Chapter 96: Why the Blade Points Inward

Hehehe…

Senior brother, don't worry—killing and looting are just our Little Sky Peak's signature skill, aren't they?

I guarantee that this kid Li Mu will go out smooth and sound, with no pain at all!

One of the Little Sky Peak disciples, right before Li Mu, openly displayed his third‑rank Concentration Realm cultivation.

The long sword in his hand danced, its blade flashing, and with a mocking smile on his face he looked at Li Mu.

As for the other four members of the cultivator squad, they were all sharpening their blades, with sarcastic, greedy, ugly smiles at the corners of their mouths, looking as if they could kill Li Mu at any moment.

Li Mu was surrounded in the middle, isolated and helpless, appearing to be in mortal danger.

"There's one thing I've never been able to understand."

"All of us are now trapped within the Demon Domain of the Northern Xuan Demon King, and at any moment we could face life‑threatening danger!"

"Shouldn't we, at this moment, unite and act together against the outside?"

"Find together a way to escape this Demon Domain?"

"Why must the blade point inward, turning on each other?"

Upon hearing this, Li Mu let out a rare, long sigh.

He looked at the Heavenly Dao Treasure Scroll, at the five names that gradually emerged.

Li Mu's expression grew exceedingly grim; unlike before, he did not swiftly and cleanly kill those five, as if he found it hard to accept such a fact.

He recalled his past life.

When Li Mu was perusing history, there was one point he could never figure out.

Why, in his previous life, when the Ming Dynasty faced the Qing army's entry through the passes—

Clearly knowing that the national disaster of losing the country and exterminating the people was right before their eyes!

Yet the Ming Dynasty not only failed to unite as one to resist the foreign enemy,

On the contrary, the Ming surrender troops who had capitulated to the Qing barbarians turned on their own compatriots, killing without hesitation, even more ruthless than the Qing Eight Banners.

Take Shang Kexi, for example.

According to official Qing histories,

In that massacre, they Slashed "over 700,000 soldiers and civilians," and then "pursued the survivors to the seashore, drowning countless others," killing men, women, children, and the elderly alike; the death toll, counted by a monk who collected the bodies, reached 700,000.

After the city was razed, the victims' bodies were taken outside the city for collective burning, and the resulting ashes piled up like a mountain, making the ground look a white expanse from afar.

It was as if Yangcheng had just been covered by a heavy snowfall.

The methods were even more outrageous and annihilating than the later atrocities of the Japanese pirates.

Historical records call this human disaster the "Gengyin Calamity!"

Including Li Chengdong, who perpetrated the three massacres in Jiading!

These Ming troops killed their own people without any coercion from the Qing barbarians.

Even if the Manchu commanders above them disallowed it, these Ming surrender troops might still rebel.

To say without exaggeration, when the nation was in peril, the Ming army killed far more Ming civilians than anyone could imagine.

Out of ten Ming civilians, at least eight met a tragic death at the hands of the Ming surrender troops.

It was these Ming surrender troops who truly attacked cities and lands for the Qing barbarians, seeking to unify the world.

And the situation of this group now is strikingly similar to that at the end of the Ming.

After leaving the Ziyang Sect!

Now facing the deadly threat of the Northern Xuan Demon King together!

Since entering the Demon Domain, Wu Haolin has, for profit, sought to have the Demon Race kill him in secret!

And the so‑called senior brothers and sisters before him are the same, also driven by profit, wanting to kill and plunder here.

Such an act!

How does it differ from those Ming surrender troops who, to vent and get rich, razed cities and harmed civilians?

This made Li Mu suddenly recall a meme he had seen in his past life.

I can't deal with foreigners; can I not deal with you either?

As if answering the sigh in Li Mu's heart, a harsh mocking laugh suddenly rang in his ear.

"Hahaha…"

"Look, everyone!"

"Our Ziyang Sect's pride of heaven, how naive he is!"

"He's on the brink of death, yet he still asks us why?"

