Chapter 99: 94 Seeing Blood

94 Seeing Blood

Whoosh—

A giant fish dissipated in the air.

"So big, could it be the legendary whale?" Tang Zhao retracted his sword and exclaimed in admiration.

This was the largest Phantom he had found yet; it was a big fish, a full three zhang long, drifting in the air as if floating in the ocean. He had never seen such a large fish before.

"But whales are from the sea, right? This is a river fish, so it probably isn't one. There are very large fish in rivers too, what could it be..."

He thought to himself while running toward the next Phantom. Of course, he wasn't thinking about it very seriously; he was just bored, and since he was idle anyway, he might as well think about it.

Ever since Tang Zhao was kicked out of the frontline troops by Xing Ji to hunt on the outskirts alone, his actions had become very boring.

He could only clear out the surrounding Phantoms with an expressionless face—yes, given the strength of these Phantoms, he could only call it clearing.

The strongest attacks of the Phantoms from Waijie were those that disturbed the mind, causing confusion and hallucinations. But perhaps because these Phantoms were all aquatic creatures and not humanoid, they didn't seem skilled at illusionary confusion, and since they had physical bodies in the Demon Cave, they only bared their fangs and brandished their claws like ordinary Fierce Beasts, using physical attacks.

And close-range attacks at that.

In the face of his extendable "Horn Strike," these Phantoms were practically serving themselves up on a platter; soon, they were being skewered like candied haws. The Phantoms passed away very quickly and peacefully, not even leaving a corpse behind, and because they were so different from Humans, it made the hunting lose its sense of reality, feeling more like a game.

What was that similar game Chen Zong introduced?

Whac-A-Mole?

Fruit Ninja?

Picture-based fish identification?

Tang Zhao hadn't played any of the above games; he just felt that if this really were a game, it wouldn't be fun at all, because it was simple and repetitive.

The only benefit was that the map was big enough.

The closer one got to the river, the more Phantoms there were. But as Tang Zhao cleared from the center toward the periphery, the number of kills in the center actually became sparse, forming a clearing. Even with a river popping out Phantoms, it couldn't withstand Tang Zhao's poking game.

At a certain moment, Tang Zhao suddenly realized that the space in front of him was empty, with only the deep night and dense forest; there wasn't a single Phantom left.

"Huh, why aren't they respawning anymore?" Although he didn't find it interesting while poking them, he felt a bit unaccustomed once it stopped.

Looking up, he saw an iron chain spanning the two banks directly above the river, dividing the river water into upper and lower sections. Although it couldn't cut the water flow in half, it blocked a portion of the river surface, preventing the Phantoms within from jumping out at will, so the group of Phantoms below was only being destroyed and not replenished, gradually becoming extinct.

That was Xing Ji's method.

From afar, Tang Zhao couldn't distinguish what Sword Technique he had used, only feeling that the iron chain across the river was very cool, and thought: Sword Techniques seem to depend on how the Sword Guest develops them; such powerful Sword Intent as the Xiezhi Sword, yet the Sword Technique is always somewhat plain and unadorned. When I become a Sword Guest, I must develop some moves that are both strong and cool, preferably unique to me, so that people know it's my sword at a single glance.

Seeing that under the iron chain's blockade, there was no possibility of a resurgence in the center, Tang Zhao put away his sword and groped toward the edge.

The edge area was mountain forest, full of big trees and tall grass, with many nooks and crannies, and visibility was extremely poor in the dark night. Tang Zhao swept through closely and was almost bitten on the head by a strange fish that jumped out of grass half a person high; only then did he realize he had become overconfident, so he stopped crawling into small bushes and just poked around with the tip of his sword extended, forcing the Phantoms out before eliminating them.

But this wasn't very efficient.

Tang Zhao swept for a while, gained little, and felt tired instead, so he put down his sword to rest for a moment, and suddenly thought:

The Xiezhi Sword, it seems to have a Sword Technique for detection, right?

"Sword Technique—Clear Judgment!"

