Yin Na cursed as he felt his flesh melt, and hair crisp into ashes.

“Damn you, Tian Ji Han!”

After all his trials and struggles, for the all-purifying light of his righteous “Brother” to retroactively kill him, it was almost too infuriating.

“No good!” Yin Na felt blood pouring out of his seven orifices. “I really am dying!”

Yin Na was sacrificing vast quantities of his cultivation base to keep his life force and body still in one piece, clinging on to life desperately. The damage done to his cultivation base and to the very foundations of his lifespan was critical, if he did not have a perfect grade Golden Core he would have already been incinerated!

“Shit! My cultivation base fell to Foundation Stage!” The Perfect Golden Core that Yin Na had was completely helpless against the light of the 300%-and-above Golden Core that Tian Ji Han detonated. Yin Na’s Golden Core had dissipated completely.

Next, Yin Na’s Foundation sea quickly drained up as well.

“No! Not only am I back in Qi Condensation stage now, I’m out of medicinal pills!”

Yin Na’s Qi Condensation strands gathered feebly. as they were only 8th grade, and painfully average in the first place.

They endured, until all 8 strands frayed like the webs of a spiderweb, floating around pitifully within Yin Na’s Dan Tian.

“I still have these!” Yin Na barely had any qi left to use his void ring. Nevertheless, he gathered a fistful of…

The Rebirth pills!

The azure-blue orbs of rebirth, which, although had no effect on extending the user’s lifespan, were used instead to reset one’s cultivation progress back to the start.

“I was wondering when I’d need to sell these, but it looks like now I need them myself more than ever!”

With his healing pills depleted, and with no cultivation base left to lose, Yin Na ate the rebirth pills, timing them evenly per gulp as he was being immolated.

Whenever Yin Na’s body was about to give out, the consuming of each rebirth pill completely healed him and reset his cultivation base at the beginning of the non-spiritual Qi Refining realm. But Tian Ji Han’s light would not stop expanding, it kept growing and killing Yin Na, so he had to keep consuming the rebirth pills.

Five, six, seven, he had eaten nine rebirth pills. It could be said that he had died nearly nine times, when he had only one pill left!

But even as his flesh melted from Yin Na’s fingers, suddenly, the radiant light from which Tian Ji Han exploded his own Golden Core finally began to stop expanding.

The light had ceased its supernova, and faded away. Yin Na ate the final rebirth pill, as the melted features on his face were fixed, his long, black hair regrew, and all his wounds healed instantly.

Miraculously, the Spicy Oil Boar beneath him was still alive, although it was not in good shape. The entire surface of its skin was charred black which revealed bloody wounds beneath its cracks, smelling like burnt bacon. Even its eyes were burnt black and blind from the light. It squealed pitifully, as Yin Na guided it to land in a nearby river, whereupon it immediately began drinking and bathing in its cold waters.

“You’re not a desolate beast for nothing,” Yin Na grinned.

His robes were completely burnt away, so he was naked. He still had extra clothes within his Void Ring, but now that he was a mere Qi Refining cultivator again, he wanted to be careful with the amount of qi he could expend.

Taking some nearby Hermit’s weed and Beggar’s rattan, he quickly made clothing and shoes for himself.

Exhausted mentally and physically, he looked at the direction where Tian Ji Han’s light had long faded.

“Well,” Yin Na said. “I’m back to the beginning.”

He looked at the clearing in the forest where Tian Ji Han exploded himself. Vast quantities of smoke were flying into the sky where plants and wood had been incinerated.

Yin Na chuckled. Then he cupped his fists to the air, and laughed his true, misanthropic laugh which echoed coldly into the Heavens.

“Hahahahahaha! It appears that the Dao of Benefits has ultimately won.”

Yin Na’s laughter quickly died down, his celebration short. His eyes turned cold again.

“For crying out loud, you were literally killed by wealth, brother Ji Han.”

Yin Na let out a breath of turbid air.

“And you cost me a shit ton of it. Alright, I need to head back and quickly salvage any benefits I left behind. That explosion would attract the attention of any cultivators within the vicinity, and I can’t let them come investigate and then walk away with the pile of treasures I’ve left behind.”

Yin Na walked over to the Spicy Oil Boar, who was letting the waters of the stream run over its wounds.

“Get up,” Yin Na said. “It’s time for us to go.”

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Yin Na hopped on its back. Even though the Spicy Oil Boar was in pain and reluctant, it was still loyal to the one who saved it from captivity. In addition, it was now blind and felt extremely vulnerable, it wanted to rely on its master.

Yin Na began to ride several kilometers back to the epicenter of the explosion.

Hours ago…

Xiao Feng rode nonstop for over half a day when his master Tian Ji Han discreetly ordered him to escape. When he had finally entered Condor Valley, he activated the quick teleportation slip which worked within 100 li of the Heavenly Sword Sect, and he crashed at the Sect gates. He was tired and exhausted, his book mount was falling apart at its seams, but he still did not stop.

When he arrived at the Heavenly Sword Sect, he climbed its many staircases and broke into the Elders hall without ceremony.

“Elders!” He pleaded. “The search and destroy mission that master Tian Ji Han initiated has taken disastrous developments. I beg you, please save him!”

“How dare this little brat barge in here without properly greeting his elders?” growled elder Ling Pan.

Supreme Elder Tian Tai Li was silent as he appraised the boy in the green robes, clearly exhausted and desperate.

“Xiao Feng, is it?” one Elder named Tian Ci Huai asked with a kind voice. “It’s been two days since you’ve embarked and returned from your mission. Even if we sent reinforcements, it’s likely that the demonic cultivators have left the scene, and that your squadmates are dead.”

