Chapter 2718 - The Sword Cultivator Who Grasps the Dao Through Buddhist Practice

The sky was lined with criss-crossing gashes reminiscent of a spiderweb.

The entire Golden Spirit Hidden Realm lay in ruin, its mountains and rivers collapsed and destroyed.

The inauspicious spirits who’d escaped destruction quivered uncontrollably, still terrified.

Half of the Mountain of Blessings had been destroyed, and all manner of buildings now lay in rubble.

A dozen or so Eternal Sources hovered in midair, glowing with dazzling, colorful light.

The representatives of Fire Dragon Temple, Bluebird Palace, and the Yu Family had all met their ends, leaving only their sources and treasures behind.

The Eternal Sources varied based on their cultivators’ strength in life.

Their treasures lay strewn across the ground, sparkling.

Ol’ Devil Golden Spirit stood there in a daze.

Qin Suqing looked on in a daze, lips pursed, while Luan Yunzhong stared in wide-eyed shock.

That blue-robed figure stood there with the lively air of a youth, holding the rolled-up calligraphic scroll.

He just stood there, seemingly plain and simple, with no sign of contemptuous majesty. No one who saw him would have dared to believe that it was this young man who’d just stepped forth and slaughtered a group of powerful foes, laughing and chatting all the while.

He’d turned the situation on its head!

Su Yi waved his sleeve, gathered all the Eternal Sources, and then walked over to Ol’ Devil Golden Spirit.

“You have to pull a weed up by the roots. If you’re going to silence someone, it makes sense to be thorough. I realize that,” said Ol’ Devil Golden Spirit. He gestured to himself, as if he’d accepted his fate. “Go ahead and kill me. I was a valiant figure in life, and while I failed to become an elite among ghosts in death, I at the very least held onto my courage!”

Su Yi’s gaze shone with a hint of strange light. “How about we find a place for a private chat?”

Ol’ Devil Golden Spirit clearly found this surprising, but he just laughed coldly. “Alright, I’ll accompany you to the bitter end!”

Su Yi looked at Qin Suqing. “Wait a moment, please.”

Qin Suqing instinctively nodded.

It was only after Su Yi and Ol’ Devil Golden Spirit faded from view that she came to her senses and let out a long pent-up breath.

The stranger they were traveling with sure wasn’t simple!

“Uncle Luan, have you figured anything out?” Qin Suqing asked softly.

Luan Yunzhong had a complicated look on his face. “All I know is that Fellow Daoist Su isn’t simple. He might just be an Unfettered Realm cultivator, yet he can control that unfathomably powerful scroll. That was the key to his victory today.”

He scanned the room, then transmitted, “Young Mistress, how about we seize this opportunity to leave?”

Qin Suqing stiffened. “Uncle Luan, do you suspect that Fellow Daoist Su will kill us to silence us?”

Luan Yunzhong sighed. “We met in passing, and we don’t know his origins. Looking back on it now, I can say with certainty that Su Xuanjun would have been just fine even if we hadn’t come to his aid earlier.”

He paused, then added, “And earlier, he seemed concerned that word of Liu Shangchuan’s death would reach the Heart-Tempering Sword House, so he slew everyone else here. Given the circumstances, how could he

not w

orry that we’d leak what happened here?”

Qin Suqing’s beautiful face filled with uncertainty.

It’s true. The Heart-Tempering Sword House really is the mightiest Heavenly Monarch-level faction in the Eternal Heavens Domain.

And how could the Heart Tempering Sword House possibly just let Liu Shangchuan’s death go?

Given the circumstances, Su Xuanjun might really go all in and kill us, too!

When he saw her hesitation, Luan Yunzhong pushed again. “Young Mistress, on the path of cultivation, you shouldn’t seek to hurt others, but you cannot let your guard down, either!”

But against his expectations, Qin Suqing decided not to leave. “If Fellow Daoist Su wanted to silence us, he could have done so just now. Why leave us this opportunity to escape?”

Luan Yunzhong grimaced and was just about to say something when Qin Suqing said, “I have faith that Fellow Daoist Su isn’t that kind of person!”

She was mentally replaying the scene of “Su Xuanjun” killing Liu Shangchuan. Su Xuanjun’s gaze had been utterly calm and clear, with no hesitation or fear.

It was as if in his eyes, Liu Shangchuan, a prominent member of the Heart-Tempering Sword House, was no more than an ant.

The same was true when he slew the experts of Bluebird Palace, Fire Dragon Temple, and the Yu Family.

He didn’t care about their prestige, authority, or backgrounds. He disregarded it all!

How could someone like that pull the grass up by the roots simply to avoid word getting out?

When Qin Suqing explained her decision, Luan Yunzhong fell briefly silent. In the end, he nodded. “You’re absolutely right.”

If “Su Xuanjun” hadn’t stepped forth during the banquet, they’d have been killed by those ill-intentioned conspirators by now!

Suddenly, the sound of weeping emanated from afar.

Qin Suqing looked over and saw that young female inauspicious spirit in blood-red bridal garb. She was sitting on the ground, weeping bitterly.

Her hollow sockets gushed tears of blood. Paired with her skeletal hands, she was a deeply unsettling sight.

But now, she seemed overcome with grief, her tears falling like rain as she sobbed, “Granny’s dead. Big Sister’s dead. All of them... are dead...

“His Excellency taught us to do good. He told us to eat those inauspicious spirits without awareness instead of people, so why... did those people hurt us?”

The girl let out a heart-rending wail. “Over the years, we worked so hard gathering treasures to share, so why? Why did this happen...?”

