Chương 237: Two Sides of the Same Coin

The words echoed through the silent, rock-walled canyon, a shocking, impossible revelation that hung in the air like a death sentence. Human Revolution Faction. Li Yu and Jian Xuan were stunned into a momentary silence. They had come here chasing one fanatical organization, only to find themselves stumbling into a war with two. The situation, which had seemed to be clarifying, had just become infinitely more complex and dangerous.

Jian Xuan was the first to process the information, his mind, honed by centuries of cultivation and experience, quickly grasping the horrifying symmetry of the situation.

'Human Revolution Faction,' he thought, his expression grim.

'I have never heard the name, but the implication is as clear as it is insane. A mirror image of the beast fanatics. An ideology born from the same well of hatred and supremacy, just pointed in the opposite direction. Just as extreme, and just as dangerous.' The leader of the Human Faction, the spear-wielding man, was pinned flat to the ground by Jian Xuan's soul pressure, his face pressed into the dirt and gravel. Yet, even in this state of utter helplessness, a look of fervent, fanatical pride burned in his eyes.

"You see now?" he grunted, the words a strained effort, muffled by the ground.

"We are the true guardians of humanity! While the sects and empires grow decadent and complacent, we see the true threat! The beasts are not our partners, not our companions! They are a plague, a blight upon this world that must be purged! We fight to reclaim our rightful place as the sole inheritors of this world, under the guidance of the returning Human God!" His voice rose with a crazed conviction.

"He will return soon, and on that day, every non-human species will be rendered to dust! The world will be cleansed, and humanity will finally achieve its true, divine destiny as the one and only species!" Before he could continue his tirade, a coarse, mocking laugh echoed from the other side of the clearing. The ring-wielding leader of the Beast Faction, also pinned to the ground, was looking at his counterpart with an expression of utter, contemptuous pity.

"A Human God?" he sneered, his voice dripping with venom.

"You pathetic fools truly are delusional. You worship a fantasy, a story made up by weak-willed men to justify their own fear. A human becoming a god? Like something so flawed and impure could even exist! Only the beasts, with their pure strength and their connection to the primal world, have the potential to touch true divinity! The Beast God is real, and its return is inevitable!" He then turned his hateful gaze to Li Yu and Jian Xuan.

"You have made a grave mistake today. You should have sided with the true power, with the future! But it is too late for you now. When the revolution comes, you will be among the first to be devoured!" His eyes suddenly blazed with a savage, purple light. A massive, violent wave of demonic energy exploded from his body, momentarily resisting the soul pressure.

"You think you can hold me?! I will show you the power of a true heir!" His human form dissolved in a whirlwind of purple and black energy. Flesh and bone twisted and reformed with sickening, cracking sounds. In an instant, the man was gone, and in his place was a magnificent, ten-foot-tall Purple-Winged Roc, its feathers the color of a deep bruise, its eyes burning with a furious, bestial intelligence.

With a powerful screech that shook the canyon walls, it beat its massive wings, launching itself into the air in a desperate bid for freedom. Jian Xuan simply watched the roc ascend, his expression one of utter, disdainful boredom.

"Foolish," he murmured. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. He did not move. The brilliant, white, spherical soul hovering above him simply pulsed, once. A silent, invisible wave of pure, soul-crushing force shot upwards and struck the escaping roc. The beast's triumphant screech was cut off, replaced by a pained squawk. Its flight faltered, its wings seizing up as its very soul was hammered by an irresistible force.

It tumbled from the sky like a stone, crashing back to the canyon floor in a broken, twitching heap of ruffled, purple feathers. It did not revert to its human form; it lay there, a defeated beast, its magnificent wings bent at unnatural angles. The canyon fell silent once more. The lesser cultivators from both factions, who were just beginning to recover from the initial soul suppression, had all witnessed the roc's transformation and its effortless recapture.

Any lingering thoughts of resistance or escape were utterly extinguished, replaced by the cold, stark reality of their own helplessness. It was then that one of them, a man from the Beast Revolution Faction, managed to turn his head just enough to see his captors clearly. His eyes widened with a mixture of terror and disbelief. But as his gaze fell upon Li Yu, who had been quietly observing the entire exchange, the terror in his eyes was replaced by a flash of familiar, personal, and deeply ingrained hatred.

"You!" he shrieked, his voice cracking with a venomous rage that was completely out of place with the situation.

"You bastard! You're here too?! How dare you get in my way again!" Li Yu, who had paid little attention to the defeated underlings, turned his head. His calm, emotionless gaze fell upon the man, and for the first time, a flicker of recognition appeared in his eyes. The man was older, his face gaunt and twisted with a bitter rage, but there was no mistaking him. It was Elder Jin, the treacherous outer court elder from the Green Mountain Sect, the man who had been exposed and exiled for his crimes.

So this is where he had ended up, a bitter, fallen elder who had thrown his lot in with a faction of beast-worshipping fanatics. Li Yu's expression, which had been one of detached analysis, turned to ice. He took a single, deliberate step towards his former nemesis.

"Elder Jin," he said, his voice flat and devoid of any emotion.

"By the laws of the Green Mountain Sect, and by the direct command of the Sect Master, a traitor who has fled the sect is to be killed on sight to protect our secrets. I am a disciple of the sect. It is my duty to cut the roots." As Li Yu continued his slow, deliberate walk towards him, his black staff now held loosely in one hand, Elder Jin's entire, bitter life since his exile flashed before Elder Jin's eyes.

He saw his own humiliation, his flight from the sect, his years of wandering as a disgraced rogue cultivator. He remembered his burning, all-consuming hatred for the sect that had cast him out and for a boy that ruined his plans. He remembered his desperate search for a power, any power, that would allow him to have his revenge. He had found that power in the Beast Revolution Faction. He didn't care about their ideology, about their Beast God. He saw them only as a tool.

He had joined them, used their resources to advance his own cultivation, and slowly climbed their ranks. His plan had been simple: he would use the Faction to grow strong, to gather a powerful force under his command. And one day, he would return to the Green Mountain Sect, not as a disgraced elder, but as a conqueror. He would kill the Sect Master, kill the elders who had judged him, and he would personally torture and kill the boy, Li Yu, who had played a part in this.

He would take the sect for his own, or he would burn it to the ground. He looked at Li Yu, now standing directly over him, a silent, indifferent god of death. He looked at the Soul Formation expert standing calmly nearby. He looked at his own pathetic, broken state. All his plans, all his hatred, all his ambitions… they were nothing more than a bitter, pathetic joke.

His grand plan for revenge had been ended, not in a blaze of glory, but as a footnote in someone else's investigation, an insect crushed underfoot without a second thought. His last thought, as the shadow of the black staff fell over him, was one of pure, soul-crushing irony. The roots were cut. Li Yu looked down at the body of his old enemy for a moment before turning away, his expression once again calm and unreadable. A small, loose end from his past and the sect was now gone.

He would have been killed anyways even if Li Yu didn't take action but as a disciple of the sect, he felt he needed to be the one to send this man on his way. Now, he could turn his full attention to the much larger, and far more dangerous, problems that lay before him.