Chapter 088
As a traveler, how do you choose...
During the day, they are ordinary, hospitable villagers, but at night, they turn into terrifying and ferocious man-eating ghosts.
As a traveler, how do you choose?
Do you want to take the risk of killing the Ghost King and let all the villagers who warmly welcomed you die, or... let the Ghost King's actions go unchecked and let Happy Village continue to be happy?
Facing the final question, Cheng Hui blinked and looked at Lin Qingyang in confusion: "Isn't this final question... too simple? There's no need to make a choice..."
Lin Qingyang nodded: "That's right, this kind of question is obvious at a glance. Of course, I would choose the latter."
Cheng Hui: …???
Seeing Cheng Hui's surprised look, Lin Qingyang was shocked. Could it be that Cheng Hui had different ideas?
"Uh..." Cheng Hui scratched his head: "Do you think that we should let Happy Village continue to be happy?"
Lin Qingyang frowned. "Didn't I say earlier that the villagers warmly entertained the traveler? They didn't pose any threat to him, and were even willing to let him stay and live with them. No matter how you look at it, these villagers haven't harmed the traveler. Shouldn't they be allowed to continue living happily?"
Cheng Hui was dumbfounded: "But they go out to kill people every night..."
"What does it have to do with me?" Lin Qingyang said calmly, "In this world, people kill each other every day. As long as they don't kill me, what does it matter?"
"But aren't those people innocent?" Cheng Hui frowned in disapproval.
Lin Qingyang looked at him in surprise: "We are not saviors, what does it have to do with me if those people are innocent?"
Cheng Hui was speechless. "But...but we met."
Lin Qingyang thought about it and roughly understood what Cheng Hui meant. He suddenly felt a little distressed.
As a former disciple of the Demonic Path, many people must have died at his hands. It is no exaggeration to say that his hands are covered in blood.
At most, he would never take the initiative to cause trouble to innocent people. Of course, if someone blocked his way, he wouldn't mind getting rid of them.
In his opinion, cultivation is all about struggle, and the word "struggle" perfectly describes the difficulties and obstacles on the path of cultivation.
Ever since he entered the Blood Demon Sect, he has been fighting for food, clothing, shelter, transportation, various resources, and... the chance to survive.
If you really think about it, those who died fighting with him were also innocent to some extent.
They were all blood slaves sold into the Blood Demon Sect by their parents. They didn't even know each other, but in order to survive, he had no choice but to kill them one by one.
He was unwilling to do it, but when he showed mercy for the first time and the child stabbed him in the back, he understood.
There is no need for unnecessary sympathy. As long as he can survive and live comfortably, what does it have to do with him what happens to other people?
Just like this happy village. What kind of villagers are they? Cruel or kind, vicious or compassionate, it makes no difference to him.
He only knew that these people did not harm him and were even very nice to him, so why should he deprive these people of the chance to survive?
He has always known that there is a deep hidden conflict between him and Cheng Hui.
This contradiction was not created intentionally by them, but the values cultivated since childhood led them to have irreconcilable opposite opinions on many things.
Lin Qingyang is willing to give up some of his principles for Cheng Hui. Even if Cheng Hui likes him, he can pretend to be kind and generous on the surface, and secretly disobey him. But disguise is disguise. When he deceives Cheng Hui for his favor, he should have anticipated that sooner or later, once the truth is revealed, Cheng Hui will rebound thoroughly.
Lin Qingyang was very clear-headed. He couldn't plant such a bomb for himself.
He even had a vague feeling that he had done something similarly stupid before, which ultimately led to a very tragic consequence. As soon as he had the thought of pretending to obey but actually disobeying, he would feel a sharp pain in his heart, as if reminding him that this was not feasible.
Their three views are irreconcilable, and he cannot pretend to obey while secretly disobeying. If Cheng Hui is really the kind of person who will help others when he sees injustice, sooner or later they will fall out over similar events in the future.
Lin Qingyang didn't want to fall out with Cheng Hui, nor did he want to separate from him, so he could only gradually reveal his true character in a subtle way.
His biggest advantage is that he looks like a child. Even if he does something out of line, Cheng Hui will not leave without saying a word, but will turn around to educate him and try to change his thinking.
This is the conclusion he came to after long-term observation.
As long as Cheng Hui doesn't leave, everything will be fine. He is willing to make certain concessions for Cheng Hui, but he also hopes that Cheng Hui can make concessions for him.
At least when encountering disagreements, the two can argue and have different opinions, but they must not just leave when they disagree.
Lin Qingyang: ...
I always feel like I've done this kind of thing before...
Lin Qingyang's insistence on reasoning did not make Cheng Hui angry, nor did he blame Lin Qingyang for being heartless. Instead, he carefully considered his point of view.
It is true that these villagers go out every night to slaughter innocent people. From the perspective of justice, they should be wiped out.
But on the other hand, they have never harmed the 'travelers', that is, the mission represented by Cheng Hui and Lin Qingyang.
