Human Sacrificial Dao Soldiers

The temple was so dark it was frightening, and a strange smell drilled straight into their noses—like herbs mixed with soil, with a faint reek of blood beneath it.

Shitou and more than a dozen burly men were led here. Though their hearts beat like drums, the thought of becoming immortals soon made them toss that unease to the back of their minds.

"Shh... Keep quiet. Don't disturb the lords inside."

They craned their necks and looked around wildly. The place was strange, but where immortals lived had to have its own immortal reasons.

The Qi Refining, Seventh Layer cultivator from the Earth Spirit Sect—the divine envoy they spoke of—did not even spare them a proper glance. He impatiently waved his hand.

"Hurry up and bring them all in. Get it done. Don't dawdle and miss the hour."

"Yes, Senior Brother."

The two young disciples agreed, herding Shitou and the others into a large stone hall as though they were driving sheep.

The group obediently entered one after another.

In the middle of the stone hall sat an enormous round pool, bubbling with thick, dark-red liquid. Yellow talismans covered the ground around it, stretching all the way to the ceiling and joining into a great formation.

Several disciples in identical robes bustled around it, pouring jars upon jars of unknown medicinal powder into the pool and stirring until the water frothed endlessly.

One disciple pulled a long face and bellowed.

"Line up one by one! Stand on the formation nodes!"

"Th-this... what is this for?"

Shitou and the others did not dare disobey. Though their hearts went cold with dread, they still followed the orders and stood upon the glowing talisman-array positions on the ground.

Shitou silently repeated that his immortal opportunity had arrived. He was so excited that both palms were slick with sweat.

He thought of his wife and child at home. Once he learned immortal arts, he would make sure his mother and son could eat meat every day.

The main doors suddenly let out a muffled boom.

A side door of the stone hall was pushed open, and several Earth Spirit Sect disciples dragged out several things that looked like people.

Calling them people did not seem quite right.

They were also bare-chested, towering men, but there was not a trace of spirit in their eyes. Their faces were blank and rigid, and they moved as stiffly as wooden puppets.

One disciple picked up a red-hot branding iron bearing a bizarre talisman and pressed it straight onto one man's chest.

Sizzle—

The stench of scorched flesh suddenly spread through the air.

Yet the man did not so much as furrow his brow, as though it was not his own flesh being burned.

Shitou's heart skipped a beat. He thought that face looked somewhat familiar.

Before his mind could turn over the thought, a man chosen from a neighboring village beside him cried out in shock.

"U-Uncle Dagen?"

That cry made Shitou's head buzz.

His eyes fixed straight on the man. He knew that face all too well...

That was the strongest man in their village, the one the divine envoy had chosen last year to go enjoy a life of blessings.

But the man before him—how was there even the slightest trace of a living person left?!

Those eyes were blank and rigid. Even with his flesh burned through, there was no reaction. Could he already be dead?

A chill shot up to Shitou's scalp.

"H-how could this be? Didn't he go off to enjoy himself?"

His mind went blank in waves.

The man beside Shitou had bloodshot eyes. With a roar, he tried to lunge forward.

"You... What did you do to Uncle Dagen?!"

"Noise."

An Earth Spirit Sect disciple snorted coldly and flicked his hand. A streak of yellow light smashed into the man's leg.

The crack of breaking bone was piercing. The man screamed, clutched his broken leg, and fell to the floor, rolling over and over.

"Fucking noisy."

Another disciple strode over, stepped on his head, pulled out a black nail, and without another word drove it into the back of his neck.

The man's body convulsed sharply, then fell silent. In the blink of an eye, his gaze became unfocused.

The stone hall abruptly fell into dead silence.

The joy on the remaining men's faces had long since been frightened clean away.

Nothing remained in their eyes but fear, terror, and bewilderment...

Only now did they realize that what awaited them was no immortal opportunity at all, but the gates of hell.

"Run!"

No one knew who screamed it, but the men all went mad, turning and charging for the exit.

"What a pack of idiots."

The Qi Refining, Seventh Layer senior brother watched the farce coldly and formed a hand seal.

A deep hum rose up. The formation in the stone hall suddenly lit up in full, and an immense gravity descended from thin air.

The burly men trying to flee were like people struck in the back by huge boulders. Their legs buckled, and they all dropped to their knees, unable even to straighten up.

"Demons... You're a pack of man-eating demons!"

