16: Chapter 16 County Magistrate

As soon as Wang Yaowu spoke, the woman clutched the child and kowtowed unceasingly.

"Immortals, spare my life! I am merely a wet nurse in the Sect, and I truly have no relation to the Dadao Sect."

The woman kowtowed like pounding garlic, and soon a pool of blood seeped out on the ground, looking truly pitiful.

The others watched with some intolerance; after all, their Family education taught them to clearly distinguish between good and evil, and why make things difficult for a Mortal if they were one?

Yet doubt arose in Wang Yaowu's heart. His nephew had always been cautious and was never a person to shoot aimlessly.

Adhering to the principle that caution brings no major errors, he placed his hand on the woman's shoulder, but under his mana's probe, there was truly no cultivation presence whatsoever.

"Could it be this child?"

Wang Yaowu cast his gaze onto the young boy.

The young boy was around eight or nine years old, tightly clutched in the woman's arms with his Face buried in her shoulder, making his features indistinguishable.

Yet upon careful sensing, although he lacked cultivation, his physique was robust and his natural foundation was truly solid—not at all what a Mortal who couldn't eat enough meals should have. Wang Yaowu's brows suddenly twitched.

"Bring the spirit-testing stone!"

Wang Yaowu gave a low shout, and immediately a disciple of the Shou generation retrieved a palm-sized crystal from his Storage Pouch. It was completely translucent and white, shaped like a goose egg—it was precisely the spirit-testing stone used by Cultivators to check Spiritual Root Aptitude.

The woman's expression changed abruptly as she hugged the child even tighter, shaking her head desperately. "No! Do not—"

The young boy also began to struggle violently, kicking and punching, emitting a beast-like roar from his throat.

But how could a child's strength rival a Cultivator's? Wang Yaowu yanked the young boy out of the woman's arms in one go, forcefully pressing his palm onto the spirit-testing stone.

The instant the young boy's palm touched the spirit-testing stone, a purple radiance lit up.

That radiance was blazing and pure, lacking even a trace of mixed color.

The spirit-testing stone trembled slightly in the young boy's palm, the purple light growing increasingly intense and brighter, ultimately transforming into a straight pillar of light that shot directly into the clouds.

The entire courtyard fell dead silent.

"A... Single Spiritual Root?!"

Wang Yaowu's voice was trembling, and that hand which held a heavy sword and killed without blinking was trembling unceasingly at this moment. "A Lightning-attribute Single Spiritual Root!"

As soon as these words were spoken, the expressions of everyone present changed drastically.

Wang Yaowen drew a sharp breath, and Wang Chongyang's pupils also abruptly constricted.

In this barren land of Wanshan County, not a single Single Spiritual Root had been produced for hundreds of years!

Let alone Wanshan County, even within the territory of the Three Counties spanning a radius of a thousand miles, a Single Spiritual Root had never been heard of being born.

What did a Single Spiritual Root mean? It meant having completely no Bottlenecks prior to Core Formation, meaning that as long as Spiritual Qi accumulated sufficiently, success would follow naturally—a proper Foundation Establishment seed, with even the possibility of Golden Core!

Moreover, a Lightning-attribute Single Spiritual Root was the absolute highest-grade among Single Spiritual Roots.

Lightning governed slaughter and could attack in all directions.

Such a Genius, if born in a Sect, would be enough for a Golden Core Old Ancestor to personally step forward and take them as a disciple.

If born in the Wang Family, the future of the Wang Family would simply be—

Yet as luck would have it, he was born in the Dadao Sect.

Before the purple pillar of light had dissipated, Wang Chongyang had already reacted abruptly, raising his hand and waving to send a grey sleeve-wind that forcibly suppressed the soaring pillar of light.

The radiance of the spirit-testing stone was forcibly masked, but it was already too late.

Among the crowd watching from afar outside the mountain gate, several people had already seen that pillar of light, and cries of alarm faintly drifted over.

"So that is how it is." Wang Shouren moved his gaze away from the spirit-testing stone and onto the woman's paper-white Face, his voice carrying chilliness.

"Everything is explained. With the Dadao Sect's mediocre strength, how could they dare to risk uniting with the Ning Family to make a move against our Wang Family—eighty percent of it is for this child."

Although a Single Spiritual Root is good, wanting to grow rapidly inevitably requires massive resources and a Cultivation Technique. Resources are easy to discuss; the resources required by a lightning Cultivator in the Qi Refinement Stage are not too different from ordinary Cultivators.

But where would a Lightning-attribute Cultivation Technique come from? By killing me, a direct descendant of the Wang Family who also primarily Cultivates lightning techniques, wouldn't they obtain the finest lightning technique in the Three Counties?"

The woman's Face was ashen, her lips trembling, unable to utter a single word.

However, the young boy abruptly raised his head. Knowing that he probably could not escape misfortune today, he simply stopped struggling and stared fixedly at Wang Shouren, those eyes burning with a malice completely unbefitting his age.

"Correct! My father did it for me! He promised to nurture me with all his might once it succeeded! When I reach Foundation Establishment, I will slaughter your Wang Family completely! Just wait—even as a ghost I won't let you off! Even as a ghost I will—"

Wang Shouren's expression was unsightly. "It seems Tian Hu had long known about this child's Spiritual Root, and that day's ambush was also premeditated. Fortunately, it was discovered in time today, otherwise in a few years once he grows up..."

"Enough!"

