Chapter 40: The Fortieth Day as Cult Leader (Part 3)

The same logic applied now. Even if they let these Demonic Cult disciples leave at this moment, even if they let them proclaim the truth everywhere, as long as they cleaned this place up thoroughly and left no handle for anyone to seize, no one would believe the Demonic Cult’s words!

Haha, Heaven was simply helping them. It seemed that Heaven never sealed off all paths!

The Yantian Sect disciples immediately grew arrogant. They were no longer afraid, no longer trembling, and even started openly challenging them. “A mere Demonic Cult wants to interfere in this matter? Let me tell you, if you dare touch a single hair on our heads, you will absolutely suffer for it! We will announce to the whole world that you are thieves crying thief, slandering us. I would like to see whether your Demonic Cult has any credibility in the hearts of jianghu people, or whether our Yantian Sect’s words carry more weight!”

“You want to frame us? Heh. People like this can also be considered disciples of a famous orthodox sect? I’ve truly had my eyes opened today. Now that both the people and the evidence are here, what, you still want to argue your way out of this?” Fang Zheng could not help directly mocking them.

“What people? What evidence?” The Yantian Sect disciple did not waver in the slightest. Since the Demonic Cult had already found out anyway, then fine, whatever. They would be the final victors regardless. “Once we deal with these people, won’t there be no evidence left at all?”

“You?!” Looking at their arrogant faces, the Demonic Cult disciples were so angry their teeth itched. For the first time, they realized how stifling and infuriating it felt to be framed by the righteous path.

Qin Ming, on the other hand, inadvertently revealed a smile and turned to look at the man beside him, who was trembling all over from anger. “So this is how Yantian Sect became one of the Five Great Sects. This Lord has truly broadened his horizons.”

Yin Hongwen could bear it no longer. He suddenly pulled off the face cloth over his face and stepped out. “Senior Brother Miao, how could you do something like this?!”

After seeing his face clearly, the originally smug Yantian Sect disciples were both startled. “Y-Yin Junior Brother? Why are you here?!”

The appearance of the famous genius Yin Hongwen made their hearts lurch, and they discovered that the situation seemed to have turned somewhat bad.

“If I had not accidentally run into the Demonic Cult and come with them to investigate the disappearance case, I would never have known that disciples of our Yantian Sect could actually commit such heartless crimes! Senior Brother, you have simply lost all conscience!” Yin Hongwen’s eyes reddened as he shouted abuse, pouring out all the anger, fear, and grief in his heart.

Unable to endure any longer, he drew the sword at his waist and abruptly hacked down at the wooden table beside him, wildly venting his emotions. “I always firmly believed before that you would never do something like this. But now, I no longer believe it. I don’t dare believe anything anymore! Senior Brothers, are you truly my senior brothers? You shouldn’t be people like this!”

The huge cracking sound startled the woman tied to the chair so badly that her whole body trembled. Dazedly, she begged in a small voice, “I was wrong, I was wrong, spare me...”

Only this humble plea for help finally made the furious Yin Hongwen stop the sword he had been swinging wildly. Like a crazed bull, he glared at his senior brothers. “Speak. Why did you do this? Why did you betray Master’s expectations? Why?!”

Under his hysterical roar, Miao Juncai could no longer endure it either and roared angrily, “This was what Master required! We were only obeying his orders!”

Yin Hongwen instantly froze in place. “Wh-What?!”

He had originally thought this was something the Yantian Sect disciples had done privately, never expecting to hear this thunderbolt of a truth. “How is that possible?”

“You are Yantian Sect’s heaven-gifted pill-refining genius, and there is only one genius in the entire Yantian Sect.” Miao Juncai spoke with hidden sarcasm. “The other disciples are all mediocre people. We cannot develop new pill formulas, nor can we give up transactions from other sects... We all know the sect is now going downhill. We do everything we can to maintain the bearing of one of the Five Great Sects... But no one in the jianghu knows that we have actually exhausted our talents.”

“If we want the sect to keep going, we have to protect the pill trade... Everyone in the jianghu is pursuing new pill formulas and expects us to develop them, but no matter how hard we rack our brains, we can never be like you, able to refine a good batch of pills by chance!”

After glaring fiercely at the wooden-faced Yin Hongwen, Miao Juncai finally took a deep breath and said in a low voice, “Until the sect was finally about to be unable to hold on, Master Danyangzi mentioned that he had once seen a pill formula that used parts of the human body to refine pills. So we tried it.”

“At first, it was only our sect’s disciples using our own blood to experiment. The result was... the pills researched with human blood were actually greatly praised by the jianghu.”

“And so we began to think, if we used other human body parts, perhaps... perhaps we could refine a peerless pill formula?”

As Miao Juncai said this, there was only hope and madness in his eyes. That madness made Yin Hongwen subconsciously take two steps back, his heart palpitating beyond measure. He felt that he no longer recognized this senior brother, who had once treated him extremely well.

