Chapter 47
The stagnant sky remained as stale as usual, and the sound of sea waves crashing on the sandy shore made one think of an eternal paradise frozen in time. This scenery made the lives of the sluggish people on the island boring and repetitive.
At this time, the village seemed to be full of life as the villagers were busy assembling themselves towards the village exit. Not long later, a long line of people could be seen holding torches in the daylight as they walked along the forested area of the island.
In front of this procession were two square stone cages, each carried by two bulky men. As they proceeded through a path, the people began chanting some words that were almost unrecognizable. It seemed like an ancient language they used to summon a powerful being or creature.
This was the day when Qin Lou and Susu Ling would be offered as a sacrifice to the Mountain God. The whole village was in a festive mood as everyone seemed excited about the upcoming ritual. Everyone was excited because it had been a while since they had sacrificed someone to the Mountain God. They had also discovered that fewer people were coming to their island, which made them worry that they would anger the Mountain God.
They didn't know where these people with curious clothing came from, but every time they appeared, Mok Dong, their village protector, would always command the village warriors to catch them and perform these rituals, which helped the villagers gain their youth and strength. Because of this, the villagers were really excited.
Meanwhile, a small figure was hiding in a not-too-far-away place as it followed the line of villagers. His eyes held a look of determination as his tiny hand gripped his crudely made black dagger tightly.
"Shin Jiao said that the two women are important to him. As my parting gift, I will try to at least rescue them. Maybe they would be like Shin Jiao and be my friends too," Lemy said to himself, trying to appease his feelings.
At that time, when Shin Jiao was suffering, he didn't want to watch. When he came out of the cave, he didn't go back in to see Shin Jiao's death but bore the burden of being saved by him and started to monitor the village from the shadows. He promised himself to help Shin Jiao's two friends as a way of repaying him for saving his life.
Although Lemy had been on this island for a long time, the villagers didn't seem to like him. The truth was that he had been there before them, and he hadn't bothered them. But when Mok Dong appeared out of nowhere, he started to convince the villagers to hunt Lemy. This made Lemy leave the village area and move far away to hide. It was at that time that he found the strange tree with a large amount of energy. Curiously, the villagers were afraid of that area, and even Mok Dong was unable to enter it.
"It won't be long, and soon Mok Dong will release his energy to awaken the Mountain God. That's the time I will make my move on him when he is in his weakest state," Lemy began to plan in his mind what he should do while watching the activity from not too far away.
Meanwhile, at this time, unknown to Lemy, Shin Jiao didn't die. He was already sitting in a lotus position and had already refined a greenish, gem-like object in his dantian. Now, besides the 39 spheres and the orb containing them, a greenish gem could be seen in the middle. Shin Jiao could sense that he was now able to identify any poisonous plants in the area; it was as if the greenish gem had an affinity for them.
Poison is a very powerful weapon in the cultivation world, but it comes with a price. Although cultivating poison is very dangerous, many still choose this path. But not all poison cultivators live long, as most of them only have short lives. According to common knowledge, the deadlier the poison skill cultivated, the shorter the lifespan one could have.
But for Shin Jiao, this was not true, as he separated the poison from his body, and it would only act on his will.
"I guess this is what I got from this ordeal. I think my body is now almost poison-resistant… Wait a minute… How long did I spend refining that poison?" Shin Jiao began to think and suddenly remembered a crucial thing.
"I need to go back to the village."
Shin Jiao didn't know what had happened to his body at that time and didn't have time to inspect anything, but when he stood up, a very strong aura emerged from within his body. Unknown to him, because of the constant damage from the poison and his orb repairing his body, it had been tampered with for 2 days to the extreme. This made it reach the apex of a Nascent Soul cultivator's physique and was now entering the strength and vitality of every cultivator's dream, the Nascent realm. Every part of his body had now been refined to the limit of a mortal and was now considered as half-immortal or a demi-god stage.
