728 I Never Take Risks!

The other four Venerables also instantly recognized this point. Everyone here was an experienced veteran; if they still couldn't figure this out, they would be too naive! Thus, none of them could say a single word! In that moment, even they felt that the War for Seizing the Heavens, which was their reason and faith, was simply a joke—a completely lame joke!

Jun Mo Xie had made one thing known very clearly: no matter how noble their motive was, it was not a reason to do evils freely! Regardless of whether the original intention was good or bad, it would not be able to cover the crimes they'd committed!

Behind them, a Superior Supreme expert took a step forward, his nose fuming with anger. "Jun Mo Xie, you're going too far in bullying others! For the sake of the people and the safety of the continent, our three Holy Lands have guarded the borders with perseverance and consistency for thousands of years. What crime is there to speak of? Have you considered that if all of us died now, who would go and block the invasion of the strange races in the War for Seizing the Heavens?! Do you really intend to see the world burn and the people slaughtered by the strange races?"

"The safety of the continent? The people?" Jun Mo Xie cocked his head and looked at him. "The f*ck does that have to do with me? I've never considered them as a factor even once! I only know one thing. Even if the entire continent was destroyed after I killed all of you, it will not affect me!

"I am a selfish person and have always been a selfish person!" A sharp glint flashed across Jun Mo Xie's eyes as he continued slowly. "I've always lived my life by a belief: if people do not transgress against me, I will not transgress against them. Give a plum in return for a peach, an eye for an eye! I don't care if your actions are motivated by the wish to save the entire world. As long as you offend me, you will die! It's either your death or mine, and I don't want to die yet!

"What I want is actually very simple; I only want to live in peace! I've never gone and offended you all in an way, but you kept coming to bully and suppress me! Left with no choice, I could only retaliate! But now that you all are at a disadvantage, you want to talk to me about the War for Seizing the Heavens? HAHAHAHA…"

Jun Mo Xie laughed aloud. "One can be shameless, but they can't be shameless to this extent!"

"Jun Mo Xie, you bastard!" A person behind Mo Xiao Yao hollered with rage.

"There's no need to say anymore!" Mo Xiao Yao chuckled and raised his hand, silencing the people behind him. His back straightened abruptly. "If you want to kill, just kill; why say so much?"

"Since things have already reached this point, further talk is useless. However, all of us here are experts in our own rights. Even if we must die, we will still face it head on! We will not die like cravens! I, Mo Xiao Yao, will not resign to die in the hands of others!" Mo Xiao Yao smiled lightly and picked up a handful of snow from the ground, carefully rubbing it on his face. "The Wandering Venerable shall still be a wanderer even in death."

His mental state had already recovered to his usual, casual demeanor.

This Wandering Venerable did a very thorough job of cleaning himself up. The blood and stains on his face were completely wiped away. All of his actions were extremely natural.

Then, he sorted out his disorderly hair and beard. When he turned around and faced his subordinates again, he'd already reverted back to the graceful demeanor of the Wandering Venerable who lived freely, unfettered under the sky!

The only thing was that when he turned his face away, Jia Qing Yun and the rest could see the deep sense of shame and humiliation in his eyes.

Shame!

A fourth level Venerable under compelling circumstances and left with no choices had lowered himself to beg his enemies for mercy. However, he'd been rejected! That was a completely inconceivable matter!

The way they saw it, with Mo Xiao Yao's identity, the fact that he could humble himself like that and plead with two juniors who were beneath him in strength, was already an unthinkable matter! It could be said that this was both a commendable and a humiliating action!

If you give someone a peach, they will reciprocate with a precious jade! If the other party left one side of the net open, would Mo Xiao Yao not return the favor? No matter how one looked at it, the other party should be willing to give them this much face at least. Just for the sake of Mo Xiao Yao's concern for the bigger picture, they should feel touched by his heart for the people and the world, respectfully escorting them out!