"This is hilarious!"

"I'm about to die laughing!"

The young man with the long sword just now seemed as if he had heard the world's biggest joke.

He pointed the tip of his sword at Li Mu, laughing loudly while mocking Li Mu's ignorance.

As for the other members of the squad, they also crossed their arms, looking at Li Mu with a clown‑like gaze.

As if they were very pleased that, even before death, Li Mu could still win them a laugh.

"Enough!"

"Stop laughing!"

"We kill this kid, snatch every valuable thing on his body, and then leave quickly."

"Don't attract the Demon Race inside the fortress!"

"Whoosh!"

The words just fell.

The leading dao-robed youth directly drew the long sword at his waist and slashed toward Li Mu's head with one strike.

This sword was extremely fast, giving Li Mu no chance to react at all!

It was clearly intended to kill him in a single blow!

Too bad!

His sword-drawing speed, in Li Mu's eyes, was as slow as a turtle crawling!

Li Mu didn't even need to use any martial technique.

He merely relied on his terrifying physical strength and his senses, far sharper than an ordinary person's, to easily predict where the dao-robed youth's next attack would go.

Only saw.

Li Mu raised two fingers and, with casual ease, clamped down on the long sword thrust by the dao-robed youth.

It stopped the sword at a point barely an inch from his throat.

Although Li Mu clearly only used two fingers to grip the sword tip, the dao-robed youth felt his long sword sink like a mud ox into the sea.

No matter how much force he exerted, he couldn't advance even an inch, nor could he pull it back!

Thus they remained in this strange stalemate with Li Mu.

"This..."

"How is this possible?"

The dao-robed youth's face changed dramatically!

"A mere Ten Grade Refining Qi Realm trash!"

Being able to precisely grip his long sword with two fingers is already utterly unbelievable.

But why does this guy still possess such terrifying physical strength?

"Attack together!"

"This kid is weird!"

The dao-robed youth's teammates behind him also clearly noticed that Li Mu was strange.

The five of them dared not be careless, attacking together to launch a deadly assault on Li Mu!

At the front was a Third Grade Concentration Realm cultivator who specialized in sword arts; he leapt high and slashed downward at Li Mu's head.

Li Mu drew his sword with one hand, a flash of icy cold light crossing his eyes.

"One Absolute!"

"Slash!"

"Pfft!"

Accompanied by a dull thud of a blade entering flesh!

Before the cultivator could even land from midair, he suddenly felt a chill in his abdomen!

He instinctively lowered his head to look.

What he saw was a long blade wrapped in red-black blade qi!

One end of the long blade was in the opponent's hand, while the other end pierced deep into his own abdomen, lifting him high into the air.

From afar, this Third Grade Concentration Realm cultivator, before Li Mu, looked like a chicken skewered on an iron spit, unable to fall down.

"Both his hands are under control!"

"I've... several times!"

The team's other female cultivator and the sword-wielding Tianfeng Peak disciple seized the moment and attacked together.

"Clearing Wind Spell!"

"Crimson Flame Spell!"

Accompanied by two talismans slowly burning from the tips of their swords.

Surging scorching flames shot up into the sky, instantly dispelling the darkness of the underground passage.

At the same time, the howling passage wind suddenly became fierce and sharp in this moment.

Wrapped in crimson flames, they surged together toward Li Mu!

Wind aids the fire!

Under the combined effect of the two Daoist talismans, they fully erupted with an effect greater than the sum of their parts!

Moreover, now in this narrow, sealed underground passage, a wind-fire dragon tornado rolled toward him, leaving Li Mu with no chance to escape.

Looking on, the wind-fire dragon tornado rushed toward Li Mu with lightning speed.

But then.

Li Mu, however, performed an action that made the dao-robed youth and the sword cultivator tremble with fear!

Only saw.

Li Mu slightly lifted his wrist upward, while his other knife‑holding hand moved forward, and with terrifying strength he lifted the two of them into the air, using them as a human shield before him.

