Building a sect from scratch.

Chapter 299 They Deserve to Die
"Holy crap, it seems that cultivator's guess was wrong! Even possessing a plant can't resist that 'aura of the Yinglong' they were talking about!"

"The sea turtle's breath is pure," the sea turtle exclaimed.

Guantangbao frowned: "That's not right! If that 'Yinglong's aura' and the zombie virus-like effect are so significant, how come we're alright?"

The king bamboo grass exclaimed in surprise, "Hey! Yes! We seem to be perfectly fine!"

Zhu Xian had heard most of what the Jade Emperor had said along the way, and now that she heard the doubts of the crowd, she guessed, "It's probably because you haven't made offerings to it and have no connection with it... Furthermore, I'm afraid that this so-called 'aura of Yinglong' affects the soul, and since you don't have a soul in your body, the pollution that acts on the soul has no effect on you."

"Oh—I understand!"

Guantangbao suddenly understood and said, "Even if that cultivator possessed the tree demon, his soul didn't change, so he was still affected, right?"

Zhu Xian nodded and said, "That's right. Plant spirits don't have souls, only consciousness, which is probably why they are unaffected."

Nietzsche looked at the seven clumps of wood that were still waving wildly, but dared not act rashly because of the power of the Bamboo Immortal, and humbly asked the Bamboo Immortal, "Senior Bamboo Immortal, what should we do with these things now?"

"Ugh……"

Zhu Xian sighed softly, her voice filled with pity, and said, "Let's first peel off the soul that's attached to the Seven Clumps of Trees. It's all about timing, fate, and destiny, beyond human control. These Seven Clumps of Trees look to be over three hundred years old. I suppose that cultivator has been trapped in this world for over three hundred years."

After he finished speaking, a soft white light flew from his fingertips and entered the largest clump of seven trees.

The shrieking sound coming from the vines stopped abruptly, and soon, a dark, shadowy figure seemed to be squeezed out by something, stumbling and crawling out from the seven clumps of wood.

The shadowy figure could barely be made out to be human; its facial features were already blurred, its limbs were abnormally swollen, and even its back was covered with long, vine-like things that kept waving.

It roared silently, on all fours, struggling wildly, its neck bound by the beam of white light, like a tethered animal.

The Jade Emperor, unusually devoid of his usual joking demeanor, asked in a somewhat muffled voice, "Is...is there any hope for him?"

Zhu Xian shook her head and replied, "With his seven spirits scattered and his three souls defiled, it's better to give him a quick death."

The dark figure seemed to sense something and struggled even more fiercely. Zhu Xian didn't delay, casually sending out a beam of green light that pierced the dark figure's forehead. In an instant, the struggling dark figure suddenly seemed to be frozen in place, and after a few seconds, it burst into a cloud of mist with a bang, falling to the ground and disappearing.

Nietzsche and the others, who had witnessed the whole process, had no particular thoughts, but the Jade Emperor felt a little aggrieved—that was a living, breathing person!
"Alright, although this little guy has been asleep for many years, he has been forced to run around all the time. He should know something, more or less. If you have any questions, you can ask him. Although he can't speak human language, I can relay them to you."

As Zhu Xian spoke, she cast another spell on the largest clump of seven trees. However, this spell seemed to be beneficial to it. The clump of seven trees trembled slightly, and then gradually stretched out its vines in the warm white light. Many tender leaves also grew on the vines one after another.

The leaves of the seven-leaf shrub are heart-shaped and quickly cover the entire plant, making it look lush and green. The red mist that originally surrounded it gradually dissipated.

Seeing that the Seven Clumps of Trees had changed, Bamboo Fairy said with satisfaction, "This is what it originally looked like."

"Senior, do you mean we should ask it?"

With a somewhat conflicted expression, Sea Turtle Qi Chun pointed at the Seven-Clump Tree and asked. Before Bamboo Fairy could say anything, the Seven-Clump Tree actually stretched out a vine and gently patted Sea Turtle Qi Chun's shoulder.

The sea turtle-like Qi Pure instinctively jumped three feet high, causing the vine to awkwardly sway in mid-air. Only then did the sea turtle-like Qi Pure realize that the vine was simply greeting him. A little embarrassed, he flew back and explained to the vine, "Ahaha, sorry, I had a bit of a lingering effect from being pulled too much earlier..."

As she spoke, she cautiously reached out and poked it.

The soup dumpling glanced regretfully at the thick vine and muttered, "Does this mean it's now an ally? Then we can't use it as a spiritual material anymore, sigh..."

As if it had heard what Guantangbao said, the seven vines quickly retracted and extended their other vines into the soil to hide them, as if afraid that everyone would cut them.

In the end, the reliable Nietzsche took the initiative to shoulder the responsibility of completing the task: "Senior Bamboo Immortal, could you please ask it if it knows anything about that cultivator's sect, and what exactly happened back then..."

Zhu Xian nodded, closed her eyes, and one of her feet, which was on the ground, suddenly transformed into a segmented sugarcane, which then extended into the soil.

After a long while, he finally spoke: "Well... those... those cultivators all came from the Sword Sect of Liuzhou, including the one who possessed it. They were ordered to come to Zhongzhou to find human sacrifices to feed Yinglong, apparently to deal with some kind of 'Sect Calamity'. Later, when the supply of human sacrifices could not be provided, the passage to the cave world could only be opened from the outside, and this place completely went out of control... that's about it."

Guantangbao pressed further, "So you mean those headless people, right?"

Zhu Xian explained, "Yes, but human sacrifice is not their invention. A thousand years ago, human sacrifice was a resource of major sects used to worship immortals and gods. However, it was gradually abandoned because this method would attract heavenly tribulations."

After listening to Zhu Xian's explanation, the players couldn't help but start discussing it.

Wow! This setting is so dark!

"I remember that there was a similar setting in the ancient myths and legends of our Chinese nation!"

"I think it's Yin Ruins or somewhere, they unearthed a mass grave? There were even women and children there! Ugh! How terrifying!"

"Our modern society is so much better! Otherwise, we'd just be human sacrifices!"

The Jade Emperor couldn't help but mutter a curse: "They deserve to die!"

"They deserve to die!"

The one who said the same thing was Fang Xianyu, who had been spying on the players from their perspective.

The legend of human sacrifice is ancient, and she doesn't know much about it. As for why human sacrifice was abandoned, she can roughly guess—consuming human sacrifices incurs karmic burdens, and over time, heavenly tribulations will descend. This kind of short-sighted, self-destructive behavior is bound to be abandoned!

However, the absence of human sacrifices does not mean that the people of the Guixu Realm are no longer "human sacrifices".

Heavy taxes, an uncertain living environment, and the risk of being caught in the crossfire and losing one's life for all sorts of strange reasons—it's not much different from being a human sacrifice.