Chapter 371 - 355: Is the Righteous Path So Unscrupulous Now?

Chapter 371: Chapter 355: Is the Righteous Path So Unscrupulous Now?

Gu Li was a Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivator, after all. Even though that last kick had rearranged his facial features, he still clung to the last shred of a villain’s pride. At least he was still alive!

Right now, his head was ringing and the world was spinning. It felt as if that kick had been powerful enough to scramble his brains.

’Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing? Was I ambushed by one of those senior or junior brothers from the Ghost Spirit Sect who’s always coveted my body?’

It took several breaths for the nausea to finally subside a little. Gu Li struggled to lift his head. His gaze pierced through the lingering dust, and he finally got a clear look at the two culprits who had kicked him out of the sky and into the mud.

However, the moment he saw them clearly, the shock that hit him was even more powerful than the kick he’d just endured.

’Wait... where the hell did you two pop out from?!’

’You’re not from my Ghost Spirit Sect. Besides, I already sealed off the outside with my illusion formation. How did you get in? Did you just burst out of a rock or something?!’

’And another thing...’

Gu Li looked at the devastated Anhe City, a sense of aggrieved frustration welling up inside him.

’My Ghost Spirit Sect has practically reduced this city to ruins! The streets are littered with corpses! Where were you before? Just watching the show? Eating popcorn?’

’Did you have to wait until the exact moment I was about to enjoy torturing my prey to jump out?’

’This is too damn sneaky! Are you doing this on purpose just to mess with my head?!’

What horrified him even more was the aura emanating from these two.

’This is definitely the Foundation Establishment Stage! But not all Foundation Establishment Cultivators are on the same level. Their cultivation is definitely a few notches stronger than my Mid-stage Foundation Establishment!’

But!

When Gu Li’s gaze shifted down to their clothes, his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

’What the hell are you two wearing?! You’re powerful Foundation Establishment Cultivators! You’re supposed to be transcendent beings, far above the mortal world!’

’Don’t tell me you were begging for food and selling steamed buns in the city before this? Where’s your dignity as Cultivators? Your decorum as powerful experts?! What is this, some kind of "hiding in plain sight" act?’

The more Gu Li thought about it, the more terrified he became. Cold sweat instantly soaked his back.

’These two are incredibly strong, yet they were willing to pose as the lowest of the low in the mortal world, patiently hiding their strength. They waited until the very moment I was most relaxed and complacent to strike like lightning!’

’No, that line of reasoning still makes no sense! I can’t understand you people at all!’

’Could it be... a trap! This is definitely a trap!’

’They must have been targeting the Ghost Spirit Sect all along! They were just waiting for a big fish to take the bait! The reason they didn’t act sooner must be because they were observing in secret, confirming that our strongest was only at the Core Formation stage, and only then did they brazenly spring the trap?!’

’How terrifying... Are the hearts of these righteous path people all this twisted?’

Gu Li knew that fighting them head-on now would be certain death. The best strategy was to first get them talking, figure out which sect they belonged to, and then look for a chance to... retreat.

"COUGH, COUGH..."

Gu Li managed to pull his face out of the mud pit. Not daring to wipe the dirt from his face, he remained prostrate on the ground, struggling to perform a comical fist-and-palm salute. "You... you two fellow Daoists, let’s talk this over..."

"May I ask which immortal sect you two are disciples of? Why did you only choose to act now? I am Gu Li of the Ghost Spirit Sect. This... could this all be some huge misunderstanding?"

...

Zhang San cleared his throat. "Didn’t we make ourselves clear just now?"

"We don’t hide our identities! We are from the [Nine Streams Sect] of the martial world!"

Gu Li: ???

’The Nine Streams Sect?’

He mentally ran through all the sects he could remember.

’Never heard of it!’

’Is this some hidden sect that just popped out of nowhere? Or a newly emerging one?’

