One week later.

  Desolate Continent, at the base of the long stairway to Vajra Temple.

  Xia Li had returned here once more. He reached up to remove the mask from his face—he wouldn't reveal his true identity when dealing with mortals.

  Though cultivators harming mortals wasn't exactly taboo, it would invite ridicule. If one went too far, some righteous sects would even intervene.

  And he had clearly gone too far. If he encountered some inflexible people, he wouldn't be able to reason with them.

  Xia Li ascended the stairs step by step.

  Before the faded vermilion threshold, the eight Daoist Inspection Envoys he'd encountered before stood at the entrance, their eyes reddened and expressions filled with grief and fury as they watched him.

  Seeing this, Xia Li smiled slightly and tossed over a storage ring.

  "I encountered someone on the road. They asked me to deliver this to you."

  The storage ring Xia Li threw had no spiritual imprint—in other words, it was unsealed. Anyone could probe it with their divine sense.

  The eight immediately extended their divine sense. Inside the storage ring was a mountain of severed heads!

  Their relatives!

  Close kin, blood relatives, parents and siblings!

  "You deserve death!!"

  One disciple couldn't restrain himself and tried to rush out to fight Xia Li to the death, but was immediately held back by another disciple.

  That disciple didn't look at Xia Li either, only raised his head and roared at the heavens...

  "We beseech the Elders to seek justice for us!"

  With those words spoken.

  Three old figures suddenly appeared before the great gates, all regarding Xia Li with scrutinizing gazes.

  And their cultivation...

  All were Soul Transformation!

  Three Soul Transformation stage elders.

  "I didn't expect you'd dare return."

  "Slaughtering mortals is the behavior of demonic cultivators. It seems the Buddhist sect has produced another Devil Buddha."

  "Though you haven't taken tonsure, your actions are helping the Buddhist sect. Having created such killing karma, even the Buddhist sect cannot keep you."

  What Xia Li had done spread with extreme speed once Intoxicated Flower Pavilion stopped helping conceal it. In this chaotic world, three or four thousand deaths truly wasn't much.

  In the secular world it was even less significant—a single natural disaster or war in the mortal realm could result in tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, even millions of casualties.

  But the difference was that all the deceased shared one common trait: each had someone serving as a Daoist Inspection Envoy in the Buddhist sect.

  Thus the matter immediately drew attention, being viewed as a provocative act by the Buddhist sect.

  "What does this have to do with me? I already said someone gave this to me to deliver."

  When Xia Li killed, he wore the spiritual artifact Thousand Faces. After finishing, he'd purified himself no less than ten times with the supreme Purification Bottle on the way back.

  Xia Li's aura now could be said to be utterly pristine—where was there even a trace of blood?

  So what if the other party knew he'd done it? Without evidence, they could only glare helplessly.

  "Then you hired assassins to kill them—you are the mastermind!"

  "Senior, please don't make accusations without evidence."

  Xia Li simply refused to admit it. Harming mortals could be considered major or minor. If manipulated by someone with ulterior motives, he could easily be labeled as demonic, then openly killed.

  As for whether those killed mortals were good or evil?

  In this world where information transmission was controlled by cultivators, the vast majority of mortals would only know what cultivators wanted them to know.

  "No matter. You can deny it to your death—we'll naturally find evidence of your crimes after you die!"

  The three Soul Transformation elders prepared to strike. Xia Li raised his head to look at the dilapidated great hall above. Even now, Vajra Temple still wouldn't intervene?

  Of course, Xia Li didn't feel disappointed. Rather, perhaps he had disappointed the Buddhist sect—they might feel his killing nature was too heavy and no longer wish to transmit the Dao to him.

  That single kowtow before the Buddha had bowed to all sentient beings while also accepting a karmic connection with them.

  That nameless fire...

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Perhaps it was the rage of sentient beings who yearned for goodness. The extremely wicked never self-reflected and wouldn't regret anything even until death—they'd only regret not being thorough enough.

  "Then please allow me, before I die, to first return something to Vajra Temple."

  Xia Li moved his thoughts, communing with that nameless fire that seemed about to blaze again. He was about to see exactly what this nameless fire was.

  Suddenly...

  The entire mountain trembled slightly, as if something was awakening.

  Chanting immediately resounded throughout the temple, but only made the trembling frequency increase more and more...

  Until...

  A massive, pitch-black hand burst through the mountain. The hand was withered like kindling, golden scriptures covered its arm, its nails sharp as blades, and bloodstains even remained on its fingertips.

  The moment those three Soul Transformation elders saw the giant hand, they lost all interest in settling accounts with Xia Li. Without caring about their own disciples, they immediately produced high-grade Void-Breaking Talismans and fled as if they'd encountered some great terror.

  But that hand merely pointed once...

  A beam of heaven-piercing blood light burst from its fingertip, tearing through the void and disintegrating one Soul Transformation elder into fragments. The other two Soul Transformation elders were fast enough to escape before the black hand could prepare another strike.

  Xia Li stared blankly at that pitch-black hand. That was the source driving him to kill, making him overflow with violent qi—the master of that nameless fury.

  Heaven Chip immediately began scanning...

  【Relevant entry matched】

  【Mythological creature discovered: Asura】

  【Asura is one of the Upper Three Paths in the Six Paths worldview. According to mythological records, Asura are innately divine, possess Buddha-nature, and can also attain Buddhahood】

  【But due to their inherent nature of being competitive, violent, and easily angered, even if their fundamental nature is good, they cannot become Buddha no matter how much suffering they endure. They are good yet not good, trapped in endless rage, firmly believing that only by killing all evil can one become Buddha】

  【Thus people often use "the Asura Path" to describe choices that are not ill-intentioned but are destined to end badly】

  As Heaven Chip described this, various images appeared in Xia Li's prosthetic eye. Though Earth's image data only showed statues, that giant black hand was quite similar to the arms on those statues.

  Beneath Vajra Temple was a sealed Asura.

  An Asura who had walked to an extreme, wanting to kill all evil.

  Thus that nameless fire was actually the Wrath of Asura, lodged within him, using him to achieve the erasure of evils, thereby recovering some mental strength and faith.

  The West Continent bordered the Desolate Continent. When Buddhism was at its height, West Continent naturally received more Buddhist influence. But secular people didn't believe in "laying down the butcher's knife to immediately become Buddha."

  Secular people believed in judgment and punishment of evil, seeking vengeance for grievances and repayment of grudges. Thus those harmed by evil would pray before death...

  Asura...

  Kill them!

  Kill those who murdered us!

  When Asura rages, all sentient beings rage. Thus Asura kills. As long as sentient beings still harbor anger, Asura will never stop.

  After that pitch-black hand annihilated one Soul Transformation cultivator, its palm slowly aimed at Xia Li, then...

  Pointed at the eight Daoist Inspection Envoys before Xia Li...

  Blood-red smoke emerged from above their heads, and within the smoke appeared human figures.

  "Spare me, please spare me..."

  "Immortal master, what did this old man do wrong that you must kill my entire family?"

  "Mother save me, Father save me..."

  "Immortal master, gods and Buddhas above, are you even watching? Save us..."

  Those figures were all the resentful spirits left behind by those the Daoist Inspection Envoys had harmed in the past.

  The resentment and fury of sentient beings was Asura's sustenance.

  Similar to the demonic path, both fed on human resentment.

  But Asura consumed human thoughts, received worship, and must also avenge and seek justice for them.