15: Chapter 15 Boy

An old woman with graying hair fell to her knees in the pool of blood with a thump: "Spare us, Immortals! Spare us! We are merely Mortals doing odd jobs in the sect, and we know nothing. We beg the Immortals to show mercy."

A boy of seven or eight was trembling all over, tightly clasped in the arms of a beautiful middle-aged woman.

The woman knelt on the ground, forcibly holding down the struggling boy and pressing his face against her chest, not daring to let him look at the corpses covering the ground.

Wang Yaowu's heavy sword paused for a moment.

He never blinked when killing people, but facing these unarmed Mortals, that sword simply could not be swung down.

He looked back at Wang Chongyang.

Wang Chongyang stood with his hands behind his back amidst the pool of blood, his gray robes untainted by even a speck of blood. Looking at the Mortals kneeling and begging for mercy, his expression remained as calm as before as he slightly raised his hand.

"Lotus Pier will only execute the Dadao Sect Cultivators today. The Mortals will be let go, but no Cultivators will be spared."

Upon hearing this, dozens of Mortals felt as if they had been granted a massive amnesty. They kowtowed like pounding garlic and scrambled away toward the door.

"Hold on!"

"Hold on!"

Wang Shouren walked through the corpses with his sword in hand, his gaze like a blade coldly sweeping across the trembling group of Mortals.

As he passed each person, he carefully sensed them. When his gaze lingered on a middle-aged man, the sense of desire piercing through the black lotus between his brows suddenly grew a bit stronger.

"Hmm? There really are Cultivators who would disguise themselves as Mortals and use such despicable tactics."

A smile played at the corners of Wang Shouren's mouth. He had merely acted on the notion that caution never hurts, just to see if any Cultivators had mixed in among these Mortals.

At the same time, he wanted to test whether the black lotus had the exact same devouring desire for everyone.

"Cultivators?"

A commotion broke out among the crowd, and the woman hurriedly pressed her body even lower.

Seeing Wang Shouren staring fixedly at him, the man's face turned ashen.

"Damn it!"

He suddenly sprang up, a poison-laced short dagger in his hand thrusting straight toward a youth of the Shou generation standing nearby.

That youth of the Shou generation was only at the Qi Refining fourth layer. Seeing the short dagger stab straight toward his face, his pupils shrank sharply, and he even forgot to dodge.

A streak of purple light.

A purple electric arc as thick as a child's arm shot out from Wang Shouren's fingertips, arriving first despite starting last, and precisely struck the back of the head of the sudden attacker.

The man's movements abruptly stiffened, the short dagger stopping three inches away from the youth of the Shou generation's glabella. Rolling his eyes back, he collapsed to the ground with a thump, twitched his limbs twice, and then fell completely silent.

Only then did the youth of the Shou generation snap back to his senses, his back already soaked in cold sweat. He gratefully said to Wang Shouren: "Thank you, Brother Shouren, for saving my life!"

"We are all brothers, no need for formalities. You still need to practice more." Wang Shouren withdrew his finger and let out a cold snort. "To prevent anyone from sneaking among you, we won't let anyone pass until we have finished killing. Those of the Shou generation, go to the inner courtyard to purge them."

As soon as these words were spoken, the Mortals turned pale, but no one dared to speak out in rebuttal, shrinking in place while trembling.

An old man pulled at his son's sleeve beside him, whispering resentfully: "This damned Dadao Sect, we were just about to go out, yet they've caused us to have to wait for this killing god to finish slaughtering people..."

Within the crowd, a beautiful woman holding a child trembled slightly.

The child in her arms struggled even more violently, his small hands pushing and pounding.

The woman hurriedly pressed the child tightly, lowering her voice to say something in his ear, a thin layer of cold sweat already seeping from her forehead.

In the battle in the outer courtyard just now, all the capable experts of the Dadao Sect had been slaughtered by Wang Chongyang and a few members of the Yao generation.

Now, what remained in the inner courtyard were mostly family dependents, the elderly, and the weak.

Soon, shouts of killing and cries for mercy echoed from the depths of the inner courtyard. The Disciples of the Wang family's Shou generation purged the rooms one by one. Someone stumbled out only to have their heart pierced from behind by a sword, while someone else's cries for mercy while kneeling became so shrill they changed pitch, only to abruptly cut off.

Wang Shouren stood in the center, no longer making a move, only watching with cold eyes.

Wang Chongyang stood with his hands behind his back at the entrance of the inner courtyard, speaking slowly: "Ren'er, by doing this, do you wish to temper this group of brothers and sisters of yours?"

"Indeed," Wang Shouren cupped his fists and said, "Very few in our generation have seen blood. Today, we can just take this opportunity to let them witness a real slaughter."

Wang Chongyang nodded slightly and said no more.

Just at this moment, a shrill woman's scream suddenly erupted from a stone house on the eastern side.

