Chapter Forty-Five: Comparing Heart to Heart

  Mr. Dongling slowly took a deep breath, the arrogance in his eyes swept away, leaving only exhaustion on his face, and his voice also became much lower: "Cultivators, with divine powers that shock the heavens, but without a single ordinary person's heart. In their eyes, there is only the Heavenly Way. The Heavenly Way is ruthless, so cultivators are also ruthless. Ordinary people's joys and sorrows, in their eyes, are not as good-looking as a cloud; ordinary people's wails and cries, in their ears, are not as loud as a gust of wind; ordinary people's life and death, in their hearts, are not as important as a sentence of Buddhist incantations."

  Mr. Dongling fell silent for a moment before continuing, "This is the cultivator you hold in reverence like a god. The laws of the mortal world are as fragile as a thread to them. Think about it, this group of 'people' no longer considers mortals to be their kind, and there's no power in the mortal realm that can restrain them, yet they still coexist with mortals under the same sky..."

  "Frankly speaking," Mr. Dong's voice became even softer, and a faint smile appeared on his face: "Monks rarely intentionally kill ordinary people, most of the time it is during a struggle that their divine powers accidentally affect ordinary people. However..."

  The old man suddenly increased his voice in a low tone: "Isn't an unintentional mistake not a disaster? Floods bursting, heavy rain for days, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and landslides, these disasters are not intentionally caused by anyone, aren't they also swallowing lives, aren't they also making people miserable? The calamity of the immortal, the calamity of the cultivator, is no different from the flood beast!"

  Mr Dongyuan let out a long sigh and raised his wine jug, finishing off the remaining half-jug of wine in one gulp.

  From the beginning of the lesson to now, from start to finish, everything said is plain language, without any literary or poetic flourishes, nor has he ever quoted classics or used elaborate rhetoric. As long as you're not deaf or a foreigner, everyone can understand what he's saying. Adding to that the personal experiences of more than twenty disciples, this lesson has already been sufficient.

  The people under the platform were all moved, with different expressions. Some frowned and didn't speak, some looked shocked, and more were whispering to each other, discussing what Dong Yizhi had just said. The monks, on the other hand, remained unmoved, and a few elderly ones with high cultivation and status even smiled slightly.

  Mr. Dongling finished his drink, wiped his mouth with his sleeve in a rather unrefined manner, and simultaneously calmed down his tone and expression. He smiled and nodded at the numerous monks below: "You all have such strong minds, it's as if you didn't even hear me scolding you."

  A woman in her forties stepped forward, her eyes fixed coldly on Dongfang Shuo. "You've been crying and scolding, laughing and shouting - this lesson is quite lively, but there's one thing I don't understand. In the past 40 days, 23 fellow practitioners were killed in Tongchuan, all by fellow practitioners. Some of them were just passing through, some were investigating cases - it's impossible that they all offended you. You're killing innocent people indiscriminately, and yet you're here lamenting the heavens and pitying humanity? Are the lives of ordinary people not lives, while the lives of practitioners are not lives?"

  A middle-aged woman walked out, and Langya hastily poked Liang Xin with his finger, his face, as smooth as jade, couldn't help but show excitement, and whispered: "She is Luo Sao! One of the four executives of the Luo family in Dali State. Thirty years ago, she just broke through the Sea Sky Realm and became a five-step cultivator."

  The Luo family is also a cultivation sect, and in the past two or three hundred years, it has produced many talented individuals. Although it was not listed as one of the '99 Return to One', its strength should not be underestimated. It's unknown whether it's a coincidence or intentional that among the 23 cultivators who died in Tongchuan, four of them were disciples of the Luo family. In recent years, the Luo family has been eager to advance and become equal with the '99 Return to One'. Who would have thought that in this Tongchuan massacre, they would be the first to fall...

  Mr. Dongling said impatiently, "You woman really don't understand, all these gods below are patiently enduring my scolding just to hear me talk about the second meaning of 'Xianhuo', and now that we've finally gotten this far, I should be talking about the main topic, but you jump out and start asking questions?"

  At this time, another group of Taoist priests had a young Taoist priest with clear eyebrows and eyes, who smiled and saluted Luo Sao: "Immortal girl, don't worry, the old thief Dongzhong will not escape justice today, it's okay to listen to him finish speaking."

