Chapter 38: The Thirty-Eighth Day as Cult Leader (Part 3)

“Thank you, miss.” Chen Lue revealed a smile and bowed slightly to her.

This scene left Qin Ming utterly amazed. As expected of Chen Lue, he truly had a perfect grasp of the art of language! With just a few words, he had made You Rui, who had originally been somewhat hesitant, agree. Sure enough, bringing Chen Lue along had been the right choice!

Although Qin Ming very much wanted to charge straight into the underground prison right now and rescue those missing people, he also knew that with his own martial arts, he still could not act quite that stylishly.

And so, he and Chen Lue decided to follow the original plan for the time being: return to the Demonic Cult, gather their forces, and attack the underground prison in one fell swoop.

On the road, Qin Ming asked in confusion, “Is it really Yantian Sect? Yantian Sect, one of the Five Great Sects and always revered as a model of the righteous path, would do such an outrageous thing?”

Chen Lue merely said mildly, “You may know a person’s face but not their heart. Shouldn’t the Cult Leader be the one who understands this best?”

Qin Ming deeply agreed.

The two of them used qinggong to fly back the whole way, but when they were halfway through the journey, Qin Ming once again received a carrier-pigeon message from the Intelligence Pavilion.

Carrier-pigeon messages were a tool Shen Fubai had only recently cobbled together over the past two months for the convenience of transmitting intelligence. Unexpectedly, it had come in handy so quickly.

Qin Ming opened it in confusion, and was instantly shocked. “What?!”

…

The matter had to start from one day earlier.

Before Qin Ming and Chen Lue had reached You Rui, Zhou Ji, Fang Zheng, and the others, who were responsible for searching for clues along the Qi River, had already stirred up quite a number of major incidents in grand fashion.

The first was that they followed the river and found many more corpses missing organs. Every time a corpse was fished out, people from the villages near the Qi River would rush over to watch after hearing the news. Some rumors and gossip also kept spreading at this time, gradually reaching the surrounding towns and even alarming the government office.

For so many corpses to have been hidden in the Qi River, this was absolutely a heaven-shaking major case!

But when the government office wanted to take over the investigation, the Demonic Cult disciples rejected them outright. In their view, this was completely the Demonic Cult’s private affair. They were focused on searching for clues, so how could they allow others to interrupt?

By accident, this created bad blood with the government office.

As more and more nearby onlookers gathered and stopped to watch, some jianghu heroes who had heard the news also joined the crowd to take in the spectacle. They whispered among themselves while pointing fingers at the Demonic Cult’s actions.

Although they did not know what exactly had happened, the moment they saw it was the Demonic Cult, and then saw corpses all over the ground, they knew that such a vicious matter must have been done by the Demonic Cult. There was no second possibility.

The Demonic Cult disciples had long been used to being misunderstood and disdained explaining the matter. But Fang Zheng had sharp eyes and spotted a panicked-looking man in the surrounding crowd. His face was pale, like a startled bird, and after meeting Fang Zheng’s gaze, he actually subconsciously tried to run.

“Catch him. There’s something wrong with that man.” Fang Zheng’s eyes narrowed instantly. He led the Demonic Cult disciples in swarming forward and seizing the man. Only after questioning him carefully did they discover that he was actually a disciple of Yantian Sect.

“Spare me, spare me! I was only passing by. I truly never wanted to provoke any of you!” Although that Yantian Sect disciple made himself sound extremely innocent, Fang Zheng still vaguely felt that his conduct had been sneaky, as if he were concealing something. So without another word, he detained him.

But by imprisoning him like this, they just so happened to be seen by Yin Hongwen, who was also from Yantian Sect!

Speaking of it, this could be considered an ill-fated connection. Ever since Yin Hongwen had appeared out of nowhere three years ago, he had been an absolute genius of pill refinement. The pills he refined had always been praised by the jianghu as the “number one pills under heaven”!

But after his previous battle with the Demonic Cult Leader, where he discovered that the Demonic Cult Leader was completely unafraid of his poison, he realized the shortcomings in his own pill refinement. Therefore, he decided to travel the jianghu and try to find new pill formulas.

While traveling, he also encountered a former companion he had fought alongside, namely Yu Yu, who was hailed as the Little Sword Immortal.

Yu Yu’s condition at the time was not good either. First, the Demonic Cult Leader had easily stopped his sword with one finger, damaging his Dao heart and leaving him despondent for a long while. Then, just as he was about to rally himself, a major incident happened at Sword Pavilion. For a time, everyone in the jianghu was denouncing Sword Pavilion, and Sword Pavilion disciples were also incomparably disappointed and angry with their sect.

As a genius-like existence, Yu Yu had naturally never had resources withheld from him by Sword Pavilion. Precisely because of this, the words he said could not be accepted by ordinary disciples. Looking at the furious, resentful eyes of his senior and junior martial brothers, Yu Yu became even more dispirited and also decided to travel the jianghu, temporarily leaving his sect.

Yu Yu and Yin Hongwen met in the jianghu in this way. They had a delightful conversation and thus traveled together... Then, by chance, they ran into the matter of Demonic Cult disciples privately detaining a Yantian Sect disciple.

Naturally, an intense conflict erupted between the two sides, and they nearly came to blows. However, Yin Hongwen only had two people on his side, while the Demonic Cult had over a dozen highly skilled disciples. Yin Hongwen endured it and did not continue provoking them. Instead, after returning, he gathered quite a few jianghu experts, planning to exchange some moves with the Demonic Cult disciples again the next day.

