Chapter 155: Achieving Benevolence at the Cost of One's Life? Or Achieving Humanity Through Slaughter?

"Hold your positions and stay alert! Old Feng, send out the wooden kites to scout the surrounding area!"

Shang Lu quickly issued his orders.

The group sprang into action immediately.

Feng Nan released several wooden kites into the air, while Tu Pi drew his heavy shield, scanning their surroundings with a fierce gaze.

Liu Zhi, Du Feng, and the others either readied their crossbows or drew their sabers, keeping a vigilant watch on the area.

Shang Lu did not remain idle either. He randomly pulled one of the dozen captured children out from the group.

He then had Du Feng and the others plug the ears of the remaining children.

Dragging the chosen child a short distance away, Shang Lu finally pulled out the ball of cloth stuffed into the child's mouth and demanded in a low voice, "Where are the people of the town? Where have they all gone?"

Taken aback by the sudden removal of the cloth, the child sputtered unintelligibly for a moment, unable to speak clearly.

The cloth had been stuffed by Du Feng and his men—seasoned veterans who excelled at this sort of work. Naturally, it wasn't done lazily like in the television dramas Shang Lu remembered from his past life, where things were stuffed so loosely it felt an insult to one's intelligence.

When Du Feng and his men gagged someone, they would first press the tongue downward before firmly jamming the cloth in to pin the tongue down, denying it any leverage and making it impossible for the victim to push the gag out.

Once the child's tongue recovered its mobility, he spoke clearly: "At this hour, everyone in the town is definitely listening to the Master's lecture."

Shang Lu had initially thought it would take some trouble to get answers out of the child, never expecting the kid to be so cooperative, answering whatever was asked.

However, upon hearing this, Du Feng frowned and muttered in complaint, "What decent person gives lectures in the middle of the night?"

The child shot Du Feng a side-long glance and replied coldly, "You lot are ignorant, yet you refuse to admit it. Let me ask you, aren't you able to calm your mind much better at night? Isn't your concentration much easier to focus than during the day?"

Hearing the first half of this, Du Feng had already readied himself for a verbal spar.

Yet by the time the child finished speaking, he froze. "It... it does seem to be that way... My lord, it seems this Master actually has some genuine ability."

"Don't let him distort your perception."

Shang Lu sneered, "It's quieter at night than during the day. As long as you're off duty and not entangled in official business or trivial chores, of course it's easier to calm your mind and concentrate than in the daytime.

That Master is a sophist of the School of Names, skilled at blending twisted fallacies with grains of truth—nine truths to one lie in every ten statements, making it terribly easy for people to be deceived."

A chill ran down Du Feng's spine, and he quickly cupped his fists. "Many thanks for the lord's reminder! I almost fell for their trap!"

Shang Lu continued his interrogation. "Where does your Master usually hold his lectures?"

"Right at the town's shamanic temple."

The child remained very cooperative, but his answer startled the group.

"In the shamanic temple, of all places? Has he bewitched the temple keeper of Yunxi Town as well?"

Tu Pi asked in astonishment, a trace of gravity settling over his face.

Du Feng explained in a low voice, "Old Tu, you've spent too long in the border garrisons and don't understand how things work in the interior.

In the interior, only at the commandery and county levels are retired elderly shamanic officials appointed as temple keepers.

In places like towns and villages, the temple keepers are simply well-respected local elders who volunteer to maintain the incense offerings and prevent the worship of the deities from being cut off."

"So that's how it is."

Tu Pi let out a breath of relief. Conditions in the interior were indeed different from the borderlands.

In the borderlands, even village-level shamanic temples were garrisoned by official shamanic officers.

Because in the borderlands, these temples were not merely places of faith, but strongholds that could play a massive role in actual combat.

While they spoke in low murmurs, Shang Lu had already extracted the location of the shamanic temple from the child.

He then proceeded to question him about the cultivation levels of the Master and his band of "followers."

Unfortunately, while the child could point out the direction of the shamanic temple, he knew nothing about the cultivation realms of the Master and his followers.

However, his faith in the Master and his companions remained steadfast.

"The Master's cultivation must be unimaginably high; he is a living saint among mortals! Once you all go to the temple and listen to the Master's lecture, you will realize your own transgressions and prostrate yourselves at his feet, begging to listen to his teachings day and night..."

"Du Feng, plug his mouth back up."

Shang Lu had no patience to listen to this kid proselytize for the crooked Master, and handed the cloth ball back to Du Feng so he could gag the child once more.

Following this, using the same method, they dragged out a few more children to interrogate.

Once they were certain these children were not lying, Shang Lu instructed Feng Nan to maneuver the wooden kites to scout the direction of the shamanic temple.

At the same time, under the cover of night, they crept toward the temple.

Yet they were in no rush to make a move.

Shang Lu intended to set up an ambush and monitor the surroundings first, waiting for the reinforcements of shamanic officials to arrive before taking anyone into custody.

Before long, the group reached the vicinity of the shamanic temple.

The shamanic temple of Yunxi Town was not large, consisting of only a small courtyard.

Clearly, the temple could not hold everyone, and quite a few people were standing on the path outside the courtyard walls, listening to the Master's lecture.

