Embers of Sword

Chapter 402 Cannibal

Looking at the woman crying bitterly in front of him, Xie Xuanyi just frowned, with no sympathy or pity in his eyes.

more than ten years ago.

He traveled to Li Country and passed by this place. He destroyed several magic caves carefully built by the Yinshan ghost cultivators, and rescued several poor people who were kept in the dark and had not yet embarked on the evil path.

The woman in front of him and the shopkeeper were both "feed" that were raised in the devil's cave back then.

If there was no Xie Xuanyi.

They ended up with only two endings.

Or, they will be refined alive by the Yinshan monks and become the vengeful ghost in the soul flag.

Or, you can be noticed by the Yinshan ghost cultivators, be accepted into the sect, and be promoted to a disciple.

"Qu Li, Zhou Lu."

Xie Xuanyi put his hands behind his back and spoke quietly, "What did you promise me when I left this inn to you? You promised me that after the devil's cave was destroyed, you would do good deeds from now on. Where is your kindness over the years?"

In the eyes of the world.

Xie Xuanyi is a killer.

Whenever we encounter evil cultivators and demons, we will kill them all.

But Xie Xuanyi has a scale in his heart.

He only kills those who deserve to be killed.

After destroying several demon caves, this inn was left behind. At that time, "Qu Li" was still a skinny and sickly young man. Because he was "raised" in Yinshan, he was skin and bones and looked very pitiful. As for Zhou Lu, he was not much better... The two of them cried bitterly, thinking that the end was near, but they never expected that the young sword immortal who killed many evil cultivators single-handedly did not kill them at the same time.

Xie Xuanyi gave them a way out.

Before, they had no choice.

Later, they had a choice, but they chose to repeat the same mistakes.

"There are a lot of corpses buried under this inn, right?"

Xie Xuanyi had a blank expression on his face and spoke slowly.

Even from several miles away, his mind could sense the irrepressible bloody aura of the place.

"At the border of Yuzhou, troops from all directions pass through here. During the chaos, dozens of people died every now and then in this desert, and no one would notice, let alone take the trouble to investigate."

Xie Xuanyi looked down at the woman crawling to his feet and said sarcastically, "It seems that you have forgotten everything about what those ghost cultivators did to you back then."

"My benefactor..."

Zhou Lu gritted her teeth, raised her head, her face full of tears, and defended herself in a hoarse voice: "How dare I forget that it was thanks to you that my husband and I were able to accept this inn. We have been doing business honestly all these years... But in recent years, Yuzhou has been in chaos, and people in the martial arts world are doing martial arts things. It is inevitable that there will be friction in the inn on weekdays. Our broken land has no law to protect us, so we must always protect ourselves, right?"

"Shut up."

Xie Xuanyi was disgusted to speak.

The plump woman kneeling on the ground was trembling all over and dared not say another word.

"Ten years have passed, but I didn't expect that you have made such rapid progress in your cultivation."

Xie Xuanyi spoke slowly, sneering, "Two fodders raised in Yinshan, with no one to guide them and no resources, how can they cultivate to the realm of cave heaven in ten years?"

When the plump woman Zhou Lu heard this, she felt as if struck by lightning.

The shopkeeper Qu Li, who was kneeling on the ground and kowtowing, also had a strange look on his face. He stopped kowtowing and slowly raised his head, staring at the young man in black in front of him.

"Eat human hearts and livers, suck human bone marrow, cultivate the five internal organs, and supply the sea of ​​gods."

Xie Xuanyi said softly: "This seems to be the cultivation method of Yinshan. You two are quite well hidden. I think even if I hadn't taken action back then, the Yinshan ghost cultivators would have accepted you as their followers... At that time, you didn't have the "bloody smell" on your bodies. When did you start eating the first corpse? After I left?"

"Benefactor."

The plump woman's expression gradually changed.

Her voice no longer trembled, nor did she beg for mercy, and her voice became cold.

Zhou Lu raised her head and asked calmly, "Besides practicing witchcraft, do we have any other choice?"

"..."

Xie Xuanyi narrowed his eyes and silently stared at the woman crawling under him.

"Those ghost cultivators destroyed our meridians. If we want to repair our meridians, we either have to eat human flesh or swallow spiritual medicine."

"But where is the magic medicine here?"

Zhou Lu laughed at herself and asked again: "You saved our lives, but you can't save us forever... Is it wrong for us to want to live well?"

"..."

Xie Xuanyi remained silent.

"Over the years, my husband and I have been running the inn, and we have never taken the initiative to kill anyone."

Zhou Lu said coldly: "This place is full of good and bad people, and the undercurrent is turbulent. How can we save our lives without some tough measures? You don't think that the two sword moves you taught us back then can keep us alive until now, right?"

