Killing to Protect Life, Slaying Evil, Not People

At the beginning of March, spring was warm and flowers were blooming. The grasslands were lush, and the cattle and horses eagerly neighed as they rushed out of their pens.

The daily routine of cattle and horses had begun.

Shrek Academy's Central Plaza was packed with people. A gigantic stone statue of a woman was being pushed slowly toward the stone formation at the northern side of the plaza's center.

"Creak, creak." The overloaded pulleys groaned.

At the same time, the same thing was taking place at the plaza before the Body Sect's main hall, as agreed.

"Is this the Goddess of Life Dad mentioned?"

"Didn't Grandpa say there was also a male god? Why isn't there a statue of him?"

"..." The disciples lined up neatly on both sides whispered among themselves.

Although they had heard their elders mention it beforehand and could now see the statue, it was still only a statue. Without seeing the real person or experiencing divine power firsthand, many of them—especially the younger generation—had no real concept of it and felt little reverence.

Du Busi understood this clearly. His gaze swept across the disciples, his expression calm, but he said nothing. Just wait until you little brats get the shock of your lives.

He had already discussed it with his excellent disciple beforehand. This time, they intended to make a big spectacle of it.

After secretly rehearsing for half a month, it's finally time to get onstage and show off? Minghui thought as he stood nearby. He was a little nervous, feeling as though he had been called up by the principal to give a speech before the entire school. Even counting both his lives, this was his first time doing something like this.

His gaze swept around. Other than the villagers at the foot of the mountain who were physically unable to make the trip, everyone had come. There were nearly a thousand people in all.

This was definitely a huge occasion!

He let out a soft breath and waited quietly for his teacher to call him up.

Some time later, the statue of the Goddess of Life was pushed into place at the center of the plaza. Then, an elder of the sect took out a large round disk from a Soul Tool and placed it beside the statue.

Elders had also taken their positions beside the large Projection Soul Tools embedded in the ground on both sides of the plaza.

"Silence!" Du Busi shouted, and the plaza immediately fell quiet.

Only then did Du Busi turn his head and say gently, "Hui'er, go on. Don't be nervous. Just tell them exactly what happened."

The Body Sect never lied or put on pretenses before its own people.

Seriously, couldn't he have said something first to set things up? I'm still a kid. Minghui sighed inwardly, nodded slightly, and strode toward the statue.

"Ahem." After stopping in place and seeing the sea of eyes focused on him, he instinctively coughed to ease his nerves.

"Elders, Senior Brothers, Senior Sisters, to be honest, I don't know what happened either."

"I met two deities in a dream."

"???" Everyone's expressions instantly changed. Most were shocked, as though asking whether he was joking.

Princess Vina was equally astonished. She found it somewhat unbelievable.

However, since the sect's higher-ups had not doubted him, there had to be a reason. She patiently waited for Minghui to continue.

"This is what happened," Minghui continued.

"At the beginning of the year, when I awakened my Martial Soul, I suffered a backlash from its cold aura. I was frozen unconscious on the spot, and then I had a dream."

"..." He recounted the contents of the dream in detail.

Something like that happened? Everyone's expressions turned uncertain and suspicious.

At that moment, Du Busi stepped forward and spoke. "Before this, Hui'er had always remained in the family to recuperate. He had never gone outside, nor had he ever seen or heard of any tree with similar characteristics. Yet such trees truly exist in reality. One is the healing-type Martial Soul, the Tree of Life."

"The other is the Golden Ancient Tree that Sea God Tang San transplanted to Sea God Island at Shrek Academy ten thousand years ago."

"Furthermore, there is no woman in Hui'er's family who resembles this Goddess of Life."

A coincidence? There were simply too many coincidences!

Everyone understood the Sect Leader's meaning. When there were too many coincidences, they were very likely no coincidence at all.

Could Junior Disciple Minghui be the reincarnation of a deity? Or perhaps the representative the two deities had arranged to descend to the mortal world?

