Chapter 53: Refusing To Fulfil Obligations While Choosing To Enjoy Rights

“Why are you both looking at me like that?”

“We are Confucian cultivators, not just pure book-readers. Being skilled in both civil and martial arts is basic cultivation, all right?”

“The cultivation world is such a mess. If you don’t keep an axe at your side, how are you supposed to reason with others?”

Noticing the looks in Xu Gu and Mi Suhui’s eyes, Kong Haoran was very puzzled and refuted with perfect justification.

“Huh?” Mi Suhui was stunned, utterly shocked, even doubting his own ears. Do you want to listen to what you’re saying yourself? Bringing an axe to ‘reason’ with people, is that still called reasoning?

Yet, although his instincts told him that reasoning probably shouldn’t require an axe, he actually had no way to refute it.

After listening, Xu Gu savored the words for a moment, then nodded in great approval and said seriously, “That does make sense.

“When you meet a scholar, you use a scholar’s way of reasoning with him. When you meet a body cultivator, you also ought to have a body cultivator’s way of reasoning. It seems my understanding of Confucian cultivators was a bit narrow before.”

“…” Mi Suhui stared at Xu Gu in amazement.

So Confucian Dao is like this?
He didn’t know why, but he just felt something was off.

“Right?” Seeing Xu Gu acknowledge him, Kong Haoran grew even more pleased with himself. Without the slightest hesitation, he stepped forward straight toward the supreme treasure at the center of the seabed.

As he spoke, he was already about to reach out to grab it.

But then, a line of vast and mysterious characters floated up on the axe, forming a small row of text.

“The greater the power, the greater the responsibility. This axe contains boundless might and may represent the orthodoxy of the Confucian Dao. If you take it, your strength will naturally soar. Are you willing, for the sake of all living beings under heaven, to give up everything? From this moment, to cultivate yourself, regulate your family, govern the country, and bring peace to the world?”

As this line of small characters appeared, the corner of Mi Suhui’s mouth twitched.
“It really is a Confucian Dao supreme treasure.”

Xu Gu was also a little surprised. That it was a Confucian treasure he could accept, but that this axe could represent the orthodox lineage of the Confucian Dao—wasn’t that a bit much!

So this was actually a legacy item?

Then Mi Suhui’s expression shifted slightly, and he reminded Kong Haoran: “It seems that in order to obtain this treasure, you must shoulder its karmic consequences. Are you sure you want to…”

This supreme treasure was not something that could be taken lightly.

However, before he could finish, Kong Haoran’s hand was already placed on the axe.

He was so decisive that it completely exceeded the expectations of both of them.

Mi Suhui regarded Kong Haoran with newfound respect. He did not doubt Kong Haoran’s righteous heart, but the requirement written on the treasure was to give everything for all living beings under heaven. Unless one was selfless to the extreme, a sage of pure goodness, such a thing would be impossible.

Xu Gu also raised a brow, feeling both heartbroken and vexed. Had he misjudged Kong Haoran?

“I am not willing.”

Kong Haoran said this with completely open candor.

As he spoke, the hand gripping the axe suddenly exerted force and pulled the axe out entirely.

He refused to承担义务 but chose to享受权力—to refuse the obligations while taking the power.

Axe: “???”

The axe had been humming nonstop, divine light blazing, Dao resonance swirling. Especially as it was about to be lifted by Kong Haoran, one could clearly sense excitement and agitation from it.

Yet the moment Kong Haoran’s words fell, it quieted down.

Its light, its sound, its Dao rhythm—all vanished at once.

As if it had gone blank in a daze.

As if its heart, so excited moments earlier, had suddenly died.

It wasn’t just the axe that was stunned—Xu Gu and Mi Suhui were both dumbfounded as well.

“You can do that?” The two looked at each other, speaking in unison.

Xu Gu was paying for his lack of education and limited experience; he had only seen scenes like this in storybooks, and they were always things reserved for heaven’s chosen protagonists. He had thought you had to agree to such conditions to take the treasure away.

So it turns out the former owner’s last wishes carved into the treasure… didn’t have to be accepted?

As for Mi Suhui, seeing how decisive and righteous Kong Haoran had appeared, he had never even considered that the latter might refuse. This operation was completely beyond his understanding.

“What? Is there a problem?” Kong Haoran was even more confused. “It asked me whether I was willing or not, and I’m not willing.”

“…” Xu Gu and Mi Suhui looked at each other and were left speechless.

Logically speaking… that did seem correct.

Their gazes then fell on the axe.

“He’s not willing, and you still let him pull you out?”

Mi Suhui was heartbroken.

