confusion on You Su's seemingly ghostly face. Instead, You Su looked as though he were struggling to suppress a laugh.
Feeling furious and humiliated, he snarled, "Are you insane? You're all fucking corrupted!"
You Su released his grip and smiled brightly.
"Do you know, I once told my junior sister a story? A man named Xu Xian married a snake demon. Even after an immortal elder told him the truth, he did not take it to heart and continued to love his wife deeply. They went through hardship after hardship, yet their feelings remained as solid as a rock."
"So does it matter whether they are human or evil? I only know that they have treated me well and never harmed anyone. That makes them the people most important to me. Even if they are corrupted now, I still won't abandon them. I'll search for every method in the world to save them."
"Now that I, too, have been corrupted, I'm not angry in the slightest, nor am I sad. On the contrary, I'm glad I can experience their suffering more personally. I'm grateful that the people most important to me and I... have always been the same kind!"
The first climax is over. I feel that there are still many things I didn't write well. To briefly explain the outline: True Man Ling was ordered to secretly kill the three of them, so he planned to use the Dream Centipede to confuse You Su between dreams and reality, ultimately making him cooperate with the Formation Technique and destroy himself. But the Dream Centipede had actually been cut down by Mistress in the first chapter—the slash wasn't meant to kill You Su. You Su simply didn't know, because he had seen Mistress, who possessed a sufficiently high level of authority, allowing him to see the Lantern Ghost later, which belonged to the Dream Master Type.
True Man Ling thought his plan had gone smoothly, never realizing that You Su had already seen through him and begun plotting his counterattack. You Su dared to face True Man Ling alone not because he was throwing his life away. First, cultivation realm does not equal combat strength, as explained earlier. Second, You Su had complete confidence in his swordsmanship. Finally, he had no choice; charging forward was the only option he had. He relied on the flesh his junior sister fed him to awaken his evil power and turn the tables. This was one of You Su's important cheats.
Only then did True Man Ling realize that his entire plan had failed. You Su's junior sister and Mistress had apparently been corrupted long ago, and by extremely powerful evil creatures at that. In fact, there was an obvious detail earlier: Mistress didn't eat, but he lied to True Man Ling and said that she did. This already showed that he didn't trust True Man Ling and had concealed it from him. He wanted True Man Ling to regard them as weak cultivators who were easy to deal with, so that he would lower his guard and give You Su an opportunity.
By contrast, the protagonist does not believe in absolute good and evil. As long as the basic principles of right and wrong are upheld, he only draws close to the people important to him. Of course, things are far from that simple~ In any case, I'll keep working hard. Please leave more comments, follow the story, and vote for it. I'm begging you!
Before you continue