by Translator: BornToBe; Author: Ordinary Magician (平凡魔术师); Licensed From: 17k
“That’s because not one of them was one of my brothers, and so their actions also can’t count as betrayal. As for how their own sects handle them, that’ll be up to each individual sect. Our monastery will not interfere.”
Everyone was shocked. Whether it was in the secular world or the cultivation world, deserters who fled right before the battle would all be executed. But Long Chen was just letting them off just like that.
Those sect Elders were extremely grateful to Long Chen for that, but they also were filled with shame. Long Chen’s magnanimity almost made them too ashamed to show their faces.
“As for rewards, that’s whatever. Every single person who is capable of standing beside me are my brothers. We’re all willing to give up our lives, so who would care about how much the rewards are?” smiled Long Chen.
The Righteous disciples were all filled with pride. Being called brother by Long Chen, they felt as if they had suddenly grown much taller.
On the battlefield, Long Chen was like a god of war, consecutively killing the top enemy disciples, and then even killing a Corrupt Elder.
He was even able to fight Yin Luo, a genius who only appeared once every a thousand years, and he had managed to sever one of his legs.
To be called brother by this practically unrivaled god-like figure, all of them were incredibly moved. They were willing to risk their lives with Long Chen. They wouldn’t even hesitate to sacrifice their lives.
Looking at those worshipful gazes, Tu Fang sighed emotionally. This was the power of Long Chen’s charisma. Those beside him would gladly fight for him.
Even the other Elders looked at Long Chen with admiration. Long Chen was a natural-born leader. No one else had that kind of bold spirit.
When it came to the rewards, even the Elders didn’t view them so importantly anymore. That was because they saw the newfound determination in their disciples’ eyes.
They believed that after experiencing this battle, those disciples would definitely have amazing accomplishments in the future. In fact, that was precisely what Long Chen had said just before the battle:
Those who managed to survive would definitely become absolutely amazing experts.
That was especially true of those core disciples. They had all awakened their ancestral marks. It would be impossible for them not to become amazing experts.
Tu Fang finally decided to act in accordance to the previous years. They would distribute awards to the various sects in accordance with how many living members they had at the end.
But those rewards would not be distributed immediately. The monastery would have to send the heads to the Xuantian Supermonastery first and get the rewards from there.
As for what to do now, the first thing to do was to clean up the battlefield. They had to gather the Corrupt disciples’ corpses as well.
They couldn’t let their corpses just lie there. Once those experts’ corpses began to rot, that would release a huge epidemic. They had to be brought away and burned by them.
Once the battlefield had been cleaned up, an Elder walked over with a certain corpse. Looking at that corpse, everyone was silent for a moment.
That corpse was the Corrupt Elder that Long Chen had killed.
Within this region, an eight-temper Bone Forging expert was an expert that only the Xuantian Monastery or perhaps the Skywood Palace had the resources to raise. Furthermore, even the monastery only had eight Elders who were on the level of this eight-temper Bone Forging Elder.
Such a powerful existence had died to Long Chen. That had shocked everyone.
That corpse was collected by Tu Fang. It was the strongest Corrupt expert to die during this battle.
An eight-temper Bone Forging expert contained a vast amount of life energy. It was extremely difficult to kill them.
Even if they met another eight-temper Bone Forging expert and were unable to defeat them, couldn’t they just run? So, in all the years of battles between the Righteous and Corrupt paths here, it seemed this was the first time an expert of this level died.
And most inconceivable of all was that such an expert hadn’t been killed by someone in the same realm as him, but by a disciple who was only at the Blood Condensation realm.
Tu Fang decided to send this corpse to the Xuantian Supermonastery. If the Xuantian Supermonastery were to learn that such an incredibly powerful disciple had appeared in their monastery, they would definitely send down endless resources, grooming Long Chen with their full strength.
After cleaning the battlefield, the various sect Elders brought their disciples away. But those disciples didn’t leave before bowing to Long Chen respectfully.