“We tried capturing some beggars to refine pills, and the effects were unexpectedly good. But because the pills were in short supply, we went to find more people... As long as they offered up a little blood, they could save countless jianghu people. This kind of trade must be worth it! We never killed them. We only wanted them to make some contributions to the jianghu, that’s all. These are all good things!”

This sanctimonious dialogue made Qin Ming feel as though his ears were being insulted. He could not help giving a cold laugh. “You locked up innocent people, cut their flesh, drew their blood, and treated them no differently from livestock. Is this what you consider good?”

“...” Under his undisguised sarcasm, Miao Juncai fell silent.

A trace of pain also surfaced on his face. Perhaps he had once struggled and resisted too, but in the end, for the sake of profit, he had still chosen to close his eyes, block his ears, and brainwash himself into believing his own thoughts.

This was something Qin Ming could not forgive.

“Senior Brother... This is not right.” Yin Hongwen’s voice had lost some anger and gained a little pleading. “As one of the Five Great Sects, our Yantian Sect should serve as a standard, establishing benevolence and righteousness for the righteous path and the common people, upholding justice. That is what we should do... Hurry and stop.”

“You! Do you think the world will spare us just because we stop?” Miao Juncai glared at him fiercely. “This matter is between us senior and junior brothers. In short, help us eliminate the Demonic Cult first. Afterward, we can discuss a solution!”

“Hehe. Now you want to eliminate us again? Do you really think we’re easy to bully?” Fang Zheng said disdainfully.

Yin Hongwen’s hand tightened and loosened around his sword again and again, his expression pained and conflicted. But in the end, he still shook his head with a deathly pale face and refused. “I came here representing the common people of the world. I carry the truth on my shoulders, and I carry people’s hopes. I will never again help a tyrant commit evil. Even if... even if you are my senior brothers and my fellow disciples, I must arrest you. Stop resisting!”

Miao Juncai flew into a rage. “You traitor!”

“Good. As expected of the renowned Hero Yin! You truly deserve the word hero!” Qin Ming suddenly clapped and praised him, deep admiration appearing in his eyes for the first time. “Unfortunately, this Lord knows too few heroes like you all. Hero Yin, please take action and help our cult capture these people!”

Qin Ming waved his hand and ordered the people behind him to act. “Go. Capture them. Do not let them harm the people in the dungeon. They are our evidence!”

“Yes!” The Demonic Cult disciples had long since been unable to endure it. A fierce gleam flashed through their eyes, and each of them began their assault.

Qin Ming stood in place with a heavy heart, only watching with his own eyes as everyone fought, not stepping forward.

Yantian Sect’s damned truth had originally made him so furious that he wanted nothing more than to wipe out every Yantian Sect disciple in one sweep. Yet it was precisely because there were still heroes like Yin Hongwen within Yantian Sect that Qin Ming suddenly sobered up and realized he could not beat everyone to death with one stick. There had to still be innocent people in Yantian Sect.

He took a deep breath and curved his lips in a somewhat bitter smile. Just a little more. He had been so close to being unable to stop himself from wanting to honor the dead by slaughtering the entire sect.

Fortunately, the good will in the world had pulled him back, and the System’s warning also made him thoroughly clearheaded about exactly who he was.

One’s body was not one’s own in the jianghu... He had almost truly lost his way home.

Qin Ming felt somewhat exhausted and originally wanted to go outside to rest, out of sight and out of mind. At this moment, however, Chen Lue suddenly said in a low voice beside him, “Cult Leader, it seems the master they mentioned is also here.”

“Oh? You mean the root of all this, the chief culprit?” A cold light flashed in Qin Ming’s eyes. This person absolutely could not be allowed to escape. He had to be captured and brought to justice. “Let’s go. We’ll go meet him!”

When Qin Ming and Chen Lue, their heads heated, reached the pill-refining room at the deepest part of the dungeon, Qin Ming suddenly realized: wait. Chen Lue’s martial arts were no good, and he himself was a martial arts weakling. Had they just come before the final boss all alone? Were they actively seeking death?

His heart was uneasy, but it was already too late. He saw the door slowly push open. A white-bearded old man sat cross-legged before the pill furnace, not at all surprised by their appearance.

Even the sounds of the Demonic Cult disciples fighting, which came intermittently to his ears, did not cause the slightest change in the old man’s emotions.

Those still, silent eyes only glanced faintly in Qin Ming’s direction before he said indifferently,

“So that is how it is. I was wondering what sort of person possessed such deep strategy as to see through my plan... So it turns out that in the unseen workings of fate, a missing woman just happened to escape, and an abandoned corpse just happened to be found... All of this was because of your calculations.”

Qin Ming froze for a moment, somewhat bewildered. He had no idea what the other party was talking about. Huh? This wasn’t his scheme either, okay? This could be connected to him too?

He did not see at all that the young man standing behind him was slightly lifting his head, a gleam appearing in his eyes for an instant.

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