Among the meandering mountain range, four figures dashed through the forest at lightning speed.
They didn’t choose flying to get to their destination for it was possible to expose them to their unknown enemy. At the meantime, Fo Zi took out an alms bowl and enchanted it so it could hover in the air above them, then he explained, “this is a Thunder Alms Bowl of Protection which could conceal our trace from being discovered by anyone who is under Tribulation Passage Period.”
Under a situation like this, the four moved as a group, following the lead of Luo Jianqing and Fo Zi.
The Fiend Cultivator had just killed a hundred thousand people, so, apparently, he had generated immense amount of Lines of Karma. Not long ago, Luo Jianqing had reached the Fourth Seizure of Nine Heavenly Seizure Record – Seizing Karma, so he could see it in a blur. On the other hand, Fo Zi was pretty sensitive to the Flame of Sins, and that was the reason why he saw a cascade of bloody glow in the middle of the forest.
Among the massacred a hundred thousand people, most of them were simply commoners; the cultivator with the highest cultivation base had only reached Qi Condensation Period.
Facing a powerful cultivator who had reached Body Fusion Period, they could do nothing but gave in their lives like fragile weeds. At that time, a man might have been chatting with his wife, but the next moment he was embraced by the arms of death; perhaps a student was about to attend the life-changing exam in the capital city, but was killed silently in the middle of nowhere.
There were countless small countries in the thirty-six states, but the boundary between the mortal world and the cultivation world was respected by both sides, so that neither the cultivators nor the commoners would break it.
However, neither Fiend Cultivators nor the Demon Clan took this rule seriously.
Mo Qiu stayed quite calm and explained, “It was super easy for a Fiend Cultivator to kill a mortal. Although they cannot get Spiritual Power from the body of a commoner, there are plenty of Vitality left in the corpse, which, to be honest, is even more useful than the Spiritual Power. For instance, a man who is supposed to die at sixty years old is killed by a Fiend Cultivator at his thirty, then the remaining thirty-years of his Vitality would be snatched by that Fiend Cultivator; as for the poor man, he would turn into a ghost and would have to stay in that form for thirty years to enter the samsara.”
Along their way, Fo Zi was continuously chanting Heart Sutra in order to release souls from purgatory.
When Fo Zi chanted, the sutra turned into visible words and, with a shining golden glow, flooded out of his mouth. The Tangible Sutra! This was Fo Zi’s deep perception of the Buddhism Sutra. He kept deliver the innocent souls into the samsara, saving them from being tortured after turning to a ghost and roaming around lonely in this cold world.
Fo Zi was right. The reason why Gui Yuan Sect moved to Cen State a thousand years ago was to restrain the Fiend Exalt.
Cen State had tremendous amount of water but not mountain. The Gui Yuan Sect abandoned its Spiritual Mountain and migrated here because Cen State was right next to the land of Fiend Palace. Even though the Fiend Exalt remained quiet for a thousand years, the number of Fiend Cultivators who followed their nature of killing was way more than that of Fiend Cultivators who kept their hands untainted by the grime of blood. The Buddhism Cultivators took it as their responsibility to stop the Fiend Cultivators from killing.
Gazing at another village undergone massacre, Fo Zi couldn’t hold back the sorrow anymore, “I’m sorry for this. I didn’t have the power to save you.”
Nevertheless, Mo Qiu still scoffed, “Even Xuan Lingzi – the top of the so-called righteous cultivator – can’t save all the innocent souls from Fiend Cultivators all over the world. The Fiend Palace reigns seventy to eighty percent Fiend Cultivators, tries hard to restrain them, but still can’t prevent some Fiend Cultivators from bringing bloodbath to the innocent. The Heavenly Will has its own rules. You’d better ask the Will for the answer you seek.”
Fo Zi didn’t respond.
Watching the confrontation, Luo Jianqing could do nothing but sigh silently.
They kept marching forward. When they reached a hill, Mo Qiu suddenly stopped. Luo Jianqing turned his head to face him. Frowning, he said, “We will be noticed if we keep going, won’t we? He is deep in a cave located at the middle of that mountain.”
Mo Qiu nodded lightly, “Yes. No matter how sordid he is, he is a Body Fusion Period cultivator. No matter how powerful this Thunder Alms Bowl of Protection is, it won’t be able to eliminate all of our trace of sense at this distance. You can store it in your Interspatial Ring right now. It won’t make any difference with or without the alms bowl. The Fiend Cultivator is refining the Vitality of those commoners.”
