Kill Yourself Before Killing Others

Deep within Slaughter Hall

At this moment, the two stood inside a peculiar stone chamber. At its center, an enormous relief carving was exceptionally eye-catching.

"What is this?"

Yang Huai looked up. With just one glance, he was drawn in by the spiritual resonance emanating from the relief!

Flame Daoist said calmly,

"This is the Spirit-Slaying Jade Disc, and one of Slaughter Hall's core inheritances. By the rules, you would have needed to remain in Slaughter Hall for three years, then undergo trials and earn the recognition of all your senior brothers in the kitchen before gaining the qualifications to enter this place. But now we'll simplify everything and let you in first. Besides, Slaughter Hall really has only one inner disciple—you. This place will be yours in the future as well!"

The implication was that Yang Huai's path of retreat had been sealed off in advance.

Whether Yang Huai wanted the status of Slaughter Hall's sole inner disciple or not, he had no choice but to accept it.

Yang Huai curled his lip.

This was probably the only benefit that came with being the sole inner disciple.

Flame Daoist's gaze fell upon the Spirit-Slaying Jade Disc, his eyes tinged with remembrance. Once upon a time, this Spirit-Slaying Hall had been bustling with life. But as cultivators of Slaughter Hall fell into depravity, or perished one after another, fewer and fewer people remained. These great and powerful arts had likewise been shelved, no longer the direction pursued by the people of the Daoist temple.

Everyone liked peace and quiet, but who would charge into battle for the younger generation?

He continued calmly,

"This Slaughter Jade Disc is both a wondrous magical treasure and the site of an inheritance. Next, I will activate the Slaughter Spirit Disc for you. You will have roughly three hours. How much you gain will depend entirely on your own comprehension and perseverance!"

Yang Huai's gaze rested on the Spirit-Slaying Jade Disc. He could vaguely see a vast mountain of corpses and sea of blood within it, as well as a terrifying figure standing atop piled bones. Its killing intent swept in every direction; countless fiends and demons lay dead at its feet, its divine might boundless.

"Come!"

Flame Daoist slowly stepped forward. With a raise of his hand, a point of blood-red radiance emerged from his palm and sank into the depths of the relief. In an instant, countless dark currents stirred within the blood sea deep inside the Spirit-Slaying Jade Disc. The stench of mountains of corpses and seas of blood drowned Yang Huai's spiritual senses. Then, a point of red light pierced through his brow, causing him to close his eyes.

Countless rays of red light bloomed from the Spirit-Slaying Jade Disc, enveloping Yang Huai's entire body as though dyeing him blood-red. Yet deep within his brow, a point of golden light blossomed, always protecting his spiritual platform.

At that moment, a cold voice rang out from the depths of Spirit-Slaying Hall.

"Junior Brother Flame, you are being too reckless. Activating the Spirit-Slaying Jade Disc so rashly—are you not afraid of ruining him?"

One of the stone pillars within Spirit-Slaying Hall suddenly emitted a layer of blood-red radiance, and Hou Feng Daoist stepped out from it. This fireworker Daoist was still dressed in red robes and looked like an ordinary fireworker Daoist, but his eyes were filled with worry.

Flame Daoist shook his head.

"He must grow stronger as quickly as possible. I may not have much time left in the kitchen. If I die, he must be able to protect this foundation!"

Hou Feng Daoist glanced at him. Flame Daoist was already thinking of entrusting an orphan to another's care. He likely knew his own chances were slim. Hou Feng Daoist could understand how he felt, but he still reproached him slightly.

"But if you rush things, you may damage his foundation!"

Flame Daoist looked at Hou Feng Daoist and sighed faintly.

"Risk and opportunity always go hand in hand! If he cannot be supported, then you can only pray that I return alive!"

Hou Feng Daoist sighed upon hearing this.

"Why must you go?"

"If I do not go, am I supposed to live like a coward and wait for death? I would rather go out in a blaze of glory!"

After a slight pause, Flame Daoist looked at Hou Feng Daoist.

"Senior Brother, do you know? Sometimes, I truly envy you!"

Hou Feng Daoist knew what Flame Daoist wanted to say, but he merely responded with silence.

He did not continue trying to dissuade Flame Daoist. He simply turned and left Spirit-Slaying Hall.

Flame Daoist gave a faintly mocking laugh at the sight. Then his gaze returned to the Spirit-Slaying Jade Disc, anticipation flickering in his eyes.

He was eager to see Qingli's choice—whether he would be the same as Flame Daoist had been back then!

Yang Huai's mind was in turmoil. His consciousness was trapped beneath the Spirit-Slaying Jade Disc, and it was as though he had stepped into the depths of a vast mountain of corpses and sea of blood. Everything around him was terrifyingly crimson!

