Shen Lian was still holding the sandalwood sword he made himself, the scent of sandalwood calmed him down.
He still felt irritable. It was just as the ice in the summer, though cooling it could never undo the scorching heat in its entirety.
The young man let his hand roam over Yan's body. Yan blushed and moaned reflexively under his touch. Suddenly, the young man increased his strength and got violent. Yan yelped in response, as though she was complaining to the young man.
"Who is your Master? I still haven't made you pay for the last time you hurt me." The young man had black lines at the corner of his eyes, and that added to his evil appeal.
"You babble too much."
With a flick of his wooden sword, it was as though a wave of wind and rain came along with it.
Shen Lian did not learn his swordcraft from anyone. Despite the shadows from the movement of the sword, the attack with the wooden sword did not seem destructive.
Rather than an actual fighting move, it looked more like child play.
In the eyes of the young man, the attack looked different. The tip of the sword was vibrating, and it was giving off numerous light dots.
Each and every one of the dots was bright and pure.
Shen Lian's eyes dimmed slightly, but the light dots brightened up immensely.
The outsiders could not see the light dots. The young man was the only one who could.
This was an extension of the "Deity Vanquishing Sword", and it had a mysterious and special power - it could capture and kill human spirits. It was not a typical martial art move, and it was not an inner essential Qi either; it could not split stones and break apart stele, but to the young man, what it could do was way scarier.
Every human has spirit and soul. Whatever that the heart wishes would turn into thoughts. In some cases where the thoughts were persistence, they would attach itself to something. After a certain period of time, the thoughts would either manifest themselves into either a deity or a demon.
The essence of the young man was human thoughts - thoughts manifested from greed and desires. It had a certain mystically quality to it, and even though it was impure, it could exist independently.
Similarly, if Shen Lian felt irritated by him, it would mean that his essence would be that of irritation.
Shen Lian's mind was free of distracting thoughts, and his spirit was pure.
This had a restraining effect on the demonic influence.
He remembered a long time ago, there was someone who gave him the same feeling.
It was a mortal man, who was also a scholar. His thoughts were righteous, and his vigor was focused.
He destroyed the temple for his five brothers and broke their golden statues. They ended up drifting aimlessly in the world. Through bewitching Xu Hong, they managed to recover slowly.
Shen Lian's attack was impractical, if a martial art expert from Jianghu were to see, he would not be impressed at all. However, it had its merits - the excellent tempo.
The fight between martial art experts was not just about good moves. It would take more than that to overpower one's opponent and to be one of the best in the world.
Just as the simple move of "green pines welcoming their guests"; like the gentle breeze that passed through the green pines in the mountains, and the move would be a curvature one.
However, if one were to use that move too early, the opponent would have expected it and attack one's opening.
Because the moment one put his full strength into it, it would be hard to change the direction, and thus doomed to failure.
However, if one were to delay and missed the right timing, the opponent's subsequent attack would catch one by surprise. "Green pines welcoming their guests" would turn into the skill of "leaving oneself open to attacks".
Shen Lian's move was a random move without a name. It did not have any notable changes. However, its vibrating tip created overlapping shadows of the sword, and it was hard to tell the shadows apart from the actual sword. On top of that, Shen Lian had the option of attacking from any direction.
The young man pulled Yan in front of him and used her as a shield.
He was a demonic god without any care for the sense of propriety, justice, integrity, and honor. Justice, morality, and humanity meant nothing to him; the only thing he cared about was himself.
The wooden sword made crackling sound mid-air, it sounded like the clear and short tune of when gold and rocks collided.
The tip of the sword stopped right before it made contact with Yan's chest.
The young man gave an evil smile. He tried to tie Shen Lian up by extending the black ropes formed from the black mist on his hand. He waved the ropes as though he was playing the pipa.
The light dots on the tip of the sword rained like a bright cluster of shooting stars.
One could not add onto the wind and rain sweeping across the gloomy sky.
Even though it was a mere wooden sword, the frostiness it was emanating instilled fear into Yan. She collapsed immediately.
The light dots did not go for Yan. They made a sharp turn and collided with the pipa strings made of black gusts. These were the manifestation of humans' greed and desires. Just a tiny bit of it could cause one to go insane and to act in a senseless manner.
The light dots were akin to holy light; it melted like snow and ice after purifying the black gusts.
"This child has such a pure spirit. If I were to absorb him…" The young man thought.
The moment he thought of that, his greediness peaked. This was his first time encountering a spirit as pure as this. It was unlike the thoughts of the man he met back then, who was filled with righteousness that was scorching like the afternoon sun.
Shen Lian's thoughts were just pure. The strength of his spirit was strong. It would not take a lot of work to cultivate and amalgamate it.
If he were to get this for himself, and only himself, his capabilities would be significantly enhanced.
Thinking of reaping the benefits for himself only, he did not inform his four brothers with whom he was cultivating together in the temple.
A layer of black mist started filling up the hall; two long fangs could be seen, and a pig head with huge mouth and nose appeared.
Shen Lian knew fully well that it was a wild boar covered with long hairs that were like steel pin, and its fangs were still intact.
The young man was a wild boar in the mountains. Unlike his kind, he had consumed a significant amount of spiritual beings in the mountains, which led to his enlightenment.
It was only after that he met his four brothers. Together, they discovered an abode of immortals left behind by a cultivator. They managed to strengthen their spirit after learning how to absorb the distracting thoughts of a human. To their surprise, they discovered that they obtained supernatural power.
They stayed at the villages and preyed on uneducated and uncivilized villagers. They fed on their greedy desires and learned more about the human society.
People started to know about the Wutong gods.
The five gods of pestilence used to be animals with pure thoughts. They only became demonic gods after accumulating evil thoughts with them.
On top of that, some people had built the Wutong temple. That afforded them the chance to cultivate further.
Their increasing influence could be credited to the fact that there had not been a divine miracle in ages. Moreover, they had the power to go into people's dreams, which added to their perceived divinity.
After absorbing the distracting human thoughts, they became more and more human and were getting better at bewitching the masses.
After all, they were demonic gods that did not have a care in the world. This particular young man had even morphed into a human and had ravished countless innocent women. All of these incidents attracted the attention of a young and righteous scholar.
The five demonic gods were animals. They were too used to their supernatural powers to the extent that they forgot what they really were.
They could not bewitch the righteous scholar and were completely overpowered by him. Their statues were smashed into bits, and they had to escape with their injuries.
The young man was the least seriously injured, which was why he could recover so quickly and started doing harm to the Xu family.
Amongst the Wutong gods, the wild boar who took on the shape of a young human scholar was the most perverted and conspiratorial out of them all.
This explained why he was onto Shen Ruoxi. He wanted to expand his influence with the help of the Shen family, which would be immensely beneficial for his cultivation.
In the dark mist, the wild boar charged towards Shen Lian with a limping leg.
Shen Lian stood as still as a statue, and he did not move at all.
Out of a sudden, two Shen Lian appeared. One of them had a sword and was not moving; the other was floating with his feet off the ground.