“Hall Master, we’ve captured Yin Pagoda Sect’s saint and saintess. Liu Qingsong, the sect’s guardian elder, was killed on the spot,” a man in black reported.
“Good.” Yan Xiaoxiao nodded and slowly walked towards Yin Pagoda Sect’s stronghold.
Corpses were already strewn about the residence. After all, the word “mercy” wasn’t in Azure Dragon Hall’s dictionary. There were no other survivors besides the two people they captured alive on the Hall Master’s orders.
“Polis Witch! You’ve committed heinous crimes and taken so many lives. You will certainly be punished by the wrath of Heaven!” Yin Pagoda Sect’s saint glared at Yan Xiaoxiao as soon as she appeared.
The saint was a youth who was only 13 or 14 years old. Because he had been pressed against the ground, his small face had already turned bright red.
Faced with the little saint’s condemnation, Yan Xiaoxiao normally would’ve ignored him and simply ended his life with her sword, but her mood was a little different today.
“The Yin Pagoda Sect killed several hundred members of my Yan family that day, so I’m avenging my parents now. What’s wrong with that?” Her serene eyes fell on the saint as she calmly responded.
The saint couldn’t help staring in shock when he heard that. After all, he was still young and had yet to manage any sect affairs. Of course he wouldn’t know about Yan Xiaoxiao’s background.
Yin Pagoda Sect had countless enemies and had also slaughtered many families.
For a moment, the saint was at a loss for words, but a voice traveled over slowly from afar, “Amitabha. Benefactor Yan[1], please be merciful.”
A ray of golden light suddenly flashed across her eyes. Yan Xiaoxiao only felt a soft force blowing away the longsword she held to the saint’s neck.
When she looked at the newcomer, she saw a monk in unadorned clothes standing next to the saint and holding a string of prayer beads in his hand. His eyebrows were lowered, but his figure was as majestic as a mountain.
Yan Xiaoxiao snorted coldly. She raised her longsword and arrived in front of the monk in the blink of an eye.
“Amitabha!” The monk merely chanted one of the Buddha’s many names, and a wisp of golden light appeared out of thin air right in front of him. Yan Xiaoxiao’s sword was immediately blocked, unable to move a single inch.
“If revenge breeds revenge, will there ever be an end to it? Benefactor, is it worth it to create more sins through murder?” The monk placed his hands together in prayer, his head still slightly lowered. He sighed, “It would be better to let go.”
“Monk? Prodigious Realm?” Yan Xiaoxiao had frequent contact with Gu Nan, so she saw through the other party’s cultivation with a single glance. Her heart was slightly surprised.
Immortal Demon World also contained Buddhist sects, but Buddhism had always been in decline there. The Quanyin Temple, the leader of all the Buddhist sects, was the only one of the five righteous sects that didn’t have a Prodigious Realm cultivator holding up the fort.
But right now, a Prodigious Realm Buddhist arhat had personally appeared in front of Yan Xiaoxiao.
Yan Xiaoxiao was no longer ignorant about the world. She could recognize the appearances of both the righteous and demonic paths’ top figures, but she had no impression of the monk in front of her at all.
“Who are you?”
“This humble monk is Jing Nan.”
Yan Xiaoxiao’s frown deepened. She had never heard of this name before. ‘And actually, Quanyin Temple doesn’t even have a generation of monks whose names start with “Jing”…’
Did this Prodigious Realm master jump out of a rock?
No matter what the other party’s origin was, Yan Xiaoxiao knew that her path of revenge would probably be stuck at this last step—the strength of a Prodigious Realm cultivator wasn’t something that the current her could fight.
……
“A Prodigious Realm great monk?” At Azure Dragon Hall’s headquarters, Gu Nan was also surprised when he heard Yan Xiaoxiao’s report.
Buddhist experts were truly rare. Let alone in the Immortal Demon world, he didn’t even see much of them in Star Realm. These great monks who particularly valued withdrawing from worldly affairs wouldn’t appear so easily.
‘But for a Prodigious Realm monk to suddenly appear in the Immortal Demon World, where Buddhism has always been weak…’
Gu Nan narrowed his eyes slightly. “Did you keep an eye on their whereabouts?”
