Chapter 50: Believer

Lin Daosheng and Huang Yifeng were somewhat shocked. Weren't they executing five heinous human fiends? Wasn't there supposed to be an established order, a specific hour, and a strict ritual?

How fast is "hurriedly"?

Xie Yali said, "Demonic entities have appeared. Your master needs to accelerate the process of becoming an immortal; otherwise, you shall all be tempted by them and cast into the netherworld of Fengdu Hell after death to suffer endless torments."

With that, a wave of dizziness washed over her, and a dull pain throbbed within her head.

Ever since her birth sixteen years ago, she had felt that something was profoundly wrong with her entire body. Months ago, she was even diagnosed with a brain tumor—a terminal illness.

The tumor forced her to advance her plans. To ensure nothing went wrong, she even had these two "disciples" relocate the True Immortal Temple all the way from Mount Luofu on the mainland...

Why did her older sister get to bypass executing human fiends and shedding her mortal shell to directly ascend to immortality?

Yet she had to be born into this dusty, mortal world and suffer bitterly from illness and pain?

Though her sister claimed her cultivation was insufficient and thus required the accumulation of merit in the mortal realm to break free and depart...

It was just...

Xie Yali slowly exhaled a breath of stale air, carrying countless microscopic dust particles within it.

She must become an immortal!

Transcendence!

What Huang Chang could achieve, she could achieve as well!

...

Downstairs from the building, across the street.

Li Xuan stood there, holding a cup of milk tea with a backpack slung over his shoulders. His eyes exuded a look of innocent foolishness, resembling a fresh college graduate looking for his first job.

He had been standing there for half an hour. Using a talisman to wipe his eyes, he discovered that the entire building was shrouded in fine cordyceps fungus, and anyone who stepped through the front doors would be infected.

Just then, a man in his forties walked out of the front door, hailed a taxi, and left.

Li Xuan pondered for a moment before hailing another taxi to follow.

The man arrived at an outlying county in Taipei, where the local economic development was quite ordinary. He stepped out of the taxi and casually tossed a few banknotes to the driver.

With a blank expression, he walked into a small building.

Creak.

Pushing open the door, a faint stench of blood drifted through the dim living room, the windows completely blocked by curtains shutting out the sunlight.

The man opened the crisper drawer of the kitchen refrigerator, took out a bowl containing a red-and-black, pig-blood-cake-like substance, and sniffed it carefully. Frowning, he dumped the blood chunks into the sink, rinsed it clean, and grabbed a paring knife, slicing open his arm to let a bit of his own blood drip in.

He seemed addicted to the bloody scent, savoring it for quite a while.

Carrying the bowl to the master bedroom door, he unlocked the three newly added locks and pushed it inside, greeted immediately by terrified muffled cries.

A woman and a young girl were bound by ropes to the legs of the bed, their bodies covered in blood. Seeing the man walk in, they shook their heads frantically, tears streaming from their eyes...

Their mouths were sealed tight with heavy-duty tape, rendering them unable to speak and leaving them to cry out helplessly.

The man placed the bowl aside, gripping the paring knife in his hand. Adoration for the immortals flashed in his eyes as he said, "The mortal world is an endless purgatory. Now the immortal has enlightened me to awaken the memories of my past life, leading me to ascend together! Why must you resist so? Ah, right, how could mortal wisdom ever comprehend the wondrous words of an immortal?"

He forcefully pulled the young girl's arm out, tracing the paring knife back and forth across skin covered in a patchwork of old and new scars.

The girl struggled desperately.

Frowning, the man said, "Your mother is a fool, yet you possess such a stubborn, blockheaded mind as well. Using your blood to nurture the immortal seed is an incomparable blessing bestowed by the immortals..."

The paring knife sliced open a wound, and blood seeped out.

His scalp suddenly tightened with a sharp pain as his hair was yanked into a cluster!

A blurred figure materialized on the floor.

Someone had broken in, and they had grabbed him by the hair...

Without a moment's hesitation, the man slashed the paring knife toward the hand above his head. But that hand was faster, grabbing his head and violently slamming it against the edge of the bedside table. With a deafening crash, the edge of the bedside table shattered!

His forehead bled, his mind spun in complete chaos, and the knife slipped from his grip and fell aside.

Even in this state, he still subconsciously stammered, "What kind of person dares to stop me from cultivating the immortal seed? After you die, you will surely be cast into hell to suffer a hundred tortures..."

