“Who do you take me for? I’m not a madman who’d consume human flesh for a small boost in power,” Shao said as he tried to pull his hand free of Shen Jian’s grip. His hand was trapped in the older cultivator’s vice-like grip, but Shen Jian released him after a moment.

“Your hand was drawn back to strike,” Shen Jian said evenly. His voice was not accusatory. Rather, he was simply stating an observed fact.

“Well…” Shao paused, hesitant to reveal that he was, in fact, tempted. “Ever since the fight with the bull, I’ve been running almost entirely on instinct. When I saw the cultivator’s exposed heart, that instinct told me to ‘eat.’ I would never do something like that.”

“It sounds like your bloodline talent works with humans as well,” Shen Jian said, frowning. “Just make sure you don’t cross that line, otherwise…” he gestured toward the corpses littering the ground, “you’ll end up like them.”

After retrieving Gongsun Bolin’s knife from the decapitated cultivator, Shao returned to the desolate wasteland that remained of Bluecrest Village. The village square was slightly less morbid due to Shen Jian’s act of burning the pile of corpses in the square’s center. The corpse pile had been reduced down to an undifferentiated clump of blackened ash. Rather than a testament to depravity of callousness, a high funeral pyre sat in the center of the village.

If Shen Jian had not burnt the pile, it might have been possible to identify some of the bodies and give some of the villagers a proper burial, but the process of examining the bodies would be immensely demoralizing to an already aggrieved populace. In fact, that had probably been the intention of the demonic cultivators. They knew that Shao was from Bluecrest, and they had hoped that the shocking sight in the village square would distract him and Shen Jian from their hunt. It made Shao sick to his stomach that anyone could commit such an atrocity just to buy some time.

With these thoughts circling in his mind and the smoking pyre in his vision, Shao asked in an exhausted tone, “Shen Jian, they did all of this just to get away from us, right? The pile of corpses, the yaoguai, the massacre in the clearing, they did all that just to escape with a handful of villagers.”

“That’s right, and their plan would have worked if you hadn’t thought to split up north of the village. Good job. That quick thinking will serve you well at Shigong Temple.”

“Are all cultivators like this? When I go to Shigong Temple, will I be surrounded by people who would kill hundreds of people just to run away from a strong opponent?”

Shen Jian sighed deeply before saying, “I want to say ‘no,’ but that wouldn’t be completely accurate. Divine cultivators like you or me are different from demonic cultivators in that we don’t rely on evil cultivation techniques, but that’s typically where the differences end. Most so-called ‘divine cultivators’ would commit a massacre like this one without a thought if they stand to benefit. The only difference is that we don’t eat people.”

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With a scowl and a tone of finality in his voice, Shao said, “Then I’ll kill them, too.”

Shen Jian merely shrugged his shoulders and smiled.

A group of about fifty villagers entered the village from the north. They must have been the villagers taken hostage by the yaoguai that had been killed by Shen Jian. The people in the square rushed toward the crowd of new arrivals with naked desperation on their faces, and Shao was among them. No one was entirely certain who was alive and who was dead at that time, and that group represented many people’s last hope that their family and friends had survived. Some that rushed forward to meet the group cheered and laughed as they were reunited with their family, but most broke down sobbing as the finality of their situation set in.

“Yang Lin Shao!” A voice from the crowd called out sternly, and a relieved smile appeared on Shao’s face.

From out of the crowd came Yang Lin Daiyu. Her clothes were dirty, but her body was completely unharmed. She glared at Shao with the same disapproving glare that she always wore. For a moment, Shao felt like it was any other day, and he was out on the family boat fishing with his grandmother.

“You beat them, I take it?” Granny Daiyu looked down at the blood on Shao’s staff and the injuries he had sustained. “You got your ass kicked. Shen Jian isn’t wounded, and he fought a yaoguai.”

Shao was so utterly surprised by Granny Daiyu’s statement that he laughed out loud. After everything that happened, all he got from her was the usual criticism. What would he have to do to get a compliment from her? Become an immortal? To Shao, at least, it was hilarious. That was probably the only thing in the world she could have said that would have made him laugh. It had been less than an hour, but the massacre made him feel like he would never laugh again.

“Well, Shen Jian is stronger than me,” Shao responded with tears drawn by mirth rather than sorrow in his eyes.

A few steps behind Granny Daiyu was Patriarch Yang Guanyu. The Patriarch walked purposefully up to Shao, and he prepared himself to get struck by the old man. Shao fully expected Patriarch Guanyu to strike the “Divine Guardian” of Bluecrest Village for his failure, and he was fully prepared to accept the blow without resistance.

When Patriarch Guanyu got within a few steps of Shao, he dropped to his knees with a speed that couldn’t be healthy for a man of his advanced age and pressed his forehead to the ground. Shocked gasps filled the air, and none were more surprised than Shao himself.

With his voice bouncing off the dirt below, Yang Guanyu said, “Honorable Yang Lin Shao, the people of Bluecrest Village owe you a life-debt. If there is anything I can do to repay you, simply ask and it is yours.”

Shao felt like the Celestial Court would strike him down for the pride of standing when the Patriarch himself bowed so deeply. He began to say, “No, please, raise your…”

He could not complete this statement. A powerful exhaustion overcame his body, and it was like a tapestry of darkness had been pulled over his eyes. The anger churning in his stomach was the only thing keeping Shao standing, and the jovial reunion with his grandmother made that anger fizzle away.

Exhaustion overcame Yang Shao, and he fell unconscious.