Chapter 48 : Chen Yi

Are these people out of their minds, or what? They can’t go a day without targeting the demon race, can they?

Jiang Ke’er pretended not to be angry, just smiling slightly: “What if they can learn? People are divided into good and evil, wise and foolish, and the demon race is the same… How can we let prejudice cloud our minds and condemn them all with one stroke?”

“Third brother, why are you wasting words on livestock?” The burly, strong cultivator said impatiently.

“Quickly finish off this Ruin Beast and let’s find the next one.”

The confident cultivator nodded, glancing at Jiang Ke’er: “You can go. I won’t kill you; it would just dirty my sword… But don’t expect me to help you.”

Jiang Ke’er understood, politely cupping her hands to the three cultivators: “But I will remember this life-saving kindness.”

“No need,” the confident cultivator waved his hand in disgust.

Jiang Ke’er turned and left.

However, she had only walked a few minutes when she heard a subtle rustling sound behind her.

Her heart tightened.

She wondered if those cultivators had changed their minds and intended to kill her, so she secretly tensed her nerves, activated her formation stones, and decided to fight to the death.

But the footsteps continued to follow, neither attacking nor stopping.

They seemed deliberately hidden, but the hiding technique was truly clumsy.

Jiang Ke’er couldn’t stand the oppressive atmosphere.

She suddenly turned back, wanting to see who had such a perverse sense of humor.

She found a shiny bald head quickly shrinking back behind a tree.

“Come out, I see you.”

The bald head didn’t move.

“I really see you,” Jiang Ke’er said, a little confused—why was this guy even more timid than she was?

As she spoke, Jiang Ke’er had already controlled the formation stones to move to the bald head’s feet.

This time, she decided to preempt him!

“Zzzzzzzzt—”

“Ah—”

A sharp scream came from behind the tree.

Jiang Ke’er judged from the voice that it was a boy, probably around 13 or 14 years old.

The boy fell to the ground, twitching all over, begging repeatedly, “Female benefactor, stop! Please stop!”

Jiang Ke’er made the formation stones temporarily stop discharging electricity but kept them pressed against the boy’s body.

“Why are you following me?” Jiang Ke’er demanded.

“This humble monk just heard what the female benefactor said and found it very novel, so I followed along.” The young monk put his palms together, secretly peeking at Jiang Ke’er from the corner of his eye, looking completely timid.

“What did I say?” Jiang Ke’er asked, puzzled.

“‘People are divided into good and evil, wise and foolish, and the demon race is the same,'” the young monk repeated, imitating Jiang Ke’er’s tone at the time, with a puzzled expression.

“Such a simple truth, yet no one is willing to face it head-on. How strange…”

“You, young monk, are to my liking,” Jiang Ke’er smiled.

After being in this unfamiliar world for so long, this was the first time she had heard such a righteous statement.

She withdrew her formation stones and said, “Strange, yet not strange. If they were to face this truth, how could they feel at ease killing demons and taking their demon cores… Even the most wicked person must convince themselves and find an excuse not to have nightmares before doing something.”

The young monk trembled, falling into shocked contemplation: “This is something the temple never taught… What the masters said is indeed true; the world is too vast, and many truths cannot be heard in the temple.”

“Of course,” Jiang Ke’er rarely saw such a child so dedicated to learning and couldn’t help but feel that he was much cuter than those cultivators who were full of muscles and only cared about becoming immortals.

“Amitabha,” the young monk looked at Jiang Ke’er with admiration, bowed to her, and said solemnly, “Female benefactor, your words are brilliant and you possess great wisdom. You are surely fated with my Buddhist sect. Why not convert to Buddhism, shave your head…”

“Shut up!”

Jiang Ke’er felt a chill down her spine.

They were having a perfectly good conversation, and suddenly it turned into recruiting new followers.

Becoming a monk requires detaching oneself from worldly desires and shaving off all hair.

Jiang Ke’er imagined herself after shaving her head… smooth, plump ears and a bald tail like a tentacle.

So, it’s better to just kill this monk.

Jiang Ke’er suppressed the violent urge in her heart and asked, “Where are you from? What’s your name? How can you be so weak and still dare to enter the Ancient Learning Realm?”

“This humble monk comes from the Great Light Temple. My secular name is Chen Yi. Because I had no interest in cultivation, I angered the abbot into committing a sin of anger, and thus I did not receive a Dharma name…” The young monk said, reaching back to scratch the back of his head, then put his hands back together, palms pressed, and continued, “Entering this place was also forced by the abbot, who said something like, ‘If you still don’t cultivate properly, just die in there and don’t come back’… and then I was kicked in.”

