Volume 7: The Strongest Four Realms Chapter 9: The Old Vulture
Despite all the twists and turns in his life, Lu Qingshan finally set out on the journey to Giant Bear City again.
"A few dozen miles further ahead, there should be a small tribe of the human race called 'Huang'," Lu Qingshan muttered while comparing the map, "When we reach the Huang tribe, Giant Bear City is also close."
He continued to move forward, but when he was about to approach the village of the Bei tribe, Lu Qingshan's face changed.
He smelled a pungent smell of blood.
Lu Qingshan quickly sped up, leaving a streak of light in the sky and heading straight for the small tribe.
Looking down, it was a small oasis that could probably only support hundreds of households and thousands of people.
But at this moment, the oasis, which should have been bustling in the past, was dead silent.
The houses built of loess collapsed, the ground was in a mess, and there were shocking traces of dried blood everywhere. The sight before our eyes was even more horrific.
Body after body fell in a pool of solidified blood. Among them were white-haired old men, frail women, and even babies in swaddling clothes.
Among the corpses on the ground, Lu Qingshan saw an "acquaintance".
Previously, he noticed the little monk with a long and lingering aura in Dongque City.
The young monk was standing in front of the ruins with his brows frowned and his hands clasped together, muttering to himself while looking at the corpses of the villagers.
"…Thus have I heard…At that time, the Tathagata smiled and emitted hundreds of thousands of millions of great light clouds, namely, the great perfect light cloud, the great compassion light cloud, the great wisdom light cloud, the great prajna light cloud…"
It is a Buddhist scripture for salvation.
The young monk is trying to save the souls of the Bei people.
He also noticed Lu Qingshan's arrival, but did not interrupt his scriptures.
However, the little yellow bird hiding in the little monk's sleeve poked its head out at this moment, staring with its black eyes, looking at Lu Qingshan curiously.
Lu Qingshan's expression was somewhat gloomy at this time - as a fellow human being, anyone with empathy would not feel very happy when seeing such a tragic scene.
He silently released his spiritual sense, and after wandering around the village and searching for a while, his expression suddenly changed.
Because he found a faint breath among the corpses on the ground.
It was a very young boy, only about eleven or twelve years old, with a huge wound on his stomach, and his internal organs were clearly visible, but he was surprisingly tenacious and not dead.
Lu Qingshan approached and squatted down to check the boy's injuries. He found that the boy was pale and had lost consciousness. He was really only holding his breath.
At this time, the little monk also noticed Lu Qingshan's actions and followed him. He looked at the boy's injuries and sighed, "With such serious injuries, it is impossible for him to survive."
"That's not necessarily true." Lu Qingshan thought for a moment and said softly.
Then, a dark blue sword as bright as ice appeared in his hand.
He swung his sword at the boy.
"Huh...donor you!" The little monk exclaimed subconsciously, with a golden seal flashing in his hand, trying to stop Lu Qingshan's actions.
But at the moment when the seal was made, the little monk suddenly felt something, a trace of surprise and doubt flashed across his face, and his hands stopped moving.
A flash of snow-white sword light covered the boy's body.
After the sword flashed, Lu Qingshan put away his sword.
The boy who had lost consciousness and was dying slowly opened his eyes at this moment.
The huge gash on his abdomen had healed up at some point, as if it had never existed.
Wangchuan: blue sky.
When the young monk saw the boy wake up, he looked at the Sword of Forgetfulness in Lu Qingshan's hand in great shock.
Sword cultivators are best at killing, and this is something everyone in the world knows.
But it was the first time he heard that a sword cultivator's sword could actually save people.
However, the little monk was simple-minded and did not think much about it. A hint of joy flashed across his face, and he quickly stepped forward to help the boy who had just woken up.
Lu Qingshan glanced at the panel.
The boy was just a mortal and only suffered external injuries. Although the injuries looked terrible, it was not as difficult to heal as imagined.
Therefore, this sword only used one tenth of the life force currently stored in Wangchuan.
However, it consumed a full 30,000 experience points.
This usage fee is really extremely expensive.
The moment the boy opened his eyes, he was confused at first, and then he seemed to remember what had happened before, and a look of fear suddenly appeared on his face.
He glanced at Lu Qingshan and the little monk, and then saw the bodies of his parents lying next to him. He couldn't help but feel grief-stricken. He threw himself on the bodies of his parents and cried bitterly, "Dad, Mom..."
"What happened?" Lu Qingshan asked.
"It was the Sand Bandits," the boy sobbed, "It was the 'Evil Monk of the Sea of Sand'. He brought his men to our village and demanded spirit stones from us. We are just a small tribe, not rich to begin with. In the past few years, we relied on the savings of the monks to barely pay the spirit stones. Later, the savings of the monks in the tribe were emptied, and this time we couldn't pay enough spirit stones. We begged the Sand Bandits for mercy and asked for more time, but they showed no mercy at all and slaughtered the village in anger."
