Chapter 167: Slaughter (Patreon)

Enjoy the double-length chapter today. Next will be just as long as well.

The innkeeper, having opened the door, removed the knife from Liu Wei’s throat and, in the same movement, did him one more favor by thrusting his palm into his back to push him into the room. Liu Wei pretended to stumble forward and trip, falling to his knees before anyone in the room could get a good look at his face. A bit of soot and a ruffled beard may be enough to convince some people who had never seen him that he was just a harmless old man, but they wouldn’t fool anyone who knew him as an Elder of the Lunar Peaks Sect.

“Here you go. This is the guy.”

“Thanks. You can go.”, the grey-maned demonic cultivator, whom, based on his strength and bearing, Liu Wei presumed to be the Cult’s leader, commanded.

“About my reward…”

“I said go.”

His rumbling voice was quiet and calm, yet carried a deeply threatening undertone.

“Of course. My apologies.”

The innkeeper disappeared, closing the door behind him.

“So, you are the one who was snooping around.”

Liu Wei knew that he couldn’t keep in his position on the ground for long without arousing suspicion, so he decided to use the precious few seconds he’d have before they knew who he was to ask a question that this man might actually answer.

“So much… so many… How did you?”

“Take over this town? You could have asked the grand marshal that question if you’d waited until tomorrow to come over. Or perhaps you’d prefer the soon-to-be patriarch of the Burning Thorns Sect? Or our friends from the Lunar Peaks Sect over here?”

Giving demonic cultivators a chance to gloat was always a good way of getting them to speak. Liu Wei began to stand up, though he still kept his face low.

“The grand marshal too? Then the governor… the councilors…”

“The governor is an elderly fool who’ll soon be swimming with the rats. Or maybe we’ll refine him into a pill, just like that patriarch. As for his councilors, they’ll get to enjoy some very nice dinners with us – I’m sure we’ll find common ground. If not… well enough of that. You’ve asked your question, now it’s my turn: How did you find this place?”

His voice, which had stayed relaxed throughout his speech suddenly sharpened into open threat in the last sentence.

“Well, that was simple enough…”

Liu Wei dusted off his beard, unimpressed. He had confirmed at least the general dynamics at play, which would make the Burning Thorns Sect’s cleanup job quite a bit easier. As for the questions he’d like to have asked in his own interest… he wouldn’t get answers to them out of this man anyway and the others seemed decidedly less talkative.

“… I simply followed that no-so-soon-to-be patriarch you’re so proud of.”

With a flick of his mind, the cloak he was wearing burned away, revealing the armor underneath. In the very same moment, the full power of his soul roared to life, throwing itself against the suppression formation, shattering it instantly. Then, chaos unfolded as fast as the blink of an eye.

First, Liu Wei’s soul sense, no longer suppressed by the formation, instantly registered all the people around him. He was not surprised to learn that the five he couldn’t sense before were all shadow cultivators, nor was he surprised that four of them were at the peak of the Dao Attunement Realm. What did, however, surprise him, was the fifth one. Because unlike his fellow shadow cultivators, the man whom he had seen come up the stairs was a cultivator at the Dao Attunement Realm.

This realization only kept Liu Wei busy for the fraction of a second, but that fraction was too much. Because even as he then he jumped forward at a speed a regular human eye could barely perceive, materializing his sword mid-strike despite his muscles straining at the use of such a technique, he had already realized he was too late. Steel flashed and blood splattered, Tang Luli’s head sailing through the air before Liu Wei could prevent the Dao Contemplation Cultivator’s strike. The Burning Thorns Sect’s head elder died while he was still in the process of jumping up from his seat, the surprised realization etched into his face.

Liu Wei didn’t take the time to lament that setback, instead diverting his strike at his strongest foe instead. The man barely managed to deflect the attack, but the dagger he’d beheaded Tang Luli with was flung across the room.

Shadows gathered around his opponent, darkening his figure, but before he could act, Liu Wei raised his free hand and unleashed a blindingly bright blast of fire that caught him in the chest. The Dao Contemplation Cultivator was flung across the room, crashing into the wall.

Four more shadows were upon Liu Wei the next second, daggers drawn. The first was hit with a burst of flame, the second with the pummel of his sword, the third with a palm strike to the temple and the fourth with a knee to the stomach. All four collapsed to the ground in quick succession.