Their thoughts began to drift as they imagined all kinds of possibilities.

Princess Vina's expression became solemn.

"Hui'er, simulate it so everyone can experience it as well," Du Busi said, turning to him.

"Yes, Teacher." Minghui nodded. He activated his Martial Soul, closed his eyes, and used his First Soul Skill as he began to recall the scene.

"Hui'er cannot yet simulate the Ancient Tree of Life in its entirety, so the sect will use Projection Soul Tools to enlarge it proportionally, allowing everyone to experience it firsthand." As Du Busi spoke, he nodded toward both sides.

The two elders understood immediately and raised their hands, injecting Soul Power.

Everyone stared at Minghui without blinking.

Then, beginning at the ground behind him, a tree trunk as thick as a person's embrace appeared inch by inch and quickly rose upward. Trunk, branches, and leaves spread and formed one after another. Within moments, a lush tree dozens of meters tall stood before everyone.

A faint golden light radiated from it.

The next second, a vibrant aura of life spread out. Though it was false, simply being bathed in it made everyone feel incomparably comfortable.

"What a dense Life Aura!" Vina, whose healing-type Martial Soul was the Snow Lotus and who was exceptionally sensitive to Life Aura, was greatly shocked. This Life Aura was too dense, too vast, too ancient, as though it had endured the passage of countless ages. She had never encountered anything like it.

"It feels so good!" The other disciples were equally shocked. The pores all over their bodies opened unconsciously, and they felt utterly at ease.

It was clearly not real life energy, yet it gave them a sense of endless vitality.

It was fake, but their bodies did not feel deceived. Their bodies reacted first, bypassing their brains entirely.

Amid their astonishment, white light suddenly shot out from both sides of the plaza.

In the blink of an eye, the tree's image was enlarged countless times. The base of its trunk expanded until it was wide enough for a hundred people to embrace, occupying the entire plaza behind Minghui.

Above it, its branches and leaves flourished, blotting out the sky.

The tree was simply too large for the Projection Soul Tools to project its full form stably, making the image somewhat illusory. Yet even so, everyone present was still stunned as they gazed up at it.

"Does such an ancient tree really exist?"

Someone murmured in disbelief.

"If it does, perhaps only a place where gods reside could grow one?" someone else answered instinctively.

They could not help lowering their heads to look again at Minghui, standing beneath the tree with his eyes closed, their gazes filled with unspoken meaning as they reassessed him.

Then, two figures appeared side by side before Minghui, emerging from his feet to above his head. One was male and clad in purple robes; the other was female and dressed in a green gown.

After that, a peaceful, vibrant aura began to spill out from the woman on the right.

"Look over there!" The people standing at the edge of the plaza suddenly cried out.

Those nearby turned to look, only to see the Blue Silver Grass growing among the grass lean toward the woman.

"Chirp, chirp, chirp." Birdsong suddenly sounded by their ears.

They looked up and only then noticed flocks of birds flying in from the distant mountains: tits, bulbuls, and even flying insects. Even the pheasants the sect raised in the mountains had leaped onto branches, flapping their wings as they glided over. Snakes were even crawling across the ground.

What kind of divine miracle was this? Everyone present was completely dumbfounded.

Birds really came over? Minghui thought. He had expected it. The birds had been released beforehand by the elders, and the chickens had also been driven closer in advance. The aura simulated from the Ancient Tree of Life and the Goddess of Life would attract living creatures within a certain range. He had already witnessed it over the past few days.

"Chirp, chirp." The birds and insects quickly flew above his head. He could hear all the commotion clearly.

He did not open his eyes, instead steadying his mind and maintaining the scene.

With his current cultivation, simulating two people and one tree at the same time was still somewhat taxing. He could not afford to be too distracted. Besides, he still had something to say later.

He could not disrupt the rhythm now.

"It's time," he murmured inwardly, beginning to simulate the aura of the God of Destruction.

With a thought, a restrained yet terrifying aura spilled from the Phantom of Destruction God.

