Seeing this, the man naturally no longer had the heart to keep fighting. Enduring the stabbing pain in his gut, he threw in everything he had, using his treasure sword to block the long sword, even reaching out bare-handed to grab the blade, desperate to drag his wife out from under it. Unfortunately, that four-foot long sword was unbelievably sharp, Cutting Jade and Breaking Gold, and there was Inner Strength poured into it as well. There was simply no way to grab hold of it; the moment his hand closed, all five fingers were neatly sliced off.

And since that grab failed, he couldn’t save her either. The woman wasn’t some Refining God and Returning to Void super-expert; her Dao Body naturally couldn’t withstand sword energy. With a single stroke her carotid artery was severed, blood spurting wildly, killed on the spot. The man threw himself forward, staking his life, which left his defenses wide open with nowhere to dodge. The Short Sword went straight into his chest, pierced his Heart Chamber, and he collapsed dead. Clean and tidy—a double kill completed.

"Dad! Mom! Aaah!!!"

Husband and wife fell together into the pool of blood, hand in hand, head to head, turning into a pair of ill-fated mandarin ducks, going off to the Yellow River together. Little Cheng’er was stunned on the spot, taking half the day to react, then burst into a wail, almost fainting from grief.

Yet the thin monk’s face stayed expressionless. He looked at the couple lying on the ground dead together, stayed silent a moment, then casually pointed at the nearby dug-out pit.

"There. A grave."

"Ah——!! Die——!!"

Cheng’er was about to go insane! He didn’t care about anything anymore, much less running away, just charged in on a death attack! One sword through the heart! Sacrificial Sword! He sprinted straight at the monk!

The monk’s face had been blank, but suddenly his brows furrowed. He snapped his neck to one side, twisted his waist, flipped his wrist, and with a flick of his hand, his sword flashed out and lopped Cheng’er’s head clean off in midair.

Cheng’er’s body and head parted company; his head rolled into one pit, and his body fell into another.

The monk didn’t spare the boy’s corpse a single glance. He just slowly turned his head, and you could clearly see on the trunk of the maple tree behind him, a shallow sword mark carved out by sword energy.

Huh? That move was actually a bit interesting. The kid pretended to do a flying spear-thrust, but suddenly spat out a streak of sword energy from his mouth for a sneak attack... Where’d he learn that from? Why does it look a bit familiar??

The monk only shrugged, and since he’d started being a "good guy," he might as well go all the way. He casually helped tidy up the whole family, tossing them neatly into the pits and burying them.

"Waaah, waaah——"

Suddenly a crying sound came from somewhere, making the monk frown as he turned to follow the sound.

He saw that the bundle was actually a tightly wrapped swaddling cloth, with a baby hidden inside.

"..."

The monk was speechless too. Seriously, is there something wrong with this Luo family? Dragging two kids around while picking fights and dueling people everywhere? Looking for death??

The monk looked more closely, and no wonder he hadn’t noticed—the baby’s swaddling was stuffed with all kinds of talismans, all for blocking Primordial Spirit probes and warding off ghosts and evil spirits.

Looked like this was a cultivator family. To keep their newborn from having his Divine Sense snatched before it even had time to form by those evil spirits and wandering souls performing Primordial Spirit Possession, they’d specially arranged all this.

The monk pinched his fingers and did a calculation, thought for a bit, then spoke toward the little baby,

"Your brother was fated to clash with swords, and your parents brought death on themselves. Dying by my hand was written in the stars.

Now that I’ve sent them off cleanly to reincarnate and start over tidy and neat, you could even call it a happy funeral.

But you, it seems your fate isn’t meant to end here. I can’t even figure out your background—you definitely won’t stay an ordinary fish in a pond in the days to come.

I’m heading to Nine Yin Mountain. I can take you along the way and drop you off at the Sword Sect to be raised. If you don’t cry, I’ll take that as your agreement.

If you cry, I’ll take that as disagreement and leave you here to wait for Heaven to claim you."

And the brat actually didn’t cry... Tsk...

The monk was helpless. He glanced down and saw that the child still had a Taiji Two Elements Pendant stuffed in his clothes.

Staring at the two Yin Yang fish joined head to tail, he fell silent for a while, then couldn’t help muttering,

"Such a hard life. So young and you’ve already brought death to your own parents. Wouldn’t be surprising if I end up dying in your hands one day too.

No matter. Wherever there’s cause, there’ll be effect. Remember the karma formed today. Someday, once you’ve trained up some skills, come find me, Netherworld Spring, for your revenge."