"There are seventy-three corpses at the bottom of this inn."

Xie Xuanyi lowered his head, his eyes penetrating the wooden boards of the second floor and pointing directly to the ground.

"These are just the ones you didn't have time to eat..."

"With Yinshan's cultivation method and your aptitude, if you want to cultivate to the Cave Heaven Realm, you will have to eat at least three hundred people."

Xie Xuanyi paused for a moment and said, "It seems that I shouldn't have been merciful and spared your lives."

In fact, he was also hesitating back then whether to kill all the people in the cave.

Zhou Lu and Qu Li, the two people who were raised, were eroded by evil spirits, their meridians were broken, and they were tortured. In his opinion, there was almost no way for them to survive, and perhaps death was a relief.

But later, the two men's pleading moved Xie Xuanyi.

Xie Xuanyi spared their lives. Before leaving, he taught them the basic practice methods, visualization methods, and several self-defense sword moves.

At that time, the demon cave in Yuzhou was completely destroyed, but the country of Li had not yet fallen into chaos.

Although this desert is desolate, it is not as dangerous as it is now.

There was no more sound of kowtows in the staircase corridor on the second floor.

The boards creaked.

Qu Li stood up slowly.

“Yes, we did eat a lot of people.”

The shopkeeper chuckled and said sarcastically, "In fourteen years, I have cultivated to the cave heaven and eaten a total of 377 people. But these people all deserved to die. If they had not committed the sins of greed, anger, and lust, they would have left this place alive without losing a single hair."

The scene downstairs has happened frequently over the years.

It is normal for gangsters to fight each other when they meet.

Greedy for money, lustful for beauty, violent words that make one angry, and resentful in one's heart.

Most of the time, they only do one thing.

Wait until the dust settles and come out to deal with the bodies.

No matter how fierce the fight between life and death is outside, it actually has nothing to do with them… If Xie Xuanyi hadn’t shown up, then after the fight downstairs was over, the couple would appear, each choosing their own food, chewing it slowly, using it as nourishment for their practice.

"After the demon cave was destroyed, Qu has not had a good dream."

Qu Li said dimly, "To be honest, I started eating humans less than a month after you left. Unexpectedly, not long after I ate human flesh, my broken leg gradually healed... I heard from the ghost cultivators that some Buddhist practitioners broke their leg bones in order to practice the 'divine power', and when they achieved the power, their leg bones healed. Isn't it ironic that the Buddhist power doesn't seem to be much different from the ghost cultivation techniques?"

"At first, I was worried that you would come back halfway and see me falling into depravity and get angry."

"I once warned myself to hold back."

"But... it's really too difficult."

Qu Li lowered his head, looked at his bulging belly, and murmured to himself: "My benefactor has never eaten human flesh, so he must not understand this taste. I have suffered too much in this life, and I don't want to suffer anymore. I just want to live a good life... But this world doesn't allow people to choose."

"Eat or be eaten."

"My benefactor..."

"If you were us, what would you choose?"

These words made Xie Xuanyi fall into deep thought.

But the sound fell.

Qu Li disappeared in an instant. This huge body burst out with incredible speed, running dozens of feet in an instant and arrived behind Xie Xuanyi.

boom!
The fist exploded with the sound of wind and thunder!

Xie Xuanyi slightly turned sideways and took a step aside, allowing the huge fist to hit him directly. A rolling and whistling wind swept through, directly smashing Zhou Lu's boudoir into pieces. The dressing table, wooden table, rouge and powder were all shattered by the wind.

He was still lost in thought.

All these actions were performed only due to the inertia sensed by the sword lake.

Xie Xuanyi said nothing, but just looked down at the woman crawling on the ground, observing her reaction.

"Attack!" Qu Li roared. He had witnessed the scene more than ten years ago. This young swordsman killed all the ghost cultivators in southern Xinjiang with just one sword. He was definitely not a merciful person.

I visited them today and revealed the secret of their eating human flesh.

If you don't take action first.

Then both of them have no chance of survival today.

"..."

Zhou Lu gritted her teeth and hesitated for a moment, but after a moment, the woman made a decision. A cold light flashed in Zhou Lu's eyes. She resolutely stretched out her hands and hugged Xie Xuanyi's legs tightly. The vitality in her whole body began to churn, and a purple-black color appeared between her eyebrows.

"It's expected and reasonable."

Seeing this scene, Xie Xuanyi sighed softly.

He did not struggle.

Countless purple-black smoke emerged from the woman's brow and turned into a small flag.

In the Cave Heaven Realm, he has already mastered the Soul Banner Technique.

Buzz!
The void trembled, and a cold and chilly wind blew past Xie Xuanyi's ears, as if trying to draw out his soul and drag it into the soul flag!

only……

The next moment, a bright and blazing sound like the sound of a Huang Zhong Da Lu suddenly erupted!