’I recently heard of a new sect called the Guixi Sect, but I’ve really never heard of a Nine Streams Sect. Neutral sects never meddle in mortal affairs, and the demonic path has already assigned this place to my Ghost Spirit Sect, so there’s no reason for them to interfere. They’re probably from some righteous sect?’

So, he offered another fist-and-palm salute to Zhang San and Li. "Ahem... you two must be young geniuses from a secluded righteous immortal sect, right? This... uh, return-to-basics attire truly shows the bearing of a great master, a paragon of the righteous path!"

"But... did your elders not give you a heads-up?"

Gu Li’s eyes glinted as he dropped a truth bomb that was enough to shatter the worldview of everyone in Anhe City. "This Anhe City no longer belongs to Daqian, nor to the righteous path! It is now the property of our [Ghost Spirit Sect]!"

"This was a deal between the demonic and righteous paths! The living beings in three cities, including Anhe City, were traded by the righteous path to us of the demonic path to be used as blood food!"

"By the heavens above, a Celestial Dao oath and contract have been made! The pillar of the righteous path, the [Celestial Furnace Sect], has already withdrawn. As masters of the righteous path, are you two going to break your word?! If word of today’s events gets out and the world learns that the righteous path is full of cowards who would even renege on a Celestial Dao contract, disrupting the important affairs of the great figures of both paths... can you bear the consequences?!"

...

These words struck the minds of all the common people behind them, within the [Mirage Gauze], like a bolt of lightning.

A dead silence.

Followed by an overwhelming sense of despair.

’So... that’s how it was.’

’No wonder the Immortal Masters from the Celestial Furnace Sect suddenly left. No wonder the disciples of Qingxu Temple no longer came down from the mountain into the city. No wonder so many things simply vanished without a trace...’

’So, it wasn’t that they had been forgotten. They had been sold off as bargaining chips between the righteous and demonic paths.’

’In the eyes of those high-and-mighty righteous Immortal Masters, they, the mortals, weren’t people to be protected, but commodities to be traded! It was said that the righteous Immortals existed to fight against the demonic path. They could accept being seen as ants, never worthy of a second glance. But to be sold off so casually, without even the right to know?’

’Even the Daqian Dynasty, the very court to which they paid taxes every year and kowtowed to, probably didn’t even make a peep during this transaction.’

’How laughable. How tragic. An ant is just an ant, after all. Even if the lives of an entire city were sold off without their knowledge, what did it matter to those above?’

Despair spread through the crowd. The suffocating feeling of being abandoned by the entire world caused countless people to collapse to the ground.

But in this endless darkness, someone looked forward.

There, the city patrol organized by Miss Su was still fighting to the death. There, the young master of the Su Family had just squeezed into a secret passage for their sake. There, Miss Su’s family still stood with them.

"Miss Su... will come back..."

"As long as the lights of the Su Family are not extinguished, Miss Su will not abandon us."

All living beings were like ants, their lives as worthless as weeds. But even as lowly as dust, they possessed the will to survive in the face of death. Since the high-and-mighty righteous path saw them as bargaining chips, and the magnificent imperial court had cast them aside like worn-out shoes, they still refused to become fetid blood food in some so-called trade between good and evil.

...

[Private Chat Channel]

[Zhang San]: What was that monster babbling about just now? Celestial Furnace Sect? Some deal between the righteous and demonic paths? We’re the leaders of the righteous path, how come we don’t know anything about it?

[Li]: Hey, the boss was just bragging, why are you getting so into it? By the way, isn’t the Celestial Furnace Sect the one that sent that elder to our sect to act all high and mighty, only to get thrown out by Old Qian?

The two exchanged a look, communicated for a moment more, and reached an agreement.

"Bullshit!!"

"We, the [Nine Streams Sect], act as we please! In our eyes, you are all evil heretics, and everyone has the right to kill you on sight!"

Gu Li: ???

’Wait, are you righteous path people this shameless now? If the righteous path acts like this, then who the hell is the demonic path?’