Parade First, Deliverance Later

Nanzhan Continent, Mount Qingxi.

First, a patch of golden, auspicious clouds slowly drifted over from the west.

The sunlight cascaded down and the green mountains remained as before, resembling a beautiful landscape. The addition of the auspicious clouds made the scene incredibly propitious.

A Qi Condensation stage member of the Evil Spirit Cult gazed into the distance, his heart suddenly filled with countless sighs of emotion. Although he was an evil cultivator whose hands were stained with foul blood, seeing this myriad of colors always made him feel as if his heart was being purified.

At the same time, a thought arose in his mind—at first glance, the path of an evil cultivator seemed bleak, but looking at it now, how could it not have a bright future?

The auspicious clouds drew closer, and the rosy light was dazzling.

The Evil Spirit Cult member's eyes showed a rare hint of gentleness.

Although he hadn't been in the Evil Spirit Cult for long, he was already highly trusted by the organization.

A few days ago, they had slaughtered two villages, sacrificing hundreds of people to extract blood Qi.

He hadn't put in much effort, but due to his aptitude far exceeding that of ordinary people, he received exactly twice the extra reward of the others.

That day, holding that blood stone that made one's blood boil, feeling the power refined from an unknown number of lives inside, and feeling those powers turn into the blood Qi in his hands...

The only sigh left in this Evil Spirit Cult member's heart was that next time, he would definitely put in more effort.

Using the blood and bones of others as a ladder, stepping onto the heavenly path one step at a time.

The shackles of the past were all emptied, only to realize the road ahead was paved with lives.

Now the path ahead was clear; he just needed to proceed step by step, offering the lives of those ignorant mortals to let him climb to the peak. Anyone in this world who saw him would have to bow their heads.

Things he couldn't hope for in the past would be easily obtainable in the future.

For example, Cuihua, who had looked down on him at the village entrance in the past. He now looked down on her too, and she had long since become a part of the power within his body.

He looked at the auspicious clouds on the horizon. At this moment, in his eyes, that patch of auspicious clouds secretly turned into surging blood Qi. Standing in the blood Qi, he could summon wind and rain with just a wave of his hand.

But soon, the evil cultivator's gaze instantly turned terrified.

Because a hand actually reached out from that patch of auspicious clouds.

It was a golden, giant hand with dazzling Buddhist light swirling around it, slowly reaching out from the auspicious clouds.

The hand was clearly moving so slowly, but in just a blink of an eye, it had already reached from the clouds to right before his eyes.

Only then did he realize how massive this hand was. It blotted out the sun and sky, gleaming with golden light, seemingly even larger than the mountain peak of Mount Qingxi where they were hiding.

The pressure was like a rainbow, like divine punishment.

Bad news: this palm was genuine, and the pressure it emitted made him almost prostrate on the ground. Even if there were ten thousand of him, this palm would turn them all into dust.

Good news: today he was out keeping watch, and this palm was striking his evil cultivator home base.

He turned his gaze and watched as that giant hand pressed down onto the familiar mountain peak without the slightest deviation.

The mountain peak had a protective grand array, but that array only lit up with a somewhat inconspicuous crimson light before shattering into pieces the next moment.

The giant golden palm slapped down without any sense of delay.

Boom!

The entire mountain peak completely collapsed under the giant golden palm. The terrifying residual might shook upwards, bringing a spray of stones and sand as a fierce wind swept everything up.

This evil cultivator stared dumbfounded at the scene before him.

There was a Golden Core stage patriarch there, and dozens of Foundation Establishment stage experts.

In secret rumors, there was even a supreme mighty figure at the Nascent Soul stage.

At this moment, under this palm, they all seemed to be just like this stone and sand...

Panic and fear were all completely erased by the might of this palm at this moment.

A somewhat sickly smile appeared on the evil cultivator's face... This... what kind of method is this?

How many people must be killed, how much blood Qi must be refined to reach this step?

As the palm fell, dozens of golden streams of light immediately flew down from the auspicious clouds.

It wasn't until a divine sense clearly locked onto this evil cultivator that he suddenly snapped back to his senses—Damn it! Run!

Regardless of who slapped this palm, if he didn't run now, he would never have to run again.

A Qi Condensation stage cultivator could not yet fly through the air, but leaping forcefully with two legs could be considered brief flight.

However, before he could jump two more steps, the evil cultivator's footsteps stopped.

For no other reason than, in front of him, a young novice monk wearing an earthy yellow monk robe was looking at him calmly, with no spiritual energy fluctuations on his body.

The evil cultivator's face was ferocious. Although he knew it might be because the cultivation gap was too large that he couldn't see through the opposite party, his only chance of survival at this moment was if the person in front of him was truly just a pure novice monk.

Although the probability of this in such a scene was nearly zero.

But his survival instinct would not let go of any possibility, even if it was a fantasy.

"If you don't want to die, get out of the way!" the evil cultivator roared.

Yuan Kong's gaze swept over the evil cultivator in front of him, and his tone was calm:

"When you refined people into blood Qi, did you also shout this sentence?"

Before coming here, Chu Xingchen had taken Yuan Kong to the small village that had been slaughtered by this group of evil cultivators.

These evil cultivators with insufficient capital would only find somewhat remote small villages to slaughter.

Moreover, these evil cultivators left no survivors when they acted, except for those who could join and had the capital to join them.

Under divine sense, all hiding was meaningless.

Yuan Kong recalled what he saw and heard that day.

The completely burned houses still retained a bit of lingering warmth and redness.

The dark red earth still carried a foul smell, and the heavy smell of smoke seemed to be imprinted in that patch of land.

Chu Xingchen had said in a very calm tone beside him—The 'wait a bit' we talk about, to them is despair and the end. If we are a bit slower, sometimes it is irreversible. I am not accusing anyone, after all, you and I didn't do this. I just want to tell you that if possible, sometimes we can be a bit faster.

That day, the Honored Buddha was also beside them, and like him, he said nothing.

Yuan Kong knew that Chu Xingchen actually wanted to say this to Runan.

But he also heard it.

Yuan Kong had been to many places and had seen evil cultivators causing chaos, but every time he saw it, it was like seeing it for the first time.

Yuan Kong's gaze looked at the ferocious-looking evil cultivator in front of him:

"You have no words to answer me, do you?"

The evil cultivator leaped over, the meager blood Qi on his body surging, and smashed forcefully towards Yuan Kong's head.

Yuan Kong simply raised his hand. The evil cultivator's head seemed to deliver itself automatically, directly grasped in Yuan Kong's hand. Golden Buddhist light lit up, and like stripping bones, it began to dismantle every inch of blood Qi from his flesh and blood.

His voice was calm: "It's not yours, I'll take it off for you."

The evil cultivator only felt excruciating pain all over his body, as if every inch of his flesh and blood was being scraped off alive. The desire to survive made him cry out in the severe pain:

"Great mercy and compassion... great mercy and compassion... spare my life... spare my life."

Yuan Kong's gaze was calm:

"Don't worry, you can't die yet. According to the itinerary, you still have to be escorted to parade through the streets."

"And then be delivered."

"So as to let other evil cultivators or people preparing to become evil cultivators understand what the price of taking the wrong path is."