Chapter 123: Having a Clear Conscience (2/2)
w.a.n.g Lu’s atrocity immediately stirred the anger in the remaining corpses. They began to clamor up, making the eerie atmosphere thicker. The Sword of Truth’s illusion world wasn’t afraid of someone who wanted to break it through violence. Because, once someone resorted to violence when that someone was put to the test, it was mostly because that someone’s heart was already empty! And the strength of the Sword of Truth’s illusion world was precisely depended upon the strength of the other party's heart. If that someone lacked in confidence, that someone would not be able to show his strength, no matter how powerful he was. Even if one were a Mahayana Stage expert, the Sword of Truth would be able to project seventeen or eighteen True Immortals to cut them into a million pieces.
However, behind w.a.n.g Lu’s violence, he had the firm, hard-to-understand unwavering confidence. “Bunch of sc.u.ms, what qualifications do you guys have to roar in front of me!?”
Within the roaring clamor of the corpses, w.a.n.g Lu’s harsh remark was like a clap of thunder that silenced them.
Before they made their move again, w.a.n.g Lu raised his eyebrows and pointed his fingers at them. “You guys are the defeated party who died in a conflict against Wisdom Sect’s expansion, and your grievances flew to the heaven, so you want to put the blame of the pain of your deaths on me, wis.h.i.+ng that you could make a mincemeat of me!? But I do not avoid nor escape; I am happy to take the sins for this deaths and bear your resentment! Because the enemy’s pain is my happiness, the enemy’s complaint is my heavenly music! Since you guys stood on a hostile position, I have a clear conscience in your slaughter!”
With that, his finger pointed in another direction. “And you guys. You are the Wisdom Sect’s warriors who died in the Wisdom Sect’s expansion war. You now feel remorse; you imagined that if you had not joined the Wisdom Sect, if you had not stood on the front line, you might still be alive. Thus, when you died, you put all the blame on me! Frankly, in my heart, I despise you guys the most! Because there are more than ten times as many of the sect martyrs as you who have no regrets for their ideal and dedication in life; compared to them, you guys are nothing but dust! Real warriors would put their resentment towards their enemies, and fix their gaze forever to the front! When you’re dead, you should've rallied your subordinates and returned to fight the enemy in the mortal world! When you give up the resentment towards the enemy and turn it to remorse, you are not worthy of being a warrior, and you don’t deserve to bask in the Wisdom Sect’s glory! I disdain fallen warriors like you as beneath contempt!”
“As for you guys. You are the cultivators who died because of the use of Heaven Burning Blood Technique. You thought that you’ve been cheated, feeling grievances like a snow storm in summer; you self-righteously believed that I ruined your future one hundred years old life! To you, I only have indifferent contempt! Because it was I who gave you the opportunity to walk on the Immortal Path, it was I who granted you mortals the possibility to move forward, it was I who let you transformed from being doomed to silently die like ants in the world ascension process into the pioneers of the ascension of the Nine Regions! Let alone the use of Heaven Burning Blood Technique has never been forced to anyone; it’s the decision of a mediocre person who wants to s.h.i.+ne like a dazzling hero, even if only for a moment; the decision is entirely in your hands! Since you have chosen to s.h.i.+ne, then you have no right to regret the price to s.h.i.+ne! Your clamor today only makes you look ungrateful; you don’t deserve to be pitied!”
These series of roars shocked the countless of corpses into silence; at this moment, w.a.n.g Lu’s momentum has reached its peak. Even in this h.e.l.l of mountains of corpses and seas of blood, unexpectedly, they could not resist his fearful convincing argument! Tens of thousands of corpses have been deterred and the cold wind of h.e.l.l severely weakened; the sky behind the blood cloud revealed a golden light, as if at any moment, the cloud could clear up and the suns.h.i.+ne would fill the sky.
“Heh, that’s interesting.”
At the same time, Liu Xian, who observed this scene from the start, smiled and nodded.
“Interesting? I think he’s just trying to quibble!” Fang He thought otherwise.
Liu Xian said, “Although it’s just an artful sophistry, it’s not purely to show off his sharp tongue. To be able to argue while under the Sword of Truth’s interrogation clearly shows that, in the deepest part of his heart, he really does believe his words. Even in the face of mountains of corpses and seas of blood, he still has a clear conscience.”
