章 34: Chapter 33 - [The Gao Min Family]
"What are you talking about?" Shao asked. He had difficulty believing what Shen Jian was saying. Never in his life had Shao felt safer. Just the day before, he had faced off against five cultivators in a fair fight and came away with nothing more than a broken arm and a cut face. They, on the other hand, did not fare nearly as well. Even with his arm in a sling, Shao was convinced nothing on the road would pose a danger to him. Years ago, he had heard the figure that 10% of the people on Haishan were cultivators, and Shao was stronger than half of them. By that metric, only one in twenty people on Haishan were a threat to Shao.
"Among cultivators, there's a concept called 'blood debt,' which means that close family members are obligated to take revenge when a cultivator is killed. You just killed four members of the Gao Clan in front of more than a hundred witnesses. The truth will get out one way or another, and it's only a matter of time before members of the Gao Clan start coming for you. Did you catch any of their names?"
"One introduced himself as Gao Sun Fang, and another was called Gao Min Bo. Though, you were the one who killed the second one."
Shen Jian sighed before saying, "I'll have to add the Gao Min family to groups that want me dead. You, on the other hand, must contend with the Gao Sun family, at the very least. Luckily for you, that family is weak right now."
"How were they weakened?"
"Two months ago, I killed the three strongest cultivators in the Gao Sun family. If I remember correctly, their strength is limited to three Zhouji and nine Lianqi now."
Shao grimaced at the thought. He definitely couldn't handle a single Zhouji as he was, and three would be out of the question. "But I thought demonic cultivators were considered 'evil' by cultivator society. Why would they have to take revenge for demonic cultivators?"
"Blood debt overrides everything else," Shen Jian said with a frown. "Even if the Gao Sun family hated Gao Sun Fang - and it sounds like they did - they'd still be obligated by propriety to kill you. It's about power projection rather than sentimentality. The blood debt is supposed to prevent murder, but it just pulls more people into a petty rivalry. The number of families that have been wiped out because of a simple blood debt is deeply depressing." By the end of his explanation, Shen Jian was staring off into the distance as if deep in thought. His words had clearly drawn to his mind memories that he would rather forget.
"So you think the Gao Sun family will come after me in two weeks?" Shao asked, concerned at the prospect of a dozen powerful cultivators attacking him out of nowhere.
"At earliest, yes. If they really didn't care about Gao Sun Fang, they'll wait a month or two. Either way, they'll come for you eventually. They have to. If you ask me, the Gao Sun family is immensely prideful, so they'll probably attack sooner rather than later."
It was only at that moment that Shen Jian's earlier words clicked in Shao's mind. "You said you killed three members of the Gao Sun family. Why did you do that?"
"I sure hope you don't think any less of me because I'm a killer," Shen Jian joked. "Trust me, it was justified. They tried to steal from the treasure room of Shigong Temple and wounded nearly a dozen Lianqi in the process."
"Not that I'm one to talk, but it's strange to talk about the act of killing so flippantly." Shao paused for a moment as the violent reality of life as a cultivator really sunk in. When his spirit returned to samsara, how many lives taken would weigh him down? There was no doubt in his mind that he would kill many more people before he reached the end of his Path.
"Don't worry about it. You'll get used to it soon. Anyway, you had better get going soon. Just follow the road south, and you'll reach the city of Zhoushan after a few days of walking. Zhoushan City serves as the port for Shigong Temple, so it's pretty easy to reach the temple from there. Just ask some locals in Zhoushan, and they'll tell you how to reach Shigong Temple."
"How will I be any safer in Shigong Temple?"
With a self-satisfied smile, Shen Jian said, "The Gao Clan is nothing compared to the Shigong Sect. We would never hand one of our students over to such weaklings."
With that, the two cultivators parted ways. Shao walked through Silver Pine Village, and countless villagers bowed to him as he walked by. His thoughts were focused on the knowledge he just gained regarding cultivator society, so he was not as bothered by the mortals' obsequious behavior.
Though Shao still found cultivator society disgusting, he was starting to understand it better with every passing day. They had rules that were meant to be followed and punishments for transgressions just like in mortal society. Cultivator society was built on the premise that some people were simply too strong to control, so their systems meant to maintain order became incredibly insular. It would be next to impossible to impose a set of laws upon people of such power, so the threat of revenge was the only thing that could possibly limit their behavior.
Now that he was aware of it, the hierarchy and expectations of cultivator society weighed down Shao like the pressure at the bottom of the ocean. If he ever wanted to feel safe again, he would have to become strong enough to defeat the Gao Sun family. Yet, a part of Shao was acutely aware that wouldn't be the end. There would always be more enemies, more trials, more monsters to defeat. Shao knew that the threats to his life would only end when he became the strongest man on the planet.
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