Qin Suqing watched in a daze, an indescribable mix of emotions welling in her heart.

People paled at the mere mention of inauspicious spirits. Cultivators saw them as malevolent, brutal, and terrifying monsters to be put down on sight.

Qin Suqing had thought that way too, but after today, she suddenly discovered that she’d been mistaken.

Inauspicious spirits weren’t necessarily evil, and her so-called allies weren’t necessarily good!

“Be kind to others, the kinder the better...” Luan Yunzhong sighed. “Before this, I really wouldn’t have believed that an inauspicious spirit was trying to be good. No, it seems I was too ignorant.”

The Blessed Jade Records were common knowledge in the Blue Peak Continent. Everyone knew that anyone who carried one, no matter who they were, could leave through the Port of Ushering and attend Ol’ Devil Golden Spirit’s wedding banquets in the Golden Spirit Hidden Realm once per solar term.

Everyone who went would receive gifts from their host.

That had been the case for countless years now. No one ever left Ol’ Devil Golden Spirit’s wedding banquets empty-handed.

Luan Yunzhong had known all that, too.

More than that, he knew that Sky Profound Court, Bluebird Palace, Fire Dragon Temple, and the Yu Family had each received a fortune from Ol’ Devil Golden Spirit over the years.

But none of them were grateful for it. Everyone, including the patriarch of Sky Profound Court, assumed that Ol’ Devil Golden Spirit was simply buying his own safety.

They would, at most, say something along the lines of “Ol’ Devil Golden Spirit is an inauspicious spirit with a brain. He knows that if he wants to live on, he’d best pay for the privilege!”

No one had even considered the possibility that Ol’ Devil Golden Spirit was just trying to be good.

They certainly would never have believed that a vicious, terrifying, wicked ruler among inauspicious spirits would concern himself with such things. The very idea was absurd.

The way everyone had responded to the eight characters of calligraphy was the best possible proof of that. They’d laughed uproariously at the thought of an inauspicious spirit trying to do good.

But now... Luan Yunzhong believed it.

It was for this reason that he felt a bit embarrassed and ashamed.

...

A long time ago, a young man in pristine Confucian robes had come to this inauspicious zone with a sword gourd hanging from his waist.

He was looking for someone.

One of his juniors had died brutally at the hands of an inauspicious spirit, becoming an inauspicious spirit himself in the process.

That junior was called Pu Xuan. He was a sword cultivator who contemplated the Dao through Chan Buddhist meditation.

Pu Xuan once swore to realize his grand ambition. He’d use his sword to redeem all inauspicious spirits. He wouldn’t sheath his sword so long as there were still inauspicious spirits in this world.

But in the end, Pu Xuan died, becoming an inauspicious spirit himself.

The young man in Confucian robes visited numerous inauspicious zones, searching far and wide.

Finally, he found the inauspicious spirit that was once Pu Xuan. However, Pu Xuan had changed completely. He was now the ruler of an inauspicious zone.

Ol’ Devil Golden Spirit!

He was just like the other sentient inauspicious spirits. He was bloodthirsty and brutal, and he delighted in slaughter.

Moreover, he’d forgotten his past completely.

When the young man in Confucian robes saw this, he sank into a long silence. In the end, he decided to stay and do what he could for the junior he’d once thought so highly of.

He spent three years teaching “Ol’ Devil Golden Spirit” the Dao and guiding him.

Three years later, the man in Confucian robes left, leaving his teachings and a scroll of calligraphy behind.

By then, Ol’ Devil Golden Spirit had changed completely. He hadn’t killed anyone since.

...

Ol’ Devil Golden Spirit sat cross-legged in a pavilion, recounting the distant past. His eyes were full of melancholy and grief.

“That senior left without ever telling me his name, or why he went to such lengths to guide an inauspicious spirit like me in my cultivation,” Ol’ Devil Golden Spirit said hoarsely. “During those three years, I finally realized something, and I decided to fulfill the grand vow I made in life!”

The corners of his lips twitched. “A buddha once said he wouldn’t become a buddha until hell was empty. I lack that buddha’s breadth of spirit. I just want to do what I can, working toward the goal I had in life, one step at a time.

“But this world is far too dangerous. It’s only today that I realized that the greatest danger in this world isn’t inauspicious spirits, but rather, the human heart!” Ol’ Devil Golden Spirit’s eyes shone with mockery. “The darkness of the human heart is far more insidious than an inauspicious spirit like me.”

“Did you ever wonder who that senior who taught you was?” Su Yi asked casually. He sat cross-legged across from Ol’ Devil Golden Spirit, gazing intently at the calligraphy in his hands.

Ol’ Devil Golden Spirit shook his head. “When that senior left, he said that I was no longer Pu Xuan and that there was no need for me to know who he was. He said it was enough that I cultivate my own Dao and walk my own path.”

He paused, then gazed intently at Su Yi. “But after hearing everything Liu Shangchuan said earlier, it seems that senior was from the Heart-Tempering Sword House. Is that right?”

Su Yi nodded.

Ol’ Devil Golden Spirit pointed at the calligraphy. “Tell me, then. How did you win that calligraphy’s recognition? How... are you connected to that senior?”

“That doesn’t matter.” In the end, Su Yi decided not to tell Ol’ Devil Golden Spirit that the young man with the sword gourd hanging from his waist had been his second incarnation, Jiang Wuchen.

The founder of the Heart-Tempering Sword House, and the Eternal Heavens Domain’s Greatest of the Unthroned!