Chapter 73: Du Xian Sect 31 Part 3

“It’s just to ensure you live long enough to remove all the Malicious Curse Marks.”

Xun Ji said sincerely, “Thank you.”

“No need.” Linglan said coldly. “Spare us the master-disciple affection drama. It’s nauseating.”

Xun Ji’s eyes flickered as he pleaded earnestly, “After I die, could you please refrain from removing his Emotion Vein for a while? He bore the pain of my spiritual veins shattering and reforming for me. Without him, I couldn’t have so smoothly eradicated the Malicious Curse Marks for your Biluo Sect disciples. For his contribution, can you let him live once as a flesh-and-blood ordinary person?”

Yes, this was another reason he’d used Pain Sensitivity on Lu Yun Ting—in simple terms, playing the pity card.

Everyone in the Biluo Sect had seen Lu Yun Ting’s miserable state earlier. They wouldn’t kill him but wanted to remove his Emotion Vein. Yet doing so would ruin Xun Ji’s task completely.

Xun Ji had no standing to make the Biluo Sect abandon their hatred. He could only use this most humble flesh sacrifice ploy to evoke a shred of empathy, at least buying time to complete his task.

“Jiyang Zhenren truly lives up to being from Du Xian Sect—resorting to repaying kindness with demands so quickly.” Linglan sneered. “But I see Jiyang Zhenren looking quite well, not like someone on the verge of death at all.”

The spiritual power from the Merit Dao was finite after all. Xun Ji already felt the influx thinning. Fortunately, the Malicious Curse Marks were nearly eradicated.

Xun Ji smiled faintly. “Almost there.”

With the Mountain Protection Array’s protection, Xun Ji weathered the nine tribulation thunders without peril. When the thunder ceased, the golden light on him faded, his spiritual power fluctuations halted completely. The offering power from Treasure Pearl County’s people had been fully absorbed.

Xun Ji focused on manipulating the Chijun Sword until the last Malicious Curse Mark on a Biluo Sect disciple was removed. Only then did he halt, recalling the Chijun Sword.

On the plaza before the hall, the female cultivators seemed momentarily dazed by what they’d endured and escaped. They stared at each other, some looking curiously at their own bodies as rotten flesh from years past sprouted new blood and meat.

Lu Yun Ting also didn’t react at first.

His face pale, he stared intently at Xun Ji. Then, as if struck by immense joy, he staggered to his feet and rushed toward him.

Still bound by the Coiling Dragon Lock, his running posture was awkward, but Xun Ji paid it no mind, reaching out to pull him into his embrace.

Xun Ji himself hadn’t fully processed it. Once the balance of spiritual power influx and depletion in his body broke, he should have exploded and died on the spot. Yet, bizarrely, it hadn’t. When he absorbed the final strand of spiritual power converted by the Merit Dao, it perfectly healed the last Biluo Sect disciple.

Now, his body was devoid of spiritual power, so naturally, he couldn’t explode and perish.

“Shizun… there’s still time, still time!” Lu Yun Ting was incoherent. He hadn’t cried amid earlier despair, but now that hope reignited, all emotions burst forth, tears streaming from his bloodshot eyes.

“As long as no spiritual power enters your body, we can dual cultivate—dual cultivate to increase your lifespan! Even at Soul Transformation Stage, you won’t die!” Lu Yun Ting repeated frantically. “Shizun, you won’t die!”

What dogshit luck. Xun Ji felt an unreal sense of surviving a catastrophe.

“Yes, yes, yes.” Xun Ji hurriedly deactivated Pain Sensitivity, unlocked the Coiling Dragon Lock on him, and let him cling tightly. “Now you’re relieved, right?”

Lu Yun Ting said nothing, just holding him desperately, tears dripping down his neck.

“I say, you two, this is someone else’s home after all. Tone it down a bit.” Wei Luoheng’s suspended heart finally settled, and he teased good-naturedly.

Biluo Sect disciples around them turned to look, thousands of gazes prickling like needles on his back. Even Xun Ji felt his face heat up slightly.

He coughed lightly and patted Lu Yun Ting. “Alright, alright. We’ll talk after we get back.”

“Today’s events mean the Biluo Sect owes Jiyang Zhenren once. We will repay this favor in the future.” Linglan said. “If Jiyang Zhenren is willing, you may stay here. Once your body recovers, we can discuss future matters together.”

With no killing intent from the Biluo Sect toward him or Lu Yun Ting now, Xun Ji was naturally happy to foster good relations and thus agreed readily. “Everything as Linglan Fairy arranges.”

He took Lu Yun Ting’s hand to leave, but an elderly voice rose from the crowd.

“Jiyang Zhenren…” The speaking Biluo Sect female cultivator was white-haired and wrinkled, appearing quite aged. “I don’t understand grand righteousness or right and wrong. But in my youth, I roamed the four seas and drank from the Heavenly Fragrance Spring on Luowu Mountain. That spring water leaves a faint grass-wood scent on the body.”

She sighed. “After my body began rotting, I never smelled that scent again—until just now, when you eradicated my Malicious Curse Mark, and I caught the scent of Heavenly Fragrance Spring anew.”

“I’m old now; I can’t hold grudges anymore. For letting me smell that scent again, I thank you.” She said. “Jiyang Zhenren, thank you.”

At first, everyone thought it was just an ordinary thanks.

Until more and more female cultivators softly thanked Xun Ji.

Until a familiar glow lit up on Xun Ji’s body.

The Merit Dao: The more one heals others, the more one heals oneself; the more one gives to others, the more one receives. Gratitude from the heart is merit.

“Shut up…” Lu Yun Ting trembled in terror, shouting hoarsely at the plaza. “Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Don’t say it!! Don’t thank him!!!”

But it was too late.

Gratitude wells from the heart; even unspoken, the Merit Dao had reached great completion.

Endless spiritual power surged vigorously into Xun Ji’s body. It was like tossing a sun into a cracked porcelain vessel—dazzling light pierced through countless tiny fissures before erupting in a blaze of fierce energy.

Then it shattered completely.

The sky turned entirely white, like an endless snowfall on Duansxue Peak.

Lu Yun Ting stared blankly at his palm, where nothing remained.