That bow wasn’t just because of their respect for him, but because they were incredibly grateful to him. It was Long Chen who had shown them what kind of person was worthy of being called a cultivator. Long Chen was like a shining beacon on their cultivation paths, lighting up their way forward and showing them what they had to do to advance.
As for these brave warriors who had just fought a blood-soaked battle, Long Chen really did feel as close to them as brothers. Long Chen waved to each of them in farewell.
Once they had all left, only the monastery’s Elders and disciples were present. Long Chen suddenly turned to Tu Fang:
“Elder Tu Fang, I miss my home. I want to return for a bit.”
Chapter 269 Returning Home
The curtains had set on this Righteous and Corrupt battle. This battle had shocked both sides, and there was no one who didn’t know Long Chen’s name.
He was praised as Su Prefecture’s number one of the junior generation. Although he was only at the peak of Blood Condensation, he was unrivaled within the Tendon Transformation realm, capable of even consecutively killing Favored.
That caused a huge wave within the Corrupt path. This time, they had achieved an unprecedented level of power and brought several times the number of disciples compared to before.
There were even five Favored who had appeared at the same time. This generation was acclaimed as their strongest generation. They had expected their disciples to utterly slaughter the Righteous disciples.
But when Gui Yan brought the remaining, decimated disciples back, the entire Corrupt path of this region was dumbfounded. Of over twenty thousand disciples, only five hundred had returned.
Furthermore, three of their Favored had died. The one acclaimed as a genius who only appeared once in a thousand years, Yin Luo, had actually had one of his legs severed.
That news greatly shocked the Corrupt path. They were practically unable to believe this result. After doing a detailed investigation, they finally heard the whole story.
Just Long Chen’s name struck terror in the hearts of the Corrupt disciples now. That was especially true of the Corrupt disciples who had managed to survive that battle. Just hearing his name would make them shiver from head to toe.
Long Chen’s strength caused a great deal of pressure for the Corrupt path’s experts. The higher-ups of the Corrupt path had even held a special meeting just to decide on how to handle Long Chen.
And the result was that those Corrupt path experts all unanimously voted that Long Chen could not be allowed to live. Otherwise, he would definitely pose a fatal threat to them once he matured.
They distributed Long Chen’s name and picture to all of the various Corrupt powers, and he was placed on their must-kill list.
And in fact, this region’s Corrupt path’s high-level members even sent the news to their higher-ups. After all, the appearance of such a threat had to be told to the higher-ups for them to think of a way to kill him.
Long Chen was a disciple of the Xuantian Monastery. Being so powerful, he would definitely be cherished and protected. It’d be impossible for them to kill him secretly. This region’s Corrupt path would need to borrow the strength of the higher-ups to handle this.
Yin Luo had quickly grown his leg back with his sect’s help. But although his external wounds had healed, the humiliation he fe
lt practically drove him mad.
He had always been acclaimed as a once-in-a-thousand-year genius. He had never met a match in the same realm, and even Favored found it difficult to last even ten exchanges with him.
He, who possessed the strength to jump realms and kill experts, had actually had his leg cut off by a Blood Condensation brat. That kind of humiliation was unacceptable to him.
After recovering, Yin Luo went into seclusion, sending out word that once he left seclusion, he would personally go cut off Long Chen and Mo Nian’s heads.
Long Chen didn’t care the slightest bit about the Righteous and Corrupt paths’ commotion. Currently, he was hurrying to Phoenix Cry, wanting to reunite with everyone.
However, Long Chen wasn’t alone. Wilde, Chu Yao, Tang Wan-er, and Little Snow were with him.
Originally, Tang Wan-er hadn’t been planning on going back with Long Chen. But for some reason, Chu Yao had pulled her in. Tang Wan-er had had no choice but to follow along with a red face.
Long Chen could sense those two girls were acting weird. Whenever he wasn’t paying attention, they would always be whispering stealthily about something.
