Chapter 273 Cruelty is the Greatest Goodness
The ninth Thunder Doom falls and the bright light comes along，dazzling everybody’s eyes. When people open their eyes again, the swirling wind is already gone. Sun is shining through the thick clouds.
Almost all of the walls and buildings in the Textile School have collapsed. Dust is everywhere. A large deep hole is in the yard. While the crazy Taoist is still immersed in the aftertaste of the Heaven’s Doom, Lin Luoran “wakes up” because her level of cultivation is much lower than his.
The ground in the school is burnt. No creature may survive this kind of powerful strike.
Lin Luoran leads a team and searches the campus. All she finds is a bit of black dust at the bottom of the hole.
The threat should have been eliminated. The crazy Taoist is still here so Lin Luoran waves her hand and calls the other cultivators in.
The victory has been so rough yet sudden. Many of the cultivators can’t believe what has happened. They say, “Master, have we won?”
Lin nods and smiles, “Yes!”
In the meantime, Lu Sanchun receives a call. He smiles, “Miss Lin, the call is for you!”
Li Xi’er is on the other side of the phone. She and her teammates have killed five vampires who were playing in clubs and they are going to search for more escaped ones. This is good news. Li Xi’er hesitates for a while and tells Lin that things became out of control in a bar and the vampire showed its true form in front of all the customers. Li and her teammates were caught by the cameras of the TV station and they may be on the news later.
Lin Luoran smirks, “Are you wearing your pretty clothes today?”
Lin knows that Li Xi’er must be stamping her feet now. Lin comforts Li that the TV station won’t show their faces on the news, then Li Xi’er calms down.
Lu Sanchun hears what Lin and Li are talking about and he keeps this in mind. He will take care of the news.
“Master Lin, we haven’t found the missing pregnant women.” Lin is surrounded by so many cultivators that Xiao Xiaomu has to go a long way to get to her side. Xiao’s level of cultivation is fairly low and he was a.s.signed to guard the wall on the outside. He didn’t help much during the fight. Now, he finally gets the chance and he hurries to remind Lin of the missing pregnant women.
Lin Luoran nods and says, “As cultivators, we must finish our loss ends. Thank you, everyone, for joining the fight. Now we have to search for the place. Even if the missing women are dead, we must find their bodies.”
Everybody agrees. The uninjured ones split up into groups and go on the search. The entire campus has become ruins. With the aftertaste of the Heaven’s Doom still lingering, the cultivators are confused while using their spiritual minds. The search becomes much more difficult.
Lu Sanchun calls the snipers in to help with the search. Wearing battle fatigues, Lin Qingxue becomes shy when she walks pa.s.s Lin Luoran. She loses her calmness of shooting the vampires in the head.
She has the same last name as Lin Luoran, who is the leader of the cultivators. Lin Qingxue signs out of envy. As a woman, she has to try harder than men in order to become outstanding in the military. “Master Lin” must have also worked hard to gain the recognition of all the cultivators.
The snipers are disciplinary while the cultivators are noisy. After two groups of people leave the yard, the crazy Taoist opens his eyes.
“Senior, have you gained something?”
The crazy Taoist nods, “A little bit.”
Lin Luoran smiles. She has gained a little bit of something for herself as well.
Liu Zheng is only injured on the back of his hand and he offers to join the search. The crazy Taoist stops Liu Zheng and says, “Liu, will you bear a grudge because I never give you a handy magic weapon?”
Then Lin Luoran realizes that she really never saw Liu Zheng with a weapon.
Liu Zheng lowers his head and says no. The crazy Taoist laughs, “It’s easy to get you some weapons. The thing is, your Taoist root is not the best. If you want to make progress, you must focus on improving your own strength. Your only chance is to lay a solid foundation.”
Lin Luoran doesn’t get his deeper meanings. Liu Zheng is so ashamed that his ears turn red. He wants to stamp his feet like Li Xi’er does. However, after giving another thought of his master’s words, it makes some sense to him.
