Martial Cultivator

The bookstore owner, who had been holding back, finally could not resist and asked, "Did you make peace with Clearwater Mountain?"

Chen Chao glanced weakly at the bookstore owner, shook his head, and said softly, "From now on, there's no more Clearwater Mountain."

Though Chen Chao's words were calm, the bookstore owner looked at the young martial artist before him, his face filled with astonishment. "What do you mean there's no more Clearwater Mountain?!"

Chen Chao did not beat around the bush. He said straightforwardly, "If I wasn't worried that she'll feel scared after death, I'd have brought back Daoist Sage Tianyi's head."

This statement struck the bookstore owner like lightning.

Previously, when Chen Chao mentioned going up the mountain to kill, the best outcome in the bookstore owner's view was Chen Chao killing a few foreign cultivators before the Clearwater Mountain cultivators would make concessions to compromise. However, he did not expect that Chen Chao would exterminate the entire sect overnight. Could Clearwater Mountain, which was deeply rooted in Clearwater Commandery for many years, be uprooted by Chen Chao alone?

The bookstore owner found it hard to believe.

But looking at the young man before him, he felt that he was not lying either.

Chen Chao spat out a turbid breath and said softly to the girl's corpse, "From now on, no more children from Clearwater Commandery will be turned into so-called medicinal fruits."

The bookstore owner could not believe it and took two steps back, murmuring, "You really did it!"

Ignoring the disbelief of the bookstore owner, Chen Chao just wanted to pick up the girl's corpse and leave.

Suddenly, the bookstore owner solemnly knelt down to Chen Chao and kowtowed heavily. "This confucian scholar, Yang Yan, thanks you on behalf of the people of Clearwater Commandery."

Chen Chao shook his head and said softly, "Actually, it should be considered my duty. You've suffered because of me, so I'm the one who should apologize."

The bookstore owner was taken aback, then thought of the young martial artist's identity and asked in astonishment, "Fellow Daoist, are you a military official of the imperial court?"

It seemed reasonable. If he were not a military official of the imperial court, he would not have had the ability to overthrow Clearwater Mountain at this young age.

Chen Chao helped him up and nodded without hiding anything. "I serve in the Divine Capital's office."

The bookstore owner sighed. He actually understood the difficulties of the imperial court. In the vast Great Liang Dynasty, with countless foreign cultivators not viewing human lives as human lives, while the imperial court also faced invasion from the northern demons, the world was already difficult enough. But who would not want a truly peaceful world?

Chen Chao did not intend to say much and bid farewell to the bookstore owner.

The bookstore owner said, "As for the heart demon you don't need to dwell on it. You may feel guilty towards this girl, but you've saved the people of Clearwater Commandery."

Chen Chao shook his head. "It's not the same."

"One person compared to the people of an entire commandery?"

The bookstore owner tried to help Chen Chao come to terms with it and not be affected by his heart demon.

Chen Chao said, "There's no difference. This isn't a multiple-choice question."

The bookstore owner sighed lightly and did not say anything more.

Chen Chao carried the girl's corpse out of the bookstore, and then slowly left the city.

Along the way, many people noticed this martial artist carrying a saber. Remembering the news from last night, not many gazes lingered on Chen Chao. Currently, only the common people of Clearwater Commandery did not know what had happened. If they knew, the streets would probably be filled with civilians kneeling.

The scene would be even grander than when the Great General left the Divine Capital.

Chen Chao did not have the mind to think about these things. After leaving the city with the girl's corpse, he headed back the way he came. The corpse of the girl's mother had already been thrown into the river and could no longer be found. Now, he could only find a place to bury the little girl. As for the local prefect and the warden, he would naturally write a letter back to the Divine Capital and inform Song Lian. As for how to deal with it afterward and what kind of people the new prefect and warden would be, it was not something he could control. Although he had gone up the mountain alone last night and killed all the cultivators of Clearwater Mountain, he also knew that changing the world with just one person's strength would be extremely difficult. Even someone as strong as the Great Liang Emperor could not do everything perfectly, let alone someone like him, a martial artist who had just stepped into the Great Beyond Realm.

In reality, most things in the world boiled down to just one word: helplessness.

Chen Chao felt somewhat numb.

Later, in a small town near the border of White Deer Prefecture, Chen Chao found a coffin shop and had the boss make a coffin. Then he carved a rather ugly-looking grasshopper on the coffin with his own hands.

Several days later, he carried the coffin back to the ferry crossing.

The ferryman was resting on the riverbank, and upon seeing the young man return with the coffin, he remembered their previous conversation on the boat and already thought of something. But in the end, he did not say anything and just sighed.

Some people, if not cherished at the time, might already be the last time you saw them, and there would be no chance to see them again.

Chen Chao stood at the ferry crossing, lost in thought.

It was here that he had parted ways with the little girl. He had crossed the river to Yellow Dragon Prefecture, while the girl and her group had continued along the riverbank, heading towards the heart of White Deer Prefecture.

Chen Chao did not know where exactly the girl was from in White Deer Prefecture, nor could he send her back home. It was just a chance encounter in the first place, but now it had become deeply entangled; something Chen Chao had not anticipated.

