Dual Cultivation God Returns

?Wu Long stood, looking not much different from when he finished undergoing Heavenly Punishment, as he finished conquering it just a minute ago, only delayed to soothe the worry of his beauties, some of whom were in tears.

His upper clothes down to the beltline were hanging down in tatters, revealing a torso full of charred wounds which were no longer bleeding, but with large amounts of dried blood beneath them, almost the entire right half of his torso from halfway up the neck to the waist scorched, dark-red and black in color.

There were also lines of dried blood on his face, and his eyes were bloodshot, but that strangely did not take away much from how good-looking he was in the crimson eyes of the twins.

However, worry still appeared in their eyes as they saw that appearance.

"H-...how?!?!", the Matriarch of the Bahshi Assassins also expressed shock, but more at the fact that she knew she was not lying about Heavenly Punishment before.

She then turned to the side where an old man, one of the four Elders behind her who personally witnessed and reported the matter to her was standing frozen, nearly popping his eyes out as he looked at Wu Long.

"Hong Ye, do you want to be saved?", Wu Long ignored the crowd of deadly assassins and the five Transcendents, one of whom was almost as troublesome as Linghun Mo, turning his gaze to the twins in the barrier.

"Eh? W-Wu Long... y-you can't-...", Hong Ye first widened her eyes, and then started mumbling, as she wanted to express her worry about him arriving here.

After all, however powerful he was, she did not believe he could be a match for the Matriarch. And she did not want him to be implicated. However...

"I'm asking what you want. Not what you think is possible or what's going on", Wu Long did not stand on ceremony or wait for the jumbled words of warning, looking straight in the eyes of the beauty as she widened hers, and repeated his question while enunciating each word, a strong conviction in his voice demanding an answer, "Do you want to be saved?"

"Yes...", a whisper came out from her lips, and a smile touched his.

"Louder, tell me exactly what you want", he still pressed her for answer, as tears started streaming down from the corners of her eyes.

"I-... I want to live... I-I want to live with Sister Yue and be happy, I want to be Darling's woman and get that kiss!!!", she first started speaking in a normal voice, which gradually increased in volume, and then shouted toward the end as Wu Long's smile widened and he nodded.

"Good, then let's make that happen", he chuckled, and turned to the old woman whose shock already subsided, and who was vigilantly looking at him.

"Heh, you don't have to wait for the mysterious backer", Wu Long chuckled as he looked down toward the Matriarch.

"You mean to say that you were the one to defeat that Corrupt brat?", the old woman narrowed her eyes as she correctly interpreted his words.

But there was no response from him, as his expression gradually turned emotionless.

"Hmph! If that is the case then you came just to meet your doom. What could you do in such a state? Even if you truly have the power to contend with Transcendents, you just somehow barely survived that Heavenly... Tribulation", she snorted with a hint of derision to such an 'obvious deception', turning her eyes to the old man as she said the word 'Tribulation' because it obviously couldn't be a Heavenly Punishment if Wu Long was standing here.

"It's easy to check his claim", the one who 'mistook' the Heavenly Tribulation for Heavenly Punishment said, seemingly eager to redeem himself. 𝒻𝘳𝓮ℯ𝑤𝘦𝒷𝓷𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝑐𝑜𝓂

Seeing a nod from the Matriarch, the old man disappeared into a cloud of black smoke, but as Wu Long simply turned his eyes to the side, the old man's figure reappeared from another such cloud above the lake, at the spot Wu Long was looking at, and then started falling down.

*Splash!*

Droplets of water went into the air as a corpse hit the surface of the lake, reappearing on the surface a few moments later in the deathly silence that followed the splash.

"This is...", a whisper came from the old woman's lips as her eyes filled with shock and disbelief, as did those of the three remaining Elders beside her, all turning to look back at Wu Long. Everyone else, meanwhile, including the twins, did not understand what was happening at all.

"Impossible! How can you-...!!!", the Matriarch shouted with exasperation, not able to finish her words from how shaken she was.

"How can I have the Bahshi Ghost Ruler Eyes?", Wu Long's voice was calm and even, his face without a trace of emotion, somehow resembling a mask, as complex crimson patterns were rotating within his eyes.

"...", the old woman and the Elders shuddered as they realized the situation.

"Never mind that, didn't Hong Xinyi decree the Twin Crimson Ghosts Ritual forbidden?", Wu Long asked next as the faces of the Elders filled with indignation.

"Blasphemy! How dare yo-...!!!", one of them exclaimed, and then fell on the spot as Wu Long looked in his direction.

This time both Hong Ye and Hong Yue could tell that it was the core cultivation technique of the Bahshi Assassination Group, the Bahshi Ghost Codex that went berserk and instantly crushed the man's Dantian, taking his life away.

"H-how do you know the Supreme Demon Ghost's exalted name?", the Matriarch no longer batted an eye to the death of the Elder, not able to move her shaking eyes from Wu Long.

"Answer my question...", Wu Long spoke in a cold tone and another Elder fell on the spot beside the Matriarch, making the woman shudder, as he added "...such is the fate of those whose lives are not in their hands, is it not?"

The Matriarch's face revealed humiliation as she received back her own words, that she so callously thrown with pathos to Hong Yue just a bit before.

"W-we didn't have a choice...", the old woman spoke as Wu Long sighed.

"Didn't have a choice... is a phrase used too often in the wrong meaning. You had a choice to not do it, you just were not ready to face, or rather, find a way to deal with the consequences of not doing it" he spoke, a bit of anger appearing within his eyes as he remembered a certain beautiful face tinged with sadness.

"As for your previous question, I was the one to help Xinyi get rid of Old Man Bahshi, and the one to hand over this technique to her, taking it from his corpse. The only reason she rebelled to begin with was because of that damn ritual... and now you...", the last word came out from his mouth with a very slight inflection that caused the Matriarch to shudder "...dare to use it despite her clear order to destroy all knowledge of it?"

His voice returned to being cold and emotionless after that one subtle flash of anger again, but something in his demeanor caused a dreadful feeling to rise within the hearts of those in his presence.

He knew about this ritual being in progress when he first met Hong Ye.

But facing it in full display, and seeing the expressions of the twins, as well as meeting face to face with those who dared to not only safekeep the knowledge, but even use it, jogged his memory and caused him to exhibit true anger.

"I-I have sinned against the Supreme Dem-...", the woman fell to her knees as Wu Long's wrath somehow made her fearful far more than the technique he held.

It was not rational, nor could she explain it, but she felt horror that shook her very soul just from his presence.

The trained assassins around who did not feel fear even facing certain death broke in shivers as well, feeling overpowering dread, as the temperature seemingly slightly dropped.

"Sinned? You did more than that. You kept safe the one thing she wanted more than anything to be erased with no traces", his cold voice fell as his eyes turned to the last Elder who was also kneeling, and the man fell powerlessly as his body started rapidly losing heat.

The kowtowing Matriarch was shaken by uncontrollable shivers as her wide eyes looked down at the floor, her breathing becoming hurried and struggled.

"Look at me", Wu Long's voice resounded close to her as she tremblingly raised her head to find him standing right before her.

"For your transgression, you are sentenced to the Bahshi Hell of Ten Thousand Ghosts, until your life runs out", his words caused abject horror to appear in the eyes of the Matriarch.

"No! Please no! Spa-...", as she started desperately pleading, she was no longer able to turn her gaze away as the crimson patters within his eyes rotated, and then some of them reflected in hers, as she was no longer able to continue saying anything, her mind descending into realm full of agony.