469: Chapter 469 The Kind Shaman

Sure enough, dark, cavernous openings instantly appeared along both sides of the passage.

"Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!!"

As a rain of arrows came flying at them, Gu Zhiyao's heart leaped into her throat!

Damn it! How did she end up following him in so blindly? She should have ensured their safety first!

She had traveled the martial world for years; how could she have forgotten the basic rule that "preserving one's life is paramount"?

Was it simply because she was with a man she had only known for three days?

While cursing herself for being foolish, Gu Zhiyao gathered her True Qi, intending to block as many arrows as possible.

But in the next instant, Gu Zhiyao discovered that as soon as these cold, sharp arrows were fired, they seemed to be firmly caught by some invisible force.

One after another, the arrows nearly froze in mid-air. In the blink of an eye, thousands of arrows were suspended, motionless.

This scene gave Gu Zhiyao goosebumps all over. She looked at Lin Xiao beside her in disbelief.

An Earth Immortal! He was definitely an Earth Immortal!

"Shh..."

Lin Xiao turned back and made a silencing gesture toward her.

Gu Zhiyao swallowed hard and nodded, unsure of what Lin Xiao planned to do.

After waiting for a while, the sound of two people talking drifted in from outside the passage.

Gu Zhiyao's eyes showed surprise. Although she couldn't understand that gibberish, she knew it definitely wasn't the Khitan language!

In an instant, the sound triggered memories for Lin Xiao of sitting alone before a computer in his original world, enjoying adult action movies...

Was his grand ambition of liberating the island nation and saving the 'teachers' going to be fulfilled in this world?

As the mechanism was deactivated, the stone slab ahead retracted.

Two men wearing black robes with their hair tied in topknots walked over, sinister smiles on their faces.

But when the two saw the dense mass of arrows suspended in the air before them, they were instantly struck as if by lightning!

Their faces turned deathly pale. They trembled, muttering under their breath, "Masaka..."

"Quick... run!"

The moment one of them reacted, he immediately turned to flee.

Lin Xiao flicked his finger lightly forward. The rain of arrows flew out like a swarm of locusts, instantly turning the two men into sieves.

He had intended to ask some questions, but he couldn't hold back once he saw those disgusting hairstyles.

Walking up to the two corpses, Lin Xiao frowned and asked, "Dr. Gu, these are Japanese, aren't they?"

Gu Zhiyao finally snapped out of it and nodded. "That's right. I've seen some in the Eastern Border; that's exactly how they speak."

"It seems the cooperation between the Yelü Family and the Japanese goes beyond just a bit of maritime trade."

The killing intent in Lin Xiao's eyes intensified. Between the secret room, the smell of blood, and the Japanese, he had already guessed a few things.

Gu Zhiyao keenly sensed the murderous aura radiating from the man, and her delicate body couldn't help but tense up.

At the same time, she secretly admired him. He truly was a patriotic general; even while in the Northern Border, he felt such hatred for the Japanese pirates wreaking havoc in the southeast.

This man was young and could be a bit wicked at times, but when it came to matters of great importance, he didn't hesitate at all.

Continuing down the path for a while, Lin Xiao and Gu Zhiyao arrived at a massive cellar.

When they saw what was before them, both were shocked to the core!

Human bodies were hung up one by one—men, women, old, and young—all treated like livestock.

Many had already had their internal organs removed, and blood pooled on the ground, forming small streams.

In the center was a massive blood pool. It was unknown how many people's blood had been gathered there, and it emitted a nauseating, metallic stench.

"These... these are... Khitan people?"

Gu Zhiyao felt a surge of rage. Even though she was from the Central Plains, what she saw before her was no longer a matter of ethnicity; it was an utterly heartless atrocity!

Any normal person would feel sick. Even someone like her, who could dissect a human body without blinking, felt disgusted.

"Is Khitan King Yelü Dachuan insane? What has he handed these Khitan people over to the Japanese for?"

Just then, several Japanese men suddenly ran out from an adjacent room, charging at the two with swords in hand.

Lin Xiao glanced at them and used sword qi to slice three of them in half at the waist, leaving only one middle-aged man alive.

This man, named Sasaki, appeared to be the person in charge here based on his title.

"Do you speak the language of the Central Plains?" Lin Xiao asked.

Sasaki looked at his three subordinates who had been sliced in half. His face turned ashen as he put down his sword and nodded.

"I do..."

"What are you doing here?" Lin Xiao got straight to the point.

"If I tell you, will you let... Argh!!"

Before Sasaki could finish his question, Lin Xiao used a burst of True Qi to cripple one of his legs.

Sasaki collapsed to the ground, breaking out in a cold sweat. He hurriedly answered, "We are here on the orders of our Great King to help the Khitan King produce Holy Water."

"The Holy Water you speak of... is it the substance that makes people go mad and grants them great strength?"

"Yes."

"Does that thing belong to your Japanese nation?"

"No."

Sasaki said, "The Holy Water is a formula the Yelü Family found, but they needed too much of it. The medicinal properties of this Holy Water must be spread through living human blood, so many people have to be killed."

"Originally, the Grand Shaman Yelu Ajia was in charge, but he didn't want to kill Khitan people himself and offend the gods. So he only leads the people here, and we handle the rest."

Gu Zhiyao gave a cold laugh. "No wonder. I was wondering why the original Grand Shaman Yelu Ajia wasn't here. He certainly is 'kind'."

Lin Xiao continued his questioning, "How did the Khitan know your Japanese nation could help them produce Holy Water? Have you done similar things before?"

"The technology our Great Sakura Nation learned from your Zheng Dynasty is beyond what you in the Gan Dynasty can imagine! Our medicine, iron smelting, and shipbuilding are all more advanced than yours!"

Sasaki said proudly, "Even when Khitan King Yelü Dachuan falls ill, he secretly invites doctors from our Great Sakura Nation. You didn't know that, did you?"

"The Zheng Dynasty... no wonder..."

Lin Xiao sighed inwardly. Once an advanced civilization opened up excessively, it sometimes led to such a backlash.

"So, you are using these corpses and organs to test the effects of the Holy Water?"

Sasaki was somewhat surprised. "You figured it out? That's right. We are observing how the Holy Water causes changes in humans! We discovered that the Holy Water begins to take effect from the liver first. Isn't it wonderful?"

Seeing the icy look in Lin Xiao's eyes, Sasaki restrained himself and put on a pleading expression.

"I've told you everything I know. We were just following orders; we had no choice..."

Before he could finish, a burst of sword qi from Lin Xiao pierced straight through his head.

The cellar fell silent.

But both Lin Xiao and Gu Zhiyao remained silent for a long time.

"I understand why the Holy Water couldn't be found."

Gu Zhiyao looked at the pool of blood. "This thing doesn't need to be consumed repeatedly. As time goes on without treatment, it only gets worse. This is fundamentally a disease!"

Lin Xiao nodded. This was likely a virus that required low temperatures and blood to be cultured.

"The Khitan people live scattered apart. Holding the ceremony early was to get these Khitan commoners to come here from all over."

"They travel long distances and don't know each other, so they won't communicate much."

"Keeping some of them behind to be killed won't attract attention in the short term, and no one dares to question anything in the temple."

"The so-called 'Soul Sending' resulted in them sending themselves away."

Gu Zhiyao's eyes reddened. Even though she had seen much of life and death, she felt a sense of profound sorrow at this moment.

In the eyes of the Yelü Family, what did these simple Khitan commoners even count for?

Lin Xiao walked toward another dark room.

The strand of energy he had found earlier using Dragon Seeking and Point Locating had not yet been traced to its source.