Standing at the ferry crossing for a whole day, many passing travelers cast strange glances at Chen Chao, but upon seeing the saber at Chen Chao's waist, no one dared to approach and strike up a conversation.

Knowing that dusk was approaching, the ferryman approached Chen Chao and, after some thought, he asked, "Do you want to cross the river? It's free."

It took Chen Chao a long time to come back to his senses, but he just shook his head.

The ferryman sighed, probably knowing that the young man in front of him was not an ordinary person. In the end, he left by himself.

While Chen Chao turned around and went up the mountain.

Previously, in search of traces of the girl, he had actually killed many of the demons on the nearby mountain. Now, as he walked through the mountain, sensing his aura, those demons remained unusually quiet.

They were even afraid to make the slightest sound, lest it incurred the wrath of this killing god once again.

Chen Chao walked all the way to the mountaintop.

He found a place with a breathtaking view and placed the coffin there.

From here, one could see the ferry crossing below.

Then he began to silently dig a hole.

Soon, Chen Chao placed the coffin into the hole, pushed open the coffin lid, and placed the grasshopper woven from weeds inside. Looking at the girl's pale face, Chen Chao whispered, "Big Brother didn't do well enough."

"You should have grown up happily, met a man you like, gotten married, and had children."

"At the very least, you should have lived a peaceful life."

Chen Chao rambled on quietly for a long time, talking all the way until the middle of the night before finally stopping. He looked at the girl in front of him with some guilt and said, "This world shouldn't be like this."

After that, Chen Chao closed the coffin and covered it with soil.

Then he erected a tombstone.

Finally, he stood in front of the tombstone in silence for a long time before slowly drawing the broken saber from his waist.

He turned and descended the mountain.

Before long, tragic cries from demons echoed out.

They continued throughout the night without pause.

That night, Chen Chao killed all the demons within hundreds of miles.

……

……

After doing all this, Chen Chao returned to this small grave in the end, sat on the ground, and covered his face with both hands.

……

……

Divine Capital, South Lake's little courtyard.

Xie Nandu looked up at the maidservant Liu Ye, who had returned from outside.

Liu Ye arrived under the eaves and said, "Miss, the official gazette."

She handed over the gazette in her hand and then stood quietly to the side. Since entering the Divine Capital, Xie Nandu had developed the habit of reading the gazette summarizing the various news from around Great Liang every month. Although her ambitions lay in the North, she was unwilling to miss out on what was happening in the Great Liang. She presumably understood the current state of Great Liang better than many officials of the Great Liang Dynasty.

As for the gazette, it was naturally sent by the Xie Family. With the Xie Family's influence, they had ears and eyes throughout Great Liang, so obtaining such a report was a trivial matter. However, it's worth mentioning that Xie Nandu's gazette was not an ordinary one. It was as detailed as the one read by the Xie Family's ancestor, and this treatment was unique within the entire Xie family; only Xie Nandu alone.

Receiving the thick gazette, Xie Nandu was not in a hurry either. She reached into the nearby preserved fruit bag and took out a piece of dried fruit before slowly starting to flip through it. This gazette contained summaries from all over Great Liang, issued once a month. Needless to say, it contained a vast amount of information, and it took her at least four hours every time to read it.

So she was not in a hurry. She just flipped through it slowly, taking her time to read through all the major and minor events that had occurred in Great Liang that month.

"Go roast a sweet potato."

Xie Nandu's head was lowered, eating the dried fruits as she casually said.

Liu Ye had just nodded her head and was going to stand up and start the stove when Xie Nandu thought for a moment and shook her head. "Forget it, you can't roast it to taste the same."

Liu Ye was taken aback, then immediately said somewhat aggrievedly, "Miss, why do you think I can't get that taste?"

Xie Nandu did not respond, she just said, "Bring me a brush."

Liu Ye did not dare to delay and quickly got up to fetch brush and ink from inside the house. Xie Nandu took it from her and began making annotations on the gazette.

It was a habit she had always had.

Time passed quietly and slowly, and soon the thick gazette was almost finished being read.

Xie Nandu flipped to the last page.

Then, she furrowed her brows.

On the last page, there was not much mentioned, just a reference to White Deer Prefecture in the Clearwater Commandery, where there was a sect called Clearwater Mountain. It had always been the largest sect in the commandery and effectively controlled the city. But now, it had been annihilated overnight.

If others saw this, they would probably just think it was another feud among foreign cultivators, which was not uncommon and often happened.

But Xie Nandu noticed the small row of text at the end of the gazette.

"And then, after going up the mountain to look, there were only dismembered corpses on the mountain path. At the summit of Clearwater Mountain, the main hall was in ruins, and the mountain lord, Daoist Sage Tianyi, was beaten to death, leaving only a lump of mushy flesh. It's reported that some time earlier, someone witnessed a young man in black entering the city. Later, Clearwater Pavilion in the city turned into ruins, and the young man left the city under the cover of night. Clearwater Mountain was destroyed on this night."

Xie Nandu lifted her head and almost instantly knew that the so-called young man in black must be Chen Chao. But she quickly became puzzled and murmured, "But why would you do this?"