owlsbooks 72. Can we say that they were hired with money?
72. Can we say that they were hired with money?
After passing through the portal, Xu Yan immediately flipped over to dissipate the impact and landed steadily on the ground.
Although Master Cheng was unprepared, he was experienced and immediately used a spell to stabilize himself, landing gently like a falling leaf.
The room was empty, but the air still smelled faintly of disinfectant.
Returning to the safe and quiet rented room from the horrific battlefield littered with corpses, Xu Yan's tense nerves slowly relaxed, but her turbulent emotions remained unsettled for a long time.
He couldn't help but ask, "Senior, are cultivators always always so... aloof and superior?"
Master Cheng sighed and didn't speak, but it was as if he had said everything.
Xu Yan stared intently at the roof: "I always thought that although cultivators were high and mighty, since the Immortal Palace managed the city, the cultivators must have good intentions and at least provide mortals with the most basic fairness, right? But what did that guy surnamed Tian do? Who does he think he is?"
Master Cheng inwardly cried out in alarm; this was too much of a shock, and he had encountered a heart-wrenching tribulation!
This is both an opportunity and a calamity.
If handled well, one can rebuild their Dao heart. Although this will not lead to a great leap in cultivation, it will greatly benefit their future practice. On the contrary, if the Dao heart is shattered, at best, one's cultivation will regress, and at worst, one will fall into the demonic path forever, with unimaginable consequences!
However, most cultivators will not encounter the Heart-Piercing Tribulation until they reach the Golden Core stage, and some even say that the Heart-Piercing Tribulation is a prerequisite for breaking through to the Nascent Soul stage.
Only through extremely rare and coincidental circumstances will this happen to a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
But what about this kid? He's only at the late stage of Qi Refining!
This is too fast!
Master Cheng was truly not good at comforting people with troubled hearts. He hesitated for a long time before organizing his thoughts, but just as he was about to speak, he heard Xu Yan say, "If you can neither protect the people nor uphold righteousness, then killing a few demonic cultivators is considered the righteous path? Then what is the demonic path?"
Master Cheng quickly adopted a mysterious and enigmatic demeanor: "Mo Ting, everything in this world is subject to the concepts of good and evil. Human hearts contain both evil and good thoughts; good and evil, righteousness and demonic nature, are merely a matter of a single thought!"
"A single thought?" Xu Yan sneered. "He can decide the life and death of thousands of people with a single thought? What gives him the right?"
"Because he's a cultivator, because he's a Golden Core cultivator, because his strength far surpasses ours!" Master Cheng pressed down on Xu Yan's shoulder. "Mo Ting, this world has always been a dog-eat-dog world. Tian Muye isn't the first, and he certainly won't be the last."
Xu stared intently at Master Cheng: "Senior, are mortals just ants?"
"Of course not!"
"Was that monk a high and mighty god?"
"Of course not!" Master Cheng looked directly into Xu Yan's eyes. "One cannot abandon personal desires, nor can one transcend worldly affairs. Cultivators are merely mortals with some powerful abilities."
"That's right, cultivators are just mortals after all." Xu Yan laughed, a cold laugh, his eyes revealing an indescribable chill.
Master Cheng panicked, "Please don't let him fall into demonic possession!"
"Mo Ting, are you alright?"
Xu Yan's smile softened: "Don't worry, I'm fine."
"Are you really alright?"
"It's nothing," Xu Yan replied with certainty.
Master Cheng, seeing that it didn't seem fake, immediately breathed a sigh of relief: "That's good, that's good... You won't do anything foolish, will you?"
"No." Xu Yan smiled slightly. "I will only do what a transmigrator should do."
Cheng Shouchun didn't understand, but based on his nearly 100 years of life experience, he judged that the kid was indeed fine.
The old Taoist priest finally breathed a sigh of relief, looking around with barely concealed curiosity in his eyes: "What is this place? Why is it so...peculiar?"
As soon as he passed through the light gate, his true essence was suppressed by an invisible force, and his cultivation was reduced to less than one-tenth. The once-powerful Foundation Establishment cultivator was now only at the Qi Refining stage. He suddenly felt weak, pitiful, and helpless.
In a flash, it felt as if I had returned to decades ago, to that spirited and carefree age.
Xu Yan composed himself and smiled, "This is another world!"
Master Cheng's eyes widened: "What do you mean?"
It wasn't that I didn't understand, but rather that I was shocked.
"It's a grotto-heaven." Xu Yan, having experience dealing with He Tiannan, immediately changed to a seemingly ambiguous statement: "A grotto-heaven of immense size."
"This place not only suppresses cultivation, but the spiritual energy is also so thin..." Master Cheng shook his head repeatedly, clearly disapproving of the current environment. "Is this your foundation?"
Xu Yan thought for a moment and nodded: "Not bad."
"Did those jade talismans also originate from this place?"
Xu Yan nodded again: "That's right!"
Master Cheng gasped, his expression becoming more amiable than ever before: "Mo Ting, may I ask where that senior who crafted the jade talisman resides? Would it be convenient for us to pay him a visit?"
In just a few days, dozens of fifth-tier jade talismans can be obtained. Not only must one be proficient in talismans, but one must also have profound cultivation, at the very least being a Nascent Soul expert!
To possess such astonishing cultivation in a place with such scarce spiritual energy, wouldn't one have already achieved perfect cultivation and ascended to immortality in broad daylight if this were the cultivation world?
Xu Yan was very distressed. How could he possibly smooth things over?
He scratched his forehead: "I've never met this senior before!"
Xu Yan had heard of laser engraving and knew its principles; he could even imagine what it looked like, but he had never seen the actual object.
Master Cheng sighed in disappointment, his heart filled with resentment, as if he had missed out on a rare treasure.
Xu Yan was about to speak when he was interrupted by a knock on the door. When he opened the door, he saw two helpless faces.
Li Er forced a smile: "Mr. Xu, you're back too soon. The things aren't ready yet."
They spent half a day causing trouble in the cultivation world, but only a little over an hour had passed in the real world.
Xu Yan stepped aside: "Come in and let's talk."
Upon entering, Li and Zhang were taken aback when they saw the dignified and otherworldly Master Cheng, and both cast questioning glances at Xu Yan.
The renowned writer Xu immediately straightened his posture: "This is my master, Daoist Cheng Shouchun!"
Master Cheng immediately beamed with joy, his wrinkles almost disappearing completely.
Although the two were not formally master and disciple, they were in fact master and disciple. Moreover, Master Cheng showed him great care and concern, and he was not heartless, so how could he remain unmoved?
That one sentence sealed their fate.
Upon hearing this, Li and Zhang quickly bowed and greeted Master Cheng!
They were scratching their heads in no time.
This guy is so unreliable. He's already traveling back and forth by himself, why did he bring people back with him?
"No need for formalities!" Cheng Shouchun smiled and stroked his beard. "And these two are...?"
His eyes were sharp, and he could tell that the two of them had no cultivation. He vaguely guessed why Xu Yan was so protective of mortals.
"They are... my close friends!" The cultivation world doesn't even have the concept of government, so Xu Yan couldn't introduce the two people's identities, let alone describe their relationship. It was extremely complicated to explain, so he just used "close friends" to cover it up for now and would explain in detail later.
Master Cheng looked the two men up and down several times, then suddenly asked, "What is their relationship with you, senior?"
Li and Zhang exchanged surprised glances: Senior? What senior? What senior is this?
Xu Yan... Can I say that they hired him?