Chapter 388 – Flame Spirit: Vengeance Flames

Within the East Sea Kingdom, the East Sea King had long been accustomed to reigning supreme, with almost no one daring to provoke him.

He had grown used to his lofty position, accustomed to everyone showing him deference.

But now, Mu Lin had arrived—a man who believed that “the one with the strongest army and mightiest horses becomes the Son of Heaven.” Naturally, such a person would not care about the dignity of royal authority, nor would he show any deference to the East Sea King.

Thus, he delivered a resounding slap to the East Sea King’s face, bluntly telling him that offending others comes at a price—the price of family members dying tragically and industries collapsing.

“If you want to kill me, go ahead. But if you dare to kill me, be prepared for your entire family to meet a gruesome end. This is only the beginning!”

Mu Lin’s actions left the East Sea King stunned, and they fundamentally shifted his strategy.

Previously, the East Sea King’s first thought had always been how to kill Mu Lin.

But now, he was forced to consider how to protect his own descendants and the many subordinates who worked for him.

To do so, he had to allocate a significant portion of his forces to protection duties.

However, the East Sea King’s Manor’s influence was too widespread, its people too numerous, and, most critically, Mu Lin was too powerful.

Thus, simply wanting to protect people did not guarantee they would remain unharmed.

…

Melting Fire City was home to a fire-attribute mineral vein called Fire Crystal. This Fire Crystal was an excellent additive for crafting weapons or armor, capable of enhancing the strength of armies.

For this reason, the East Sea King had seized control of this place and dispatched people to mine it on a large scale.

The workforce sent for mining numbered in the tens of thousands, with many blacksmiths and artificers working day and night to forge weapons and armor here.

This was a crucial industrial hub for the East Sea King’s Manor. To guard it, the East Sea King had constructed a fortress city here, stationed three thousand armored soldiers for defense, and deployed numerous powerful individuals to prevent uprisings.

And now, Mu Lin had arrived here as well.

His arrival went unnoticed… Even though the East Sea King knew Mu Lin would show him no deference and had long ordered his subordinates to remain vigilant and maintain strict defenses, and even though the people of this city had received the order and immediately activated the City Defense Array while continuously patrolling, no one detected Mu Lin’s arrival.

This was only natural, as Mu Lin had not come from the present world. He had opened a Dharma Domain, created the Netherworld, and was now walking step by step through the Netherworld toward this place.

Because the Netherworld was the opposite of the Yang World, everything in Melting Fire City existed here as well.

The fortress, the patrolling soldiers, and the Soul Reflections of the numerous miners—all were displayed before Mu Lin’s eyes… It should be noted that not all Soul Reflections were the same.

Cultivators possessed resilient souls, akin to living beings, so their Soul Reflections were exceptionally clear, resembling True Persons. These reflections were also the most difficult to kill.

In contrast, ordinary people had weak souls. In the Netherworld, their souls appeared like hazy mist, giving the impression they could be scattered with a single breath.

Of course, Mu Lin had originally intended to ignore the souls of ordinary people.

His plan upon arriving was to directly locate the overseers and leaders here from within the Netherworld’s Cycle of Despair, kill them, and disperse the people.

However, that was Mu Lin’s original intention. After entering the Netherworld, he abandoned his previous plan.

He discovered something… the situation here was different from that of the Golden God Sect.

In the Netherworld of the Golden God Sect, apart from sensing the opposition between yin and yang, Mu Lin had hardly any other feelings.

But here, it was completely different.

There was some red mist here… that wasn’t anything unusual. This was the manifestation of the Spirit Crystal vein in the Netherworld. Being spiritual objects, they could retain a trace of color in the Netherworld.

What surprised Mu Lin was that there were countless black vapors permeating the air here.

This vapor was like dark clouds, shrouding the entire Melting Fire City. From time to time, ferocious and terrifying faces would emerge from these dark clouds, screaming and wailing madly.

“This is… hatred, resentment… why is it so dense?”

Subconsciously, Mu Lin used the Soul-Binding Chains to capture some of these screaming faces and, with the power of the Other Shore Flower, invaded these souls to peer into their memories.

After some investigation, Mu Lin’s expression darkened, and he couldn’t help but feel a sense of lament.

“I’ve always thought that in this feudal era, the descendants of the Aristocratic Families bear original sin. Killing them, I wouldn’t feel guilty. But now it seems, I was still too kind!”

“They not only deserve death but should be sliced into a thousand pieces, forever falling into Avici Hell!”