If they really hurt these villagers, it would seem a bit ungrateful.
Cheng Hui thought for a moment and said, "I still don't think we can just let them go. But it's a bit unreasonable to destroy the Ghost King and let their souls scatter. So... we should find a more reasonable way to deal with this problem."
"But..." Lin Qingyang looked at the fork in the road. There were only two choices, either this or that. How should Cheng Hui deal with it?
"Well, although there are only two forks in the road, we can open another one." Cheng Hui said with a smile.
He reached out and punched the wall, creating a large hole in the soft soil.
He dug another tunnel next to the two forked roads. After digging out a rough outline, he wrote a message on the fork: "Find a way to free the villagers. For example, find a high-ranking monk to pray for their salvation, or find a way to contact the Black and White Impermanence in the underworld to arrest them. Once in the underworld, their right and wrong will naturally be judged by the Book of Life and Death, and whether it is reward or punishment will be determined."
"Look, this is the third path I've chosen." Cheng Hui smiled brightly, pointing to a dark tunnel he had just dug. "I don't know if my methods will work, but I have to give them a try. If one doesn't work, I'll try another. One day, I'll finally free those villagers."
Lin Qingyang stared at Cheng Hui in a daze. He felt that in this dim cave, his face seemed to be glowing, so dazzling, so... dizzying.
"Well? I'm right, right?"
Lin Qingyang slowly raised the corner of his mouth: "That's right... What you said makes sense. When one road is blocked, we can choose to open another one. As long as we are willing, we can always find a way out."
"Although what you said makes sense...but I always feel that what you said is different from what I said." Cheng Hui looked at Lin Qingyang's smile and muttered to himself.
"Let's go." Cheng Hui tilted his head towards the newly excavated passage. Is this considered a new approach?
Lin Qingyang followed behind Cheng Hui, and the two of them slowly dug along the passage...
Yes, Cheng Hui only dug the beginning. If he wanted to move on, he naturally had to continue digging.
Opening up a new path sounds impressive, but actually... digging a hole in the pitch-black underground isn't a good job, even if the soil isn't very solid...
etc!
Cheng Hui suddenly had an idea and said excitedly, "Qingyang, I understand. This might really be the correct passage."
"Why do you say that?" Lin Qingyang raised his eyebrows, but his hands did not stop moving.
He wanted to help dig the hole, but Cheng Hui refused on the grounds that children should not do heavy physical labor otherwise they would not grow tall. He could only follow behind and put the soil he dug out into his storage ring.
"Look, this is underground, and we've dug so many tunnels. Logically, if the soil here was this loose, it would have collapsed long ago. But look, we've been digging for so long, and the soil on both sides hasn't slipped at all. Is this normal?"
Cheng Hui had just thought of this. He stopped what he was doing and wiped the rock walls on both sides with force.
The originally soft soil became very hard after he dug a passage. If the passage in front of him had not been dug through and the soil was still so soft, anyone who came would think that this was an existing passage.
"I think we may have found the right choice, what do you think?" Cheng Hui hummed a strange tune and waved the shovel in his hand more diligently.
Lin Qingyang smiled and said, "Ah Hui is amazing."
"Not bad~" Cheng Hui was just an ordinary person before he traveled through time. He couldn't help feeling a little proud when the child he took care of praised him like this.
He hummed a song while digging the soil with his hands again and again. Suddenly, his hands felt empty and a bright light came through in front of him.
"It's been dug through!" Cheng Hui said in surprise, then he dug the earth wall with even greater force and walked into a secret room.
There was a stone table in the secret room, with only three things on it.
A banner-shaped magic weapon, a dull stone, and a jade slip.
Cheng Hui habitually picked up the jade slip, put his spiritual consciousness into it, and soon opened his eyes with a complicated expression.
"This Ten Thousand Ghosts Banner can hold ghosts. Back then, all the villagers in that village, including the Ghost King, were held within it. The elder who refined it originally wanted to allow those villagers to live within it and slowly dissolve their resentment. Once they could be restored to normal ghosts, they could practice ghost cultivation techniques, perform good deeds on their own, accumulate merit, wash away their sins, and then be reborn as human beings."
He sighed, "This Ten Thousand Ghosts Banner has been here for so long, I don't know what has become of those villagers. The jade slip says that when he left the Ten Thousand Ghosts Banner, the villagers had basically regained their consciousness. He told me that if I wanted, I could release all the ghosts and then take in new ones myself."
"What do you think?" Lin Qingyang said lightly.
"Let me first let the Ten Thousand Ghosts Banner recognize its master, and then we'll talk about it after we get out. No matter what, we can't let them out here. There's no way to do good deeds in this ancient tomb."
"good."
After Cheng Hui finished speaking, he put away the Ten Thousand Ghosts Banner, then picked up the dull stone and said with emotion: "That senior was really generous. This spirit seed is the best thing he left behind."
*
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