Chapter 170 - 96: Demon Hunters Really Are Annoying, the Twisted Luo Hongyuan (2)

"Stop!"

Lin Cheng couldn’t hold it anymore, and hurriedly stopped Wei Fan: "You demon hunters really are a pain in the ass, don’t care about the rules at all."

Wei Fan stopped with a smile.

Deputy General sounded higher in status than a demon hunter, but above the Deputy General was the Assistant General, above that were the Three Great Commanders, and above them was the Commander, with more people even above him.

But for them, the demon hunters, there was no one above them. No one could order them around. Even if the Commander spoke, if they were in a bad mood, they might just ignore him.

Killing him wasn’t much of a problem for a demon hunter at all.

At this point, Lin Cheng didn’t even know who Wei Fan and Long Xueyi really were. Even if they broke the rules, he wouldn’t know who to report to.

"I’ll give you Luo Hongyuan’s aura. Whether you can find him and get the Bodhi Fruit depends on your own ability."

Lin Cheng opened his palm, and a wisp of pale yellow aura floated above it.

Qi Collection and Demon-Hunting Technique wasn’t exclusive to demon hunters. If you shelled out enough merit, you could get a chance to cultivate it too. Whether you could master it all depended on individual comprehension.

"No need to trouble yourself. If you’d handed it over sooner, we’d be done here—you didn’t have to suffer like this!"

Wei Fan reached out and grabbed Luo Hongyuan’s aura: "You’d better hope what you gave us is real—or you’re gonna die ugly!"

"Let’s go!"

Leaving Lin Cheng behind, the two left the Great Prison directly.

"When the Bodhi Fruit ripens, there are usually three to five of them. If there’s an odd number, I’m taking one extra, I’ll give you something else as compensation. If there’s an even number, we split them evenly. Sound good?"

After leaving the Great Prison, Long Xueyi laid out her plan for splitting the loot.

Wei Fan nodded: "Deal!"

If it wasn’t for Long Xueyi’s connections, he wouldn’t have known any of this stuff. Forget compensation—even if she took more, it would still be reasonable.

The two started tracking Luo Hongyuan’s trail by the aura he left behind. After a day, the ruins of an old, long-abandoned village appeared before them.

Long Xueyi looked at the village and whispered, "That’s the village where the Great Demon was back then. Could the Bodhi Fruit still be here?"

Following the aura, the two kept tracking for a while, until a valley appeared in front of them.

"There’s someone!"

On a protruding boulder in the valley, a man sat cross-legged, a long spear resting across his legs.

Long Xueyi said, "That’s Luo Hongyuan. The Bodhi Fruit is probably here!"

Neither of them bothered to hide their presence, walking straight into the valley.

This time, Luo Hongyuan noticed them too. He opened his eyes and looked their way: "Finally here. I’ve been waiting for you a long time! I thought it’d be Lin Cheng—didn’t expect two people I don’t even know. Of all the Captains in the Demon Suppression Bureau, I don’t think I’ve met you two. You just got promoted?"

Wei Fan and Long Xueyi’s expressions didn’t change: "You left so many traces and didn’t hide your aura all the way—this was just bait, right?"

The two had already sensed something was off.

A former Captain of the Demon Suppression Bureau wouldn’t possibly not know about tracking techniques like Qi Collection and Demon-Hunting. As long as Luo Hongyuan had some sense, he would’ve concealed his aura and wiped his tracks.

But the two were confident in their skills, and determined to get the Bodhi Fruit, so even if Luo Hongyuan was a Divine Realm Martial Sect, they still wanted to see if they could snatch the prize from a tiger’s mouth.

Whether Long Xueyi, as the granddaughter of the Bureau Commander, had hidden trump cards, Wei Fan didn’t know. But he had the Great Sun Golden Bell Shield himself; he really wanted to see if it could subdue a Divine Realm Martial Sect.

Chances were, it could. Divine Realm Martial Sects could refine incredible things like storage artifacts—surely they could also make some protective treasures for saving themselves.

Long Jianying’s son and grandson were both dead, leaving just this one granddaughter. There’s no way she wasn’t given some protective artifacts.

On the giant rock, Luo Hongyuan nodded lightly, "That’s right. You think the Bodhi Fruit is just any old thing? It’s a divine object that can boost comprehension. That old demon slaughtered thousands in the village years ago, watering it with blood, and even then it wouldn’t ripen."