Crimson wastelands, crimson islands, crimson lakes!

Then he saw an incomparably ugly asura fiend, wielding a long blade as it approached. It had a blue face and fangs, its bloody body more than ten feet tall. With a flash of bloody light, he died?

But after a sharp pain in his neck, his body was reborn deep within the blood-red earth. Waiting for him was an asura blood blade that crossed hundreds of feet and slashed down at him again.

A flash of bloody light, accompanied by an eerie laugh—then another death that sent the world spinning.

When he revived again, Yang Huai's eyes turned fierce. This time, he struck first. The soul-carving blade in the depths of his eyes erupted in an instant and slashed at the ten-foot-tall asura fiend. The asura fiend paused in slight surprise, then charged forward with a savage grin. Yang Huai was beheaded again.

When he revived once more, the asura fiend came charging at him again.

Yang Huai's eyes immediately turned red.

This damned asura fiend had fixated on him, hadn't it?!

He immediately visualized the Suiren Spirit Aspect. Vast swathes of milky-white light bloomed around him. This time, it delayed his death by a single instant, but it did not change the outcome.

With one slash of the bloody blade, his head flew off again.

When he revived once more, Yang Huai nearly burst into curses. At the same time, the Little Vajra Incantation condensed into an enormous protective barrier around him. In the next instant, the Suiren Spirit Aspect appeared behind him. Relying on his powerful soul, he managed to use two techniques at once, surpassing his limits to condense the two great soul-defense arts one after the other.

Clang!

This time, Yang Huai was not immediately cut down by the asura fiend. Seeing this, blood-red fiendish radiance around the asura fiend surged violently. Its berserk power poured forth as a hundred-foot blade light, directly shattering the dim radiance of Yang Huai's Little Vajra Incantation and Suiren Spirit Aspect, killing him in a single strike.

"...I..."

Yang Huai appeared again, malice nearly spilling from his eyes. Just as the killing intent in his heart swelled, part of the power within the churning blood sea resonated with his soul. At the same time, a blood-red scripture manifested from the depths of the void. It seemed that, should he desire it, it could flow into the depths of his soul along with the blood sea.

"Spirit-Slaying Treasure Wheel Secret Cache!"

With only slight contact, he understood that this was an immensely powerful secret art inheritance.

Yet his body was annihilated again in the next instant. After cycling between life and death several times, he finally sorted out some of the information within the Spirit-Slaying Treasure Wheel Secret Cache.

This powerful secret art was the core inheritance of the Spirit-Slaying Jade Disc. One had to nurture killing thoughts until they gave birth to a heart of slaughter, then condense a Slaughter Spirit Wheel. The stronger the heart of slaughter, the stronger the Slaughter Spirit Wheel formed through meditation. At the later stages, one could slaughter all living beings between heaven and earth, gather them into the image of a slaughter demon god, and reverse one's divine soul.

This inheritance was undoubtedly immensely powerful. According to the records on the jade disc, by gathering all kinds of killing aura, one could even cultivate to a level comparable to true gods of heaven and earth in the future. Yet Yang Huai did not dare directly touch that core meditation diagram.

Because Yang Huai clearly remembered Yuan Xiuxiu's warning: he could cultivate Daoist arts, but he could not cultivate great and powerful evil arts or demonic techniques!

The inheritance before him was exceedingly similar to an evil art of the demonic path!

The more powerful such evil arts and demonic techniques were, the deeper the harm they inflicted upon oneself, and the more easily they could taint the purity of one's spiritual radiance.

The Nine Heavens Orthodox Path also possessed inheritances of great and powerful arts. Once his Daoist cultivation had achieved success, he could find a way to cultivate them then.

Still, while he would not cultivate the Spirit-Slaying Treasure Wheel, the secret art within it concerning the formation of a heart of slaughter made everything suddenly clear to him.

The killing thoughts required by the Soul-Calming Spirit-Severing Technique referred to a killing intent realm.

A killing intent realm could be nurtured in two ways: killing others, or killing oneself!

Killing others would inevitably breed all kinds of stray thoughts and taint one's foundation.

Killing oneself meant repeatedly dying within a secret treasure like this, nurturing a thread of pure killing thought, and using it as a seed to cultivate a heart of slaughter.

Each had its strengths and weaknesses. The former cultivated more quickly, but produced many distracting thoughts. The latter excelled in purity, but cultivated slowly and brought even greater pain and torment. One tortured others and cultivated at tremendous speed; the other tortured oneself and cultivated at a snail's pace. Few could choose the latter.

