72: Chapter 72 Mortal self-destruction method

In a secluded corner on a sleeping mat.

Su Yu closed his eyes, maintaining a rhythm of extremely calm breathing.

In his mind, countless concepts regarding the laws of this world were being dismantled and reorganized.

Everything in heaven and earth follows the principle of yin and yang generating one another, with clear and turbid opposing each other.

Since demons can transmute clear energy into turbid energy, there must inevitably exist a possibility to reverse turbid energy back into clear energy.

Su Yu was deducing.

He needed a medium capable of purifying the demonic energy of this world on a large scale and from its very roots.

He needed to borrow strength.

Whose strength should he borrow?

In this world, apart from the demons, there remained only the Mortal, kept like livestock.

Humans are the spirits of all things.

Even if the Mortal in this world lack spiritual roots, cannot absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, and have been eroded by demonic energy for generations until they look like withered ghosts.

Yet, in the deepest origin of their souls, there still hides a trace of the most primordial, purest innate clear energy of this world.

That is the essence from the very beginning of life's birth.

It is the spirit of all things that even the blood miasma of demons cannot completely eradicate.

It is just that this trace of clear energy is too weak, so weak that the Mortal themselves cannot perceive it throughout their entire lives.

Su Yu's thoughts advanced to the most core node.

Since Mortal cannot actively cultivate and cannot channel energy into their bodies.

Then do not practice Qi.

Since this trace of innate clear energy is deeply sealed within the bones and blood of Mortal.

Then use the most extreme method to forcibly extract it.

The gears of deduction meshed wildly within his sublimated wisdom, peeling back the essence of life layer by layer.

Su Yu discarded all the orthodox immortal cultivation techniques he had learned in his previous three lives.

He did not need to consider the endurance of his meridians, the stability of his dantian, or the risk of qi deviation.

Because this technique, from the very beginning, was not created for people to survive.

He did not know how much time had passed.

A miraculous book, enough to completely overturn this distorted world and even be recorded in the annals of the heavens, fully formed in Su Yu's mind.

Mortal Self-Severing Method!

This technique has no threshold, requires no testing of spiritual roots, and needs no assistance from rare treasures; any Mortal can practice it.

It also cannot bring any improvement in power.

It cannot prolong life, it cannot grant immense strength, and it cannot even harm a single hair on a demon in a direct confrontation.

Its only purpose is to actively seek death.

Those who practice this method can actively sever all their own vitality, igniting that trace of innate clear energy—the spirit of all things—deep within their souls.

Using the physical body as firewood and the will in desperate straits as the kindling, they burn their bones to ashes, transforming into a "Rain of Clear Spirit" capable of purifying the demonic energy of heaven and earth.

Humble as ants in life, becoming sweet rain to purify the world in death.

This was the method Su Yu found to break the deadlock.

A "Rain of Clear Spirit" from one Mortal might only be able to purify the demonic energy within a few zhang, which is insignificant.

But what if there were a hundred thousand, a million, ten million, or a hundred million Mortal?

A single spark can start a prairie fire!

The night was already deep.

Inside the core stone house of the underground camp, an oil lamp flickered dimly.

Resistance Army Leader Li Zizai sat before a rough wooden table, holding half a piece of dry, hard coarse grain cake in his hand, yet he hesitated to put it into his mouth.

Before him lay a piece of rough animal hide paper, on which a list of the Mortal rescued today was written crookedly with a charcoal stick.

Three thousand one hundred and twenty-seven people.

This was the first batch of Blood Tribute he had rescued since he started the uprising.

The number was impressive, the operation went smoothly, and none of his brothers were injured or killed.

But as Leader Li Zizai looked at these names, there was no joy in his eyes, only exhaustion.

Because he was too clear-headed.

So clear-headed that on the very first day he planned this prisoner rescue, he had already seen the end of this path.

Today he rescued three thousand people, but what then?

For the next batch of Blood Tribute, the Great Li Dynasty would send double the number of government troops.

For the batch after that, there might even be demons accompanying them.

By that time, let alone hijacking the carriages, their camp of over ten thousand people wouldn't even have the qualification to exist.

A single demon at the late stage of Qi Refining would be enough to crush everyone in this limestone cave into powder.

He was forty years old this year, and his vitality had been tempered to the absolute peak of a mortal martial artist.

But what of it?

Today in the canyon, his brothers cut down three hundred Great Li government troops, fighting with great exhilaration.

Yet from beginning to end, they didn't even encounter a single real demon.

Those high and mighty demons simply did not know of their existence.

Or rather, even if they did know, they wouldn't care at all.

In the eyes of the demons, the ten thousand Mortal gathered in the cave were no different from a group of ants huddled in a mud puddle.

Leader Li Zizai knew this very clearly.

He was not resisting the demons.

He was just fighting with the dogs raised by the demons.

During the day, he stood on a high platform wearing his chainmail, using the loudest voice to encourage these three thousand plus compatriots who had just narrowly escaped.

He said that as long as everyone stood united, one day they would be able to overturn this man-eating world.

He had to put on an appearance of being unbreakable.

Because he was the leader.

If even he collapsed, these Mortal who had managed to escape from the prison carriages would instantly be left to fend for themselves in this dark cave.

But at night, in this stone house where no one else was around.

That clarity of seeing the end at a single glance was like a rusty, dull knife, slowly slicing away at Leader Li Zizai's sanity.

He knew what would happen next.

Continue hijacking the carriages, the scale getting larger and larger, the commotion getting louder and louder.

Then one day, some high official of the Great Li Dynasty would finally find them an eyesore and submit a document to the demons.

This underground camp would instantly turn into a living hell.

This was the end of this path.

Leader Li Zizai had seen it clearly before he started the uprising.

But he started it anyway.

Because he could not stand idly by.

If he were a selfish person, he could have completely relied on this peak martial prowess to become a guarding martial artist under some powerful figure in the Great Li Dynasty, living his life peacefully.

But Leader Li Zizai could not forget those children who were forcibly shoved onto the black iron prison carriages, nor could he forget the numb faces of those who voluntarily went to the Blood Refining Workshop to die.

He could only save those he could see before him.

Save one, count one.

Just like a fool trying to catch all the raindrops with his hands in a torrential rain.

Knowing full well he couldn't catch them, he still reached out his hands.

Tears spilled out between his fingers, dripping onto the rough wooden table.

He was not afraid of death.

He hated his own powerlessness.

He hated why this world treated Mortal as fish on a chopping block.

He hated why there was no path in this world that would allow Mortal to live standing tall.

Extreme exhaustion, after the venting of tears, turned into an irresistible drowsiness.

Leader Li Zizai slumped over the wooden table, and amidst the heaviness and torment, he fell into a deep sleep.