Immortal Mortal

”From today onwards, these 800 men behind us will become part of our group. Wuchangwushuang no longer exists, only the Three Tender Hunters remains…”

Hearing what Hua Xuan said, a sense of confusion arose in Mo Wuji. Other than the horse bandits that he killed, there were still around 9,000 horse bandits left. But now Hua Xuan was only taking in 800 people, so it seemed as though the thousands before her were not accepted.

”...Every cent that the Three Tender Hunters earns, is obtained through hard sweat and effort. On the other hand, every cent that Wuchangwushuang obtains is through bloodshed and the shattering of innocent families. We, the Three Tender Hunters, do not want such people…”

Hearing this, there was a commotion amongst the group of horse bandits, but no one dared to make a move. Mo Wuji was standing not far away, so everyone was aware that whoever made the first move would likely not be able to speak a single word, and be cut down by this immortal master.

Mo Wuji nodded his head in agreement. This was the right way to do things: take in one group and kill another group. Just as Hua Xuan had said, many of their hands were stained with the blood of the innocent.

”Kill the Venomous Stinger first!” Hua Xuan declared loudly.

Two men dragged out the Venomous Stinger that Mo Wuji had already chopped both legs away from. They lifted their swords and the Venomous Stinger’s head fell as the blades swung down.

The horse bandits, originally causing a commotion, had all settled down. The execution had a significant effect on them. In his heart, Mo Wuji thought to himself that these murderers were not good people to deal with. While Hua Xuan was only a woman, she had quite a few tricks up her sleeve.

After sweeping her gaze across the group of horse bandits, Hua Xuan spoke satisfactorily, ”Now I’ll permit all of you to report on each other. Those who have hands stained with the blood of innocents must die without exception. The people who make the greatest contributions, will become a general of the Three Tender Hunters...The 800 frontline troops, step forward. If anyone dares to make a move, kill them!”

”Roger!” The first 800 that were accepted by Hua Xuan raised their long blades, and stood before the thousands of men, ready to strike at any moment.

”I would like to report Liu San, he previously…” A horse bandit immediately pointed at one of the other men standing not that far away from him right after Hua Xuan finished speaking.

But before he could finish his sentence, his head was lopped off by another horse bandit beside him.

Most of the horse bandits descended into a short period of silence, and they soon realised that Hua Xuan did not make any moves against people who killed others that made reports.

With this signal, there was chaos within the group of horse bandits. One by one, they raised their swords. There were those who had grudges against others, those who helped each other due to having a better relationship with each other, and those who did not bear any grudges simply tried to secure their own survival…

As long as you were within the group of horse bandits, there were blades raised against you, and for those who left a certain area, they would be killed by the 800 men standing at the side.

Sighing, Mo Wuji could not bear to watch any longer. He knew that no more than a thousand people would survive. But this was indeed the best way to settle things.

Otherwise, it would be nearly impossible for Hua Xuan to control over ten thousand horse bandits with just the eight under her.

The stench of blood in the air became thicker over time, and the sounds of killing only began to die down after a good half a day. Mo Wuji turned around and saw Hua Xuan walking towards him. At the area further away from him, a river of blood and a mountain of corpses had formed. The living horse bandits did not number above 500.

Impressive, over ten thousand men had been whittled down to a few hundred. Hua Xuan was indeed suited to this life of bloodshed.

”Brother Mo, how’s second sister?” Hua Xuan bowed from a distance and asked.

”There’s no issue now. You’ll just have to send some men to bring her in there to recuperate for a period of time after this.” Mo Wuji pointed at the buildings in the distance, which were Wuchangwushuang’s old lair.

”Roger.” Hua Xuan bowed once again, before asking worriedly, ”Brother Mo, was I too brutal with my methods?”

With a smile, Mo Wuji replied, ”What you think is the right thing to do, will be the right thing to do. Next time you’ll be ruling this place with Lengbei. I’ll be going for closed door cultivation for a few days, if there’s anything, you can call me anytime.”

Hua Xuan knew that Mo Wuji was staying here to do closed door cultivation for a few days out of worry that she could not handle that many horse bandits at once.

…

Leaving Hua Xuan behind to settle the loose ends, Mo Wuji entered the old lair of Wuchangwushuang.

This place was literally a palace, and even though he had been to Cheng Yu State Lord’s home, he felt that it was not as luxurious as this.

Mo Wuji did not search through the whole lair, instead only choosing a normal room, and started closed door cultivation in it after hanging a sign outside.

He wanted to take a look at Seven Style Lightning Sky’s second style.

After his battle with Ju Qijian, Mo Wuji felt that his skills were too singular.

The second style of Seven Styles Lightning Sky was also an incomplete manual, but as compared to the first style, it was still much more whole. At least there were two complete spiritual energy circulation methods, and two lightning wielding diagrams.

The second style was called the Five Strikes Mountain Sunderer, and Mo Wuji inferred that five bolts of lightning would strike simultaneously. But in reality, he did not expect much from the second style, as he could already release multiple lightning bolts with the first style.

