Disciples

"Crack."

Gu Jinlai set his broken bone back into place.

It hurt.

Cold sweat beaded heavily across his forehead.

He glanced toward the woods.

Ran Tianxing, Xie Xiaowan, and the others had already fled without a trace.

"What fine disciples I have."

He lowered his head and looked at Zhang Buyi and Ma Zheng, who had broken one of his arms.

His arm was broken.

And most of the true qi in his body had been drained. If he encountered another Core Forming expert, he would not be able to defeat them.

Besides, he had never learned movement techniques. He could not escape even if he wanted to.

Moreover, among ordinary Qi Refining and Gang Condensing cultivators, very few bore more Karma than he did, or names redder than his.

To keep those reckless fools from provoking him, a display of force was essential.

He stepped forward and cut off Ma Zheng's and Zhang Buyi's heads.

"..."

Looking at those two heads, he felt sick.

Killing someone was one thing; beheading them was another.

But...

These two heads could spare him nearly all his trouble.

With these two heads, no one would dare come courting death again.

A Spirit Refining elder from the Yellow Heaven Dao Sect?

The Headmaster of Orthodox One Sect?

They would not dare.

If Spirit Refining experts made a move, it meant a decisive battle.

Without absolute certainty, the leaders of both sides would not personally enter the fray, lest the oriole wait behind them.

Besides, Lin Xiao did not have absolute control over the Purgatory Demon Sect. If a decisive battle truly began, the Purgatory Demon Sect would certainly send reinforcements.

With every side unprepared, he would have some time to catch his breath.

Gu Jinlai picked up the heads of those two Yellow Heaven Sect outer sect elders.

"I had no choice about transmigrating here. Now, I want to be a good person."

He looked at himself, his lapels stained with blood and human heads hanging at his waist...

"Heh. I really want to be a good person. If you will not let me be one, then you must be bad people. And bad people deserve to die."

He lowered his head, plucked a foxtail grass stalk, held it between his lips, and strolled leisurely toward Changjun City.

That was why people needed to learn how to package themselves.

A person could have no education, be short and ugly, or have no social skills, but as long as he mastered the skill of driving a Ferrari one-handed, he would never have to worry about finding a girlfriend devoted to him heart and soul.

Likewise, within Changjun City's territory, as long as someone carried the heads of two Core Forming elders from the Yellow Heaven Dao Sect, all the pursuers from the past ten-odd days would turn as docile as lambs upon seeing him and take a wide detour.

Queuing to enter the city, guards making things difficult, Zhengyi Sect disciples hunting him down, cultivators upholding justice on Heaven's behalf?

None of that existed.

In full view of countless people, he swaggered through the streets and returned to the Purgatory Demon Sect's stronghold in the southern district.

It was a complex formed by three halls and five courtyards.

"E-Elder Gu."

At the entrance to the stronghold, Protector Zhao Yiping, who had received word early, waited tremblingly with six disciples.

The Ten Great Demon Sects and Six Immortal Sects generally stationed one elder, three to six protectors, and anywhere from twenty to a hundred disciples in a city, depending on its size. They would also recruit local Body Tempering martial artists at the Organ Refining and Blood Changing realms as peripheral members.

Apart from Elder Gu Jinlai, the Purgatory Demon Sect's Changjun City branch had three chief protectors—Zhao Yiping, Hong Shan, and Fang Cai—and twenty-six disciples.

Twelve days earlier, Fang Cai and Hong Shan had taken disciples out on a mission, while Zhao Yiping had likewise been delayed by other matters. That gave Orthodox One Sect elder Bai Shu the chance to attack their stronghold, forcing Gu Jinlai to flee everywhere and suffer utter humiliation under the pursuit of the Six Sons of Zhengyi.

Yet now that he had returned to Changjun City, only Zhao Yiping and six disciples had come to receive him?

"Where are Fang Cai and Hong Shan?"

Gu Jinlai tilted his head and asked.

"Protector Fang sent word that they discovered a hidden resource site outside Changjun City. They reported it to the sect, and the sect ordered the two of them to lead disciples in guarding that resource site..."

"The sect ordered it? Lin Xiao ordered it, more like. What obedient protectors our Purgatory Sect has."

Gu Jinlai said.

Zhao Yiping wore a miserable expression and did not dare answer.

Gu Jinlai glanced at the Karma on him and found himself too speechless to mock him.

This protector actually had a Yellow Name.

Not even Light Red.

Many outer sect elders from righteous immortal sects were stronger than him. He was probably just muddling through his days in the Purgatory Demon Sect.

There was no use expecting someone like this to handle major matters, but he was convenient enough to assign small tasks to.

Gu Jinlai removed Zhang Buyi's and Ma Zheng's heads. "Go. Hang them at the entrance."

"Yes."

Zhao Yiping hurried forward and personally accepted them.

Gu Jinlai had not concealed his movements along the way. Coupled with Fang Yichen and Xie Xiaowan fleeing back to the Yellow Heaven Dao Sect to spread the news, word that he had killed those two Core Forming experts had already spread everywhere.

