Sin Becomes a God

Chapter 18: Killing for Money

When Lu Renjia and Xiao Zhao arrived near Bright Summit, they could already faintly hear the sounds of battle. At this moment, Lu Renjia—who had left Song Qingshu, transformed into that “decoy doll,” behind on Wudang Mountain—felt uncertain. He didn’t know whether, after the world’s trajectory had changed, Abbess Mie Jue, Cheng Kun, and the others would still propose the plan to send someone posing as Zhang Wuji to Bright Summit to assassinate the White-Eyebrowed Eagle King during the alliance meeting of the Six Major Sects. If things had followed the original world’s trajectory, this failed plan would have been uncovered by Wei Yixiao, the Blue-Winged Bat King. Just as Lu Renjia was wrestling with these thoughts, the voice of the “Evil God System” echoed in his mind once more. “Slaughter Mission: The path of sin requires a baptism of blood. Slaughtering a third-rate martial artist yields ten Sin Coins; slaughtering a second-rate martial artist yields one hundred Sin Coins. Slaughtering a first-rate master yields one thousand Sin Coins…You must obtain 2,000 Sin Coins within thirty minutes. Any shortfall below 2,000 Sin Coins will be deducted from the Eligible One’s spatial wallet…” “Damn it! This is forcing me to take the path of the outlaws… Damn it! I’ve already lost five hundred for running into Zhao Min—if they keep deducting like this… I’ll be left with absolutely nothing!” Lu Renjia cursed under his breath. Xiao Zhao, standing beside him, grew anxious and tugged at Lu Renjia’s sleeve. “Young Master, the members of the Six Great Sects are about to storm Bright Summit… What should we do?” Although Xiao Zhao was still very young, she had been sent by her mother, the Purple Robe Dragon King, to go undercover on Bright Summit in search of the *Great Shift of Heaven and Earth* technique. But now, looking down at the scene of thousands of people fighting to the death in the desert below the hilltop—a scene of blood and carnage—how could the eighteen-year-old Xiao Zhao not be terrified? After all, in the midst of such a massive battle, even a second-rate martial artist might not be able to guarantee a safe retreat. Moreover, the six major sects—Shaolin, Wudang, Emei, Kongtong, Huashan, and Kunlun—had sent all their best fighters this time. With the exception of Wudang, the leaders of the other five sects were personally on the front lines, and there were even more people who had come along with the six major sects, hoping to take advantage of the chaos. Gritting his teeth, Lu Renjia had no intention of having another 2,000 Sin Coins deducted for no reason. “Xiao Zhao… hide for now. The Ming Sect is in decline these days. If I don’t step in, the Five Elements Banners simply won’t be able to hold off the assault from the six major sects…” Although she knew that the “Zhang Wuji” standing before her had mastered the *Nine Yang Divine Art*, opened the Ren and Du meridians, and become one of the top martial artists in the martial arts world, Xiao Zhao still couldn’t help but worry. “Young Master… please be very careful…” “Mm! Don’t worry. Just find a place to hide and don’t come out!” With that, Lu Renjia tore off the hem of his shirt and pulled it over his face to conceal his features. With a light tap of his toes, he shot off toward the foot of the hill like an arrow leaving the bowstring. Unlike Zhang Wuji in the original timeline, Lu Renjia was heading out to kill. Unlike Zhang Wuji, who would make a big show of trying to break up fights, Lu Renjia naturally adhered to a classic line from World War II films: “Don’t shoot—sneak in quietly.” Thousands of martial artists were locked in a chaotic melee, hacking at each other like gangsters in a brawl. In such a chaotic scene, one could only distinguish friend from foe by their attire. The followers of the Ming Sect, identified by their Five Elements Banners, stood out in their five-colored robes and breastplates. In contrast to the Ming Sect members, who resembled a regular army, the Six Major Sects advanced in six parallel columns, each aligned according to their respective schools. As for the miscellaneous underworld scum who’d come to scavenge after hearing rumors of