Journey to the West: Starting with becoming an apprentice of the Nine Heavens Demon-Subduing Patriar

At the highest point of the palace roof, Lu Shanjun stood with his hands behind his back, watching the demonic figures disappear into the night, his face expressionless.

Tiger Two couldn't help but ask, "Big Brother, are we just going to let it go like this?"

"put?"

Lu Shanjun shook his head.

"When did I ever say I'd let go?"

He didn't kill them, not because he was soft-hearted.

He knew better than anyone else the origin of the old Taoist priest carrying a lantern down the mountain.

The lineage of Zhenwu is the one that sweeps away the magic.

You can kill one old Taoist priest, but you can't wipe out an entire Arctic True Martial Palace.

Behind that lies the Heavenly Court's organization and the laws of the Three Realms. Once you get involved, there will be endless pursuit and killing. The eight hundred miles of Yellow Wind Ridge will instantly become the second Wolf Feeding Slope.

So half of this night was to give the old Taoist an explanation. Huang Fengling had cleaned up his own house. The new king's rules were not just empty words.

The other half...

Those he cannot kill, there is a sword down the mountain that will kill for him.

That night, swords flashed and clashed along the three paths leading down the mountain.

A bluish light quietly shone and faded amidst the muddy paths, official roads, and stream trails.

At daybreak, the corpses were still neatly arranged under the old locust trees at the three mountain passes.

Of those who escaped, less than one in ten survived.

……

In front of the dilapidated temple, the old Taoist sheathed his sword and, in the morning mist, gazed at the mountains.

Before last night, the demonic aura in Huangfeng Ridge was still murky, in clumps, like ink that couldn't be dissolved.

This morning, upon closer inspection, most of the demonic aura had dissipated, and what remained possessed a rare purity. The natural essence of the mountain's vegetation and spirits was pure and refreshing, with shades of green and white.

The old Taoist priest stroked his beard and smiled slightly.

That's straightforward.

However, this is only the first hurdle.

By cleaning up the house, Huangfengling was made "clean".

Cleanliness does not necessarily equate to "safety".

The old Taoist priest has been walking among people for forty years, and he has seen all kinds of people, both inside and outside his own lineage.

Immortals are divided into five ranks: ghost immortals, human immortals, earth immortals, divine immortals, and celestial immortals.

For cultivators who have reached the level of Human Immortal, the most tangible step forward is Earth Immortal.

To become an Earth Immortal, one must achieve "perfect merit and conduct," with the most tangible achievement being the accomplishment of slaying demons and monsters.

Among their lineage, there are many young people who have reached a certain level of cultivation but lack sufficient merit, and they want to slay a whole host of powerful demons to obtain a certificate of merit so that they can later ascend to heaven and obtain an official position...

The Yellow Wind Ridge stretches for eight hundred miles, with hundreds of demon mouths.

In the eyes of those young men wielding swords, these were not a hundred lives.

This is a ready-made page in the record of achievements.

How this little tiger makes its next move is the key to whether this whole pack of demons in Huangfengling can truly be brought to power.

"I don't know..."

The old Taoist priest gazed towards the main peak, a hint of interest showing in his half-open, half-closed eyes.

"Can you see this floor?"

……

On the main peak, on the third day of the purge, the roster verification was nearing completion.

The search results for Gongzuipo were found, and the entire book was clean and tidy.

The wild boar clan, consisting of dozens of members, searched through thirty years of old records but could not find a single case involving human death.

The reason goes back to sixty years ago.

During the years when Black Mane's father, the Mountain Goddess, was stationed on the main peak, he established a clan rule: wild boars should forage for food, only eating what is produced in the mountains, such as acorns, kudzu roots, mushrooms, and berries, and never harming a living person at the foot of the mountain.

Later, Tai Sui's entire family was massacred, and Hei Zong endured humiliation for sixty years.

But he stubbornly adhered to his father's rule, never breaking it even for a single day.

It was this prudence that allowed it to escape the purge without any trace of cannibalistic karma, thus becoming the number one fierce general under the new throne.

On the day the roster was verified, Black Mane walked alone to the edge of the main peak cliff and kowtowed three times in the direction of Arched Mouth Slope.

"father."

"The rules you left behind couldn't protect our family sixty years ago... but sixty years later, they have protected our entire clan."

……

What really gave Lu Shanjun a headache was Old Meng.

When he turned to the last page of the roster, his claws stopped on those three words.

Wushaoling, Mengzhang.

It devours souls and absorbs essence and blood, using the malevolent energy of the living to open up meridians.

