Luo Hong was suffering from an extreme headache. It was a sign of over-exhaustion of his mental power.
Di Shan might be dead, but he was still an Eighth Grade Steel Bone martial cultivator, so his soul was as strong as his vital energy. If it had been the shadow of a dead Ninth Grade martial cultivator, it might be easier for Luo Hong.
However, Di Shan was the only one Luo Hong could rely on back then. The headless body was the closest thing that he could get to face the threats from that woman.
Truth be told, given Luo Hong’s amount of ominous yin energy in his dantian, it was far from enough to control the shadow of someone like Di Shan.
If the woman had not tried to take his body by injecting her own ominous yin energy into Luo Hong, he could never have gathered enough yin energy to summon Di Shan’s shadow.
In other words, the woman had somehow killed herself.
Luo Hong opened his eyes and found himself on a wooden bed carved out of pear tree wood. He tried to move but his body hurt. The wounds on his body were already tended to. The bandage around it felt cool, so the healing elixir must have been applied.
Beside his bed were the human skin manual and the black amulet that he had gotten from the woman.
The human skin manual could only be opened by Luo Hong and no one else. As for the black amulet, it looked dull and common, so it did not attract any attention.
Luo Hong stayed still on the bed, staring at the ceiling as he started thinking.
‘The Heiyun Stockade…got wiped out…I lost the one place to earn my Sin Levels…’
He felt a strange heartache at the thought of it.
After the battle, he had held on and forced himself to stay awake, but what Fang Zheng said had shocked him and knocked him out cold.
‘As expected of the man of justice, he’s courageous and righteous as a brave man who fought the evil being.’
Luo Hong wanted to laugh out loud back then, but before he could make a sound, he had fainted.
The Heiyun Stockade’s annihilation had nothing to do with him, so why would Fang Zheng label him as someone courageous and righteous?
Could he have somehow escaped the evil being without a fight?
That woman wanted his body. Would he have just stayed back and let her take his body without putting up any resistance?
If he had not resisted, he would have died.
He had just been trying to stay alive.
The more he thought about it, the angrier he got. He could already imagine what the people of Anping County would say about him.
Before this, some ‘kind-hearted’ person had spread rumors about him and tainted his name and title, for which he was grateful, but he did not expect this to happen. It was now likely that the people would praise him for this incident.
Luo Hong put his hand on his chest as he breathed heavily.
He did not really care about what people would say. He just cared about the human skin manual and was afraid that all this would affect his Sin Level.
He just wanted to be a bad guy, an antagonist. Why was it so difficult?
Without Zhao Donghan filling all the gaps with his vast imagination and the incorruptible Luo Feng, Luo Hong thought he would have been able to earn a ton of Sin Levels in the Heiyun Stockade.
Who would have expected that some crazy and scary woman would have gone after his body?
Luo Hong was not happy at all. He originally thought he could kill two birds with one stone, but now it seemed like the birds had flown away.
‘I’m done for. This is the end…’
Luo Hong drowned in despair as he continued lying down on the bed.
…
At the Heiyun Stockade.
In his court uniform, Luo Feng put his hands behind his back as he walked around the place. Behind him was Xin Wei and Fang Zheng, plus a group of constables from the yamen.
The constables were rather shaken by the scene, and fear was written all over their faces.
The place was blanketed with dead bodies and the air reeked of blood that stung their noses.
Even the Eighth Grade Steel Bone martial cultivator, Di Shan, had been beheaded on his throne.
The constables had never seen something like this before.
A common household massacre case was nothing compared to this level of annihilation.
On the other hand, Luo Feng remained calm as if the scene before his eyes was something normal.
He walked over to the dead woman. He lifted his boot with a clouded leopard pattern sewn on it and softly kicked her body, whose head was crushed to bits.
“This woman is the creator of evil beings. According to the waveforms of her spiritual energy, she should be an earlier Eighth Grade evil cultivator,” Luo Feng said.
Xin Wei was jotting down what he said in her book.
Luo Feng continued his inspection. He squatted down and touched the sword marks on the ground.
When he sensed the waveform of the lingering sword qi, he squinted his eyes.
“The young lord has definitely inherited the seniors’ sword techniques. The sword qi is strong and substantial with powerful yang energy, and it’s a bane to the evil cultivators. No wonder a Ninth Grade sword cultivator could overpower an Eighth Grade evil cultivator.”
