Free Web NovelChapter 172: Chapter 164: One Person Down
"Immortal... Immortal Master, can’t... can’t we just stay here?"
"Yeah, Immortal Master!"
"It’s scary here, but at least there’s light. We can see each other."
"That hallway is pitch-black. What if..."
They would rather huddle together in this known, eerie space than step into an unknown darkness that felt like it could swallow them whole.
Su Ling’er felt a pang of sympathy and was about to offer some words of comfort, but Dong Changsheng had already turned back. He swept his gaze over their terrified faces and spoke, his voice filled with bitter disappointment.
"You people... that’s no way to live!"
"We’re kind enough to try and carve out a path to survival for you, and you’re here trying to negotiate with me?"
"Do you think you’re worthy of our help?!"
"I..." The few people were stunned by his shouting.
Dong Changsheng gave them no chance to explain. He took a step forward, his presence overwhelming.
"You think you’re in danger now? You think the point is whether that hallway is dark, or whether people will die in it?"
"Wrong! Completely wrong! The point of this has nothing to do with whether or not you’ll encounter danger!"
"The point is, you need to learn to think with a ’power mindset’!"
"I am saving you right now! I am giving you an opportunity! Don’t you get it?!"
The few undercover disciples behind him immediately understood and chimed in, their words dripping with the disdain Cultivators held for mortals.
Li Chunfeng remained silent, merely drawing his sword with a relentless "CLANG! CLANG!"
Unable to bear it, Su Ling’er quickly stepped forward to smooth things over, her voice as gentle as possible as she tried to soothe them.
"Everyone, don’t be afraid. What... what Mr. Dong meant was that it’s just as dangerous to stay here. If you follow us, we can all look out for each other. We will do our best to protect you all."
Wang Xiedi immediately followed suit, puffing out his chest and trying his best to look reliable.
"That’s right! As righteous Cultivators, we will do our utmost to take on the responsibility of protecting you!"
However, Dong Changsheng suddenly whirled to face Su Ling’er and Wang Xiedi, a look of disappointment on his face.
"Protect? What are you talking about?!"
"Is the point of this to protect them? No! What they need is to grow!"
"They need the courage to save themselves! Your kind of misplaced compassion will only harm them, dooming them to forever be weaklings who need protecting!"
"You may not strike the killing blow, but your actions will lead to their deaths all the same!"
"Your good intentions are robbing them of their only chance to become strong!"
These words left both Su Ling’er and Wang Xiedi stunned.
’Wait, does that saying even apply here?’
’People are actually going to die, you know!’
Dong Changsheng ignored them and turned back to the trembling group of ordinary people.
"Look at yourselves! Cowering and hesitant, refusing to move forward!"
"You’re not afraid of the darkness right now—you’re afraid of success! You’re afraid of becoming strong!"
"Follow me, and you might die, but you’ll die as heroes!"
"You’ll die breaking the shackles of fate! You’ll die on the front lines of a charge!"
"Stay here, and you might live a few moments longer, but you’ll be living as cowards, as trash, as hopeless cases! And in the end, you’ll still be crushed like bugs!"
"Tell me! Isn’t the point of all this that I’m giving you the chance to choose not to be cowards?!"
"Now, the choice is in your hands! Will you die here like useless trash, or..."
"Will you muster the greatest courage you’ve ever had in your lives and follow me to greet your... success!"
"Tell me! What is your choice?!"
In the end, they gazed at Dong Changsheng’s confident face, as if seeing a savior who could lead them toward the light.
"I... We’ll go with the Immortal Master!"
"That’s right! If we’re going to die, we’ll die on the charge!"
"The Immortal Master is right! I don’t want to be a coward anymore!"
Seeing that the ordinary people had actually been roused to obey and hadn’t descended into chaos, Su Ling’er and Wang Xiedi didn’t say anything more.
’Maybe Mr. Dong really has a point, and we just can’t grasp it as Cultivators?’
And so, the ordinary people crowded tightly behind the team of undercover disciples, their eyes wide with fear, terrified that something would leap out at them.