But Yang Huai was capable of self-discipline.

Of course, that was also because he had learned the consequences early on and had another path available.

As his thoughts turned, his head flew off again. The asura fiend let out a shrill, sinister laugh.

Upon reviving, Yang Huai deliberately visualized the killing rune from the Soul-Calming Spirit-Cleaving Technique and fused into it that thread of killing thought born between life and death, casting aside anger, hatred, fear, and countless other distracting thoughts. At once, a sharp white light emerged in the depths of his soul, as though it had honed an edge upon the soul-carving blade.

From then on, with every death and rebirth of Yang Huai's soul, the edge cultivated within it grew a little sharper. After hundreds of deaths, white light burst from his eyes. Even when it struck the asura fiend, it caused the creature unbearable pain.

Moreover, after experiencing hundreds of deaths, the Little Vajra Incantation he condensed around himself became thicker and sturdier, while the Human King Spirit Aspect he summoned became more agile, varied, and refined.

Even the overwhelmingly powerful asura fiend could not kill him within a few moves.

Roar! Roar!

As a three-foot white light, solid as substance, locked onto the asura fiend, the bloody radiance deep within the fiend's brow suddenly dimmed drastically. Yang Huai raised his hand, and an incomparably hard, incomparably yang golden spear formed in his grasp, instantly piercing through the asura fiend's chest. But the asura fiend reacted with incredible speed. Nourished by the bloody light in the depths of the blood sea, its body rapidly reformed. Transforming into a blood shadow, it vanished from where it stood. Yet Yang Huai seemed to have eyes in the back of his head. Sensing that thread of malice approaching, layers of golden light condensed around him. The Little Vajra Incantation no longer protected his whole body; instead, it transformed into a glazed golden shield before him, blocking the attack from behind.

Rumble!

Under the blood blade, the entire glazed golden shield was sent flying. Yang Huai's body was hurled backward, but he was not seriously harmed. With another thought, golden light emerged again, transforming into several golden spears that shot toward the fiend. Though they were swiftly cleaved apart by the asura fiend, they bought him a brief moment to catch his breath. A fierce sharpness filled his eyes as he searched for an opportunity.

By his estimation, this asura fiend was likely an existence comparable to one at the upper realm of Heavenly Man. With his current cultivation and the secret arts he possessed, he absolutely could not defeat it. But he might still be able to prolong the time before he was killed.

At this moment, he cursed inwardly. The patriarchs of Slaughter Hall were truly unreasonable. They knew full well that the disciples entering the Spirit-Slaying Jade Disc might have only just begun cultivating, yet they had brought in such a terrifying asura fiend to torment them. If someone lacked mental fortitude and was killed hundreds of times, would they not go mad?

What was more, faced at every moment with such a terrifying desperate situation and all manner of deaths, nine times out of ten they would choose to inherit the secret art.

Then they would truly be bound to Slaughter Hall.

Just as Yang Huai was considering how to resist this terrifying asura fiend, a ray of golden light suddenly appeared above the blood sea. Yang Huai felt an immensely powerful pull, and in an instant, his body vanished from the blood-red earth.

Only the asura fiend remained behind, roaring in unwillingness!

Before the Spirit-Slaying Jade Disc, Yang Huai opened his eyes. His gaze was now bright and spirited, with cold glimmers flickering in their depths. As he slowly swept his eyes over the gray stone pillars and walls around him, he finally came back to himself, a feeling of being separated from the world by a lifetime rising in his heart.

"I'm finally out!"

Every moment of those three hours had been so difficult and agonizing.

Flame Daoist looked at Yang Huai. Sensing the incomparably pure aura emanating from the depths of his soul, he could not help but freeze. Yang Huai had clearly not absorbed the inheritance within the Spirit-Slaying Jade Disc; otherwise, he would inevitably have been stained with an aura of slaughter. Flame Daoist looked at him with complicated emotions in his eyes, but in the end, he said with genuine admiration,

"Looks like you're stronger than I was!"

Emerging unstained from the mud.

He could not have done that.

If he had been able to preserve his original heart like Qingli back then, how could he have ended up trapped between advance and retreat as he was now?

Without question, this disciple might go farther than he ever had in the future.

That made it all the more painful!

"You may go!"

Flame Daoist suddenly seemed listless. He waved his hand, signaling that Yang Huai could leave.

Yang Huai gave Flame Daoist a baffled look. Why did he look so utterly drained, as if he had entered the state of a sage?

But Yang Huai was far more delighted at the moment.

When he left Spirit-Slaying Hall, several lines of information upon the bronze hall in the depths of his sea of consciousness changed, and numerous secret arts underwent drastic transformations.