Chapter 146 is terrifying; it looks even scarier than a dead person...

Shen Zhengyuan previously said that he knew where that demon was.

Li Chenjin originally thought that the place might be like the hellish cave filled with bones described in some storybooks.

But when they actually arrived at the place, they found that it was very different from the den of iniquity described in the storybook.

Li Chen and Shen Zhengyuan stood together on a high mountain.

She looked down and saw a vast lake stretching as far as the eye could see.

The moonlight, like water, gently fell from the sky, illuminating the lake surface with shimmering silver light.

As a gentle breeze blows, the silvery shimmering light breaks and then reassembles, like a flowing Milky Way, which is quite a beautiful sight.

The only thing that somewhat spoils this beautiful scenery is the floating camp built in the middle of the lake.

Even though it was the middle of the night, the camp was brightly lit.

If the bright lights were fiery red, their reflection on the shimmering lake would create a beautiful scene of human habitation. But the problem is that the lights are a pale, eerie green.

Looking at it from afar, it resembled will-o'-the-wisps drifting in the middle of the night over a mass grave, their reflections shimmering on the inky lake, adding to the eerie atmosphere.

Li Chen stared intently at the distant water fortress and asked, "Is that demon in there?"

Shen Zhengyuan did not directly say yes or no, but said, "It disperses its power to various places. Only in this place is it most concentrated."

“That camp looks quite large, and there must be a lot of people there. Those people must be members of the Ascending God Sect.” Li Chen sighed and said, “Human life is rare, like the Udumbara flower. Those who obtain human life are like the soil on a fingernail; those who lose human life are like the soil of the earth (1). It is a pity that those people are so fortunate to be reborn as humans, yet they choose to do such crooked and evil things.”

Shen Zhengyuan said calmly, “I saw some of the scriptures you collected in your room. According to the saying in your Zen meditation community, ‘Doing evil brings evil, like planting a bitter seed. Evil brings its own punishment, and good brings its own blessing. Each must ripen, and neither can take the other’s place. Practicing good brings good, like planting a sweet seed’ (2). Isn’t that right?”

Li Chen raised an eyebrow, let out a soft "Oh," and turned to look at Shen Zhengyuan, seemingly quite surprised that he could say such a thing. "I didn't expect that after spending so much time with me, Sect Leader Shen has developed some interest in Buddhism. So, Sect Leader Shen, what do you think of this kind of person?"

Shen Zhengyuan said, "He brought it on himself; he deserves it."

Li Chen chuckled softly, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with Shen Zhengyuan's words, but instead said, "It wouldn't be difficult for me to infiltrate, but if I also have to search for people, I'll inevitably have to kill some people."

“If those corpses aren’t handled properly, they’ll be easily discovered. If the people inside notice something’s wrong, she might take advantage of the chaos to escape. How about you give me a few invisibility talismans and a communication talisman so I can go in first and scout ahead?”

"Since you're not good at stealth anyway, you might as well wait here patiently. Once I send you a message, you can reappear, which will save you a lot of trouble."

Li Chenjin's words were indeed correct. Shen Zhengyuan was not good at stealth and close combat. If he were to go in with her, he would inevitably be a hindrance. Staying here and waiting was the wisest choice.

Shen Zhengyuan, of course, was well aware of this, and did not say much, but simply nodded silently, which was considered as agreeing with her words.

However, after giving her the talisman she wanted, he also took out a handful of spirit stones the size of a fingernail from his Qiankun bag and placed them in her palm. "After you kill someone, you can take a spirit stone and put it in that person's mouth."

“I have enchanted these spirit stones and ingested them into corpses. Their behavior will be no different from that of an ordinary person, and the demon will not notice anything amiss. I can also see your movements through the eyes of those corpses. If necessary, I can also control those corpses to clear a path for you.”

Li Chen stared at the spirit stone in his hand, listening to Shen Zhengyuan's words, and fell silent for a moment.

To be honest, what Shen Zhengyuan said didn't sound like something a righteous person would do.

The fact that he spoke with such certainty meant that he must have used this method on other people, or even on other corpses, which made her really worried. Did he and those disciples in the cultivation world know what evil ways were?

In the future, will he inadvertently go astray...?

Li Chen thought for a moment, then tentatively asked, "What do you think... is unorthodox or heretical?"

Upon hearing Li Chenjin's question, Shen Zhengyuan's gaze suddenly went blank, as if he had never considered the question before.

But now that Li Chen had asked him this question, he still pondered deeply, and after a long silence, he finally said, "Kill everyone in the world?"

"What else?"

"Is there anything else?"

Seeing the sincerity in Shen Zhengyuan's eyes, tinged with a hint of doubt, Li Chen couldn't help but take a deep breath.

No wonder people say that the Dharma Cultivation Realm is both righteous and evil, but the Dharma Cultivation Realm has always considered itself to be righteous. It seems that in their view, as long as they don't kill everyone in the world, they can be considered righteous.

She glanced at Shen Zhengyuan, then at the pile of spirit stones in her hand. After a long silence, she realized that now was not the right time to explain what unorthodox methods were. She could only put the spirit stones into her storage bag and said, "I'll go in first. I'll explain everything to you in detail after this matter is settled."

After saying that, without waiting for Shen Zhengyuan to reply, she jumped down from the mountaintop and landed on the shimmering lake surface.

