65. *Now* can I kill them?

afflinghaze

“Zhou Sheng?” It was a familiar voice, accompanied by a familiar aura.

Zhou Sheng’s blade stilled.

He shot disdainful looks at the scum men, still grovelling at his feet under the pressure of his qi, and turned around to see Wen Zhihao and Sun Fuyu flying towards him.

“Cultivator Wen, Cultivator Sun,” Zhou Sheng greeted shortly. “Now is not a good time.”

It was only out of respect to Wen Zhihao that Zhou Sheng had stopped at all. If it had Lin Yijun, for example, Zhou Sheng would have completely ignored him.

“We heard the crying and came to investigate,” Wen Zhihao said.

Sun Fuyu, seeing the unfamiliar person who knew their names, shifted closer to Wen-ge’s side, ready to protect him if the need arose.

The moment the two of them landed at the mouth of the cave, they saw everything. The mortal men had doused all lights for secrecy, but the two of them were Golden Core cultivators.

Nonetheless, Wen Zhihao took out a glowing rock.

Light swept through the damp cave, revealing the miserable men and the even more miserable children. Tears dripped down the children’s faces as they turned desperate faces towards the newcomers, hoping...

Wen Zhihao stepped forward, but his way was blocked by Zhou Sheng and his bladed polearm.

“Wen Zhihao, these are my kills,” Zhou Sheng said coldly. His aura was sharp and abrasive. “Slavers deserve no mercy. None of them are worthy of reincarnation. I will kill them all and destroy their ghosts. Their blood will be used to destroy all that they have stolen.”

Wen Zhihao wisely kept his hands to himself. “Zhou Sheng, that could traumatise the children. Tie those men up and let me untie the children.”

Zhou Sheng’s lips curled up in a sneer, a deep bitterness in his tone. “I saw my slavers die in front of me. We need revenge, Wen Zhihao.”

“For a gentleman to take revenge, ten years is not too long,” Wen Zhihao quoted. His voice softened. “At this time, the top priority is the children, not the scum. Do you agree? I have food and water and talismans to warm them up.”

Zhou Sheng’s chest tightened as his bloodlust wavered.

“I’ll help Wen-ge,” Sun Fuyu said firmly. He held his sword and looked pointedly at the Blood Sect Cultivator. “Those men can’t escape anyway. Don’t stop us.”

“Tie them up. You don’t have to be kind,” Wen Zhihao added.

Why should I listen to a Golden Core cultivator? Zhou Sheng thought.

But his body was too accustomed to Wen Zhihao’s aura and didn’t guard against it. As the calm aura smoothed his harsh edges, he couldn’t maintain the cold-bloodedness needed to destroy those men.

“Fine….later then.” Zhou Sheng wielded his Nascent-Soul level aura to form a physical pressure that swept all the bastards to the side. Ultrafine threads made of his blood wrapped around the men.

The men hissed in pain when that burning hot blood touched their skin.

Meanwhile, Sun Fuyu moved his sword, slicing arcs through the air. With perfect accuracy and all at once, the ropes tying up the children fell apart. He had to remove the gags by hand though.

Strained whimpering filled the cave.

“I want my mama…”

“We’ll take you back to your mother,” Sun Fuyu said seriously.

Meanwhile, Wen Zhihao was pulling out things from his spatial rings: talismans to warm the area, more glowing stones to increase the lighting, all his bedding and blankets for the children to have somewhere soft to sit on, and all the food and water he had, including the provisions from Aunty Liu and the food he had just bought with Sun Fuyu.

The children’s eyes grew wide as Wen Zhihao seemed to take out a bottomless-pit-worth of items. Their fear was momentarily overshadowed with incredulity.

“Wen-ge, I have some healing pills, but they aren’t suitable for mortals…” Sun Fuyu said as he urged/carried the children to sit on the blankets instead of the cold and hard cave floor.

“I have rudimentary healing knowledge,” Zhou Sheng said.

Sun Fuyu glanced at Wen Zhihao for confirmation. Wen Zhihao nodded.

After Zhou Sheng tended their minor wounds, and after they ate, the children very quickly fell asleep.

