The Three Teachings Converge into One: The Path of the Mortal and the Saintly is the Same

Poetry:

For ten days, they exhausted their energy to stop the fighting, but the tyrannical rule stirred up waves of war.

The discussion was merely a delaying tactic; amidst bloodshed and the desolate desert, there was nothing that could be done.

It is said that Su Qingxuan had painstakingly maneuvered for ten days, exhausting all his schemes and strategies, until his energy was completely depleted.

I've seen the people I needed to see and said the things I needed to say.

However, the flames of war still broke out in the western desert...

Although he had done his best, although negotiations had resumed, and although peace seemed within reach...

But in the face of true tyranny, all efforts are so fragile.

The communicator vibrated again; this time it was Amir.

Her voice was trembling with barely suppressed sobs:

"Mr. Su, they've made their move... Anshi Ancient City has been attacked by air."

The High Priest's Temple, the Defense Department, and the Holy Flame Guard Headquarters were all hit by spirit bombs...

High Priest Arias...missing...the entire temple was destroyed...

Su Qingxuan took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down:

"Ambassador Amir, where are you now? Are you safe?"

"I was in the secret underground chamber of the embassy... but the embassy was also bombed, and more than a dozen people were killed or injured..."

Mr. Su, they are not just ordinary bombers; they are targeting our spiritual foundation!

The first wave targeted all the priesthoods and key locations such as the spirit halls.

This is threatening to sever the very foundation of our Ancy lineage!

Su Qingxuan gripped the communicator tightly, his knuckles turning white.

Root out the problem.

As expected, the Eagle Federation Empire and the Canaan City-State had no intention of negotiating.

They are just stalling for time, waiting for the troops to complete their final deployment.

Once everything is ready, we'll drop the pretense and take action.

"Sir, protect yourself and evacuate people as much as possible."

Su Qingxuan said in a deep voice, "I will find a way..."

Before he could finish speaking, a violent spiritual explosion came from the other end of the communicator.

Then came a deathly silence.

Su Qingxuan tried to activate his spiritual power again, but the connection could not be established.

He stood motionless by the window, staring at the communication screen above the city-state of Anxi.

The billowing smoke rose, and I watched the civilians running and crying in the ruins.

Looking at the streets and alleys littered with debris...

Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through his chest, a sweet taste filled his throat, and he coughed up a mouthful of blood.

It splashed onto the windowpane, like a withered, tragic flower.

"Young Master!" Lin Wanqing's voice came from behind—

She, Chi Ying, Xiao Lingxi, and Xiao Lingyue were worried about Su Qingxuan.

They also secretly arrived in Holy Radiance City together.

They rushed into the room and helped the swaying Su Qingxuan.

"I'm fine..." Su Qingxuan wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth.

His eyes held a deep weariness and sorrow. "I'm just... a little tired."

Chi Ying swept her gaze across the screen, her teeth clenched: "These treacherous bastards!"

They agreed to negotiate, but then they plotted to kill us from behind! Young master, let's go and wipe them out!

"No," Su Qingxuan shook his head, "This is a war between nations."

If we intervene directly as practitioners...

It would be a war that would shake up the entire continent's格局 (geju, a concept encompassing overall political and economic dynamics), and besides... it's already too late.

He walked to his desk and looked at what he had just written.

"Peace is precious, war is inferior," he suddenly laughed, a bleak laugh.

"I was wrong," he said softly. "I always thought that people's hearts could be educated and that good and evil could be transformed."

But now it seems that some forces and some states fundamentally believe in the law of the jungle.

They do not believe in benevolence or righteousness, nor in compassion; they only recognize strength and weakness.

Reasoning with this kind of person is useless; only…

He didn't finish his sentence, but the cold glint in his eyes sent a chill down the spines of all four women.

That was a look Su Qingxuan had never seen before—

Cold, resolute, carrying a sense of "since the righteous path is blocked, then let killing stop killing."

"Young Master, what are you going to do?" Xiao Lingyue asked worriedly.

Su Qingxuan did not answer. He walked to the window and looked at the gradually brightening eastern sky.

He said slowly, "Wanqing, take Lingxi and Lingyue back to the country and continue to promote the revival of culture."