"Chirp!" The birds immediately panicked, flapping their wings as they fled for their lives.

"!!?" The more perceptive disciples also became alert at once. Their necks instinctively shrank back, and they took half a step backward.

Princess Vina, whose Brain Martial Soul made her highly perceptive, also instinctively stepped back. Her heart was filled with shock, and countless thoughts raced through her mind.

"What a terrifying aura!"

"This is absolutely not a power a mortal could control. Could these two truly be deities?"

Just then, Minghui's voice rang out.

"I heard Teacher say that the aura emitted by this male deity is destruction." His tone held a trace of confusion. "Meanwhile, the aura emitted by this Goddess of Life is Life Force. So I think the authorities held by these two deities should be destruction and creation."

"And as far as I know, these two are husband and wife."

"So, these past few days, I have been thinking that there may be some special meaning behind this."

"Until a few days ago, when I remembered the village I saw at the foot of the mountain when Teacher first brought me to the sect." At this point, his voice became clear and pure.

"On the villagers' faces, I saw contentment. I saw confidence in life."

"Perhaps this is the meaning of our existence, and one important reason why we embark upon the path of cultivation."

"That is, to protect our family, protect our home, and protect the things we cherish."

"Ever since I was young, my parents told me that there were many bad people in the outside world, as well as many Evil Soul Masters lurking in the shadows. Their existence constantly threatened the lives of the continent's people. Such people are a scourge upon humanity. There is no need to show them any mercy."

"Killing them is the greatest contribution to the continent, because once they are dead, they can no longer harm anyone."

As he spoke, Minghui's heart instead became inexplicably calm.

The people around him did the same, gradually quieting down.

Some disciples instinctively turned to look at the parents, wives, and children standing beside them. They could not help straightening their backs, their gazes firm.

If they could not protect their own families, what was the point of cultivating so diligently?

A trace of surprise flashed through Du Busi's eyes. He had never taught his disciple those words.

His heart filled with comfort. The fact that his disciple could speak such mature words showed that he had truly grown.

"So..." Minghui frowned slightly. A resolute expression appeared on his youthful face, and his tone rose several degrees.

"I think this is the meaning represented by these two deities."

The disciples' eyes widened, suddenly shining brightly.

"Whether destruction or creation, the meaning of their existence is to protect more effectively."

"To protect life, protect nature, and protect heaven and earth."

Minghui's youthful yet impassioned voice rang clearly through the plaza.

"Killing to protect life, slaying evil, not people. Only when evil is eradicated can heaven and earth be clear, allowing countless living beings to flourish in this world, run through it with hope, pass it down through generations, and thrive without end!"

"Destroying evil is protecting life!"

The plaza fell silent.

Many of the younger generation instinctively looked toward the two figures standing before Minghui, their eyes shining.

The older generation was the same.

At the same time.

"Buzz..." Across the entire Heaven Dou Empire, in Shrek City on the southeastern border, within the enormous Golden Ancient Tree on Sea God Island at Shrek Academy, a beautiful woman in a blue gown floated quietly within a golden egg-shaped sphere of light surrounded by several sleeping souls. Her eyes were closed, her expression peaceful, and her body curled around itself in an embracing posture. The golden light in her arms suddenly flickered.

The blue-clad woman's trembling eyelashes abruptly stopped moving, as though some force had suddenly suppressed them.

At the same time, beneath the tree's roots, extending toward an unknown place, within a walnut-shaped sphere, a tall and handsome man floated asleep in the same posture. His eyelashes likewise stopped trembling, and even his breathing ceased.

The sphere of light in his arms flickered on and off.

The next instant, a faint golden light suddenly appeared without warning above the Body Sect's plaza and gathered at a speed visible to the naked eye.

In the blink of an eye, it fell straight down.

"Well said!" Du Busi, who had just slapped his thigh and blurted out those words, suddenly looked up.

His pupils contracted.

Together with everyone in the plaza, he froze on the spot.