"Later, we realized the Bodhi Fruit needs more than a great medicine to mature. It takes the blood of a Celestial Martial Artist, only blood from a true martial arts genius would do."

"The blood of mediocrities, no matter how much, is useless for the Bodhi Fruit."

Long Xueyi’s eyes turned cold: "So you were part of that massacre back then?"

That was thousands of people, not just a few.

These beasts went so far, just to ripen a Bodhi Fruit.

Luo Hongyuan stroked his spear and shook his head: "Wrong. I’m not that heartless. I only bought the old demon time to kill. I didn’t actually kill anyone myself—otherwise, even as a Captain, I would’ve lost my head ages ago."

Long Xueyi’s body trembled: "You didn’t kill, but what’s the difference? You’re just as depraved."

To her surprise, Luo Hongyuan burst out laughing: "I just acted by the book. The Demon Suppression Bureau doesn’t say you get the death penalty for watching demons kill, does it..."

As he spoke, the smile faded from his face, twisting into something almost grotesque: "Besides, those people deserved to die. We of the Demon Suppression Bureau fight demons year after year, countless brothers have died protecting their peace, striving to give the Human Race a brighter tomorrow."

"But those idiots don’t trust us. Instead, they go worship a demon like a god, put it up on a pedestal—isn’t letting them live just a waste of food, a drain on the Bureau’s manpower?"

"They were livestock raised by demons to begin with, so why not put them to use?"

"Their deaths not only helped ripen the Bodhi Fruit, but also freed up manpower to protect people who actually deserve it. Don’t you think that’s a good thing?"

Long Xueyi was dumbfounded.

In truth, within the Demon Suppression Bureau, a lot of people genuinely despised those who worshiped demons as gods.

Those demons kept them penned up like pigs, but still they bowed down and worshipped them as divine.

The ones who truly cared about their lives—Bureau members—ended up treated as enemies, even hated.

A lot of people would rather not bother protecting those types at all.

Wei Fan’s face was expressionless: "So, this is your excuse for collusion with the demon fiends? No matter how high-minded your talk sounds, it doesn’t hide the fact that you worked with demons."

There was no way he would be swayed by Luo Hongyuan’s words.

He’d long since understood—the struggle between the Human Race and demons wasn’t just about killing.

But most importantly, for him, killing Luo Hongyuan meant he’d get the Bodhi Fruit, and power harvesting too. That was more than enough reason.

Luo Hongyuan shook his head: "Call it collusion all you want. If a few worthless lives can buy me the chance to become a Divine Realm Martial Sect and protect more people that matter, I don’t care what they call me."

Wei Fan wore a mocking look: "And what about us? We’re not demon-worshiping trash—we don’t deserve to die. Yet you want to lure us here to kill us? Is that what you call ’protecting more people’?"

Luo Hongyuan’s face shifted, but in the end, he took a long breath: "Sacrifice is always required. Not a day goes by without someone from the Demon Suppression Guard dying. Just treat your deaths as falling in battle against the demons. Once your blood helps the Bodhi Fruit mature, and I become a Divine Realm Martial Sect, I’ll be able to slay so many more demons."

"By then, sacrificing not just you two, but even twenty people would still be worth it."

"And it’s not my fault. I originally planned to kill Lin Cheng. He’s a bastard anyway. It’s your bad luck for meddling."

As he spoke, he gripped his long spear and rose from the boulder, the Power of Heaven and Earth beginning to surge around him.

After all this time, it was about time for the Bodhi Fruit to ripen.

Whether these two were innocent or not, they could only become fodder to water the Bodhi Fruit: "You’re probably not so innocent either. Lin Cheng didn’t come, you two did—so you’re after the Bodhi Fruit as well!"

Wei Fan nodded, not bothering to change Luo Hongyuan’s twisted mind, since they were also after the Bodhi Fruit themselves: "Fine, then where’s the Bodhi Fruit?"

Luo Hongyuan pointed deep into the valley: "The Bodhi Fruit’s in that cave. Any other questions? If not, get ready to die."

Wei Fan looked closely, and sure enough, there was an unremarkable cave at the back of the valley: "Just one last question—if we used your blood, would the Bodhi Fruit ripen then?"