Li Yuan stared at him for several moments before asking, “Even so, that power is enough to completely destroy an ordinary person’s body. Vow power may not be inherently harmful, but the amount being poured in far exceeds the limit of what a mortal body can endure. An ordinary person simply couldn't withstand it. Yet, when I checked Ramina’s condition on the altar, her body hadn't suffered any damage—how is that possible?”
The old man lowered his head, looking at his gaunt hands.
“All that damage and pain... I take it upon myself.”
Li Yuan’s expression froze for a moment, and he wondered if he had misheard—what did he mean by taking it all himself?
“Vernas once said she couldn't bear to see her believers suffer.” The old man’s voice was very soft, as if he were recalling something beautiful, and a faint smile appeared at the corners of his mouth. “So, at every festival, I transfer all the impact of the vow power on the medium’s body to myself. I bear all the pain. In any case, this body of mine was already mostly corroded by blood fiend energy long ago; a few more injuries or a few less doesn't make much of a difference.”
Li Yuan fell silent again. Was he truly certain this old man was an evil cultivator? He felt more like that old bald... monk who fed the eagle with his own flesh.
Having lived for so many years, Li Yuan believed he had seen enough evil cultivators to have a clear understanding of their kind. But every word this old man said and every action he took seemed to grind his preconceived notions of evil cultivators into the dirt.
He was a total anomaly among evil cultivators.
The old man didn't seem to notice the change in Li Yuan’s expression and continued. “That being said, the squeezing of the soul when vow power is poured in is very real. In the early years, the festivals were small, and the faith and vow power collected weren't much. At most, the medium’s soul would suffer some tremors and recover after a few days of rest without leaving any lasting effects. But in recent years, there have been more and more believers, and the scale of the festivals has grown larger, with far more vow power pouring in than before. Even if I bear the physical damage, the impact on the soul level is still difficult to completely dissipate. So, over the past century, the medium’s soul has been damaged after every festival—not fatally, but enough that they can no longer live like normal people.”
He paused and looked up at Li Yuan.
“So, after each festival is completed and Vernas has finished absorbing the vow power, I use my own divine soul to repair their damaged spirits. Once their souls are restored, I use other methods to send them back to their families.”
Li Yuan was stunned by what he heard.
“Repairing them with your divine soul?” His tone was filled with disbelief. “Do you have any idea that once a divine soul is cut, it can never be restored? Unless a cultivator of the same rank or higher is willing to sacrifice themselves... Even if an ordinary person’s soul is far inferior to yours, you might hold out after once or twice, but after a hundred times—how much of your divine soul could possibly be left?”
The old man did not answer the question, but simply continued calmly.
“As for the method of sending them back, everyone’s choice is different. Some want to become cats, some want to become dogs, and some want to become birds—I respect their choices. Others feel it's better to live a new life, so I send them to be reincarnated as infants. Of course, there are also those who are unwilling to leave, saying they want to serve the God of Light forever, and I respect their choices as well. In short, after their souls are repaired, I return them to their families. It's just that their original bodies can no longer be used; there is truly nothing I can do about that.”
Li Yuan opened his mouth, but for a moment, he didn't know what to say. He had just confirmed the state of the old man’s soul—it was in tatters.
The surface of his divine soul was covered with dense cracks, old and new wounds overlapping and intersecting like shards of broken porcelain that had been repeatedly cut and then barely pieced back together.
For any other cultivator, damage of this magnitude would have caused their soul to disperse long ago, or at the very least, they would have fallen into a deep slumber in a state of suspended animation. But this old man before him seemed... not to be greatly affected, even though he was indeed close to death.
This was a path he had never imagined—if an evil cultivator could do all this, they would no longer have anything to do with the word 'evil.' One might even need to give him a medal for being one of the Top Ten Figures Who Moved the Cultivation World.
Li Yuan stared at the old man for a long time. After suppressing the turmoil in his heart, his voice was a few shades lower when he finally spoke.
“Those villages outside the city... were they your doing as well?”
The old man did not avoid the question and nodded directly in admission.
“Back then, those villages were built by Vernas and the earliest believers. Over time, some villages were abandoned or the people died out due to plagues, famines, wars, and so on. By the time I discovered it, those villages were completely empty.”
He lowered his eyes, his hand resting on the coffin lid tightening slightly.
“So I turned their corpses into puppets to keep the villages running. I just wanted her to see that nothing had changed when she woke up—that the villages were still there, the people were still there, and everything was exactly as it was when she left.”
