Chapter 30: Regret and Despair

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

“Hold on, brother. Something is off with this man.”

Zhai Tianfang stopped his brother from attacking.

He had the feeling that the man before him was more than he seemed to be.

“Brother Zhai, shouldn’t we dispose of this wretch right now?”

The other brothers dressed in white took steps forward.

“Hee, hee, hee! You lot talk about killing people as soon as someone offends you. Boy, you disciples of the Xuan Sect are really something. Well, kill me if you can.”

Li Mu crossed his arms as he provoked the five.

“You killed our brother. Are you saying that we should just let this slide?”

The one who had been stopped by Zhai Tianfang stared at his brother, before turning to glower at Li Mu.

While it looked as if the words had been meant for Li Mu, everyone who heard what he’d said knew that he was addressing Zhai Tianfang and the other brothers.

Shouldn’t we be taking revenge?

“You lot and that one you called Brother Dugu are all idiots,” Li Mu said in a condescending tone.

He then took a look at Old Demon Han, who had been reduced to a dot far away by then.

That dude sure knows how to run.

Don’t you see that I’ve just taken care of things for you here?

“Brother Zhai, let me do it. I’m going to cut this devil down.”

“Something is wrong with this man. We should tell the masters about him,” Zhai Tianfang then said.

He was still unable to see through the level of the man before him.

The man remained calm and collected despite having insulted the name of the Xuan Sect.

Furthermore, the man had actually admitted to having killed Brother Dugu right to their faces.

Such a person must either be a lunatic who was completely oblivious to the might of the Xuan Sect, or he simply saw the sect to be utterly beneath him.

Zhai Tianfang was rather unsettled by how that man acted.

“Brother! That man has killed one of our own and insulted the sect. As disciples of the sect, we should defend the honor of the sect with our lives.”

“Big words indeed. So, the Xuan Sect’s honor can actually be ruined by words alone then? Are you people so thick-skulled that you can’t figure out that it is you people who’re ruining your sect’s honor?”

Ptuih~

Li Mu spit on the ground.

“Brother, regardless of how powerful he is, he wouldn’t dare to kill us. We’ve all lit up our soul flickers on this trip. The elders would certainly make a move as soon as our soul flickers were extinguished.”

Another one of them then added, “Our master told us to try to fight capable ones as much as we could before we headed out. This one here would be a perfect target. We could gang up on him, and we might just end up taking revenge for our fallen brother.”

Woah~

You people are seriously saying that you could kill me, and I couldn’t kill you people? That I’m just a training dummy for you lot?

Quack~

Ptuih~

“You lot are shameless,” Li Mu spit again and said.

“Kill him!”

The five looked at each other. Brother Zhai nodded after hesitating for a bit, before charging at Li Mu.

That man seems to be something, but how strong could he be anyway?

He’d be at the late stages of the Saint level at best.

All five of them made their moves, and a tornado formed around Li Mu.

All five charged at Li Mu like bolts of lightning.

Boom~ Boom~

Swoop~

Five different clashing sounds were heard.

A punch, a palm attack, a slash from a sword, a slash from a saber, and then a swing of a staff hit Li Mu.

All of them hit their targets.

Heh, he’s but a piece of trash.

Huh?

All five of them were stunned.

All the attacks had only ended up kicking up ripples at the points where they had connected.

None of the attacks had managed to do any harm to Li Mu.

All the attacks had been fended off by a wave of qi.

“You…”

Zhai Tianfang thought of something all of a sudden.

“You’re right.”

Li Mu grinned.

The ripples were then expanded, becoming something that enveloped all five of them.

You all knew that I was the one who’d killed your brother. So what made you all think that I wouldn’t dare to kill you all then?

You all have got some guts.

And you all are right.

I won’t kill any of you for the time being.

I’ll just cripple all of you and lock you all up until you die.

I will take my time to torture you people throughout the whole of time.

At the ends of the dungeon of the Ceremony Directorate…

Li Mu shackled all of them by their scapulas, hanging them after robbing them of their powers.

It was a more enjoyable way of dealing with one’s enemy rather than killing them. This way you can watch them slowly die in despair, when they realize they will never see the light of hope until their deaths.