Although she was no longer in the form of a puppet, she seemed even lighter than before. When she stepped across the lake, it was as if she were a dragonfly skimming the water, leaving almost no ripples on the surface.

Moreover, she was extremely fast. In just a few breaths, she had already stepped across the water and silently leaped onto the roof of a tall building.

Although she had applied an invisibility talisman while traveling, she had also been intentionally silent. Therefore, even though she was now standing on top of the people in the village, no one noticed anything amiss.

She slowly crouched down, and by the green firelight in the camp, she could barely make out the patrolling team below.

Those teams, about four or five people per team, patrolled in an alternating pattern. Each team was only responsible for a fixed area, and the area they were responsible for was not large. They were so close together and careful that it would be quite difficult to sneak in to gather information or search for people.

Her gaze swept around and finally settled on a watchtower not far away.

A man was constantly walking around on the watchtower, and a huge bronze gong was placed in the center. If the man noticed anything amiss, he would strike the gong to alert the others in the camp.

She glanced at the patrolling men below, carefully concealed her presence, and leaped onto the watchtower.

She intended to make her move when the person had their back to her, but unexpectedly, as soon as she regained her footing, the person who had been facing away from her suddenly turned around.

As it happened, she had accidentally lost the invisibility talisman she had attached to her body on her way here, so at this moment she could only look at that person face to face.

The man looked terrified the moment he saw her bewildered expression and instinctively tried to smash the gong.

Although she was somewhat at a loss, when the guard was about to strike the gong in terror, her actions were swift and decisive. She grabbed his wrist with one hand and simultaneously choked his throat with the other.

The next second, a crisp "crack" was heard, the man's body twitched a few times, and then he collapsed.

Li Chen shook off the blood that had flowed from the man's mouth and onto her hand when she had just snapped his neck.

Then, she took out a spirit stone the size of a thumb from her storage bag and, as Shen Zhengyuan had instructed, put it into his mouth.

As soon as the spirit stone entered his mouth, the man's previously limp body suddenly regained strength, and he slowly stood up, swaying. Just as Shen Zhengyuan had said, the corpse began to patrol around the watchtower, just as it had in life.

only……

Li Chen looked the man up and down, but still felt something was amiss.

This person had their neck broken by her.

With the neck broken, the head naturally loses its ability to support itself. Although it is still attached to the body, it sways left and right and wanders around with the movement of the body, looking more frightening than a dead person. If someone comes by, they will know at a glance that there is something wrong with this person.

Li Chen stared intently at the head that swayed from side to side, passing by his eyes again and again. Finally, he couldn't resist and took out a wooden stick from his storage bag.

She gestured the stick at the man a few times, then broke it in two.

After breaking the stick, she pressed down on the corpse that was still trying to wander around with its head swaying from side to side, tore off a piece of its clothing, inserted the stick into the back of its collar, and then fixed its head to the stick.

Although I can't turn my head now and it looks a bit stiff, it's still better than having my head moving around wildly on my neck.

The camp was quite large, and there was naturally more than one watchtower. After taking care of the people on two more watchtowers by following the same method, she finally sneaked into the camp and jumped onto a rooftop inside.

The number of guards inside the camp was much smaller than those outside, presumably because they hadn't expected anyone to sneak in without alerting the guards outside.

When a patrol of guards went to a secluded spot, she jumped off the roof and killed all five of them.

After using the spirit stone to "revive" them, he stripped off one of their outer garments and put it on himself.

The person whose outer clothes she had stripped was then instructed by her to dig a hole for himself, and then lie down in the hole and "peacefully" close his eyes.

The others joined Li Chen in burying the body, making sure it was completely covered, before continuing their patrol with the others.

Li Chen followed at the very back of the patrol, observing his surroundings as he walked, pondering his next move, when he suddenly heard an angry shout: "What?! The offering is gone?! Didn't I tell you to keep a close eye on her?! Do you know how difficult it is to capture someone from the cultivation world?!?!"

"High...High Priest...Didn't the God say that He would descend upon us tonight even if we didn't prepare any offerings? Since the God doesn't want any offerings, then...then should we..."

"Outrageous! The Lord's refusal is out of divine mercy!! Since we sincerely serve the Lord and have sworn to be His most loyal believers, how can we be so perfunctory?!"

Li Chen looked in the direction of the sound and saw a man dressed in a red priest's robes, his face flushed red, sternly reprimanding several young men and women.

The author's note: (1) From the Mahaparinirvana Sutra, Chapter on the Nature of the Tathagata.

(2) From the Sutra of the Buddha's Discourse on the Meaning of Scolding

So disappointing, not even a 5 at the end, haha, looks like nobody cares. I guess I'll just change the cover now.

Sigh, even 50 cents a day is a fortune, not even enough to buy groceries. My labor arbitration case is still unresolved, so I'm surviving entirely by scavenging rotten vegetable scraps and occasionally mooching meals from friends. When friends ask how I am, I always say I'm doing great, incredibly well.

I see people online making a lot of money by pretending to be beggars, but I'm too ashamed to actually do it myself. Am I still stuck in my old ways, like Kong Yiji in his long gown? What's wrong with me...?

Sigh, I never want to write fantasy again. No wonder every writer I've met advised me to cut the outline and run away. They're all right; writing for love will definitely lead to starvation. I didn't listen to their advice. Sigh...

Wasn't Backkom cancelled...? Sigh... Why...?