I'll Only Kill Him!

Four years later.

On the carriage, Lin Chao wore a blue robe and held a longsword in his arms, looking like a wandering swordsman.

Over these four years, Lin Chao had worked hard at cultivating.

Rather than cultivation, it was more accurate to say he had let the contamination deepen completely, then used the Unwavering Dao Heart to suppress it.

Lin Chao's strength had continued to rise.

Within the entire Dan Jian Sect, Lin Chao was the strongest.

Of course, in terms of raw strength, he still could not hold off ten thousand alone.

Over these four years, not only had he cultivated, he had also continually visited several major factions.

Hampered by problems with travel and transportation, he had visited only four major factions.

They were the Three Extremes Sect, Empty Mountain Temple, Jiang Tian Xie Family, and King Tai Liang's Estate.

Of the first three factions, after Lin Chao displayed his formidable strength and his ability to disregard contamination, they had all been won over by his powerful personal charisma.

Most importantly, Lin Chao had beaten every last one of them to the ground by himself. They had no choice but to be won over.

Moreover, coupled with Lin Chao's gift for persuasion, those three factions were quite loyal to him.

As for King Tai Liang's Estate, Lin Chao had infiltrated it in secret.

With a single sword, he impaled King Tai Liang to death.

King Tai Liang had been Azure Lord's lackey.

More importantly, he had been a complete pervert, taking pleasure in eating children.

He believed that the most tender flesh in the world belonged to newborn children less than a month old.

So even though Lin Chao had had the chance to subdue him, he had not done so.

Great Capital was now only a few dozen li away.

The carriage rolled along unsteadily.

Lin Chao sat inside, looking at the scenery beyond the window.

As far as the eye could see, the land was scarred and devastated.

Great Capital was the third most prosperous city in Great Cang.

Yet it was still incomparably desolate.

The rice fields lay abandoned. The occasional farmers passing through were either old men or women.

Children were almost nowhere to be seen.

Just then, the carriage came to a stop.

On the road, a ragged woman who looked around forty had fallen to the ground.

Her hair was a tangled mess like a bird's nest, and her body was covered in wounds torn open by thorny branches.

Clutching a tattered swaddling cloth, the woman was crazed as she waved at the carriage. "Sirs, have you seen my little Ping'an? He's so little and short. He got lost."

Beside her, an old man with mud all over his thighs knelt on the ground, the wrinkles on his face squeezed into a knot.

"My lords, please be magnanimous. Ping'an's mother didn't mean to offend you."

Lin Chao watched the scene with a calm gaze, though something faintly stirred within him.

Lin Chao pulled down the curtain in front of the carriage.

At his signal, the driver went to help the woman up.

Lin Chao returned to the carriage and took a deep breath.

Beside him, Mo Fengxue of the Three Extremes Sect looked at Lin Chao with a trace of puzzlement.

"I've never had to dirty my hands with the mundane world, so I find it a little hard to watch the suffering of this world," Lin Chao sighed.

Having lived in modern times, he had never seen ordinary people struggling to survive amid the chaos of a troubled age.

Naturally, Lin Chao's mindset differed from that of others.

Yet for some people, the more they saw, the more numb and indifferent they became.

"Young Master is the reincarnation of a sage. Naturally, you possess a sage's benevolent heart," Mo Fengxue said from beside him.

The Three Extremes Sect was very close to the Dan Jian Sect. Lin Chao had already subdued the Three Extremes Sect, so its next sect master naturally accompanied him to Great Capital.

"That's a little melodramatic, and a little hypocritical too," Lin Chao said with a soft laugh.

All along, he had carried something of a carefree, game-like attitude toward life.

At that moment, the driver returned. Through the window, Lin Chao saw the old man supporting the woman as they left.

The woman was still crying out incessantly, "Little Ping'an."

"Young Master, I asked around.

This woman is named Liu Guihua. Her husband was conscripted as a laborer five years ago.

Two years ago, the authorities took away her three-year-old son, Yao Ping'an.

Ever since then, she has gone mad. She often stops people on the road to ask whether they have seen her little Ping'an."

The driver did not say the rest.

The authorities seizing young children was a common occurrence in Great Cang.

Lin Chao knew it was because Azure Lord wanted to move Mount Taiqing, and the blood of young children was needed as an aid.

Mo Fengxue gritted her teeth and said fiercely, "Why do some people not have even a shred of compassion?

Even Yang Xin, the demonic general who buried a hundred thousand soldiers alive and used the heads of commoners as military merit, ran barefoot while carrying his daughter all the way to the imperial palace to beg the chief imperial physician to save her when she suddenly fell ill and the physicians in his residence were helpless."

Lin Chao knew Mo Fengxue was talking about Azure Lord.

Azure Lord's fatuous tyranny was true fatuous tyranny, without the slightest redeeming quality.

"Some people have no heart."

Lin Chao's voice was calm.

"Besides, how do you know Azure Lord has no compassion? Perhaps he has a past unknown to others as well."

"That's true." Mo Fengxue nodded.

"Whether he has his own hardships or whether he is obsessed, none of it changes the fact that he is our enemy."

Lin Chao's voice remained calm, with almost no emotional fluctuation.

"Some enemies are worthy of respect, but some enemies... we only need to kill them."

Holding the greatly transformed Dao Sword, Lin Chao looked at the ravaged land outside, his gaze turning resolute.

"I don't like hearing others lecture me.

And I don't like lecturing others either.

I think everyone has their own reasons.

Azure Lord has his reasons too.

I won't persuade him to accept mine. I'll only kill him."

Lin Chao felt that, in this simulated reincarnation, he seemed to have truly entered the right state of mind.

This was different from the previous times.

Mo Fengxue was briefly stunned, somewhat bewildered.

"You seem to be... lecturing right now?"

"No. Before I kill someone, I always say some inexplicable things to distract myself."

"Then if you were going to kill ten thousand people, wouldn't they be talked to death by you before you even began?" A smile appeared on Mo Fengxue's face.

She held Lin Chao in great awe, yet she still showed a touch of playfulness.

Thanks again to Cultivation Ice Flame for the reward!