Chapter 16

Chapter 16: The Demon Monk and the Impulse to Kill

The girl in the red clothes was stamping her feet in irritation.

Those one thousand medium-grade spirit stones were for her sect to purchase talismans from the Tianfu Sect, meant to deal with the recently emerged demon monk.

Now, instead of making a profit from selling spirit herbs, she had lost all her savings.

“It’s all your senior brother’s fault!”

The girl in red kicked the man beside her in anger.

The man got up, his face twisted in despair; his mouth had been slapped askew by Chen Ansheng.

“How was I supposed to know he was in the Nascent Soul stage?” The man felt a bit regretful, but it didn’t mean he was willing to accept defeat. “Junior Sister, let’s hurry back to the sect and call for help to capture that bastard and torture him severely.”

“You still have the face to arrest someone else! Besides, he looks around my age, probably only sixteen or seventeen. If he has reached the Nascent Soul stage at such a young age, his sect must be impressive. If we really get involved, the sect will probably tie you up and send you to apologize!” The girl in red was furious beyond measure.

The man shrank his neck; his junior sister had a point.

This time, it seemed they had really hit a hard wall.

“Then what do you suggest we do?”

“What else can we do? You’ll have to compensate those one thousand medium-grade spirit stones. You must bring the talismans back, or you can just wait to be crippled and expelled from the sect!”

“I don’t have that many spirit stones!”

The man was flustered, looking pitiful.

“I don’t care.” The girl in red turned her face away, not wanting to see such a dismal sight, then added, “Didn’t you have that heirloom treasure, the ‘Ice Silkworm Robe’? Why not sell it?”

“How can I do that? If my father finds out, he will definitely kill me!” The man exclaimed in agitation.

“Then figure it out.”

After discussing for a while, the man decided to first pawn the heirloom at Tianfu Sect, then use it to buy back the talismans.

…

After Chen Ansheng came out, he first bought a few sets of clothes.

Then, he strolled leisurely through the streets for half a day.

During this time, he heard a few rather interesting pieces of news.

The first was that a “forbidden zone” had appeared about ten miles from this town, where many prestigious sect masters had gathered, preparing to inspect the situation.

The second was that a demon monk, reported to have killed many people, had recently appeared in the region under the jurisdiction of the Taihao Immortal Sect, and several major sects were working together to capture him.

Chen Ansheng had originally shown no interest in the “demon monk.”

However, when he extended his divine sense to probe the forbidden zone, he discovered a monk with heavy demonic energy had actually entered that so-called forbidden zone.

What was stranger was that even his divine sense could not penetrate the boundary of the forbidden zone.

“How interesting, I should go take a look.”

Soon, Chen Ansheng arrived at a valley outside the city.

The area within a hundred miles ahead was enveloped in a layer of gray mist, which was where the forbidden zone was located.

Outside the forbidden zone, several major sects had sent experts to check the situation.

“Forbidden zone! Step back!”

Chen Ansheng had originally planned to walk directly in. Just over ten zhang from the edge of the gray mist, a disciple in green clothes drew his sword to block Chen Ansheng.

“Don’t worry about my safety,” Chen Ansheng said calmly.

“Get lost! Who cares whether you live or die? This place is designated as a forbidden zone by our three major sects; no one is allowed to approach, so get out of here!” The disciple spoke arrogantly.

“Oh really?” Chen Ansheng raised an eyebrow and said, “Then I also declare that from now on, this place is designated as my forbidden zone, and you can get the hell out!”

The disciple was left dazed by Chen Ansheng’s imposing presence.

The others standing nearby sensed that Chen Ansheng’s aura was formidable.

“Junior Brother, let him go if he wants to seek death.”

A white-clad young man called out, gesturing for the green-clad disciple to step aside.

“Yes, Senior Brother.”

The trembling green-clad disciple finally retreated.

Chen Ansheng, too lazy to teach him a lesson, walked straight towards the forbidden zone.

Behind him, the group of sect experts looked down upon him.

“A mere Nascent Soul cultivator dares to come to the forbidden zone and act tough. He won’t even know how he dies later.”

“Probably just an ignorant loose cultivator; his death wouldn’t be regrettable.”

“Amitabha, the ignorant are fearless. Let me help him find peace,” said one of the monks.

“Master Mengyi is truly compassionate. By the way, Master Mengyi, have you caught that traitor from your sect who has fallen to the demonic path?” An elder from Taihao Sect asked.

“We came here precisely for that matter,” the monk answered.

“Oh? Could it be that the wretch is hiding in the forbidden zone?”

“Indeed.”

…

Upon entering the gray mist area, Chen Ansheng was initially cautious.

