Chapter 163: Nothing More Than That

This kind of cruel and selfish betrayal didn’t just leave Wen Jin heartbroken beyond repair, it also enraged her father and clan. In the end, the two of them were thrown into pig cages[1] and cast into the river.

Wen Jin had thought she would surely die. But to her surprise, she was rescued by an old man.

That old man was from the Bare Body Sect. He claimed to have taken a liking to Wen Jin’s potential and offered to take her as his disciple. Even the scholar was pulled from the river alive.

The old man told Wen Jin to make her own choice: let him go, or kill him.

In the end, Wen Jin used a dagger to carve out the scholar’s heart with her own hands, and ate it right in front of the old man.

The old man was delighted. He said he would personally train her into a cultivator that inspired fear and reverence.

Over the years, Wen Jin learned many techniques under that old man’s guidance, and all of them were sinister arts of killing and harming others.

She once believed him to be some reclusive master. But in truth, her “respected” master forced her to serve him in bed every night, constantly subjecting her to cruel torments in new forms.

Even now, recalling those painful years made Wen Jin shudder. She still didn’t dare dwell on them.

𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Later, her master left for the frontier, and Wen Jin remained in the sect, working on its behalf. That experience had twisted Wen Jin into someone filled with malice and resentment.

Over the years, she had not only slain numerous righteous cultivators for the Bare Body Sect, but also caused the deaths of countless innocents. Her favorite method was to use seductive charm to lure young scholars, cut out their hearts, coax them into murdering their own family members, and take joy in the process.

This time, the Bare Body Sect issued a task. She and her companions were to investigate the Blissful Land soon to emerge in Wei City, keep watch over the Baxia stone statue, and, if possible, eliminate a young Daoist from Wei City.

But what they didn’t expect was that this youth would be so overwhelmingly powerful!

In just a few short exchanges, Granny Wu and Han Tong were both slain by his hand. And both of them were no weaker than she was.

Especially Han Tong, he specialized in the southern frontier’s ghost-rearing arts, and that infant spirit of his was deeply sinister. In a real fight, she wasn’t even sure she could defeat Han Tong.

And yet, from what the Daoist had said... he had killed even that monstrous infant spirit.

Wen Jin raced through the night, her heart filled with terror. It was the same kind of fear she once felt when facing her former master; she was filled with absolute dread.

This Daoist was unstoppable. Before that young Daoist, none of them had stood a chance. Perhaps only Long Hai, the half-human, half-demon, could stand against that youth.

These thoughts seemed slow, but in reality, they flashed through her mind in the blink of an eye as Wen Jin fled desperately toward the riverbank.

Earlier, the four of them had been scattered after being suppressed by the aura of the Celestial Master from Mount Longhu. Long Hai hadn’t arrived yet, and should be somewhere in that direction.

Wen Jin wanted to get to him, and only by reaching the half-demon Long Hai could she feel the slightest sense of safety.

Long Hai was also the one leading their mission this time. He could transform into a half-dragon form, and he was immensely powerful and calculating.

At last, relying on the Bare Body Sect’s unique ability to sense their own, Wen Jin finally located Long Hai deep in the desolate wilderness.

“What happened!? Where are Granny Wu and Han Tong? Why didn’t you all meet at the temple?”

Long Hai was the man with scaled armor by the riverside, and the ancient temple had been their prearranged meeting point.

“This is bad! That Daoist from Wei City somehow found the temple. Granny Wu and Han Tong... were both killed by him!” Wen Jin cried out in panic.

The pressure Li Yanchu had exerted on her had been far too overwhelming.

“Didn’t Granny Wu practice fortune-guiding and misfortune-avoiding witchcraft? How could someone have tracked her!?”

At the moment, Long Hai appeared as a cold-faced middle-aged man with a classically styled sword hanging from his waist. He was none other than the riverside swordsman Wen Jin had seen at Wangjiang Pavilion.

“I don’t know either... That Daoist seemed to have slain Han Tong’s infant spirit, and somehow tracked us down afterward!”

Wen Jin, still shaken, recounted with lingering fear. The middle-aged swordsman, Long Hai, fell silent.