  Langya did the commentary diligently and then hurriedly handed over to Liang Xin: "This little Taoist is called Jiemie, a loose cultivator from Luogushan. At a young age, he has already reached the cultivation of Four Steps to Great Completion. His natural talent is truly astonishing!"

  Luo Sao hummed and didn't say anything else.

  Mr. Dongling nodded and smiled, "Not bad, this lesson has just been taught halfway, if you want to listen on, don't speak out of turn again. Otherwise, for every word spoken, I will kill one of you!" The old man spoke with a benevolent face, the killing of monks in his mouth was as casual as today's wine being too weak and the dishes being too salty.

  "But... " Mr. Dongling's tone changed, and he looked at Luo Sao again: "What you asked me just now was really stupid." After finishing speaking, he stretched out his hand, seemingly hesitant, and randomly pointed to a monk.

  As his fingers moved, the foolish Eleven behind Dong Ling suddenly revealed a ferocious expression, and his massive body swiftly rose up, slapping down on the monk chosen by Mr. Dong with one palm!

  A dull thud.

  That monk didn't even know what was happening, and he had already been slapped by the idiot, like a nail being hammered straight into the ground... His hair bun was level with the road surface. A moment later, there were faint gurgling sounds, and blood foam floated out of the gap, staining it slightly red.

  Look again at Benzi Eleven, who had returned to stand behind Mr. Dongling, still carrying the large wooden box on his shoulder.

  Mr. Dongling still smiled and looked at Luo Sao, even somewhat absent-mindedly replied: "Since I'm taking the lead for ordinary people, you should understand that a cultivator's life is not as heavy as a leaf in my eyes. I want to kill whoever I want, neither wanting to reason with you nor having any reason to explain."

  The old man paused for a moment, then resumed his previous cold tone when evaluating the disciples' misfortunes: "Put your heart in their place, you can treat ordinary people as ants, and I can treat you as insects. Whoever looks unpleasant to me will be trampled to death by one foot. Dead, deserved it!"

  The monk who was slapped to the ground by Dumb, a small sect leader, didn't react until now. His fellow disciples stared at Dong Ying with wide eyes, but were intimidated by Dumb's ruthless behavior and didn't dare to rush forward. Their bodies trembling, they shouted in a hoarse voice: "Old thief, madman, Luo Sao asked you questions but you killed our sect leader..."

  As he spoke, the monk who was shouting involuntarily lowered his voice, because Dong Ling and Benzi Eleven stretched out their fingers together to count the number of words he had said. Finally, Dong Ling laughed and said: "Sixteen characters!"

  As soon as the voice fell, Erzi Eleven jumped up again, his movements so fast that they couldn't be caught by the eye. The monks were shocked and pale, and they all took out their magic weapons, calling to their companions to retreat. However, in their ears, there was a continuous transmission of dull thuds...

  However, in the blink of an eye, Dumb Eleven had returned to Dong Ling's back, as if he had never moved.

  On the bluestone-paved street, more than a dozen "buns" that were level with the road surface suddenly appeared... More than a

  With the simultaneous rolling of wind and thunder, the sword light reverberated, and the highly cultivated cultivators had already urged their true yuan to leap high from top to bottom, staring at Dongzhuang with a tiger's gaze.

  The lower-ranking disciples also took out their magic treasures and formed a magic array under the command of their superiors, each with red eyes, but their expressions couldn't hide their panic: what kind of person was the fool standing behind Dongfang's back? The cultivators present, regardless of their cultivation level, couldn't withstand his casual slap.

  Kill at will, randomly killing people! The stupid butcher is lawless, completely looking for who doesn't please the eye and jumping over to pat them to death. Previously, Luo Sao and Zhigu Mountain's scattered cultivator Jiemei, who had spoken before, were fine.

  The masters had their swords drawn and bows stretched, ready to strike at any moment, but no one dared to speak again!

  Dong Ling didn't even glance at them, only furrowing his brow as he stared at the black buns on the ground. He turned around and scolded Er Sha: "We agreed to kill sixteen, how did you end up killing three more? Be clear next time."

  The silly child made a foolish smile.