No demons in all realms

Chapter 24 Righteous Spirit Resists Enemies

"Little blind boy, will you protect me?"

"Yes! But if we really encounter danger, I can't protect you."

Su Yang didn't know if sending her to Wanjian Manor was the right thing to do, or if, as Uncle Jin said, his saintly heart was too strong.

The road was long, and the two of them walked slowly.

"Little blind man, can you walk a little faster? At this rate, you won't get to Wanjian Manor until next year."

"Next year it is."

"Why aren't you in a hurry at all?"

"I never wanted to go in the first place."

Ye Qing was taken aback by his words, snorted, quickened her pace a couple of steps, then slowed down again, still having to wait for him.

After walking for a while, Ye Qing was really bored, so he started making conversation again.

"Little blind boy, how did you go blind?"

Su Yang paused for a moment with his bamboo cane, then continued tapping the ground.

"From attending a wedding banquet."

"You can go blind from drinking at a wedding?" Ye Qing didn't believe it. "How much did you drink?"

"It wasn't the wine that was the problem." Su Yang thought for a moment, then decided to keep it simple and explained the matter in a straightforward way, "Someone poisoned the wedding wine, and I almost lost my life. It's a miracle that my eyes were saved."

Ye Qing remained silent for a while.

"Do you hate the person who poisoned you?"

Does he hate it? Well, he hadn't actually thought about that question at all, or perhaps he saw it as a trial to sever ties with the past.

"I've never thought about it," Su Yang said, shaking his head. "Thinking too much about these things just gives me a headache."

Ye Qing glanced at him and suddenly smiled.

"You're quite open-minded."

"What good will it do if I can't think straight? My eyes won't come back. I'm just grateful to be alive."

Ye Qing nodded and didn't continue the topic. After taking a few more steps, she suddenly exclaimed, "Ah!"

"Little blind boy, I remember now!"

"What did you remember?"

"I read in a book that there's a flower in the Upper Realm called the Heavenly Eye Flower," Ye Qing said excitedly. "It says that flower can restore sight. No matter how many years you've been blind, as long as you apply the petals to your eyes, they'll be restored!"

Su Yang's heart skipped a beat, but he didn't show any reaction on his face. "The Upper Realm?"

"Yes, it's in the Upper Realm," Ye Qing said. "But not everything in the Upper Realm stays there. Over thousands or tens of thousands of years, many things have ended up in the Lower Realm, where they're treasured and kept hidden away. You can try your luck at those big auctions; you might just find something there."

Su Yang thought about it and realized that there was some truth to it.

"How do you, a young woman, know so much?"

"From reading books, of course." Ye Qing proudly raised his chin. "Let me tell you, although I've never formally studied, I've secretly read quite a lot. I've flipped through almost every book in my study."

"peep?"

"Yes, my father won't let me read. He says that if a woman reads too many books, she will become smarter, and if she becomes smarter, she will have a hard time getting married."

Su Yang frowned. "What kind of twisted logic is that?"

"Exactly!" Ye Qing suddenly became excited. "That's what I thought too! Why can men read books but women can't? Isn't that bullying? So I read secretly, when my dad wasn't home, and I read at night with the lights on. My eyes are almost nearsighted from reading so much."

Su Yang's lips twitched slightly, and he said, "Then why did you stop watching later?"

"Later, my father found out." Ye Qing's tone immediately deflated. "He locked the study, kept the key himself, and wouldn't give it to anyone."

Su Yang was silent for a moment, then took out another token from his bundle and handed it over, saying, "Take it."

Ye Qing took it and saw that it was another student ID card from Guanghan Academy.

"You gave me both of them, didn't you keep one for yourself?"

"I still have more," Su Yang said. "I've engraved several hundred of these signs, and I give one to anyone who wants to study."

Ye Qing held the sign in his hand, remaining silent for a long time.

"Little blind boy!"

"Um?"

"You're such a nice person!"

Su Yang didn't reply, and continued walking forward with his bamboo cane.

It took three days to get there.

On the evening of the third day, the two walked to a riverbank.

The river is not wide, only about ten feet wide, but the current is very rapid, and the rushing sound can be heard from a great distance.

