Chapter Sixteen: Farewell on Your Journey

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Three parts pain, seven parts terror—that was the proportion in this scream.

It was not as though the Fallen Sword Immortal had never been obliterated by Shen Wuyai.

Yet every time, he had managed to draw upon the few negative emotions radiating from Shen Wuyai and forcibly prolong his life by another round.

Indeed, whenever Shen Wuyai erased him, he had always acted swiftly and decisively.

The Fallen Sword Immortal had felt not the slightest pain.

But this time, he could no longer prolong his life, and the agony pierced straight through him.

Suddenly, the pain diminished sharply.

The Fallen Sword Immortal hurriedly extended his consciousness and discovered that Xiao Lin had pulled the Sword-Suppressing Box out of the Sword Pool.

He had no time to think. Believing that Xiao Lin had been persuaded, he cried out with almost delirious joy, “Fellow Daoist, fellow Daoist, let us talk this over…”

Yet Xiao Lin merely raised his brows slightly, as though the hand that had reached into the pool had been wounded by the sword qi within.

But upon hearing the Fallen Sword Immortal’s words, his brows relaxed at once, and the corners of his lips lifted.

In the eyes of any young woman, that smile would have been radiant as sunshine.

But in the eyes of the Fallen Sword Immortal, it was brimming with ill intent.

“Do you remember what I said to you?”

“What?”

The Fallen Sword Immortal sensed that something was terribly wrong.

“I said I would make your death exceptionally painful…”

With that, Xiao Lin threw the Sword-Suppressing Box into the Sword Pool once more.

“You insolent whelp! I swear I will kill you—”

The Fallen Sword Immortal let out a hoarse, desperate roar.

Xiao Lin paid him no heed.

Of course, he was not tormenting the Fallen Sword Immortal for the sheer pleasure of it.

Shen Wuyai was about to die. As his disciple, how could Xiao Lin remain unmoved?

To vent all his anger and hatred calmly upon the Fallen Sword Immortal was therefore a splendid idea.

Though this way, the emotions he conveyed would be far too subtle.

Perhaps he would not gain many Popularity Points at first.

But so long as someone interpreted the scene in the comments, or edited this segment into a short clip, there would always be people who belatedly understood its true meaning.

In the age of short videos, spreading something was astonishingly easy.

He could both reinforce his persona and gain more Popularity Points.

Why not do it?

Besides, whether judged by sentiment or reason…

The Fallen Sword Immortal deserved to be tormented.

Thinking this, Xiao Lin took the Sword-Suppressing Box out of the pool, allowing the Fallen Sword Immortal a brief moment to catch his breath, before throwing it back in again.

Over and over.

Wisps of black qi visibly seeped from the Sword-Suppressing Box, only to be shredded into nothingness by the sword qi in the blink of an eye.

Eventually, the black qi became exceedingly faint.

This removal, he thought, would likely be the last.

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Yet that also meant the life of a powerful figure of the current age had reached its end.

The Fallen Sword Immortal was granted another brief respite, but he had grown so weak that he could no longer even beg for mercy.

Only his fear of Xiao Lin continued to take root and grow, almost carving itself into the depths of his soul.

For even now, he still had not sensed the slightest trace of anger, hatred, or any other such emotion from the young man.

This wretch was tormenting him calmly and rationally!

This respite lasted a long time—long enough for the Fallen Sword Immortal to finally recover.

His voice was hoarse, stripped of every trace of the arrogance he had possessed at the beginning.

“Kill me, and Shen Wuyai will die as well…”

“Fellow Daoist, how about this? Release the seal, and I will swear an oath before Heaven that, once I emerge, I will never commit evil again. Should I break that oath, you need not lift a finger—the Heavenly Dao itself will not spare me. What do you say?”

Xiao Lin did not respond.

Because at that moment, he had finally confirmed something.

After the Sword Pool had severed the Fallen Sword Immortal’s evil qi, the sword qi within the pool had not weakened in the slightest. Instead, it had grown even more powerful.

The way it purified evil qi and then transformed it into its own strength was remarkably similar to…

his Asura Righteous Qi.

