Ju Mang
“Life and Death in the Blink of an Eye! Life and Death in the Blink of an Eye! Blast it! There has to be something I can do!” Mu Yu cried in angst.
Despite the rampaging spiritual energy inside Mu Yu, Ju Mang couldn’t take over. Closing his eyes bought laughter to his ears. He opened his eyes and peered into the forest to search for the owner of the voice, the person he had been looking for. He raced into the woods, aggressively combing aside branches and keeping leaves suspended with his speed.
Mu Yu came to a vacant spot. He knew who his clone was – Ju Mang.
“Save him.”
“Hahaha.”
Ju Mang’s laughter was comparable to needles pricking Mu Yu’s naivety. Ju Mang advanced, collecting leaves around his hand using wrist twirls. He morphed them into golden formation patterns that glowed green before reverting back to leaves and departing for another land.
“Nine Heavens Demon Sealing Formation sure is profound, hey?” Everywhere Ju Mang went, leaves would move away but stay within a fixed range and wreath around him. “I can use Life and Death in the Blink of an Eye to save him, but I need to be released.”
“I can’t let you out.”
Ju Mang raised his arms overhead to stretched. “Welp, not my problem then.”
Mu Yu crunched down on his bottom gums.
“Eternally Youthful Ku Mu is supposed to be important to you, isn’t he?” asked Ju Mang, fiddling with leaves.
“… He doesn’t want me to release you,” Mu Yu responded, cognisant of the fact that Ku Mu wouldn’t want to put him in danger.
“What’s the principle you insist on abiding to, protecting humanity or Third Heaven Continent or to help Third Heaven Palace consolidate their rule over the continent? Hehehe.”
“Kugh!” Just the thought of Third Heaven Palace unjust manner of handling Ku Mu’s execution incensed Mu Yu.
“You don’t have the foggiest idea how Third Heaven Palace has the entire continent in their hand, do you? You humans revere them and obey their every command because you’re convinced they can protect you from us, correct?” Ju Mang tried to stack two leaves on each other, but his hand slipped. “Am I wrong?”
Ju Mang gracefully blew the leaves into the air and resumed. “Third Heaven Palace guaranteed they could annihilate us and protect you from us, didn’t they? I bet they never told you the significance of our races fighting. Let’s see: they told you we want to conquer your lands and eradicate you off the face of this world, commit all evils imaginable and unimaginable, so cultivators exist to exterminate us, correct?”
“Isn’t that the case?”
Ju Mang shook his head as he laughed. “Their brainwashing is a success – I’ll give them that. Have you still not understood that the minority controls the truth? Hardly any of you humans know the truth of this world.”
“What’s your point?”
“Let me give you a hint. The majority of them have already reached the pinnacle of cultivation. They can travel through voids and manipulate space. Explain to me why, then, are they unable to rescue the populace of Moyun Mountains. Are you going to say because they don’t want to waste their time and energy due to the magnitude of the project? If so, you’re dead wrong. They never planned to rescue them. It wouldn’t cost them a hair to migrate the populace with their cultivation.”
“What’s your point?”
Mu Yu could see the conversation leading to convoluted revelations. It was hard for him to deny Ju Mang’s claim after witnessing even Daoist Yuan De, an Ascension Realm cultivator, obey Third Heaven Palace after leaving Moyun Mountains. If even Daoist Yuan De feared them, they had to possess power that could wipe out the fiend beasts to create an escape route for the civilians of Moyun Mountains.
“Third Heaven Palace intends to collect their souls as tributes. The white light you see them manifesting is an energy that comes from souls that they absorbed.” Ju Mang sneered.
“What do they want energy from souls for?”
“It’s the source of energy they use to preside over the continent. The energy is fittingly coined ‘soul energy’. It’s thousands of folds more potent than the spiritual energy cultivators use. That’s the reason there isn’t any sect that can oppose them.
“Be it humans, fiends, elemental demons or whatever other races you can think of, we all leak soul energy after death. Our soul energy circulates to various corners of the continent, but only Third Heaven Palace’s members know how to collect it. To ensure there’s an infinite supply of the unprecedented energy for them to cultivate, they need sacrifices, lots of them.
“That’s the dirty deed Third Heaven Palace has been committing. The only humans who know of that are under their banner. They want to wage war against us because war begets death, subsequently breeding soul energy. We never wanted to conquer your lands.
“Sword Shadow Dust Gale disrupted their plan. I know he’s immortal, but I never heard of him in the millenniums I have been around. He never involved himself in our fight. Knowing him, he could’ve sealed us away millenniums ago if he wanted to. For whatever reason, he decided to seal us away a century ago! Though it’s vexing, I have to give respect where it’s due.
“Sword Shadow Dust Gale’s intervention put an end to wars. As a consequence, there were fewer deaths and less soul energy. Third Heaven Palace, therefore, figured he was aware of their treachery.”
“Why are you playing along with Third Heaven Palace, then? You could choose not to fight.”
“I’ve lived for a long time, but that has to be the most moronic thing I’ve heard yet. You expect us to just let them kill us?”
“… Does my shifu know about this?”
“There are more mysteries to him than you can imagine. You could argue his appearance and intervention were coincidences just as Third Heaven Palace seemingly showed up out of nowhere. I don’t know where he comes from. Nonetheless, I can say with certainty that he has no idea Third Heaven Palace has been scheming from the shadows to collect soul energy. He merely wanted to end the war.” Ju Mang, simpering, added, “It’s clear that Third Heaven Palace has duped everyone, including him.”
Previous Chapter l Next Chapter