This is one of the few moments that Lin Luoran has ever got the guidance of a senior cultivator. She asks respectfully, “Senior, are you saying that cultivators should not rely on the power of magic weapons?”
The crazy Taoist nods, “Think carefully. Since you got this Grade Five flying sword, you seldom use spells during fights because the sword is much stronger. Is that right? As cultivators, the five elements are the most important things to us. If you don’t have a deep understanding of Reiki in the five natures, you’ll find it hard to enter the next level even if you’re talented.”
Lin Luoran understands immediately. It’s true that she has made some mistakes. She is never a swordsman who enters the path of cultivation through the sword. Back then, when she learned the Fire Ball Spell secretly from Wen Guanjing, she tried to feel the fire Reiki. Then Lin met White Fairy. The sword spells she gave Lin were powerful, and Lin always had the feeling that spells of the five elements would never be as powerful as the sword. Spells of water and fire are quite useful and Lin sometimes uses the spells of wood and gold. As for the earth spells, she seldom thinks of them.
Since she entered the level of Laying Foundation in the blood pool in the dungeon, Lin Luoran has surpa.s.sed the early stage but hasn’t reached the middle stage. It has been years and she should have entered the next stage because her bead has been absorbing Reiki continuously. Why hasn’t she?
The crazy Taoist’s words enlightened Lin Luoran. She bows to him respectfully.
The crazy Taoist waves his hand. He points at Goldie and asks, “You have a nice hawk. Did you take it out from the secret land?”
“Exactly.”
The crazy Taoist smacks his lips and says with pity, “You’ve raised it well. It’s fat.”
What? Fat? Lin Luoran doesn’t raise the hawk for its meat! Liu Zheng raises his eyebrows. He really wants to drag his crazy master back to the temple.
However, Lin Luoran is acting like she didn’t hear what the crazy Taoist just said. She asks curiously, “Senior, did you ever been to the secret land?”
“Of course, otherwise I wouldn’t have laid my foundation. After all, my school doesn’t have the prescription for the Foundation-laying Bolus.” The crazy Taoist is logical most of the time. Except for calling Goldie fat, Lin Luoran hasn’t noticed his craziness today. Lin’s guard is down. She asks carelessly, “Senior, didn’t you catch a beast as your pet?”
The crazy Taoist suddenly becomes sullen. He says angrily, “Yes.”
Liu Zheng is interested by the answer. He has followed his master around for years and he has never seen a bird’s feather or a beast’s waste. No way he owns a pet!
Lin Luoran is curious about what pet the crazy Taoist has brought back from the secret land. However, the crazy Taoist’s expressions change quickly and he grumbles, “It ran away— ”
His pet ran away? This is not a good topic to talk about. As Lin Luoran tries to ease the embarra.s.sment, the cultivators find something at the other side of the yard.
“Master Lin, we may have a clue of the whereabouts of the pregnant women!”
They’ve found the missing women? Lin Luoran and Liu Zheng both lose the interest in asking about the crazy Taoist’s pet. They run together to the crowd.
Pieces of tiles and bricks are all over the ground with broken steel bars mixed inside.
Xiao Xiaomu says excitedly, “Officer Lin, tell Master what you’ve found.”
Xiao refers Lin Qingxue to Officer Lin. Lin Qingxue’s skin is tanned and she is more composed right now. She steps back and pulls the weed growing under a tree. There is a dense wire mesh under the ground.
A bas.e.m.e.nt!
“You’re observant. How did you find it?” Everybody was searching in the ruins and no one paid attention to the weed in the yard. This military woman is quite impressive.
Lin Qingxue explains calmly, “Madam, it’s late autumn and the weed is too green.”
In fact, before Lin Qingxue says anything, some of the cultivators had noticed the abnormality. However, Lin Qingxue was the one who found the spot. The cultivators were too proud to take the “credit” of a girl.