Fang He shook his head. “Such a clear conscience can only show how twisted his inner heart is.”
Liu Xian continued, “Junior Brother uses the ordinary people’s standard in judging him, but don’t forget that this child is also a leader of a sect. As the saying goes, merciful people can’t command troops. If he doesn’t have a distorted frame of mind, how could he operate a sect? Or perhaps another way to say this is, which successful leader in the Nine Regions whose mind wasn’t a bit paranoid and twisted?”
Fang He just shook his head but didn’t try to refute Liu Xian's words.
Liu Xian also said, “Rest a.s.sured, it’s not that you don’t know that the power of the Sword of Truth is far more than this. w.a.n.g Lu, this child, can only withstand this first test, and I’m sure he won’t be able to bear the next test.”
This remark was a matter of course. If someone could pa.s.s the Sword of Truth’s interrogation only by virtue of conviction, there would be no evidence of the efficacy of the innocence. Because, even if someone killed innocent people, as long as that someone believed that the slaughter was just and right, that someone might be able to pa.s.s the test. Even so, that someone might not be able to have the courage of w.a.n.g Lu who boldly roared at the mountains of corpses and seas of blood.
Having a clear conscience was never equal to being shameless, because the Sword of Truth didn’t interrogate someone’s mind, but someone’s Dao Heart.
The so-called Dao Heart is the realization and comprehension that came to the cultivators in their journey on the Immortal Path. Despite the fact that Immortal Path could be divided into numerous paths, any one of them has its bottom line and foundation. If someone wanted to follow one of these paths, that someone must be willing to accept the rules of these paths. No one could put his way of thinking above those rules, no one could use his twisted point of view to come and comprehend the main path, and no one could be righteously shameless—unless if they were those who cultivated demonic methods, or perhaps those whose Primordial Spirit has reached the state of pure without a single stain; those were another matter entirely.
w.a.n.g Lu both didn’t cultivate demonic method, and his Primordial Spirit was far from reaching the state of pure without a single stain. Thus, when the Sword of Truth truly showed its prowess, he would not be able to resist such powerful pressure.
Within the illusion world, the mountains of corpses and seas of blood have completely vanished, leaving only the endless darkness.
After a long time, when w.a.n.g Lu, in that limitless darkness even began to lose his sense of the pa.s.sage of time, a thundering voice loudly cracked: “You are guilty!”
Boom!
w.a.n.g Lu was nearly frightened out of his wits! When these three words rang in his ears, countless of pictures poured into his mind. He saw the suffering of the cultivators who were butchered in fighting against Wisdom Sect’s expansion, ordinary civilians who died on the spot when they tried to practice the Heaven Burning Blood Technique, including those followers who had been working days and nights for the Wisdom Sect but suffered a premature death, as well as their relatives who wept on their coffins.
This was a real cause and effect. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, the blood in his hands would not be washed clean. w.a.n.g Lu naturally knew how difficult this obstacle was, thus, he immediately tightly guarded his heart, going all out to withstand the pressure!
His cultivation of Primordial Spirit was insufficient, therefore, he was unable to directly face the test from the Sword of Truth. At this time, the surviving nine pillars in the new town suddenly flew into the air and correspondingly, not only the new town, but also the surrounding mountain range reacted! The green mountains trembled before the brilliance of the pillars and then the spiritual energy that flew through the Feng Shui line was squeezed even more, and along with the operation of the Gathering Spirit Arrays in the new town, all of that spiritual energy rushed into w.a.n.g Lu like how the Yangtze and Yellow River entered the sea!
This time’s surge of spiritual energy was several times more violent than the surge of spiritual energy that happened when he built the Primordial Chaos Altar! If he was just an ordinary cultivator, his body would have long exploded. However, w.a.n.g Lu, who was still standing in the middle of the altar, was as stable as the rock. With all of those spiritual energy entering his body, in a flash, his Inner Mansion was deluged with a platinum-colored torrential rain! This was the spiritual energy that was transformed through the strange properties of the Void Spirit Root into magical power, which, unexpectedly, didn’t even have the time to evaporate!
Of course, the main protagonist here was the golden liquid that was extracted by the more than two hundred Sword Bones. In the beginning, w.a.n.g Lu’s breathing of spiritual energy only resulted in the little bit acc.u.mulation of the golden liquid, however, now it seemed like two hundred and six floodgates had been opened, which turned the golden liquid in the Inner Mansion into a golden ocean.
