Chapter 23: Sughter

  《Serene Sword Teique》—this cultivatiohod imparted to An Jing by the mysterious voice—was a method of preserving crity.

  Through this meditative approach, An Jing visualized within his mind a sword covered in rust, then used his thoughts to wipe it , his will to quell it, and his hand to refi. In the end, he could cultivate a heart as clear and bright as a sword, being able to subdue the heart-monkey and quell the mind-horse*, granting him freedom of spirit.

  It was also a method of cultivating the spirit, capable of increasial strength and suppressing the psychological influence brought on by the Imperial Heaven’s Unified Spirit One-in Qi Cultivatiohod.

  An Jing did not o master it fully—nor was it the right time to break through to Internal Energy. He only o visualize the sword to restrain the demonic impulses sprouting in his heart, suppressing the effects of having ed too much demonic beast flesh aless Water.

  Softly reg the mnemonic, he pictured the rusted sword in his mind. He polished it with steadfast dedicatioing his mind bee pure, letting tranquil crity permeate his thoughts.

  After a quarter hour, An Jing opened his eyes. A fsh of raw killing i flickered within them for an instant. He felt that many of the straints and brambles entangling his soul had been severed by a ssh of sword light, making his thinking keener and clearer, and granting him sharper trol over the Innate One Qi in his body.

  He stood up. “There’s a sound.”

  It was the dead of night, with the roar of rain and the crash of thuhe manrounds were not deserted—torchlight flickered, but An Jing still caught the sound ing from the nearby building.

  It was a child’s voice—wailing and g.

  There were survivors.

  The sword voice also uidance:

  【Ehe dungeon. There you will find the key—if you wish to gain power surpassing everything, that is critical.】

  “Uood.”

  An Jing did not truly know what or who the mysterious sword-voice was, but he could tell it was certainly not in league with the Heavenly Will Demonic Sect—rather, it stood as their enemy and had helped him several times along the way.

  He was willing to follow its guidance. “But how do I get inside?”

  He had found the “dungeon” where the voices ihe building merged with the mountain itself, its structure rgely tained within the rock, with only part protruding outside.

  Its mairance was a sturdy iron door. An Jing had no key. F it open would make too muoise, definitely alerting the guards or instructors statio the Eastern Mountain Farmnds.

  【There is a window on the side】

  The sword-voice guided him:

  【You get in through there, but you’ll have to figure out how.】

  It did not take long for An Jing to find the “window” iion—a ventition opening on the side of the building, barred with iron rods. He could just make out the flickering glow of mplight inside.

  The rods were poor in quality, having rusted with age, but they were still not so weak that he could simply bend them with minimal effort. If An Jing relied purely on brute strength, he could break them, but the resulting noise would surely alert those nearby.

  However, An Jing possessed more than enough iy. Even in this life, if his wits were insuffit, he still had his innate wisdom.

  After quickly sing the area, An Jing gathered several wooden sts from a er, then tore out the inner lining of his clothes to make strips of cloth.

  He soaked the cloth in the rain and used it to the wet fabric around the wooden sts, which he had arranged in a cross shape. He alighe cross beam with two of the iron rods, creating a twisted leverage point—a makeshift “wrench” of sorts.

  An Jing slowly twisted the wood, using the principle of leverage to tighten the cloth strips.

  Moistened cloth was extra tough, and bined with the rods’ poor material, they gradually bent enough to form an opening through which he could crawl.

  “This is the principle of the lever.”

  Seeing that he had actually bent the rods using this simple approach, An Jing could not help marveling at how effectively he had applied a basicept. Using such ordinary materials to produce such a result felt almost miraculous—truly a feat of iy.

  Realistically, wreng them by hand or using a lever made little differen brute force alone. But by employing the lever steadily, An Jing minimized the aking a loud noise and thus avoided arming anyone inside.

  Now was not the time for further amazement.

  Like a rge cat, An Jing slipped through the opening.

  He arrived ihe dungeon.

  It was dark. The damp air from the rain mingled with swirling drafts. A short distance away, the corridor was faintly lit by an oil mp; the smell was unpleasant, its fme weak and flickering.

  The dungeon reeked of urine and rot. Faint moans and whimpers sounded all around, and a pervasive st of blood hovered in the air, chilling the senses.

  An Jing surveyed his surroundings warily. He stood in a narrow corridor paved with green stone, filthy underfoot, the mplight dim and murky. It took him a good while to make out the se within.

  Then, a stabbing chill coursed up the base of his spine, robbing him of a moment of speech.

  A sughterhouse.

  Anyone who had visited one would know the reality of butchery: livestock were hoisted onto racks, their bodies pinned in pails or bolts pounded into their skulls with mallets, or they were battered into unsciousness.

  A skilled butcher would then slice opeeries on both sides of the neck, quickly draining the blood into buckets. The animals might struggle, but the sturdy racks restraiheir every movement, leaving them only to scream and shed tears until all strength poured out alongside their blood, until eveears ran red.

  , the butcher would hook the blood-emptied carcasses and hang them from a beam, slice open their bellies, and drop the ans into a basin.