"Red Tassel, you stay here and come with me to the Western Desert."

"What are you going to do?"

Su Qingxuan turned around, looked at the four women, and said, word by word:

"Save lives...stop the killing...and then, settle this karmic debt."

Su Qingxuan knew that his "death calamity" would occur in this war.

Since there's no way to avoid it, then face it head-on and use his life to get justice.

A new warning, a new... new era begins.

Outside the window, the rising sun burst forth, painting half the sky red.

But the red light, falling in the direction of the sand sea, was as dazzling as blood.

……

The night in the western desert was torn apart by towering flames.

Su Qingxuan, along with Chi Ying and twelve "Candle Dragon" secret guards, crossed the border.

When they entered Ancy, the war had been raging for sixteen hours.

The sights along the way were horrifying—the official road was blasted into deep craters, and houses were engulfed in flames.

Refugees fled south with their families... the cries of children, the lamentations of the elderly...

The low moans of the wounded intertwined to create a desolate and chaotic scene.

"Young master, ahead lies Kahe City, the third largest city in the Kingdom of Anxi."

Chi Ying examined the tactical jade slip, her expression grave.

"The Tianxing Array detection system indicates that the city has already been subjected to three rounds of air attacks."

The primary targets were the temple of priests, the military camp, and... a girls' school.

Su Qingxuan's heart tightened: "A girls' school?"

"Yes, Lina Girls' School was founded in the year 815 of the Anshi calendar."

It is the oldest girls' academy in Anyi, with students mostly aged six to eighteen.

Chi Ying's voice was hoarse, "Three hours ago, a heavy explosive bomb hit the main building. Casualties... unknown."

The convoy bumped along the potholed road.

Su Qingxuan closed his eyes to sense the warmth of the three-meridian seal pendant on his chest.

That was the primordial spiritual power issuing a warning.

He opened his eyes and said in a deep voice, "Speed ​​up, go to that girls' school."

"Young Master, it's too dangerous! That's the epicenter of the explosion; there might be follow-up attacks..."

"Speed ​​up." Su Qingxuan's tone left no room for argument.

Chi Ying gritted his teeth and ordered the Candle Dragon Camp drivers, "Full speed ahead!"

Three XuanTie off-road vehicles sped through the night, skirting the burning wreckage of the vehicles.

Avoid the fleeing crowds. The closer you get to the city of Kah, the more horrific the scene becomes—

Most of the buildings on both sides of the street were dilapidated, and psionic power poles lay scattered haphazardly.

The streetlights were all extinguished, leaving only the flames reflecting the billowing smoke and casting eerie shadows.

The air was filled with the smells of burnt wood, dust, and a faint, heart-wrenching stench of blood.

Lina Girls' School was located in the east of the city. When the convoy arrived, Su Qingxuan witnessed a scene he would never forget.

The three-story main building of the academy has completely collapsed on the left side, with the reinforced concrete twisted into bizarre shapes.

The right side was teetering on the brink of collapse, and all the window frames were shattered.

The playground was a ruin, littered with textbooks, schoolbags, and embroidered shoes.

And... specks of glaring dark red.

Rescue workers are digging through the rubble by hand with rudimentary tools, making their efforts extremely inefficient.

Dozens of parents gathered outside the police cordon; some wept uncontrollably, while others stood frozen in shock.

Some people went crazy and tried to rush into the ruins, but were stopped by the soldiers guarding the city.

Su Qingxuan got out of the carriage, followed closely by Chi Ying. The Zhulong Guards quickly dispersed and established a perimeter.

"I am a medical aid cultivator from the Great Xia Dynasty," Su Qingxuan said in the common language of the continent.

He asked a rescue commander, "Is there anything I can do to help?"

The commander, a middle-aged officer, his face covered in soot, his eyes bloodshot, said in a hoarse voice:

"There may still be survivors in the underground library, but the entrance is blocked by collapsed beams."

We lack heavy breaching equipment…

Su Qingxuan looked at the ruins, his spiritual sense penetrating through the bricks and rubble, and "saw" the scene below—

There were indeed people in the basement, about twenty or so, but their breathing was very weak.

What alarmed him even more was that beneath the ruins, hundreds of faint signs of life were scattered.

Some are dissipating at an extremely rapid pace.