Long Chen had tried several times to secretly investigate what they were talking about, but he was always noticed by Chu Yao. As a Favored, Chu Yao’s Spiritual Strength wasn’t much weaker than his own.
Furthermore, after absorbing that Favored’s Dao-mark, Tang Wan-er had managed to miraculously retain its power, also becoming a Favored.
It was said that Favored contained a trace of heaven and earth’s karmic luck. Once you became a Favored, you would obtain heaven and earth’s blessing, allowing you to cultivate twice as fast with half the effort.
Tang Wan-er said that after she had absorbed that Dao-mark and had the assistance of the Heavenly Daos, she had begun to feel a much greater affinity for heaven and earth’s spiritual qi.
At the same time, she also found that her wind energy had changed, becoming incredibly powerful.
It could be said that her luck had been very good. In comparison, after Chu Yao had killed her opponent, she had immediately tossed that corpse to Ye Zhiqiu. Ye Zhiqiu had also tried to absorb that Favored’s Dao-mark, but unfortunately, she had failed. That Dao-mark had only paused in her body for a moment before fading away.
As for Wilde, once he had killed his opponent, he had also tried absorbing his Dao-mark. But he had also failed.
Of the three of them, only Tang Wan-er had succeeded. And so it could be seen that to steal the Heavenly Daos’ karmic luck depended greatly on chance.
Karmic luck was extremely profound and mysterious. It was almost illusory and seemingly nonexistent. But it was definitely a real thing. It was simply too mysterious to completely understand.
“Hey, what are you two whispering about? If you have anything hurtful to say, just say it loudly for everyone.” Long Chen was somewhat discontented.
Long Chen and Wilde were walking at the front, while Chu Yao and Tang Wan-er were riding Little Snow, staying far behind them. Occasionally, their quiet, tinkling laughter would ring out.
Hearing Long Chen’s grumbling, Chu Yao laughed and didn’t reply. Tang Wan-er was the one who said, “You bad scoundrel, are you unhappy about us having our fun things to talk about?”
Although Long Chen acted discontented, he actually felt a huge pressure fall off his shoulders. He was relieved to see that Chu Yao didn’t feel any resentment because of Tang Wan-er’s existence.
However, he was extremely curious how a bizarre, fiery girl like Tang Wan-er was able to converse so happily with Chu Yao, who normally didn’t like to talk too much and was even a bit shy. That was inconceivable to Long Chen.
Wilde suddenly said, “Brother Long, let’s hurry up. My stomach’s rumbling. I’m going to faint from hunger.”
Ever since Wilde had awakened, he had gone all-out to eat. He practically went crazy from hunger. He didn’t even care if it was meat. As long as it was edible, he would swallow it immediately. All of the rations in their spatial rings had already been eaten by Wilde.
But even so, Wilde’s stomach was still constantly rumbling like a loud drum, causing them to laugh in surprise.
“Wilde, what was with your body changing color back then?” asked Long Chen.
Wilde’s skin had turned a red color on that day, and he had looked like an awakened beast, releasing a will that caused even Long Chen to shiver.
“I don’t know. In any case, whenever I get angry, I’ll end up awakening a strange energy. That energy is extremely powerful. But once I use that energy, I’ll immediately become famished. Normally, if my master isn’t by my side, I don’t dare use that energy because I’m afraid I’ll really starve to death,” explained Wilde, feeling somewhat vexed.
According to Wilde’s explanation, his body was hiding a strange kind of energy. And according to what he said, it seemed that the energy didn’t come from his body, but his soul.
Of course, that conclusion was guessed at by Long Chen. Wilde was unable to clearly explain where that energy came from.
Everytime he used that energy, Wilde would go through several days of feeling like he was starving and would need to constantly eat.
His stomach was like a bottomless pit, and no matter how much he ate, it would be useless during the next few days. There was one time when Wilde had been hunting and he had encountered a fourth rank Magical Beast. At a critical juncture of life and death, he had ended up using that energy.