Granny Wu practiced witchcraft. Her “fortune-guiding and misfortune-avoiding“ technique was one such art, and it was capable of sensing danger in advance and evading it ahead of time.

If anyone intended to harm them, Granny Wu should have sensed it beforehand. There was no reason she should’ve been caught off guard.

What Long Hai couldn’t wrap his head around was that old Daoist at Wangjiang Pavilion had merely pointed toward Wei City, and Li Yanchu had immediately turned back!

Not only that, he actually mastered the Qi Sight, and was able to locate the infant spirit that had been harming people in the city.

More than that, Li Yanchu also possessed powerful Daoist Art of Pursuits, allowing him to trace the infant spirit’s residual aura right to their hiding place.

No matter how sharp Granny Wu’s fortune-guiding and misfortune-avoiding witchcraft was, it couldn’t see through someone like Li Yanchu, who had grasped the Sun Veil.

“What kind of techniques does this young Daoist use?” Long Hai asked suddenly.

The Bare Body Sect, after all, was a group long pursued and purged by the imperial court of the Kingdom of Qian. Their intelligence network was far from reliable.

And at the beginning, Li Yanchu had only seemed like a minor figure to them, who was not even worth mentioning.

But later, everyone who had gone into the tomb with him had died. Even the last survivors, Zhang Ping, who had fallen into the Beast Dao, and Hutou, who had possessed a little girl, had both perished at the hands of the innkeeper.

As a result, they had no clear picture of Li Yanchu’s true strength. They only vaguely sensed that this young man posed a potential threat, and was somehow tied to the deaths of many Bare Body Sect disciples.

That was the only reason they had sent people to deal with him. He wasn’t even their main target. The real objective was the Blissful Land about to emerge in Wei City!

Hearing Long Hai’s question, Wen Jin proceeded to recount everything that had just happened.

A strange glint flashed through Long Hai’s eyes.

“He killed Granny Wu in one strike, even when she had already slipped into hiding?” Long Hai asked, clearly surprised.

Wen Jin nodded, still visibly shaken.

Long Hai’s assessment of Li Yanchu’s strength deepened further. It seemed this man wasn’t just skilled in Daoist arts, he also walked the path of martial cultivation. He was an exceptionally formidable

jianghu

fighter.

Suddenly, a bad feeling surged up in Long Hai’s chest. “With strength like that... why would he let you escape?”

As a master of swordsmanship and

qinggong

himself, Long Hai knew well how terrifying a martial artist’s speed could become once they reached a high level.

Wen Jin’s expression changed drastically. She suddenly turned and looked toward the vast darkness of the night.

No... it couldn’t be!

She had cultivated secret arts that allowed her to ride the wind, could someone really have followed her without her even noticing?

As if to confirm that very fear, a tall, upright figure stepped out from behind a towering ancient tree.

He took a single step, and in the blink of an eye, was standing right before them. It was none other than Li Yanchu, the young Daoist who had just slain Granny Wu and Han Tong.

Seeing this, Wen Jin instinctively took a step back. Though the young Daoist's expression was calm, his presence weighed down on her like a mountain that could never be scaled.

Li Yanchu’s gaze fell on Long Hai, who wore a Xia sword at his waist. So it was him!

Back when he first saw this swordsman at Wangjiang Pavilion, Li Yanchu had already sensed that the man’s swordsmanship was exceptional. He was a rare, true master of the sword.

But he hadn’t expected that...

“Your energy is restrained and focused, and your sword aura is cold and chilling. To have cultivated your swordsmanship to this level is truly impressive. And yet, you're a remnant of the Bare Body Sect,” Li Yanchu spoke lightly.

Long Hai’s eyes darkened, and he remained silent for a moment.

Then he said, “What do you know?”

“Even the peak of martial strength is... ultimately just that. I joined the Bare Body Sect to pursue a higher realm.”

It was hard to imagine that that grotesque, scaly creature by the river was actually this refined and imposing swordsman standing before him now.

1. A pig cage is a large bamboo or wooden cage, originally designed to hold pigs. A person usually accused of violating social or moral codes (such as adultery or elopement), would be tied or locked in the basket. ☜