Chapter 78: The Righteous and Awesome Sinner
Chapter 78: The Righteous and Awesome Sinner
Cheng Ziwei began to pack up her belongings. Not to mention taking the bonus of 100,000 spirit stones, she didn't even plan to ask for the day's wages. She just wanted to run away overnight.
This is like a college student who just graduated from school and went to do odd jobs for daily pay, but was inexplicably framed by his boss for conspiracy and treason and forced to take the blame.
Apart from running away, she really couldn't think of any other solution.
No matter whether the consequences of this conspiracy to overthrow the Human Religion will fall on her in the future, she dare not stay with the treacherous boss for even a minute.
Senior brother Li Yu was very puzzled by his junior sister's series of strange behaviors, but seeing that she refused to explain in detail, he stopped asking questions and just accommodated her wishes.
But just as the two were about to slip out of the market town, they discovered that the previously calm secret camp seemed to have been awakened and was in a commotion.
Driven by curiosity, Cheng Ziwei stopped to watch. At this time, the camp was already crowded with people, especially at the entrance to the secret realm, which was in chaos. People kept entering the secret realm teleportation array, and wounded people and those being carried on their backs kept escaping.
All I could hear were shouts coming from all directions, as if I were on a battlefield.
"Have the elders really inspected it? The danger level in there is completely different from what they said!"
"Impossible, absolutely impossible! That is the unanimous opinion of several Mahayana seniors. Is it because you have neglected your practice and your strength is not good enough?"
"Hurry up and save him, hurry up and save him, my brother is dying."
"It's filled with difficult-to-identify traps, illusion arrays, and mazes. The team got separated not long after walking. The demonic plants and beasts are also extremely ferocious and numerous."
"There were 20 of us. We had just entered and walked a short distance, but only a few of us escaped..."
"Hurry up and report to the elders, and organize a rescue team to go into the secret realm to save people. Many people are too seriously injured or unable to escape on their own. If we go too late, we will only be able to collect the bodies!"
"These people have been poisoned by a strange and exotic poison. Ordinary poison-repelling spells can't cure it at all!"
……
One after another, seriously injured monks staggered out of the teleportation array. When they saw the sky outside, their tense spirits relaxed and they fell to the ground. Blood spread under their bodies, and with so many people that the blood formed a gurgling stream.
The disciples of the major immortal sects stationed at the entrance to the secret realm were scrambling to rescue the wounded, and then replenished the secret realm with new people based on the number of injured and retired people.
The essence of the world is just a makeshift team. The organization of the entire activity is extremely chaotic. There is no plan to deal with emergencies at all. The coordination among multiple sects is also very poor. Obviously, they are not prepared for the current situation. Many wounded people were left aside and no one cared about them.
Several major immortal sects have already made an agreement and stipulated an upper limit on the number of people from each sect who can enter the secret realm. If one person withdraws, one can be replaced, as long as the total number of people in the secret realm does not exceed the upper limit.
The purpose of making such an agreement is to limit the intensity of the internal fighting for resources in the secret realm. The more people there are, the more difficult it is to control the casualties. Someone who would not have died otherwise may be killed by a single sword strike in the chaos of battle.
When the major sects of the Chan sect were competing for resources such as spiritual stone veins and wild spiritual medicine fields, they could sit down and negotiate calmly. Each major sect divided a certain share and only mined the part that belonged to them.
However, exploring the secret realm requires fighting, because the resources produced in the secret realm are too uncertain and difficult to distribute evenly.
For example, in a certain secret realm, a top-level spiritual treasure worth hundreds of millions of spirit stones is buried in the core, and the rest of the magic treasure resources in the entire secret realm added together are less than 10 million spirit stones.
So, as several major sects jointly explore this secret realm, to whom will the most core treasure belong?
Top-level spiritual treasures cannot be divided, their specific value is difficult to accurately assess, and they cannot be immediately converted into cash and divided into money like in the real world.
The currency for cultivators in this world is spirit stones, which are mined, not printed by money printing machines. A sect that obtains a spirit treasure may not have enough spirit stone reserves to make up the difference, and bartering with other assets of equal value is extremely troublesome.
What's more, top-level spiritual treasures are often in short supply. Even if you are willing to pay more to get the treasure, others may not be willing to accept the money and give up the treasure.
Then just follow the old rule in the world of immortal cultivation: "It belongs to those with virtue". Whoever grabs it first owns it, and if you can't grab it, you can only blame yourself for not being virtuous enough.
Of course, disciples who have snatched top-grade spiritual treasures and successfully escaped and returned to the camp are not qualified to possess the magic weapon and must hand it in, but they will receive a contribution point to the sect, which is equivalent to a business commission.
It was somewhat like Escape from Tarkov. Although it was crude, it effectively resolved disputes and avoided conflicts between major sects.
In previous battles for resources in secret realms, each major sect would send out all the personnel they could, and all disciples below the Mahayana stage could participate. As a result, there were fights that escalated into real anger, and group fights that resulted in deaths.
The reason why the Mahayana cultivators did not enter the field was that, on the one hand, if they fought against each other at different levels of strength in the secret realm, there would be a risk of destroying the stability of the secret realm space and causing the secret realm to collapse and be annihilated.
