"Hahaha, it's impossible to escape from desire, even if they know I'm harming them!"
The evil spirit burst into laughter. The villagers were his strongest shield; as long as they were there, he couldn't possibly be in danger.
Su Lai heard the evil spirit's taunts, his fists clenched until they creaked, and he looked at the man with murderous intent: "I'll go and destroy this evil spirit right now. If you have the guts, shoot."
Su Lai admitted he wasn't a righteous person who went around helping others, but if he had a chance to kill this evil spirit today, he couldn't miss it.
Once this guy recovered and successfully passed his tribulation, the area for a hundred miles would surely be ravaged by death and destruction. Even if there wasn't an opportunity, now that there was one, he absolutely couldn't let it go, at least to be true to his conscience.
Seeing Su Lai walking towards the evil spirit, Da Hu's expression changed: "Brother Su, that's not a joke."
They were humans, not gods. A bullet to the head would surely kill them.
Yu Daohen saw the killing intent already on the man's face and became a little anxious: "Old Su, that's enough. Don't go any further."
Su Lai ignored him and continued walking towards the evil spirit.
"Don't force me!" The man was going crazy, ready to pull the trigger at any moment.
"Old Su, that's enough."
Yu Daohen called out again. Seeing that Su Lai still hadn't stopped, he roared: "Su Lai, that's enough!!"
Su Lai stopped and turned to look at Yu Daohen without saying anything.
Yu Daohen coughed up a mouthful of blood, shook his head, his face full of helplessness and disappointment: "Old Su, there's no need for that anymore. Let's go."
Su Lai was somewhat unwilling. He admitted he was afraid of death, but he couldn't stand by and watch hundreds of lives perish when he had the ability to save them.
"To save all living beings and slay demons and devils," everyone who entered this line of work had, more or less, a heart to eliminate evil for the people.
Su Lai remained silent and walked back to Yu Daohen, supporting him as they headed towards the van outside the village.
As the three walked out of the village, passing by the man, Yu Daohen stopped and looked back at him: "Kid, you should be glad you didn't pull the trigger, otherwise I'll make all the villagers of Anxiang Village pay!"
After speaking, Yu Daohen didn't wait to see the man's reaction and walked straight out of the village.
On the way, Su Lai remained silent. After a long while, he finally spoke: "To have the ability and not use it to save is a great sin. This is the first rule of every sect."
Yu Daohen sighed. He hadn't joined any sect and didn't know their rules. However, Old Tai had once told him that with greater ability comes greater responsibility. He had benefited greatly from his time with Old Tai, but he could never possess Old Tai's courage and realm of sacrificing himself to save the common people.
Besides, if the sky were to fall, someone else would bear the brunt. Why should he worry about it?
"I'll save those I can within my ability, and if I can't, then so be it." This was Yu Daohen's life motto.
"Alright, Old Su, what sin or not. Save who you can, and let go of who you can't. Since they are stubborn and refuse to see reason, let them fend for themselves."
Yu Daohen was quite open-minded, but he couldn't help but sigh, thinking how human desire is truly the most terrifying thing in this world. Once you fall into it, it's a bottomless abyss from which you can never return.
"There are two things in this world that cannot be looked at directly: the sun and the human heart!"
Su Lai sighed, lamenting, "This world has changed."
Yu Daohen gave him a sideways glance. Su Lai suddenly becoming so serious made him a bit uncomfortable: "Stop sighing. I'll tell you about the time I fought that evil spirit. It was earth-shattering and soul-stirring."
"At that time, the evil spirit and I were in a fierce battle, and unexpectedly, that guy pulled out his own spine. You have no idea how potent the ghostly energy was. Fortunately, my footwork was excellent, otherwise, I would have met my end on the spot. Then, we battled for three hundred rounds."
All the way, Yu Daohen kept recounting the entire process of his fight with the evil spirit, albeit his version, with slight alterations being normal. Therefore, the injuries on his face and shoulders were all due to sneak attacks from the evil spirit.
Da Hu didn't say anything, but Su Lai, standing beside him, didn't believe a word of it: "Come on, you must have sneak-attacked that guy to defeat him."
Yu Daohen got angry upon hearing this: "Damn it, do I need to lie to you?"
Su Lai shook his head and pouted: "That's hard to say."
The three of them chatted and laughed all the way. When they reached the place where the van was parked at the village entrance, Zhou Fu and the other two were already waiting.
Seeing the three return and noticing Yu Daohen's severe injuries, Zhou Fu's face was filled with concern: "Sect Leader, why are you so badly injured?"
Yu Daohen tried to raise his hand, but a piercing pain made him grit his teeth: "It's nothing, just a few broken ribs. It's not a big deal."
Yu Daohen felt pain all over his body. He figured a few ribs must have broken when he was kicked against the stone earlier.
Su Lai took out his phone and checked the time: "It's already five in the morning. In another two hours, we can leave."
Yu Daohen didn't speak but looked at a figure in the thick fog: "As expected, it has appeared."
Upon hearing Yu Daohen's words, everyone followed his gaze.
A figure suddenly appeared in the thick fog, but the fog was too dense to tell if it was human or ghost.