"Chiying, lead men to assist in the rescue and clear the eastern passage," Su Qingxuan ordered.

He then walked deeper into the ruins.

"Young master, danger!" Chi Ying cried out urgently.

Su Qingxuan waved his hand and stepped into the ruins.

He moved seemingly casually, yet with each step, a barely perceptible amount of true energy seeped into the ground.

The sturdy load-bearing structure was stabilized to create a safe space for rescue operations.

He walked to the center of the playground, squatted down, and picked up a pink schoolbag.

The backpack, printed with a jade rabbit pattern, was covered in dust, but the little charm on the zipper was still intact.

It is a hand-woven peace knot.

Opening the schoolbag, inside were third-grade textbooks, with the following words written in childish handwriting on the title page:

"Samar, nine years old, third grade, class two."

My dream is to become a doctor and cure everyone's illnesses.

Su Qingxuan's fingers trembled slightly.

Suddenly, he felt something and looked up at the sky.

Deep in the night sky, a blinding light is rapidly growing larger—

That's the afterburner of a spirit bomb!

"Air strike! Take cover!" the rescue commander roared fiercely.

The crowd instantly descended into chaos, scattering and screaming as they fled.

But it was too late; the speed of the spirit bomb far exceeded the reaction speed of ordinary people.

It was pointing towards the school playground at an almost vertical angle—

To be precise, it swooped down towards Su Qingxuan's location!

Su Qingxuan's pupils suddenly contracted.

In that instant, he clearly saw the shape of the bomb:

The "Rending Mystic" heavy explosive crystal bomb, crafted in the city-state of Canaan, can carry 900 catties of high explosive crystal or a mother-and-child crystal bomb.

The bomb's body was covered in eerie dark red runes—

It's a special model enhanced by magic!

The target is me! Su Qingxuan instantly realized.

The Dark Crow Hall locked onto my true energy aura; this bomb is aimed at me!

But at this moment, he was standing in the center of the playground, with rescue workers digging within a fifty-meter radius around him.

There were parents who had escaped halfway, and wounded people who had just been pulled from the rubble...

If he had dodged, these people would have been dead for sure.

In a flash, Su Qingxuan made a decision.

He stepped forward, raised his hands, and his inner energy surged like a river.

The fusion of righteous energy, primordial energy, and the light of enlightenment

It transformed into a three-colored light shield, rapidly expanding from his center and instantly covering an area of ​​a hundred meters in radius.

All of this happened in the blink of an eye.

The mystic crystal bomb did not explode immediately upon hitting the light shield.

Instead, it felt like it had hit a sticky gel, and its speed decreased drastically.

Su Qingxuan groaned, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth—

Even he suffered considerable internal injuries after withstanding a single heavy-explosive crystal bomb.

But the crisis is not over.

The dark red runes on the explosive bomb suddenly lit up, emanating a chilling and violent aura.

A surge of resentful demonic energy erupted, frantically eroding the three-pronged protective barrier.

That was a wisp of the demonic soul of the Demon Lord of the Void, refined into the bullet.

Specifically designed for powerful cultivators like Su Qingxuan!

"Demonic methods... just as I expected." Su Qingxuan gritted his teeth and pushed his true essence to its limit.

The pendant flew out from the collar, hovering above the head, casting an even richer tri-colored radiance.

After a stalemate of about two breaths, just when Su Qingxuan thought he could suppress the explosive bomb...

A sudden change occurred—that wisp of demonic soul suddenly self-destructed!

It wasn't a physical explosion, but a shock on a psychological level.

Countless venomous roars, curses, and desperate thoughts filled with resentment.

It surged into Su Qingxuan's sea of ​​consciousness like a tidal wave.

If it were an ordinary cultivator, this one blow would cause them to lose their composure, be corrupted by demonic thoughts, and completely collapse.

However, Su Qingxuan's Dao heart was firm, and he was protected by the Three Meridian Seals, so he was only momentarily dazed.

But in that instant, the bomb lost its suppression and exploded!

boom--!!!

Nine hundred pounds of high-explosive crystal were detonated ten meters above the ground.

The shockwave, like a solid wall, rolled outwards in all directions.

