75: Chapter 75: Offering My Heart, Willing to Pay the Price with My Life!

Mortal Self-Severing Method.

It requires no Spiritual Roots.

It cannot kill enemies, nor can it protect oneself.

It can only be used to commit suicide when facing certain death, turning one's flesh and blood into a rain of pure spiritual energy that purifies demonic energy?

Hearing the function of this technique, the leaders of the Resistance Army in the stone chamber were stunned.

After a brief, deathly silence.

There was no mockery, no questioning.

Because everyone present had crawled out of the prisoner carts for the Blood Tribute.

They were all pushed into a dead end by this man-eating world, which was why they had picked up their blades to follow Leader Li Zizai.

What they feared was never death.

It was the fear of dying like pigs or sheep in a pen, worthless, and even being taken by demons to be refined into Blood Pills.

Now, the Heavenly Dao had given them a new way to die.

A way to destroy the demons' cultivation environment at its root, a way to spite them to death!

Although this blade was meant to slit one's own throat, it was a blade that could truly strike at the very foundation of the demons!

Leader Li Zizai stood before the stone table, watching their reactions, knowing the moment was right.

"Brothers."

"Let me speak from the heart."

"You know better than I do how far our resistance can go."

No one answered.

Because the answer was too cruel.

"We rescued over three thousand people yesterday; it was a beautiful fight."

"But for the next Blood Tribute, Great Li will send reinforcements. By the next one after that, perhaps the demons will come themselves."

"When that day comes, we won't even have a chance to run."

Leader Li Zizai's tone was flat, as if he were talking about something unrelated to himself.

But everyone present knew there wasn't a shred of falsehood in his words.

"I thought about all this the day I raised the banner, but I raised it anyway."

"Because I cannot bear to watch people being loaded into prisoner carts."

"But even if I cannot bear it, I cannot deceive myself."

"The blades of Mortal cannot strike the demons."

"No matter how much blood we shed, for this world, it won't even create a splash."

The stone chamber was as quiet as a grave.

No one refuted him, because this was the truth.

"But now, it is different."

Leader Li Zizai raised his head.

"Our deaths can destroy their roots."

"Demonic energy is the lifeblood of demons; the rain caused by burning our rotten bones is the poison for their lifeblood."

"The rain from one person is too small; it cannot cleanse much."

"But what about a thousand people? Ten thousand? A million?"

"What if all the Mortal in the world learned this method?"

Leader Li Zizai swept his gaze across the room, enunciating every word.

"I will not force you; whether you learn it or not is up to you."

"Learning it doesn't mean you have to die tomorrow; live as you should, every day you live is a day gained."

"But when that day comes, when you are caught, cornered, unable to run, or too old to walk."

"You will have one more choice; you can let your life burn into a rain."

"To cleanse a small patch of clean sky for your children, to let them breathe a few more mouthfuls of non-poisonous air, to let them perhaps live past forty."

"Perhaps one day, when the demonic energy in this world is cleansed, cultivators can be born among the descendants of Mortal again."

"When that time comes, we won't have to kneel anymore."

As his voice fell, everyone's eyes turned red.

In their eyes, the desperate, deathly silence of doing the impossible was gone.

In its place was hope.

Despair had existed because their Resistance Army was like moths blindly crashing in the dark, dying as lightly as a feather, without making a sound.

But now, they knew their flesh and blood could burn.

They could burn away a piece of this poisonous energy, allowing their descendants to breathe a few more mouthfuls of clean air.

This made them feel that their lowly lives had suddenly gained weight.

Adjutant Li Xiaotian was the first to stand up.

He raised his right fist and slammed it heavily against his chest.

Not a single word.

This was his way of offering his heart, willing to pay the price of his life for such a great cause!

Following him, the old captain stood up.

A punch to the chest.

The burly leader.

The strong man.

The deputy general.

One by one, they stood up and struck their chests.

The dull thuds echoed one after another in the stone chamber.

The last one to stand was an extremely thin and small youth in the corner.

He had been rescued from the prisoner carts just three days ago; he still had the Blood Refining Workshop serial number tattooed on his wrist, and he didn't even have a name.

The youth did not strike his chest; he simply said one sentence in an extremely hoarse voice.

"Leader, I have no children, nor do I have parents."

"But I want to learn. I just want to know what it's like when my life burns."

That same day.

Leader Li Zizai taught the Mortal Self-Severing Method to every leader present, word by word.

The technique was extremely simple.

There were no obscure terms, and it required no foundation.

Once learned, it could be used directly, without even needing much practice.

At the moment of death, one would use a resolute will to die to ignite it completely.

It was less a technique and more a key carved into the depths of a Mortal's soul.

After the leaders learned it, they returned to their respective squads.

They did not stand on high ground to give impassioned speeches.

They simply sat among their brothers and, in the most plain language, calmly recounted what they had heard in the stone chamber today.

Then they taught them to close their eyes, place their hands over their hearts, and feel deep inside.

In the underground cavern, it was so quiet that only breathing could be heard.

Gradually, someone touched that hint of warmth, crouched in a corner, and wept with their head buried.

It was not because of fear.

It was because for the first time in decades of life, they felt that there was something in this body that was not reserved for the demons.

It turned out that their lowly lives could also accomplish something earth-shattering.

The reaction of the Great Li Dynasty came faster than expected.

On the third day after the canyon prison rescue, three thousand city guards blockaded a hundred-mile radius and began a dragnet search.

The Resistance Army's camp was hidden deep in the underground cavern, extremely well-concealed, and was not exposed for the time being.

However, a small squad responsible for guarding and transporting rations outside had their tails bitten.

This small squad had only twelve people.

The leader was the very youth who said he wanted to see his life burn.

They were cornered in a valley surrounded by cliffs on three sides.

Chasing them was a troop of Great Li armored soldiers, numbering a hundred.

The leading officer was a low-level demon vassal at the third layer of Qi Refining.

In the eyes of Mortal, such people who relied on the demonic energy bestowed by their masters to cultivate were called Demon Slaves.

Grey-black scales had already begun to grow on his body, and his eyes were extremely cold.

"Leave them alive."

The Demon Slave officer sat on his horse, his tone cruel.

The hundred armored soldiers drew their steel blades, closing in step by step.

There was no retreat in the valley.

The twelve Resistance Army brothers backed against the cliff wall, holding blunt firewood knives in their hands.

They could not run anymore.

If they were captured, the outcome would be a hundred times more miserable than entering the Blood Refining Workshop.

The thin, small youth looked at the approaching soldiers without trembling.

He threw the firewood knife in his hand to the ground.

"Brothers, the day has come."

The youth's voice was hoarse but surprisingly steady.

He turned around and looked at the eleven brothers behind him.

"I have no parents, so I will take the first step today to see if this rain, once it starts, can really cleanse the sky."

The eleven brothers behind him did not speak.

They simply released their hands in tacit understanding, letting the pieces of junk in their hands drop.

No meditation was needed, no closing of eyes, not even any ritualistic posture.

The Mortal Self-Severing Method was, after all, a technique that only required the will to die.

The Demon Slave officer frowned as he watched them drop their weapons.

"Giving up? Go up, break their legs, and drag them back!"

Several armored soldiers approached with savage grins, blades in hand.

At the very moment the blades were about to fall.

Within the thin youth's body, that wisp of Innate Clear Qi he had sensed for three days was completely ignited by his desperate will to die.

Immediately after, there was a second sound, then a third.

The bodies of the twelve people ignited with an extremely faint white flame at the same time.

There was no high heat, no screaming.

This flame did not burn clothes, nor did it burn grass or wood.

It only burned flesh and blood; it only burned life force!