Lü Yang felt this was the moment he needed to step up.
At this point, he too could see the mastermind's plan. It was obviously to fundamentally negate Demon-Vanquishing Perfected's entire life of wielding a sword without killing.
'This is an attack on his very soul...'
Sword Intent was the culmination of a Cultivator's lifelong obsession, a convergence of their will. When strong, it was as unyielding as tempered steel, their resolve unshakable. But when weak, it was as fragile as a clay figure, toppling at the slightest push.
Demon-Vanquishing Perfected's Non-Killing Sword Intent was just like that. If he were truly questioned and contradicted by someone he had once saved, causing him to doubt himself, his Non-Killing Sword Intent would inevitably weaken. When that happened, it would no longer be able to suppress the immense Fortune on his body, and Demon-Vanquishing Perfected would immediately have to begin Seeking Gold!
'I can't let them get their way!'
Lü Yang believed he had figured out the intentions of Exorcist Zhenren and Buddha's Son Guang Ming. He immediately took a step forward, planning to help Demon-Vanquishing Perfected out of this predicament, but a hand pressed down lightly on his shoulder.
"There's no need."
Demon-Vanquishing Perfected held him back, shaking his head. He then walked forward, looked at the old man, and said, "The Pure Land may be bright and beautiful, but it is no place of benevolence."
"The so-called Monks, though many now call them the Righteous Dao, are, in my eyes, a demonic faction. Joining them may offer temporary benefits, but the poison they leave behind is endless... I know you listened to their bewitching words because your life is nearing its end and your heart is filled with fear. It's alright. That's only human."
Demon-Vanquishing Perfected watched the old man quietly.
His gaze was calm, without a hint of killing intent or pressure. Yet under the watch of those eyes, the old man found it almost impossible not to look away.
He didn't dare to look.
Was it guilt? A guilty conscience?
It was neither.
It was because of anger.
"...Don't look at me like that."
The next second, the old man's jaw trembled as he said in a low voice, "Has anyone ever told you... the way you look at people isn't the way you look at a person at all!"
It was a strange feeling. To the old man, Demon-Vanquishing Perfected's gaze didn't seem to be on a living person, but on an object—an artifact riddled with cracks that needed to be handled with care. That was why he was being so patient.
How could this make him trust Demon-Vanquishing Perfected?
From beginning to end, the man hadn't even treated him like a human. How could his words be trusted? How could he know he wasn't just being deceived and fooled!
For a moment, the old man felt a knot of frustration tightening in his chest.
Meanwhile, Demon-Vanquishing Perfected was also taken aback.
"My gaze?"
He pondered for a moment, then smiled. "So that's it. Is that why you doubt me? You've misunderstood... I don't just look at you that way."
After he spoke, Lü Yang noticed Demon-Vanquishing Perfected glance back at him.
It was bizarre. It was just a single glance, but he could still read the man's thoughts: it was like looking at a prize-winning leek and a rare True Treasure.
Even without that look, he would have suspected Demon-Vanquishing Perfected had other plans for him, but that gaze turned his suspicion into certainty.
The Spiritual Sense of a Foundation-Stage Cultivator was extremely sharp.
In contrast, Demon-Vanquishing Perfected's gaze was far too strange.
It was clearly filled with the Divine Effect of some Ability, enough to trigger a Foundation Establishment Spiritual Sense. That was why a single look could make someone feel so uneasy.
But what was the Divine Effect behind it?
"In my entire life, I do not kill people."
Demon-Vanquishing Perfected explained, "However, the Non-Killing Sword Intent is easy to cultivate but hard to maintain. To that end, I sometimes have to stop seeing people as people..."
At these words, both Lü Yang and the old man were stunned.
It was that simple?
'Because I don't kill, sometimes I can't see people as people... Does that mean in Demon-Vanquishing Perfected's eyes, I really am a prize leek?'
'Literally?'
'This is too absurd...'
Lü Yang only thought the word to himself, but the old man shouted it aloud, sneering, "Are you trying to fob me off with such an absurd claim?"
Demon-Vanquishing Perfected didn't explain further. Instead, he asked in return, "Then, Shi Yuan, what do you want?"
His gaze toward the old man was still calm.
In his view, the old man before him was merely being used by schemers. It would be best to persuade him to back down and avoid getting caught up in this storm.
But the old man was unwilling.
