Dugu Bo and Ning Haiyan also joined in to extinguish the fires and gather the bodies.
Before long, a clearing at the edge of the village was piled high with corpses. With a wave of Ning Haiyan's right hand, the bodies ignited and burned. Meanwhile, under the efforts of the three of them, the fires engulfing the village were completely extinguished.
At that moment, Gu Rong emerged from one of the thatched huts carrying a child.
The child looked no older than six, dressed in tattered gray clothes, his body emaciated and skeletal, cheeks sunken, eyes tightly closed—clearly unconscious for some time.
"Lord Gu, this is…?" Ning Haiyan approached, his expression questioning as he looked at the child.
"I found him hiding in a cellar beneath a rice jar. Judging by the aura, he's the only survivor in this village. I sensed faint soul power fluctuations in his body—around rank 3. He must have just recently awakened his martial soul. The villagers likely hid him, hoping he could be their avenger one day," Gu Rong said with a sigh as he handed the child to Ning Haiyan.
Ning Haiyan's face turned grim. He carried the child into the village's sole intact house, laid him gently on a bed, and retrieved a medicinal pill from his storage-type soul tool ring. Placing it in the boy's mouth, he infused it with soul power to help the boy swallow, then sat down by his side to watch over him.
Before long, Dugu Yan entered, her face dark with grief and disbelief. She couldn't fathom why anyone would be so cruel, so utterly depraved, as to slaughter nearly three hundred people—including children—all for the sake of cultivation.
Rumors in the soul master world painted her grandfather, Dugu Bo, as ruthless and deadly with his poisons, a man capable of wiping out an entire city with ease. But in all her years, she had never seen nor heard of him doing anything like this. At most, he had killed dozens of soul masters at once, nothing remotely close to this massacre.
Dugu Yan stood there in stunned silence, her gaze fixed on the unconscious boy lying on the bed.
Time passed, and soon dusk fell. In the west, the clouds burned crimson, like a rolling sea of fire, painting a magnificent scene.
Sensing the waning power of the sun, Xu Yang ended his healing session. After spending the afternoon recovering, most of the aches in his body had dissipated, though some faint pain lingered in certain spots—not enough to impede his movements.
There was an unexpected benefit during his healing: his soul power had quietly broken through to rank 44. The battle had pushed his body to its limits, expanding his meridians and deepening his dantian, which explained the sudden advancement.
Stretching his limbs, Xu Yang noticed that the area around him was empty. Extending his spiritual sense slightly, he found that everyone was gathered in the stone house not far away, which puzzled him.
Pushing open the door, Xu Yang entered and immediately felt the oppressive atmosphere. Everyone's expression was dark and heavy as they stared at the frail child on the bed. Both Gu Rong and Dugu Bo held notebooks in their hands, their faces grim, eyes filled with barely concealed killing intent.
Xu Yang cautiously sat beside Dugu Yan.
The moment he did, Dugu Yan clung to him tightly, her trembling body revealing her current state of confusion and despair.
Xu Yang was momentarily surprised but quickly embraced her in comfort. His gaze, however, turned to Gu Rong and Dugu Bo, his eyes brimming with questions.
"Brat, see for yourself."
Gu Rong sighed and, along with Dugu Bo, tossed the notebooks into Xu Yang's hands.
Xu Yang quickly flipped them open. Inside were the research notes of the second and third corrupted soul masters detailing their experiments with blood and the development of a twisted cultivation method for creating corrupted soul masters. This depraved research had spanned several years, involving the deaths of nearly a thousand people—not even counting the over three hundred slaughtered in this village.
The notebooks meticulously recorded how they refined their cultivation by consuming the blood of soul beasts and humans alike, noting that torturing the victims improved the efficacy of their blood for cultivation. They had even categorized the blood, which shocked Xu Yang—it seemed these soul masters had deduced the concept of blood types without any modern scientific tools, all while still in a pre-scientific age.
At that thought, Xu Yang recalled the storage-type soul tool bracelet he had taken from the eldest corrupted soul master. He quickly retrieved it.
As expected, there was a notebook inside.
Xu Yang combined this notebook with the other two and read through them all. Only then did he finally understand why the three brothers had embarked on the path of corrupted soul masters.
It was all because of a secret technique—the Blood-Burning Soul Refining Technique.
This incomplete secret technique was created by an ordinary person born without innate soul power. Driven by the desire to become a soul master, he subjected himself to brutal physical torment, ultimately mastering his martial soul through sheer force of will and by sacrificing his life essence. By burning his blood and lifespan, he forced himself to awaken soul power and became a soul master.
Unfortunately, this secret technique was flawed. The creator died soon after achieving soul master status due to excessive consumption of his lifespan. Before dying, he recorded the incomplete technique in his home.
The three brothers, lacking talent and frustrated by their slow cultivation progress, stumbled upon this secret technique by chance. Driven by desperation, they decided to pursue it. However, unwilling to sacrifice their own blood and lifespan, they hatched a sinister plan.
If they wouldn't burn their own blood, they would burn the blood of others. Conveniently, their martial souls were Pig-Faced Bat spirits, which allowed them to absorb blood. They speculated this ability might allow them to succeed.
Thus, they began absorbing blood while refining the technique. After sacrificing nearly a thousand lives, they eventually succeeded in perfecting it. By then, their minds had already been twisted by evil. Unable to resist the lure of further power, they sought even greater strength by targeting this remote village, orchestrating this horrific massacre.
"Phew…"
Placing the three notebooks aside, Xu Yang exhaled deeply, gently pulling Dugu Yan to her feet. Turning to Gu Rong, Dugu Bo, and Ning Haiyan, he said, "Grandpa Gu, Senior, Uncle Ning, I'm going for a walk."
With that, he led Dugu Yan out of the house and walked along the village path toward the fields.
Just reading the contents of the notebooks was enough to paint a picture of the three brothers' depravity. The reality must have been even more gruesome—too much for Xu Yang to bear. He simply wanted to take a walk around the village to clear his mind.
Reaching the field's edge, Xu Yang and Dugu Yan sat down on a grassy ridge, silently staring at the rice stalks swaying in the fields.
As the sky darkened completely, the silver moon cast its light over the lonely village, lending a quiet, melancholic atmosphere.
"Xu Yang… why would they do such a thing?" Dugu Yan finally broke the long silence.
"That's reality for you," Xu Yang said quietly. "And reality is often the most unfair thing in the world. We were born with things that they would fight their whole lives to obtain… Maybe, at the start, they just wanted fairness. They wanted to have what we were born with. But… they lost their way."