The Game with Fairies

Chapter 264: Hatred

There were no disturbances at Fang Yingtian’s welcome ceremony.

Those who harbored ill intentions towards Li Muyang didn’t even pay much attention to him, let alone provoke him.

Only Nangong Ting, who displayed her hostility in front of everyone, threatened Li Muyang with a few words before leaving.

In front of the Blood Lotus Sect leader Fang Yingtian, these people’s hostility was quite restrained.

Li Muyang didn’t pay much attention to these undercurrents either—who would bother to argue with the dead?

Following the crowd, Li Muyang chanted the slogan “Rebirth through blood, Salvation to all sentient beings” a few times.

Then the grand welcome ceremony soon came to an end.

After that was the banquet, but nothing happened at the banquet either.

As a Banner Master, Li Muyang was fortunate to be seated in the main hall of the banquet, but he was placed at the very end.

Throughout the banquet hall, the dignitaries chatted and drank merrily, enjoying themselves.

Li Muyang, amidst them, was inconspicuous.

The Blood Lotus Sect leader Fang Yingtian, who had previously favored him, did not speak to Li Muyang that night, as if Li Muyang was just an ordinary Banner Master.

After the banquet, the way other members of the Blood Lotus Sect looked at Li Muyang was somewhat strange.

However, Shen Yan made a special effort to catch up with him after the banquet ended and publicly invited Li Muyang to share her carriage.

Inside the carriage, Shen Yan sighed and said, “These days, various rumors about you have been rampant, and the sect leader has to be concerned about the impact...”

Shen Yan wanted to say a few good words for the sect leader to smooth over Fang Yingtian’s indifference that night.

But Li Muyang didn’t really care that much about it.

“It’s alright.”

Li Muyang shook his head and said, “I didn’t do those things to vie for merit or favor. I just couldn’t stand some of the scum in the sect committing evil.”

Li Muyang spoke the truth.

Shen Yan chuckled lightly at his words and nodded, then they chatted about the Hall of Enforcement and some internal matters of the sect.

According to Shen Yan, the sect leader’s recent tour to spread miracles and preach had been very effective.

Not only had hundreds of thousands of civilians joined the Blood Lotus Sect in the lands they controlled, but many commoners from the Demonic Sect’s territories had also secretly come over, wanting to join the Blood Lotus Sect that promised eternal life.

The development of the Blood Lotus Sect was booming, and its power was growing steadily.

Shen Yan said that after some time, the sect would be ready to expand outward.

As to where and how they would expand, Shen Yan did not elaborate.

But the determination in her eyes was filled with optimism for the future.

After dealing with the conversation, Li Muyang returned to his small courtyard in the city lord’s mansion, routinely asking the maids to prepare a medicinal bath and began to soak.

And while bathing, he entered the game.

“...Brother-in-law, your dharma body is so fierce!”

Shen Miao, dressed in plain white robes, stood not far away, complaining to Li Muyang.

“After your spirit left the body, this mantis became very aggressive, and it would attack even when I approached it.”

In the misty ghost city, several hundred-zhang-long trenches had appeared in the streets and houses around the Emerald Blade Mantis, clearly the work of the mantis.

When Li Muyang exited the game, the Emerald Blade Mantis would enter alert mode, automatically attacking any living being that approached.

Shen Miao, the little girl, had obviously suffered a setback.

Li Muyang controlled the Emerald Blade Mantis and said, “Just don’t get close to it, let’s continue to hunt the Azure Dragon.”

Yan Xiaoru’s entry into Tianjiao City was a signal.

It was very likely that Yan Xiaoru was about to take action, and Li Muyang hoped to rescue Shen Miao, the infant spirit, and to disable the Four Directions Cauldron’s ability to resurrect followers before Yan Xiaoru’s actions began.

If he could do that, even without Yan Xiaoru’s action, it might suffice.

The Blood Lotus Sect’s ability to repel the Demon Refining Sect’s repeated attacks relied on the miracle of the sect’s followers being killed and resurrected.

Once this miracle disappeared, it would be too easy to crush the Blood Lotus Sect with the Demon Refining Sect’s size.

In the misty ghost city, the Emerald Blade Mantis controlled by Li Muyang took flight, carrying Shen Miao on its back towards the Azure Dragon flag ahead.

The next second, familiar seas of clouds and mountains appeared in the view.

The Azure Dragon wielding thunder soared, unleashing several bolts of lightning...

......

“Banner Master, something big has happened!”

In the morning, when Li Muyang leisurely stepped into the Hall of Enforcement, his two loyal subordinates came up to meet him.

Bu Hongsheng looked anxious and said, “Half an hour ago, many half-demons from Liehai Hall knelt in front of the sect leader’s mansion, crying out for justice, asking the sect leader to uphold it for them.”

“That group of half-demons claims that you have retaliated against them, Banner Master.”

After Bu Hongsheng finished speaking, Liu Fu added from the side: “After the news spread, disciples from various branches and incense halls also joined the ranks of those crying out for justice, each proclaiming to have been persecuted by the Hall of Enforcement.”

“Now the front of the sect leader’s mansion is filled with people, and the momentum is huge. Bu Hongsheng and I took a look from a distance, and there seem to be six or seven hundred people, almost all of whom have been punished by us.”

Liu Fu was much calmer, his demeanor and gaze as lifeless as ever.

But the scene he described was somewhat frightening.

In the past days, most of the criminals Li Muyang and his team had punished were small leaders with some status within the Blood Lotus Sect.

Although there were only a few hundred people kneeling and crying out for justice at the moment, these people occupied a high proportion among the mid and lower-level leaders of the Blood Lotus Sect.

Six or seven hundred leaders kneeling and crying out for justice at the same time was such a grand scale that even the sect leader would have to respond cautiously.

Liu Fu’s gaze was heavy with seriousness, while Bo Hongsheng’s face was etched with urgency.

However, upon hearing the news, Li Muyang burst into laughter.

“Six to seven hundred people...”

He shook his head, still laughing, under the bewildered stares of his subordinates.

“In the past, I was only focused on cleaning up the scum and never bothered to count the numbers. I never imagined that there were so many criminals I had dealt with.”

“In the vast Blood Lotus Sect, the number of lotus members leaders who can command more than ten people is actually quite limited.”

“Yet, we have captured and punished as many as six to seven hundred people.”

Most of these individuals were bullies who oppressed men and women and acted without restraint, which is why Li Muyang had captured them for severe punishment.

The new rules set by Fang Ying Tian were mostly added to maintain stability and uphold justice and good customs.

They were generally lax. As long as one did not commit evil acts, one did not trigger the sect’s rules.

Although Li Muyang was rigid and ruthless when capturing people, to the point of not recognizing kin, the number of people he had dealt with was still astonishing...

Upon hearing this number, Li Muyang was filled with emotion.

“In the past, everyone cursed the cultivators for enslaving mortals and oppressing all beings, which is why they banded together to overthrow the oppression of the cultivators.”

“But once they gained power, everyone scrambled to become the oppressor, doubling down on the oppression they had once suffered onto the mortals under their rule.”

Li Muyang laughed and said to his two loyal subordinates,

“These guys, how are they any different from the cultivators who oppressed them back then?”

“What they truly hated was not the cultivators’ oppression of all beings, but that they themselves were not the oppressors.”