Chapter 147: The Daily Life of the Cultivation World, Hands Stained with Blood

Chapter 147 – The Daily Life of the Cultivation World, Hands Stained with Blood

The morning breeze, heavy with a sickly-sweet metallic tang, swept past as Chen Changsheng rose and stretched his limbs.

The distant flames of war had long since died down, yet the stifling stench of blood refused to dissipate from the air.

At that moment, Su Tian and the others approached, their robes drenched in crimson.

Of the one thousand and eighty disciples of the Purple Mansion, only six hundred remained; the other four hundred and eighty had been put to eternal rest upon this cursed earth.

“Sir, the deed is done.”

“Excellent. How many fell?”

“Eighteen high-level cultivators, one thousand three hundred and twenty mid-level cultivators, and tens of thousands of low-level rabble.”

“Not bad. To forge such a casualty ratio, you truly deserve the title of Heavenly Talent.”

“Go gather the corpses and tally the spoils of war. The leaders of this vanguard, stay behind.”

Heeding Chen Changsheng’s command, the outer sect disciples of the Purple Mansion dispersed, leaving only Ye Hensheng and a handful of other commanders.

Sweeping his gaze over the silent few, Chen Changsheng smiled. “How does it feel? To harvest lives with your own hands?”

“Among you, aside from Su Tian, I doubt any have bathed in a slaughter of this magnitude.”

Hearing this, Ye Hensheng lifted his blood-streaked face.

“Sir, will there be more carnages like this?”

“Naturally. They will only grow vaster, and strike with greater frequency.”

“Thus, you must acclimate to the weight of blood on your hands. You must understand the true cost when the drums of war sound.”

“This is the Dao you chose to walk. You alone must bear the karma of its harvest.”

“In the future, you will command legions. When the time comes to decree life or death, I expect you to remember the chill of this very moment.”

“Go to your tasks. Once finished, we return home.”

With that, Chen Changsheng waved his hand, dismissing them.

Su Tian and the men withdrew, yet Gongsun Huaiyu and Zi Ning remained rooted to the blood-soaked earth.

Pursing her pale lips, Zi Ning whispered, “Sir, may we sit by your side for a moment?”

“Of course.”

Finding an unsoiled patch of ground, Chen Changsheng took a seat, with Gongsun Huaiyu flanking his left and Zi Ning on his right.

Gazing at the distant mountains of corpses, Gongsun Huaiyu hugged her knees, her voice desolate.

“I was the first to carve a path into the Golden Light Cave. I sundered one of their Elders in half with a single strike of my whip.”

“The moment that Elder fell, a youth charged at me like a maddened beast.”

“He was but sixteen. His cultivation was a speck of dust before me; I had no desire to end his life.”

“Yet, he attacked with a relentless, suicidal fury.”

“My vanguard was mired in a heavy siege. If I did not clear the path, my subordinates would have been slaughtered.”

“To spare my own, I shattered the boy’s legs.”

“Later, Su Tian arrived with reinforcements, and we finally seized a breath of respite.”

“I sought out that youth. I meant to spare him, but when I met his gaze, a cold dread gripped me.”

“I did not know how to face those eyes. I held no personal grudge against the Golden Light Cave, yet I had turned his home into an ash-strewn graveyard.”

Gongsun Huaiyu paused, turning her gaze toward Chen Changsheng.

“Sir, do you know what I did next?”

“What did you do?”

“I personally snapped his neck, and then I ordered the absolute eradication of every surviving soul in the Golden Light Cave.”

After confessing, she lowered her head, sinking back into silence.

Seeing this, Chen Changsheng turned to Zi Ning with an amused smirk. “And you?”

“What atrocities did you commit?”

“After I breached the Mad Dragon Fort, I crippled Wan Tong’s father with three palm strikes, right before his very eyes.”

“He prostrated himself, cracking his skull against the earth, begging me to spare his father and the fort. He offered his own life as penance.”

“And then?”

“I accepted. Once they dispelled their Formation, I slaughtered every man who refused to beg.”

“As for those who did beg, I had my men execute them. In their final moments, their eyes were hollow pools of resentment and bewilderment.”

“Tsk, tsk!”

“You two wenches usually wear such pristine, righteous facades. Who knew you harbored such venom in your veins.”

“Whoever claims you as Dao companions is destined for a miserable existence!”

Unfazed by his teasing, Zi Ning met Chen Changsheng’s gaze with eerie calm.

“Sir, have you ever reaped this many lives?”

“I haven’t bothered to count, but the harvest has been bountiful.”

“Once, an ignorant creature spat at me. Shortly after, its entire race ceased to exist.”

Gongsun Huaiyu and Zi Ning stared: “……”

Did he really have to be so utterly ruthless?!

Erasing a bloodline from the heavens over a mere slight?

Chen Changsheng’s apathetic tone derailed the girls’ brooding melancholy.

Finding her voice, Gongsun Huaiyu asked, “Sir, after exterminating their race, did you feel a shred of remorse?”

“Remorse?” Chen Changsheng tilted his head, pondering the question. “Reflecting on the Dao of the past, I suppose there is a sliver of regret.”

“I should have deduced a more justifiable excuse to slaughter their entire clan.”

“After all, severing a lineage over a petty glob of spit does leave a faintly bitter taste in my Dao heart.”

“Moreover, I shouldn’t have slaughtered his entire kin right before the patriarch’s eyes. That was excessively cruel.”

Gongsun Huaiyu and Zi Ning’s lips twitched violently.

You truly are a paragon of mercy!

If that extinct race heard your words, they would surely weep in gratitude.

Noting that the dark clouds over the girls had parted slightly, Chen Changsheng smiled and patted their heads.

“In this cannibalistic realm of cultivation, a few severed threads of fate are nothing.”

“Rivers of blood flowed at the Heavenly Talent Assembly as well. I didn’t see you weeping over shattered souls back then.”

“You have grown too soft in peace, allowing your minds to conjure phantoms of guilt.”

“The first harvest is always the heaviest. Endure a few more, and the scent of death will become as natural as breathing.”

“No, it is not the same!”

Gongsun Huaiyu stubbornly argued against his cold logic.

Chen Changsheng merely shot her a sidelong glance of disdain.

“How does it differ? In essence, they are all rotting meat returning to the earth. What distinction is there?”

“Furthermore, I distinctly recall that back at the Purple Mansion Holy Land, you intended to summon the Seventy-Two Wolf Smokes to raze the Mad Dragon Fort to ash.”

“Let me ask you: if I had granted your request and let the Seventy-Two Wolf Smokes wipe them out, would you be wallowing in this pitiable state right now?”

“So, unless the river of blood splashes onto your own robes, your conscience remains spotless?”

Chen Changsheng’s razor-sharp words sliced through her defenses, leaving Gongsun Huaiyu utterly speechless. The underlying truth of the Dao was exactly as he laid bare.

The solitary difference was her own hands physically partaking in the slaughter.

“Do you finally understand why the ancient behemoths and major powers favor the negotiation table?”

“Because they have reaped too many souls. They possess an intimate, weary understanding of what a true massacre feels like.”

“I am aware you two hold contempt for the ‘indecision’ of your elders. In your perception,”

“when facing enemies, you believe they should be annihilated with the overwhelming fury of heavenly tribulation.”

“Yet, the Dao of this world is steeped in absurdity. Given your temperaments, you are fated to evolve into the very monsters you currently despise.”