freenovelworld Chapter 957: I Just Said I'd Think About It. Now I've Decided—Not Approved. Kill!
Chapter 957: I Just Said I'd Think About It. Now I've Decided—Not Approved. Kill!
......
Songyuan Valley's Sect Leader stood frozen in place, utterly consumed by despair.
At this moment, Lu Ding was Lu the Grand Mage Ding!
His gaze swept over and landed on the Sect Leader of Songyuan Valley.
"Grandmaster Sect Leader, you're alive?"
"Take a look at your Songyuan Valley—thousands of disciples. How many are left now..."
Lu Ding scanned the area and smiled. "A little over two hundred."
Unable to win, unable to flee, mentally toyed with, and killed several more times, the Songyuan Valley Sect Leader was completely broken.
"Stop killing!!! Stop killing!!!!!!!!"
"I'm begging you!!! Lu Ding!!! Grand Duke Lu!!! Special Envoy Lu!!!! Stop killing!!!!""Stop!!! Stop now!!!!"
Lu Ding drifted down from the air. "I haven't had my fun yet. Don't you still have death-substitute treasures? Let's keep going. Weren't you going to inflict casualties on my investigators?"
"So how... did it turn into me beating you back while slaughtering your disciples, elders, and everyone else? Hahahahahahahaha..."
"Didn't we get things backward? This isn't right. Let's start over. We need to sort this out properly."
After multiple death-substitutions, his soul grievously wounded, the Songyuan Valley Sect Leader collapsed weakly to the ground.
"I beg you. I'm begging you, Lu Ding. Take it out on me. I'll give you all my death-substitute artifacts. I'll even give you my life, okay? Just, for the sake of all the years Songyuan Valley has worked diligently for the righteous path, spare a thread of our legacy, please!"
"I beg you. I beg you."
Soul damage clouded his mind. Despair eroded his reason. Wounded on all fronts and drowning in hopelessness, this Sect Leader of Songyuan Valley—a mighty expert at the Spirit Refinement Ninth Layer—actually fell to his knees and knocked his head against the ground before Lu Ding, pleading for a shred of survival.
Watching this, Lu Ding sighed. "Sigh... Fine. Hand over your death-substitute artifacts, and tell them to lay down their arms. I'll consider it."
Hearing this, the Songyuan Valley Sect Leader saw a glimmer of dawn piercing through the darkness.
He knew Lu Ding's words were hardly trustworthy.
But... right now, he had no choice but to believe him.
To put it plainly, believing might offer a sliver of hope. Not believing and continuing to fight guaranteed none at all. He couldn't escape. He couldn't survive. Might as well gamble.
Defeated, the Songyuan Valley Sect Leader handed over his remaining death-substitute artifacts.
Two of them.
A straw effigy and a mirror.
Lu Ding took them. The Sect Leader shouted to the remaining one hundred-plus Songyuan Valley disciples: "Everyone, stop fighting!!!!"
"We surrender!!!!"
As for why there were only a hundred-plus—well, just moments ago, the investigators had killed several dozen more.
Though the Songyuan Valley disciples found it hard to accept, they truly couldn't win.
So-called prodigies. So-called elites.
Before these wolf-like investigators, they meant nothing.
Those of the same realm were crushed. Those of higher realms were beaten by lower-realm foes.
The strong were surrounded and ambushed. The weak were overrun and slaughtered head-on.
This was the quality of elite prodigy investigators produced by the Great Han capital, Hanjing.
Young and arrogant, the victor takes all—the meaning was undeniable.
They were only outclassed by Lu Ding, not by these backwater genius Qi Refiners.
As the Sect Leader's words landed.
The atmosphere was heavy for a moment.
The remaining Songyuan Valley disciples, one by one, abandoned resistance, silently crouching with their hands behind their heads.
Lu Ding nodded. He brutally wiped away the marks within the death-substitute artifacts. The old Songyuan Valley Sect Leader immediately suffered backlash, spitting out a mouthful of blood.
Lu Ding casually tossed the death-substitute treasures into the Red Coffin, then spoke: "Mercy to an enemy is cruelty to your own people. Your moment of pitifulness cannot erase a lifetime of arrogance."
