84. Atonement
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Back at the clearing, Kai Zhen waved a hand to remove his shield, and he vanished before Lord Huo or Lord Mo were clear-headed.
'What happened?!' Lord Huo regained his senses first, but didn't hesitate to hit Lord Mo's chest with a qi severing technique, which sent him flying into a tree.
Lord Mo fell on all fours, vomiting blood, as he tried to channel his qi to no avail.
Lord Huo looked around in confusion, unsure of what happened in the trance-like state, but he shook his head and grabbed Lord Mo's collar.
"Let's go." He said, and with a swift quickstep, they were back in the arena.
"Senior!" Xu Fengyan called out, running over to Lord Huo, who flung Lord Mo across the arena's platform.
"Senior, are you okay?" Xu Fengyan asked, studying his mentor, but it was a panting Lord Mo who responded...
"Heh, you have time to worry about him? Shouldn't you worry about your Yue City?! By now, it should be nearly levelled!"
But Xu Fengyan and Lord Huo shook their heads.
"If you can secretly plot against us, can't we secretly put countermeasures in place?" Xu Fengyan asked. "Sect Leader Huo wasn't the only surprise guest I invited!"
The anonymous tipster had warned him that Lord Mo had shady intentions, but had also mentioned a possible attack on Yue City, warning him that immortals or demons might be involved.
This had made Xu Fengyan sceptical...
But rather than blatant disbelief, he had opted for preparing, just in case... If nothing came of it, he would lose a ton of wasted resources, but if the anonymous tipster was right and he ignored it, he would lose the entire Sect!
So in addition to laying several of Luoyin's traps around Yue City, Xu Fengyan had burned more than a few high-level teleportation talismans, bringing in five other Sect Leaders, including Lord Huo, and four high level members of the Wulin, each with at least three elders accompanying them...
Lord Mo's so-called rogue army stood no chance, and Yue City was back under control.
All their countermeasures were only put in place under two days, so parts of the city couldn't escape destruction, but most of the invaders had been captured, and the rest had fled the city, still being pursued by the other Sect Leaders.
"Impossible!" Lord Mo yelled, then bent over, coughing up more blood.
"Don't bother struggling." Lord Huo warned. "There's no escape for you."
But Lord Mo laughed, suddenly holding up a talisman. "Heh! I don't intend to go down alone, nor can I spare you all for this insolence!
"Aren't you forgetting something?!" He struggled to his feet, grasping his chest. Then he turned to Xu Fengyan.
"Both of you should destroy your own cores, or I'll burn this talisman, destroying the Hunting Grounds with your disciples in it!" He smirked. "Even if you ignore your adopted daughter and son-in-law, your only son is in there as well, right?
"Believe it or not, they are trapped within, and an army of rogue cultivators are in there as well! There's also a formation which can destroy them along with the hunting plains!"
Xu Fengyan's eyes had widened. "Are you crazy?! Isn't this asking a tiger for its skin!"
"Stop it now, before you're beyond redemption!" Lord Huo's voice thundered, but Lord Mo simply smirked.
"I'm already beyond redemption!" Lord Mo yelled. "Heh, I already knew you hypocrites might not sacrifice your precious cores to save children... So I will destroy them at least!"
He raised the talisman. "You can say your goodbyes to the entirety of Yueyan's younger geniuses!"
"Oh?" A voice echoed from the skies, and a large portal appeared, out of which poured Zhang Luoyin and the other missing disciples.
They all landed around the platform, none seriously injured, and they instantly drew their weapons as Luoyin straightened.
"We wouldn't happen to be the geniuses you're speaking of, right? We're honestly flattered... You think so highly of us!"
Lord Mo's eyes widened in shock, and he staggered backwards, tripped, and landed on his rear.
"Impossible!" He exclaimed. "The tamper shouldn't allow even the most powerful teleportation talisman! Even someone on my level wouldn't be able to come out of there!"
Those immortals had assured him that no mortal could escape the Hunting Grounds!
"Hmph." Luoyin folded his arms. "My formation can even send you to the Shadow Realm... Want to try?"
"You-!"
"Ah! I forgot to mention... Your son's remains are in there. Why don't you go ahead and destroy the hunting grounds, umm? It's a fast way to cremate him, but I'm actually curious about how you'll retrieve his ashes when you're done."
Lord Mo was filled with so much rage and hatred that he instantly hacked, spewing more blood from his lips.
Then with one last hate-filled glare at Luoyin, he activated a teleportation talisman and suddenly vanished.
But Luoyin had no intention of letting him go, and before everyone's eyes, Luoyin vanished as well...
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Lord Mo reappeared in a vast clearing outside Yue City, further down the mountain and by a large waterfall.
It was clearly the temporary base for his now-scattered rogue army, and here and there were the remains of camp fires and broken tents.
There was an eerie silence as a talisman appeared in his hand, and it glowed, burning in deep purple flames.
'Hmph. This will summon 'them'!' He thought as the flares disappeared. They should be able to clear the demon residue at least!'
But the one who appeared was Luoyin.
"Don't bother. The immortals behind you won't dare show their faces here." After Luoyin came out of the training grounds, he had sensed two familiar auras which would scare away most immortals!
"You -!" Lord Mo looked incredulous. "How did you find this place?! It can't be tracked!"
