For some reason, the nerves Uncle Shan had kept taut all this time suddenly relaxed the instant he saw the handsome young man standing on the branch.
He knew what he was about to face.
And he had neither resentment nor regret.
As Uncle Shan stood there, his eyes, once brimming with conflicting emotions, suddenly lost focus.
Then he toppled forward.
"Uncle Shan!"
The hunters beside him hurried forward, trying to help the fallen Uncle Shan up.
But Uncle Shan had already lost all signs of life.
For a mortal like him, Chen Yan needed only the slightest stir of thought to erase his spiritual sense completely.
And in a sense, the method Chen Yan had chosen was also the most dignified.
There was no pain, nor any external wound.
Only an utterly peaceful departure.
The hunters gathered around Uncle Shan. Although none of them knew who the handsome young man on the branch was, this was certainly no time to care about that.
"He is already dead."
Chen Yan spoke in a very calm voice, addressing the hunters.
"Dead?"
The oldest hunter raised his head and looked toward Chen Yan, his eyes filled with bewilderment.
"That's right. From the moment the outer dao began corrupting him, he was already beyond saving."
Chen Yan continued slowly.
Everyone fell silent.
Chen Yan could only kill Uncle Shan.
The same analogy still applied: if hair represented the threads of karma, then the outer dao was chewing gum.
Once chewing gum stuck strands of hair together, there was only one way to solve the problem.
That was to cut off the hair that had been stuck together.
Such was the outer dao.
It did not belong to the river of time, much less have any connection to karma. It was simply contamination.
"The