The boy cried as he spoke, his face covered with congealed blood, which made people angry.
The evil monk in the sea of sand.
Lu Qingshan murmured.
He is one of the eight leaders of the Sand Bandits, with the same status as Sindhu.
He was originally an ascetic monk, but for unknown reasons, he changed to practicing the evil blood-slaughtering technique. Finally, he was wanted by Daxia and had no choice but to escape into the Mogao Desert and become a member of the sand bandits. He was a cultivator in the late Nascent Soul stage.
"The sand bandits have been blackmailing you for so many years, haven't you ever tried to ask for help from the Giant Bear Tribe?" Lu Qingshan asked again.
The location of the Wolf Tribe is very close to the Giant Bear Tribe.
He didn't expect that the sand bandits would be bold enough to commit crimes in a small village so close to Giant Bear City.
This behavior is too arrogant.
"We tried. At the beginning, the tribe leader asked for help from the Giant Bear Tribe, but the Giant Bear Tribe simply ignored us." The boy was overwhelmed with grief, and tears mixed with blood flowed down his face uncontrollably.
Lu Qingshan frowned, his face darkened, and a nameless anger rose up.
There is both murderous intent towards the sand bandits and anger towards the short-sightedness of the Giant Bear Tribe.
Tolerating evil people is actually not much different from doing evil yourself.
Moreover, with such indulgence, the evildoers will not stop when they see the advantage, but will only expand infinitely.
Today the sand bandits are just committing crimes around the Giant Bear Tribe, but tomorrow they will shit on the Giant Bear Tribe.
madness.
Lu Qingshan judged this in his heart.
If the Nine Clan Alliance had not been so indulgent towards Old Man Vulture in the beginning, but had decisively joined forces to deal with him, the Sand Bandits would not have become so powerful and difficult to deal with now, and they might even have been able to compete with the local snake like the Nine Clan Alliance.
…
The young monk was whispering to comfort the little boy.
Lu Qingshan was thinking about something.
"Monk, what is your relationship with this evil monk in the sea of sand?" Lu Qingshan suddenly asked.
Because when the boy mentioned the name of the evil monk in the sea of sand, he noticed that the little monk's expression changed obviously.
The young monk hesitated for a moment, but finally did not hide anything. He bowed and said frankly, "My name is Juezhen. I came from Jitang Temple. I came here for this evil monk in the sea of sand."
"Chicken Soup Temple..." Lu Qingshan repeated the name, and the information about Chicken Soup Temple quickly emerged in his mind. "I didn't expect it to be the Buddha from Longxiang Temple. I'm sorry."
Longxiang Temple is composed of four courtyards, thirty-six temples and seventy-two temples, and the Chicken Soup Temple is among these thirty-six temples.
The young novice monk named Juezhen corrected him earnestly, "I am not yet qualified to be a Buddha. I am just a young novice monk."
Lu Qingshan's expression straightened up, "What do you mean by coming here for this evil monk from the sea of sand ?"
The young monk Juezhen felt a little ashamed, "This evil monk in the sea of sand is called Qiluo.
When Qi Luo was still an ascetic monk, he once found our Chicken Soup Temple and wanted to enter the temple to practice.
My master said that Qila had no affinity with Buddha and therefore rejected him.
Qi Luo was unwilling to give in, and knelt at the entrance of Jitang Temple for three years, but his master remained unmoved.
I felt sorry for him, so when he left, I secretly passed on to him a Buddhist teaching from the temple. Who would have thought that he would end up becoming like this, doing evil things everywhere.
If I had not secretly taught him Buddhism that day, even if he had done evil, he would not have become what he is today.
This disaster was ultimately caused by me, so I left the temple and followed his trail to come here, just to settle the cause and effect of that year with my own hands."
Lu Qingshan was slightly surprised when he heard this.
The evil monk of Shahai has been famous for many years. According to the young monk Juezhen, when the evil monk of Shahai was still an ascetic monk, he practiced in Jitang Temple.
This means that the little monk in front of him must be at least fifty years old. Moreover, since he dared to come alone to find the evil monk in the sea of sand, his cultivation must be extraordinary.
I just don’t know why, this monk looks so childish, even his speech is childish. I don’t know if it’s intentional or because of some special reason.
Generally speaking, people in the Buddhist community do not pay attention to the so-called external appearances, so the possibility of doing so intentionally is not high.
"The Bei tribe was massacred. So, I should bear part of the responsibility." Juezhen said frankly and guiltily.
"The gangster buys the knife to kill people, but the person selling the knife is not breaking the law." Lu Qingshan said.
"After I settle Shi Hu down, I will continue to search for Qi Luo's trail." Jue Zhen did not argue much, but said very seriously.
Once Buddhists decide on something, they will not change it easily.
Shi Hu is the name of the boy who was rescued by Lu Qingshan.