Lin Luoran takes a closer look at the weed. They are not dark green, but the other gra.s.s in the yard had already turned yellow. The withered gra.s.s was all broken when the tentacles monster was out making a mess, yet this lump of gra.s.s is ok. Somebody must have put this gra.s.s on the wire mesh later. Of course, the gra.s.s is quite green.
Lin Luoran says thank you to Lin Qingxue. Xiao Xiaomu goes forward and takes the wire mesh out. There is a layer of rock wool and a softwood board under the wire mesh. This door is designed to be soundproof. No wonder the cultivators couldn’t find anything without the help of their spiritual minds.
Light comes out from the bas.e.m.e.nt. As the cultivator with the highest level of cultivation, Lin Luoran takes the lead and goes into the bas.e.m.e.nt.
………..
Liu Mei has the feeling that somebody has come and saved them.
It’s past lunchtime and their lunch delivery is not here. The pregnant women are getting anxious. They think that they’re going to die because these foreigners are done doing experiments. Later, they hear the noise from the ventilation opening. Liu Mei focuses on the noise and she hears screams and people talking in Huaxia language. She can’t help becoming happy. It turns out that they are going to be saved. Has the government discovered this place and sent the police to save them?
Liu Mei tells her guess to the other women and she does her best to comfort those in terror. Hearing that the police may have come, many of them cuddle and cry out of happiness.
In the meantime, the European girl with long hair, who is the devil in the eyes of the pregnant women, runs into the bas.e.m.e.nt. The girl threats that whoever cries will be killed immediately.
Liu Mei sheds no tears. She believes that these foreigners are just angry because things aren’t going as they expected.
The foreign girl leaves after making the threats and she never comes back.
Time pa.s.ses. Liu Mei keeps guessing which side will win. Then the tentacles monster rises from the ground and the bas.e.m.e.nt is going to collapse. A few pregnant women fall and hurt themselves. Fortunately, the monster doesn’t come after them. Liu Mei is relieved. She does everything she can to encourage the other women whose emotions are unstable.
The sound of thunder comes and the ground shakes. Buildings collapse and the women are hopeless.
Liu Mei is hopeless. The collapse of the buildings blocks the only ventilation opening in the bas.e.m.e.nt. All of them will die from suffocation if they don’t get out soon.
Liu Mei and a few other women use their last strength to punch at the door and scream, hoping someone can hear them. However, the door is too solid and it is soundproof.
All the drastic actions and emotions quickly consume oxygen in the bas.e.m.e.nt. The women are hungry and tired and they’re short of oxygen. Liu Mei feels sleepy.
Will she ever wake up if she falls asleep now?
Her eyelids are getting heavier and she has a hard time breathing.
In a daze, Liu Mei sees that the door of the bas.e.m.e.nt is pushed open. Sun shines inside. A woman walks in against the light. Liu Mei feels that the woman looks so much like her old colleague. Is it her? Liu Mei thinks that she is having a dream.
…………….
The pregnant women are carried up to the outside one by one. The crazy Taoist notices something and he walks to them.
He checks on these women with his Wakan and says seriously to Lin Luoran, “Lin, these women’s babies are no longer human…”
Not human? Everybody is stunned. They can’t help thinking about the monster baby with a human head and bat body. They remember that the baby seemed to be shy and cute, yet it was actually bloodthirsty.
Lin Luoran looks at Liu Mei. It has been years since they met the last time. Liu Mei is going to be a mother. Will she want her baby to born as a monster, or will she refuse to give birth to a monster at all?
The crazy Taoist checks on Liu Mei and asks Lin Luoran, “do you know her?”
Lin Luoran nods. The crazy Taoist stands up and says, “Her baby is normal, so are the babies of a few others. The bat monster didn’t have the time to infect them all.”
The good news can’t wash the sadness in Lin’s heart. There are over 100 pregnant women here and less than 10 normal babies.
The crazy Taoist sighs, “Sometimes cruelty is the greatest goodness. You have to make a choice. Think bigger, Lin.”