Fo Zi summoned the Thunder Alms Bowl of Protection back immediately.
Luo Jianqing unsheathed the Floating Frost Sword, looking at Mo Qiu in a bleak gaze while the latter was doing the same.
Luo Jianqing said, “It should be a late-stage Body Fusion Period cultivator.”
Mo Qiu nodded, “That’s true, but seems like he reaches that period not long before.”
Yun Xiang asked, “It’s rare for a Fiend Cultivator to achieve late-stage Body Fusion Period. Mo Qiu, have you recognized who he is?”
Mo Qiu shook his head, “He might be a Rogue Cultivator who didn’t join the Fiend Palace.”
Although the Fiend Palace ruled most of the Fiend Cultivators in the world, it posted lots of rules for Fiend Cultivators to follow as well. Therefore, many powerful Fiend Cultivators refused to join the Fiend Palace, but they didn’t dare to openly oppose the Fiend Palace.
No one spoke anymore. They kept quiet.
After all, they were going to face a Body Fusion Period Cultivator, and his identity as a Fiend Cultivator bestowed on him the ability way more powerful than the other cultivators at the same level. Among the four young cultivators, Mo Qiu owned the highest cultivation base which was late-stage Nascent Soul Period, while Yun Xiang had the lowest cultivation base – late-stage Gold Core Period. Even though they were indeed the most legendary young cultivators in their generation, they were still weaker than the Fiend Cultivator for two major periods.
Musing for quite some time, Luo Jianqing finally came out a plan, “If we want to kill him, we must do it while he is feeble. I know that when a Fiend Cultivator is absorbing others’ Spiritual Power and forging it as his or her own, the cultivator will be prone to vital danger. We only have a short window of time. Probably only fifteen minutes. Moreover, even if the Fiend Cultivator is quite weak at that moment, he is still a Body Fusion Period cultivator. Thus, we must use our Final Maneuver, without holding force back.”
Hearing that Luo Jianqing had pointed out the weakness of Fiend Cultivator, Mo Qiu and Yun Xiang exchanged an astonishing look.
It was an unwritten rule that the weakness of Fiend Cultivator should never be shared with someone who was not one of them. How come Luo Jianqing got to know this?
They didn’t have much time to ponder anymore. After a while of contemplation, Mo Qiu made a decision, “I agree with you. We should all use our Final Maneuver to grasp the chance – if there is any – of killing that devil. However, we still need a plan of retreating in case that Fiend Cultivator survives from our attack. I have two Flying Shadow Butterfly, and each one could take one of us away from the battlefield in an instant. Yun Xiang, you take one. The other one is for you, Luo Jianqing.”
Seeing a red paper-made butterfly handed to him, Luo Jianqing was transfixed. He raised his head blankly and said, “You should keep this one since you only have two. I’m good.”
Mo Qiu lifted an eyebrow, “So you think I’ll be trapped? Don’t worry. Do you still remember that you once gave me a Jade Tablet which can help the owner fleeing thousands of miles away? It’s mine since you have given it to me. I won’t give it back even if you beg me for it. I’ll use that for retreating.”
Thus, Luo Jianqing stopped refusing Mo Qiu and took the Flying Shadow Butterfly.
Fo Zi was left aside watching them. The elegant monk smiled, “Amitabha, I also have a magic item which can help me escape.”
Mo Qiu sneered slightly, “I won’t give you anything anyway.”
Fo Zi was still fondling his Bddha Beads silently without uttering a word.
This was what they called ‘the difference between the rich and the poor’. If they were four common Rouge Cultivators, they wouldn’t even dare getting close to a Body Fusion Period cultivator, not to mention killing him. However, as four genius of the big sects who were bestowed on the most abundant cultivating resources by their sects, they had even got their magic items for fleeing.
It was getting dark; evening came very soon.
They were staying in a cave and waiting quietly with great patience.
That Fiend Cultivator had killed a hundred thousand people. It took time for him to absorb their Vitality. The weakest moment of a Fiend Cultivator would be the time of sunrise. Not for the same reason with the Ghost Cultivators who were born slightly dreading of the Sun, the Fiend Cultivators’ mental power would be weakened when the first beam of sunshine tore apart the night because it was the moment they were most prone to their Internal Demons, being tortured by their conscience.
A wait like this lasted for three days.
