135: Chapter 135 Overthinking and Internal Strife Leaves the Dao Ancestor Stunned!

"Idiots! Do you want everyone to be buried with you for your foolish actions!"

A furious roar, wrapped in chilling murderous intent, exploded inside the ghost bone boat.

Just as the assassin burning his blood essence turned into a blood shadow and was about to touch the light screen of the flying boat's outer barrier, an even faster, more condensed blood-colored afterimage tore through the solidified air inside the boat!

It was Qian Tong!

He, who had just been immersed in boundless fear, now had his figure transform into a blood line that seemed as solid as reality, overtaking the target from behind and appearing like a ghost behind the defecting assassin.

His face, covered in crisscrossing scars, was twisted and ferocious, and there was no longer any camaraderie in his eyes, only the extreme ruthlessness born from the desire to survive.

His five fingers curled into a claw, the knuckles turning a ghastly white from the excessive force, and carrying an icy spiritual power that could tear apart souls, he ferociously pierced through the assassin's back and heart.

"Puchi!"

With a muffled sound, warm, viscous blood sprayed out, splattering all over Qian Tong's head and face.

The assassin, who was fleeing for his life, suddenly went stiff. He slowly lowered his head in disbelief, looking at the arm that had pierced through his chest and was still dripping with his companion's blood, the life and luster in his eyes fading at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Even in death, he could not understand why he had avoided the unfathomable, god-like enemy, only to die at the hands of the Alliance leader whom he had spent every day with and revered as a god.

"Lea... why..."

He wanted to ask why.

But before these two words could be squeezed out of his throat, Qian Tong's arm shook violently, and a tyrannical, peerless spiritual power erupted from his palm! That power did not leak out in the slightest, but was poured entirely into the opponent's body, directly shattering the assassin's Physical Body and Divine Soul into a mist of blood that scattered across the sky.

No corpse remained, Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering.

This bloody scene did not end there.

Qian Tong, having gone this far, decided to finish it. His bloodshot eyes turned to another assassin who had moved slightly just now and had also revealed an intention to flee.

That assassin was locked onto by his beast-like gaze, and he felt a chill shoot from the soles of his feet to the top of his head, his blood freezing solid. His legs went weak, and with a "thud," he collapsed to his knees, losing all courage to run.

"Alliance leader, spare me! I... I was just confused for a moment..."

"Noisy!"

Qian Tong did not give him any chance to explain or beg for mercy, and was even too lazy to use his movement technique again. He stood where he was and flicked his finger.

Whoosh!

A thin ray of blood light shot through the air, so fast that it left a long-lasting crimson trail in the sky. The blood light accurately pierced the assassin's glabella, leaving a tiny, almost invisible blood hole, though the flesh around it was already charred black.

In the blink of an eye, two of the Evil Cultivator Alliance's "Ten Halls of Yama," who had once made countless Cultivators tremble with fear, had died miserably at the hands of their own Alliance leader.

The remaining assassins, looking at the mad, Evil Qi-surging Qian Tong, were all terrified into silence, deliberately slowing their breathing to the extreme, fearing that any sound would invite a thunderous blow from the Alliance leader.

After doing all this, Qian Tong reached out and beckoned, taking the Magical Artifacts for storage from the waists of the two dead men into his hands. Immediately after, he made a move that left everyone on the boat stunned.

Without the slightest hesitation, he rushed out of the flying boat's barrier and plummeted from a thousand meters in the air!

The gale howled in his ears, blowing his robes until they snapped loudly.

"Thud!"

With a dull, loud thud, he slammed heavily onto his knees in the mud beside the official road. Under the immense impact, the bones in his knees made a teeth-grinding cracking sound, and two deep pits appeared beneath his knees.

At this moment, Su Changge was riding on the back of the Old Yellow Ox, leisurely preparing to leave this area which he considered to be "geologically fragile and prone to natural disasters."

Suddenly, the strange sound of something breaking through the air and the sound of a heavy object falling to the ground behind him made his heart skip a beat.

He was startled by the sudden commotion and, almost as a reflex, subconsciously pulled hard on the Old Yellow Ox's reins, turning his head back in suspicion and fear.

At this sight, Su Changge was stunned.

Just a hundred zhang away from him, a burly man covered in blood, with a face full of hideous scars, was in a prostrate, kneeling position on the ground.

In front of the burly man, two antique-style Storage Rings were placed respectfully, and he himself was kowtowing desperately in the direction of where he was, in a way that was almost self-mutilating.

One after another.

The kowtowing made "bang-bang" sounds, the hard frontal bone colliding violently with the gravel on the ground. In just a few moments, it was a bloody mess, blood mixed with soil covering his face.

"Senior, spare me! Senior, spare me!"

Qian Tong kowtowed frantically while roaring with all his might, his voice becoming hoarse and broken from fear and exertion.

"It was all these two blind fools! They were blinded by greed, bewitched this Junior, and clouded this Junior's mind!"

"They deserved to die! This Junior has already taken action on your behalf and cleaned up the house! To prove this Junior's remorse!"

"I beg Senior, in consideration that this Junior has turned back from the wrong path and may still have some use, please spare this Junior's dog life!"

Su Changge: "???"

He stared blankly at the burly man kneeling on the ground, kowtowing and spouting nonsense, then subconsciously glanced at the "Special Effect" background around him, with its crisscrossing gullies and flowing magma, like a hellish purgatory descending, and he fell into deep confusion and terror.

What is going on?

Who is this person? Did he fall from the sky?

What bewitchment? What cleaning up the house?