This Sword Technique wasn't for investigating the whereabouts of enemies, but for judging sins. Tang Zhao hadn't used it before because Phantoms didn't need their crimes investigated; one sword strike each was enough.

Moreover, as a Sword Envoy, using Sword Techniques came with a burden; in order to use necessary Sword Techniques and Sword Techniques as much as possible, he hadn't used Clear Judgment.

But now he could try it.

As the Sword Technique was released, Tang Zhao felt a jolt through his whole body, his mind went numb as if electrocuted, and immediately after, the world seemed different.

What was permeating the surroundings was—sin?

Tang Zhao had originally thought that Clear Judgment was done by looking with the eyes. After using Clear Judgment, one would be bright-eyed like a Xiezhi, and everyone would look different in his eyes, such as being wrapped in black or white aura, or having a phantom of sin appearing behind them, or even having annotations floating above their heads like Glasses.

However... none of these were there.

Clear Judgment didn't rely on looking with eyes, nor was it hearing noise, much less smelling odors; it didn't rely on any senses, but rather a feeling that emerged directly in the heart, very vague, yet very firm.

Similar to "intuition"?

With a stir of his heart, he struck with his sword without hesitation, piercing directly into the distant shrubbery; with a *rip* sound, a small seashell hiding in the withered leaves was pierced right on target.

It worked!

Just a moment ago, he felt that something was in that direction; there was no basis for judgment, he just felt it.

Yet, striking with his sword based on feeling, he had actually hit it!

Tang Zhao flicked his sword and continued forward.

The journey became smooth; he became more and more proficient with Clear Judgment, and his judgment of sin was clear and accurate; every sword strike was launched, every sword strike hit, never missing.

But this didn't make him feel relaxed; instead, his mood was heavy.

This intuition of Clear Judgment was not just a means of detection, but also an emotion; he only discovered this after using it a lot.

The essence of this emotion was disgust. He hated crime in his heart, so the existence of criminals made him uncomfortable, just like a grain of sand mixed into rice; once you bite down on it, it's easy to detect. He was finding Phantoms based on this discomfort.

But disgust is a negative emotion, easy to accumulate, making the heart feel heavy and increasingly uncomfortable. Some small Phantoms were fine, just causing a sense of revulsion, but the existence of some large Phantoms caused a kind of irritability in the bottom of his heart, and even after stabbing them to death with one strike, this irritability and hatred were still difficult to dissipate immediately.

At this time, he was already inclined toward Xing Ji's final judgment: Phantoms entering this world was not a capital crime, it was just that most of them were guilty and deserved to die.

Each Phantom gave him a different feeling; the greater the sin, the more he loathed them. This loathing had a certain relationship with size and strength; powerful Phantoms were mostly quite annoying, but Phantoms of the same size sometimes just caused annoyance, while others made him hate them to the bone, presumably because their sins were deep.

However, the more Phantoms he eliminated, the more confusion rose in his heart—from the perspective of Clear Judgment, the severity of the crimes committed by the Phantoms varied, but under the Horn Strike, they all died at a single touch, which meant there were only two verdicts: innocent and capital crime.

Was such a Clear Judgment feasible?

Under the moonlight, Tang Zhao walked alone holding his sword.

The moonlight was bright, shining into the dense forest, yet there were many dark and unclear places, making the road ahead appear rugged and long.

Hmm?

There's a big fish?!

Just now, with the help of Clear Judgment to find Phantoms, the whole area around here had been cleared by him, and he had even killed a wild boar that was in the process of becoming a Fierce Beast, and his mood had already calmed down; how could a strong feeling suddenly appear?

Ah... this feeling, how detestable!

What kind of heinous thing is sneaking around here!

A kind of disgust, hatred, and a desire to kill welled up like a bubbling spring, then erupted like a volcano; Tang Zhao barely thought as he roared, "Sword Art—Evil Swallowing!"

It wasn't a horn strike, it was Evil Swallowing!

Where the Sword Light flashed, the Evil-Slaying Beast jumped out impatiently, transforming into a behemoth in mid-air, opening its blood-red maw, and swallowing it in one gulp!