Wen Zhihao thought with commiseration, After such an exhausting day, I would fall asleep too.

Zhou Sheng thought with wryness, Wen Zhihao’s aura is really too strong for these children.

Zhou Sheng turned to the men currently pressured by his qi. Because his own qi was thick and heavy around them, none of them received any of the calming qi from Wen Zhihao. More than one of the trash had pissed, producing a disgusting smell.

Zhou Sheng’s expression darkened once more. “Now that the children are asleep, it’s time to kill them.”

“Wait,” Wen Zhihao said. He set up a talisman that reduced the sound around the children so that they wouldn't accidentally overhear.

Sun Fuyu looked at Wen-ge. He agreed with the Blood Cultivator. Like murderous resentful ghosts, these kinds of people could only be slain. “Wen-ge...We have to. If we don’t do it, who will? If you don’t want us to kill them with our blades, we can just throw them off the cliff, and let the heavens decide their fate.”

Wen Zhihao shook his head. A part of him—that clearly didn’t understand the solemnity of the situation—suddenly felt that Sun Fuyu was very cute in how earnest he was.

But this wasn’t a game or a novel (probably). Those enslavers were not NPCs or paper characters (probably). He had to carefully word what he said next, which was the hardest thing he had ever done.

“Death is too easy. Their pain will end,” he finally said.

There, that should appeal to Sun Fuyu and Zhou Sheng.

Zhou Sheng raised an eyebrow, smirking. “Then I’ll just torture them first. These bastards tortured other people, it’s only fair.”

“It’s not just that,” Wen Zhihao said. “We should keep them alive. Human traffickers don’t work alone. We need them alive so that we can find who they’ve dealt with. Who is buying these children. Where these particular children came from. What happened to all the previous trafficked persons and save them too.”

“There are ways to use their blood to trace down where they’ve been,” Zhou Sheng said.

Sun Fuyu’s eyes widened. “Wen-ge is right. If we can use them...”

Zhou Sheng’s expression lightened a fraction. “Then I can kill them?”

Wen Zhihao shook his head. “Then we tie them up in public and let people throw rotten things at them. Let all of them be publicly humiliated.”

Sun Fuyu couldn’t help but remember Wen-ge’s old suggestions for dealing with his parents. His gaze towards Wen Zhihao turned fond.

“Then I can kill them?”

Wen Zhihao shook his head. “Then we find a way to let them experience the memories of the children in order to let them experience what it was like. Make them work and pay back for all the pain and suffering they’ve caused, such as using their money to better the lives of those they hurt. It’s called community service.”

“Prolonging their suffering, making them pay amends…” Zhou Sheng looked at Wen Zhihao in a new light, his lips curling up slightly. “It would be more merciful to kill them. I’ll consider your plan. Wen Zhihao, you should become a rogue cultivator. According to the customs of the Golden Sun Sect, you should either be killing these people, taking them to the mortal authorities, or leaving them alone.”

Wen Zhihao: “....” He had no intention of leaving the peaceful life as a Golden Sun Sect disciple and becoming self-employed.

...Well, at least Zhou Sheng agreed not to kill them—

“—ZHOU SHENG! STOP! DON’T MURDER THEM!”

In a flash of golden robes with special white-gold patterns, the top disciple of the Golden Sun Sect Lin Yijun landed at the mouth of the cave. In a split second, he had seen the bladed polearm in Zhou Sheng’s hands and the mortals tied up in blood-red threads. He rushed towards Zhou Sheng, ready to stop him.

“Zhou Sheng—” Lin Yijun’s voice strangled to a stop when he noticed the unexpected atmosphere.

Why were the mortals tied up? Why were there children asleep on Golden Sun Sect bedding? And why was the junior disciple Sun Fuyu looking at him with pity?

This chapter has been quite difficult to write, just as how Wen Zhihao had to do the most difficult thing since transmigrating here: how to convince the sharp-weapon-equipped cultivators not to kill ? Crime and punishment and rehabilitation and repayment and all that are such heavy topics, and I’m sure every reader has their preferences for what should be done…..????

Moving is now finally done, now to catch up on all the work that was delayed ???

ANYWAY, I hope you enjoy this mini cliffhanger again!