Chapter 32 Part 1

The villagers of Tianhe Village were numb to their hopeless lives, but as soon as the topic turned to the young children taken from the village in search of immortality and the Dao, they erupted like boiling water. All their suppressed despair and hatred surged forth. They spoke one after another, gnashing their teeth with such ferocity that they seemed ready to tear the immortals and gods apart limb from limb.

“My son went to the prefectural yamen less than half a year ago, only to be rolled up in a straw mat and dumped in some wilderness village. When I went to the yamen seeking justice, they broke one of my legs instead.”

“Children have been taken from our Tianhe Village one after another, and not a single one has come back alive.”

“It’s not just Tianhe Village—the whole town is the same! And yet we have to offer sacrifices every day, kowtowing to that god shrine day and night.”

…

The villagers’ emotions rebounded fiercely. At this point, they were desperate enough to cast caution to the wind, paying no mind to Li Ruoshui’s origins. They didn’t care if she killed them. After all, the Golden Armored Men in the village had already been slain, and the god shrine destroyed. Those immortal elders would come for them sooner or later anyway.

Li Ruoshui frowned repeatedly as she listened. The Empire’s method of selecting cultivation seeds was cruel and inhumane, treating mortals as less than human! What kind of bullshit Human Emperor Dao was that?

“Which Daoist are you all enshrining?” Li Ruoshui asked again.

But the villagers’ knowledge of the world was limited to their rural backwater. Few had ever even entered a town, so how could they know who they were worshipping or what that person’s background was? Seeing that she couldn’t get any useful information, Li Ruoshui dropped the topic. She said a few soothing words to calm the furious villagers, then raised her hand and gently stroked the head of the spiritually gifted child.

“Her aptitude is excellent. Those people might come back for her.”

Perhaps because Li Ruoshui’s appearance was otherworldly, and she had slain the Golden Armored Men who tried to abduct the child, the woman holding the girl felt her fear of Li Ruoshui diminish greatly. She looked up at Li Ruoshui for a moment, then suddenly knelt before her and pleaded, “Please, Immortal Elder, remove my little Grass’s Immortal Root!” What path to immortality? It was clearly the gate to the underworld. Who wanted to cultivate immortality? Who would be willing?

Li Ruoshui frowned. “It will harm her body and shorten her lifespan.”

Tears welled up in the woman’s eyes. “Even if she only lives to fifteen or sixteen, that’s better than dying young next year!” She caught a glimmer of hope in Li Ruoshui’s words and kowtowed repeatedly. “Please, Immortal Elder, have mercy!”

Li Ruoshui helped the woman to her feet. “The immortal path is boundless; it’s not only the Empire. Other sects don’t act so perversely. She can join another sect.” With that, Li Ruoshui took out several hundred Spirit Jade Pills. But the woman didn’t accept them. She refused in bewilderment. Having seen what the Empire’s immortal elders were like, she had lost all trust in immortal sects. In her mind, seeking immortality was nothing but a pit of fire.

Li Ruoshui observed the woman’s expression and glimpsed something off in her tearful eyes. She feared the woman might do something irreversible to sever the little girl’s path to immortality. After pondering for a moment, she said, “I can help you, but it can’t be rushed. She needs to rest and recuperate for a few days first, or pulling out the Immortal Root will kill her outright.”

The woman’s heart ached with bitterness, the pain like a knife twisting in her gut. She held the bewildered little girl close and murmured repeatedly, “Mother is sorry to you.”

Li Ruoshui sighed inwardly, took a few pieces of candy and placed them in a pill bottle as if they were elixirs, then handed it to the woman with instructions. “One pill morning and night.” By the time they finished them, Shi Yu and the others would arrive. Convincing people to join a sect was something Shi Yu would have to handle herself.

After sending the villagers back, Li Ruoshui went to the village’s temple. That was where the god shrine had been enshrined before—the spot with the village’s best feng shui. The mud statue had already been dealt with by her, leaving the pedestal where the idol once sat empty and desolate.

