Chapter 165: Vengeance
Jin LiJuan tried not to hate spirit beasts, but the task was difficult. She was highly motivated, though. Master didn’t ask much of her. In fact, he’d only really asked two things—to obey him and to not hate.
She hadn’t understood why Master even asked her not to kill beasts in anger. The strong sect members killed beasts wherever the creatures were found, and the entire sect had trained so hard learning weapons and techniques for what seemed like the sole purpose of killing beasts.
Mistress Zhong has patiently explained to Jin LiJuan that the issue wasn’t with what she was doing but why. Killing beasts was fine. Admirable even. Being so consumed with hatred that she couldn’t live a normal life and devoting her entire being to a singular pursuit were what Master wanted her to avoid.
She’d also been told that she would never feel the satisfaction she expected to feel from the act. That she’d feel colder and more dead inside with each act of vengeance.
Jin LiJuan didn’t know if she believed any of those explanations, but in the end, the reason didn’t matter. Master wanted it of her, and she owed him everything. He was the only reason she could finally cultivate.
Still, the task was extraordinarily tough. While the other sect members fought against the tide, she’d clenched her fists, too weak to participate. All she could do was feed the barrier protecting the village—an important job that she performed with all the diligence she could muster but one that ultimately wasn’t what she wanted.
People in the village didn’t actually know a lot about spirit beasts, but Pan Jiang was different. The Poison Claw Sect member had been educated on that subject and many others from the time he was a small child. He said that the beasts were driven by an instinct to grow stronger and would do anything it took to advance.
She understood that motivation. The pursuit of strength was paramount. If you advanced far enough, no one could ever hurt you. No one could ever hurt those you cared about.
That motivation did not explain why her parents had been killed, though. They were as mortal as mortal could be. None of her family had a single mote of qi inside them. The beast knew that. It hadn’t consumed them, just killed them and left their broken and bloody bodies laying on the dirt.
She told that to Pan Jiang.
The boy had looked so sad. He’d gotten down on one knee to speak to her and told her that her family was dead because cultivators had not done their duty. When an area wasn’t regularly culled, beasts grew aggressive. When nothing was available that could fuel their advancement, they sometimes lashed out at mortals, killing for the sake of killing.
He told her of the destruction of the Righteous Rain Sect, how the village was part of their territory, and how none of the other sects could move into that territory without breaking the tenuous peace that existed between the big three.