After Breaking Off the Engagement, I Started Pursuing My Master-Chapter 96 - Yes
Chapter 96: Yes
“You…” The Jishi True Person let out a cry of astonishment and didn’t know what else to say.
He had never seen such alchemy before, not in a thousand and eight hundred years.
“What’s wrong?”
As he asked, Jiang Huai had already started refining the fourth pill. While refining, suddenly a heavenly-grade quality Emerald Jade Pill appeared in front of Jiang Huai.
This wasn’t refined by Jiang Huai but was taken out by the Jishi True Person from his legacy, “Quickly eat this; the injuries on your body cannot be delayed.”
If previously the Jishi True Person had looked down on Jiang Huai, waiting in this Burial Dragon Valley secret realm for who knows how long without finding a satisfactory successor, and had chosen Jiang Huai with the mindset of a last resort, now… he only hoped that Jiang Huai would stay well, and not faint from his severe injuries before the medicine was refined.
Who else could he discuss this unprecedented alchemy array technique with?
Jiang Huai nodded lightly, casually pinched another alchemy array to extract impurities from the pill, and after removing all the pill toxins from the Emerald Jade Pill, he then swallowed it. The Emerald Jade Pill entered his body, and his injuries and vital energy began to slowly heal and recover.
He continued to refine the pills. With a total of three hundred and ninety-two recipes, it still took some time. Jiang Huai kept drawing arrays seriously, and the Jishi True Person did not speak again, only occasionally bringing him one or two spirit pills to nourish his body and letting him eat them. Jiang Huai silently counted the time in his heart. After about five hours in the secret realm, he looked at the three hundred and ninety-two pills laid out before him, raised his head, his face showing no pride, still humbly and cautiously asking.
“Jishi True Person… is this acceptable?”
The Jishi True Person was stunned for about five or six breaths and finally sighed deeply, “It is acceptable.”
“Why does the Jishi True Person sigh?”
“I am a remnant soul of the Jishi True Person, and although I have the right to ease the difficulty of the following trials, the next trials were prepared by me during my lifetime and should not be changed lightly. Your talent in alchemy is even above mine, and your understanding of the Way of the Pill is so novel and interesting, but the next trial… the second stage is about questioning your heart. You cannot lie, and in this secret realm, you cannot lie. If you do, I will detect it. Therefore, the questions I will ask next, you can only answer truthfully.”
“Alright, when do we start?”
“We start now. I ask you if there is an evil cultivator who has committed heinous crimes, killed millions of innocent civilians, and is sought after by everyone in the cultivation world, and he captures your wife, threatening you to heal his injuries. Do you heal him or not?”
The voice of the Jishi True Person was very calm. Jiang Huai pondered for a moment.
“If I heal him, will he really let go of my wife?”
“He will.”
“Then I’ll heal him.”
“Even if after you heal him, he will kill millions more, even slaying countless righteous cultivators, would you still heal him?”
“I would.”
Since he couldn’t lie, Jiang Huai could only answer according to his heart. He put himself in the situation and thought about it. Whether the person captured was Chu Xianning, Wen Wanwan, Luo Qingyu, or Luo Yueguan, he would choose to heal. He couldn’t be a saint who cared for the masses; he only wanted the people around him to be well.
“If after you heal him, your wife despises the decision you made, and she would rather die in front of that evil cultivator, threatening you not to heal her. But you still healed the evil cultivator, and from then on, she leaves your side, severing the relationship between you as Dao companions, and you carry countless curses in the cultivation world. Would you still heal her?”
“I would,” Jiang Huai hesitated for a moment before softly answering.
“Why?”
“I want her to live. If healing her would let her live, then carrying curses is not a big deal.”
The voice of the Jishi True Person suddenly fell silent, and after a while, he slowly spoke.
“What if I tell you that you chose wrong… what would you think?”
“I do not seek the inheritance of the Jishi True Person. I am willing to share the way of the alchemy array with the Jishi True Person, and I am also willing to walk in the outside world for the Jishi True Person, to find what the Jishi True Person needs, or to fulfill any unfulfilled wishes. I only ask that the Jishi True Person save my friend.”
“She is just your friend, why do you go to such lengths for her?”
“I don’t have many friends, and even fewer are willing to risk their lives for me. A favor as small as a drop of water should be repaid with a spring.”
“Then I’ll ask you again, if I can heal her for you, but you have to kill all the casual cultivators and righteous cultivators who enter this secret realm, would you kill them? As long as you are willing to kill, then I guarantee that you and your friend can leave here alive.”
Jiang Huai suddenly fell silent.
He seriously and earnestly pondered this question.
From a young age, Chu Xianning taught him to be compassionate and never to be curious about the path of evil cultivators. Otherwise, she would personally clean up the sect. So when Jiang Huai encountered evil cultivators, he would kill them first and fast. Now this choice was presented before him.
If he took action and killed all the cultivators in this secret realm, what difference would there be between him and an evil cultivator?
One minute, maybe two minutes.
Jiang Huai raised his head, gazing at the space before him, and sighed lightly.
“If the True Person is really willing to save my friend, please heal my friend first, and I will kill. If I fail to do so, the True Person can take my life in exchange.”