Nightfall descended, cloaking the heavens and earth in gloom.

Only two candles flickered dimly in the temple, swaying left and right in the breeze.

To the left front of the former god shrine stood a merit stele inscribed with the name of the enshrined figure. It was Gao Yin, a collateral cultivator of the Empire’s Sheng Clan branch, the Futu Gao Clan, who guarded the entirety of White Sun Town. Apart from Tianhe Village, all the other villages under White Sun Town’s jurisdiction enshrined his images.

No matter how Li Ruoshui looked at it, the stele’s inscription screamed “man-eater” to her.

These cultivators deserved ten thousand deaths.

The Empire’s customs had declined day by day, its practitioners morally corrupt. She really ought to act on heaven’s behalf and deliver justice.

Li Ruoshui stayed in Tianhe Village for a few days. Although the spirituality she had refined hadn’t returned to report back, what if that Daoist was still watching the village? Fortunately, her luck held. The Empire’s cultivators of the Edict God Dao had never suffered such a setback and never imagined that the spirituality in their images could be burned and refined by someone. They underestimated mortals, and their vigilance was lax as a result. Gao Yin remained oblivious to the changes in Tianhe Village right up until Shi Yu and her group arrived quietly.

“Fellow Daoist Shangshan, where’s the cultivation seed?” Shi Yu jumped off the cloud boat and immediately grabbed Li Ruoshui, asking impatiently. Now that the East Sea Alliance had a foothold, besides recruiting rogue cultivators from all directions, they also needed to find spiritually gifted children and raise them from the ground up.

“Over there.” Li Ruoshui pointed to a household on the west side of the village and reminded her, “The villagers are extremely averse to seeking immortality and the Dao. They’d rather destroy the children’s Immortal Roots than let them go cultivate and be separated from their families.”

Shi Yu didn’t care at all. She waved her hand carelessly and laughed boldly. “No problem. We’ll just relocate the entire village.”

Li Ruoshui raised an eyebrow. “Then good luck with that. I’m leaving first.”

Hearing the odd tone in Li Ruoshui’s voice, Shi Yu asked, “Fellow Daoist Shangshan, where are you planning to go?”

A strange glint flashed in Li Ruoshui’s eyes, and she smiled faintly. “To collect a debt.”

Shi Yu didn’t quite understand. “Does Daoist have acquaintances in the Empire?”

Li Ruoshui nodded.

They said those who fought became acquainted, right? She had beaten that mud puppet black and blue, so that counted as acquaintance enough. That mud puppet and the Golden Armored Daoist had been far too arrogant, ordering her to kneel—the words still echoed in her ears. Her fragile heart had been wounded; it was time to demand some compensation for emotional distress. As for Tianhe Village, Li Ruoshui unhesitatingly dumped it all on Shi Yu.

Shi Yu didn’t pry further and gave Li Ruoshui a Daoist salute. “Take care, Daoist.”

Li Ruoshui returned the salute, but before she got far, she turned back and asked, “Shi Daoist, how much do you know about the Emperor Sword?” She had asked her close friend about the Ying Di Wang before, but her friend hadn’t known much. Someone like Shi Yu, who specialized in opposing the Empire, surely knew her enemy well.

“It’s a magic treasure refined by the Qing Emperor herself, symbolizing the Empire’s supreme imperial authority. Unfortunately, the imperial family only has two Human Emperor Dao cultivators left nowadays, and neither can lift the Ying Di Wang.” Shi Yu’s face lit up with schadenfreude. The Grand Chancellor and Tianming Marquis were regents, not the same as the Emperor in person. If the Emperor raised the Ying Di Wang, even the Empire’s most rebellious Daoists would have no choice but to submit.

Li Ruoshui asked, “Do I have a chance of lifting the Emperor Sword?”