"The sea of sand is vast. It's not easy to find this evil monk in the sea of sand." Lu Qingshan glanced at the crying boy Shi Hu and said casually.
"Then I will keep looking, and I will find him one day." Jue Zhen said firmly.
The little bird demon in the sleeve of the young monk also chirped twice at this time, as if supporting the young monk, which was extremely spiritual.
Lu Qingshan couldn't help but look at the little bird demon again.
Sensing Lu Qingshan's gaze, the young monk Juezhen took the initiative to introduce: "It's called Xiaoque. It was originally just an ordinary little yellow bird, but for some reason, it didn't like rice and millet, but liked to listen to the Buddhist Sanskrit sounds, morning bells and evening drums. When I was reciting Buddhist scriptures, it often listened on the old tree in front of the scripture room. Over time, it was gradually enlightened and became a yellow bird spirit."
When the young monk introduced the little bird monster, he used the word "spirit" instead of "monster".
It is commonly believed that monsters are evil and are derogatory terms, but there is no fixed distinction between good and evil among spirits.
The little bird demon rolled its black eyes proudly, chirped in response, and pecked the arm of the young monk Juezhen very affectionately.
"Hello, Fellow Daoist Xiao Que." Lu Qingshan, who had always treated the King of the Western Rat as an equal, naturally accepted the little bird demon well and greeted it politely.
The little bird demon was overjoyed and responded happily with two cheers.
"Young Master can go to Giant Bear City during this time. Maybe you don't have to look for that evil monk in the Sand Sea. He will come to your door himself." Lu Qingshan said this when he said goodbye to the young monk Juezhen.
This is not nonsense.
He had already laid the bait. When he showed up in Giant Bear City, if the bandits didn't react, he would be unworthy of the title of Overlord of the Mogao Desert.
The evil monk Qi Luo from the Sand Sea happened to have committed crimes in the Wolf Tribe not far from Giant Bear City not long ago. There is no doubt that it is very likely that he would return to Giant Bear City after receiving the news that Qi Luo appeared in Giant Bear City.
Without waiting for Juezhen to reply, Lu Qingshan flew up on his sword again and headed straight for Giant Bear City.
Juezhen silently performed a Buddhist salute to Lu Qingshan's back.
After a moment, the little monk suddenly remembered that he had forgotten to ask Lu Qingshan's name and origin, and he couldn't help but slap his head in annoyance.
…
Deep in the Mogao Desert, few people go there.
At this moment, suddenly several figures hurried over and stood in front of the sand dune.
Soon, a deep cave entrance pointing downwards slowly appeared in the sand dunes, with hot air rising from it.
The figures walked straight into the cave without hesitation.
Then, after passing through a long dark passage, a fiery red world came into view.
This is a huge cave hidden under the desert. There is an underground river of magma flowing through it. Occasionally, huge bubbles emerge from the magma and then explode with a bang.
This is where the bandits hide.
A burly male cultivator suddenly appeared in front of these figures.
"What is it?"
"I have something important to report to the boss." These figures were the sand bandit monks who were in Dongque City and witnessed Lu Qingshan leaving.
"Wait here." said the burly male cultivator, then turned and disappeared into the dungeon.
After a moment.
A skinny old man wearing a black robe, with white hair and even white beard on his temples, appeared in front of these sand bandit monks.
"Boss." The sand bandit monks lowered their heads and shouted respectfully.
The old man in front of him was a terrifying figure who established the Sand Bandits on his own and dominated the Mogao Desert.
A great monk in the middle stage of the Refined Vulture Realm, the old man Vulture.
"What's the important matter?" The old vulture's voice was hoarse and harsh.
"The leader of Sindhu was killed by a sword cultivator..." The Sand Bandit monk did not dare to exaggerate and reported his knowledge and speculations to the old vulture man truthfully.
A strange green light suddenly flashed in the dry eyes of the vulture old man, and the green light became brighter and brighter, rippling with green light, eerie and terrifying.
A chilly aura appeared out of nowhere, causing the Sand Bandit monk to feel a chill down his spine.
They were immediately trembling with fear, their hearts trembling, their legs shaking.
"Do you know the specific identity and current whereabouts of that swordsman?"
"The specific identity of that sword cultivator has not been found out yet, but we have some clues about his whereabouts. When the sword cultivator left Dongque City, he headed in the direction of Giant Bear City. It seemed that he was going to go deeper into the Mogao Desert and had no intention of leaving here for the time being." The Sand Bandit monk reported cautiously.
“Okay, okay, you killed my bandits and still dare to stay in the Mogao Desert. You’re really brave. Keep checking. If you find any trace of this swordsman, notify me immediately.” The old vulture raised his hand, and a strong wind blew up, causing a whirlpool in the underground magma river, just like the anger in his heart at the moment, “I will make him pay with his life!”
"Yes, Boss."