There used to be a bridge over the river, but it broke, leaving only the two piers on either side and a large gap in the middle. The river water rushes through the broken section, splashing up white waves.

"The bridge is broken." Ye Qing stood on the riverbank, looking ahead. "How do we get across?"

Su Yang probed with his bamboo cane until he reached the edge of the bridge pier. He squatted down and touched it; the cracks in the stone were covered with moss and felt slippery.

"Let's take a detour," he said.

"How far is the detour?"

"I don't know, but if we just follow the river, we'll eventually find a place to cross it."

Ye Qing looked at the sky; the sun was about to set, and the horizon was a dark red.

"It's getting dark. Why don't we find a place to rest for the night and then look for our way again tomorrow?"

Su Yang nodded, about to speak, when he suddenly stopped.

A surge of righteous energy coursed through his body.

Someone is nearby!

He listened intently and heard breathing sounds about twenty paces away. The person was deliberately suppressing their breathing, making it so soft that most people couldn't hear it.

After ten years of compensation, Su Yang's ears were many times more sensitive than those of ordinary people. Coupled with his righteous energy's ability to perceive his surroundings, no matter how well the person hid, it was useless.

"What's wrong?" Ye Qing asked, leaning closer when he didn't move.

"Don't speak," Su Yang said in a low voice. "Stand behind me."

Ye Qing was taken aback and noticed that Su Yang's expression had changed.

His face, which had been as calm as still water, suddenly showed a hint of tension. He gripped the bamboo cane tightly, his knuckles turning white.

"There are robbers," Su Yang said.

No sooner had he finished speaking than a dark figure darted out from the bushes by the roadside.

The man was dressed in black, his face covered with a cloth, revealing only his eyes. He carried a curved knife in his hand, the blade gleaming coldly in the twilight.

"Leave your valuables behind, and I'll spare your lives." The robber's voice was hoarse, as if he was deliberately speaking in a low voice.

Su Yang did not move.

He used his Righteous Qi to sense the man's cultivation level: Core Formation Realm, similar to his own. However, the man possessed spiritual power, while he only had Righteous Qi; he wondered if Righteous Qi could be used in combat.

"Didn't you hear what I said?" The robber took a step forward, twirling his curved knife halfway in his hand. "Leave the money, and I'll let you go."

Su Yang reached out and blocked Ye Qing behind him.

"Brave warrior," Su Yang said calmly, "we don't have anything valuable on us, just a few pieces of dry rations and a few changes of clothes. If you don't mind, you can have the rations."

The robber looked him up and down, noticed the gauze covering his eyes, and sneered.

"A blind man?"

He glanced at Ye Qing behind Su Yang, and his eyes suddenly lit up.

Although Ye Qing was dressed in plain white clothes and her hair was a little messy, her face and figure made it clear at a glance that she was a beauty.

The robber's eyes turned strange, and he pointed his curved knife at Su Yang, "Blind man, get lost. Leave your little wife here."

Su Yang felt Ye Qing's body tremble behind him.

He gripped his bamboo cane tightly. "I can't leave her here."

The robber frowned. "You think you can play the hero and save the damsel in distress when you're blind?"

He walked towards Su Yang, carrying a curved knife, his pace neither fast nor slow, carrying a mocking air. In his eyes, a blind man was a lamb to the slaughter, unable even to run away.

Su Yang stood still, motionless.

He was thinking to himself:

The Core Formation Realm is similar to his own, but he possesses a righteous and upright spirit. He has used this righteous and upright spirit for ten years, using it to perceive his surroundings, to nourish his body, and to teach his students to read, but he has never used it for fighting.

He didn't know if he could win. But he knew that if he didn't fight, Ye Qing would be finished.

The robber stopped three steps away from him. "I'll say it one last time, get out."

Su Yang did not move.

The robber frowned and brought his curved knife down.

The knife slashed swiftly, whistling through the air, aiming straight for Su Yang's shoulder. The robber didn't intend to kill him; he wanted to injure Su Yang first, make him leave on his own, and then deal with the girl later.

Su Yang turned his body to the side.

The scimitar grazed his shoulder, tearing his sleeve but not injuring his flesh.

The robber was stunned; he hadn't expected a blind man to dodge the attack.