Shitou's eyes bulged red as he screamed with all his strength. His mind was filled with his wife's panicked face and his own child.

How could I have been so stupid... I should have seen through it long ago!

Pain clenched in his heart, and regret surged up from his gut.

The senior brother pointed at Shitou and spoke.

"Drag him over. His frame is good. Don't use the usual method on him. Be careful not to ruin him in the refinement."

"Yes!"

The two disciples immediately pounced on him, dragging the desperately struggling Shitou to the edge of the blood-water pool by force.

One disciple grinned and leaned forward with a flattering smile.

"Senior Brother, this batch of goods is truly excellent. Especially this Shitou—his body is sturdy. A Dao Soldier refined from him will definitely fetch a great price."

"Mhm. This year's quota is nearly filled."

The senior brother nodded, his face showing satisfaction.

"Once we finish this batch and send them all back to the sect, the contribution points we trade them for will be enough to get me the ingredients for a Foundation Establishment Pill."

"Then congratulations, Senior Brother!"

"Senior Brother is about to achieve the Great Dao! We offer our congratulations in advance!"

The disciples around him chimed in, babbling over one another as they flattered him.

They laughed and talked without the slightest attempt to hide it from the outsiders.

Those words of buying and selling crashed into the burly men's ears, snuffing out the last shred of hope in their hearts.

After all this, they did not even count as people. They were merely livestock raised to be traded away.

Shen Qingzhou crouched within the shadows near the ceiling, seeing the filthy business below with perfect clarity.

This time, he understood everything.

They penned people up like livestock, fattened them for harvest, then refined them. The entire process ran as smoothly as flowing water.

The Earth Spirit Sect relied on this to forcibly turn living people into unreasonable puppets, hauling them back to the sect by cartloads in exchange for benefits to aid their own cultivation.

What fine storage and transformation. Truly worthy of the Wèi Earth lineage.

The Qi Refining, Seventh Layer senior brother took out a small jade vial and spoke to Shitou, who was pinned to the ground beneath the pressure.

"Your bones are good. It would be a pity if you were ruined in the refinement. I'll use a few drops of Kan Water Jade to balance out your earth qi."

"If this produces a high-grade one, that too will be your good fortune."

He pulled out the stopper, and a bluish gleam of water swayed at the mouth of the vial. Pure water vapor instantly spread outward.

It was actually Kan Water Jade.

Shen Qingzhou sucked in a sharp breath, and even his breathing stopped for an instant.

The Kan Water spiritual treasure he had searched everywhere for was now openly displayed right before his eyes.

[Dao Strife]!

An indescribable yet unmistakable sensation rose clearly in his heart.

Destroy this place!

Erasing this sinful nest that treated mortals as provisions would be a merit!

A Kan Water merit worthy of heaven and earth's recognition, one that matched the imagery of "Earth Granary Sinking Current"!

Kill, seize treasure, and earn merit all in one stroke.

He had seized heaven's timing, earth's advantage, and human harmony alike.

Shen Qingzhou's thoughts turned.

He calmly assessed the strength of everyone below.

The Qi Refining, Seventh Layer leader looked solid enough, but the spiritual energy in his body was impure. One look told Shen Qingzhou that he had been force-fed pills into his cultivation.

Among the remaining disciples, only two were at Qi Refining, Fifth Layer, while another three or four hovered around the third and fourth layers.

There were barely more than twenty of those refined wooden men in total. They did not fear death, but they moved slowly and had empty minds, so they were no great trouble.

His own Sword Force had already taken shape, and he still held a lethal assassination move like Traceless in his hand.

If he struck from the shadows, using intent against the unprepared, his chances of winning were extremely high.

Below, the senior brother had already tipped the jade vial in his hand. A deep-blue droplet was about to fall onto Shitou's brow.

Shitou had long stopped struggling. He only stared fixedly at the senior brother, the fear in his eyes having turned entirely into bone-piercing hatred.

His wife at home, his child who had only just learned to walk—they would never wait for him to return in this lifetime.

Hatred made his heart bleed.

Just as that droplet was about to fall.

A dim water-glow suddenly flashed through the stone hall.

It slipped soundlessly from the shadow behind the Qi Refining, Seventh Layer senior brother.

Fast!

Fast to the absolute limit!

The tip of the Ripple-Pattern Sword struck later yet arrived first, stabbing toward the senior brother's back before that drop of Kan Water Jade could fall!