"The Wang family—none of you will die a good death!!!" That voice was sharp, filled with venom and despair.

Following closely, a heavy sound came over. After a muffled thud, there was no more sound.

The body of the child in the beautiful woman's arms abruptly stiffened.

Wang Yaowu strode out from the stone house, the heavy sword still dripping with blood, and spat on the ground.

"I didn't expect Tian Hu's old woman to actually be at the Qi Refining seventh layer. Fortunately, Shouren, you had us follow, or else it would have caused the boys of the Shou generation to get hurt."

The woman tightly clasped the child in her arms, her lips pressed against his ear, her voice shaking beyond recognition: "Don't be impulsive! Young Master, going out now is just courting death... Live, stay alive first..."

The child's struggles gradually subsided, but those eyes remained bloodshot, staring fixedly at the blood-dripping heavy sword in Wang Yaowu's hand.

When everything returned to silence, the purge of the inner courtyard also came to an end.

The Disciples of the Shou generation walked out of the stone houses one after another, their bodies spattered with blood. A few had pale faces and were still suppressing dry heaves, but their eyes were different from before, carrying a bit of cold hardness that did not belong to youths.

Wang Shouren turned around, his gaze sweeping across the group of Mortals: "I know there must be people among you saying that our Wang family is no good, ruthless murderers."

"No, no!" The crowd shook their heads in unison, their voices descending into chaos.

"No? Or you don't dare?" Wang Shouren's voice suddenly turned cold.

This low shout was like a thunderclap, scaring the Mortals into Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering, as they collapsed to their knees in a flurry and kowtowed like pounding garlic.

An elderly man kowtowed until his forehead bled, saying with a trembling voice: "Immortals, please examine this clearly! We are all wretched people forcibly abducted by the Dadao Sect, and we harbor nothing but resentment toward them! Today, the Immortals are acting on behalf of Heaven to eliminate the wicked. It is too late for us to feel grateful, how could we speak ill of the Wang family!"

"That's right! That's right! The Immortals are great people!" Echoes of agreement rose and fell within the crowd.

Wang Shouren smiled faintly, but the smile did not reach his eyes.

"Our Wang family has always been kind to others, yet you clearly knew that people from the Dadao Sect were mixed among that group just now, but no one spoke up or gave a reminder. Since you are unwilling to tell the truth, don't blame our Wang family for not cherishing our reputation."

The Mortals were frightened out of their wits, kowtowing so hard that the stone slabs thumped loudly.

That elderly man abruptly raised his head, sweeping his gaze across the crowd, and suddenly pointed at three raggedly dressed men in the corner, shouting hoarsely.

"It's them! They are Disciples of the Dadao Sect, this old man has seen them with my own eyes!"

Seeing that they had been exposed, the three men simply stopped pretending.

The leader raised his head, his expression gloomy and sinister, a miserable smile hanging at the corners of his mouth.

"What fine methods you have, Young Master Wang, driving us to absolute extermination and now still wanting to play the good guy? Since you are unwilling to kill them, we will help you kill!"

Before his voice fell, the three of them suddenly burst forth at the same time, pouncing toward the unarmed Mortals beside them.

He wanted to ruin the reputation of this Wang family for slaughtering Mortals.

Blade light flashed, and screams erupted into chaos.

Cultivators killing Mortals was even easier than chopping melons and cutting vegetables. In an instant, more than a dozen people fell in the pool of blood.

That elderly man had his chest split open by a blade, and a child was chopped into two halves from shoulder to back, severed limbs flying everywhere.

In just a few breaths, Wang Yaowu and several Cultivators of the Yao generation struck simultaneously, three rays of spiritual light hitting the vital points of those three men respectively.

The three of them let out a muffled groan and collapsed to the ground, twitching twice before becoming completely motionless.

Wang Yaowu sheathed his sword and grinned, saying: "Shouren, you're still the smart one. This time they should be completely wiped out."

Wang Shouren looked at the corpses of the Mortals all over the ground, nodded calmly, and said: "Let them go."

The remaining fifty or so Mortals felt as though they had been granted a massive amnesty. After kowtowing in gratitude, they scrambled and crawled down the mountain. The ground was filled with the corpses of their companions, yet no one dared to take an extra glance.

The beautiful woman mingled in the crowd, lowering her head and walking outward at a fast pace.

"You, stop."

Wang Shouren's voice was not loud, but it nailed her in place like a spike.

The woman's footsteps paused, her body trembling violently.

The surrounding Mortals scattered away from her in a flurry as if avoiding a plague god, and in the blink of an eye, only she was left standing alone in the middle.

The child in her arms was unusually quiet, his small hands tightly clutching the woman's lapel without moving a muscle.

Wang Yaowu frowned and glanced at the woman: "Shouren, this is just a pitiful woman and child, let them go."