Su Qingxuan was the first to be hit, and his three-pronged light shield trembled violently, revealing countless cracks.

Although he blocked 90% of the power, the aftershocks still struck his chest like a heavy hammer.

"Pfft—" Su Qingxuan spat out a mouthful of blood, flew backward, and crashed into a pile of rubble.

The remaining ten percent of its power spread outwards.

Rescuers, parents, and the injured were blown away like leaves in the shockwave.

Further away, to the right of that dilapidated teaching building,

It collapsed with a roar amidst the tremors, raising clouds of dust.

"Young Master!" Chi Ying's eyes were bloodshot as she rushed out from behind the cover and ran towards Su Qingxuan.

Su Qingxuan struggled to his feet from the ruins and coughed up another mouthful of blood.

Ignoring his injuries, he immediately looked around.

Then, he witnessed a purgatory scene he would never forget.

Within a 30-meter radius of where he originally stood, the area was a complete mess.

More than a dozen rescuers collapsed in the smoke and dust, their fate unknown.

Some parents were thrown against the wall, while others were hit by flying debris.

The original wounded were now completely silent.

But that wasn't the most heartbreaking thing for him.

Su Qingxuan's gaze was fixed on the east side of the teaching building ruins—

That area was originally the school garden; after the outbreak of war,

It was temporarily used as a shelter for injured students.

Now, the garden is a desolate ruin.

He saw fragments of pink, blue, and white school uniforms.

I saw schoolbags, books, and hair clips scattered all over the ground.

Those once vibrant little figures are now buried under the rubble, silent forever.

More than a hundred girls, aged six to eighteen, perished in the explosion.

Just moments before, Su Qingxuan had "seen" them—

Some were weeping softly, some were wiping the wounds of younger children, and some were praying silently.

Although their life fluctuations are subtle, they are real.

And now, those fluctuations have subsided, completely subsided...

Su Qingxuan stood there blankly, her ears ringing.

The world seemed to have lost its sound, leaving only this scene before us.

It repeats in my mind in slow motion:

Those innocent smiling faces, those glistening tears,

Those hazy, dreamlike hopes for the future...

Then, the flames engulfed everything.

"Samar, nine years old, third grade, class two, my dream is to become a doctor and cure everyone's illnesses."

The owner of that pink backpack was among them.

Su Qingxuan slowly lowered his head, looking at the schoolbag in his hand.

The schoolbag had been torn open by the shockwave, and the handmade peace knot on it...

Stained with a glaring dark red—it's unclear whether it's hers or someone else's.

"what……"

A suppressed groan, squeezed out from deep in his throat, escaped from Su Qingxuan's mouth.

That wasn't a cry of pain; it was the sound of something precious shattering completely in one's heart.

Chi Ying rushed to Su Qingxuan's side and supported his swaying body:

"Young master... how are you? Where are you hurt?"

Su Qingxuan did not answer.

His eyes were fixed on the ruins of the garden, and a hint of dark red quietly appeared deep in his pupils.

"They're after me," he murmured, his voice hoarse and unlike his own.

"That mystic crystal bomb locked onto my true essence..."

They knew I was rescuing people, they knew there were children here...

They deliberately bombed the girls' school too... killing two birds with one stone...

Chi Ying also saw the devastation in the garden. This seasoned descendant of a military strategist...

He was trembling all over, his knuckles white from clenching his fists.

"These beasts... they're worse than beasts!"

Su Qingxuan gently pushed Chi Ying aside and walked step by step toward the garden.

Every step left bloody footprints on the ground—

He was severely injured internally, but he was completely unaware of it.

Stepping into the garden, the soil beneath my feet felt warm and damp.

By the light of the distant fire, he saw a small hand peeking out from under the rubble.

His five fingers were slightly curled, as if he wanted to grasp something.

Su Qingxuan squatted down and gently covered that hand with her fingertips. What she touched was icy cold.

"I'm sorry..." he whispered, his voice as soft as the wind.

"It was me...it was me who triggered the bomb...it's my fault that you all got hurt..."

It is:

The innocent dreams on pink paper vanished like smoke, leaving only broken bones and desolate gardens weeping in solitude.

A single act of kindness can lead to sin; from now on, the righteous path will be replaced by a cold blade.