So he gritted his teeth... Lü Yang had been right about one thing. If the target hadn't been Demon-Vanquishing Perfected, and if someone powerful wasn't backing him and guaranteeing his safety, there was no way he, the leader of a mere Loose Cultivator faction, would have dared to cause trouble at the Sword Pavilion. Yet, in the end, he had come.
"...Kill me, then."
After a moment of silence, the old man spoke, looking directly at Demon-Vanquishing Perfected. "Behead me. If I don't die, it proves everything you said before was true."
"If I die, then use my death to show everyone your hypocrisy."
"An excellent idea. Let's do that."
Hearing this, Demon-Vanquishing Perfected nodded in agreement, clearly full of confidence... because people he beheaded truly did not die.
"SHING!"
Before the old man could speak again, Demon-Vanquishing Perfected had already drawn his sword. The Non-Killing Sword moved like a phantom, tracing a seamless arc across the man's neck.
The next second, Demon-Vanquishing Perfected plucked the head from his shoulders.
Not a single drop of blood was spilled.
But before Demon-Vanquishing Perfected could speak, the old man's head suddenly shot its eyes wide open. Its face twisted, and a roar exploded from its mouth:
"The pain is killing me!"
As the words fell, the body and head—which had just been decapitated without spilling a drop of blood—suddenly gushed forth a river of it!
In an instant, the hand Demon-Vanquishing Perfected used to hold the head was stained red. And the old man, having let out that final cry, closed his eyes for good. All signs of life drained from his face, and in moments, it became a dead man's head, tumbling from Demon-Vanquishing Perfected's grasp to the ground.
A Soul silently drifted out, carrying with it infinite resentment as it fell into the herworld.
'He's dead...'
"He's dead..."
The first voice rose from the surrounding crowd, then rapidly swelled into a thunderous roar, all articulating the same fact:
The old man, Mo Shiyuan, was dead!
The world-renowned Non-Killing Sword, which should never have taken a life, now had its first victim—killed by the hand of Demon-Vanquishing Perfected himself!
"Master..."
Lü Yang looked cautiously at Demon-Vanquishing Perfected.
He saw the man suddenly shake his head.
"Ah..."
The second sigh carried a powerful "intent" with it, so strong that it caused an inexplicable but intensely deep sorrow to bloom in Lü Yang's heart.
As for the others, they simply broke down, wailing.
'Sword Intent!?'
For a moment, Lü Yang was utterly shaken. Though they both possessed Sword Intent, his and Demon-Vanquishing Perfected's Non-Killing Sword Intent were on two completely different levels.
Even now, when Demon-Vanquishing Perfected wasn't actively channeling his Non-Killing Sword Intent, a mere uncontrollable outpouring of his true emotions was enough to affect everyone around him! Even Lü Yang, who had also refined his own Sword Intent, couldn't escape its influence. It showed just how far down this Great Dao he had walked.
「Meanwhile, inside the Earth-Piercing Abyss.」
Exorcist Zhenren shot to his feet, his face flush with excitement. "It worked...! His Sword Intent is out of control!"
From the very beginning, he never expected Mo Shiyuan's psychological barbs to have much effect. The death at the very end—that was the key to his entire scheme!
'Demon-Vanquishing Perfected has been able to walk his own unique path for so long. How could a few mere words possibly sway him?'
'To break his Sword Intent and make him unable to suppress his growing Fortune, forcing him into Seeking Gold to sacrifice to his sword, the only way was to attack the very foundation—his Non-Killing Sword Intent...'
'Non-Killing Sword Intent?'
'I'll make you kill someone! The moment you do, your Sword Intent will shatter on its own!'
Demon-Vanquishing Perfected understood this entire plot the instant he saw Mo Shiyuan die. That was why he had let out that second sigh.
'My Non-Killing Sword Intent, and the Sword Technique it's based on, are enshrined within my family clan.'
'To be able to target my Sword Intent like this, to make my sword claim a life... the only possibility is that they went to my clan and obtained the Sword Technique I left there.'
'If they had taken it by force, I would surely have known.'
'Therefore... the Ye Family must have offered it up willingly, in secret.'
It was precisely because he had figured it all out that an irrepressible sense of desolation had washed over him in that instant, causing him to lose control of his Sword Intent.
Today's events were orchestrated by someone within the Sword Pavilion, and the old man's death was caused by a betrayal from within his own family.
'I see... The Sect, my family... neither can stand to see me live.'
"BOOM!"
The next second, Demon-Vanquishing Perfected's Daoist Robe instantly turned blood-red. From beneath his shattered Non-Killing Sword Intent, a monstrous killing intent surged forth!
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