Chapter 331 - 328: The Unkilling Kill

Chapter 331: Chapter 328: The Unkilling Kill

"Sect... Sect Leader!"

Gazing at the figure blocking his path, Yang Xiao cried out in surprise.

The old woman, who had been dazed and drooling just moments before, was now sharp and clear-eyed, her gaze fixed intently on the young man before her.

It wasn’t just her demeanor; the old woman even looked somewhat younger now.

"A true... a truly peerless master!"

The old woman’s voice was halting, as if from long years of disuse.

She fixed Fang Can with a sharp gaze. "I can feel it. The key to my breakthrough to the Fifth Turn... is on you."

With Dongfang Wuji’s appearance, the tension in the air ratcheted up once more.

The somewhat disheartened members of the Demon Dao were reminded of their half-mad Sect Leader, and it seemed her madness had now faded.

Seeing the Sect Leader’s current state, Yang Xiao recalled what she looked like when he found her in the secret passage.

...

「Ninety-five years ago, atop Cloud Top Peak, a five-year-old Dongfang Wuji began her martial arts training.」

On the very first day, the previous Sect Leader—her own mother—asked her a question.

"Wuji! Why do you want to learn martial arts? Or rather, what is your goal in training?"

After half a day of contemplation, Dongfang Wuji replied, "I want to become the greatest master in the world."

Her mother offered no comment on her answer. Instead, she had all the Dharma Kings of the holy sect instruct her.

Her childhood was spent mastering the eighteen arms—sabers, spears, swords, and halberds—as well as fist techniques, palm techniques, finger techniques, and Body Techniques.

At the same time, Dongfang Wuji also came to understand the duty of her family name: to restore their nation!

On the day she broke through to the First Turn at the age of eighteen, the former Sect Leader sought her out to test her skills.

In spars against her fellow sect members, no matter what weapon or Cultivation Technique they used, she effortlessly defeated them using the very same martial art.

Without a doubt, she was a martial arts prodigy!

Surrounded by a circle of fallen sect members, she looked at her mother with anticipation and asked:

"Sect Leader, I have passed the tests of all my masters. I should be able to graduate now, right?"

But in response to the young woman’s question, the Sect Leader simply shook her head.

"This alone is far from enough. You are facing tangible, prepared enemies. Anyone can defeat such an opponent."

"Only when you can fight freely and defeat your enemies even when deprived of all five senses—sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch—can you truly be considered a master."

After returning home, she seriously contemplated the Sect Leader’s words.

The next day, Dongfang Wuji blindfolded herself, sealed off her five senses, and began to train in the mountains.

Just as the Sect Leader had said, once she lost her five senses, she could not see, nor could she hear.

Without the sense of touch, she couldn’t even be sure if she was holding a sword.

In this state, the only thing she could rely on was her intuition. She had to train her intuition to its absolute peak.

After several years of honing, her intuition grew sharper by the day.

At first, with only her eyes covered, she could barely parry stones thrown at her. Eventually, with all five senses gone, she could rely on feeling alone to dodge arrows fired faster than the speed of sound.

Several more years passed, and she became completely indistinguishable from an ordinary person!

She could discern the color of objects without sight, enjoy the sweet sound of a zither without hearing, taste the deliciousness of fine food without a palate, and distinguish the cold hardness of a blade without touch...

Even with her five senses sealed, she could now perceive the world more richly than an ordinary person!

Even in her sleep, she could subconsciously raise her sword to block a surprise attack.

Whether it was poison or hidden mechanisms, she could instantly identify them with her sixth sense alone, without needing to see.

That night, with her five senses still sealed, she descended the mountain to travel the world. She returned several months later, drenched in blood, carrying the head of the current Shaolin Abbot.

That year, Dongfang Wuji was thirty years old, at the peak of the Third Turn!

Upon hearing of this, the Sect Leader sought out Dongfang Wuji and said:

"You have now formally graduated. You possess a master’s ability to ’see without seeing’ and ’hear without hearing.’ Now, I will pass on the Qiankun Great Shift to you, so that you may achieve the ’weapon that is no weapon’."

This "weapon that is no weapon" was the effect of the sixth level of the Qiankun Great Shift.

Even without a weapon in hand, one could strike with the power of a divine blade. After all, how could a true weapon be such an inconvenient thing?

And so, after obtaining the Qiankun Great Shift, the legend of Dongfang Wuji resounded throughout the martial world.

She ran rampant through the martial world for another thirty years. By then, Dongfang Wuji had killed enough people to fill several courtyards, and the blood of her enemies could form a small stream.

Both orthodox and Demon Dao practitioners had fallen at her hand. Killing had become a part of her life.

Finally, on her sixty-second birthday, after grasping the true meaning of the "weapon that is no weapon," she broke through to the Fourth Turn and became the Demon Sect Leader!

But she felt no joy, for before her lay a great Abyss.

She had already learned every Cultivation Technique and every move of her predecessors.

She had learned the Cultivation Techniques of both Shaolin and Wudang.

There was no path left ahead!

Like the trailblazers before her, she would have to forge the path forward herself.

And so, she asked her mother, who was nearing the end of her hundred-year lifespan, what path she should take next.

On her deathbed, the previous Demon Sect Leader told her that the uncreated 7th Floor of the Qiankun Great Shift was called the "killing that is no killing."

Thus, another twenty years passed. Now in her eighties, she reached a partial understanding.

In her quest to comprehend this so-called "killing that is no killing," she had slaughtered her way across the world. Heads rolled, and there was no one in the world she could not kill!

Finally, the imperial court, having reached its limit, laid a trap and cornered her in a valley, sending a massive force of armored cavalry to charge her.

That battle was the closest she had ever come to death.

Though perilous, pushing herself to her limits time and again led her to an epiphany.

When her subordinates rescued her and brought her back to the holy sect, gravely injured and on the brink of death, she immediately announced she would enter seclusion unto death to grasp that sliver of inspiration she’d found between life and death.

Then, nineteen years passed in a flash while she was in the forbidden grounds.

After the battle between the holy sect and the orthodox sects began, the various Grandmasters, unable to wait any longer, had no choice but to force their way into the forbidden grounds.

Inside, Dongfang Wuji no longer possessed her former spirited air. She was like a dull, senile old woman.

After she came out of seclusion, Yang Xiao took advantage of a brief moment of lucidity to report the holy sect’s current situation to her.

Along the way, Dongfang Wuji saw a man in a red silk robe lying motionless on the ground.

The scene felt incredibly familiar to Dongfang Wuji.

It was as if she had seen it thousands of times before, yet now she couldn’t recall it at all.

"Why is she lying there?" Dongfang Wuji asked, pointing at the man in the red silk robe.

At first, faced with her question, Yang Xiao and the several Dharma Kings looked on in confusion.

But as she questioned them repeatedly, their confusion quickly turned to horror.

Yang Xiao’s voice trembled as he asked, "Sect Leader, your divine techniques are unparalleled, and the number of people you’ve killed is countless. How can it be that you can’t even recognize a dead person now?"

At Yang Xiao’s words, Dongfang Wuji had a sudden, shocking realization.

The man wasn’t wearing a red silk robe at all—his entire body was stained red with blood!

She had actually forgotten how to kill!

She couldn’t even remember what a dead person looked like!