Chapter Fifty: Enduring the Suffering of the Common People

Hearing this, everyone’s expression changed drastically.

How could a dignified Foundation Establishment cultivator exhaust all their spiritual power simply by knocking out a group of mortals?

What kind of cultivation of immortality would this even be?

Han Chen said in a deep voice, "Did someone tamper with something? Yet I felt nothing at all."

To cause a Foundation Establishment cultivator’s spiritual power to dissipate without a trace, without anyone noticing, not even a Golden Core cultivator should possess such a method, right?

Besides, if it truly were a Golden Core cultivator, it would be much easier to simply slap them to death.

Only Xiao Lin understood what was truly happening. This was their dream, yet they were not the ones in control.

Because they were unaware that they were dreaming, they could not be considered lucid.

I’m afraid this spiritual power had not dispersed at all; rather, the moment Yao Lian spoke those words, they "believed" their spiritual power had vanished, and thus it truly vanished.

Just like when Xiao Lin inspected his own inner self—his spiritual power remained entirely intact.

Yet observing the spiritual power of the others, even Gu Jianyao's had vanished along with the rest, leaving next to nothing.

When Xiao Lin kept silent, his spiritual power dissipated as well.

In any case, whenever he wished, it would return at a moment's notice.

The dreamscape was no different.

Whenever he wished to shatter it, it would shatter.

Suddenly, Xiao Lin began to descend downward.

"Junior Brother..." Gu Jianyao instinctively reached out both hands, intending to stop Xiao Lin.

Yet she watched as he plunged into the crowd, reaching out to halt the self-mutilation of the common folk.

Without spiritual power, he used his physical body to block them.

The others followed suit and did the same.

However, two fists could not match four hands.

If they wished to kill, they wouldn't even need to strike; a mere tremor of their physical blood and Qi would leave a pile of people dead as a doornail.

Yet precisely because they were trying to save lives, merely knocking the people unconscious was useless, for the pain would only awaken them once more.

Especially with the ceaseless murmuring echoing in their ears from the crowd: "Immortal, please let me cut you with a blade; once I cut you, the pain will stop..."

"Immortal, please let me take a bite out of you..."

Though not demonic incantations, they were far worse than demonic incantations.

Gradually, a sense of powerlessness permeated everyone's hearts, causing even the strength of their physical bodies to vanish into thin air.

Gong Yunxuan said in a deep voice, "This won't do, if this continues, we'll die here!"

Han Chen remained silent, yet in the end, he too felt a faint urge to leave.

"Everyone, let's go! Let's find the mastermind behind this! If we move fast enough, perhaps there is still time to stop all of this!"

Even as he said this, everyone knew all too well in their hearts that the moment they left, not a single one of these common folk would survive.

The evil cultivator lurking in the shadows was using this to hold them hostage, leaving them caught in a dreadful dilemma.

Yao Lian bit her lower lip: "Let's go, otherwise once our stamina and spiritual power are completely exhausted, they will still die anyway!"

This seemed to be the only solution left at present.

Just at that moment, a tearing sound was heard—the sound of a blade slicing into flesh and blood.

Hearing this, everyone looked over and saw that Xiao Lin, as if his spiritual power had been entirely exhausted, had his defense breached by an ordinary, unremarkable blade wielded by a mortal!

Gu Jianyao’s pupils constricted, and the killing intent she had suppressed for so long instantly erupted, but a hand moved faster than her sword intent, grabbing her wrist just as it had before.

"Senior Sister."

Xiao Lin shook his head at Gu Jianyao: "Since they said that hurting me will stop the pain, let's give it a try."

Was this merely him dropping his spiritual protective barrier?

A mortal's strength, even with ten thousand blades, could never pierce a Foundation Establishment body; it was only because Xiao Lin had voluntarily softened his own flesh that a single blade had managed to draw blood.

The next moment, the man suddenly regained his clarity: "I'm not in pain anymore! I'm really not in pain anymore!"

As he spoke, he prepared to kneel and kowtow to Xiao Lin: "Thank you, Immortal..."

Xiao Lin grabbed him by the collar: "What are you kneeling for? Do you want to be trampled to death by the crowd behind you?"

Seeing that one person had recovered, the others grew even more frantic, their eyes splitting with despair: "Immortal, I'm in so much pain, let me cut you too!"

With a calm expression, Xiao Lin simply pushed the recovered man out of the crowd and said, "Come on."

The moment his words fell, small knives, wood-chopping blades, scissors, fingernails—everything came rushing forward. In the blink of an eye, over a dozen wounds appeared on Xiao Lin's body!

Xiao Lin uttered not a single sound, not even frowning, while Han Chen and the others stared with trembling pupils.

Gong Yunxuan blurted out, "How could it come to this?!"

They were indeed practitioners of the righteous path, viewing the salvation of all living souls under heaven as their bounden duty, yet they would never go to such lengths for a mere group of common mortals.

Han Chen said in a deep voice, "The mastermind is an evil cultivator; if Brother Xiao meets with any mishap because of this, we will simply be falling right into the evil cultivator's trap!"