Xiao Feng recognized this Elder Tian Ci Huai. Years ago, master Tian Ji Han had offended him somehow, and for years Elder Tian Ci Huai had been trying to thwart and suppress him in everything he did. Now that Elder Tian Ji Han was possibly dead, Elder Tian Ci Huai put on false airs of concern!

“This Elder Tian Ci Huai…” thought Xiao Feng. “Even with Master Tian Ji Han’s possible death, he would not relent. Just how deep is his resentment for Master, how can an elder be so petty?”

“Xiao Feng,” began Supreme Elder Tian Tai Li. “What do you have to say for yourself?”

Xiao Feng recalled the details of the mission, about how two of his comrades had been killed by the Ethereal Hohnds, all the way up to the point that he had left.

The hall was silent when he finished. Elder Tian Ci Huai was the first to speak.

“Okay, you’ve spoken your story, Xiao Feng. But what exactly is it that you expect us to do? Based on your account and time of arrival, this battle should most likely be over by now.”

The other cultivators, even the guards listening in on the conversation were nodding in agreement with Elder Ci Huai’s words, which, even though they were delivered with patronizing “kindness,” felt like heavy weights on Xiao Feng’s mood, as he stared back at eyes that showed zero sympathy for his case.

“And from the details just heard, you have not taken actual part in the fighting. Not only did you never even face Yin Na and witness his attacks himself, you’ve based your entire perception of him on the dubious account of another demonic sect cultivator. Am I right in this observation?”

“That’s…” Xiao Feng was caught off-guard. “That’s not true, the Hounds-”

Xiao Ying was not a scheming, manipulative demonic cultivator! Xiao Feng wanted to rebuke. She was a scared, innocent victim, I saw it in her eyes! Gosh, I hope she’s still alive.

“Even if this Yin Na’s cultivation and weaponry collection were as impressive as it sounds, the intel that your master, Tian Ji Han, gathered himself through divination concluded that he was only in Late Foundation stage, while he himself had reached Golden Core. Is this also correct?”

“Yes, but-”

“Yes, it’s correct! And not only is he, a Golden Cultivator, facing an enemy in a vastly inferior realm, he brought six other cultivators who are also in the Foundation stage. By sheer manpower and logic, even if this Yin Na were born with eight arms and six heads, he could still be dealt with quite easily, correct?”

Xiao Feng was young, even though he was a talented cultivator who reached Qi Condensation at only fifteen years old, he was inexperienced in Sect politics and public speaking. He was intimidated by these elders, whose auras made him feel like an insect trying to make its case before a dragon.

“No!” It took all the courage in his body to say it. “Yin Na is not an average cultivator.”

Xiao Feng suddenly realized he was being rude, and did a belated cupping of his hands and bowing motion that made several of the cultivators in the hall smirk.

At being openly rebuked so brazenly, Elder Ci Huai’s eyebrow momentarily twitched, a shadow of rage flickered across his brow before it quickly disappeared. He felt a tremendous loss of face!

“Oh? ‘Not an average cultivator? You praise a demonic cultivator so openly?’”

“No!” Xiao Feng said. “Because Master and Yin Na grew up together in the same Hidden Fist Sect, which was annihilated by Yin Na when he was just eighteen years old. Yin Na indeed is a high threat!”

Elder Tian Ci Huai’s face darkened at the mention of the Hidden Fist Sect. This was because years ago when Hidden Fist was still an existing Sect, it frequently competed with the Heavenly Sword Sect over a select few maps of resource veins and other resources. It wasn’t a big deal, but it was just one of countless reasons for Elder Tian Ci Huai to be biased against Tian Ji Han.

“Pity!” sighed Elder Tian Ci Huai loudly. “A pity! That a righteous sect was destroyed by a rare and brief alliance of demonic cultivators. But the thing about demonic cultivators, is that their untrusting nature makes it almost impossible for them to band together and accumulate strength and wealth in cooperation. The Hidden Sword Sect was a rare and unlucky case of demonic cultivators of unrelated origins banding together to earn benefits together. This Yin Na is just like any another demonic cultivator: alone. And we are one of the top Sects in the Southern Domain, we have many more important missions and demonic cultivators on our hands, and therefore he is not an imminent threat worthy of the Sect’s time and resources.”

Elder Tian Ci Huai eyed the Sect Scribe Elder Hou Cheng for support, who telepathically understood his intent. The Scribe Elder looked up from his brush and prepared to speak.

“Harumph! Little boy, the Heavenly Sword Sect is continuously risking its members on dangerous life-or-death missions, what makes you think we would expend hard-earned resources on your poorly-prepared mission?

Then he went back to looking down on the scroll he was writing.

“Even the Scribe Elder is berating me,” thought Xiao Feng. He wanted to disappear into the ground and never show his face again.

“Look at it this way, little boy,” said Elder Tian Ling Pan. “You came in here in the middle of us conducting important Sect business, without approval or manners. The fact that we took our time patiently listening to you is generous enough. You, on the other hand, couldn’t even give us concrete details or facts, there is nothing for Scribe Elder Hou Cheng to quantify on paper.”

“Yes,” continued Scribe Elder Hou Cheng. “It is Tian Ji Han’s fault if he did not prepare or lead adequately in his mission. If his defeat or death is the outcome, it is his family’s worry, and ours concerning the paperwork.”

The Supreme Elder Tian Tai Li was silent, his thick, bushy white eyebrows giving no indication of his opinion on the matter. Beside him, Elder Tian Ci Huai looked quite pleased with himself.

Xiao Feng was rendered speechless. Until this day, he had never seen or spoken to the Supreme Elders of the Heavenly Sword Sect without Tian Ji Han at his side. He could not believe their heartless words!