He emerged out of the dungeon and changed the place’s logs.

He would send five meals and water to the end of the dungeon every three days, so as to just barely keep the five of them alive.

He then headed straight for Old Demon Han’s hiding place after leaving the palace.

Old Demon Han had passed out from his extensive injuries, and at the moment he was lying in an alley behind a minor clan’s backyard.

Creak~

The backdoor was opened and a boy fed some water to Old Demon Han slowly.

By the time Li Mu had arrived, the boy had already fed half of the water he had carried to Old Demon Han.

The boy then went to fetch some more water, coming back only to find the one that had been lying on the ground had disappeared.

The boy then looked at the water he’d just fetched.

…

In the underground palace…

Li Mu dropped Old Demon Han at the side of the well and fed him a pill, before tending to Old Demon Han’s injuries with his true qi.

Old Demon Han came to after a while.

“Stay here and recuperate. Don’t get near the well and snuff any curiosity you have for it out. If you happen to drop inside that well, no one could save you.”

“Thank you, sir!”

Old Demon Han panted as he voiced his gratitude.

“Stay here and rest.”

Li Mu turned around and was about to leave.

“Sir, please hold on. I got myself a Perfected Person treasure when I was out in Zhongzhou. I hope that it could be of use to you.”

Old Demon Han added, “That’s your blessing. Knowing you has been my greatest blessing, sir. It’s not like I could understand what’s in it, so it’s better for you to have it instead. If you were to be able to make use of it, perhaps I’d benefit from it too.”

Old Demon Han explained as he took out a round piece of purple jade from his inner shirt’s pocket.

Li Mu inspected the piece.

The piece was all purple and there were red threads in it.

It looked like something that had been naturally formed.

There was also a pressure emanating from it.

At the very least, it must be something that people at the later stages of the Perfected Person Realm would play with often.

Regardless, he was unable to make sense of it for the time being.

“I’ll take it then. Rest well.”

This thing is definitely not something Old Demon Han could make sense of.

He took the jade piece back to Shouning Palace with him.

He fumbled around with it for two days and was still unable to understand what use it could be.

However, the mental pressures of the late stages of Perfected Person emanating from it would nonetheless be useful for strengthening one’s mental powers.

So, this is why Old Demon Han was able to internalize my true qi then.

…

At the back of the dungeon of the Ceremony Directorate…

“I’m going to kill that bastard. He actually robbed me of my powers!”

“Give up. Remember how we lost? We probably won’t be able to fight him for the rest of our lives,” Zhai Tianfang commented.

His tone sounded bleak in that dark, dank dungeon.

“That man was actually a Perfected Person.”

One of them thought about something and muttered.

Dread.

Despair.

Dejection.

Arrggghhhh~

Despairing shouts could be heard from the dungeon over and over again.

The shouts resounded on the walls around them, without a single bit leaking outside.

“We’re done for.”

The dungeon was quiet after a while.

A sorrowful mood permeated the entire place.

“We’re done for.”

One of them broke the silence with his croaked voice after some time.

That one line made it sound as if that brother had become rather old.

“Brother, your voice.”

“Be quiet and save your strength.”

Sorrow permeated the entire dungeon.

Their powers were no more, and whatever had been sustaining their youth was no longer around.

They aged quickly.

All who had gotten to Saint level had spent more than 100 years training after all.

Yet, a century’s worth of powers was gone just like that.

Worse still, the man who had crippled them all had actually been a Perfected Person.

They had offended someone at the Perfected Person Realm.

“Brother Zhai, it’s all your fault.”

The other four began to resent him, yet they couldn’t do anything about it.

Their minds were quickly overtaken by those feelings of resentment.

If only we hadn’t been stupid enough to chase after Old Demon Han with him…

A Perfected Person, huh… It seems as if the sect isn’t going to mobilize for our sakes then…

They will probably forget about us in a few years’ time…

……

“Is there any way of getting out of here?”

Brother Zhai’s withered voice could be heard in the dungeon after quite a long while.

“Brother Zhai, do you think we could actually escape from someone at the Perfected Person Realm?”

They all stayed silent for quite some time after that.

The dungeon was as quiet as a tomb again.