"Stop!"

"Stop quickly!"

"It's us!"

Seeing the wind‑fire dragon tornado lunging at him, the dao‑robed youth was horrified, panicked, and let out a miserable scream.

But once the bow is drawn, there's no turning back!

The talismans have burned, and the wind‑fire momentum is already set.

This is utterly impossible to call back now!

"Ah!"

"Ah!"

The Dao‑robed youth and the sword‑cultivating youth both let out an earth‑shattering wail, but the next second their entire bodies were already swallowed by the sea of fire!

It directly dealt heavy damage to the two!

While the two were burning and letting out mournful screams, they struggled in pain in Li Mu's grasp, yet still could not break free.

But at the same time, because they had been heavily wounded by the wind‑fire dragon vortex.

This made their aura noticeably much weaker, far from their original peak state!

"Samadhi True Fire!"

"Boom!"

Li Mu whispered a word, and suddenly two balls of golden flame ignited in his left and right hands!

The golden flames, the moment they emerged from Li Mu's palms, turned into living golden fire serpents that instantly devoured the two before him in a single gulp.

The two could not even imagine, even at the brink of death, that Li Mu possessed such terrifying means.

Before they could react,

in an instant.

They only felt as if they were suddenly immersed in a sea of fire, a pain a hundred‑ or thousand‑fold greater than the earlier flames suddenly surged.

Every inch of skin and every tendon on their bodies burned wildly!

The heart‑rending scorching sensation made them look up and let out hysterical, beast‑like death cries.

Yet the process did not last long—only a few breaths—before the golden flames of Samadhi True Fire forged them into a glittering, liquid‑like, viscous spiritual energy.

Finally, Li Mu opened his mouth and swallowed them.

【Ding!】

【The system identified that the host successfully purified a Half-step Concentration Realm cultivator using Samadhi True Fire, triggering Tenfold Heavenly Dao Blessing.】

【Congratulations, host, you have gained Tenfold Harvest!】

【Ding!】

【The system identified that the host successfully purified a Ten Grade Lian Qi Realm cultivator using Samadhi True Fire, triggering Tenfold Heavenly Dao Blessing.】

【Ding!】

【Congratulations, host, you have gained Tenfold Harvest!】

【Ding!】

【Level Up!】

【Congratulations, host, Samadhi True Fire has been upgraded to lv: 12.】

【Ding!】

【The host used Samadhi True Fire to purify a Ten Grade Lian Qi Realm cultivator and a Half-step Concentration Realm cultivator; the system will reward the host with fifty percent of their current realms.】

With the two system prompts sounding in succession,

This made Li Mu's recently broken Second-tier Concentration Realm, which still retained some cultivation, instantly become stabilized.

At the same time, Li Mu also noticed.

The system identified that the two's cultivation levels were Second-tier Concentration Realm and First-tier Concentration Realm.

This obviously does not match their actual true cultivation!

Could it be that the system misidentified?

The thought briefly surfaced in Li Mu's mind, but he quickly shook his head and dismissed it!

Any link could err, but the system could never be wrong.

If the speculation is correct,

the two cultivators had first endured severe damage from their companion's wind‑fire talisman.

In their near‑death state, unable to maintain peak cultivation, could they then be refined by Samadhi True Fire?

If that is indeed the case, even when facing cultivators stronger than oneself,

as long as one beats the opponent to near death, could one then use Samadhi True Fire to finish them off?

The more he followed this line of thought, the brighter Li Mu's eyes became.

Li Mu increasingly felt in his heart that

weakening the opponent first, then refining them with Samadhi True Fire, is a viable method!

"Hmph!"

"Kid, I admit you're strong!"

"But you were so distracted in battle; doesn't that show you don't take us seriously enough?"

Just as Li Mu was still thrilled about his new 'human refining' approach,

a cold voice, devoid of any emotion, suddenly came from behind him.

A shadow silently appeared behind Li Mu!