Delving deeper into the Cang Province hinterland, the mountains and rivers became increasingly numerous. Rotten skeletons lay by the roadside, scarlet flowers growing from their eye sockets. These flowers were peculiar, somewhat resembling the spider lilies Jiang Wen knew.
The stamens constantly scattered red fluorescent powder with the breeze, like countless red dots, slowly gathering into a thin pink mist.
Hongluan cleaved through the pink mist with a single slash of her blade, disdainfully fanning the air with her hand. "So stinky, smells just like a dead corpse."
"They've already started blooming," Ah Gu sighed.
"Flowering, bearing fruit," Jiang Wen murmured. "Time may be running out. If the Light Tree bears fruit, what will happen in the end?"
"I don't know, and these things don't really concern me," Hongluan said flippantly, twirling her curved blade. "I'm just a cultivator who has barely stepped into the Life Fire realm. How could I possibly speculate on such things? If the sky falls, there are always taller people to hold it up. Those immortal sect saints aren't worried, so there's no need for us to fret over it. At worst, we can hide in the Sumeru Realm. We wouldn't be trapped and die in this mortal world."
"Are all the disciples of the Myriad Worlds Sect so lacking in righteousness?" Jiang Wen couldn't help but find Hongluan's words amusing. After all, the name 'Myriad Worlds Sect' sounded very upright, but who knew that the disciple who came out was a cowardly coward.
"Righteousness? What is righteousness? When the hundred immortal sects loathed the Myriad Worlds Sect, they never mentioned righteousness. Besides, how can our small sect compare to the orthodox Daoist sects like the Supreme Divinity Palace? They aren't worrying about the righteousness of the world, so why should we be morally kidnapped?" Hongluan said unhappily, not forgetting to mock the Supreme Divinity Palace. It was clear that she was very dissatisfied with those orthodox immortal sects, but she was only venting her anger.
However, upon hearing the term 'moral kidnapping,' Jiang Wen couldn't help but feel amused. The little girl was learning the modern vocabulary they had casually discussed these past few days quite quickly.
"Seeing Fellow Daoist Jiang looking so concerned about the country and the people, I thought you were an inner disciple of a major sect. What's the point of thinking so much now? It's not like we can control this matter. If those people wanted to take care of it, they would have done so long ago. Several immortal sects each sent a saint. How severe can the disaster in these Three Provinces be? So, let's just finish our business quickly and leave this hellish place. Who knows what great conspiracy is involved?" Hongluan babbled carelessly, not forgetting to criticize Jiang Wen.
Jiang Wen didn't take her sharp remarks to heart. After all, this matter really didn't concern them much. The drought that year was able to escalate to such an extent, and there must have been people fueling the flames.
Indeed, just as those people said, the Son of Heaven was mediocre, greedy for longevity, and unbenevolent. Therefore, there must be many who harbored rebellious thoughts.
Although the hundred immortal sects stood on the side of humanity, they would also watch from the sidelines. Except for the Supreme Divinity Palace, which was rushing around to put out fires and relieve disasters, everyone else naturally wanted to see a good show.
The fact that the immortal sects had all moved into the Sumeru Realm was not without the intention of avoiding disaster and placing bets.
The three traveled in the wilderness, encountering various strange events along the way.
They had seen a mother worm, tens of feet long, coiled in the city of Cang Province, constantly giving birth to pus-filled monsters. The entire small city was occupied by these monsters. In the end, Hongluan charged into the center of the city and killed the mother worm with a single strike, and Jiang Wen set the entire city on fire.
After bypassing the city and traveling for another hundred miles, they discovered the Pregnant Women Forest. Even Jiang Wen found the situation in the Pregnant Women Forest unbearable. He never imagined that the extreme evil of humanity could break the lower limit time and time again.
On the trees that covered the mountains and fields, countless naked women were bound by branches. Their skin color was different from that of the living dead, all with a fresh elasticity.
The spinal bones of their bodies were pierced by the branches of the trees, hanging on them like skewered locusts.
Their bellies were cut open, and one could clearly see the appearance inside. Their expressions were extremely painful, already reaching a state of numbness.
Countless round balls of flesh were gestating in the open bellies, rolling to the ground amidst the women's twitching, eventually transforming into hideous-looking demonic creatures.
Such a situation was everywhere.
Jiang Wen investigated the life force of these women and found that they were all still alive. It seemed that it was the branches connecting their spines that maintained their vitality.
Hongluan, who usually loved to joke around, was silent. She looked at the Pregnant Women Forest with anger, rushing into it like a madwoman. Accompanied by countless intertwining lightning bolts, those hideous-looking demonic creatures disappeared along with the forest.
Only after she had razed the entire Pregnant Women Forest to the ground did Jiang Wen walk to her side to comfort her.
"All things are but straw dogs; the powerless will end up like this," Jiang Wen said with emotion, recalling the years when he followed Jiang Wenji to conquer the alien races. In that ancient era, the alien races were even more cruel to humans.
He had seen scenes more terrifying than this Pregnant Women Forest, but their methods were not as vicious.
Perhaps only after seeing the scenes of how the alien races treated humans would one understand why the Primordial Cang was always the pillar of humanity. Even if it later corrupted and degenerated, turning into demons and doing evil, one could not deny the merits of the Primordial Cang in driving out the alien races and establishing a humanistic world.
"Is this the right thing to do?" Hongluan gritted her teeth, her eyes red. She looked at the Pregnant Women Forest, which had turned into dust, and at the many women lying on the ground, already dead. The thoughts in her heart were indescribable, only the slightly vibrating curved blade in her hand understood her feelings.
"If those people were willing to take action, if they had ended this disaster sooner, wouldn't everything not have happened? Wouldn't these women not have suffered such abuse?" Hongluan sneered, gripping her curved blade and slashing it fiercely to the side, venting the anger in her heart. A streak of red light pierced through the heavens and the earth, cutting off the towering mountains in the distance at the waist.
Jiang Wen looked at Hongluan in surprise. That slash just now was definitely not something a cultivator in the Life Fire realm could unleash. It had already touched the Dao Palace realm, the power of seeking the root.
"If I can ascend to the Dao Palace Immortal Platform one day, I will definitely go and test the Dao hearts of those hypocritical people. I want to see how black and white their hearts are!" Hongluan vowed fiercely.
Looking at Hongluan's back, Jiang Wen could feel the burning fire hidden within her heart. He had a premonition that this girl might really ascend to the Dao Palace and set foot on the Immortal Platform one day. The extraordinarily blazing Life Fire gushed out, and even he could feel the power of anger belonging to a cynical and rebellious spirit.
"Still saying that she wouldn't get involved and just watch from the sidelines; she's clearly a girl with a strong sense of justice," Jiang Wen shook his head and chuckled softly. Perhaps Hongluan was such a person; she always talked about avoiding disaster and hiding, but in her heart, she had a sense of morality that ordinary cultivators did not possess.
After burying the women, Jiang Wen performed a ritual for them, chanting the Sutra of Rebirth and delivering the wronged souls.
Feeling the gratitude of the many souls, he nodded in agreement.
Humanity is all suffering; may you not come to the world again in the next life.