The Demonic Cult’s leader was the slowest to react, having grasped a massive club of steel that he now brought down in a wide, arcing strike. Liu Wei didn’t bother to evade, merely moving his head a little to the side. The mace crashed down onto his shoulder with enough force to break through a boulder… only to harmlessly bounce off. A quick upwards slash of his sword carved the strongest demonic cultivator Liu Wei had ever met into two pieces.

The fight had lasted for less than ten seconds.

“It’s over.”

Liu Wei sheathed his sword and strolled towards the Dao Contemplation Cultivator who was struggling to get back on his feet.

“I know.”

His voice was strained – not surprising considering the charred skin across his chest that the hole that had been burned into his robes revealed. Being able to calmly speak at all while in this state was an achievement.

“We surrender, Elder Wei.”

“Your ring.”

Liu Wei held out his hand.

“Now.”

The man’s expression remained stoic, but Liu Wei noticed a hint of hesitation before he complied and handed him the spatial ring on his hand. Liu Wei put it his own hand and quickly confirmed that there was a lock on it. He’d spend his time prying it open later, for now it was enough to make sure that his captive couldn’t try anything with whatever was inside it.

He took a closer look at the man. He was lean but muscular, his facial features sharp and seemingly worn out, though they still showed the Zhong Family’s characteristic delicateness underneath. His hair was black, like that of almost all his family’s members, its length trimmed down to only a finger’s breadth, and he did not have any facial hair. Liu Wei was quite sure that he had never seen the man in his life.

Now that he had the time, Liu Wei also took a closer look at the man’s cultivation: he was only at the first stage of Dao Contemplation.

“You are a member of the Zhong Family, but I do not know you as a member of our sect. Who are you?”

“I am my lady’s shadow.”

Liu Wei raised an eyebrow.

“Lady Zhong, I assume? What does that mean?”

“That, I cannot say.”

The man’s expression remained entirely uniform as he spoke.

“And what are you doing here?”

“I cannot say.”

Liu Wei stroked his beard. He’d have to wash the soot out of it after this.

“I assume I will be hearing that a lot from you?”

“You may.”

“You are not afraid of what I might do to make you speak?”

“No. You may torture me, threaten me, kill me. I would sooner bite my own tongue off than speak in defiance of my lady’s orders. The same goes for any the others.”

“That does somewhat answer my first question, does it not?”

“Not to the degree I am not allowed to reveal.”

“I’ll see. Seems like we’ll have a great time. What’s your name?”

“Cannot say.”

Liu Wei sighed.

“Well, then, shadow… I can’t imagine our little quarrel here has remained unnoticed.”

He headed over to one of the collapsed shadow cultivators, who was just beginning to get up, and pulled his spatial ring off his finger before moving on to the next.

“I’ll have to go and take care of that now, before they get any bad ideas. I trust you understand that trying to escape now would be pointless exercise.”

It would indeed be. At the first stage of Dao Contemplation, ‘shadow’, as Liu Wei had dubbed him, would have any chance at outrunning him, even with a large headstart, and as long as he was within the range of his soul sense, Liu Wei would know the second he tried. Pursuing him would unfortunately force him to leave behind the demonic cult, which would add a lot of headaches to his list if they decided to flee, but if it came to that, that was a decision Liu Wei was willing to make in a heartbeat.

“I do, and I shall not make any attempts.”

“Then I will leave you and your companions here for a while.”, Liu Wei stated coldly, as he collected the last spatial ring and dumped it into the pouch that had been holding the silver, which he had instead transferred to his own spatial ring. Then, he made his way to the door and pushed it open.

As he walked down the hallway towards the staircase at a measured pace, Liu Wei’s soul sense went to work, analyzing the positions of all demonic cultivators in the room below him. Some of them had stood up and were looking towards the staircase, but most were still seated, drinking or talking. They seemed to believe that the noise they’d heard had come from a beatdown of him, not the other way around. Only the innkeeper seemed more unsure, standing at the bottom of the staircase and looking up, unsure of what to do.

Liu Wei unsheathed his sword.

Ever since his shift of perspective, he had come to value mercy and tried to minimize the violence he used to engage his problems. Those practicing demonic cultivation, however, were an exception. The practice may once have been used in ways that were not morally reprehensible, but with the rise of soul cultivation, it had long shifted into something fully deserving of the name and reputation it had garnered. The only adherents that remained knowingly and willingly did away with their humanity in exchange for power.

Besides the assassinations that the cult had carried out, Liu Wei knew of the brutal raids and slaughter of villages that had caught the Burning Thorns Sect’s attention in the first place. Beyond that, their leader had also revealed to him just now that the cult was practicing human refinement. Anyone who joined an organization such as this, no matter how unfortunate the circumstances that may have led them there, to Liu Wei, had revoked any right to sympathy or mercy. And once they began walking the path of demonic cultivation, they were beyond saving.

