Chapter 42

Chapter 42: Refusing to Save the Dying
Huff… huff…

Wu Shao Zhen collapsed weakly to the ground. It felt as if every bone in his body had been crushed, and the pain made him wish he were dead. If he could not still hear his own faint breathing, he would have thought he had already gone to the Yellow Springs. He tugged at the corner of his mouth in a bitter smile. [I brought this on myself.]

Not long ago, he had accidentally broken into a secret realm and found a few Scarlet Flame Lion cubs. Although they were only younglings, the essence contained in their flesh and blood far surpassed that of Foundation Establishment cultivators.

On impulse, he had used his Gu insects to devour three of the Scarlet Flame Lion cubs. Because of that, he caused a disaster.

It turned out that inside that secret realm, there was also a fourth rank Scarlet Flame Lion great demon. It sensed the death of the younglings at once and started hunting him down.

Wu Shao Zhen fled all the way from the secret realm to Dragon Roar Valley, but he still could not shake off the Scarlet Flame Lion. He had been played with in the palm of its hand. In the end, he turned most of his Gu insects into copies of himself and only barely managed to fool the Scarlet Flame Lion.

He had survived by luck, but his body was covered in injuries, and the Gu he had worked so hard to raise were almost all gone.

More importantly, he had lost the ability to move. If he ran into danger now, he had almost no strength to fight back and could only stretch out his neck and wait to be killed.

Wu Shao Zhen shut his eyes in despair as scenes from the past flashed through his mind. His family members had fallen one after another in mountains of corpses and seas of blood, yet not one of them revealed where he was.

He was Wu Shao Zhen, the only remaining descendant of the Wu Clan. The Wu Clan’s bloodline must not be cut off!

“Save… save me…”

“Someone… please save me…”

“I don’t want to die…”

Wu Shao Zhen’s lips trembled as he let out a low murmur. His reason told him that no one could hear his cry for help, but he still called out like this.

“Second Senior Brother, I think there’s someone over there?”

In his daze, a girl’s clear voice cut through the gloom like sunlight, lighting up Wu Shao Zhen’s world.

Strength rose from somewhere inside him, and he suddenly forced his eyes open.

A goose-yellow figure suddenly rushed into his sight. He froze for a moment, then wild joy surged into his eyes.

He was saved.

The next moment, his consciousness fell into darkness.

…

Elsewhere.

Yu Zhao heard a sound from not far away and narrowed her eyes slightly.

[Is it you? Wu Shao Zhen.]

“Second Senior Brother, Senior Sister Zhou, he looks so pitiful, let’s save him.”

Ye Cong Xin looked worriedly at the man lying on the ground with not a single good patch of skin left on his body. Her face was full of pity.

Lan Zi Yu and Zhou Jin Yue exchanged a look but did not speak.

They had followed the Scarlet Flame Lion’s footprints all the way here. Their divine sense had been paying attention to the surroundings the whole time, yet they had completely failed to notice this person’s existence.

Only when Ye Cong Xin said she heard someone calling for help did they come over to look.

This man was covered in wounds and was lying right in the place where the Scarlet Flame Lion had passed by. It was very likely that the Scarlet Flame Lion’s appearance had a lot to do with him.

So, should they save him or not?

For a moment, Zhou Jin Yue and the others could not decide.

Ye Cong Xin saw them hesitating, and when she saw the man on the ground growing weaker and weaker, she became extremely anxious.

This man was a big Fated One specially pointed out by the System. The Fortune on him was in no way less than that of several of her Senior Brothers. If she saved him, she could exchange for even more things she wanted.

“Second Senior Brother, this is still a human life. Our Five Elements Dao Sect is a famous righteous sect. Are we really going to watch him die without helping?”

Ye Cong Xin begged softly again.

“This…”

Lan Zi Yu was a little torn.

If this really was an innocent passerby who had been hurt, then turning a blind eye to him would go against the teachings of their sect.

He could not help looking at Zhou Jin Yue, asking silently for her opinion.

Zhou Jin Yue thought for a moment and still decided to at least keep the man’s life first and question him after he woke up.

She was just about to speak when Yu Zhao walked up from the back of the group.

“Senior Sister Zhou, this person cannot be saved.”

Everyone looked at Yu Zhao in surprise.

The resentment in Ye Cong Xin’s heart almost broke free.

[Why is it her again! She just has to go against me, doesn’t she!]

“Junior Sister Yu, why do you say that?” Zhou Jin Yue asked.

She was not doubting Yu Zhao. Ever since Yu Zhao risked her life to save her, she had completely taken Yu Zhao as one of her own people. She was simply curious whether Yu Zhao had noticed something.

Yu Zhao pointed at a few inconspicuous dirty patches on the ground: “Senior Sister Zhou, look. Those are Gu insect corpses. This person is probably a Gu Master. I once heard that after a Gu insect dies, if the corpse is black, it means it was fed with spirit herbs. If the corpse is red, it means the Gu Master used flesh and blood to feed the Gu.”

Everyone focused at once on the reddish stains on the ground. They could faintly make out the shapes of Gu insects.

Yu Zhao went on: “These Gu insect corpses show that they were fed with flesh and blood. Most Gu Masters who use this kind of spell cultivation method are people with crooked hearts. If we save him, he might create even more killing in the future, so we cannot save him.”

Yu Zhao’s words were logical and clear. The pity in many people’s eyes turned into scorn and disdain.

The disciples of the Five Elements Dao Sect cultivated orthodox magic arts. Naturally, they looked down on cultivators who practiced crooked and evil paths.

A heretic cultivator like this, if he died, he died. There was nothing to feel sorry about.

“N-no, it’s not like that…”

Ye Cong Xin’s eyes filled with tears. She wanted to say a few words to defend the man on the ground.

However, neither Lan Zi Yu nor the other disciples cared much.

Lan Zi Yu even reached out to gently rub her head, lecturing her kindly: “Junior Sister, he is a bad person. You don’t need to blame yourself or feel that you owe him anything. This is his own fault.”

Ye Cong Xin could not say what she wanted to say.

She had always been an obedient and sensible person, so there was no way she would go against the words of her Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters.

But she was also unwilling to let go of this chance to gain Favorability and give up such a good opportunity to gain more Fortune.

She looked at the unconscious man on the ground. A thought flashed through her mind, and she quickly came up with an idea.

She did not notice that Yu Zhao’s gaze had been on her the whole time.

When Ye Cong Xin made up her mind, Yu Zhao smiled faintly in the distance.

At a glance, she had already recognized that the man who looked almost no different from a corpse was Wu Shao Zhen.

Ye Cong Xin and Wu Shao Zhen’s first meeting was very likely to happen here.

That was very interesting.

Although Ye Cong Xin always acted innocent, kind, and eager to help others in front of people, Yu Zhao knew very well that deep down, Ye Cong Xin was still someone who would never act unless there was profit. Every person she personally admitted as a friend was an outstanding young talent.

Right now, Wu Shao Zhen was still a nameless nobody in the cultivation world and had not had any contact with Ye Cong Xin.

But Ye Cong Xin already seemed sure that Wu Shao Zhen would achieve great things in the future. She was trying her best to persuade everyone to save him. Even after being refused, she did not give up, and instead kept planning in secret, refusing to stop until she got what she wanted.

Thinking of the Heaven’s Chosen who had slowly fallen from the clouds in the last life because of all kinds of “accidents”, Yu Zhao could almost guess how Ye Cong Xin picked her prey and how she stole their Fortune.

Those men who bowed at her feet until the day they died would never have imagined that the “moon in the sky” they treasured and praised so much was actually a knife that took their lives.

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