It was no wonder Mu Lin was so angry. The situation in Melting Fire City far exceeded his imagination.

…

Fire Crystals were good things. However, unrefined Fire Crystals contained fire poison.

This meant that whether it was the miners or the refiners, as long as they stayed in the mine for a period of time, they would be invaded by fire poison, burning their internal organs and causing unbearable pain.

This flaw made it best to find Cultivators for the normal mining of Fire Crystal veins. Moreover, due to the fire poison, Cultivators needed frequent treatment.

However, although Cultivators were good, they were expensive, extremely expensive.

Few Cultivators were willing to do rough work like mining. Therefore, if the East Sea King wanted to hire Cultivators, he would have to spend countless Spirit Stones.

Subsequent treatments would also cost a large number of Spirit Stones.

Undoubtedly, the East Sea King was unwilling to pay these Spirit Stones.

Thus, he brought in many ordinary people to mine—mining at the cost of their lives.

Of course, the East Sea King still cared about his reputation. He didn’t forcibly conscript civilians but instead had prisoners brought in to mine.

However, ordinary people in this era already didn’t eat well, and without proper treatment and protection, relying solely on prisoners couldn’t sustain the long-term mining of the Fire Crystal vein.

Therefore, as expected, as the ruler of the law, the East Sea King increased the penalties and taxes in several surrounding County Towns. People who made minor mistakes or couldn’t pay their taxes were also imprisoned and brought to Melting Fire City to mine.

Over the long period of mining, this place had already consumed hundreds of thousands of lives.

What angered Mu Lin even more was that because too many people had died, they even made use of the waste, using the blood and souls of the deceased to enchant weapons and armor, sharpening their ‘blades.’

—Whenever weapons or armor were forged, some Demonic Cultivators recruited by the East Sea King would push some dying humans directly into the furnace, using their souls and blood to increase the bloodlust aura of the weapons and armor.

“Showing no mercy, treating ordinary humans as mere fuel and tools… Hah, I’ve always known not to overestimate the humanity of feudal-era aristocratic families. They’ve always seen themselves as superior, viewing common people as cattle and horses, even forbidding intermarriage between noble houses and ordinary folk, considering it a disgrace.”

“But the oppression I imagined was only that, at most seizing land and enslaving people.”

“Now it seems I still overestimated their humanity.”

Sighing, Mu Lin felt no more guilt about indiscriminate killing. He only regretted not having killed more.

At the same time, Mu Lin changed his mind about leaving immediately after killing.

“These resentments can actually be used by me…”

Thinking this, with a single thought, Mu Lin bestowed a City God Divine Position upon the Paper Figure that had come here.

The elevation of status and bestowal of Divine Position raised the Paper Figure’s potential.

Then, with another thought, a City God Temple manifested in the shadowy side of Melting Fire City.

“Come, come forth, endless wronged souls, your god has arrived… Let me, be the one to deliver justice for you!”

“Huff…”

As the City God Temple manifested, Mu Lin immediately began absorbing the endless resentment accumulated in Melting Fire City over decades.

“Kill, kill, kill…”

“Wuwuwu, I hate this!”

“I’m not guilty, I didn’t commit any crime, I was wrongfully accused…”

“Don’t arrest me, I still have a mother at home. If I’m gone, what will happen to my mother…”

“Wuwu, it hurts so much…”

The resentment brought by hundreds of thousands of deaths was immense. At the same time, these accumulated resentments carried their painful memories, along with hatred and murderous intent toward the East Sea King’s Manor.

The endless hatred and resentment was enough to make an ordinary Cultivator’s nature drastically change, turning them into a mad demon who only knew killing.

Moreover, most of the people here had been tormented day and night by fire poison, ultimately dying burned and refined in furnaces. This made the resentment from their deaths carry countless fiery energies.

As these entered his body, Mu Lin felt as if his soul were placed on a branding iron, sizzling as it burned.

Fortunately, Mu Lin was not ordinary. The bestowal of Divine Position made his soul exceptionally resilient.

More importantly, Mu Lin did not resist the resentment of the numerous dead.

Feeling the endless pain and sky-scraping hatred, Mu Lin did not block it. Instead, following their will, he spoke: “You want revenge? You want to kill those responsible for your deaths? You want them to experience the pain you once endured?”

“Good, I shall grant your wish. Submit to me, follow me, and I will lead you to slaughter. I will take revenge for you!”

“Kill, kill, kill…”

Sincere acceptance, combined with the special nature of the City God Divine Position, allowed Mu Lin to accommodate hundreds of thousands of Resentful Souls.