One side was the Demonic Cult. The other was a famous disciple of the Five Great Sects. The jianghu heroes naturally knew whom they should support. And so Yin Hongwen’s side gathered five gallant heroes and once again intercepted Fang Zheng and the others near the inn as they were about to go to the Qi River to search for clues.

“You Demonic Cult people privately detained a member of our sect, yet you keep claiming he has something to do with the case. Do you really think such a clumsy excuse can fool us?”

Yin Hongwen sneered and declared with righteous indignation,

“I think you want to retaliate against our Yantian Sect, don’t you? Hmph. Don’t even dream of it. With us here, we absolutely will not allow you to run wild and act recklessly!”

This cold shout naturally received praise from the surrounding onlookers. Everyone glared angrily at the Demonic Cult, as though the person being detained belonged to their own sect.

“Hero Yin is right! Hurry and release the Yantian Sect disciple!”

“Demon, don’t you dare be so arrogant!”

Listening to the curses all around him, Fang Zheng, whose temper was already poor to begin with, grew even more irritated between the brows. Zhou Ji, however, was still calmly explaining, “Disciples of our cult went missing and were murdered under strange circumstances. The detained Yantian Sect disciple is one of the suspects. This is an important matter for our cult and has nothing to do with all of you. I advise everyone not to get involved.”

These forceful words drew even more dislike from the crowd. More and more people even grew bold enough to shout, “What suspect? I think you Demonic Cult people are the ones crying thief while being the thief!”

“Exactly! Maybe those corpses fished out of the river were thrown in by you. Can the words of Demonic Cult dogs even be trusted?”

Even Zhou Ji could not help furrowing his brows. “Hearing is false, seeing is true. Do any of you have evidence?”

“Evidence? The Demonic Cult being the greatest scourge is evidence!” someone responded disdainfully. “Yantian Sect is one of the Five Great Sects, a symbol of the righteous path, and utterly opposed to you. How could they possibly do something so filthy? You must be slandering them, crying thief while being the thief!”

“Exactly, exactly! Maybe this is a conspiracy to frame Yantian Sect. Everyone must not be fooled!”

Seeing the surrounding people speak more and more absurdly, even slandering their cult without distinguishing right from wrong, the Demonic Cult disciples all showed anger on their faces. Clearly, they were almost unable to suppress it. Fang Zheng had even gripped a porcelain bottle in his hand. With a mocking smile on his face, he said softly, “How noisy. If we poison them all to death, it’ll be quiet, won’t it?”

“No.” Zhou Ji still took a deep breath, suppressed the killing intent in his heart, and stopped Fang Zheng. “I already sent a letter to the Cult Leader yesterday. For a matter of this importance, we should wait for the Cult Leader to come handle it!”

Hearing this, although Fang Zheng was somewhat dissatisfied, he still obeyed his words and lowered the poison.

And Qin Ming arrived at the scene together with Chen Lue at precisely the right moment, right when the Demonic Cult was being condemned by a thousand pointing fingers and the situation was critical.

“Cult Leader,” Chen Lue reminded him considerately, “the people facing off against our cult disciples are Yin Hongwen of Yantian Sect and Yu Yu of Sword Pavilion. However, the two of them are said to have left their sects long ago to train outside, so they likely do not know about the disappearance case.”

...So right now, they mistakenly thought the Demonic Cult had indiscriminately captured someone from their sect, and that was why a conflict had broken out.

After Qin Ming sorted out the causes and consequences, he felt another wave of headache. The Demonic Cult was practically being attacked by everyone joining forces. Even if they explained, no one listened at all. It was enough to show just how terrible the Demonic Cult’s reputation was. Although previously, they had exposed Sword Pavilion’s scandal and wiped out Blood Blade Sect, looking at it now, the people of the jianghu still would not easily believe their words.

Now, whenever something happened, it was slandered as the Demonic Cult’s doing. Even some unwarranted crimes were made for the Demonic Cult to bear.

This situation was not very good. Just like the scene before him, the Demonic Cult was clearly the victim’s side, yet it was still being denounced by everyone.

Qin Ming urgently wished to reverse this situation, but right now, he needed to consider even more how to appease the other jianghu people and explain the truth clearly.

And this kind of thing... perhaps only if he personally did it would there be any possibility of success.

Qin Ming took a deep breath and looked at his own sect’s disciples, who were surrounded by layer after layer of people. In his heart, he once again made up his mind.

He was finally going to make his first appearance before the masses of the jianghu, before the eyes of everyone under heaven.

Hold on. Let him check first. The Golden Silk Soft Armor on his body was fine. The Storm Pear Blossom Needles on his wrist were fine. The poison had been applied too. The soft sword at his waist was also prepared... All right, everything was ready. Even if a fight broke out, he would not die. That was what mattered!

Mission Objective Triggered: Quell Everyone’s Anger.

Mission Reward: Jianghu Prestige increases. Obtain one bottle of pills with a random effect.

...Good grief. Even the reward was pills now. Was the road ahead that dangerous?

Qin Ming’s eyelid twitched again. No longer suppressing his killer move, he reached his hand toward his face and undid the seal that had slept for many years—he removed his mask.

Then he set his face coldly and strode toward the center of the crowd.

“Oh? Since all of you keep claiming that my cult’s disciples framed Yantian Sect, this seat would like to ask: what evidence do you have?”

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