Chapter 52: Chapter 52 - Supply Chain Optimization and the Unregulated Cancer

The air tore apart as Su Bai tore through the sky. His flying sword screamed against the wind resistance.

His eyes were incredibly sharp but his expression was dark. This was a massive oversight on his part. He had spent his life in this world viewing Demonic Cultivators as the ultimate evil and mortals as innocent bystanders.

He had completely underestimated human greed.

’It makes perfect sense,’ Su Bai’s corporate mind turned bitterly. ’A Demonic Cultivator isn’t going to waste their time standing in a tent, taking pulses, and pretending to be a charity worker. They outsourced the collection process. They provided the plague, and the mortals did the dirty work.’

Su Bai hated corrupt systems. Seeing mortals sell out their own kind mirrored the absolute worst of corporate middle-management. It was stepping on those below you to please the terrifying executives above you.

As the peaks of the northern region began to blur past him, Su Bai took a deep breath. He needed to calm his mind. He was a cultivator now, not a mindless vigilante. If he made an irrational decision, he would die.

It didn’t take long.

Far below, winding through a narrow mountain pass, he spotted a procession of iron-barred carriages.

Su Bai dropped his altitude, then engaged his Moon-Shadow Cloak to mask his presence as he glided silently above the caravan. He swept his Spiritual Sense downward.

The guards walking alongside the carriages were not cultivators. There wasn’t a single ounce of spiritual energy among them. They were entirely mortal collaborators, carrying heavy crossbows.

Su Bai ignored them. His Spiritual Sense pierced the thick wooden walls of the carriages.

He found Yan’er immediately in the second carriage. She was huddled together with five other children. Su Bai let out a microscopic sigh of relief. They were unconscious, but their vital signs were steady. They hadn’t been harmed.

He then shifted his scan to the lead carriage, looking for the young mother and the other adults.

When his Spiritual Sense penetrated the wood, Su Bai completely froze in mid-air.

Sitting perfectly upright on a wooden bench inside the carriage was the young mother. She was staring blankly ahead with her hands resting neatly on her lap.

Su Bai’s heart pounded. His breath hitched.

There was no heartbeat.

He pushed his Spiritual Sense deeper, and a wave of absolute, sickening horror washed over him.

The mother’s internal organs had been completely hollowed out. Her chest cavity was tightly packed with volatile blood-crystals and illegal, highly condensed Demonic artifacts. The skin had been flawlessly sewn back together.

Something inside Su Bai snapped.

Throughout his entire life in this world, he had treated his existence like a corporate job. He avoided trouble and calculated risks to protect his "profit" and his survival. He had convinced himself he was a rational, apathetic drone.

But seeing a mother turned into a literal, disposable shipping crate shattered his apathy into a million pieces.

’They didn’t just kill her,’ Su Bai realized. His mind reeled with profound disgust. ’They optimized her. They looked at a desperate human life and saw a biological packaging solution to bypass border checkpoints. I thought I was a ruthless corporate drone... but these people are an unregulated cancer.’

Su Bai opened his eyes. The tired, pragmatic look he usually carried was gone. His eyes were currently as dark and dead as the void.

Just then, he stepped off his flying sword, and plummeted toward the earth.

He landed directly in front of the moving caravan. The impact shattered the road, sending up a massive plume of dust.

The caravan ground to a violent halt. The mortal collaborators shouted in alarm. They immediately raised their crossbows and drew their steel swords.

"Who goes there?!" the lead guard barked. He aimed his weapon at the lone figure standing in the mist. "Move aside, or we fire!"

Su Bai didn’t say a word. He didn’t monologue. He didn’t draw a weapon. He didn’t even look at them.

What is right and wrong? Even as a man who had lived two lives, it was hard to answer that. In this brutal cultivation world, was killing wrong? Was helping wrong? He didn’t have the answers.

But at this moment, he wanted to act. And that was enough.

Su Bai simply let out a breath and released his absolute, unhindered Qi suppression.

To a Foundation Establishment cultivator, this was just a heavy flex of aura. But to mortals, it was like a mountain being dropped on their chests.

CRACK. SQUELCH.

The sheer, suffocating pressure of a Stage 2 Foundation Establishment aura slammed into the guards. They didn’t even have time to scream. Their internal organs ruptured instantly. Blood violently exploded from their noses and mouths as they collapsed to the road, dead before they hit the ground.

Su Bai controlled the blast radius perfectly. The carriage holding the children remained entirely untouched.

He walked past the bleeding corpses without a single flicker of emotion on his face. He felt absolutely nothing from killing them. They were defective parts in a corrupted machine. He had simply recalled them.

He stopped in front of the lead carriage, looking at the hollowed-out adults inside.

He closed his eyes. He didn’t know what heavenly retribution awaited him for meddling so deeply in mortal affairs. But he knew the Karmic Debt he had with the little girl sleeping in the next carriage was now forged in iron. If he didn’t see this through to the absolute end, he would never be able to cultivate in peace again.

Just as Su Bai raised his hand to gently dismantle the carriage, a booming, terrifying energy shot out from the peaks above.

BOOM!

A Demonic Cultivator descended from the sky. He landed heavily on top of the lead carriage. The wood splintered under his weight.

Su Bai realized instantly.

They must be incredibly close to the Demonic Sect’s regional stronghold. The supply drop-off point.

The man was a 5th Stage Foundation Establishment cultivator. He was tall and gaunt, and his skin was a sickening shade of gray. He wore robes stitched together from human skin, and a massive, jagged bone-cleaver rested on his shoulder. Miasma literally leaked from his pores.

"Oh ho," the gaunt demon sneered. His raspy voice grated against the wind. "So you are the rat who caused a commotion."

He didn’t immediately look at Su Bai. He turned his head and licked his pale lips as his Spiritual Sense swept over the second carriage.

"Ah... the fresh ingredients have arrived," he chuckled darkly. "And you. I don’t know how you found us, but I suppose an extra appetizer wouldn’t hurt."

Su Bai remained perfectly silent. He just stared up at the demonic man.

He didn’t leak a single drop of ambient aura. He looked like an incredibly pale, exhausted mortal standing in the road.

"Hmm?" The demonic cultivator frowned, finally looking down at Su Bai. He was genuinely confused as to whether Su Bai was a cultivator or not.

But then, the demon’s eyes turned completely manic. "Ah, it doesn’t matter. Now that you’ve seen my face, I can’t let you live anyway!"

Without waiting for a reply, or even a basic introduction, the gaunt demon lunged from the roof of the carriage.

He swung the massive bone-cleaver down with terrifying force. He aimed to bisect Su Bai in a single strike. Thick, highly corrosive Demonic Qi erupted from the blade, screaming like trapped ghosts.

It was a lethal, unavoidable 5th Stage strike.

Su Bai just stood there. His eyes reflected the descending blade.