Chapter 96 Songsui Illusion (Part 4)
It was late autumn. The spiritual energy in this place was abundant but mixed, making it unsuitable for cultivators but very suitable for spirit beasts to live in, hence the name "Village of a Hundred Beasts".
The village chief of Hundred Beasts Village is named Huo Dawu. He is a robust middle-aged man. Most of the villagers are ordinary people who make a living by raising low-level spirit beasts. Most of these spirit beasts have not yet developed intelligence and are mostly used to make spirit food or as ordinary riding spirit pets. The village is not very wealthy, but they can still eat their fill and stay warm.
Because spirit beasts are mostly sold to small sects or independent cultivators, they occasionally encounter cultivators. Every few decades, children with spiritual roots will appear in the village, and these children will be taken away by sect cultivators, which is considered to bring glory to the family.
The cultivators who came today were there to collect spirit beasts. They discovered that there were children in the village with potential, which is why they asked Huo Dawu to gather all the villagers together.
The autumn wind was bleak. Jiang Gu followed slowly behind a group of children and spirit beasts, while a small, mottled wild dog followed closely behind him, whimpering and trying to rub against his legs.
The boy with the children was named Huo Yi, Huo Dawu's youngest son. He led a large group of children and stopped in front of his house.
Jiang Gu was short and couldn't see clearly what was in front of him, but he heard the conversation between the two cultivators.
Are all the children here?
"Let's come up one by one and have our spiritual roots examined."
The children stirred into a commotion, each with an excited expression, hoping they would be the lucky one.
After a long time, all the children in front had their spiritual roots tested. Except for Huo Yi, who had five spiritual roots, the others didn't have any at all, which disappointed the two cultivators.
“That shouldn’t be the case. The spirit-testing stone clearly showed a strong reaction, especially for someone with five spiritual roots…” The cultivator who spoke up was carrying the lowest-ranking token of a branch of the Jiang family, and was a low-level cultivator in charge of procurement.
Jiang Gu recognized the token immediately, but back then he was too young to know who the other party was.
"Who is this child?" The one who spoke was a female cultivator.
"Oh, him? He suddenly appeared in our village a while ago. He looks like a little beggar who fled from somewhere else. He looked pitiful, so everyone shared some food with him and let him stay in the temple at the entrance of the village," Huo Dawu said.
"Child, place your hand on it." The female cultivator looked down at him.
Jiang Gu raised his hand and placed it on the spirit-testing stone. A bright golden light flashed, and the powerful spiritual energy instantly pushed the people around him back several steps, including the two cultivators. But after the impact subsided, when the two cultivators looked at the spirit-testing stone, it had turned into a pale, dull five-colored light.
"Five spiritual roots?" The male cultivator was somewhat shocked by his ordinary appearance.
The female cultivator sensed something was wrong, so she knelt down in front of Jiang Gu and reached out to touch his brow. Jiang Gu instinctively tried to dodge, but forced himself not to move.
A bright vermilion bird pattern slowly appeared beside his eye.
Wei Feng looked at Jiang Gu with some surprise at the Vermilion Bird with outstretched wings at the corner of his eye. It seemed a bit out of place on his tender little face. He always felt that this was a mark that only the current Jiang Gu could possess.
“It’s the mark of a Vermilion Bird chick.” The female cultivator’s gaze toward Jiang Gu changed instantly. “And judging from the color, although it’s not from the main family, it’s still a very powerful branch.”
But Jiang Gu's eyes clearly revealed a mature Vermilion Bird God.
Wei Feng looked at the two cultivators, then at Jiang Gu, and suddenly realized—this was probably an illusion from the past.
However, no one paid him any attention. The male cultivator looked at Jiang Gu and asked, "Do you know that you are a member of the Jiang family?"
“I know,” Jiang Gu said.
"Then do you know who your parents are?" the female cultivator asked.
Jiang Gu pursed his lips and looked at them warily.
The female cultivator smiled and said, "Don't be nervous. You must be the young master of our Jiang family who has been living away from home. If you can tell us your parents' names, we will help you find them."
Jiang Gu's gaze turned slightly cold, and he did not want to speak. However, following the rules that had already taken shape in the illusion, he heard his own childish voice: "My father's name is Jiang Yuan."
Upon hearing the name, the two cultivators' expressions suddenly changed.
Wei Feng sensed two intense killing intents, and the hairs on his body stood on end. He ran to Jiang Gu and tried to summon the ghost runes, but nothing happened.
"Jiang Yuan."
The two cultivators exchanged a glance and decisively drew their swords.
"What... what happened?" Huo Dawu stepped forward to stop him, but a burst of spiritual energy struck him squarely between the eyebrows. The next instant, he collapsed to the ground, bleeding from all seven orifices, without a sound.
"Father!" Huo Yi shouted.
The villagers who had come to watch the spectacle and the children who had just had their spiritual power tested screamed and scattered in all directions. The free-roaming spirit beasts were startled and began to rampage wildly, trying to escape.
But they were no match for the cultivator. Without even another cultivator needing to lift a finger, that cultivator alone killed all the living creatures present in the blink of an eye.
All that remained was young Jiang Gu and the little stray dog with its fur standing at his feet.
Wei Feng grabbed his clothes and tried to pull him away, but Jiang Gu seemed frozen in place and didn't move at all.
"Master!" Wei Feng shouted loudly, but only a hoarse bark came out.
"You're quite bold for your age, but it's a pity you only have five spiritual roots. If you go back to the Jiang family, you'll only be eaten." The female cultivator struck Jiang Gu's dantian with a palm.
Wei Feng leaped up to try and block the attack for him, because he clearly sensed that Jiang Gu's cultivation was almost gone. However, Jiang Gu raised his hand and pressed down in mid-air, barely managing to brush past the attacking spiritual energy.