Countless terrifying thoughts flashed through Su Changge's mind in an instant.

Could it be that some unknown evil cult is performing a human sacrifice ritual here? Or is this person a madman who just killed someone, and is now mentally deranged, taking him as his next target or some imagined enemy?

This wilderness is too dangerous!

The only thing he could be 100% sure of was that this person in front of him and his possible accomplices were definitely not mentally normal.

And according to his experience from two lifetimes, the only and most correct way to deal with mentally unstable people is to stay as far away from them as possible.

Better safe than sorry; survival is paramount.

Su Changge forcibly suppressed the surging fear and confusion in his heart, stiffened his face, and tried his best to look calm and collected, even carrying a bit of profoundness. In reality, his heart was pounding wildly in his chest, and his palms were already soaked with cold sweat.

He decided that he must ignore this weird madman and leave this place of trouble immediately, right now, as fast as possible.

He turned his head back with a blank expression, and with a hand that was trembling slightly from nervousness, patted the Old Yellow Ox's butt hard.

"Old Huang, let's go, hurry."

The Old Yellow Ox let out a low "moo," seemingly sensing the weird atmosphere and its master's inner anxiety as well, and the frequency of its four legs moving was more than 30% faster than usual.

Qian Tong, kneeling on the ground, had been peeking at every reaction of Su Changge from the corner of his eye from start to finish.

He saw that the unfathomable Senior glanced back at him, the gaze as indifferent as a Heavenly God looking down at dust, without a single ripple. Then, the other party urged his mount forward in silence, continuing on his way.

No action was taken.

The Senior actually didn't kill him!

Qian Tong's heart was instantly flooded with the ecstasy of surviving a disaster; the immense sense of happiness almost made him faint.

In his view, Su Changge's "ignoring" was a silent tacit approval!

This meant that the Senior had already accepted his "pledge of allegiance" by killing his fellow disciples and offering the Magical Artifacts for storage!

This meant that a deity walking among mortals had given the final and most merciful forgiveness to an ant that had offended him and the Heavenly Dao!

"Thank you, Senior, for not killing me! Thank you, Senior!"

Qian Tong was so excited that tears streamed down his face. He kowtowed even harder toward Su Changge's receding back, the ground under his forehead stained red with blood, as if to carve his piety and remorse deeply into the land that had borne witness to a miracle.

"Senior's great kindness and virtue, Qian Tong will never forget! From now on, our entire Evil Cultivator Alliance is willing to serve you, to go through fire and water, without hesitation!"

The roars coming from behind made the already terrified Su Changge jump, almost falling off the ox's back, and he rode the ox even faster.

Madmen!

These are definitely a bunch of total madmen! Evil Cultivator Alliance? The name alone sounds like nothing good!

Not until Su Changge's figure completely disappeared at the end of the canyon and not a trace of his aura could be sensed anymore did Qian Tong tremble as he raised his head.

He wiped the blood and tears from his face and struggled to crawl up from the ground. He looked like he had just been fished out of ice water, his clothes on his back soaked through with cold sweat, clinging tightly to his skin, icy and bone-chilling.

He had survived.

He had finally survived at the hands of a deity.

On the ghost bone boat, the remaining assassins also flew down trembling, landing a few zhang behind Qian Tong, looking at the back of their Alliance leader, who looked disheveled yet exuded a sense of new life, their eyes filled with immense complexity.

There was fear, relief, but more than that, a sense of awe as if looking at a survivor of a miracle.

"Al... Alliance leader..." an assassin said with a trembling voice, "What about us..."

"We have survived."

Qian Tong let out a long, turbid breath, a long exhale that seemed to expel all the fear and despair in his chest. He announced this fact in a hoarse voice.

He slowly turned around and looked at the canyon, which still retained the scene of the "doomsday" with ground fire and magma still flowing, his eyes flashing with a near-pathological fanaticism and worship.

"Pass on my order!"

His voice was not loud, but it carried an irresistible majesty.

"From today on, list the portrait of the 'Dao Ancestor' Senior as the highest-ranked worship totem of our Evil Cultivator Alliance!"

"All Alliance members, seeing the portrait is like seeing the Senior in person; you must perform the kowtow ceremony, worship day and night, and be grateful for the Senior's kindness!"

"Also, spread what happened here today throughout the entire cultivation world, word for word, exactly as it happened!"

A trusted assassin was shocked and asked in confusion: "Alliance leader, wouldn't this... ruin the reputation of our Evil Cultivator Alliance and make us the laughingstock of the world?"

"Reputation?"

Qian Tong sneered, the smile carrying a trace of mockery at the ways of the world, "In front of a deity, in front of the Heavenly Dao, what is our reputation worth?"

"We want all the Cultivators in the world to know that the 'Dao Ancestor' Senior not only possesses the supreme power to destroy the world, but also has a broad mind that can contain heaven and earth!"

"He could even forgive us ants who offended his Divine Might; what kind of Realm is this? What kind of magnanimity is this?"

"We didn't lose."

In Qian Tong's eyes, a light of great enlightenment after an Epiphany flashed, and he said every word clearly, his voice sonorous and powerful.

"We have... received the guidance of a deity!"

Watching their Alliance leader, who had fallen into self-delusion and fanatical worship, his entire spiritual aura transformed, the remaining assassins looked at each other, feeling that their inherent worldview was being reshaped by an irresistible force.

One of them couldn't help but use Divine Thought transmission, asking his companion beside him in a low voice:

"So... the Alliance leader killing Third and Seventh with his own hands just now... was actually to save all of our lives?"