Li Shen hearing that question paused his patting to Jun’s relief.
“Karma, well, it’s not only one of the most powerful forces in this world but almost one of the most complex and abstruse forms of power. Everyone has Karma, wait no, not quite.”
Li Shen folded his arms and raised his head in thought. He was trying to find a way to explain one of the most mysterious concepts that ever existed.
Li Shen wouldn’t dare say he knew it well, but he knew more than the average person due to Avarice's insatiable greed for knowledge.
“Rather than everyone has it, it’s more like every breathing and none breathing thing in this world has some form of Karma. Karma itself is a form of connection between all things under heaven. Some Karma connections, or strings, can be stronger or weaker. For example…”
Li Shen suddenly lowered his head to look at Jun.
“My decision to take you in as my disciple has formed a strong Karma String between us. And because that Karma String has been formed with good intentions, if it grows stronger over time then the chances of certain good things happening will happen.”
“Chances of certain good things happening will happen?”
Jun asked with a confused expression, but Li Shen only coughed awkwardly in his fist.
Li Shen trailed off at the end as he wasn’t even sure himself. He was just reiterating word for word what he remembered reading from his past life as Avarice. Even back in those times, no one knew how Karma worked, they just said if you form a good Karma String with someone then the chances of something good happening to you increase.
That’s why this era in the distant future, the say forming good Karma is said to increase your luck.
After coughing, Li Shen said.
“Yes, the chances of something good happening will happen. But in the case of you and Xian, I guess a Karma String had developed between you two. And it’s not of a good kind, that must have been what you sense that lead you to him.”
Li Shen finished and Looked at Jun as he adsorbed everything. He then said after a moment.
“As you grow in the future you’ll come to understand it. Even more than myself currently.”
Jun wore a serious expression as he nodded firmly.
“I understand, I’ll give it my all.”
Li Shen smiled at his words and went to pat his head once more to feed his addiction, but the door to the hall suddenly burst open.
Lihua walked in hurriedly with a complicated expression. She saw Jun and was wondering how he was doing but she had no time to think about that.
She moved to Li Shen. Seeing her appearance he asked confused.
“Lihua, what's wrong?”
With a solemn tone of voice, Lihua said.
“Everyone in the city we left has been found dead by the Academy.”
Li Shen’s body froze.
However, his eyes quickly turn cold.
“Explain.
– – –
– –
–
The group was currently spread around the training grounds.
Mu Fan and Jun were on one side, with Mu Fan having his arm wrapped around Jun’s shoulder which he didn’t seem to mind.
Lihua and Li Wen were together with Li Shen who was leaning against a tree, fan in hand.
Yang Su was closer to Jun and Mu Fan with Fei Yin ad Fang Chen standing close by.
They were all facing Li Shen and were reeling back from shock as Lihua explained what they went through, as well as the news of the city being massacred.
“That bastard, what’s his name? Xian? To think he would poison everyone in the city even after he got what he wanted.”
Mu Fan said angrily, which was followed by Fang Chen saying.
“No one from the Demonic Cult should ever be trusted.”
Lihua hearing them wore a hesitant expression, as well as Li Wen.
‘Did he really kill those people?’
They knew he had done vile things as expected of someone from the Demonic Cult that couldn't be forgiven, but his speech had left a profound impression on them. His ideologies didn’t exactly match up to someone from the Demonic Cult or what the Demonic Cult itself teaches its disciples.
The two both turn to look at Li Shen instead of opting to voice their own opinions.
Li Shen after a moment opened his mouth and said.
“He’s our enemy from the Demonic Cult and will always be, especially for what he did to Jun and our members. But he wasn’t the one who carried out this massacre, he doesn’t use poison.”
“The person dubbed the Poison Progenitor doesn’t use poisons? Then what about the rumors of him mastering numerous poisons?”
Yang Su asked, but Li Shen shook his head before explaining the story Xian had mentioned offhandedly when they were speaking.
“So those were just rumors after all. But what does this mean? Did someone else poison the city and it was incidentally framed on him?”
“Incidentally?”
Fei Yin quipped as he turned to Mu Fan who had just spoken.
“I don’t think there was anything incidental about it. Even a scorpion was found in the city as Lihua said, someone had done it purposely to frame it as his doing.”
“But is it really out of the realm of possibility that he did it?”
Fang Chen suddenly asked, and they all turned to Li Shen.
Li Shen remembered the formula he unwillingly helped Xian complete, and he remembered their interaction.
“He isn’t stupid to do something like this. The last thing he wants is this much attention on him.”
Li Shen didn't mention what the formula did, but they knew what it was for. It was something Xian would use to supposedly cultivate without a dantian.
The others found it absurd but in this situation, hearing a joke from Lihua was out of the question.
Everyone fell into silence as they weren’t sure how to react. Should they feel like he deserve it or that it was unfortunate?
Someone was trying to pin the deaths of so many people on Xian. And it seemed to be working.
“Lihua, how has the Academy responded to this?”
Li Shen asked.
“On a large scale.”
Lihua’s expression was solemn.
“After Jun and Xian fought, he must have gone to that Poison Demonic Sect hideout and infected the demonic disciples there and the city before losing his memories. They strangely didn’t find the infected corpses of the demonic disciples, but instead the experiments on mortals the Poison Demonic Sect was carrying out before he arrived.
“Perhaps to deter more experiment hideouts from being developed and the deaths of this scale from happening, the academy mobilized elders to sweep the surrounding cities. In response to this, even other academies have followed them to do a thorough sweep of their own territories. It looks like the Celestial Academy being one of the figured heads of the Academy Alliance acting has set off a chain reaction.”
“So what’s bad about that?”
Mu Fan asked after seeing her expression.
“The Academies have finally been forced to take action after letting the Demonic Cult's massacres of mortals go unanswered.”
However, Fei Yin wore an expression similar to Lihua as he said.
“You’re missing the fact that the Demonic Cult isn’t going to let such an attack against them go without retaliating. Even if they’re trying to get rid of disciples because of their shortage of resources, this is nothing more than a slap in their face.”
“Fei Yin’s right.”
Fang Chen said in support of Fei Yin’s point.
“The Demonic Cult will surely retaliate. And to that retaliation what do you think the academies would do in response?”
Having it put like that, Mu Fan finally understood.
This was how wars start.
A gloomy atmosphere fell over the training grounds as everyone thought about what a war on a large scale breaking out would entails.
It was a feeling that they couldn’t explain. Anxiousness, nervousness, and what could happen in the future.
The fear of the unknown. It was a scary feeling to have.
Li Shen released a sigh before he clapped his hands loudly to jolt everyone.
“Stop frightening yourselves over the possibility of war when it hasn’t happened yet. We have no idea what the upper echelons of the Academy Alliance are thinking, so you don’t have to think about it for now and get worked up.”
Hearing Li Shen’s words, everyone calmed down a bit.
Li Shen nodded at the settling atmosphere, but he suddenly felt a tug on his Sword Pavilion medallion.
Flipping over his palm, he took it out and sent his perception inside to read it. Immediately his brows furrowed.
The messages read “All Faction Leaders are to report to the Conclave Academy for the Faction Leader meeting.”
‘What is this? The Faction Leader meeting isn’t scheduled to happen until the end of the year. The year’s just past the halfway point so there's supposed to be a few more months.’
A feeling that this had something to do with the Demonic Cult couldn’t help but appear in Li Shen’s heart.
He hoped he wasn’t about to eat his own words he had just told everyone.
**
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