countless treasures on Bright Summit, they roamed in groups of three or five, no different from highwaymen. As the saying goes, “People die for wealth, birds die for food”—and it was these miscellaneous characters, acting as cannon fodder, who were the first to charge toward the Five Elements Banners. “Charge… Everyone, shoulder to shoulder!!! If we storm Bright Summit, we’ll feast on meat and divide up gold and silver by the scale… and we can even snatch a few Demon Cult women to warm our beds…” “Charge…” Amid the chaotic shouts, these small-time thugs—their eyes bloodshot from the lure of gold, silver, and beautiful women—charged fearlessly toward the Five Elements Banners’ disciplined formation. “Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh…” Wave after wave of whistling sounds filled the air as a swarm of Wolf’s Tooth arrows, as dense as locusts, rained down from the Five Elements Banner’s formation. After all, the Ming Sect had been clashing with the Yuan Dynasty for many years, so their military prowess was naturally formidable. Under this dense hail of arrows, unless one’s cultivation reached the level of a top-tier martial artist, even those at the peak of the second tier would be pierced like a hedgehog. “Splatter…” “Thud…” The sound of barbed wolf’s-tooth arrows piercing bodies echoed across the open plain. Some of the minor martial arts thugs were instantly killed when the arrows pierced vital points like their throats or hearts, while those struck in the chest but not yet dead lay on the ground, writhing in agony and wailing. After this barrage of powerful arrows and crossbow bolts, hundreds of cannon fodder had already fallen. Before the writhing, wailing miscellaneous thugs could catch their breath, the Five Elements Banner formation shifted: the archers and crossbowmen retreated, and hundreds of burly men wielding short spears emerged from behind the shield wall. The well-trained Five Elements Banner disciples all twisted their waists and leaned backward. “Throw!!!!” At the command, hundreds of short spears were hurled into the air. Driven by the force of gravity, they fell in a parabolic arc, impaling the wounded and fallen miscellaneous martial artists on the ground. Ragtag forces typically begin to rout once their casualties reach one-fifth of their numbers. These third-rate martial artists, who had come in pursuit of gold and silver treasures, had now lost the relentless momentum they’d displayed moments earlier—after all, one must have a life to enjoy one’s wealth. Shouting in panic, they began to flee in disarray. Master Extinction, a woman capable of ruthlessly killing even her own beloved disciple—how could she be anything but merciless toward others? “Clang…” A dragon’s roar rang out as the Yitian Sword slid from its scabbard. With a flick of her wrist, Master Extinction unleashed a golden sword energy over twenty meters long, which lashed out like a long whip toward the fleeing rabble. “Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh…” A dozen or so enemies, each as small as a fist, were instantly struck down in unison. “Those who retreat die!!!” Master Extinction’s cold, ruthless words, propelled by her deep inner energy, momentarily stunned the fleeing rabble. Lu Renjia, who had already infiltrated their ranks, couldn’t help but twitch the corner of his mouth at the sight. “Master Extinction really is a psychopath… This is fucking inhuman…” “Time remaining: twenty-eight minutes and thirty seconds…” The “Evil God System” beeped. Lu Renjia didn’t have time to care about any of that. He aimed a punch directly at the chest of a man standing beside him—a man who had been about to retreat but was now frozen in place by Abbess Mie Jue’s brutal tactics. “Thud…” A dull thud echoed as Lu Renjia’s fist sank into the man’s chest. Immediately afterward, Lu Renjia heard a series of “crack… snap…” sounds coming from inside the man’s body as his bones snapped. “Pfft…” A mouthful of fresh blood spurted from the man’s mouth; even in death, he could not fathom why this masked man standing beside him had turned on him. Having killed for the second time, Lu Renjia was once again splattered with blood. Just as the salty, metallic stench of blood