  Their remains would sway icher’s grip, reeking of gore. A highly practiced butcher needed only a small ko separate flesh from boil nothing remained but a skeleton picked white.

  That was a sughterhouse. Anyone unaced to death, walking into such a pce, would find it horrifid stomach-ing, evehe victims were animals. Processing living creatures like raw materials was a gruesome trade—hehe old saying that a true gentleman should keep away from the kit.

  But that was for livestock alone.

  What if humans were being sughtered?

  What if the bodies hung on the walls, the bohe eyes, the blood, and the ans… all beloo people one onew?

  “Heavenly Will Demonic Sect… heh. Before, I ruly uood what made ‘demonioniow I have at least some idea.”

  A ess emanating from deep within his bones, enough to make his teeth ch, was swept away by a sudden surge of fury from his soul. An Jing’s face remained expressionless as he examined what y before him in an unnervingly calm mahe “shells” hung from the two walls of the dungeon.

  Zhao Yong’an, Xu Yi, Xie Pingn, Li Junyi, Zhao Ran’er…

  er name emerged in his miched in his memory’s deepest recesses.

  Because he possessed talent, he was not merely cattle. But… if he had cked that talent?

  He closed his eyes. An Jing remembered the task at hand—he could not let rage overwhelm him.

  There were still living people here.

  Many of the children in the cells remained alive, but most had bee too exhausted to stay awake. A few still groaned in delirium.

  An Jing smelled the st of Heartless Water. So that was what they fed these boys and girls, f them into a “calm” state so they could not struggle, self-harm, ht bad could not even perceive their surroundings.

  He gazed silently upon each face. He reized them all—these were the so-called “eliminated” disaster survivors from the past few months.

  Some were missing, but presumably most had once waited here… waiting for death to e.

  【The key is ahead.】

  The sword voice, growing mrim, directed An Jing’s gaze to the dungeo.

  Someoood guard at the exit.

  It was an older member of the demonic sect, hair gone white but still physically sturdy. He sat on a chair, head tilted to one side, sound asleep.

  An Jing reized him—a rarely seen instructor named Song, glimpsed only occasionally. So he was the oationed here as a wat.

  Well, no matter how x their ma or how “trouble-free” these children were, they would still station at least one person on guard.

  Scrutinizing the se, An Jing noticed ay elixir cup oable—this old man must have insomnia, so he used Heartless Water as a sedative?

  —Haha, maybe he felt uneasy seeing such a grisly spectacle. Some demonic sect member he is—clearly not fit for the job!

  An Jing’s heart was coldly calm. He spotted the key ring hanging on the wall: multiple sets of keys, each set taining three.

  【Take the keys.】

  Narrowing his eyes, An Jing fixed his gaze on the dozing old demon.

  The man was also iernal Energy realm, but fortunately, he was her young nor in his prime. If he awakened, An Jing still had a ce to beat him swiftly.

  But the ma deeply. Moving with Mysterious Steps, An Jing approached in silence, fetched the keys, aurned without elig aion. He even caught the smell of alcohol.

  —So the old codger drank on top of taking that potion? An Jing thought in exasperation. He could easily twist the man’s head off one-handed.

  But now was not the time. With the keys in hand, An Jing slipped back out the ventition opening.

  Using the wooden sts, he painstakingly eased the bent rods bato shape. They remained ed, but the casual observer would not notice.

  【Go.】

  The sword voice sounded somewhat excited:

  【Go to the storeroom in the adjat building.】

  “Right.”

  An Jing took a deep breath. His heart pounded. Suddenly, he turo face the main manor. “Wait—there’s a noise over there!”

  Having partially learhe Serene Sword Teique and used his own anger, hatred, and sense of powerlesso “polish” the rusted sword, An Jing’s perception had sharpened immensely. He sensed multiple figures moving slowly up the eastern slope. “People are ing from the main manor!”

  【That may also be part of your trial—this ‘freedom’ they gave you is time-limited.】

  The sword voice grew calm again:

  【Will you slip away in the chaos, or heed my instrus?】

  “Do you even have to ask?”

  An Jing did not hesitate. He darted toward the storeroom. “I’ve already made my decision, and I won’t go ba it.”

  The storeroom was not far from the dungeon, merely separated by a corridor. An Jing hurried along and soon arrived at the storeroom’s location.

  Like the dungeon, the storeroom was built into the mountainside, sealed behind a locked iron door.

  【Open it.】

  The clear, sword-like voice trembled slightly in rare excitement.

  An Jing took out the ring of keys. Apart from the dungeohere were two others. He tested them one by one.

  The first did not fit. Without panig, An Jing tried the sed.

  It turned, and the door unlocked.

  The Heavenly Will Divi’s storeroom opened wide for him.

  (End of Chapter)

  *A transtion of the ese idiom “降心猿, 伏意马.” This idiom uses the imagery of a restless monkey and an unruly, galloping horse to represent a mind that jumps untrolbly from thought to thought aion to emotion. It veys the idea of taming or calming one’s inner impulses.