Those old accounts were recounted by Lao Mang himself, one by one, with the year, place, and number of lives lost, all written very clearly.

That night, Meng Zhang went up to the main peak by himself.

The old robe was washed clean, and the long sword that had been used for two hundred years on his back was taken off and held upright in his hands before the steps of the imperial palace.

"I have heard the rules of the mountain lord."

"Those who bear the blood debt of others shall be swiftly and mercilessly executed, without exception. Good rule. Tonight, I, this old man, have come to receive this swift punishment."

"I said it,"

Lu Shanjun's voice turned serious, "Your debt may not only be repaid with death."

"As Shan Jun has said, there will be no leniency."

Meng Zhang actually laughed, a calm laugh, "On the very first night the ironclad rule was established, I broke an exception for myself. All the demons on the mountain are watching with open eyes."

"If we spare a meritorious old python today, tomorrow a demon will be plotting in his heart: as long as the merit is great enough, we can eat humans."

"Mountain Lord, this breach must not be opened. My head is meant to weigh down this ironclad rule."

Silence remained in the hall for a long time.

Looking at the old demon below him, who was begging for death with such righteous indignation, Lu Shanjun felt his temples throbbing.

It's right. Every word is correct.

but.

The sword manual was brought to them by them.

The lightning-struck wood core was something it had carried for two hundred years, obtained in exchange for seven bolts of lightning.

He fed the creatures in the mossy cave for three nights, and sparks flew all over the cave.

On the day of the attack on the main peak, the script for the wolf king, which was written by the wolf itself, was the first to sacrifice its life to consume him.

Such a demon, once the battle is won, is slain with a single sword strike.

What sense of loyalty will Lu Shanjun have left on Huangfeng Ridge? And how different is the one sitting on this throne from that old wolf?

The law is impartial, and compassion is unforgiving.

Both sides are dead ends.

Lu Shanjun paced back and forth on the steps for a while, and suddenly remembered that in the Taoist classics he had read in his previous life, there was something called a merit and demerit record.

Those who cultivate the Tao record their merits and demerits daily, making a small assessment every month and a large assessment every year.

Merits can be accumulated, but mistakes can be recorded.

So, can merit atone for one's sins?

Karma, in this context, can be severed through a method of liberation.

Is redemption another form of redemption?

The document didn't mention death. He dared not say it, nor could he say it clearly.

But there is one person who put it well.

"Meng Zhang." Lu Shanjun stopped and slowly spoke.

"I'm not taking your life tonight."

The old python raised its brow, about to speak, when Lu Shanjun raised its claw to stop it.

"If I accept you, I'll uphold my principles, but I'll betray my loyalty. I don't want to break either of those."

"I established the Heavenly Laws of Huangfeng Ridge. But the case concerning your life, the depth of your karma, whether you deserve execution or redemption, is not under my jurisdiction."

After he finished speaking, he turned around and looked outside the main hall.

It was pitch black outside the south window, but you could see a tiny, bead-like light shining from afar in front of the dilapidated temple at the foot of the mountain.

"There is a swordsman at the foot of the mountain. His lineage is in charge of the two words 'slaying demons.' He knows what is a demon, what is not, what debts must be repaid with a life, and what debts can be repaid in other ways. Under heaven, he is more qualified than I to speak."

"I will personally go down the mountain first thing tomorrow morning."

"Is there any other way to settle this mess you've made...? I'll go and get to the bottom of this for you."

Meng Zhang stared at him blankly, his throat bobbing a few times. For the first time, the eyes of this two-hundred-year-old demon, with their vertical pupils, glistened with tears.

In the end, all the words I wanted to say were reduced to a deep bow, a deep and sincere kowtow.

"Mountain Lord. My life, from this night forward..."

"It no longer belongs to this old man."

……

Midnight, at the summit of the main peak.

Lu Shanjun stood alone on the cliff top, the mountain wind howling, making his fur billow like waves.

Ten days ago, he was still in Huangfeng Cave, racking his brains trying to figure out how to fool the broken lantern at the foot of the mountain.

Ten days later, he possessed the eight-hundred-mile-long Yellow Wind Ridge, carrying a wolf king's golden elixir, and walked down the mountain with dignity to confront the man holding the lamp and demand an explanation.

Deep within the sea of ​​consciousness, a faint blue light flashed.

[Annotation: Subduing a tiger is easy, subduing its heart is difficult. Protecting one's own without breaking the law, following righteousness without deceiving Heaven. This represents another step forward in cultivating one's moral character.]