To be honest, the resentment of hundreds of thousands of people—especially those who died wrongfully and tragically—was immense, reaching a level close to Mortal Shedding Pinnacle.

It was only because the dead soul spirits were all weak individuals, their residual soul echoes extremely feeble and without a mastermind, that Mu Lin’s Clone could unify them and take them into his body.

Although there were many dangers, after taking them into his body, Mu Lin’s transformation was extremely dramatic.

First, the power of this Substitute Paper Figure had already reached the level of Mortal Shedding completion, nearly indistinguishable from Mu Lin’s Main Body.

Of course, Mu Lin’s main body possessed a pure soul and numerous divine wonders, which this current paper substitute simply could not compare to.

Moreover, Mu Lin’s main body held the True Spirit Karma Diagram, capable of stripping the divine position from his split soul with a single thought, thereby collapsing its foundation. Consequently, the split soul could never shake the status of Mu Lin’s primary soul.

Naturally, Mu Lin had no intention of doing so.

…

“Boom!”

Beyond the sheer volume of accumulated resentment from hundreds of thousands of souls, the agony of being burned alive they felt before death, along with their hatred toward others, was also gathered by Mu Lin. Drawing upon the methods and experience of condensing the Vow Power Heart Flame, Mu Lin used this resentment and the poison of the fiery hell to forge a Flame of Retribution.

This flame existed solely for vengeance. The more intense the hatred toward others, the more fiercely it burned, and the greater the suffering it inflicted.

The influence of the accumulated resentment and the Flame of Retribution also prevented Mu Lin’s substitute split soul from maintaining a human form.

“Boom!”

A towering, hundred-meter-tall flame demon appeared in the Netherworld.

This demon was wreathed in flames, with countless resentful faces howling incessantly across its body—a clear manifestation of a malevolent ghost spirit: the Spirit of Vengeance.

“Clatter…”

With a flick of its wrist, a chain ablaze with fire materialized in the flame demon’s grasp, winding around its entire form.

The Avici Chains, due to their ability to split, had become standard equipment for Mu Lin’s Yin Soldiers and Ghost Soldiers.

Now, these chains served both as a weapon for Mu Lin’s clone and as a restraint. They bound the murderous intent of the hundreds of thousands of malevolent spirits, directing it only toward those deserving of death, preventing indiscriminate slaughter of the innocent.

—The deceased malevolent spirits were indeed pitiful, but after death, most of their divine souls and memories were lost, leaving only pain and resentment. This caused the lingering echoes of their souls to crave nothing but “kill, kill, kill,” targeting both the guilty and the innocent alike.

This was also why the divine souls of ordinary people could turn into vengeful ghosts.

Such a scenario was unacceptable to Mu Lin, hence his need to impose restraint.

Unsurprisingly, Mu Lin’s restraint provoked a violent uprising among the numerous malevolent spirits within him.

“Roar!”

“You deceived me…”

“Kill…”

The uprising of the malevolent spirits caused countless ferocious faces to sprout across Mu Lin’s hundred-meter-tall flame demon body. They howled with resentment, cursed madly, and sought to influence Mu Lin’s consciousness, urging him to slaughter and destroy everything without restraint.

Fortunately, the binding of the Avici Chains proved effective; they could not escape Mu Lin’s form.

Simultaneously, Mu Lin sought to pacify them.

“Cease your howling. I will lead you to vengeance, to kill.”

“All your suffering, they shall experience tenfold, a hundredfold, firsthand…”

With these words, Mu Lin strode forward, heading toward the center of Melting Fire City. As he walked, he also searched for the city’s leaders.

This was not difficult. Most of those stationed here were powerful individuals, and the powerful typically possessed radiant soul auras. Soon, Mu Lin located several powerful figures, including even a Mortal Shedding Adept cultivator.

What raised Mu Lin’s eyebrows was that these powerful individuals were not scattered but gathered together. Clearly, their counterparts in the Yang World had also assembled, likely discussing matters of importance.

“This is good, saves me the trouble of searching for them one by one.”

Just as Mu Lin found them, the Mortal Shedding Adept’s Soul Reflection began to tremble violently.

This was the cultivator’s Soul Reflection sensing danger, warning him.

This sudden premonition-like warning was received by Ji Lie, the guardian of Melting Fire City.

Unfortunately, while he knew danger was approaching, he had no idea where it came from or how to defend against it.

“Who is it?”

(End of Chapter)