But since his aura was still that of a mortal, it was still inconspicuous to low-level cultivators. But if a Nascent realm or above cultivator could see Shin Jiao, they would immediately notice the small aura that was escaping from his body. But of course, it was just his physique; his cultivation level was still at the 39th sphere, but Shin Jiao already had an idea of what to do to increase his cultivation. When he was in agony, he actually noticed the changes in his dantian, and through that, he got an inspiration. But at that time, he wasn't able to do anything because of the pain he was feeling.
The village was empty, and no soul could be seen. Shin Jiao frowned upon noticing this; he didn't find Lemy when he got out of the cave and started to search.
"Is this the third day? This means I've been suffering for 2 days. I need to find them now," Shin Jiao muttered as he quickly scanned the stone houses.
Then his eyes went to the only mountain on the island. There, he noticed the line of people going up the mountain. Although it was very far, Shin Jiao didn't notice that he was already able to see them clearly without using his goggles. This was due to his anxiety and worries filling his heart. He could not think of anything right now but only the welfare and safety of Qin Lou and Susu Ling. So after seeing the line of people, he quickly dashed towards them.
The head of the procession had already reached the mountaintop, and Qin Lou and Susu Ling discovered that the mountain was actually a live volcano, although there was no smoke rising from it. But they could hear the boiling and movements of the lava inside it. The heat that was rising from inside the volcano could also be felt from where the two girls stood, making them feel really scared and helpless.
Now, at the mouth of the volcano, where it was covered with strange gray rocks that seemed to radiate with a bizarre and gloomy feeling, the villagers stood. It was as if the gray rocks were filled with trapped souls wailing and crying, trying to find a way to break free from the eternal hell they were in. And the villagers standing on the gray stones were the demons that were punishing them as they stood on the stones, which were their souls.
"Senior sister… I'm… I'm scared…" Susu Ling muttered, looking at Qin Lou in the other cage.
Qin Lou just stretched forth her white jade hand towards Susu Ling, who also did the same. They both tried to find comfort in each other's hands to alleviate the fear in their hearts as they drew closer to the volcano's mouth.
When all the villagers were able to reach the top of the mountain, a tall, sturdy-looking man with red skin walked out from the crowd. Behind his back were several short spears that seemed to be crudely made from ores that were commonly seen inside a volcano.
"I… Mok Dong. You… sacrifice… Mountain God!" he said with difficulty.
"Let us go! We didn't do anything to you? We have no enmity; why do this to us? Huhu…" shouted Susu Ling as she wasn't able to hold herself anymore and cried.
"Haha… You die! We live!" shouted Mok Dong, which reverberated around.
The villagers also followed suit with the same cry.
"You die! We live!" "You die! We live!"
Each one shouted these words like a chant of a prayer, which slowly filled the air. Then the villagers began to stomp their feet, following the chant, and they acted like brainless people while showing the whites of their eyes.
"What? What is happening, senior sister?" Susu Ling started to panic.
"Calm down…" Qin Lou said as she squeezed Susu Ling's hand.
Although Qin Lou looked calm, deep inside her, she was already panicking. She didn't know what was going on or how to execute her plan to sneak attack the village leader. Though she didn't have any cultivation power, she still could work on sacrificing herself by blowing her core. Though because of the damage in it, the explosion wasn't enough to hurt anyone in the Core Forming realm, but it might give Susu Ling a chance to escape.
After a while, they noticed an aura slowly seeping out of the villagers' bodies. The auras seemed to be congealing towards the volcano, and then everyone stopped moving and just stood there as if everyone was in a deep trance.
"Hehe, now we start!" Mok Dong said as he neared the cages.
He slowly took out two spears, holding one in each hand. He then closed his eyes as he also released his aura, which also flowed towards the volcano.
When he did this, a shadow suddenly appeared and directly attacked Mok Dong's defenseless body. The crudely made black dagger in his hand was pointed directly at Mok Dong's heart.