The clearing had a tracking ban talisman buried beneath, and even if it didn't, it should still take quite a while for someone on Zhang Luoyin's level to track him!
But Luoyin simply smirked. "You have a long line of dead souls clinging to you... Unlike humans, ghosts can instantly find the source of their grievances, so I tagged a talisman on one of them before they followed you, and I reverse summoned myself."
"I hate you!" Lord Mo rasped. "That brilliant mind of yours which has destroyed our plans from the start, and shattered everything we have built! I should have personally killed you back then!"
"The same way you killed Zhang Furen- the love of your life?" Luoyin smiled, but it was scarier than not smiling at all, and it made Lord Mo's skin hairs rise up.
Lord Mo held out a hand and his scythe appeared, but with his qi blocked, he could barely support its weight.
Still he managed to brandish it, swaying slightly from the weight of it. "Let me tell you boy, I don't need my full strength to handle someone on your level! I'm in a good mood today, so go away and I'll pretend a dog simply passed by!"
But Luoyin calmly approached, and Lord Mo found himself backing away in fear.
'Why do I fear him?!' Lord Mo wondered and steeled himself, determined to stand his ground...
Yet his feet moved on their own, backing away from Zhang Luoyin, who smirked.
"I was just wondering how to get you alone, and you came here... Would you like to hear how your son died?" Luoyin asked softly. "I made him carry the 'weight' of his sins, but what do I do with you...?"
"Stay away from me!" Lord Mo was now swinging the scythe wildly. "Stay away!"
Luoyin cocked his head in thought, then...
"Hao! What a good idea! I'll make you constantly repeat what you've just said from now on!" Luoyin said, then suddenly appeared in front of Lord Mo, his hand over Lord Mo's navel.
"You-!" But as Lord Mo spoke, Luoyin shoved a pill into his mouth and he swallowed in shock.
Then a violent burst of light blue aura exploded around Luoyin's hand, and Lord Mo was flung backwards.
Lord Mo instantly convulsed and spewed a dark, relentless flow of blood onto the floor.
"You waste! What did you do to me?!"
"Killing you would be the real 'waste', so I destroyed your cultivation instead." Luoyin said, wiping his hand as if he had touched something dirty.
He had just touched Lord Mo, so he wasn't surprised when the Spirit-binding oath appeared on his wrist, nor was he surprised to see the last arrow activated and pointing inwards, but quickly vanishing before his eyes.
He had guessed Lord Mo was the final arrow, and every misfortune Lord Mo had faced in the last few hours had Luoyin's hand in it, as he was the 'anonymous tipster' behind the scenes, guiding Sect Leader Xu.
"No... No!" Lord Mo was shaking his head in disbelief, but as he placed a hand to his core, he felt nothing there at all. "My cultivation... My cultivation!!" He wailed.
He had spent years growing his cultivation and was now one of the top in Baishan.
But it was all gone, just like that!
How was he to survive in a world run by power?!
Luoyin scoffed. "Don't play a victim here. From your years as a disciple, till now, there's a long list of people whose cultivations you've ruined because they threatened to surpass you or your son.
"Aiya... You've lived a life trampling on the weak, and there's nothing under the skies you won't do to achieve your selfish goals."
Luoyin stated, pacing around him. "You've joined hands with demons in the past, tortured and killed the innocent, broken entire families, stolen from your sect, used cruel means to grow your power..."
Luoyin crouched in front of him. "Death is too cheap for your kind, so I won't kill you. In fact, I even did you a favour and suppressed the demon residue within you, so you can live for a long time! And also..."
Luoyin pointed behind Lord Mo, who shakily turned to find a small bloodstained child right in front of his face.
Lord Mo screamed in terror and instantly backed away.
The child had a nightmarish appearance, with ghostly white skin, his face and hands half eaten, and most of his skeleton showing, with one empty eye-socket in his partially exposed skull.
"W- What is that thing?!" Lord Mo was still backing away, but Luoyin grabbed his collar, pulling him up to his knees, and then forced him to kowtow to the boy.
"This is the child you once fed to dogs because he bumped into your son, and because his father once opposed you in your rise to power! You should greet this child politely!" Luoyin banged Lord Mo's forehead on the ground a few times.
Of the spirits surrounding Lord Mo, this child had broken Luoyin's heart to the core!
The boy's story had been one of those uncovered by the original Luoyin before his death, but setting eyes on the child ghost made him envision just how bad the child's final moments had been...
Luoyin released a whimpering Lord Mo and stepped away as more of the ghosts and evil spirits appeared and approached Lord Mo.
"No! Stay away! Stay away from me!" Lord Mo recoiled, desperately scrambling backwards, but the spirits followed.
"They'll follow you till you die, keeping you company till they resolve their grudges." Luoyin informed him.
"The pill I fed you will suppress the demon residue, but it will flare up every night, bringing you unbelievable pain, and suppressing any chance of you ever cultivating again."
Luoyin turned to leave. "The pill will also make you immune to all forms of exorcism, so these spirits will haunt you till death...
"You can consider your remaining hellish years as atonement for 'Zhang Luoyin's' death, and for your many other sins!"
And with that, he vanished, leaving Lord Mo screaming behind him, completely at the mercy of the spirits...
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