Chapter 257 Becoming a Demon Through Love

The villagers all said he was crazy, but he knew for himself that he was not.

He was clearer-headed than ever before.

He knew very clearly that it was he who had personally handed his daughter's life over to the Bat King. Every time he submitted a village girl's birth date, he was digging a pit for himself, and he was digging a pit for his daughter.

He thought he was protecting his daughter, saving up night-luminous sand, gathering a dowry, and building a future where he could see her clearly. Yet he did not know that with every girl he sent up the mountain, his daughter moved one step closer to death.

He was not forced; he was willing.

He clearly could have chosen to risk his life when the Bat King first caught him, preventing it from coming down the mountain. But he was afraid of death, couldn't bear to leave his daughter, and chose that path that seemed to satisfy both sides.

He clearly could have chosen to continue using his own blood to trade when the Bat King demanded human blood. At worst, he could have let himself be bled dry to death, which would still have been better than harming others' lives. But he couldn't bear to lose his sight, wanting to see more clearly, so he chose that path that seemed better.

He clearly could have chosen to stop in time when he saw that the night-luminous sand could cure his eyes, not coveting better results. But he couldn't bear to lose the increasingly clear world, wanting to see even more clearly, so he sank deeper step by step.

He had a choice at every step, and at every step, he chose the path that seemed best for himself and his daughter.

But he did not know that the path led to an abyss. By the time he finally saw clearly, it was already too late.

His daughter was gone, and everything was gone.

That was why he had to burn the mountain.

He knew where that cave was; he had been there countless times and could find it with his eyes closed. He carried a fire starter, crept up the mountain under the cover of night, reached the cave entrance, stuffed it with dry branches and grass, and threw the fire starter inside.

The cave was full of bats. The fire starter ignited the dry grass, burning those sleeping bats and burning that Bat King.

He heard them shrieking, screaming, and frantically rushing out, but he blocked the entrance, holding it fast to keep them from coming out.

Those bats pounced on him, biting him, tearing at him. His blood sprayed out, but he did not let go.

He wanted them dead, all of them dead, to die together with his daughter.

But in the end, he did not burn them all. The fire was too big and ignited the surrounding shrubs. He himself could not bear it, and as he ran out, he rolled down the hillside. He did not know how he had crawled out of the inferno; he only remembered that he lay on the ground, smiling at the soaring flames.

He smiled happily; he had finally avenged his daughter.

Li Tiezui finished the last word, the light in his eyes having already faded by seven or eight parts, with only a final ember remaining.

He laboriously turned his eyes, his gaze lingering on Chen Mu's face for a moment before shifting to the side, as if looking for someone.

Wan Chongshan leaned forward, his voice tight.

"My sister... Xiao Yuan, are they... are they still alive?"

Li Tiezui's lips moved, but he did not speak, only shook his head.

Wan Chongshan's legs went weak, and he nearly collapsed to his knees.

Li Tiezui did not look at him; his gaze shifted back to Chen Mu.

"My Lord..."

"I... in this life... have committed too many sins... I deserve to die... I should have died long ago..."

He gasped for breath, looking at Chen Mu with unfocused eyes, as if asking a question, or perhaps talking to himself.

"My Lord... tell me... if I had... from the very beginning... risked this old life of mine... and not let that beast come down the mountain... would my daughter... would she... still be alive?"

Chen Mu did not answer.

Li Tiezui waited for a moment, but receiving no answer, a bleak smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.

"No... no... a person like me... is not even fit to go to Hell..."

His voice grew lower and lower, until it was almost inaudible.

"My daughter... my Yinglian... Daddy is coming to find you... Daddy is coming to keep you company... wait for Daddy..."

The last breath slipped from his throat, and Li Tiezui's eyelids slowly drooped shut.

Shen Suning reached out to check his pulse, then touched his neck. A moment later, she looked up and shook her head at Chen Mu.

Chen Mu stood up and looked silently at the pale face on the bed. After a long while, he turned and walked out the door.

In the courtyard, the sun was high, casting its light onto the courtyard wall and dyeing everything in warm colors. Wan Chongshan was squatting at the base of the wall with his head lowered, his shoulders heaving, not knowing if he was crying or suppressing something.

Chen Mu walked past him without saying a word.

He had seen many evil people.

Li Feiyu had killed him to silence him for the sake of a Cultivation Technique, Head Constable Wang had tried to kill him when extortion failed, Xu Changze had stolen public grievances to Cultivate evil arts, and those monsters fed on humans, utterly devoid of humanity.

That evil was direct, clear, and easy to see through at a glance.

But Li Tiezui was different.

He was not born an evil person. A few years ago, he was just an old man afraid of going blind and leaving his daughter with no one to raise her; he was willing to try anything for his daughter.

His first time entering the cave was an accident; his first time delivering blood food to that thing was out of helpless necessity; his first time using human blood to feed that thing was to save the lives of the whole village; his first time handing over those girls' birth dates was for the night-luminous sand that allowed him to see his daughter's face clearly.

He had a reason every time, and every time he told himself this was the last time, but there was always a next time.

It was not that he hadn't thought about stopping, but that thing would not let him stop, and his own greed would not let him stop either.

Yet every compromise was pushing himself deeper into the abyss. You think you are using a demon, but in reality, you have already been assimilated by the demon. You think you are protecting the person you love most, but in reality, you are personally pushing her onto the altar.

Evil committed in the name of love is the most self-righteous, and the most irredeemable.

Li Tiezui was afraid of going blind and leaving his daughter with no one to raise her. To avoid this outcome, he committed evil, harmed others, and sank step by step into the abyss, but the result was exactly:

His eyes were healed, but his daughter died.

He could see this world clearly now, but the person he most wanted to see could never be seen again.

Chen Mu stood at the courtyard gate, looking at the rolling mountain shadows in the distance.

He thought of everything since his Transmigration into this world: every fight, every plundering of Lifespan, every struggle on the edge of life and death.

He never thought of himself as a good person, nor did he think of himself as a bad person. He just wanted to live, wanted to live a little longer, and wanted to become a little stronger—strong enough to protect what he wanted to protect.

But Li Tiezui's story suddenly left him feeling somewhat dazed.

That fortune teller had also just wanted to live, and to protect the person he wanted to protect, in the beginning.

And then?

Chen Mu shook his head, casting these thoughts out of his mind.

He was not Li Tiezui. He had the System, he had power, and he had a clear path. He would not, like Li Tiezui, compromise step by step in a desperate situation and lose himself step by step.

He would not.

After a while, Chen Mu turned and walked back into the courtyard. Wan Chongshan was still squatting at the base of the wall, but he had stood up, fiercely wiping his face with his sleeve, looking at him with red-rimmed eyes.

"Brother Chen, what should we do next?"

Chen Mu looked up at the shadows of the mountains.

"Take people up the mountain. The cave was burned, but the Bat King may not be dead."

He paused, his voice dropping.

"If it's alive, I want to see it; if it's dead, I want to see the corpse."