With lingering pain, the tall, thin cultivator’s gaze filled with confusion.
Gradually, his pupils deepened slightly, and his eyes no longer held any doubt.
And the Taoist on the ground slowly collapsed, no longer clinging, no longer struggling, lifeless.
The other Sun Family cultivators were taken aback at the sight:
"Sun Ji, did you kill someone?"
"If he’s dead, he’s dead; it’s not like we haven’t killed before."
The thin, tall cultivator named Sun Ji spoke indifferently, his voice carrying an almost imperceptible hoarseness.
"Then it’s the usual drill."
"Alright."
The group went to the roadside to keep watch, guard against any other cultivators passing by or having seen anything.
Sun Ji dragged the Taoist’s body to a nearby cliff and threw it over.
But before discarding the corpse, he tore off the Taoist’s robe and kept it for himself.
The others exchanged glances.
"You want the robe of a dead man?"
"I’m used to wearing it."
The rest were taken aback and cursed:
"What nonsense are you talking?"
"Used to wearing it?"
"You’re wearing a dead man’s Taoist robe?"
"Put it on for us to see then?"
Without waiting for a response, Sun Ji actually put on the Taoist robe.
His tall, lanky figure clad in the dirty and old robe, with limbs sticking out awkwardly, looked utterly ill-fitting and somewhat sinister.
Like a field scarecrow cloaked in human clothes.
The other cultivators all showed signs of alarm.
One of the Sun Family cultivators couldn’t help but say:
"You’ve actually got the guts to wear it? Damn, I really take my hat off to you."
Unperturbed, Sun Ji simply said:
"It’s getting late, let’s head back."
The others glanced at the sky, the sun was still high, it didn’t seem late at all.
But, having killed someone, even though it was just a passing, nameless Taoist, it was still better to go back to the clan to lay low.
"Alright."
As the group headed back, Sun Ji suddenly said:
"It seems like we took a wrong turn."
"No, we didn’t."
Sun Ji pointed in another direction, "That way is the way back home."
The others looked and had a moment of realization:
"Right."
"Must’ve drunk too much."
"Indeed, they had taken the wrong path."
Then they walked down another road.
They kept walking.
But the end of this road...
was a steep cliff.
Below the cliff lay an abyss thousands of feet deep.
They continued as usual, talking and laughing on their way home, walking onto the cliff, then plummeting to their deaths, with not a single bone left intact.
Even as they fell, smiles remained on their faces.
In the face of death, they remained oblivious.
Only Sun Ji stopped at the edge of the cliff.
He looked indifferently at the abyss below, then turned his head to gaze at Thousand Families Town and the prominent estate within it, before walking towards it with measured steps.
Sun Ji wore an ill-fitting Taoist robe that showed both hand and foot.