Tieshan wiped his face and nodded vigorously.
“Next!”
The second person to come up was a tall, thin man, who looked to be about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old. His complexion was better than Tieshan’s, but his eyes held an inexplicable gloom.
He walked up to David, and unlike Tie Shan, he wasn’t reserved. Instead, he stared at David’s face for a long time before finally saying, “Are you really David? The David who caused a ruckus in the secret realm during the Heavenly Trial and made a fool of that old thief Heng Xuan?”
“Genuine, no doubt about it.” David patted his chest confidently.
The tall, thin man was silent for a moment, then suddenly grinned: “Alright. My name is Liu Chen, and I was originally an inner disciple of the Tian Shu Sect.”
Three years ago, I was discovered to be a heretic and was placed in shackles and demoted to the outer sect. Guess what my cultivation level is?
“What?”
“poison.”
When Liu Chen uttered this word, an extremely cold light surged in his eyes, “A poison that specifically corrodes the foundation of one’s Dao.”
That old bastard Hengxuan said my path of poison was a heretical one, not in accordance with orthodoxy, and put shackles on me to force me to change.
I’ve been trying to change it for three years, and it’s only gotten worse. Now that you’re here, I just want to ask—after you remove the shackles, can my poison-based method still be used?”
David reached into his meridians, circulating the Chaos Origin once before withdrawing his hand. He nodded and said, “It’s usable. Moreover, your foundation in poison is even stronger than I imagined. The shackles that have been pressing down on you for three years haven’t broken you; instead, they’ve forced your poison path to become even purer.”
Once the shackles are removed, your cultivation level will at least return to the third rank of Immortal Lord, or even higher.
Liu Chen’s eyes suddenly lit up, and the gloomy aura dissipated almost entirely, like a thick fog pierced by sunlight.
He held out his wrist: “Take it apart.”
David raised his hand, and the source of chaos probed in. After a few breaths, the shackles shattered.
Liu Chen shuddered violently, and a dark green poisonous mist gushed out from his pores, spreading along the banks of the dark river.
Wherever the poisonous fog passed, the rocks on the ground were corroded into countless tiny pores, the surface of the underground river hissed, and even the air became pungent.
People around them backed away, their faces turning pale.
But David stood motionless. With a gentle turn of the chaotic origin around him, the poisonous mist was completely devoured, refined, and transformed, without harming him in the slightest.
Seeing this, Liu Chen’s respect deepened. He took a deep breath and completely contained the leaking poisonous mist, then bowed slightly to David: “I’m impressed. If you need anything in the future, just let me know.”
“Queue up, queue up, there are other people behind you!” David waved his hand and continued working.
One after another, in just one morning, David removed all the orthodox shackles from nearly a hundred cultivators.
Everyone’s foundation is different, and the structure of their shackles is also different. However, the devouring and deconstructing characteristics of the Chaos Origin allow David to handle any kind of shackle with ease.
By the time he got to the last person, he had even figured out the pattern, and he was removing the shackles almost twice as fast as he had at the beginning.
“Alright.”
David clapped his hands and looked around the room. “Now that the shackles are removed, let’s get down to business.”
Everyone quieted down, and all eyes turned to David.
“You are free now, but this ‘freedom’ is only temporary.”
As long as Heng Xuan exists, as long as the Heavenly Palace of the Realms exists, and as long as the orthodox system has not been completely destroyed, you will forever be trapped beneath this dark river, never to see the light of day.
David’s expression turned serious, and his tone was no longer as playful as before. “I’ll give you two options.”
First, I’ll give you some directions: find a place to hide and live your lives in anonymity.
Second, stay and fight me. I can’t guarantee you’ll live to see victory, but I guarantee you’ll make that bastard Hengxuan suffer so much he’ll want to die before you die.
A moment of silence fell over both banks of the underground river. Then Tieshan was the first to step forward, his voice rough but resolute: “I’ll stay. I’ve had enough of being a dog for over ten years, and I don’t want to live like a coward any longer.”
Liu Chen was the second to step forward, his face still gloomy, but his tone was decisive: “I’ll stay too. I’ve been suppressing my poison for three years, I need to find a place to vent.”
Then the third, the fourth, the fifth nearly a hundred people stepped forward without exception.
Some people gritted their teeth and clenched their fists, some had red eyes but straightened their backs, and some took a step forward silently without saying a word.
These people have lived in the shadow of orthodoxy for too long and have been oppressed too much. Now that the shackles are gone, their once-smoothed fighting spirit is stronger than anyone else’s.
David looked at these people and nodded: “Okay, then all of you stay. But let’s make it clear first, those who stay must follow orders.”
I’ll tell you to go east, not west; I’ll tell you to lie down, not stand. Anyone who disobeys can get out now, and I won’t stop them.
Nobody moved.