At the same time, within the Inner Mansion, his Primordial Spirit, that was completely shrouded in the darkness, began to frantically rotate like a vortex in the ocean. A moment later, his Primordial Spirit greatly shone, and the darkness began to get pushed away!
“Good!”
At this time, Liu Xian and Fang He simultaneously cheered!
Were it not for w.a.n.g Lu absorbing the enormous spiritual energy from the arrays, consuming elixirs to strengthen his Sword Bone, and finally, for using a technique to strengthen the Primordial Spirit using his magical power, he would not be able to display such a feat!
For cultivators, magical power and Primordial Spirit were independent of each other. Primordial Spirit drove the magical power, while magical power nourished the Primordial Spirit, however, the two couldn’t be freely converted, unless...
Unless w.a.n.g Lu had used a superior Heart Sutra. Heart Sutra, was exactly the transformation of the heart and sutra! Yuanying experts like Liu Xian and Fang He naturally could do this technique. However, w.a.n.g Lu was just in his third year of cultivation; his cultivation was merely level six Qi Cultivating Stage, yet he was able to use the Heart Sutra Transformation… This was basically a miracle!
“Fifth Junior Sister’s latest edition of Non-Phase Heart Sutra has actually progressed this much.” A moment later, Liu Xian sighed with emotion. “However, the main point is still this child w.a.n.g Lu’s ability. To be able to do this step, this Sword of Truth…”
Fang He coldly snorted. “Still can’t be blocked. His cultivation is still too shallow.”
Liu Xian pondered for a moment. “It doesn’t mean that he has no chance at all… at least, there’s still one in ten thousand possibilities.”
“Only if he is willing to go all out, otherwise, even one in ten thousand is impossible for him. However, as long as he’s not an idiot, he definitely doesn’t need to put up a life or death struggle just because of the Sword of Truth. Since he has done those previous steps, who would be too harsh on him? He should have known in his heart that we wouldn’t insist him to complete the test.”
Liu Xian smiled and shook his head. “Junior Brother, you were moved by his ability?”
Fang He turned his head. “A twisted ability like this? Forget it. Unless he could be like little Liu Li, then that’s pretty good.”
Liu Xian’s smile suddenly turned somewhat bitter. “If little Liu Li can have a bit of w.a.n.g Lu’s cleverness, then I would feel content…”
The two Elders have begun to chat, and they no longer expected the outcome of the test. However, at this time, facing the Sword of Truth’s severe interrogation, in the deepest blackness, unexpectedly, w.a.n.g Lu’s Primordial Spirit continued to struggle. It had never taken even half a step back!
Liu Xian was extremely surprised. “He is this desperate!”
Fang He deeply frowned. “What is he thinking!?”
However, regardless of what he was thinking, w.a.n.g Lu, at this time, without a doubt, had chosen a dead end!
The Sword of Truth wasn’t meant to injure. Even if it broke through the heart’s defense, it would be simply a defeat and would not cause an injury—there was nothing dangerous in it. However, w.a.n.g Lu had forced his Heart Sutra to overwork, which could be fatal to his body, Inner Mansion, and Primordial Spirit!
Even with this, his chance to successfully resist the Sword of Truth was only, at most, one out of ten thousand!
No matter if it was Liu Xian or Fang He, both had never antic.i.p.ated w.a.n.g Lu to have such an unyielding character. Only for the sake of proving himself as innocence, he even ignored his life!?
At this time, Liu Xian didn’t think about anything, he simply drew his breath and called his Primordial Spirit back. The darkness that wrapped around w.a.n.g Lu’s Primordial Spirit immediately dissipated. The final half of the Sword of Truth’s interrogation was retrieved back by Liu Xian!
Suddenly losing the oppression, w.a.n.g Lu couldn’t help but be surprise. He immediately dispersed his magical power and spiritual energy, and stopped his Heart Sutra. However, he had been physically and mentally hurt; he was extremely exhausted.
Standing on the altar, w.a.n.g Lu couldn’t even maintain a straight posture; he was on the verge of collapse, however, he still had his confident and calm smile on his face.
“Uncle, disciple… has a clear conscience!”
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[1] One of the two main rivers in China.