Since Mok Dong was unprepared, the black dagger found its way towards his chest, directly penetrating the skin and quickly entering his heart. Because of this, Mok Dong's heart immediately stopped beating, and his body slumped to the ground. On top of him was the figure of the young boy Lemy.
This was the weakness that Lemy had said to Shin Jiao. It had been many years now as he began to observe the villagers. Every time they would sacrifice a cultivator, he noticed that everybody would be in a trance. At first, he was reluctant to move, as he really feared the strength of Mok Dong. After a long time of observing, he was able to formulate a plan on how to get rid of Mok Dong and his tyranny. And when he heard that the village had found some cultivators, Lemy became excited; he knew that this was the right time.
"This is for my friend Shin Jiao," Lemy said in a low voice.
Then, upon seeing that Mok Dong had stopped moving, he immediately moved towards the two cages. Using his strength, he broke a part of the rock cages so that Qin Lou and Susu Ling could get out.
"Hello! I'm Lemy." Lemy didn't waste time and quickly transmitted this to both Qin Lou and Susu Ling.
"Spiritual sense transmission… you… are you a Nascent realm cultivator?" Susu Ling was surprised and immediately asked.
It was known that only those in the Nascent realm could transmit their voices through the spiritual sense. Although some in the lower realms could also do this, it required intimate knowledge of the skill and tons of practice.
"We can talk later, I… I… know your friend... Shin Jiao. He wanted to rescue you," Lemy said, but his voice became a little gloomy.
Upon hearing this, Qin Lou suddenly lifted her head and looked directly at Lemy. Susu Ling also showed a surprised reaction. They were talking about him and had hoped that he could save them. This was especially true for Qin Lou, as it seemed that she had blind faith in him.
"Where… where is he?" Qin Lou immediately asked.
"Yeah! That man is really something. Where is he? Is he with you?" Susu Ling also followed up with her barrage of questions.
"Ah… you see… I… Shin Jiao is… is already gone. He... he died because of saving me... He was poisoned by Mok Dong," Lemy said with a bit of reluctance.
As a person who had stayed as a boy for a long time on this island, Lemy's EQ was very low, as he had never had any interaction with anyone before. When he was able to talk to Shin Jiao, he was truly happy and immediately treated Shin Jiao as his best friend. But in this situation, he didn't know what to do or say; all he could think of was to tell them the hard truth.
"No… that's impossible. How…" Qin Lou suddenly said while shaking her head.
"It's the tru…" Lemy was about to reply when suddenly he noticed a huge amount of pain in his stomach.
The eyes of Qin Lou and Susu Ling were also wide in disbelief. Right now, in front of them, a sharp, short spear was protruding from Lemy's stomach, and the tip was dripping with Lemy's blood. Then Lemy was slowly lifted up as he dangled while skewered by the spear.
"Haha… at last, I caught you! Little boy… after hundreds of years, I, Mok Dong, have caught you…" The voice of Mok Dong shouted from behind as he lifted up the spear, bringing Lemy's small body with it.
"You… you should… have died!" Lemy said in disbelief.
"Haha, I am Mok Dong! Nobody can kill me! I will own this world once you are dead," Mok Dong shouted as he waved the spear towards the mouth of the volcano, planning to drop the small boy in it.
BANG!!!
Thud…
The small body of Lemy fell to the ground, and the spear on Mok Dong's hand was shattered into pieces. With an incredulous look in his eyes, Mok Dong looked at the person walking towards him with confident strides.
"You!… I know you! You are the boy's helper... but you should have died! This is impossible!" Mok Dong said in a low and angry voice.
Then Qin Lou and Susu Ling also looked at the person walking towards them, and a surprised and happy look could be seen on Susu Ling's face. Under her mask, Qin Lou also felt happy as her eyes began to have traces of tearing up.
They knew it wasn't true; both of them knew in their hearts that he was not dead. And now that they could see his figure in front of them, they felt happy and immediately shouted his name.
"Shin Jiao!"