Step by step, the group shuffled into the pitch-black corridor.
Su Ling’er walked in the middle of the group, her Divine Sense and Spiritual Power pushed to their limits as she remained vigilant of her surroundings.
The sound of everyone’s footsteps was amplified in the narrow space. It mixed with the sounds of their own breathing and heartbeats, intertwined with the incessant, hurried clanging from Li Chunfeng’s sword.
At the very back of the group was a young peddler dressed in a coarse-cloth shirt.
He kept looking back neurotically, terrified something was creeping up behind him.
Just as he turned back one last time to face forward again, his footsteps... suddenly froze.
Reflected in his eyes, wide with terror, was an image almost touching the tip of his nose.
At some unknown point, on the mottled wall beside him, a face had... oozed out from what should have been a flat shadow.
It was the face of a child. Its grayish-blue skin was stretched taut over its cheekbones, and its eyes held no emotion, only darkness.
The peddler’s throat felt as if it were being squeezed by an invisible hand. He wanted to scream but found he had lost even the instinct to breathe.
Before he could react, the mouth on that face stretched open into an inhumanly terrifying grin.
A small hand reached out from the shadow, its five fingers spreading to cover his face, sealing his mouth and nose.
"Mmph... urk..."
He couldn’t even make a sound of struggle, only able to force a faint, choked noise from deep in his throat.
His legs kicked feebly, but it was like treading on cotton, making not a single sound.
The next second, the shadow silently swallowed him whole.
The last trace he left in the world was a single curved scuff mark on the ground from where his shoe had been dragged...
"[Thunder Kill]!"
"No dodge!"
In stark contrast to the cold, dark world outside, another corner of the main hall was enveloped in a halo of light, forming a small, warm sanctuary.
Lin Qingfeng, "Ji," and the scholar were sitting cross-legged. On the ground before them, several Talisman Cards glowed with a faint spiritual light.
With a soft cry from Lin Qingfeng, a [Thunder Kill] talisman in his hand transformed into a streak of light, striking a character card in front of the scholar.
But the scholar had been careless; he had no [Dodge] Talisman Card in his hand.
The spectral image on that card, formed from spiritual light, was that of a peddler carrying his wares on a shoulder pole.
He only had one drop of health left. With a shudder of his figure, blood sprayed out, and his health bar emptied completely.
It was just that when Lin Qingfeng played this final [Thunder Kill], he let a tiny bit of his Spiritual Power leak out by accident in an attempt to make the move more dramatic!
In an instant, an arcane power invisible to the naked eye surged along the talisman’s ley lines. It not only exploded within the small world of the card game but also sent a ripple of its aftershock seeping out across the floor...
Inside the pitch-black corridor.
At the front of the group, Dong Changsheng was about to lecture the people behind him again.
"What are you even talking about?! It’s precisely because of this weakling mindse—"
A bolt of purple lightning suddenly materialized from the ceiling and blasted him on the crown of his head!
BOOM!!!
The blinding flash of electricity instantly illuminated the entire corridor, and everyone witnessed a sight they would never forget.
Their spiritual leader, Dong Changsheng, was enveloped in purple lightning. His hair stood on end, his body convulsed violently, and he coughed out a puff of black smoke before collapsing limply to the ground.
"Mr.... Mr. Dong?!"
"Immortal Master!!!"
But fortunately, this lightning bolt wasn’t very strong.
Dong Changsheng’s luck was quite good. After knocking him down and leaving a large, scorched hole in the wall, the lightning bolt actually split off a smaller arc. With a ZAP, it shot off into the darkness of the corridor.
From the darkness came a shrill, inhuman shriek, and then everything fell silent.
The charred figure... actually climbed back to its feet.
"Cough... cough cough..."
Leaning on the wall, Dong Changsheng shakily got his footing. He opened his mouth, and another wisp of blue-green smoke, mixed with a burnt smell, puffed out.
His entire body was scorched black, his clothes were in tatters, and his hair was fried into a bird’s nest, making for a truly pathetic sight.
