Shao fell to his knees once more. This time, it was the exhaustion suffused into his body that temporarily robbed him of his ability to stand. Now that there was no longer any target for him to chase, the adrenaline motivating his muscles disappeared. As Shao looked down at the dirt beneath him, he saw his blood drip down and felt that hot crimson liquid drip down his chin and arm.

Thoughts of battle and vengeance faded from Shao’s mind, and he realized that the storm of emotions in his chest had not been quelled. He didn’t understand. The five demonic cultivators and their yaoguai accomplice were all dead. Surely, he should have felt catharsis of some kind. He should have felt happy now that he had taken his revenge. Why didn’t he feel happy?

The deaths of the demonic cultivators didn’t make anything better, Shao realized. Their deaths didn’t change the fact that more than half of his clan, his family, had been brutally murdered. The only good his actions had brought to the world was that the demonic cultivators would never again be able to commit such barbaric acts. To Shao, at least, this was a small consolation.

Shao fought this mental battle to stay awake. He would not let himself sleep until he had a full grasp on the situation. He still did not know if Granny Daiyu or the Patriarch still lived. He could not sleep until he confirmed their safety.

A hand pressed lightly onto Shao’s shoulder. Thinking that Shen Jian was once again trying to get his attention, Shao turned his head with a harsh glare and, in a harsh tone, asked, “What do you want?”

Shao turned his head to see Yang Feng, the granddaughter of Patriarch Guanyu, take several fearful steps away from him. Frightened by Shao’s outburst, she bowed deeply and asked, “Honorable Lin Shao, I have been sent by the others to ask if it is safe for us to return to the village.”

She was absolutely terrified of him, Shao realized. Yang Feng must have witnessed his fight against the demonic cultivators; she saw him kill four people in a display of animalistic violence. Shao couldn’t hold it against her if she viewed him as a monster.

“The five demonic cultivators and the yaoguai are dead. It’s safe to return to the village now,” Shao said as he painfully rose to his feet. He pressed his hand to his forearm in an attempt to staunch the bleeding from the wound dealt to him by the female cultivator.

Yang Feng began to turn away from Yang Shao, but he stopped her by saying, “I-I’m sorry. I promised to protect the village, but I couldn’t stop this from happening. I was stronger than them, and there was still nothing I could do.”

By the end of these two sentences, tears were falling from Shao’s eyes. He held the hand of his good arm in front of his eyes to shield his tears from Yang Feng.

“I-it’s not your fault. Th-this is just what the world’s like for people like us.” Based on her faltering voice, it was clear that Yang Feng was also crying.

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The words of Shen Jian rang through Shao’s mind at that moment. “If you wanted to, you could probably become the strongest person in the world.”

Shao’s world only respected one thing: strength. If Shao could really become the strongest person in the world, he could protect all mortals and punish those barbaric cultivators who harmed defenseless mortals.

With the desperation of a man looking for something to grab onto in a storm, Shao grabbed Yang Feng’s shoulder and said, “Things will be different one day. It might take a long time, but I will make this world better with my own two hands.”

The sobbing, traumatized villagers began walking back toward Bluecrest as Shao walked up to the dead cultivator with a heavy iron staff embedded in his chest. The demonic cultivator must have died while Shao was fighting the remnants of his cohort. Shao knew that he would head off to Shigong Temple soon, and the iron staff would probably soon be replaced by other weapons, but the staff had been created by Gongsun Bolin. Shao didn’t have much to remember the village blacksmith by, and he wanted to hold onto the iron staff for sentimental reasons at least.

Shao was surprised that Shen Jian had not yet approached him to speak. The green-clad cultivator had spent the past few minutes searching the bodies, and he had retrieved strange scrolls from two of them.

Shao put the hand of his uninjured arm on the spear and placed his foot on the cultivator’s chest. He had clearly put too much momentum into the stab, and a good portion of the iron staff jutted out of the cultivator’s back. For nearly half a minute, Shao wrenched the iron staff back and forth in an attempt to pull it out. He couldn’t get a good angle on the staff since the cultivator had fallen on his side. Eventually, Shao grew tired of the whole exercise, and he just tore the staff upward, using it as a lever to get enough torque.

The iron staff tore out of the demonic cultivator’s chest, taking clumps of flesh and half a ribcage with it. Shao shook the flesh off the iron staff. The blood and gore disgusted Shao, but some unknown compulsion deep within his bones tilted his head in the direction of the corpse’s open chest cavity. Deep within the chasm of flesh created by Shao’s iron staff was the bright red flesh of the cultivator’s unbeating heart.

Eat.

Before Shao could seriously consider the command, his hand began to reach for the flesh of the heart. Shao’s mind asserted control over his instinct in that moment, and he realized what he was about to do. There was no way he could do that; it would be cannibalism. He was not a monster; he was not a beast!

Eat!

It would be fitting in a cruel way. The demonic cultivators consumed human beings to gain power. Would it really be sinful to do the same to them?

No, he wouldn’t do it. He was better than them. He didn’t need to resort to demonic cultivation to gain power.

A hand grasped Shao’s wrist. He turned to see Shen Jian standing there with a cold smile on his face. Shao could feel the shadow of death pass over him as he saw Shen Jian’s face.

“This might not have occurred to you yet, but eating human flesh to gain power is demonic cultivation. If you eat that heart, I’ll be obligated to kill you.”