However, as he gradually delved deeper, he felt no danger at all.

As for the gray mist, it merely inhibited the penetration of his divine sense and posed no harm to Chen Ansheng.

Once inside, the impact on his divine sense was drastically reduced.

In just a short span of one hundred miles, Chen Ansheng’s divine sense easily enveloped the region.

In the next moment, he vanished, appearing before a cave filled with dark energy.

“It’s only been a little over a month since we last met, and I never expected you, Zhi Zhang, to have turned to demonhood. What a strange turn of events.”

Chen Ansheng spoke to the cave, his voice echoing like rolling thunder within.

Indeed!

The joint pursuit of the demon monk by the sects was none other than Zhi Zhang, the monk from the Nameless Peak, who had disappeared over a month ago.

The moment Chen Ansheng entered the gray mist area, he locked onto his aura and location with his divine sense, thus recognizing him.

Inside the cave, Zhi Zhang was seated by a pool of black water.

Upon hearing that chilling voice, he instinctively stood up.

At that moment, his complexion darkened; his once bright eyes had disappeared, replaced by two sinister black holes.

“Who are you!”

Zhi Zhang’s demonic energy surged restlessly as he grabbed a nearby skeletal staff and hurled it outward.

“Boom!”

Zhi Zhang didn’t care who had arrived!

After all, anyone who came should be killed!

He swung the staff down, sending forth a torrent of demonic flames.

The pitch-black streams of demonic energy morphed into terrifying, ghastly skulls, surging towards Chen Ansheng.

Chen Ansheng gathered his celestial power and unleashed a rather mundane palm strike.

Primarily, he had no flashy techniques to showcase.

When the two forces collided, his celestial power effortlessly obliterated the menacing demonic force.

Zhi Zhang himself was also knocked back by the celestial energy, crashing heavily against the mountain wall behind him.

“Hahaha!”

Wounded by one strike, Zhi Zhang instead laughed maniacally.

“What merits do I possess to draw a high-ranking Celestial Master to take action against me? You hypocritical scoundrels will eventually descend into hell and never see liberation!”

Upon finishing his words, he raised his demonic staff and swung it downward.

Facing a Celestial Master, Zhi Zhang knew he had no chance of resistance, so he chose to end his life, hoping for a more dignified death.

“Tsk-tsk, your eyes have been gouged out. That’s a tragedy for sure, but there’s no need to seek death. I can give you celestial crystal; you can give me the Buddhist bead. We can at least establish some rapport, can we not? If you have any issues, we might as well discuss them.”

Once this was said, the demonic staff poised over Zhi Zhang’s head came to a halt.

“Y-You are that esteemed senior!” Zhi Zhang finally understood.

Before Chen Ansheng could respond, Zhi Zhang heavily knelt, black tears flowing from his empty eye sockets.

“Esteemed Senior! I beseech you to uphold justice for me!”

It wasn’t that Chen Ansheng wanted to meddle; he simply wanted to understand how a once-promising Buddhist genius had transformed into this ghastly state in just over a month.

“Speak up.”

Chen Ansheng said nonchalantly.

Zhi Zhang didn’t stand up; instead, he bowed again, tears streaming down his face, “Respected Senior, that day you granted me celestial crystals; I intended to take them back to the sect to save my master, but unexpectedly, I was intercepted by a few greedy senior uncles. They wanted to split the celestial crystals with me, but I refused, and they beat me mercilessly.

“Losing my eyesight and mortal roots is nothing, but it’s tragic for Qing’er. Those rogue monks insisted that the crystals you gifted were fake, capturing Qing’er back to the sect and imprisoning her under the True Thunder Pagoda, where she has suffered immensely. I wanted to rescue her, but my abilities were insufficient…”

Chen Ansheng didn’t expect it to be such a situation!

He was filled with a desire to kill.

However, he managed to suppress his inner turmoil and asked, “Why didn’t they kill you? How did you end up in the forbidden zone?”

Zhi Zhang replied, “Respected Senior, on that day, I was indeed killed by those rogue monks. They tossed me into a river. When I woke up, somehow, I had drifted into a pool in this cave, and as a result, I fell into the demonic path.”

Chen Ansheng nodded slightly and asked again, “You said you wanted to rescue Qing’er; why didn’t you inform your sect master?”

Zhi Zhang sighed deeply and murmured, “At that time, I had already succumbed to the demonic path; no one in the sect believed me, and if it weren’t for the demonic energy protecting me, I would have been besieged and killed by former sect brothers long ago.”

“Understood.”

As Chen Ansheng gathered the details, the urge to kill surged uncontrollably within him.