After hearing this, Li Yuan felt his worldview and outlook on life being ground into the dirt once again.
In all his years, he thought he had seen enough strange and marvelous things in the cultivation world to no longer be surprised, but everything this old man did subverted his entire understanding of the term 'evil cultivator.'
He remained silent for a long time, and the killing intent in his heart had vanished at some point, replaced by a complex, inexplicable emotion that was a mix of admiration and pity.
Forget it...
He sighed inwardly, suppressing his chaotic thoughts for the time being. Since this old man was not a bloodthirsty villain, there was no need for him to continue maintaining the posture of eliminating demons and defending the Dao.
However, there was still one thing he needed to clarify—the original reason for his trip.
“There is a man in the kingdom named Ignatius who has a mark on him that is continuously draining his life force and soul.” Li Yuan spoke again, his gaze fixed on the old man’s face. “Was that mark placed by you?”
The old man’s expression did not waver as he heard this, and he admitted frankly, “Yes.”
“It's not just him,” the old man added. “Every descendant of the Ranchiloko Dynasty has this mark on them.”
Li Yuan’s gaze narrowed slightly. He looked at the old man, then at the girl lying peacefully in the coffin. Combining this with the timeline the old man had mentioned earlier, a suspicion began to take shape in his mind.
He looked at the old man suspiciously, his tone becoming uncertain. “The God of Light becoming like this... could it be that the Blood Moon God did it?”
A flicker of bitterness crossed the old man’s face, and he nodded.
“If not for that, I wouldn't have used such a mark to torment those people.” His voice was calm, but there was a hint of coldness in his tone that Li Yuan hadn't noticed before. “The thing created by the Ranchiloko Dynasty took advantage of an external invasion of the Divine Realm to ambush Vernas. Her godhead was shattered in that battle. So, I placed an extraction mark on every descendant of the Ranchiloko Dynasty. The life force and soul essence drawn from them are all used to sustain Vernas’s life—I want them to stay alive and continue to provide a steady stream of nourishment for her.”
Hearing this, Li Yuan finally connected all the clues.
No wonder the mark he had seen on Ignatius earlier appeared to be covered in the aura of the Blood Moon God, but was actually continuously draining his life force and soul source.
It turned out the old man had orchestrated everything—the people of the Blood Moon Cult thought they were sacrificing themselves for the descent of their god, but in reality, every bit of their contribution was serving as nourishment for their enemy.
“And what about the Blood Moon God itself?” Li Yuan pressed.
“I placed a mark on it as well.” The old man’s tone was flat, as if he were speaking of a trivial matter. “Every bit of power it has absorbed over the years is purified by the Heaven-Essence Crystal and then transferred to Vernas. Otherwise, relying solely on the vow power from this city wouldn't have sustained her for so many years.”
Li Yuan fell silent, while inwardly offering a second of silence for the people of the Blood Moon Cult.
Those people had spent centuries, generation after generation, carrying on their so-called 'great cause of revenge.' They had sacrificed countless lives, planned countless attacks, and even unhesitatingly thrown their own lives into the fray—only to find that in the end, all their efforts and sacrifices were just working for someone else from the very beginning.
And those cultists they viewed as 'materials' didn't even get peace after death; their residual life force was still being drained to provide nourishment for their enemy's survival.
On second thought, the way the Blood Moon Cult operated made this outcome not entirely undeserved. One could even say that although the old man’s tactic was sinister, from the results, it had indirectly maintained world peace.
Having reached this point in his understanding, the urge to demand accountability in Li Yuan’s heart had completely vanished. His grievance with the Blood Moon Cult was, after all, just about his tea shop being blown up.
Now, the person responsible for blowing up his tea shop was nearly dead and had no money, and the royal family’s compensation was on its way. To keep holding a grudge would only make him look petty.
As for the feud between this old man and the Blood Moon Cult, that was their own business. As an outsider, there was no need for him to interfere—especially since, from the current situation, although the old man was ruthless, he wasn't without reason.
Li Yuan let out a soft breath and sat back down on the tree stump stool, the coldness in his gaze toward the old man gone.
“...How much longer do you plan to keep these things a secret?”
“Until Vernas awakens.”
“Then you might not make it that long... your life is almost at its end.”
The old man smiled, a few dry cough-like laughs escaping his throat, and said frankly:
“Then I shall choose to die together with her.”
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