Chapter 391
The world is both beautiful and cruel.
The yellow river is clear and the sea is calm 1 , peaceful country and prosperous people. This was, without a doubt, a beautiful picture. However, anybody who knew that the prelude to this picturesque scene was brutal and bitter fighting. Without bloody battles from the founding army, there would be no peaceful development for the future generations.
By the same token, when you made a good wish, you have to be aware of this: in order to achieve this beautiful desire, you would probably need to make a cruel choice.
Princess Yunyue was willing to sacrifice herself for the achievements of other people, and this was undoubtedly a beautiful and noble feeling. And being moved by this feeling, Wang Lu did not hesitate to brave hardships and risks, to design and participate in the implementation of as-far-as-possible, close-to-perfection set of plan.
Wang Lu’s plan, if it could be carried out smoothly from the beginning to the end, would have a perfect result. Princess Yunyue would obtain a new lease of life, Yunkongjun would continue to be suppressed inside the stele, Yunchang would no longer continue living to rebel, and Cloud Country would avoid a disaster that would affect the whole country. As for King Yunyang, perhaps after his abdication, he would have enough leisure time and carefree mood to start a new life. And Wang Lu, after successfully solving all the problems, presumably would also earn valuable reward from the immortal dream land.
However, would things really proceed so smoothly? Wang Lu could look forward to it, but he could not pin his hope entirely on it. In the face of such a complex and dangerous situation, all the contingency plans that could be done must be done, in order to cover for the worst case scenario. And in two days, although limited, he at least could do one thing.
“Ten Thousand Spirit Blood!”
When Wang Lu took out a bottle of boiling blood from his bosom, Yunkongjun was extremely surprised. “You actually… obtained that ten thousand spirit blood?”
At this time, even King Yunyang didn’t expect that Wang Lu could actually come up with that ten thousand spirit blood. “Immortal, where… where did you get that ten thousand spirit blood?”
Wang Lu lightly said, “One day, do you think that’s enough time for me to collect the blood from ten thousand spirits?”
King Yunyang suddenly felt chill down his spine. Although he had ordered his own men to collect the ten thousand spirit blood, moreover it has indeed caused the killing, but compared to Wang Lu’s understatement posture, it should not be placed in the same breath… the path of an immortal was different than that of a mortal, this was an honest and sincere word!
For the fear of King Yunyang, Wang Lu has no interest to explain it to him.
He certainly could not do the indiscriminate killing of innocent people. Although this was in immortal dream land, Wang Lu still has too many reasons not to let himself lose and maintain his state of mind. Although a day was not enough to collect the blood of ten thousand spirits, it was enough for him to collect the blood from the prisoners on death row in Yunyang City. As for the remaining…
Looking at the broad view of everything, even if the whole Cloud Country was peaceful and the people prosperous, among tens of millions of people in the country, could he not find a few that deserved to be killed? Wang Lu was not an ordinary mortal, so he did not need to abide by the rules of ordinary mortal.
Those that Wang Lu killed were from corrupt bureaucrats who took bribes and judged with injustice, those who terrorized men and took their women, and those marketplace rogue local ruffians and bandits. Through the eyes of cultivators, he was able to determine the good from evil at a glance. If he wanted to let go of a person, he just let that person go; if he wanted to kill, he just killed. In half a day, he managed to successively kill thousands of people, finally managing to collect this component before their departure to the royal tomb.
In fact, Wang Lu always wanted to laugh at how stupid this King Yunyang was for letting his men to slaughter a whole village to collect their blood. If he really wanted human lives, weren’t there so many ways to do it?
Perhaps after a long time being on the throne, the vision of King Yunyang could not come down, or perhaps because it was too long for him being a wise monarch that he could not think of a crooked way to achieve his goal. The urgency and the secrecy of the affair also made it impossible for him to consult with others. But all in all, collecting the ten thousand spirit blood was never a problem for Wang Lu.
The problem was that, no matter how tactful and ingenious the collection was, the blood of thousands of people inevitably contained cruelty and iniquity. And once drunk, whether by initiative or by force, whether informed or uninformed, would bear the original sin. And this was an unacceptable condition for Wang Lu who wanted to portray a holy king with virtue.
Perhaps with the good character of Yunyue, it was enough to offset this original sin, but Wang Lu didn’t want to gamble easily. Facing a Peak Yuanying Stage, any winning chance should be firmly grasped.
However, if the suppression has already been completed, there would be more wiggle room to do that. The influence of the virtue of the king towards the stele has to exceed a certain range in order for it to have an effect. In other words, only by doing absolutely great evil that the stele would disintegrate, and likewise, only through great virtue and kindness that the stele could reconstruct itself. Therefore, after the stele reconstructed, even if Yunyue occasionally did something wrong, it would be of little significance to the big picture.
And this time, being suppressed by the stele, only through Yunkongjun’s remaining strength did he barely maintain his feeble existence. It was only a matter of time before he was thoroughly suppressed. As long as Yunyue reigned in healthy physique and just conduct, Yunkongjun would have no chance to make a comeback.