Wang Chongyang's figure flickered and he had already arrived before the young boy. His withered palm clasped the young boy's wrist pulse, and his Divine Sense probed into the Meridians.

After a moment, he slowly loosened his hand, a trace of extremely complex bitterness surfacing on his aged Face.

"He truly is a Single Spiritual Root, and a Lightning-attribute Single Spiritual Root at that. His Meridians are wide and his Dantian is crystal clear; he is a top-tier seedling for Cultivation."

His voice was low, as if he were talking to himself.

"If this child were born in our Wang Family, our Wang Family could serve as the number one Family in these Three Counties..."

He raised his head, looking toward the distant mountains, a desolate aura seeping from his voice. "Does Heaven truly not bless our Wang Family?"

Everyone fell silent.

Wang Yaowu's hand holding the spirit-testing stone tightened then loosened, loosened then tightened.

He looked at that young boy whose eyes were filled with malice, the surging killing intent and regret in his heart intertwining, making him unable to speak for a moment.

Wang Yaowen stepped forward, his voice suppressed extremely low.

"Sixth Uncle, this child cannot be kept. If a Single Spiritual Root does not die, it will surely become a great disaster in the future. Our Wang Family has just slaughtered his entire Family; this enmity is irreconcilable and there is absolutely no possibility of resolution."

Wang Yaowu also recovered his wits and said in a deep voice, "Sixth Uncle, Second Brother is right. Raising a tiger breeds trouble, leaving endless future troubles."

Yet although the words were said thus, his hand holding the sword did not raise up.

Not just him, but all the elders of the Yao generation present, including Wang Chongyang, all had a trace of hard-to-conceal hesitation on their Faces.

For a Genius to fall was, after all, a pity.

For how many years in the Immortal Realm had Single Spiritual Roots been exceedingly rare, with Lightning-attribute Single Spiritual Roots being even scarcer?

Those of them struggling bitterly on the road of cultivating immortality knew better than anyone what Spiritual Root Aptitude signified.

A Cultivator with a Three Spiritual Root might not necessarily step into Foundation Establishment even after bitterly cultivating for a lifetime, whereas a Cultivator with a Single Spiritual Root could easily cross that threshold.

This was fate, a fate bestowed by the heavens.

Killing a Single Spiritual Root made people sigh in regret far more than killing a hundred or a thousand ordinary Cultivators.

Yet if they did not kill him, the Wang Family had just slaughtered this child's entire Family; how could this deep, blood-soaked enmity be resolved simply because the Wang Family showed mercy today?

In days to come when this child returned upon Foundation Establishment, the very first thing he would exterminate would be the entire Wang Family.

"Sixth Granduncle, we cannot hesitate!"

Wang Shouren's voice broke the silence.

He walked quickly to the front of the young boy, his gaze meeting those eyes filled with malice, his hand already pressed upon the sword hilt.

Wang Chongyang closed his eyes, and when he opened them again a moment later, his eyes were already a sheet of ice.

He nodded slowly. "Kill—"

Before the words were finished, a high-pitched announcement suddenly came from outside the mountain gate.

"The Lord County Magistrate has arrived—"

This announcement exploded like a thunderclap.

Wang Chongyang's brow furrowed, and his hand pressed within his sleeve paused slightly.

Although the Yue Country was hollowed out by the three major immortal-cultivating Sects and hundreds of immortal-cultivating Families, the strength of the Yue Country's imperial court could likewise not be underestimated.

Baishan County, Wanshan County, and Xiaoshan County each established a County Magistrate, jointly appointed by the Yue Country imperial court and the Sects; none could serve unless they were Foundation Establishment Cultivators.

This County Magistrate of Wanshan County was precisely a Middle Stage Foundation Establishment Cultivator, and in terms of cultivation, he was even a notch higher than Wang Chongyang.

The Wang Family was in Baishan County; today, charging up to kill the Dadao Sect was inherently acting across boundaries.

Had it not been for the Dadao Sect colluding with the Ning Family to secretly harm Wang Family disciples first, giving the Wang Family the upper hand in reason, Wang Chongyang would not have rashly stepped into Wanshan County's territory.

Now that the County Magistrate had arrived personally, this matter could no longer be dealt with arbitrarily.

A streak of cyan escape light streaked across the horizon, landing before the mountain gate in the blink of an eye.

The escape light dissipated, revealing an old man wearing cyan official robes.

That old man was around sixty years of age with a lean Face, three strands of long beard under his chin, wearing a black gauze cap, and holding a bronze token in his hand.

The aura around his entire body was restrained without revealing the slightest bit, but that unique coercion of a Foundation Establishment Cultivator was like an abyss and a sea, causing the hearts of everyone present to sink simultaneously.

"Brother Chongyang, trust you have been well since we last met."

The County Magistrate smiled slightly, his gaze sweeping across the corpses littering the ground with an unchanged expression, as if he were merely looking at ordinary autumn leaves.

"I have already heard about the matters of the Dadao Sect. The Dadao Sect colluded with demonic Cultivators and secretly harmed Wang Family disciples, so they deserved to die. Brother Chongyang taking action to purge the Sect was also within reason."

He paused, his gaze landing on the young boy, and his tone shifted.

"However, having killed so many, Brother Chongyang should also vent his anger. This child appearing in my Wanshan County is Wanshan County's blessing, and also the blessing of our Yue Country. Brother Chongyang, you should grant me some Face, how about it?"