He left one sentence unsaid: *With cultivators of our talent, as long as we remain alive we can save tens of thousands of people; how can we sacrifice ourselves here?*

Instead, Xiao Lin smiled: "Because I know someone who, for the sake of all living beings in this world, willingly sacrificed himself. Even if heaven and earth were to shatter, he would endure for eternity, yet he simply refused to care."

"Since he could do it, why can't I?"

"Furthermore, this evil cultivator deliberately gives us a painful dilemma in an attempt to corrupt our Dao hearts, but I refuse to let him have his way. A rat hiding in the shadows—bah."

As he spoke, Xiao Lin suffered numerous more blows, coughing up a mouthful of blood foam. A hint of devilish charm involuntarily crept into his smile: "Can't have the best of both worlds? I have my own way to achieve both."

"What are you all standing around in a daze for? Go find that evil cultivator! With the Heavenly Secrets Sect's 'Divine Calculation of Heavenly Secrets,' calculating his location shouldn't be a problem, right?"

Yao Lian stared blankly at Xiao Lin, then nodded deeply and closed her eyes.

She muttered incantations continuously under her breath, and after a long moment, she opened her eyes, a sharp gleam flashing within them: "Follow me!"

Yet Gu Jianyao and Han Chen showed no intention of moving. Xiao Lin immediately realized that Gu Jianyao wanted to stay behind to keep him company and endure the cuts—how many blows could she withstand? Besides, it would merely steal his thunder.

So he said, "Senior Sister, go! Your junior brother has thick skin and flesh; he can handle it. Once you use your sword to eliminate that evil cultivator, the situation here will naturally resolve itself!"

However, Gu Jianyao was not as obedient as she usually was. She naturally knew who the person Xiao Lin was referring to actually was.

At this moment, hearing it brought up once again, despite the complete absence of any exchange through sword intent, a pang of bitter pain still arose within her. Whether she was recalling the emotions of that day or feeling a shared empathy with him, she could not tell.

Hearing these words, and looking at the resolute determination in Xiao Lin's eyes, Gu Jianyao finally gave a slight nod and leaped away into the distance.

Xiao Lin looked toward Han Chen: "And what does fellow Daoist mean..."

Before his words could finish, Han Chen yanked the hand of a person who was about to stab Xiao Lin, ruthlessly driving the small knife in that person's hand straight into his own arm!

The look in that person's eyes instantly cleared.

"Damn it," Han Chen cursed, "It really is true that stabbing me stops the pain and restores them. What kind of evil sorcery is this?"

Then he saw Xiao Lin looking at him with a trace of astonishment. Ignoring the blood on his arm, Han Chen smiled faintly: "If Brother Xiao can do it, why can't I?"

He sighed once more: "As fellow cultivators of the righteous path, compared to Brother Xiao, I feel ashamed. I actually thought of abandoning these mortals, forgetting that before I entered my sect, I too was once one of them."

Xiao Lin fell silent. He knew full well that this was an illusion, a performance staged for the audience, and not real at all; yet Han Chen was genuinely, truly acting out of a heart for the common people and all living beings.

"Brother Han is a true cultivator of the righteous path, without shame," Xiao Lin said with heartfelt admiration.

"Since you've changed your address from 'fellow Daoist' to 'Brother Han,' does that mean Brother Xiao has finally accepted me?"

Han Chen asked with a smile, having received dozens more cuts on his body in this short span of time.

"Naturally."

"Since Brother Xiao treats me as a brother, I'll speak plainly as well. It wasn't just out of an unbearable pity to watch the mortals self-mutilate; earlier, I was also harboring thoughts of resentment—why were you able to enter Sword Mountain while I was not?"

"So you intended to compete with me?" Xiao Lin was left somewhat amused. Suddenly lowering his gaze, he saw a little girl biting a large chunk of flesh right out of his arm.

"Of course I don't harbor those thoughts anymore. They vanished the moment Brother Xiao voluntarily took that first blade. I simply felt I couldn't let you look down on me."

"Hahaha..."

Xiao Lin burst into hearty laughter, and Han Chen laughed along with him, as if the two of them were not the ones covered in cuts and drenched in blood.

Amidst this bright and bold laughter, everyone else recovered their faculties and hurried away, each seemingly aware of how disgraceful their actions had been in their desperate pursuit of pain relief.

Just at that moment, a middle-aged man stumbled over in agony, the long blade in his hand descending toward Xiao Lin—who could no longer support himself and had already collapsed onto one knee. Suddenly, Xiao Lin raised his hand and grabbed the man's wrist in a death grip.

The middle-aged man raised his eyes. Xiao Lin's entire body was no longer covered by a single patch of intact skin; it was mangled and bloodied to the point where his facial features were barely discernible, yet at this moment, the man could inexplicably sense his calm and chilling coldness.

"Im-Immortal..."

"I've finally waited for you..." Xiao Lin grinned broadly, "Seeing that we had fallen to the state of mere mortals, yet refusing to die no matter what, did you finally decide to finish us off yourself?"

Without another word, the man suddenly transformed into a ghostly phantom and bolted away.

"You made me take so many knives," Xiao Lin murmured softly. "Since we are in a dream, do you really think I'll let you run?"

He suddenly spread his five fingers wide and clenched them into a fierce fist.

"Hiding in the shadows—time to die!"