As a result, he had managed to kill that powerful Magical Beast, but he almost starved to death in the mountains. In the end, he even ate the Magical Beast’s bones, only then managing to ward off his hunger.
Just thinking about that time would fill Wilde with terror. Hunger was easily capable of driving a man crazy. That was a kind of cruelty was sometimes even worse than torture.
It was especially true for Wilde with his special constitution. He didn’t use any spiritual qi when he fought. He relied solely on his physical body to fight.
Once he was exhausted, his body’s cells would demand food from Wilde. That was why Wilde’s hunger level was unimaginably greater than an average person’s.
Before he had met Long Chen, Wilde had endured periods of hunger, but it hadn’t been so bad. However, as his body grew stronger, that feeling of hunger became more and more unbearable.
It wasn’t that his ability to endure had dropped, but that his body’s requirements had grown too large. Now, he practically needed to constantly eat.
There was one good thing about his hunger. Due to him quickening his footsteps in his haste, they quickly arrived in the Phoenix Cry Empire. After another short period of travel, the imperial capital appeared in front of them.
As soon as Long Chen entered the capital, he caused a huge commotion as people came to greet him.
Long Chen saw many familiar faces. Fatty Yu, Shou Hou, and the others were all present to give Long Chen an embrace with crazy joy.
Long Chen naturally gave them all a laughing greeting, but said he wanted to return home to see his parents first. He made a promise to go out drinking with them later at night.
It had been over half a year since he had been home. Looking at the familiar gate to his estate, Long Chen felt a burst of emotion.
The gates had already been newly decorated. In fact, all the walls had been newly washed and painted, and it was as though the entire noble estate had been transformed. Compared to how destitute it had been when he had left, it was completely different.
Long Chen had just been about to push the door open when he heard his mom’s discontented voice from within:
“Chen-er’s returned! I’m definitely going to go see him right now! Why must you make me wait for him here with you? Just let us mother and son see each other a bit earlier! You at least got to see Chen-er at the border, so you’re at ease. But I never got to see him!”
Long Tianxiao’s deep voice responded, “This is for your own good! There are too many p
eople over there, so it’s inconvenient!”
The large gate was pushed open. Long Chen finally got to see that figure which he thought about day and night. His voice trembled as he called out:
“Mom!”
Mrs. Long had been grumbling at Long Tianxiao. Suddenly hearing Long Chen’s voice, her body shook, and she hastily turned to see her son’s figure standing there. She was unable to hold back her tears any longer.
“Chen-er!”
Long Chen rushed into his mother’s embrace, also crying. “Mom, your son has been unfilial.”
Although Mrs. Long might not be his birth mother, Long Chen knew that she had invested her whole life in him, raising him like her real son. They were no different than a biological mother and son.
The fact that he had left to face the outside world had been a great impact on Mrs. Long. And so this time when he saw his mother again, Long Chen was filled with guilt.
“Good child, don’t cry. It’s good as long as you can return. Come, let mom see if you’ve gotten too thin.” Mrs. Long gently caressed Long Chen’s cheeks.
She saw that after being gone for half a year, that immaturity on his face had already disappeared, replaced by a firm determination. She exclaimed, “Good, my son has really grown up to be a man. I am very happy. But I also know that you must have experienced many hardships during this time, so I also feel sorry for you…”
“Ah, if you have more to say, there are rooms inside. There are also guests waiting,” reminded Long Tianxiao.
Only then did Mrs. Long notice that there were others. Hastily wiping away her tears, she greeted everyone and brought them in.
The first words from Wilde’s mouth were that he was starving to death, so Long Tianxiao quickly told people to get cooking. In fact, he even informed the imperial cooks to come help, because they all knew just how much Wilde could eat.
Entering a room, Long Chen was holding his mother’s hand when his expression suddenly became odd. Carefully looking at his mother, his eyes were filled with surprise and joy.