"Ah—" with a scream, Tang Zhao saw the Evil-Slaying Beast holding two human legs in its mouth, and in the blink of an eye, the legs disappeared, already swallowed whole.

Was it a person?

Someone?!

How could there be someone here?

This is the Demon Cave!

Xing Ji clearly said just now that no one had broken in. Even if someone had broken in during this time, he should have told me!

Tang Zhao instinctively wanted to stop the Evil-Slaying Beast, but it was already too late; under the blood-red maw, the two legs also disappeared.

Damn—

Tang Zhao felt a wave of desolation; this was the first person he had killed with his own hands.

Although there was no doubt this was a sinner who deserved to die a hundred times over, whose stench was even more disgusting than a Phantom, but...

Wait... I killed someone?

Tang Zhao suddenly realized the key point and gripped the sword in his hand tightly.

Does this mean he has lost the qualification to put down his sword?

Before he could ponder his next strategy, his whole body suddenly tensed like a bowstring.

One... two... seven...

Many people!

Many wicked people who deserve to die are closing in!

Almost at the same time, several figures emerged from the surroundings, surrounding him tightly; each of them wore robes, and the reflective plate on top of their heads looked familiar.

"Holy Moon Sect! Demon Sect!"

Tang Zhao was stunned: "How is it you again? Did you come with so many people?"

Chief Xing... is this your Yumen Guan?

Even the door to a bathhouse is more secure than yours!

The person who was clearly the leader among the cultists said coldly: "To address the sect like that, are you a brat from the Land Inspection Division? Is the Land Inspection Division this shameless now? Letting a child play with a sword; our cultists don't even look for someone this young when going on missions. But since you've become a dog of the Land Inspection Division, you deserve to die!"

As he spoke, the people around continued to surround him.

Although Tang Zhao saw more and more people, he was not afraid, sneering: "How did you get in? Did you dig a tunnel through?"

The leader's face looked ugly, and he said: "You even know this? It seems you were also present when the fools of the Left Banner failed? Very good, you've added another way to court death."

Tang Zhao said: "Don't be in such a hurry to call others fools, how do you know you aren't one? Has your Incense Master arrived?"

It would have been fine if he hadn't said that, but at the mention of it, the leader's expression turned ferocious, shouting: "You dog spawn really can't spit out ivory, kill him—"

One of the cultists stepped forward, grinning hideously as he grabbed at Tang Zhao; Tang Zhao swept his long sword horizontally, not even using a Sword Art, the blade sweeping out and slicing him open with one strike.

Fresh blood splattered everywhere.

Tang Zhao stepped back, not letting the blood stain his body.

"Since things have come to this—" Tang Zhao gripped the sword in his hand, "you can all stay here."

Having already broken his vow against killing, he no longer had any scruples.

Eradicating evil completely is not just a Sword Technique, it is also his current mindset.

"Sword Guest? No, no, no, there is only one Sword Guest here, and that is the Town Guardian dog Xing Ji. He is definitely not Xing Ji. Looks like a Heavy Swordsman. The Incense Master is currently hunting Xing Ji and definitely won't care about us. We must rely on ourselves! Come, invite the Moon God to possess us!" He suddenly shouted, his voice high and piercing the clouds.

The crowd responded, taking out pills one after another, shouting: "Moon God protect us!" and swallowing them together.

Suddenly, the crowd looked up and let out long howls, the sound resembling wolf howls, and a layer of fur gradually grew on their bodies, shrouded in a faint black smoke.

Their bodies suddenly expanded, muscles knotted, as if they had inexhaustible strength, and the black smoke coiled around them like Qi, even emitting a faint luster.

Living people, resembling Fierce Beasts!

The leader smiled, revealing two dagger-like fangs: "By the command of the Moon God, kill him!"

Amidst the wolf howls, the fierce men surrounded him from all sides.

Tang Zhao held his long sword horizontally, his expression extremely disgusted, saying word by word: "What are you doing? This appearance... is even more disgusting!"