"Good luck." The robber sneered and swung his knife again, this time sweeping it horizontally.

Su Yang leaned back, and the curved blade swept past him, the wind from the blade causing the gauze on his face to flutter.

She dodged it again?!

The robber stopped laughing.

He swung his knife and slashed seven or eight times, each slash faster and more vicious than the last. Su Yang, relying on his keen ears and the perception of righteous energy, dodged left and right, narrowly avoiding each strike. The blade almost grazed his skin, but he just couldn't hit him.

Ye Qing stood behind, covering her mouth with both hands, too frightened to make a sound.

"You blind idiot, all you do is hide?" The robber, annoyed by the fight, stopped to catch his breath. "Can't you act like a man and fight me fair and square?"

Su Yang stood there, with several cuts on his body, all scraped by the wind of the knife. They weren't deep, but the blood had already soaked through his clothes.

He took a breath.

The robber was right; hiding wasn't a solution. He could hide for a while, but not forever. Once his strength was exhausted, the knife would eventually come down on him.

He had to test whether his righteous energy could actually be used in a fight. Su Yang took a deep breath and straightened his back.

A surge of righteous energy welled up within him, like a pot of boiling water, bubbling and bubbling upwards.

He couldn't quite describe the feeling; it was as if a force was surging from his dantian, flowing along his meridians. No, his meridians were broken, so this force wasn't flowing along them, but rather gushing directly from his body, like spring water gushing from the ground, unrestrained.

When the robbers saw that he was not moving, they assumed he had given up and charged at him again with their knives.

Su Yang suddenly spoke.

"Abandon force and embrace gentleness, and you will immediately attain perfect harmony with the profound truth."

But as soon as he uttered those words, the world suddenly changed. Righteous energy burst forth from Su Yang's body like a flood bursting its banks, surging in all directions.

The aura was invisible and intangible, but the robber could feel it clearly. His knife, which was raised in mid-air, suddenly felt as if it were being pressed down by something, so heavy that he couldn't lift it at all.

Every word Su Yang wrote was like a mountain.

The robber's legs began to tremble, not from fear, but because an invisible force was pressing down on him, making his bones crack.

He had been cultivating for over a decade and had never encountered anything like this before. The other party hadn't even moved a hand; they had only said two sentences, and he was already on the verge of collapse.

Ye Qing stood behind, her eyes wide open.

She couldn't see the righteous spirit, but she saw the robbers' reaction.

The man who had been so fierce just moments before now seemed to be weighed down by something. His curved sword was raised in mid-air, unable to advance or retreat, and beads of sweat dripped down his forehead.

Su Yang picked up his bamboo cane.

That ordinary bamboo staff suddenly became different in his hands. Golden, righteous energy coiled around the staff, transforming a broken bamboo into a weapon.

Outsiders couldn't see the trick, but the robber saw it clearly. When that staff came down, he felt it wasn't a bamboo staff, but rather a mountain.

"Bang!"

The bamboo cane struck the robber's knife, sending the curved blade flying. It spun a few times in the air before falling into the river.

The robber's arm was numb from the shock, and half of his body was stiff.

"You...!" The robber stared at Su Yang in disbelief.

Su Yang gave him no chance to catch his breath, and with a flick of his bamboo staff, he struck again.

The blow landed on the robber's shoulder, and without a sound, he immediately knelt on the ground.

Su Yang stood there, leaning on his bamboo cane, his chest still surging with righteous indignation.

He raised his bamboo staff, his eyes gleaming with golden light, and pointed at the kneeling bandit, saying each word clearly, "We cultivators should wield our swords to protect those in our hearts. To bully the weak with strength is no different from being a beast."

The robber knelt on the ground, trembling all over.

He wasn't afraid anymore; he was so overwhelmed by the overwhelming righteousness that he couldn't stand up.

That power is unreasonable; it doesn't compete with you on the level of spiritual power or the sophistication of your techniques. It only judges whether your heart is righteous or not.

Those with impure hearts are inherently inferior in the face of righteousness.

Su Yang raised his bamboo cane and struck the robber on the back of the head with the final blow. The robber's eyes rolled back, and he lay motionless on the ground.