Chapter 1013: If I Do Not Enter Hell, Who Will?

The three men seemed to understand, yet none of them reacted. Instead, they looked hesitant.

Niu Youdao said, "Xu Huo, your master can't quite bring himself to do it. You take the lead." He gave him a look.

Xu Huo seemed to understand. He glanced at his silent, frowning master, then slowly knelt and bent toward the three words "Black Peony," lowering his head until it touched the ground.

Niu Youdao said, "Don't just go through the motions. Show some sincerity. Say it aloud: 'Black Peony, I was wrong!' And until this side tells you to stop, don't stop."

"Black Peony, I was wrong. Black Peony, I was wrong..." Xu Huo obeyed, kowtowing as he called out the words.

Niu Youdao tipped his head toward the other Myriad Beasts Sect disciple. The man immediately followed Xu Huo's example, kowtowing and calling, "Black Peony, I was wrong..."

Chao Jing looked from one disciple to the other. He had spent too long accustomed to standing above others. Making him do something like this was extraordinarily difficult. He would sooner commit some shameless, despicable act than kneel and admit fault.

Niu Youdao paced over and crouched beside him. Lowering his voice, he muttered into Chao Jing's ear, "Elder Chao, is something wrong with your head? Can't you tell I'm doing this for your own good? At a time like this, don't you understand that a man has to know when to bend and when to stand tall? I came all this way out of goodwill for your sake. Don't make things difficult for me, and don't make this trip a waste. Of course, if you're truly tired of living, I have no objection."

Chao Jing looked at the words on the ground, glanced at the black Demon Fox man, then gave Niu Youdao a questioning look, as if asking whether this would really help.

Niu Youdao gave a slight nod, then stood and backed away several steps.

Chao Jing gritted his teeth, hardened his heart, and slowly shifted himself around to kneel facing the three words "Black Peony." He bowed his head and said, "Black Peony, I was wrong..."

Inside, however, it was an entirely different story. He cursed Niu Youdao viciously. Just you wait. If I get out of here alive, sooner or later I'll settle this account with you!

At least he knew when to bend and when to stand tall.

The three men kowtowed one after another, their repeated admissions of fault echoing endlessly through the underground chamber.

Watching them kowtow and apologize to empty air, to nothing more than three written words, the Demon Foxes looked at one another. No matter how they viewed it, the scene seemed absurdly strange. Yet it was also satisfying. When they had found so many eyes of their own clansmen on these three, they would have killed them on the spot if Niu Youdao had not instructed them otherwise.

The black Demon Fox man could not help glancing at Niu Youdao. Earlier, no amount of torture had been enough to make Chao Jing talk. The man had been genuinely hard-boned. Yet Niu Youdao arrived, spoke only a few sentences, and somehow turned that hard bone soft enough to kneel and admit fault.

Under his gaze, Niu Youdao slowly closed his eyes.

Leaning on his sword, Niu Youdao stood there with his eyes shut, calm and unruffled.

The repeated sound of men kowtowing and apologizing to that name brought back a memory with perfect clarity.

A scene upon the blue sea.

The woman had murmured until her voice went still. At the bow of the ship, facing the rising and falling sea, she lay quietly in his arms and never woke again. He had held her there for a very long time. The sea wind blew her long hair across his face again and again.

At the end, she had wanted to see the sea, so he held her and let her see it. Fate was often much like being tossed upon the waves.

He remembered the warm, soft body in his arms gradually losing its heat, gradually stiffening until it felt like dead wood. Few people had probably experienced that feeling. He remembered it with terrible clarity. Death itself was nothing uncommon, but this was the first time he had felt someone being lost from his arms little by little, while all the ability he possessed could do nothing to stop it.

He had long since grown accustomed to the bloody storms of the jianghu and could move freely through them. What he hated was the tenderness tangled up within them, threads that could neither be cut nor sorted cleanly. It was troublesome.

He would rather fight to the death amid deceit, schemes, and bloody slaughter than let that kind of tenderness wrap around him and linger. He had experienced it before. He knew it could carve itself into the bones, and he feared it might make him lose his reason. People of the jianghu lived with blood on the edge of the blade. Once reason was lost, life could easily follow.

He had planned everything. She was supposed to wait for him aboard the ship. But she had feared something might happen to him. To save him, she had gone so far as to impersonate him and lure away the enemies pursuing him. In the end, disaster fell on her instead. By the time someone carried her back, she was already barely breathing. He could do nothing. He could only watch her die.

He had gone to the Qi capital to lay his schemes with the confidence and courage to enter the tiger's mountain. In the end, a woman had been forced to risk her life to save him. How was he supposed to bear that?

Even as she was dying, that woman had refused to tell him who had once humiliated her so viciously. She said the man stood too high and wielded too much power, and she feared bringing trouble upon Niu Youdao.

At that moment, afraid that the others who knew the truth might one day meet with some accident and leave him unable to learn the answer forever, he had asked the people behind him while still holding her corpse.

They told him.

He remembered the two names they gave him.

One of them belonged to the man before him now: Chao Jing.

Yet as some people had said of him, put nicely, he was rational. Put less nicely, perhaps he was simply cold-blooded.

Just as Monkey had once told him: Master Dao, you're too rational. I can't do what you do!

He had clearly had chances long ago to deal with those two men, yet he had kept postponing it. He had dragged the matter on without pursuing the swift settling of grudges that the jianghu prized. It hardly seemed like the conduct of a man. For the sake of the steps in his own plans, he had delayed and delayed, never giving an answer to the woman whose lonely grave he had left behind at Maolu Villa.

Until now.