Yet when Zhao Yiping saw Zhang Buyi's and Ma Zheng's heads with his own eyes, his heart still trembled.

In this age, the world was in chaos, and everyone practiced martial arts.

By Great Qian military standards, Body Tempering fighters could be called elites, Organ Refining fighters were considered fierce warriors, and Blood Changing fighters could command a hundred men.

Those who cultivated true qi would enjoy food and clothing without worry and rise above the common crowd.

Qi Refining was already like that. As the peak a cultivator could reach, Core Forming experts were local overlords in any city.

Star Province was an upper province where heroes gathered.

Yet even in a city like Lingxiao City, where the cultivation world's ownership had already been decided, there were fewer than twenty Core Forming experts in total.

The powers within Changjun City were tangled like twisted roots. Leaving aside the City Lord Mansion and Demon Refining Hall, the cultivation world alone had the Purgatory Demon Sect, Cold Moon Demon Sect, Yellow Heaven Dao Sect, and Orthodox One Sect. Even so, their Core Forming experts combined numbered no more than forty.

Now, two Core Forming experts, including a top-tier Core Forming expert like Zhang Buyi who had made a name through battle, had both fallen to Elder Gu.

With such ability, who would dare say Elder Gu was in his twilight years? Who would dare say Elder Gu's cultivation had greatly diminished?

"I killed two Core Forming experts from the Yellow Heaven Dao Sect. Zhang Buyi should be on the list, worth three minor merits. Three minor merits, plus the two I had already accumulated... Report it. I want to exchange them for a Spirit Nourishing Pill."

"A Spirit Nourishing Pill!?"

Zhao Yiping's heart jolted.

"Go at once!"

Gu Jinlai said.

A Spirit Nourishing Pill.

As its name implied, it was a medicinal pill that nourished the soul.

"Gu Jinlai" had suffered a decline in cultivation because the Six Desires Demon Art had been crippled, but he was ultimately a Spirit Refining Giant. His realm was still there. With the medicinal power of a Spirit Nourishing Pill, there was a strong chance he could return to Spirit Refining.

Once his cultivation recovered, all the great and small troubles he faced in Changjun City would melt away like ice before the sun.

Gu Jinlai's return to Changjun City stirred quite a few ripples throughout the city.

In the northern district, Zhang Zhengyang, the Headmaster of Orthodox One Sect, summoned the Six Sons of Zhengyi and questioned them in detail for a third time about their pursuit of Gu Jinlai.

Meanwhile, the Yellow Heaven Dao Sect flew into a rage.

Zhao Bowen, the Spirit Refining elder stationed in Changjun City, let his aura surge forth, his killing intent filling the fields. Every cultivator in the eastern district felt it with crystal clarity.

However, that aura lasted only a moment before quickly subsiding, with no further action taken.

Having lost two Core Forming elders, even if they sought revenge, they would have to wait until reinforcements arrived.

The Cold Moon Demon Sect in the western district felt somewhat fortunate.

They had merely fanned the flames from behind the scenes and had not dispatched any direct personnel, so they had suffered no losses.

After receiving word that Gu Jinlai and the Headmaster of Orthodox One Sect might have staged an elaborate performance together, they gradually became wary of Orthodox One Sect, this local power.

Several of Star Province's twenty-six cities were controlled by local powers, places even their great top-tier sects could not insert themselves into.

As for the City Lord Mansion and Demon Refining Hall in the central district, both still maintained the attitude of hanging high what had nothing to do with them.

White Name, Yellow Name, Light Red, Bright Red, Dark Red.

Inside his study, Gu Jinlai ignored the storms raging outside.

He summarized the gains and losses of the past half month in a notebook.

When he obtained Green Lotus, he gained the ability to see the Karma on others. Based on that Karma, there were five levels.

"No, more than five levels."

Gu Jinlai wrote down two more shades.

Light Purple, Dark Purple.

Most disciples of the Purgatory Sect fell between Yellow Name and Light Red, while a few could reach Bright Red.

Orthodox One Sect, on the other hand, consisted mostly of White Names and Yellow Names, with a few Light Red Names.

There were also an extremely small number of Light Purple Names.

The Orthodox One Sect disciple he had counterattacked and killed back then had been Light Purple.

"So the reason my Karma stacked up by one layer every time I killed someone was because they had Purple Names?"

He thought again of the Four Evils of Star Province.

Those four had Red Names. Two of their names were not even as red as his, yet they still gave him clear light.

In other words...

As long as someone's Karma reached Bright Red, killing them would grant one streak of clear light. The Dark Red Blood Demon Ancestor, meanwhile, granted two.

It had nothing to do with his own condition.

At most, killing a Light Red Name increased his Karma very little, a Yellow Name slightly more, a White Name another degree more, while Purple directly increased it by an entire layer.

After understanding the causal relationship involved, Gu Jinlai's heart stirred.

"What if I recruited a large group of Purple Name disciples to guard my surroundings..."