was choking him to the point of vomiting, the voice of the “Evil God System” echoed in his mind. “Congratulations, Qualified One, on slaughtering a third-rate martial artist and earning ten Sin Coins… Nourished by fresh blood, Sin will blossom with infinite radiance. We hope the Qualified One will continue to strive…” Amid this seductive tone, Lu Renjia actually found the nauseating, bloody stench less repulsive. “Killing and arson bring riches; building bridges and repairing roads leave no corpses! Killing one person is still killing; killing ten is still killing! In *The Deer and the Cauldron*, I could even take down Ao Bai—so what’s killing a few dozen or a hundred minions? I’ll go all out…” Having cast off the burden in his heart and perfected the *Nine Yang Divine Art* to the pinnacle of mastery—opening the Ren and Du meridians—Lu Renjia, this innate martial arts master, mingled among the rabble of the martial world, moving like a ghostly apparition. Once the killing spree began, taking lives was as simple as eating and drinking for Lu Renjia, a master of the Innate Realm. In Lu Renjia’s eyes, the movements of those third-rate martial artists were like those of sluggish puppets. All he had to do was channel the endless flow of Nine Yang True Qi from within his body into his fists and strike at the vital points of those slow-reacting third-rate martial artists to earn ten Sin Coins. The throat, the spine, the heart, the ribs—a single, deft punch was enough to take a life. “Congratulations to the Qualified Candidate for slaying a third-rate martial artist and earning ten Sin Coins…” “Congratulations to the Qualified One for slaughtering a second-rate martial artist and earning one hundred Sin Coins…” “Congratulations to the qualified participant for slaughtering a third-rate martial artist and earning ten Sin Coins…” A chorus of system notifications echoed in Lu Renjia’s mind. The thrill of the kill was just like the rush he felt when playing on private servers, causing Lu Renjia to gradually lose himself in the joy of slaughter. Before long, those slow-witted third-rate martial artists could no longer satisfy Lu Renjia’s appetite. Second-rate martial artists? In Lu Renjia’s eyes, they were nothing more than mischievous rabbits—he could still kill them with ease by simply crushing their throats. “Kill one, and you’re a bandit; kill ten thousand, and you’re a hero… Kill tens of millions, and you’re the hero among heroes… So this is how wondrous it feels to hold the power of life and death over others…” Lost in the euphoria brought on by the bloodshed, Lu Renjia seemed to have forgotten his goal of earning two thousand Sin Coins. Just then, a monk with a full beard came into Lu Renjia’s line of sight. The monk was wielding a copper staff—as thick as a bowl and weighing over a hundred jin—whose fierce strikes generated terrifying gale-force winds. Every member of the Five Elements Banner Sect struck by that staff suffered broken bones and torn tendons. “Now this is interesting… Let me have a go at you!” Lu Renjia growled lowly as he leaped forward. “One must be mad to attain enlightenment… The staff dances in all directions, sweeping away demons and monsters!!!” The bearded monk resembled a wrathful Vajra; as he let out this soul-shaking roar, the copper staff in his hand transformed into countless staff shadows, sweeping out in all directions. “Boom! Among the Five Elements Banner cultists struck by the staff’s shadows, some were hurled into the air like baseballs hit by a bat. Others were sliced in half at the waist by the fierce copper staff. In an instant, blood blurred the scene and carnage spread across the area; the spot where the monk stood was actually stained red with blood. “Hahahaha… You heretics of the Ming Sect, let this Buddha deliver you to the afterlife…” The monk’s laughter sounded like that of a demon from hell, terrifying the Five Elements Banner Cultists so much that they dared not advance. “Damn it! Playing with a staff? Do you think you’re a monkey?! Nine Yang Opens Prosperity!!!” With Lu Renjia’s piercing roar, he unleashed the fifth level of the *Nine Yang Divine Art*, delivering a straightforward, unadorned punch straight at the senior monk, who