Jiang Ke’er was at a loss for words.

However, her intuition told her that such a silly young monk couldn’t be a bad person.

…It’s just… Chen Yi? Great Light Temple? I feel like these two names sound a bit familiar.

“By the way, female benefactor, why are you here?” The young monk Chen Yi asked Jiang Ke’er in return.

“This place is extremely dangerous. Although this humble monk cannot protect himself, I do not fear death… But the female benefactor’s strength is also not good, why throw yourself away for nothing?”

“I was forced in,” Jiang Ke’er smiled, picking up a branch from the ground and trying to wave it.

“I am a demon. The people inside want to kill me, and the people outside want to kill me even more. There’s also an evil dragon that wants to deprive me of my personal freedom… If I hide in here, I might die a more graceful death.”

The young monk sighed softly, “Amitabha.”

“You’re different from those fake monks, at least you look different. If you have nowhere to go, just follow me for now,” Jiang Ke’er said.

“I can’t guarantee your safety, but you’ll be safer if you come with me.”

“That’s great!” Joy was written all over the young monk’s face; clearly, he wasn’t as unafraid of death as he claimed.

“Do you know where the nearest city is?” Jiang Ke’er asked.

The young monk pointed back the way they came: “You’re going the wrong way.”

Damn it!

There was nothing for it. J

iang Ke’er had to take the young monk back the way they came.

The previous Ruin Beast had already been completely packed up and taken away. Even the sand stained with the Ruin Beast’s blood had been dug up cleanly.

Jiang Ke’er could only secretly pray that no other Ruin Beasts would come for revenge.

However, with that small team of three cultivators leading the way, the probability of encountering danger had already been greatly reduced.

“Clang—”

A loud metallic crashing sound came from not far away.

It was clearly the sound of a Profound Iron Ruin Beast colliding with a magic sword… It seemed that the small team had already found a new hunting target.

Jiang Ke’er originally wanted to go around, but there was no other path here.

Thorns and vines were everywhere, and only this small path had been cleared by that human team, making it less difficult to pass.

There was nothing she could do; she could only lead Chen Yi towards the source of the sound.

By the time Jiang Ke’er saw the cultivators, the battle had already ended.

The three cultivators were skillfully dissecting the Ruin Beast’s corpse and stuffing it into their Qiankun bags.

“It’s getting dark soon, we need to hurry,” the confident cultivator looked at the sky, his face filled with worry.

“Nonsense, do you need to tell me that?”

“Why are you back again?” The confident cultivator saw Jiang Ke’er and looked displeased.

“Get lost quickly! Don’t bother me!”

Jiang Ke’er didn’t want to interact with this group of people any further and was about to leave when she noticed that the sky suddenly turned dark.

A large dark cloud blocked the last rays of sunlight.

The dense forest instantly seemed to have all its sounds drained away.

The enthusiastic chorus of insects and birds, which had been so lively just moments before, abruptly ceased. The air was so silent it felt filled with death.

“Run!”

The three cultivators’ expressions suddenly changed drastically.

The confident cultivator’s voice even cracked with terror. He yelled, threw down the Ruin Beast’s corpse, and frantically ran towards the town.

“Crackling—”

The air suddenly tore open three pitch-black cracks. Behind the cracks were dense, chilling, eerie green eyes.

They were Ruin Beasts.

Endless Ruin Beasts.

“Roar—”

The cracks weren’t large, but each one was wide enough for a Ruin Beast to pass through.

In the blink of an eye, three silver-white Profound Iron Ruin Beasts charged into the field, dripping with foul-smelling saliva, pouncing straight towards the delicious meals in front of them!

They were extremely greedy and didn’t rush to attack Jiang Ke’er and Chen Yi, who were lagging behind, because they knew these two low-cultivation weaklings were already their prey and couldn’t escape.

Instead of expending energy on them, it was better to first catch the three fast-running ones ahead… and keep all this food for themselves!

The three Ruin Beasts brushed past Jiang Ke’er.

She originally wanted to turn back and run in the opposite direction, but then she saw three more Ruin Beasts squeezing out of the cracks.

The cracks slammed shut, but by now there were already six Ruin Beasts in the field, blocking Jiang Ke’er from front and back, leaving no escape route.

Jiang Ke’er gritted her teeth.

Not enough formation stones!

She clutched a few stolen talismans in her hand: three explosion talismans and one sword qi talisman.

They were all low-grade, second-rank talismans and clearly insufficient to deal with the current situation.

She needed a sword! She desperately needed a sword!