Bury Them All: A Cultivator's Path

Chapter 8

Just when everyone assumed the affair had finally burned itself out, a second wave of spiritual pressure erupted from the outer sect grounds.

The same informant who'd exposed the murdered maid, it turned out, hadn't stopped there — every rotten thing these men had done, in both the inner and outer sects, came out in the same breath.

Marcus Thane, master of the outer sect and a cultivator at the ninth stage of Foundation Building, was run through with a blade and pinned to the earth. His own son was executed alongside him.

By that point, Seraphina had turned murderous enough to want the remaining accomplices dead as well — until a Golden Core Lord physically stepped in to stop her.

In the end, only the four principal offenders paid with their lives. The rest were spared.

"If I ever get the chance," Silas said, with real sincerity, "I'd like to pay my respects to her."

"Wouldn't we all," Gus said, nodding. "Everyone in the sect worships the ground she walks on these days — calls her a goddess, practically." He dropped his voice conspiratorially. "Word is she's only twenty-three. Hard to say if that's even true."

Burial successful.

Techniques acquired: Soul Searching Art, Yin and Yang Technique, Crown Immortal Art, Blood Reaping Art.

Immortal experience gained. Spirit root fragment gained.

Silas's eyes widened as he finished covering Rourke's shallow, hastily-dug grave.

No wonder the man had been such a menace he'd apparently collected an entire library of depraved techniques in his short life, soul-searching methods included.

He tossed a token handful of dirt onto the other two graves nearby, more out of habit than necessity — Gus had already handled the actual burial work with a casual flick of cultivation, sparing Silas the effort while he'd been busy with Rourke.

Burial successful.

Techniques acquired: Green Lotus Method (eighth level), Ironshell Body Art.

Immortal experience gained. Spirit root fragment gained.

So inner disciples train under an entirely different method, Silas thought. He recognized immediately, from the borrowed insight now settling into his memory, just how far above the Sky Burial Cultivation Art this Green Lotus Method actually was — faster energy refinement, cleaner progression, superior by nearly every measure.

Only inner sect disciples and above were permitted to study it, and doing so alone marked a cultivator as someone the sect took seriously.

From Rourke, his brother, and the others, Silas had also picked up a body-cultivation method — the Ironshell Body Art. Twelve stages in total, the first six paired with Qi training, the remaining six with Foundation Building. Perfected, it promised a body nearly unbreakable by anything short of a Golden Core Lord.

Ding.

Burial successful.

The final grave's reward came through last. Silas held his breath, curious what a Foundation Establishment cultivator's death might leave behind.

Technique acquired: Green Lotus Method, Foundation Building chapter, ninth level. Supernatural abilities acquired: Skysplitter Finger, Cloud Turn Palm.

Immortal experience gained!

Alchemy experience gained equivalent to a quasi-grandmaster of the craft!

Pill formulas acquired: Qi Gathering Pill, Foundation Building Pill, Good Fortune Pill, Detoxification Pill, Youth Pill, Blood Qi Pill.

Spirit root fragment gained root has reached low-grade perfection!

Something flickered behind Silas's eyes.

This haul was staggering. Whatever else could be said about Marcus Thane, the man had died generously.

The Green Lotus Method alone would carry him all the way through Foundation Establishment, and Marcus's accumulated combat insight was the kind of resource most cultivators never touched in a lifetime every future breakthrough would come easier for having it.

Immortal experience, after all, wasn't just technique and realm it carried the full weight of someone's lived fighting experience, every instinct honed across a lifetime of battle. Silas wasn't climbing this path the way ordinary cultivators did, safe behind their sect walls. His combat sense had been sharpening constantly, borrowed fight by borrowed fight.

Between everything he'd already absorbed and Marcus's contribution now, his combat instincts had likely surpassed the man's own. Against someone like Seraphina Ash, though, he suspected he'd still fall short. He'd seen her fight, briefly, before Marcus died a battle where a cultivator matched to Marcus in raw strength had been thoroughly outclassed anyway. That wasn't a gift bought with easy living. That was forged in real, mortal danger.

But the true prize, above everything else, was the alchemy knowledge a full grandmaster-adjacent skill set and a stack of genuine formulas. For a man with next to no resources of his own, this changed everything.

Between Bram's stones and Marcus's alchemy insight, Silas realized, he finally had what he needed to become self-sufficient.

"What's got you grinning like that?" Gus asked, eyeing him with open curiosity. "Something good happen?"

Silas cleared his throat and reined in his expression. "Let's head back, Sixth Brother."

"You still haven't told me what was so funny. And just call me Gus."

"Fair enough, Gus. Just remembered something pleasant, that's all."

Back near Silas's hut by the little stream, Gus stopped him before he could step inside.

He stood there a moment, studying the place. "You're sure this is actually where you live?"

"I have been living here," Silas said, turning back, puzzled. "Why?"

Gus stepped back, looked the hut over again, then glanced toward the more distant thatched cottage a mile off. Something like suspicion crossed his face. "You genuinely live *here*?"

"That's the third time you've asked. What's the concern, Sixth Brother?"

Gus studied him a beat longer, then waved a hand and turned to go. "I'll be living on Skypillar from now on too. Might as well build next door."

Silas didn't argue the point. He simply went inside and up to the second floor.

I agreed to that? he thought, mildly bemused, somewhere around the time it actually registered.

By the next day, a near-identical little cottage had risen a few paces from his own.

It turned out "Gus" undersold the man considerably. His full name, Augustus Barrow, had apparently been used exactly once in his life before nearly everyone around him shortened it out of habit and somehow it suited him better than the nickname ever had. Generous almost to a fault. Straightforward, warm, entirely without pretense. His boldness wasn't subtle; you could hear it, see it, practically feel it radiating off him.

Case in point: he threw together an entire feast to celebrate the new house, and refused to let Silas contribute a single dish.

Silas, being mortal and unranked, never once looked down on him for the gesture, and Gus, for his part, carried himself with zero airs despite his own cultivation.

Partway through the meal, Gus's face had gone pleasantly flushed. "Brother Marrow think you could do your senior brother a favor?"

"Go on." Silas nodded, still working through his plate.

"Sharp as you are, you've probably guessed I didn't come to Skypillar by choice. Naturally, being a cultivator, my ambitions run higher I can't spend every waking hour here with you. I need to get out, chase the wider world, taste everything the immortal path has to offer, I need to"

The delivery was heartfelt, almost noble, Gus's face awash with lofty ambition, practically working up real tears for the performance.

"Say no more," Silas cut in smoothly. "Handle your business during the day. I'll manage fine on my own."

Meow, he thought, deadpan. If I didn't know cultivators better, I might've actually bought that.

Third-stage Qi training, loitering around the outer sect  you're about as close to ascension as I am to becoming Emperor.

Also, I already knew you were sentenced here. Not exactly a mystery.

"Then it's settled." Gus beamed.