Luo Feng was impressed by his findings. He stood up, took out a white handkerchief from his sleeve, and wiped the blood off his hand.
“Search the place for anything that we might have missed out. And take care of the bodies—every single one of them,” he said.
Then, he left the Heiyun Stockade with Xin Wei and Fang Zheng.
“The way the woman massacred the entire Heiyun Stockade is different from what we found in the other villages. It seems like there’s another evil cultivator out there who is responsible for the village massacres,” Luo Feng concluded.
Xin Wei and Fang Zheng were caught by surprise. They looked at their superior with an astonished look. They thought they could close the case after the death of the woman.
“Can’t you tell the difference?” Luo Feng frowned, slightly disappointed.
“The male victims of the village massacre had their blood drained while the female victims were skinned before they were dismembered. It is much more ruthless and gory than what we found here.
“The victims in Heiyun Stockade mostly lost their heads or had their hearts ripped out. Even though they are the handiworks of evil beings, the methods are different, so the evil cultivator behind it has different requirements.”
As Luo Feng analyzed the case for his subordinates, he put his hands behind his back and stood above the dwelling, staring further away.
“You two are still too slow and dull. Try to learn more by seeing and doing. If possible, try to learn a thing or two from Young Lord ‘Long Hoe’.”
…
In Anping County, the Heiyun Stockade had been wiped out like a dark cloud, disappearing without notice.
The news spread back to Anping County swiftly and shocked everyone. It was the fuse that ignited the keg loaded with fire powder.
Everyone was stunned by the news. The Heiyun Stockade was huge. How could it have disappeared overnight?
An anonymous soldier at the gate revealed that the emissaries from the court had brought the heavily injured Luo Hong back.
Luo Hong had been covered in wounds and his life was hanging by a thread as if he had been through a fearsome fight.
The said soldier had withstood the pressure and asked the emissary what happened.
Based on what the emissary said, the Heiyun Stockade was wiped out and Luo Hong was hugely involved.
The news spread like the wind.
“Oh my god! Young Lord ‘Long Hoe’ killed every bandit in the Heiyun Stockade with his sword!”
“Did Young Lord ‘Long Hoe’ join the Heiyun Stockade to remove them from existence?!”
“I was wrong! I shouldn’t have doubted the young lord! He is a good man. How could he become a bandit? He was trying to wipe out the bandits from harming society!”
The news spread out at explosive speed.
Every street, alley, and corner, as well as every restaurant, tea house, and even brothel knew about it.
The further the news spread, the more astonishing the news got.
It silenced everyone who doubted Luo Hong. Those who had scolded him and blamed him for his actions and even those who had spread malicious rumors about him felt embarrassed after hearing the news.
In the tea house, the storyteller shamelessly altered the news to make it sound even more dramatic.
“As Young Lord ‘Long Hoe’ drew his sword, the sword qi extended more than 150 meters and chopped the bandits’ heads off in a single blow. His white robe was free of blood and he remained elegant as ever as if he was a deity that had descended from the sky.
“After the 150-meter sword qi beheaded the bandits, it continued unleashing its might on the stockade with a bang! The stockade was ruined with a single blow and countless bandits died without their heads!
“It was like a flower that bloomed amidst the bloody massacre!
“Long Hoe ‘hoed’ the bandits with a single blow!”
The storyteller got so excited with his story that his saliva spewed from his mouth and his hands tapped ceaselessly.
Everyone in the tea house was captivated by his story and it aroused them.
After that, the storyteller exclaimed, “I once thought Young Lord ‘Long Hoe’ was unworthy of his title, he joined the dark side for the sake of the cultivation. Never did I expect him to endure the cold shoulder of society with his persistence! He wiped out the Heiyun Stockade alone with a single sword as an answer to all of us!”
“The young lord is courageous and righteous, and he’s the representative of justice of our county!”
“I was foolish to doubt the young lord!”
“We all owe the young lord an apology!”
As the storyteller then bowed in the direction of Luo Residence, everyone in the tea house cheered and applauded the man.
…
While the people of Anping County assumed that they owed Luo Hong an apology and got so emotional because of it, Luo Hong was clueless about what happened.
He was still lying down on the bed in the Luo Residence. His hands were shaking when he took the human skin manual.
Feeling bitter and anxious when he carefully opened it up to the statistics page, he gasped.
It was just a glance, but he was already shaking.
Before he could utter a word or catch a breath, his eyes went blank and he passed out once again.