Yan Xiaoxiao nodded. “He’s taking two children with him, so he can only use the official path. It’s easy to follow them.”
“Good, notify those in Radiant Tower of the news.”
“Yes.” Yan Xiaoxiao quickly accepted the orders and left. In fact, the only Radiant Tower member she could contact was Tang Xuan.
Ever since Gu Nan revealed strength at the Prodigious Realm, the people from Radiant Tower began trying to contact him, and Tang Xuan naturally became the person in charge.
Gu Nan also needed Radiant Tower’s help in order to find the right opportunity to hunt Prodigious Realm experts, so the two sides hit it off immediately.
Three of the demonic path’s Prodigious Realm experts who fell during this period had died in Gu Nan’s hands, giving him a wave of Evil Value and points.
Some gave more points and others gave less, but the amount of Evil Value was fixed—every Prodigious Realm expert gave three.
So Gu Nan now had 350 points, and his Evil Value had already reached 60.
After Yan Xiaoxiao informed Radiant Tower, Gu Nan no longer paid any attention to the matter. That monk wasn’t part of the demonic path. Killing him wouldn’t give any reward, so of course he didn’t care about the monk.
As for that saint and saintess, he wasn’t in a hurry to kill them.
In any case, they wouldn’t disappear. That monk would only be able to protect them for a while at most. When the war ends, it will be too easy to deal with them.
But Gu Nan didn’t expect to receive Tang Xuan’s reply in a little under two days.
The content of the letter was precisely to invite him to deal with the monk named Jing Nan.
……
Three days later, Gu Nan reached Luo City, the capital of Jin Country. Tang Xuan and two other high-ranking Radiant Tower officials were already waiting here.
The two senior executives were a man and a woman. The man was Yue Chenxing, who had praised Gu Nan at the beginning, and the woman’s name was Ye Zhiyu. She came from Ruby Fish Star’s headquarters and was one of the highest-ranking members in this mission.
“Tang Xuan, it’s already time. That Gu Nan still hasn’t arrived yet?” Ye Zhiyu asked impatiently with a slight frown.
“Maybe something happened on the road. Why don’t we wait some more?” Tang Xuan replied expressionlessly.
“Hmph! He could already escape from Wen Changfeng back when he was merely in the Innate Realm. What can possibly delay him?” Ye Zhiyu gave a light snort. “I think he’s simply looking down on us!”
Tang Xuan raised an eyebrow and was about to speak, but Yue Chenxing hurriedly came up to smooth things over and finally appeased them after much difficulty.
Yue Chenxing also felt a little helpless. Right now, Radiant Tower’s attitude towards Gu Nan could basically be divided into two factions.
Both sides agreed on borrowing Gu Nan’s help to complete the mission. However, a group of people wanted to make friends with Gu Nan and try to win him over as much as possible, while another group wanted to subdue him first and integrate him into Radiant Tower’s system for unified management.
Not much needed to be said about the first view, but the latter view was also pretty reasonable.
Gu Nan had been known as a genius ever since his debut, but he himself was very disagreeable and unreasonable. This kind of person was a double-edged sword; if they didn’t use it well, they would hurt themselves instead. Thus, they’d need to grind it well before using it.
Ye Zhiyu belonged to the latter group. She was born in a family of military officers in Star Realm and hated unscrupulous people like Gu Nan the most, so her words were very impolite.
After pacifying her, Yue Chenxing then tried to persuade her, “Zhiyu, we can say those things in private. But when Gu Nan arrives, you should…”
“What?” Ye Zhiyu interrupted coldly, “Don’t tell me he would dare to make enemies of my Radiant Tower? He’s nothing more than a cultivator who recently advanced to Prodigious Realm! Do you really believe that someone can actually step into the ‘Infinitesimal Stage’ as soon as he advances to Prodigious Realm?”
Yue Chenxing smiled bitterly. “That’s true, but…”
“There’s no ‘but’.” Ye Zhiyu waved her hand, “I’m the main commander of this operation. If Gu Nan doesn’t obey…”
Ye Zhiyu hadn’t even finished speaking yet when a light breeze blew past the three of them. A muffled sound was heard, and Ye Zhiyu was sent flying!
Notes: [1] Benefactor: Term used by a monk to address a layperson
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