People believed him after seeing the mark fall off his forehead because they knew nothing about the sin tribe, having only heard about its existence without any detail.
The sinkins that used to live in Repentance were gone now and haven’t shown up since.
Deng Rensen started doubting himself too due to a lack of knowledge. He only read about them in the ancient scrolls, just little tidbits here and there.
The youth’s comment seems to make sense. Even Shimao’s fellow students exchanged glances and found this to be a logical explanation.
After all, Shimao forcefully broke Li Qiye’s mark along with the seal. That’s why darkness surged into him.
Little did they know that Li Qiye was making the whole thing up in order to play with them.
“Elder Deng, help me!” Shimao screamed again.
A full section of bone spurs has finished growing on his back. They were extremely sharp and shiny at the tip.
“Go!” Rensen saw the unfavorable situation and exuded holy light.
A large pair of light wings materialized behind him. His light then focused on Shimao’s body.
“Boom!” It looked like a pulse shooting straight at the youth’s heart.
Deng Rensen wanted to use his mighty light affinity in order to wash away the darkness inside Shimao.
“Ah!” The youth screamed even more after being struck by the pulse.
The darkness in his heart seemed to be receding for a split second. The color around his chest became regular once more.
“Raaa!” This didn’t last long. He suddenly turned into a fierce beast with red eyes.
A terrible aura erupted as if a devil had taken over him. The darkness grew in power and arrogance. His chest turned black again with scales growing once more.
“Raaa!” This bestial state and frightening visage of his scared the students nearby.
“Zzz-” The darkness spread through the pulse and headed for straight Deng Rensen. It wanted to turn the light into darkness along with this old man.
“Break!” Rensen added more power to the light affinity. He summoned a treasure - a holy scepter that poured out boundless light.
The pulse became more powerful and pushed back against the darkness.
The darkness plaguing the pulse instantly dispersed. Alas, Shimao was still wrapped in darkness despite the light overwhelming him.
“Teacher, we’re coming!” All the students that followed him took action.
Their light gathered together into a majestic force shooting straight for Shimao.
“Ah!” The youth screamed again. Unfortunately, the power of the light seemed futile here. The darkness continued to consume it.
As the light grew stronger, so did the darkness through consumption.
“Throw him into Repentance Pond!” The alarmed Rensen shouted after seeing darkness crawling towards them through the pulse again.
“The pond?!” His students didn’t expect this.
“Go!” Rensen decisively stopped trying to purify the darkness on Shimao.
“Splash!” The pulse then pushed him flying straight into the pond.
The pond instantly became resplendent. The water turned back to their original form - the holiest light.
This “water” engulfed him and seemed to be burning him.
“Ah!” The pain must be intolerable, causing his face to become twisted and ferocious.
However, this blazing light seemed to be effective in burning away the darkness on him.
Thus, the darkness tried to escape from the youth but it was trapped by the power of the pond now. Each dark strand got incinerated into smoke.
The screams from the boy never stopped. Though the darkness was leaving his body, he was still twitching, his eyes all white. Being tortured by two powerful affinities was too much for his body to take.
“That’s bad…” The native students knew that there was no saving him.
The water from the pond was the purest light power. Rumor has it that Desolate Saint used this place to try and purify sinners in the past and that the manifestation of water here came from the dao source itself.
After millions of years, the light power here naturally weakened but still had plenty of might.
Being washed by the light was very beneficial - cleansing both the impurities and dispersing one’s mental demon. However, this depended on the intensity of the light.
The light from this pond was just too pure. Just this little pond alone had enough light affinity to incubate a vast area like Repentance City.
Once thrown in this pond, the terrifying yet holy water would wash away all evil in one’s mind.
The problem was, no one is perfect. Everyone had evil thoughts in them. Not too many people had a dao heart strong enough to withstand this cleansing.
Staying in the pond for a long time had a serious effect. One could become kinder and purer, but abusing this could also turn them into a fool. They would lose their memories and intelligence, leaving only the physical husk behind.
The natives believed that this was the case for the twitching Shimao right now even if he were to survive.
However, Deng Rensen had no intention of helping the youth since the darkness earlier truly frightened him.
He was a very powerful cultivator but still couldn’t suppress that darkness earlier despite having the help of many students.
He thought that there might be more darkness hiding in Shimao. That’s why he let the youth stay in the pond and let the light ravage him.
In his mind, this sacrifice was necessary so that not a single strand of darkness could escape.
“Senior Deng, I don’t think Lu Shimao can last much longer.” Qiushi kindly said since he couldn’t bear to see Shimao squirming in agony.
“It’s fine, let him accept the light. It will grant him a lifetime of benefits.” Rensen was unmoved.
The natives became afraid of Rensen’s ruthlessness. No one from Repentance would dare to go in that pond since they knew the terrible consequence. It looked like Rensen didn’t mind letting the boy turn into a fool.