The expressions on these people were exceedingly bizarre—every single one of them wore a rapturous, entranced look, as though they were listening to divine decrees spoken by the heavens themselves.

And it wasn't just humans; even the dogs squatting on the ground and the cats crawling along the walls wore the exact same expression of intoxicated fascination.

It seemed as though even they could understand human speech and were on the verge of achieving spiritual enlightenment.

The lecturing voice drifting from inside the shamanic temple possessed a peculiar, hypnotic magic that inspired a sense of intimacy, compelling listeners to believe without conscious thought.

The moment Shang Lu heard the voice, the liver deity image within his internal organs palace sprang into action, continuously purifying the "toxins."

He hastily issued a low warning: "Everyone be careful! There is dark sorcery hidden within this voice. Circulate your vital blood to protect your ears and minds so you aren't influenced and deceived by it."

Startled, the others hurriedly complied, circulating their vital blood as ordered.

Under the influence of the vital blood, the sense of "intimacy" and "trust" instilled by the voice plummeted instantly.

In the main hall of the shamanic temple, the Master sat composedly in front of a divine statue.

The shadows cast by the statue swallowed him whole, obscuring his features from sight.

Addressing the people inside and outside the temple, he spoke smoothly and eloquently:

"Right now, none of you are even truly human—you are merely a pack of corpse-guarding ghosts. If you wish to achieve immortality and become deities, you must first become human!"

The people inside and outside the temple asked in unison, "Master, how may we attain humanity?"

The Master said slowly, "Have you ever heard the phrase: 'Taking life to achieve humanity'?"

A middle-aged man dressed as a Confucian scholar inside the temple bowed deeply and said, "Reporting to the Master, this disciple has heard of it. The saying 'sacrificing one's life to achieve benevolence' is a teaching left by the sages of the Confucian school, meaning that one may disregard their own life to uphold virtue..."

"Wrong!"

Before the scholar could finish, the Master seated within the shadow of the statue shook his head repeatedly.

"It is 'taking life to achieve humanity,' not 'sacrificing life to achieve benevolence'!

The latter is a corruption of the sages' recorded words by the worldly; they fear that once you know the truth, you will vie with them for the chance to become human, and consequently compete with them for the chance to become immortals and deities!"

The Master continued: "It is true that this phrase was spoken by a Confucian sage, but it was not about upholding benevolence—it was teaching you how to transform from a ghost into a human!

If you want to become human, you must take lives!

As I said before, all living beings suffer because, from the moment of birth, they are imprisoned within the cage of their flesh, subjected to all manner of virulent poisons in this world.

When you take lives, you are helping them escape this bitter sea; you are practicing charity and accumulating virtue.

When your accumulated virtue reaches a certain threshold, the toxins within your bodies will naturally dissipate, and your flesh will no longer be a prison holding you captive. Instead, it will become a small boat carrying you across this world, sailing freely through the ocean of cultivation..."

"Taking life to achieve humanity? So everything I understood before was wrong?"

The Confucian scholar panted heavily, two opposing trains of thought violently colliding within his mind.

In the end, he was swayed by the Master's glib tongue and prostrated himself flat on the ground.

"Thank you, Master, for imparting the truth! Only today do I realize that everything I learned in the past was falsehood!"

As he stood back up, his gaze toward the people around him carried an extra hint of feverish excitement.

He wanted to kill these people, to help them escape the sea of suffering, and in doing so, enable himself to take life, achieve humanity, and step onto the path of cultivation!

It was not just the Confucian scholar.

At this moment, everyone inside and outside the temple—and even the cats and dogs—were casting gazes filled with murderous intent at their companions and even their own family members.

It was precisely at this moment that the Master, concealed within the shadow of the divine statue, suddenly widened his eyes.

He had actually spotted the wooden kite lurking beneath the night sky and seen right through its camouflage.

Yet he did not panic. He merely proclaimed to the people inside and outside the temple: "Your opportunity to become human has arrived! Kill the uninvited guests who have sneaked into the town, grant them transcendence, and you will accumulate merit, shed your ghostly forms, and transform into true humans!"

"Uninvited guests?"

Hearing this, the crowd turned their heads to look around.

Shang Lu and the others, lying in ambush nearby, were all startled.

The Master raised a hand and said in a ringing voice, "Trust your eyes! Even in the pitch-black night, you can clearly see those uninvited guests!"

As his voice fell, the eyes of the crowd instantly bloodshot and bulged grotesquely, looking bizarre and monstrous.

Yet these people felt no pain; instead, they burst into a flurry of excited gasps.

"I can see clearly! Even the dark night is as clear as day!"

"The Master was right, we must trust our eyes!"

"I see them, there are people over there!"

A woman suddenly raised a hand, pointing toward a street corner not far away.

Liu Zhi and several scouts were lying in ambush right there.

"Oh no, we're exposed!"

Before Liu Zhi and his men could react, the mob inside and outside the temple rushed toward them like rabid beasts.

"Kill them!"

"Don't run, let us kill you!"

"Don't be afraid, we're doing this for your own good. Once you die, you'll break free from your cage and return to paradise."

"Relax, take a deep breath, it won't hurt much longer."

"Don't any of you fight me for them, let me kill them! I want to take life and become human! I don't want to be a ghost!"