With the Blade

Chapter 318: Chapter 267: Living Saint

The influx of abundant resources meant that the organization calling itself Forget Sorrow Village once again showed goodwill, and the difficulties faced by the righteous cause seemed to no longer exist.

However, this left Bai Wujiu confused once again. No matter how hard he thought, he just couldn’t figure out what this meant. And the people of Forget Sorrow Village were not inclined to explain anything to him. They had no intention of interacting with outsiders, especially since everyone had other matters to attend to.

Having solved the issues of production and livelihood thanks to Old Man Ruan’s protection, the people of Forget Sorrow Village, who no longer worried about food and clothing, found themselves with nothing to do, so they began pondering how to utilize the surplus materials.

In this process, Du Chengfeng, who proposed the suggestions, naturally didn’t help. In his words, "I can’t possibly help you with work every day, right? Is there even a point in living like that?" Fortunately, even though they couldn’t use the efficient Evil Qi tools, they at least had the help of Carpenter Li. Having transcended physical limits, Carpenter Li simply equipped himself with eight arms, speeding up the work significantly. His spider-like appearance was a bit terrifying at first, but everyone got used to it over time.

As for Du Chengfeng himself, he finally found some free time to attend to his own matters.

The first thing he wanted to do was organize his saddlebags. He finally had a home to return to, and wouldn’t need to carry the bag everywhere anymore. So, apart from the everyday-use Heavy Great Saber and the Longsword with no edge, all other weapons were placed in a purpose-built weapon room.

The relatively long weapons, like the Chu people’s command flags and the telescopic spear, were arranged on vertical racks, while shorter swords and weapons like the Brass Magic Sword and the Golden-winged Bird King Sword were hung on the walls. Smaller items like the Bronze Halberd and the refined steel hairpin were carefully stored in boxes for easy viewing whenever desired. Finally, inside the weapon room, there was a special room where the Five-foot Long Saber, which accompanied Du Chengfeng on some of his journeys, was placed, waiting for the day it could be restored.

As for the saber housing the spirit of the Gray-Black Fire Phoenix, Du Chengfeng thought for a moment and decided to carry it with him, occasionally taking it out for a chat, which was a good thing.

"After all, you’ve been with that Yin person for quite some time."

While admiring the collection on the racks, Du Chengfeng pulled out the Illusory Longsword embedded in the gray-black saber.

"Don’t you have anything you’d like to talk to me about?"

"I... oh oh oh oh oh."

The Gray-Black Fire Phoenix was about to say something when the relief and satisfaction of being free from pain caused it to let out a contented sigh.

However, the sound made Du Chengfeng feel a bit nauseous, prompting him to consider plunging the Illusory Longsword back in.

"No, no, no! I’ll tell you! I know everything!"

The endless torment brought by the Illusory Longsword had completely stripped the former Chu powerhouse of any dignity. Even when facing old foes, it no longer harbored any thoughts of resistance.

And Du Chengfeng, from another perspective, experienced the past of Yin warrior Wu Zhao.

Much like his feelings when polishing the steel hairpin, after crafting some weapons for self-defense, Yin warrior Wu Zhao embarked on exploring the cause of the Yin demise—though this contempt and arrogance towards his opponents ultimately led to his downfall, it allowed Wu Zhao to focus single-mindedly on his exploration.

"According to that Yin person, the phoenix bird revered by the Chu people was merely their past food..."

The Gray-Black Fire Phoenix spoke bitterly, for no one could easily accept that they, or even their entire clan, had worshipped a totem that was merely someone else’s meal.

But Du Chengfeng didn’t really care. He wasn’t a Chu person, and he asked about these things to verify the memories he obtained while polishing.

In Yin warrior Wu Zhao’s memories, true warriors wouldn’t worship anything. Even towards ethereal spirits, warriors saw them as trade partners, not lofty deities—the real worship was done by the slaves under the Yin people’s rule.

Warriors looked down on such behavior, viewing it as a sign of weakness. They believed it was foolish not to fight desperately but instead to place hope on some strong animal.

But Yin warrior Wu Zhao, being a Priest, had a different view.

"It’s precisely because they know they can’t fight to the death that they place their hopes on animals stronger than themselves... This hope clearly contains dissatisfaction with the warriors. They want to see these strong warriors killed by the monsters as if they’ve achieved it themselves. This wish even formed the embryo of some ritual, making the animals sacred."

This was the conclusion Yin warrior Wu Zhao reached in the past. But Wu Zhao didn’t think much of it, nor did any of the Yin people. The slaves’ powerful wish might have indeed strengthened the animals, but it provided warriors with more comfortable opponents.

Yes, more comfortable. Those powerful animals not only offered a perfect battle experience but could also be killed for meat, and even their bones and hides could be used as weapon and armor materials, making them treasures all over.

"But this was the root cause of everything."

Du Chengfeng remembered how Yin warrior Wu Zhao summarized it.

"It’s strange, clearly back in the day, the highest-ranking among the Yin warriors was the priests, but in those later records, so many emperors emerged... There must be a cause for such things; who were they imitating? There’s no record or trace, could it be this happened during the Yin’s downfall?"

"No records mean no answers. I might spend some time searching for relics from that era... But considering what happened later with the Yu people, I have a hypothesis."

"And that is, back then, those slaves, after witnessing their revered animals become meals, didn’t completely abandon this worship but redirected their focus elsewhere, to a direction Yin people never imagined."

"They then began to worship human beings themselves."

"Just like those Yu people, causing the Yin’s downfall might have been these worshipped individuals."

"Not sacred birds, not sacred bulls or sheep, but saints."