Before he could finish, the man was hoisted up by the scruff of his neck, his back absorbing another heavy impact as he tumbled outward, crashing into the wall and passing out cold.

The intruder was Li Xuan. He had been curious about what role the believers working for Xie Yali actually played. Were they really just cannon fodder like in the movies, used merely to exhaust the police and nothing more?

Following them here and seeing this sight made his blood boil.

It was one thing for Xie Yali to cultivate cordyceps fungus herself, but she didn't even spare her own believers...

He dissolved some of the adhesive with warm water, gently peeled the tape off the mouths of the mother and daughter, untied their ropes, and asked, "Can you tell me the whole story?"

Through the woman's account, Li Xuan gradually understood the sequence of events.

The man was named Lü Ming, originally a programmer at an IC company with a high salary, a decent life, and a joyful family.

One day, Lü Ming came home, took off his plaid shirt, and claimed the company was transitioning into something more promising. His wife trusted him without a shred of doubt.

Lü Ming began leaving early and returning late every day with a vacant expression, acting just like a robot.

His wife assumed he was simply too exhausted and didn't dare to question him. Until one day, when she returned from buying groceries, she heard her daughter screaming in terror. Rushing inside, she was horrified to find her husband, Lü Ming, had tied their daughter up in the bedroom, using a small knife to slice open the skin on her arm to bleed her while muttering words under his breath like an incantation.

She rushed forward to stop him.

To her surprise, Lü Ming, who had never raised a hand against anyone in the past, backhanded her across the face and snarled, "How dare you obstruct my grand undertaking of becoming an immortal!"

The wife was bound alongside her daughter. From that moment on, Lü Ming rarely came home; when he did, it was only to slice their skin for blood, then feed them some inexplicable black paste.

The two of them had already grown extremely weak. If he drew blood a couple more times like this, they would surely die.

With their mouths taped shut, unable to speak or cry out for help, they could only wait for death. They had already fallen into absolute despair, never expecting a sudden turnaround when Li Xuan appeared out of nowhere to save them...

Li Xuan fed them some fresh water, intending to call an ambulance to take them to the hospital for treatment.

Reciting a spell silently, he patted each of the three on the back.

After vomiting up some black liquid, Lü Ming didn't react much.

The mother and daughter, however, began coughing violently. They vomited large amounts of thick, black, viscous liquid onto the floor, and the mother's vomit even contained unidentified fragmented matter...

Upon closer inspection, they looked like fragments of internal organs, specifically from the stomach.

Looking at the ashen complexion on the woman's face, Li Xuan's heart skipped a beat, and he hurriedly said, "Your physical condition is critical. You mustn't move around anymore, or complications will arise!"

Lü Ming woke up at that moment. Seeing the filth all over the floor, his expression twisted hideously: "How dare you vomit it out! The True Immortal will be furious... You..."

The woman was originally a trained medical doctor who had graduated from a medical school.

Suffering from intense abdominal pain and seeing the fragments on the floor, she knew her condition was far worse than what Li Xuan had implied, and whether she could last until an ambulance arrived was a massive question mark...

Lü Ming's frenzied appearance also sent agonizing pangs through the woman's heart. Why had that honest, ordinary husband of hers turned out like this?

At that moment, the daughter began vomiting as well, accompanied by minor fragments.

Ignoring the pain wracking his entire body, Lü Ming went completely berserk, crawling toward his daughter using both hands and feet as he roared, "Don't you dare vomit! Swallow it back down..."

The woman trembled all over, the pain in her eyes giving birth to a deep, consuming hatred. She picked up the paring knife from the floor, raised it high, and stumbled as she charged toward her husband!

When the sharp blade was only three centimeters from Lü Ming's neck, it was intercepted.

Li Xuan grabbed the paring knife, pulled the woman aside with his left hand, and thrust the blade straight into Lü Ming's heart with a reverse grip, saying, "Let's not take any lives at this final moment. This tiny bit of karmic retribution—I'll take it."

When he killed Li Ruonan for the first time, his heart rate had soared and his breathing had turned ragged.

This time...

His inner self was far more tranquil.

Since Lü Ming could exist as a believer—someone who still firmly believed in the existence of the True Immortal even after the cordyceps fungus was purged from him—he no longer belonged among normal human beings.