was enveloped by the staff’s shadow. This monk was by no means an unknown figure in the martial arts world; he was Master Yuandu, the leader of the Thirteen Staff Monks of the Arhat Hall at Shaolin Temple. He had mastered the “108 Moves of the Mad Demon Staff Technique”—one of the Shaolin Temple’s Seventy-Two Supreme Arts—to perfection. His cultivation had reached the early stage of the First-Rank realm. Lu Renjia’s fierce and fearless punch channeled the power of the “Nine Yang Brings Prosperity” stage—the fifth level of the “Nine Yang Divine Art.” The fist, seemingly capable of shattering mountains, had returned to its purest form, drawing all its gong energy inward without a whisper of wind. Monk Yuan, who was performing the “108 Moves of the Mad Demon Staff Technique,” suddenly sensed a whiff of danger. A first-tier martial artist who had opened the Twelve Regular Meridians and the Eight Extraordinary Meridians was already capable of perceiving danger. Glancing back, he saw a masked figure striking toward him with a straight punch. That incredibly slow punch seemed riddled with openings,yet the direction of the attack was precisely the weak point of his own move, “Staff Dance in All Directions to Disperse Demons and Evils.” Before Yuandu could react, Lu Renjia’s seemingly slow fist had already pierced through the layers of staff shadows and struck Yuandu directly in the chest. “Crack, crack, crack…” A series of sounds like ribs snapping erupted from Yuan Du’s chest. The Nine Yang True Qi enveloping Lu Renjia’s fist instantly surged into his opponent’s body like a raging flood. The ferocious Nine Yang True Qi not only shattered all of his ribs but also ground his internal organs into powder. “Ah… splutter…” With a pitiful scream, Yuan Du spat out a mouthful of blood mixed with fragments of his internal organs, his entire body flying backward like a kite with a broken string, drifting a hundred meters away. Lu Renjia turned his head just in time; the stream of blood spewing from Yuan Du’s mouth whizzed past the side of his ear. “That’s what you get for being so cocky? Knocked out with a single punch… Who else is left?!!!!” “Congratulations to the Qualified One for slaying a First-Tier Early-Stage martial artist, earning 1,000 Sin Coins…” “Uh… an early-stage First-Class Martial Artist? A thousand Sin Coins? This is huge…” Lu Renjia muttered to himself, fully aware that he had taken down a Shaolin master on par with the Seven Heroes of Wudang. At that moment, several deep, resonant voices rang out. “Junior Brother Yuandu… Demonic cultist!! This old monk will fight you to the death…” “Junior Brother Yuandu… Aaaaaaah… You traitor, meet your end!!!” “Damn it! Let’s get out of here!” Lu Renjia muttered as he lightly touched the ground with his toes and leaped into the air, soaring over ten zhang. “Whoosh…” A fierce sword qi swept toward Lu Renjia as he hung in midair. Faced with such a sudden sword energy, even a top-tier martial artist—unable to brace against it while in midair—would be sliced in two. But Lu Renjia, who had opened the Ren and Du meridians and ascended to the Innate Realm, now stood at the very pinnacle of the world of *The Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Demon Cult Leader*. As if he had eyes in the back of his head, Lu Renjia—mid-air—curled his body and flipped like a diver, dodging the deadly sword energy with a maneuver no one had ever seen before. As Lu Renjia, headfirst, was about to hit the ground, he slapped his palm against the ground, using the momentum to leap upward once more. His entire body resembled a giant flea, and with just a few leaps, he had cleared himself out of the battle zone. Glancing back, Lu Renjia got a clear look at the person who had ambushed him with the sword energy. Gritting his teeth, he cursed, “You inhuman old nun! I’ll remember this!” “The Qualified One has slaughtered 320 third-rate martial artists, 79 second-rate martial artists, and one first-rate martial artist, earning a total of 11,200 Sin Coins… Mission exceeded. The Qualified One has earned the title ‘Hundred-Man Slayer’ and is rewarded with one random treasure chest. May the Qualified One shine with boundless glory on the path of sin…”