"I just said I'd think about it. Now, I've decided—not approved."
An icy, bone-piercing voice burst from Lu Ding's lips, carrying a single word: "Kill!"
At his command, the surrendered Songyuan Valley members became like lambs to the slaughter, fish on the chopping block. What awaited them were blades raised high—bloody, yet representing the light!
Songyuan Valley had wreaked havoc in the western region, attempting to stop Lu Ding from unifying the five western districts. That was the truth.
They were enemies!!!
Lu Ding would never let a single enemy go for the sake of so-called dignity—that would be an insult to his fallen investigators!!
"You despicable bastard!!!!"
The Songyuan Valley Sect Leader roared, spittle spraying onto his beard, showing just how furious he was.
He lunged forward with an attack.
Back in his prime, even at full strength, he couldn't touch Lu Ding protected by the Dinghai Pearls, let alone now, his soul shattered by multiple death-substitutions.
The incoming strike was crushed before it could land, shattered by three Dinghai Pearls in front of him.
Taking the Sect Leader's palm and arm along with it.
Lu Ding raised his hand.
In his palm, the Torture-Crushing Great Rotation silently opened. He pressed it onto the Sect Leader's head. "Heh. The indignation of the weak. Remember, you were the one who came to provoke me first."
The Torture-Crushing Great Rotation spun. Blood mist erupted. Bits of flesh and bone flew everywhere.
The mighty Songyuan Valley Sect Leader was refined on the spot.
Lu Ding flicked the blood off his hand, unmoved by the Sect Leader's curses.
Despicable?
Well said.
If Songyuan Valley had truly been aboveboard, they should have come straight to him and said, "We won't allow you to unify the west."
Not scheme in the shadows, only to be caught by Lu Ding ahead of time. Then, when he came knocking, try to play the victim.
They were the ones who had been despicable first.
So why, when Lu Ding used their methods against them, couldn't they accept it?
Oh, right—it was because his "I'll think about it" had given the Sect Leader false hope.
To that, Lu Ding could only stand at his grave and say, "Sorry about that."
He raised his hand, gathered a clump of earth for incense, and stuck it into the ground.
"There. The incense I left for your Songyuan Valley."
He turned. Before his eyes, flames soared to the sky, and corpses littered the ground.
Lu Ding said, "Check every one carefully. Finish off every corpse. Chop them open. Don't let any 'near-death survivors seeking revenge' scenarios happen."
As those words left his mouth.
From Zhan Tingzhou's direction came a shout: "Lu Ding."
Lu Ding flew over.
Landing beside him, he saw a young man's corpse lying face-down before Zhan Tingzhou.
Neither of them spoke.
They just stared silently. The investigators around them, by unspoken agreement, didn't come to disturb, quietly checking the battlefield and packing up the spoils.
No one knew how long passed.
Even Zheng Feng, who had gone back to fetch something, had returned.
Suddenly.
The seemingly lifeless corpse twitched a finger.
Lu Ding and Zhan Tingzhou, in perfect unison, pointed and shouted: "Hey!!!!"
As the saying goes—people never get tired or bored when doing bad things.
Of course, credit also went to Zhan Tingzhou, the local expert.
A second-playthrough speedrun. He knew every one of these named characters by heart and made sure to give them special attention.
The one before them was a prominent figure from the past life.
Jin Chuan!!!
Hidden among Songyuan Valley as a disciple, he had laid low for centuries, eventually becoming the first God Ascension expert from Songyuan Valley!
Later, due to a mistake in allegiance, he befriended a member of the Yellow Heaven Sect. During the Great Han's purge of the Yellow Heaven Sect, he saved his friend, harbored a cult member. When the truth came out, he was hunted down by Great Han's experts!
Of course, that glory was still a long way off.
For now, Jin Chuan was just a Fourth Restriction Qi Refiner.
Zhan Tingzhou had been watching him for a long time. At his current cultivation, Jin Chuan wasn't strong, but he fought ferociously, unleashing a barrage of poisons and powders.
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