"珰!"

A dazzling golden light burst out from the top of Xie Xuanyi's head.

The golden martial arts god fetus released itself, its clothes fluttering and its powerful aura emanating outwardly.

Xie Xuanyi stretched out his hand and grabbed the "Soul Banner" between Zhou Lu's eyebrows.

For sword cultivators, their natal flying sword is their lifeblood. For Yinshan ghost cultivators, this "Soul Banner" is their lifeblood... Xie Xuanyi held the "Soul Banner" without exerting any force. He just squeezed it lightly, and Zhou Lu lost all his strength. It seemed as if all the bones in his body were broken apart, and he fell heavily to the ground.

"Miss!"

Seeing that something was not right, Qu Li quickly punched again.

This time, Xie Xuanyi no longer dodged and punched faster than him.

"boom!"

The martial arts god swung a punch, directly smashing Qu Li's entire arm into pieces, and blood mist filled the space between the buildings.

"what……"

Qu Li's face turned pale, but his wailing was interrupted before it could spread far.

Xie Xuanyi pressed down gently with one hand.

Not even the Dao rules were applied.

The power of the martial arts fetus alone was enough to force Qu Li to kneel on the ground again. Severe pain came over him and he wanted to scream, but an invisible force blocked his heart and his throat. Cold sweat oozed from his forehead and his eyes were filled with fear again.

He looked at the young man in black standing in front of him.

Fourteen years.

Fourteen years have passed...

It was not until today that he understood how powerless those ghost cultivators in the Demon Cave were in the face of this guy.

You practice day and night, but in the end, you can't even survive a single move?
"Eating people is eating people."

"No matter how much I say, it's meaningless."

Xie Xuanyi said softly: "If I am not your opponent today, then... I will also be eaten, right?"

"..."

Qu Li couldn't speak, not a single sound came out of his throat.

"My benefactor, my benefactor, please spare us..."

On the other side, Zhou Lu burst into tears again and wanted to crawl to Xie Xuanyi.

Xie Xuanyi silently released the pressure of the martial arts god.

The entire second floor was suppressed.

The woman was crushed to the ground, unable to move at all, not even a finger.

"I'll send you on your way."

Xie Xuanyi said no more, but just made a gesture of shaking hands in the air.

A wisp of sword energy gathered on the second floor.

The golden-shirted divine fetus grabbed the sword of nothingness, turned the hilt upside down, aimed it at Qu Li, and slowly stabbed it down.

"no no!"

Zhou Lu's voice was full of pleading.

The scream was drowned out by the roar of sword energy.

As the sword fell, countless snow-white sword qi surged in, like white snow, filling the field of vision.

"Woo..."

Qu Li raised his head, looking a little dazed.

His throat trembled.

Unfortunately, he couldn't make any sound at this moment.

He hadn't finished speaking yet...

I haven't had a good night's sleep in fourteen years, and it's not just because of eating human flesh.

He said earlier.

Afraid that Xie Xuanyi would return to the inn.

Afraid that Xie Xuanyi would be disappointed in him.

These……

They are just excuses.

He could deceive others but not himself. From the beginning to the end, the only thing he was afraid of was... the word "death".

He is afraid of death.

He was afraid that he would once again fall into the state of being kept as a captive, becoming fodder or prey.

So after a struggle between his conscience and his desires, he chose to secretly eat the human flesh and began to practice the Yinshan magic... He knew that this action would certainly carry the risk of being investigated and held accountable, but what if he ate enough human flesh and his cultivation level was high enough?
The reason why Qu Li had trouble sleeping in recent years is very simple.

He didn't know if he had eaten so many people and had reached this level of cultivation, would it be enough for him to survive?

What should I do if the young swordsman who destroyed the demon cave that day comes back?
Now, he knew the answer.

He was filled with regret.

If I had known earlier... I should have eaten more people.

If you eat more.

Now, can I survive?

……

……

The sword energy penetrated Qu Li's chest, torso, and the floor connecting to the lobby on the first floor.

This sword contains the principle of destruction.

The moment Qu Li was hit by the sword energy, his breath stopped.

"His."

Xie Xuanyi drew his sword.

The golden-shirted divine fetus turned his wrist slightly, and the sword of nothingness condensed from the sword energy turned into a scarlet sword flower.

next moment.

Xie Xuanyi frowned slightly.

The woman who was pinned to the ground by the martial arts god was seen trembling all over. The sadness in her eyes gradually disappeared and turned into despair, anger, and hideousness.

boom!
Zhou Lu, who witnessed her husband's death, did not hesitate at all and detonated all her energy.

The entire second floor was instantly engulfed in a sea of fire and energy.

(End of this chapter)