“Don’t think about exploiting such loopholes with me. I don’t want your life. I’m just asking you, if I heal her, will you kill those cultivators? If you don’t, then I will kill her and then you, and neither of you will live. So you can only choose whether to kill the cultivators in this secret realm to save her.”
Jiang Huai lowered his head and was silent again for half an incense stick’s time, then looked up, “I will kill.”
In this space, it was impossible to lie, and Jiang Huai did not lie. He seriously considered it for a long time, even the Evil Accumulation System in his ear began to ding incessantly, eagerly hoping that he would immediately nod and agree.
This was also the first time he seriously looked at the system’s tasks, instead of just glancing at them and then putting them off to be done later.
Even the Evil Accumulation System, fearing that he might feel insecure, deliberately released the following task:
【You know very well that all the morals of this world are but man-made shackles. The cultivation world’s so-called resistance to evil cultivators is merely out of fear that if everyone becomes an evil cultivator, it will lead to a situation where everyone is in danger. Since ancient times, it has always been the case that one man’s success is built on the bones of many.】
【Now your good friend Bai Li is seriously injured. She once saved your life, and you must not sit idly by.】
【Eliminate all casual cultivators within the secret realm. During this period, the system will sustain Bai Li’s life until you have killed all the casual cultivators. The system will provide you with the secret method to save Bai Li’s life.】
【Task Reward: Refine the Dragon Crystal for Bai Li to save her life.】
【High-grade experience scroll*3.】
Jiang Huai slightly furrowed his brows. Previously, when Bai Li was critically injured and on the brink of death in his arms, the system did not issue a mission. Yet now, the mission had quietly descended.
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To this day, he still couldn’t grasp the pattern of the system’s mission releases. The mission explanation stated that it was based on his subconscious inner greed, but occasionally the information provided was not absolutely correct. When Jiang Huai wanted to ask questions, the system would only respond with formulaic answers that all explanations belonged to the system.
Jiang Huai looked at the expanse of blank space before him and suddenly felt his heart growing colder.
It seemed as if another voice in his head was desperately persuading him not to do it, but the image of Bai Li covered in blood reappeared before his eyes.
“You have passed the second trial.”
The voice of the Jishi True Person seemed to carry a hint of hearty laughter. Jiang Huai looked up, puzzled.
“I am Jishi, the ninnth realm Immortal Venerable from a thousand years ago. In the year of my seventh realm, I was already one of the best healers of the time. My wife, Yao Miao, was the renowned righteous fairy of Tianyi Sect in the entire Eastern Region. An evil cultivator of the eighth realm initially came to me, wanting me to heal his injuries. I refused, even at the cost of my life, until he captured my wife and threatened me with her life.”
“I healed his injuries, and he did indeed let both me and my wife go. Perhaps he thought he might need my healing skills again in the future. But from then on, my wife became a stranger to me, and we never spoke again.”
“She blamed me for healing the evil cultivator, saying that it would plunge the Eastern Region into chaos once more. At that time, she wanted to die to prove her point, but the evil cultivator prevented her suicide. After he left, she and I parted ways. From then on, my Dao Heart was clouded, and even though I was seriously injured during my cultivation later, she refused to come to me. She never reached the eighth realm and died in depression.”
Jiang Huai listened quietly to Jishi True Person’s narrative, and after a long silence, he said.
“It seems there is no solution to this problem.”
“From that day on, I abandoned alchemy to practice swordsmanship, and after three hundred years, I beheaded that evil cultivator to commemorate my wife.”
“I have tried to take disciples in my life, but I never really liked any of them. Some lacked talent, some had the wrong temperament. In fact, I didn’t care whether a disciple’s temperament was good or bad; I just hoped to find one whose temperament matched mine, but it was always difficult to encounter.”
“When my wife was seriously injured, I eventually went to find her. Her injuries required the blood from the hearts of three thousand boys and girls. She would rather die than let me use such a remedy. So, I could only watch her die in depression. Later, I thought about it for a long time but still didn’t know whether I was right or wrong. Originally, the second trial only had one question, not two, but now that I’ve met you, I wanted to ask you. I don’t care about the rightness of the answer; maybe I just want to tell myself that I never wronged anyone.”
“True Person… is indeed worthy of everyone,” Jiang Huai said softly.
“These are all old stories. Now that you’ve broken through the second trial, then… it’s time for the third one. Your talent in the Way of the Pill is sufficient, and your temperament is very much to my liking, but there is still the third trial… This trial is to test your sword intent, to see if it’s as terrifying as Ye Ning said. The swordsmanship I practiced is the Compassionate Sword, which glimpses the cycle of karma in life and death. To understand this sword, you need to comprehend one-tenth of my sword intent within twelve hours in this space to enter the final trial.”
Jiang Huai nodded slightly.
In an instant, everything before him changed again.
Now he stood still, unable to move, while the memories of Jishi True Person’s life flashed before him rapidly. These memories were all of his insights into swordsmanship and the moments when he wielded his sword. Jiang Huai watched very carefully, not daring to miss any detail.
He earnestly perceived all the images and memories, and Jishi True Person said.
“Alright, I will show you one more time.”
Jiang Huai was startled and asked softly, “Huh? Why watch it again?”
Jishi True Person was also taken aback, suddenly having a terrible premonition.
Jiang Huai hesitated for a moment, then spoke softly.
“If I only need to comprehend one-tenth… then I have learned it.”