But Jiang Gu flew straight away like a kite with a broken string.
"Master!" Wei Feng hurriedly ran towards him.
Jiang Gu finally regained control of his body the moment he landed, but even so he was almost unable to move, his consciousness immersed in his own sea of consciousness.
"It's no pity to kill a useless person with five spiritual roots who can't cultivate immortality." A voice came from afar in the darkness.
That was the first time he had seen his surroundings from the perspective of his primordial spirit. The souls of the dead people and beasts of Hundred Beast Village were wailing and howling in the air, while the two cultivators were high above, their lives and deaths entirely at their fingertips.
The closest thing to him was Huo Yi's corpse. Half an hour ago, he had brought Jiang Gu a bowl of hot chicken soup from home. Jiang Gu was young, and cultivating with five spiritual roots was already difficult. He had wandered all the way from the far south to this place, and his cultivation was not yet strong enough to support his abstaining from grains. The days he spent in the Hundred Beasts Village were the safest and most comfortable time he had ever had. The villagers would invite him into their homes for meals at mealtimes, or have their children bring him a bowl of rice. The spirit beasts were also very endearing, and at night they would let him sleep on their bellies for warmth...
These are clearly distant memories, yet they have become incredibly vivid and alive at this moment.
Jiang Gu could even smell the greasy aroma of the chicken soup and feel the warm, rising and falling breaths of the low-level spirit beasts.
Jiang Gu hadn't remembered anything during the long time he was in this illusion until he saw the corpses and bloodstains all over the ground, and the bowl of chicken soup that had been smashed at his feet, turning into a pool of bright red and fishy smell.
The two monks looked at him as if he were an ant on the roadside.
From the moment Jiang Gu was born, Gu Qinghui taught him to be a good person.
"Ashi, from now on you must become like your father. Your father's name is Jiang Yuan. He was a hero who punished evil, promoted good, and helped the needy. He was the kindest cultivator I've ever met, and he never killed innocent people indiscriminately."
'You must be a gentleman, loving yourself and others, and never giving up even in adversity.'
'You must inherit your father's Daoist heart, to save all living beings, without fear or trepidation.'
"You've returned to the Jiang family, but you can't treat human life like dirt like they do. You must remember your original intentions."
'Ah Shi, no one has the right to arbitrarily take away someone else's life.'
But he doesn't kill others, yet others want him dead.
Jiang Gu frowned slightly. He didn't remember Gu Qinghui saying these words to him, or perhaps she had said them but he had forgotten them.
He knew how to kill the two cultivators, but that method would annihilate everyone, including the villagers of Hundred Beasts Village and the spirit beasts. He could also choose to escape, bear some guilt, save his own life, and allow the villagers and spirit beasts to have another life.
Jiang Gu looked at the five-colored spiritual roots coiled in his dantian, and his primordial spirit reached out and grabbed the thinnest one. A golden light flashed in his palm, and he actually tore that section of spiritual root off.
An indescribable pain swept through his body. His spiritual root was torn off, unleashing a powerful burst of spiritual energy that shot straight into the foreheads of the two Jiang family cultivators who had come with swords drawn. Before they could recover from their shock, they bled from all seven orifices and died.
Just like the villagers of Hundred Beasts Village whom he killed.
Jiang Gu stood expressionlessly in the pool of blood, looking at his companions and villagers who had been talking to him not long ago, and at the spirit beast that liked to come and sleep with him every night. He raised his hand and looked at the spirit root in his palm that was gradually withering and disappearing.
Since he couldn't cultivate immortality with five spiritual roots, he severed one of them. If someone wanted his life, he would kill them first. If these villagers hadn't been so kind as to take him in, they wouldn't have suffered the annihilation of their entire family; if he hadn't been so attached to this temporary warmth and become dependent on Huo Yi and his "companions," they wouldn't have been implicated.
Gu Qinghui's teachings still echoed in his ears, but Jiang Gu could no longer accept and follow them. He only wanted to live. He wanted to return to the Jiang family alive, to see Jiang Yuan alive, and to ask him why the Dao of All Living Beings couldn't save Gu Qinghui, and why it couldn't save the people and beasts of Hundred Beasts Village.
This was Jiang Gu's first time killing someone, and also the first time he had experienced the feeling of being on the verge of death. His shattered soul floated in the air, looking down at the corpses and bloodstains on the ground, his eyes calm and indifferent.
He still chose the path of ruthlessness.
Do not give your feelings to anyone, nor accept anyone's feelings. Steadfastly pursue the Great Way and live without any entanglements.
A dirty paw stepped on his blood-stained front of his shirt, and Wei Feng cried out anxiously, "Master! Master, wake up!"
Jiang Gu opened his eyes with difficulty and met a pair of dark, bright eyes.
"Master!" Wei Feng nudged him with his head.
Jiang Gu raised his hand and grabbed its neck. As long as he killed the last living creature, this illusion would be broken. Recalling the past was bland and meaningless to him.
Wei Feng didn't resist. He wagged his tail desperately at Jiang Gu and licked the blood off his hands. "Master, don't be afraid, I will definitely get you out of here!"
Jiang Gu closed his eyes. The real Hundred Beasts Village had been destroyed by him when he was six years old, leaving it barren. The souls of the villagers and spirit beasts had vanished because he insisted on avenging them. Right and wrong were meaningless to him; survival was the only option.
He knew from the moment he entered this illusion that the person he cared about most would be killed in the end, but he thought it would be Chi Xue, or Gu Qinghui, or at the very least Jiang Lin.
He didn't expect it to be Wei Feng.
What I never expected was that in my subconscious, the other party was a small dog with mottled fur and only beautiful eyes.
That's utterly absurd.
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