While there was little to expect, Mo Wuji was still ready to train with it first before making any judgement. Learning a new skill would never be a bad thing.

The spiritual energy circulation routes were very clear, and Mo Wuji easily completed the first round of circulation, and condensed the first lightning bolt.

The second spiritual energy circulation was no problem for Mo Wuji, and he once again condensed the second lightning bolt.

There wasn’t much of a challenge, and while the third spiritual energy circulation route was incomplete, Mo Wuji was not worried, as he continued to modify the route by himself. He might not have been a master in his understanding of techniques, but to modify the deepest level of a technique, he could only rely on the Immortal Mortal Technique.

Using a cultivation technique to modify an attack skill, and even a lightning affinity one which had tremendous power, perhaps Mo Wuji was the only one who could do it.

”Bang!” As Mo Wuji underwent the modified third spiritual energy circulation route, when the spiritual energy was at the halfway mark, his meridians suddenly seized up, and there was an explosion. Terrifying lightning energy energy leaked everywhere, colliding countless times within Mo Wuji’s meridians.

Although Mo Wuji had considered such a scenario before, but he was still reduced to spasming on the ground by the lightning strikes within his meridians.

There was no way he could carry on with the spiritual energy circulation, and he was regretful for his rashness. Indeed the ignorant was fearless, and because he was ignorant, he thought that he could modify magic skills. But the fact was that, he had been lucky with his modification of Lightning Flash.

”Bang!” A bolt of lightning struck Mo Wuji’s Mind Palace [1], which made him feel as though his whole head was about to explode. If he did not put in place any precautionary measures, perhaps in the next instant, his soul would dissipate.

Initially, he successfully acquired the first style in an extremely cold location, and while this second style did not burn his meridians, his spiritual will could not take it.

That’s right, the Immeasurable Soul-prolonging Flower. Just as Mo Wuji felt that his spirit was about to dissipate, he suddenly thought of the Immeasurable Soul-prolonging Flower. Luckily he had used it not too long ago, and his memories of its effects were still fresh in his mind.

The Immeasurable Soul-prolonging Flower was immediately taken out, and Mo Wuji directly bit off one of its petals.

A cooling sensation overwhelmed his whole body, and spread to the depths of his mind. Mo Wuji’s mind was now the clearest it had ever been. Even the lightning energy within him instantly grew weaker after being doused by the refreshing energy.

Should I continue with the spiritual energy circulation? Mo Wuji looked down at the multiple Immeasurable Soul-prolonging Flower petals in his hands, gritted his teeth, and carried on with his spiritual energy circulation. Once anything went wrong, he would immediately consume another flower petal, then stop creating the second style.

What made Mo Wuji surprised was that there was no obstructions this time, which was completely different from the previous circulation attempt, and he could complete the third round of circulation with ease.

At that moment, Mo Wuji wielded limitless lightning energy in his hands, and it no longer wrecked havoc in his meridians. After repeated hand seals, he opened his hands and let the energy blast forth.

Dense lightning bolts blew the room apart in a bright blue flash of light, just like it was raining lightning. After the assault of lightning bolts, there were craters everyone in the house.

He had succeeded. Mo Wuji stared at his hands in surprise. The second style of Seven Style Lightning Sky was complete, but this was not the original Five Strikes Mountain Sunderer. Instead, waves of lightning would descend, which made him even more satisfied as compared to the original five strikes.

The waves of lightning was rather similar to the wall of blades that he created previously. They were all large scale attacks. However, Mo Wuji was aware that these volleys of lightning bolts were much, much stronger than the blades back then.

While the blades previously would only be effective against ordinary people, the lightning bolts this time would still be devastating against cultivators. Normal elementary Spirit Building Stage cultivators would definitely get severely injured after being struck by them.

After a few more rounds of spiritual energy circulation, Mo Wuji was even more sure that the lightning bolts were very strong. If he could strengthen this lightning-type skill by absorbing lightning energy, then he would have struck it big.

This was something that he had created. It was no longer the original Five Strikes, so it would be better to change its name to Boundless Lightning Rain. The large waves of lightning bolts that descended looked as though it was raining lightning from the sky, so the name Boundless Lightning Rain was rather appropriate.

With a quick wash up, Mo Wuji opened the door to the room as he did not intend to stay in there any longer.

”Brother Mo!” Jing Lengbei and Hua Xuan welcomed him as he walked out of the door. While Jing Lengbei’s face was still quite pale, but she had recovered decently, and Hua Xuan’s presence meant that she had taken control of the whole situation.

”Thank you Brother Mo for helping me. If it weren’t for you, I would have died long ago.” Jing Lengbei bowed respectfully at Mo Wuji as she said her thanks. This was already the second time that Mo Wuji had saved her.

Chuckling, Mo Wuji replied, ”We’re all friends here, there’s no need to mention such things.”

”Brother Mo, after Big Sis and Third Sis went out to sea, I memorised the sea chart and roughly drew it out.”

[1] TL: The Mind Palace refers to the upper dantian located in a person’s head