He didn’t want his brother to suffer, yet he was also pained to see his brother receive a treasure without having to fulfill its obligations.

This hurt more than death.

Axe: “…”

It felt even worse!

Who would have thought that this Confucian cultivator, whose Confucian Dao fortune was unimaginably dense, whose face had been full of passion and resolve when he saw that line of text—this perfect Confucian Dao seedling—would pull something like this!

Because it had not seen any Confucian cultivators for more than a hundred thousand years, let alone such a peerless genius of the Confucian Dao, it had gotten overexcited. Its joy had clouded its reason, and in its hurry, it had chosen to acknowledge Kong Haoran before he finished speaking.

And in the end, it had chosen wrong!

Now… was it still appropriate to turn back?

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Clearly, it was not.

Once it was pulled out by Kong Haoran and no longer suppressed the surrounding region, the vast ocean around them began to riot. The seawater surged and roiled, the momentum terrifying as it swept over. Even the seabed mountain ranges began to collapse.

“Run!”

Mi Suhui crushed a Vajra Talisman, grabbed Xu Gu and Kong Haoran, and turned into a stream of light, fleeing at extreme speed.

“This is…”

Sensing the disturbance, the flood dragon standing guard outside trembled all over, instinctively wanting to flee.

But if he ran, would those three lunatics beat him to death?

After all, with the heavy crackdown outside and the small size of this sea region, where could he run to?
And with how sinister and vicious those three were, even if they hadn’t placed an obvious restriction on him, they had definitely used some hidden methods!

Just as he steeled his resolve to go against the tide and rush in to meet Xu Gu and the others, Mi Suhui’s voice rang out:

“A pity he didn’t try to run. Otherwise, we could’ve had roasted mud eel.”

The flood dragon’s scalp went numb.

Aren’t you a Buddhist cultivator? You eat meat?

Still, he was instantly glad. Fortunately he hadn’t tried to escape, or he’d be finished for sure.

Boom!

The flood dragon leapt into the air, broke out of the sea, churned the clouds and rain, and dodged the dark tides below. After a short while, he dove back into the Dragon Pool imbued with his own aura.

Following the Dragon Pool, he flew into the Tiger Cave.

However, in order to use the Confucian Sacred Axe to regress his bloodline and cultivate, he had built the Dragon Pool very close to where the axe was.

He had only just carried Xu Gu and the others into the Tiger Cave and returned to the Fallen Spirit Pool when the vast waves of the ocean swept in, about to flood back into the Fallen Spirit Pool.

“This is bad, the water is going to pour in.” Kong Haoran and Mi Suhui’s faces showed panic.

“Hurry up and destroy the Tiger Cave.”

Xu Gu’s expression did not change as he spoke to Kong Haoran and Mi Suhui.

“Right!”

The two, together with the flood dragon, unleashed their methods to block the incoming tides and tried to destroy the Tiger Cave.

But just then—

Strange noises came from the distance.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

The cultivators who had been fishing in the distance now wore excited expressions, nearly crazed with joy. One after another, they rode their flying swords at full speed toward them.

Spells brewed in their hands.

Their aim was clearly Xu Gu and the other two.

“This is heaven’s will!”

“I thought they had left! I never expected them to come back!”

“Not only did they come back, they even stirred up a disaster. Now they’re overwhelmed, and they’ve shattered the restriction here that limited us!”

These cultivators had paid a huge price to fish for Fallen Spirits. Seeing all the Fallen Spirits taken away by Xu Gu and the others, how could they be willing?

Even after all the water had been pumped dry, they did not try to leave. Instead, they unwillingly rummaged in the puddles, hoping to find one that slipped through the net.

Now, with Xu Gu and his companions returning in such a sorry state and even shaking the restriction of this pocket world until it no longer bound them—

Of course they saw it as a heaven-sent opportunity.

“Brats, hand over the Fallen Spirits or die!”

The threat had barely left their mouths when their attacks already fell. Every one of them was a desperate killing move. Any ordinary Qi Refining cultivator who touched them would certainly die.

However—

Seeing this, Xu Gu’s lips curled into a cold smile.

“They all thought they were finished and had run off. Unexpectedly, they were all here waiting to die.”

As he spoke, dozens of zhang of black smoke and thick miasma rose behind him. Six evil spirits appeared, their fangs bared and claws spread, as though they might pierce heaven and earth, like underworld gods descending. The pressure was overwhelming to the extreme.

They suddenly swept toward the charging cultivators.

“Just in time. I was planning to cultivate the ghost-path spell Hundred Ghosts Bear the Lotus and was short on material.” Xu Gu stood high above, demonic flames surging, and spoke faintly.

(End of this chapter)