But to think that Jun Mo Xie would actually be so heartless as to directly reject them! It was a truly unthinkable outcome!

"Brother Mo, you must not take this matter to heart! How will today's matter bring any harm to your illustrious reputation? The matter today will even improve your reputation, leaving your name among the heroes of history! Only this kind of short-sighted, selfish, young generation brat would show disdain toward your noble efforts! This old man looks down on such idiots from the bottom of my heart!" Jia Qing Yun consoled and continued with a sigh. "The pugilistic world now is no longer the same one we knew. The number of warm-blooded people in the world is getting fewer and fewer…"

His words were filled with sadness, as if he were lamenting the moral degeneration of the world and how human hearts were not what they were in the old days.

Mo Xiao Yao shook his head, his expression one of exhaustion. "Brother Jia, we're all experienced people, so what's the point in deceiving yourself and others? The bitter fruits of today are all a result of the seeds we sowed in the past! Only until today did this old man finally truly understand! Venerable Mei had been preparing wholeheartedly for the War for Seizing the Heavens all this time, but have we let her off even once? Every time she backed off one step, we'd take a larger step forward! Have we ever considered the bigger picture before? Now that things have reached this stage, do we still have the face to accuse others of not considering the big picture? Let me ask this, if the person in front of us was changed from Jun Mo Xie to you, taking into consideration the same inhibitions he's facing, would you have the ability to overlook close to 100 peak level experts who already have a death grudge against you? Do you really have the guts to do that?"

Jia Qing Yun's face turned slightly green, and his expression was a little awkward. This time, he stayed silence, unable to retort a single word.

"Everyone, you're on your own now! This old man has grown tired of the affairs of the mundane world and will be leaving first!" Mo Xiao Yao looked calmly at everyone. His back was turned to Jun Mo Xie, and without turning his head, he spoke carefreely. "After today, no matter if you're friend or foe, as long as there are any survivors, when you meet the lords of the three Holy Lands in the future, please help me to bring a word back."

There was a hint of heartfelt lamentation on his face as he slowly said, "Don't use nobleness as an excuse, and don't find excuses for committing evils! I hope that in the future, the three Holy Lands will not shame the once radiant name of the War for Seizing the Heavens! That is the greatest glory of the three Holy Lands!"

He paused slightly and smiled bitterly. "And remember: it is only a source of glory, not a qualification!"

After saying that, a warm smile appeared on Mo Xiao Yao's face as he sighed. "Do not say that there's no path beyond the clear skies; live carefreely while you can!" This sentence was constructed from the names of the himself and his blood brother, Mo Wu Dao, the current lord of the Elusive World of Immortals.

The two brothers were of bureaucratic descent. At the time of their birth, their father had been recently been dismissed from office. A friend of their father had gifted him with a poem when he came to visit: When will there be an end to the chase for position and wealth? Fame and fortune can disappear in the blink of an eye! Do not say that there's no path beyond the clear skies; Live carefreely while you can!

Their father had picked out the words 'Wu Dao' (no path) and 'Xiao Yao' (carefree) from the poem and named the brothers in that manner.

Mo Wu Dao! No matter what situation it was, never run out of paths to tread!

Mo Xiao Yao! No matter what, never behave too carefreely and lose your bearings in conceitedness!

This was a heartfelt wish from their father to his two sons: to act as a blessing, as well as a warning!

At this moment, other than his father's wish, Mo Xiao Yao could only think about his elder brother, Mo Wu Dao—not the Mo Wu Dao that was the lord of the Elusive World of Immortals.

After saying those words, Mo Xiao Yao sighed lightly. His body shook and suddenly became still! A stream of thick white smoke rose out of the crown of his head, hovering and not dissipating for a long time. The chilly wind of winter blew relentlessly around him, but the smoke did not scatter!

A long time passed and the the thick white smoke turned into a plume of mist, thinning as it spread into the air, finally disappearing completely!