Secondly, because these people are about to ascend to heaven, they should cultivate their virtues. If they rashly participate in the battle, they will create bad karma and ruin their chances of ascending to heaven, which is not worth the loss. For this Guangling Secret Realm exploration activity, several Mahayana elders from various major sects gathered together to plan. Under the instruction of the senior brothers who headed the major sects, they carried out a comprehensive reform and launched a pilot of a new model of secret realm battle.
If Wen Rui hadn't messed things up, this pilot project might have been successful, but unfortunately man proposes, God disposes.
This secret realm was left behind by the immortals of the Jiejiao sect. Wen Rui's proficiency in the secret book of the Jiejiao formation made entering the secret realm as familiar as returning home. He could easily gain supreme control over the secret realm and make any changes to the secret realm's defense system.
But when a monk of the Chan sect enters the secret realm, he will be like a thief trying to break into the secret realm and will only be targeted by the defense system.
Wen Rui didn't know that they were going to launch a new pilot project to reduce the intensity of internal fighting. Based on the business philosophy of creating demand if there is no demand, he secretly increased the strength of the secret realm in the background management system of the secret realm formation. This intensity matched the original competition mode, which means that even the God Transformation and Return to Void cultivators can participate, and there is no limit on the number of people entering the secret realm.
As things turned out, the group of guinea pig disciples who participated in the pilot project were in bad luck. The cultivators in the Nascent Soul and Golden Core stages were simply unable to cope with it. The entry rules, which were originally designed for the PVP mode, were taught a lesson by the PVE heroic difficulty, resulting in heavy casualties.
"What a sin! My client can't just die in vain!"
The two brothers and sisters, who were attracted by the chaos in the camp and stopped to watch, suddenly heard a familiar voice coming from beside them.
Cheng Ziwei looked in the direction of the voice, only to see Boss Wen holding his forehead with one hand, a strange and complex expression on his face that was a mixture of four parts regret, three parts embarrassment, and three parts panic, and he let out a long sigh.
Cheng Ziwei met his gaze and found that there was a hint of guilt in his eyes, but it was quickly concealed.
"You two, stop just standing here and watching the fun!"
Wen Rui immediately gave them an order with a serious face: "Go and help save people. Carry all the Taoists who have fallen at the entrance of the secret realm and have been left to die because the big sects are temporarily unable to spare manpower to treat them back to our clinic for rescue. Save as many as you can!"
"Lao Hu, where is Lao Hu?"
Wen Rui seemed very anxious, like a commander who had come to the scene of a major accident to play an active role. "Old Hu, you should immediately contact the elders of several major sects and convey to them our Chamber of Commerce's willingness to provide all possible assistance. Saving lives is the most important thing, and the expenses for medicines, supplies, medical treatment, etc. can be put on account first and settled later."
Old Hu was the fat businessman who had stood up on Wen Rui's behalf to reprimand the monks of Dingguang Sect. After receiving Wen Rui's instructions, he rushed to the sect's headquarters without saying a word.
"Employees, hurry up, take action, run, put business aside, and save lives first!"
Wen Rui turned to the market and called out loudly, "Dear employees, there is a saying in the Western Sect: Saving a life is better than building a seven-story pagoda. Now the Taoist friends of the Chan Sect are in trouble, and many disciples are on the verge of death. Our three sects are originally from the same source. At this moment, we should put aside our sectarian differences, join hands and help each other to overcome the difficulties together."
At his call, all the mortal servants of the Chamber of Commerce and the temporarily hired human disciples responded positively and took quick action.
The Fangshi Clinic opened its doors, and the metal puppets took out equipment from the warehouse and began construction of temporary wards and treatment rooms. The mortal servants of the Chamber of Commerce wore strange armor (actually engineering mechanical exoskeletons) and carried various medical supplies to the clinic. The temporary monks carried stretchers to the entrance of the secret realm to carry the wounded.
Seeing that everyone was busy, Cheng Ziwei and Li Yu, who were planning to secretly pick up the bucket and run away, were embarrassed.
Boss Wen was standing beside them giving orders, and everyone was in high spirits, throwing themselves enthusiastically into the rescue work. It would be a bit inappropriate to be a deserter at this time, and it would definitely cause great damage to the Qingcheng Sect's reputation in the martial arts world.
"Junior sister, you know that Senior Brother has always doted on you and obeyed you in everything, but this time... you can't be too..."
Li Yu looked embarrassed and whispered.
Cheng Ziwei guessed that her senior brother wanted to say "willful", but he was gentle in character and didn't want to say harsh words.
"Okay, we won't leave for now." Cheng Ziwei felt bitter, but she could only answer like this.
The two who decided to stay and participate in the rescue went to get a stretcher together, but were stopped by Wen Rui: "We don't need so many people to carry the injured. The emergency room is short-staffed. Xiaowei, I need an assistant who is meticulous and nimble. You stay in the emergency room."
Cheng Ziwei looked embarrassed. She didn't want to stay with Boss Wen. She whispered nervously, "Boss, I... I don't know how to be an assistant..."
"It's already this time, why are you still wasting time by making excuses?"
Wen Rui's face darkened, and he criticized, "Saving people is like putting out a fire. While you are hesitating, your fellow Taoists are bleeding and losing their lives! Imagine if the injured and dying person is your relative or friend, and you are needed to assist in the rescue, would you still say you can't do it?"
These words left Cheng Ziwei speechless, and she even felt ashamed, but she also felt something was wrong, as if there was some hidden meaning.
(End of this chapter)