Chapter 22 Regrets (1/2)
”You are far calmer than I thought,” Lu Tianzi's lips twitched when he noticed that Yan Bingren was meditating in the cage.
Before Yan Bingren could even answer, a series of sword lights flashed, and the reinforced wooden cage was cleanly sliced into pieces.
Seeing that, Yan Bingren's eyes could not help but widen in astonishment!
Even though an Intermediate Essence Building realm martial artist would be able to cut through Ironwood, it would definitely not be as easy as how Lu Tianzi made it look!
Yan Bingren swallowed a mouthful of saliva as he carefully probed the young man before him with his perception.
As expected, he was no longer able to detect Lu Tianzi's cultivation realm!
How long had it been since Lu Tianzi broke into the Intermediate Essence Building realm?
How could he have broken through yet again?
Lu Tianzi had already been an unrivalled talent, but this far exceeded even his own previous rate of cultivation!
While Yan Bingren was still in his state of shock, Lu Tianzi had already stepped into the driver's seat and started driving the horse carriage.
”W-Where are we going?” Yan Bingren asked as he remained seated in the cage behind.
Even with the horse carriage in motion, it would have been easy for Yan Bingren to join Lu Tianzi at the front. However, he quickly decided against it after seeing the corpses of the two servants from the City Lord Manor that were still lying on the seats.
”Before you ask anything, let me first tell you what I know,” Lu Tianzi did not even look back as he replied.
Yan Bingren immediately quieted down, focusing as his junior in the martial academy started to give a recount of everything that had happened since a week ago.
Of course, Lu Tianzi did not describe every single detail, such as how he defeated the demons, or even how he had eaten the meat of a demon and had ended up benefiting from it. Even if he said so, Yan Bingren might not believe it, so Lu Tianzi decided to just leave that out completely.
As Yan Bingren listened on, a bad premonition started to weave itself together in his mind. When Lu Tianzi finally got to what the demons said about the agreement between Hu Yuanbo and Nanbai Zhaoyu, Yan Bingren finally felt all of his strength leave his body.
The respectable City Lord Hu and his benevolent ways.
The celebrated Holy Guardians and their honourable mission.
The mystifying Holy City and its unblemished record.
All of them were nothing but lies!
”No, that cannot be the case. If that's the case, how is it possible for you to defeat the demons on your own? And where are the remains of the demons?” Yan Bingren tried his best to reject the harsh reality that was staring him right in the face.
This was how most humans behaved when faced with an abrupt negative change.
If left to gradually discover the truth on their own, they might be more willing to accept the situation. However, it was different if someone were to suddenly throw the harsh fact at them, especially one that would completely disprove everything that they had previously known.
No matter how credible this fact was, people would still be reluctant to accept it.
They would try to question it with every little detail that might serve to discredit it, searching for a way to reject this change in their lives.
But that was not going to work this time.
Yan Bingren did not know how, but just by looking at the current Lu Tianzi, he immediately realised that the young man had already grown far stronger than just a week ago.
Pure individual strength, that was probably what allowed him to win.
As for the remains of the demons…
”We are going to a safe place where I had temporarily dumped all the demon remains. You can see for yourself when we arrive,” Lu Tianzi's voice was cold.
While recounting everything to Yan Bingren, Lu Tianzi had been forced to relive all that had happened. This caused the vivid memories of almost losing his life to resurface, which in turn caused his mood to plummet.
But that was not all.
His hatred caused by the betrayal was once again ignited as well.
No mercy for traitors!
Lu Tianzi gritted his teeth as he rode on. It did not take long before they arrived at the steep cliff above the underground cavern, and Lu Tianzi decisively released the horses from their leashes, letting them roam free once more.
”Where is this?” Yan Bingren asked in curiosity. All he could see in front of them was a dead drop.
”This is the safe place that I spoke of just now. We are going down,” Lu Tianzi picked up the two corpses and casually threw them over the cliff.
”What?” Yan Bingren frowned.
Was this guy out of his mind? They were not even able to see the depths of the cliff!
”Don't worry, it is not as deep as it looks. More importantly, it is safe down there. Or would you rather sleep out here in the wilds?” Lu Tianzi asked.
”This…” Yan Bingren's frown deepened. ”Is it really not dangerous?”
”We are in the same boat now. I have no reason to lie,” not even waiting for Yan Bingren's answer, Lu Tianzi started to climb downwards.
Yan Bingren let out a sigh as he saw this. If he wanted to know more information, then he truly had no choice but to follow. He knew that he needed to see the corpses of the demons with his own eyes before he could truly believe Lu Tianzi's words.
Otherwise, even if he knew that there was definitely something amiss, there was no way that he could just believe Lu Tianzi's words that the respectable City Lord Hu had been colluding with the demons!
The downward climb did not take long.
As martial artists, their stamina and strength were both far beyond that of mortals, and were able to casually maneuver through the rocky cliff.
When they finally arrived at the bottom, Yan Bingren immediately felt his breath quicken.
Sweeping his perception around, he could identify the demon corpses scattered around the bottom of the cliff walls. These were all carelessly thrown over the cliff by Lu Tianzi, resulting in their bodies being badly damaged during the fall.
Thankfully, martial artists had a stronger body which could still remain largely in one piece even after the powerful impact. If they had been mere mortals, most of them might already be completely unrecognisable by now.
But in any case, the tails behind their backs was more than enough proof that they were demons!
For Yan Bingren, that was enough prove about the contact with demons!
Other than the demons, Lu Tianzi had also cut up some trees and threw them down into the cavern. These huge logs did not survive the impact in one piece, but the resulting broken logs were still useable. With these pieces of wood, Lu Tianzi could now proceed to burn the corpses!
Yan Bingren had already fallen into a daze as he watched Lu Tianzi busy himself with the preparation of the fire and collection of the main body parts. His mind was desperately trying to piece everything together, hoping to form up a clearer picture of the current situation.
With a flint that he had borrowed from Uncle Ye's house, Lu Tianzi set all the corpses aflame at one go.
Lu Tianzi had considered letting Yan Bingren try to consume demon flesh as well, but that carried too high a risk.
As someone who had been carefully nurtured as a genius in the Ivory Rock Martial Academy, it was inevitable for Lu Tianzi to develop a sense of superiority when comparing himself to his peers.
If even he almost succumbed to the agonising pain, Lu Tianzi did not believe that Yan Bingren had much of a chance.