Mo Xiao Yao had destroyed his cultivation, cut off his own heart, and perished on the snow=capped peaks!

A fourth level Venerable's life was ended just like that!

Jia Qing Yun stood ramrod straight like a tree, completely motionless. He felt as if he were stuck in a dream, and everything seemed extremely unrealistic!

A fourth level Venerable was such a supreme existence. However, he was actually forced to such a point where he would commit suicide in front of everyone!

A look of pity flashed through Jun Mo Xie's eyes. However, his face still remained stern and cold, cruel to the extreme!

"Jia Qing Yun, I will give you all a chance too! You can choose to end your own life, keeping a complete corpse! You will have a moment to prepare yourself and face your death!" Jun Mo Xie said coldly. Not a shred of emotion could be heard in his voice.

"Mo Xie… they… cannot die!" Mei Xue Yan's face turned anxious. "This is a matter that concerns the War for Seizing the Heavens after all! It's a major matter that concerns the future of the world! You must consider seriously! Once the strength of the defence forces drop, the battle situation could turn… at that time, the War for Seizing the Heavens would really be…"

"Xue Yan, why are you still so insistent? Could it be that you still cannot see the reality before you clearly? Didn't you notice the eyes of these people? I've already killed over four, five hundred people! The people who died were comrades that they had known and lived with for at least a hundred years! A friendship like that can be even dearer than one's own kin! I believe that compared to those strange races, these people are even more adamant about seeing us die! If they passed through this ordeal, they will strive their hardest to take their revenge against my family! There's no reason for me to keep these people alive!"

Jun Mo Xie snorted coldly. "If I'm just by myself, I could naturally disregard their hatred. But I have a family and friends; would they disregard the\ose people?! Your insistence is the same as risking the lives of my family and friends. In my heart, the safety of those close to me is more important than anything! I will not take the risk, no matter how tiny it is!

"Even if they're truly good people, I would still slaughter them without hesitation! Now that things have reached his stage, there's no longer any room to negotiate! Not to mention, these people are basically just a bunch of complete hypocrites!" Jun Mo Xie continued coldly. "Even if this is a huge sin, I will shoulder it alone! Shouldering the weight of sin is still better than shouldering the weight of guilt!"

"You're simply too heartless!" Mei Xue Yan looked at him with grief. "Why do you not have the slightest bit of mercy in your heart? Toward the people of the entire continent… do you really not feel even the slightest bit of responsibility? Even if it's just a little bit?!"

"Xue Yan, you said that I'm heartless? That I have do not feel any responsibility? But am I really the ruthless one? Let's say that because of a moment of leniency, I received in exchange the annihilation of my entire family, the slaughtering of my friends and loved ones. What would you do? Even if I'm worrying too much and I was wrong this one time… can I afford to be wrong? As for the War for Seizing the Heavens… even if all these people died today, it does not mean that the War for Seizing the Heavens will fail!"

Jun Mo Xie raised his head proudly. "Even if Butcher Zhang is dead, this Young Master Jun will still not eat an unskinned pig! In contrast, if the safety of the continent is placed into the hands of these hypocrites, even if we won, it would be a form of humiliation!" [2. He is referencing a folk story about an evil butcher called Butcher Zhang who often bullied the villagers. No one dared to kill the butcher for fear of not having pork to eat. In the end, he was killed by a hero. But not only did the supply of pork not stop, more people took up the business and there were more butchers in the village in the end.]

"They are not worthy! Not in the slightest!" Jun Mo Xie snorted coldly. His words were resolute and decisive, without the slightest bit of hesitation!

Mo Wu Dao's name means 莫 Mo - (do not) 无道 Wu Dao - (no path) and Mo Xiao Yao's name means 莫 Mo - (do not) 逍遥 Xiao Yao - (carefree). 逍遥 can mean free and unfettered, or to wander about at leisure, thus the name the "Wandering Venerable".