Having the ten thousand spirit blood and all the other necessary ingredients to make the elixir, Wang Lu immediately fished out the ingredients and tools from his mustard seed bag, ready to begin the refinement. Hearing the coughing from Princess Yunyue become more incessant, he immediately started the refinement process by using the samadhi true fire that the Sixth Elder personally sealed in a talisman. A moment later, a crystal clear elixir jumped out of the stove and fell into Wang Lu’s hand.
Wang Lu then sent the elixir into the mouth of Princess Yunyue.
And once the elixir entered her mouth, Princess’ situation suddenly improved. Her pale purple face immediately had a hint of redness. The life that was on the verge of collapse once again became reignited.
Seeing that the Princess’ situation was nearly stabilized, Wang Lu calmed down, turned around to cup his hand across his chest, and said towards the distant stele, “Senior, farewell, let’s not meet again.”
“Hahahaha!”
Wang Lu’s farewell was actually replied with a guffaw from Yunkongjun.
“Farewell? Hahaha, I think we will soon meet again!”
Under the suppression from the stele, the voice of Yunkongjun completely lost its shocking power. However, the laughter and Yunkongjun’s declaration caused Wang Lu’s heart to extremely palpitate.
He turned his head and saw that the Princess’ complexion had turned ruddy, her cheeks were gradually filled, and her eyes gradually returned to normal. Little by little, she recovered her once outstanding beauty.
No matter from which point of view, the Princess’ violent poison had been cleaned out and her illness cured. However, when Wang Lu poured the magical power of Non-Phase to his eyes, Wang Lu saw a trace of negative energy between her eyebrows. It was fairly discernible, but it would not go away. Moreover, along with the blood and vital breath of the Princess that gradually became vigorous, that trace of negative energy seemed to be alive as well and gradually spread out.
Wang Lu’s complexion immediately changed. He inwardly knew that this was the trick left in the Princess’ body by Yunkongjun. That old demon was really a wily old fox. Not only he didn’t clean up the poison from the rotten corpse grass, he instead planted a new poison. This method was really sinister and cruel, virtually impossible to guard against.
However, he also could do nothing about it—luring Yunkongjun to cure the Princess from the poison was an essential part of Wang Lu’s plan. And for that to happen, Wang Lu has to put the Princess outside the scope of his Non-Phase Sword Defense… It wasn’t that he didn’t think Yunkongjun might rig this thing up, but he has no better way.
Some things were doomed not to be perfect.
“Senior, this is really an eye opener.”
In the face of this adverse situation, Wang Lu gently smiled, but then his complexion became incomparably resolute.
“So, I would like to invite you to witness my means.”
With that, Wang Lu took out a piece of red colored elixir from his mustard seed bag and then put it into Princess’ mouth. The Princess then uttered a moan. Her whole body had become boiling hot. When the beads of sweat seeped out, they directly evaporated like water vapor. However, under the strong suppression, the negative energy between her brows was unable to move a single step.
“… You actually used a high grade boiling blood pil to prop up the life force of a mortal?” Yunkongjun was greatly surprised.
Boiling blood pill, if used by a cultivator, could make their blood boil, which would release an incomparable mighty force. By relying on this, a weak cultivator could contend with a powerful cultivator, and if used in a critical situation, could reverse the overall situation, thus, this could be called as a miracle pill. However, if used on ordinary mortal, it would only burn them to death. Wang Lu thus sent in the warmth wrapped up by his Non-Phase magical power towards the body of Yunyue, using the warmth to arouse her own resistance towards the poison. Nevertheless, this was just treating the symptom, not the root cause. Plus the majority of the efficacy of the drug was wasted, therefore, in a few days, the poison would again gain the upper hand.
Wang Lu’s complexion, however, remained steady. “No, this miracle pill is used to hit you in the face. I want you to watch how the woman that you hate continue living. Moreover, she will even step on you after the stele completely suppresses you.”
“Hahaha, you play well. This miracle pill is indeed unexpected. But, I’d like to see how long can you persist with such an absurd method!”
“How long? Of course until your face is swollen! You want to compete in persistence against me, Wang Lu? What a joke!”
With that, Wang Lu uttered a long laugh, and a series of elixirs flew out of his mustard seed bag, dancing in midair around Wang Lu as if it was a rainbow.
This string of elixirs was the result of Wang Lu’s extortion of the entire resources of the Heavenly Hall Elders of Spirit Sword Sect. Each and every single one of them was brimming with spiritual energy. After flying for a bit, Wang Lu pulled them into his palm in a formation. Vaguely, they affected the change in the surrounding spiritual energy. Yet, obviously, it was just a pile of dead objects.
Yunkongjun was severely shocked. “Who exactly are you?”
Even the elites of ordinary sect could not possibly possess such an enormous amount of treasure. It was difficult to use common measurement method to measure the value of that pile of elixirs. Of which, there were several of them that even he, a Peak Yuanying Stage cultivator, could only hear their names, but never see them!
Wang Lu no longer looked at him but instead put his attention back on Princess Yunyue.
After digesting that boiling blood pill, Princess Yunyue became weaker, but she was still strong. She made an effort to smile at Wang Lu.
A tinge of pity immediately appeared on Wang Lu’s face as he lightly said, “I am a savior.”
…