The three men continued kowtowing and begging forgiveness. At first, the black Demon Fox man and the others found it satisfying. After a while, it became tedious. They looked at Niu Youdao again and found him still standing there with his sword like an old monk in meditation, silent for reasons none of them understood.

Only when the repeated sounds of kowtowing and apology gradually slowed and weakened did Niu Youdao open his eyes.

He stared at the three kneeling men.

There was no emotion in his eyes at all, only a deep and merciless stillness.

The three were already badly injured, and their spiritual power had been sealed. They were running out of strength. None could count how many times they had kowtowed. It felt as though they had used up several lifetimes' worth.

At last, Chao Jing could bear no more. He stopped and turned his head. "Little Brother, I've shown every bit of sincerity I have. I truly have no strength left."

The meaning was obvious. He had done all he could and hoped Niu Youdao would now put in a few good words for him.

Hearing this, the two men beside him also stopped their laborious movements and turned to look at Niu Youdao.

Niu Youdao nodded, then looked back at the black Demon Fox man. "Clan Chief, they've done everything they can to apologize. Is the Clan Chief satisfied?"

I still don't understand what game you're playing, and you're asking me? The black Demon Fox man pointed at his own nose. "You're asking me? They killed so many of my clansmen. A few kowtows and everything is supposed to be settled? Don't tell me you really mean to release them."

Niu Youdao smiled faintly and lifted one hand from the sword in a casual gesture. "Since the Clan Chief isn't satisfied, hang them back up."

He yielded so readily that Chao Jing was startled. "Niu Youdao, what do you mean?"

Even as he shouted, all three men were hauled up and suspended once more.

Niu Youdao walked to the three words on the ground and looked down at them. "What do I mean? Elder Chao truly has no impression of this person at all?"

Chao Jing was startled and furious. After all that kowtowing, he suddenly felt as though he had been toyed with. He had never kowtowed so much in his entire life. "Niu Youdao, what are you trying to say?"

Niu Youdao paced back to his side. "I suppose that's only natural. In your eyes, you've played with too many women to remember some independent cultivator with no status or standing. Years ago, there was an independent cultivator named Black Peony. She was fairly attractive, with a good figure. Her skin was a little dark, but that was part of what made her distinctive. Later, she fell into the hands of someone from Myriad Beasts Sect. That old bastard relied on his power to bully her and subjected her to every kind of humiliation for a time. Remember now?"

As he spoke, the sword in his hand slowly slid from its sheath with a soft scrape. He raised the blade and tapped it against Chao Jing's legs in reminder.

Chao Jing instinctively tightened his thighs, a chill running through his crotch. His gaze flickered uncertainly. An independent cultivator? A woman known for dark skin? A faint impression gradually surfaced. Something like that did seem to have happened, but he truly could not remember what she looked like.

The two Myriad Beasts Sect disciples stared at him uncertainly as well. They could more or less guess what Niu Youdao was implying.

Chao Jing suddenly asked, "What does this have to do with anything? I don't remember clearly, and I don't know what you're talking about. Was she one of your women?"

The tip of Niu Youdao's sword wandered around Chao Jing's lower body, as though he were studying where best to begin. "She's dead. But I promised her I would settle this debt for her. That's why I set my sights on your grandson."

He had come here today precisely so Chao Jing would understand exactly why this was happening. If the man died thinking he had merely fallen victim to some ordinary slaughter, Niu Youdao would not feel the debt had been settled.

Hanging there with his thighs clenched against the chill beneath them, Chao Jing finally understood why he had been forced to kowtow more times than he could count. Grief and fury burst from him. "Niu Youdao, at our level, what's strange about having a few women? I don't even remember whether the woman you're talking about existed. But with our status, you know perfectly well there are always women who come forward on their own and try to attach themselves to us. How can you blame me for that?"

Niu Youdao replied calmly, "Attach herself to you? What did you ever give her? If she had been clinging to you for advantage, shouldn't she have gotten something from it? You bullied one of my people and now you dare slander her too. You chose your words badly. I'm not pleased."

His wrist turned.

The sword gouged.

"Ah..." Chao Jing let out a muffled scream. Blood spread across his crotch, and a mangled lump of flesh slapped onto the ground.

The Demon Foxes grimaced, their cheeks twitching. Every one of them seemed to feel a chill between his own legs.

Trembling violently from pain, Chao Jing panted, "Niu Youdao, you think you're some kind of good man? You're despicable, shameless, and willing to use any means. Retribution will find you sooner or later!"

"Retribution?" The sword point wandered over his body. "You're right. I admit myself that I'm no good man. I keep a group of monks under me. The Buddhist scriptures have a line: 'Until Hell is emptied, I vow not to attain Buddhahood!' And how does the other saying go? Ah, yes. 'If I do not enter Hell, who will?' You understand me?"

As the words left his mouth, the sword flashed almost casually and severed one of Chao Jing's feet.

"Ah..." Chao Jing screamed through clenched teeth. Then he suddenly shouted hoarsely, "Clan Chief of the Demon Foxes, I'll talk! I'll tell you! I'll tell you the secret between him and Butterfly Dream Illusory Realm!"

He had thrown caution away. Even if he got no chance to finish, even if Niu Youdao killed him to silence him, he wanted the Demon Foxes to understand that was why Niu Youdao was killing him. If he was going to die, he would at least create some trouble for Niu Youdao first.

Niu Youdao did not rush to silence him. He merely lifted his eyes to Chao Jing's face.

Then the sword flashed again and cut off his other foot.

"Mm..." Chao Jing shuddered with a strangled groan, blood pouring from the stumps.

"Stop!" The black Demon Fox Clan Chief flashed forward and seized Niu Youdao's arm, forcibly restraining him. "If you have nothing to hide, let him finish speaking!"

[End of Chapter 1013]