Sparks sprung out of his beard and fire came forth from his hands, covering the blade and lighting up the hallway in its flickering light.

The first time he’d dealt with a demonic cult had been long before his days as an elder. He and a couple of fellow junior sect members had been sent to investigate the disappearance of several villagers from a nearby village. Just a routine patrol to reassure the peasants of the sect’s presence… he could still hear the screams of his comrades… taste the blood in his mouth.

He rarely thought of them, but now, among a cult the like of which had cost them their lives… They’d escaped the ambush, but some were left behind and by the time help arrived, they had been beyond saving. Liu Wei had gotten to keep his life that day, be it by a stroke of luck or because others had died in his stead. The sect had stomped the cult out of existence with unusual rigor; losing multiple sect members to a demonic cult was rare. Ever since then, Liu Wei had volunteered to take part in any operations whenever a demonic cult was suspected to be involved.

He had reached the staircase. The innkeeper, noticing his presence, took a few steps upwards, beginning to speak.

“Hey, we heard quite the noise from up there, must have given him a good beating. Mind telling me what… wait, who… what-”

The innkeeper’s head rolled into the room, which had abruptly went silent. A moment later, his body came falling into the room, hitting the floor with a quit thump. Suddenly, people jumped out of their chairs and grabbed hold of their weapons. Screams of anger and confusion rang. But no fear. Demonic cultivators knew no fear.

Not yet at least.

Liu Wei stepped over the body and in the room full of battle-ready demonic cultivators.

Flames danced in his eyes.

And then, he unleashed an old fury into the world anew.

…

“By order of the city council, come out and surrender yourself, demonic scum!”

Sootwater Town’s elderly governor did his best to sound confident and intimidating, to give his guardsmen confidence, but right now, he really would rather have been anywhere else. Demonic cultivators surrendering? To a town garrison? That was setup and punchline in one to anyone even remotely familiar with them. And while he had naturally never personally dealt with demonic cults before – and had a head still attached to his shoulders to prove it –, he had taken the time to learn about them after this one had become a problem.

“Come out! We’ve been informed about your presence here; there is no hiding yourself!”

The governor did his best to keep his voice from breaking. He could see the tension on the faces of the guards surrounding him – they didn’t want to be here either.

The council had suspected that the cult was operating covertly within the town for a while now, but to hear that their hideout was within their very walls had still been a shock. He’d hoped that the Burning Thorns Sect would handle the issue, but now that they had confirmation, their hand had been forced. They couldn’t sit around while the cult was spreading among their very own nobility.

“You have been surrounded! There is no way out! Come out this instance, or we will…”

They would what? Storm the building? That was hardly an option. Out here, they at least had the numerical advantage… he hoped. Because if his two hundred guardsmen didn’t severely outnumber the cultists, they would be nothing more than lambs willfully walking to the slaughterhouse.

He nervously adjusted his helmet while trying to think of something. The armor he was wearing was a pretty thing to behold for sure, and it was supposedly enchanted with powerful defensive formations, but all the golden engravings were severely weighing him down…

Even though he practiced some body cultivation, he’d never really been a fighter, even in his younger years. Wrangling the councilors over town politics was more his sort of thing. His older brother was the one whose strength had secured his family its position among the most important in the town, but he was at the sect.

“We will… burn this place to the ground!”

Yes, that wasn’t a bad idea! That way, they could force them to come out and maybe some of them would even…

“That will not be necessary.”

His breath caught. The baritone voice that had interrupted his thoughts had come from the inn’s entrance. There, a lone figure stepped outside. Clad in armor so coated in blood that one could only barely still make out the beautiful craftsmanship underneath, the old man with his snow-white hair and long beard seemed to radiate authority like no one he’d ever seen before.

It was almost enough to make him forget why he was here, but not quite so. He tightened his grip around his sword.

“Identify yourself! I am the governor of this town, and I am here to put an end to the macabre doings of the demonic cult!”

The old man let his gaze wander over the city guard that had surrounded the building, before letting it settle on the governor. A hint of amusement showed on his face.

“I see. You’ve come at the perfect time, governor. You’re free to take a look at what’s left of the cult inside here, but do have a messenger sent to the Burning Thorn’s Sect first: Liu Wei of the Lunar Peaks Sect requests their presence here.”