“Could it be that this sword qi is fundamentally akin to my Asura Righteous Qi?” Xiao Lin murmured to himself.

But in truth, he was saying it for the audience to hear.

Witnessing a character grow stronger with their own eyes and sharing in that character’s journey would undoubtedly create a greater sense of identification and immersion.

These were all ways to make the audience like him more.

Most importantly, Xiao Lin had always been troubled by how to increase his own righteous qi.

“Righteous to the core” was what guaranteed his lower limit.

It ensured that, no matter the circumstances, he would never lose the heart of a man who walked the righteous path.

But what of his upper limit?

Certainly, no one could compare with him.

Even so, Xiao Lin himself was not entirely satisfied.

That was because righteous qi, when combined with the Asura Heaven-Suppressing Art, was truly an exceptional means of challenging those in higher realms.

In theory, if he were genuinely willing to sacrifice himself for the sake of saving all living beings, then with the righteous qi in his heart at that moment, a Qi Refining body battling someone in the Golden Core realm might not be impossible.

Unfortunately, he could not do that.

Xiao Lin still possessed enough self-awareness to understand this.

It was not that he could never risk his life to save the common people.

Once he had obtained one million Popularity Points and exchanged them for the Nine-Turn Resurrection Pill in the store, he would be more resolute than anyone else.

Thus, the prerequisite for all of this was that he himself remain unharmed.

After all, if a man did not act for his own sake, Heaven and Earth would destroy him.

But there was another saying:

A gentleman is judged by his actions, not by his intentions.

Xiao Lin smiled inwardly.

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The only regret was that with a mindset like his, he could never increase his righteous qi through his own efforts alone.

But now, it seemed that a turning point had appeared.

Without hesitation, Xiao Lin set the Sword-Suppressing Box aside, took the Sword Mountain disciple token in hand, and stepped into the Sword Pool.

The token would protect him from being hacked into minced flesh by the sword qi surging toward him from all sides.

He then began, as though teasing out silk from a cocoon, to dissolve the sword intent contained within the sword qi and absorb the energy of the same origin.

And then…

he truly succeeded.

Xiao Lin clearly felt his righteous qi grow stronger by a measure.

This was not because his perception was especially acute.

Rather, the effect of the increase was so pronounced that he could sense it with ease.

The Sword Pool truly nurtured the ultimate qi!

At that moment, Xiao Lin even felt a strange sense of relief.

For the ultimate qi could be divided into two kinds: righteous and evil.

Perhaps, in the original course of events—before he had intervened—when Li Changhe released the Fallen Sword Immortal, the latter had discovered the ultimate qi within the Sword Pool, absorbed it all, and thereby recovered a considerable portion of his strength.

But the Fallen Sword Immortal, still sealed at this moment, clearly had no way to do so.

This place would become his burial ground!

Xiao Lin thought no further. He closed his eyes, calmed his mind, and absorbed the energy with all his strength.

After a long while, he opened his eyes and looked beyond the mountain.

The setting sun had vanished in the west. Beneath a brilliant expanse of stars, the bright moon hung high in the sky.

Xiao Lin lowered his head and looked at his hands, clenching them and then slowly releasing them.

His physical strength had not changed, but the righteous qi in his heart seemed more than a notch stronger than before.

After pondering for a moment, Xiao Lin summoned the Sword-Suppressing Box through the air.

“Fellow Daoist…”

“Perish,” Xiao Lin said softly.

As the single word fell, a wisp of black qi drifted from the Sword-Suppressing Box.

Not a sound was made.

Only the light on the box flickered.

The lid opened just like that.

For the seal to undo itself meant that whatever had been sealed inside had been utterly reduced to ash.

With his own Asura Righteous Qi, he had actually achieved an effect identical to that of the Sword Pool.

Yet Xiao Lin felt no joy.

It was not merely because the audience was still watching. A faint sorrow also lingered in his heart.

Xiao Lin did not bow again, nor did he make any other expression.

He simply raised his eyes and gazed quietly toward the east, where Sword Mountain lay.

“Old man, may your journey be peaceful.”

For one moment, he had been his genuine self.

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