Wei Changbo brought forward the oil containers his people had gathered earlier at my request and set them down without comment. He had not asked what they were for when I first requested them. He did not ask now. As it was clear.
I looked at the survivor women and held out the first container poured it on the overseer. Slowly, without hurry, watching his eyes follow the motion of it with an expression that had finally and completely run out of anything resembling calculation.
They also came forward and poured the oil on their targets.
The criminals in the circle began to cry out as the oil soaked through their clothing and the sound of it filled the hillside and the kneeling villagers at the perimeter heard every note of it shuddered in fear did not move.
I nodded to Wei Changbo , who moved his standby people, some went to bring the fire sticks and some went into their designated position around the circle at a distance. He had briefed them about what I asked him. After all that he nodded back to me. He knew the timing.
I looked at the line of survivor women, each holding a fire stick, their faces carrying something I had no single word to describe it. Not vengeance. Something that had lived underneath vengeance and been waiting much longer.
Without saying anymore nonsense, I lit the overseer myself.
The sound that came from him I will not put into words.
The women lit their chosen criminals one by one down the line, each woman choosing the face that had most affected her in particular over the last five years, and the circle filled with light, sound and the smell of something that no longer needed to be said for a long time.
I looked at the women standing there beside me and said what had been forming in me since afternoon.
"From now on," I said quietly, "burn the sadness. Burn this chapter of your life along with this fire. Let what was done to you become the fire that powers what comes after. Use it to achieve what you wanted to do." I paused. "Live as fully and as happily as you are able. That is the only revenge that outlasts everything else."
The fire burned for sometime.
At my signal Wei Changbo's standby people activated their water arts in a controlled and coordinated stream, dousing the flames across the circle with precision, leaving two points untouched.
The overseer and the bandit leader were not stopped.
The remainder of the criminals came through it alive.
What they came through it as was a separate matter entirely.
The fire's work was written permanently across their faces and bodies. The chains had pressed into their skin where the heat had softened everything and the water had then fixed it all in place, the iron links sitting embedded as though they had always belonged there and had simply grown from inside their bodies over time.
They would breathe. They would continue to breathe and exist for as long as existence could sustain itself without dignity, without function, without anyone willing to approach the sight of them.
People would turn away at the sight of them even their families and no hand would reach out and no door would open and their days would pass one by one each worse than the last. That was the shape of future what remained for them. Not a quick end but a very long and very empty one.
I drew my blade and settled the matter of the overseer cleanly and finally.
The bandit leader a moment after.
Two system notifications rose quietly in my sight.
[Congratulations! You have harvested a Peak-stage Foundation establishment cultivator.]
[Random Reward acquired: Tier 3 Spiritual fire.]
[Congratulations! You have harvested a Late-stage Qi Refining cultivator.]
[Random Reward acquired: None]
The first one was from the overseer. A tier 3 spiritual fire, rare even among surrounding top sects. A fire cultivator until the very last breath, apparently.
The second one was from the bandit leader. I read it and set it aside. No reward. I had expected it. There's no way system would give me a reward for every kill just like the crops.
I stored both bodies into a storage pouch and turned away from the circle.
Behind me the villagers who had been kneeling since the previous afternoon were looking at what remained in the circle and what remained of the men they had sheltered and fed and chosen not to question.
The families who had cried and pushed against sword points and grabbed at sleeves were now very still and very quiet and were looking at the half-burned shapes with the expression of people who lost hope and disgust that was evident in their eyes.
None of them moved toward the criminals.
They knelt in the particular silence of people who have been shown something about themselves that cannot be unseen and are still deciding what to do with it.
I told Wei Changbo to get the women into the carriages. His men formed a perimeter outside without being asked, backs to the carriages, faces to the village.
I walked to where the villagers stood and looked at them for a long moment.
"Many of you must be feeling wronged," I said. "Cursing me and the people standing with me. Building a story in your minds about injustice."
No one spoke.
"I have the cultivation to eradicate this entire village if I chose to let my anger take over my reasoning. Every person here." I let that settle where it needed to settle.
"Look here" Then they looked towards me.
As I raised my right hand and punched in the air towards the house on the hill it was crushed to dust under the air pressure created by my punch.
They flinched back in horror, children and adults were terrified.
"I chose not to. Because I have values I do not set aside when it becomes inconvenient to hold them. Because I have morality." I looked across the lowered faces. "These men lost theirs. Not suddenly. Gradually, through greed and fear and small choices that felt survivable one at a time, until they had become the very thing they once feared meeting on a dark road. That is always how it happens."
I paused.
"My question to you is simply this. What would you have done in my position?"
Their silence was the only answer they offered.
"You do not need to tell me," I said. "I am leaving regardless. But you should give yourself an answer eventually. Everyone does." I looked at the heads bowed toward the ground. "You can lie to me but you cannot lie to yourself indefinitely."
I turned and walked to the carriages.
Wei Changbo fell into step beside me bowed respectfully others also followed him
It was different from the previous bow filled with fear.
"Senior, Where to?" he said.
"Wujiang City," I said.
He nodded and moved to his lead horse and gave the order to roll without another word.
The carriages moved. The caravan people followed. I sat at one of the carriage's rooftop.
Laid back with arms under my head, looking at the night sky filled with star, the purple star was shining brightly than before.
Xiaomen it was done at last.
And I closed my eyes.
The hill path carried us down through the treeline and back onto the open road and the village disappeared behind the curve of the mountain.
The journey back to the city was smooth. Our caravan moved quickly but carefully, prioritizing the comfort of the rescued girls.
Some sleeping from exhaustion, others staring out at the passing landscape with hollow eyes. The female cultivators from the caravan stayed close, offering quiet comfort and gentle care.
I rode at the front with the caravan leader, a man named Wei changbo who'd proven himself trustworthy and competent.
"I've been in this business for thirty years," he said quietly as we traveled. "Seen a lot of things, good and bad. But this... what those girls went through..."
He shook his head, his weathered face grim. "Thank you for stopping it. For giving them us a chance to be part of this."
"Don't thank me yet," I replied. "The hard part comes next. Helping them rebuild their lives after trauma like this."
"The sect will take care of them, won't they?"
"They'd better," I said, my tone carrying a warning edge. "If they don't, I'll make sure they regret it."
Wu Changbo glanced at me, clearly sensing the threat wasn't idle. "You're different from most cultivators I've met. Most wouldn't care this much about mortal girls."
"Everyone was mortal once," I said softly.
Understanding crossed his face.
We rode in companionable silence after that, the countryside rolling past under the afternoon sun.
By the time we reached the Wujiang city, the moon was full in the night sky. The damage from Elder Mu's fight with Zhang Wuhen was still visible collapsed buildings, scorched streets, shattered windows.
But the city guard was active, and I could sense several sect disciples patrolling the perimeter. Security had clearly been increased.
Wei Changbo drew the lead carriage to a stop behind the line of waiting travelers and looked back at me.
"Senior," he said carefully. "The gate is under heavy inspection."
"No need to wait, go forward I will take care of it"
He nodded.
As we approached the main gate, guards moved to stop us. Then one of them, a young man in jade-green sect robes, recognized me. He came forward.
"Senior!" He bowed quickly. "You've returned! Elder Mu told me about you and I have been stationed here to pick you up."
"I'm sure she has," I said dryly. "I also need to speak with her. We have the rescued victims of overseer with us here. I need to arrange them a place for rest"
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