Shi Yu’s smile froze. She eyed Li Ruoshui. “I have one method: Daoist doesn’t need to wait for the Vow Dao backlash. I’ll directly help you achieve soldier’s dissolution and send you to reincarnation. If your luck is extraordinarily good, you might even be reborn into the imperial family.”

Li Ruoshui glared at Shi Yu, dissatisfied. “Does the Emperor Sword require imperial bloodline to wield?”

Shi Yu: “Else why call it the Emperor Sword? She refined it herself, after all.”

Li Ruoshui: “What if the Empire changes dynasties?” Seeing Shi Yu’s stunned expression, Li Ruoshui rephrased. “Over the thousands of years, have non-imperial people ever tried to seize the Ying Di Wang? Did the Qing Emperor explicitly say the Emperor Sword must be passed only to her blood kin?”

Shi Yu was stunned for a moment before snapping back to attention, filled with respect.

When it came to wild imagination, Fellow Daoist Shangshan took the cake.

“Though the Empire’s strength has waned greatly, it still has two Cave Heaven experts in residence.”

Li Ruoshui smiled at Shi Yu. “Doesn’t the East Sea Alliance have one too? Pull in a few more allies when the time comes. If you’re bold enough, what’s stealing the heavens and changing the land? By then, the Empire’s orthodox lineage will be in the East Sea—remember to enfeoff me as a king, Daoist.”

Shi Yu: “…”

After inquiring about some matters related to the Emperor Sword, Li Ruoshui transformed into a streak of escaping light and left Tianhe Village.

But she didn’t go far.

With Shi Yu arriving in Tianhe Village, relocating the entire village might alert the Empire cultivator guarding White Sun Town. When the two sides clashed, she could fish in troubled waters.

Shi Yu’s persuasive skills turned out better than Li Ruoshui had imagined. In less than two days, she had packed up the entire Tianhe Village into the cloud boat, including the Tianhe Grass fields, and taken it all back to the Sea True Mansion.

If they hadn’t touched the medicine fields, White Sun Town might not have noticed. But Shi Yu had pried at the Empire’s cornerstones—there was no way she’d leave the benefits behind. With the fields emptied, Tianhe Village’s yuanqi changed, appearing as a dark blotch on the regional map hanging in the Prefecture City. The cultivators there investigated immediately, and upon spotting the faintly visible non-Empire cloud boat in the clouds, they relayed the message straight to Gao Yin.

Shi Yu’s group hadn’t had a chance to leave before they were intercepted by Empire cultivators.

But Shi Yu had come prepared. Facing the Empire’s densely packed flying boats, she showed no fear. She and two Golden Core Stage allies urged their Dharma swords forward, blocking the Empire Daoists. As for the cloud boat carrying the entire Tianhe Village, it vanished into the vast sea of clouds in an instant.

Li Ruoshui had no intention of joining a Golden Core Realm battle.

She hid in a remote area, enduring intense heart pain as she spent five hundred Spirit Jade Pills to buy an anonymous posting function.

Li Ruoshui was a high-quality cultivator. She couldn’t stand the Empire Daoists’ behavior—she had to report them all!

After going anonymous, Li Ruoshui quickly posted in the Dharma Realm: I, True Yang Li Feishuang, officially report the Empire Sheng Clan upper echelons for colluding with Ruin Spirits, being cruel and heartless, treating human lives like weeds.

Li Feishuang’s name seal had been tossed into the sea by Empire Daoists during the Pearl Island battle, but luckily she had blank talisman cards. Filling in a new name was simple.

The post was anonymous, but with Li Feishuang’s talisman prominently displayed in the first post—how wasn’t that official?

The True Yang Li Clan was one of the Empire’s great clans and had produced many cultivators. The incident of the Li Clan’s extermination by Empire upper echelons was still fresh, and with the words “Ruin Spirits” thrown in, the post drew crowds of cultivators as soon as it appeared in the Dharma Realm.