Chapter 46: Day Forty-Six of Becoming Cult Leader (Part 1)

When Qin Ming first heard that Zhang Daniu had gotten mixed up in trouble with the Huazhen Sect, he honestly felt an overwhelming headache coming on.

After all, among the Five Great Sects, the Huazhen Sect was the one existence they absolutely could not provoke. How had Zhang Daniu managed to pick the hardest one to mess with?

But after hearing the complete cause and effect from Shen Fubai, Qin Ming finally understood that Zhang Daniu had only been seeking justice for the common people, not acting out of selfish desire.

And right on cue, the System popped up a reward.

Because your subordinate Zhang Daniu helped the common people and performed a good deed, you are hereby rewarded with ten thousand merit points.

Qin Ming was deeply moved. Sure enough, Zhang Daniu would occasionally deliver merit points to him. He truly was a breath of fresh air in the Demonic Cult.

Therefore, even though provoking the Huazhen Sect would bring extremely serious consequences, Qin Ming did not reprimand Zhang Daniu. Instead, he said to Shen Fubai with emotion, “As for Zhang Daniu, he was indeed somewhat impulsive in this matter… However, I feel that he did nothing wrong.”

Meeting Shen Fubai’s slightly astonished gaze, Qin Ming said openly and uprightly, “The tolerance I spoke of refers to not provoking the Huazhen Sect and not doing dangerous things. But if the Huazhen Sect takes the initiative to provoke us, and we are standing on the side of righteousness, then why should we continue swallowing our anger?”

“The disciples of our cult are not cowards, and neither am I! Even if the consequences are quite severe, even if our cult faces danger, as long as our consciences are clear, and as long as the disciples of our cult are united as one, what is there to fear?”

Qin Ming rose to his feet. For the first time, arrogance and confidence appeared on his face. From his superior position, he looked down at Shen Fubai. In the depths of his eyes shone an astonishingly bright light, illuminating Shen Fubai’s heart.

“Pass down my verbal order. Tell these words to all the disciples of our cult. Have them not blame Zhang Daniu. He did the right thing in this matter. Tell Zhang Daniu to hold his head high and firmly believe that he was not wrong!”

Shen Fubai looked at his Cult Leader almost worshipfully and bowed deeply. “This subordinate obeys!”

Only after Shen Fubai left did Qin Ming take a deep breath and slowly sit back down before his desk. Good. Zhang Daniu’s matter was settled now. Now he had to think about how to deal with the Huazhen Sect…

Although Qin Ming had appeared staunch and unyielding on the surface, if that old ancestor or whatever from the Huazhen Sect really came charging over, what was he supposed to do?

The moment he thought of this, Qin Ming felt a headache coming on.

Their only advantage right now was that the other side did not know Zhang Daniu was from their Demonic Cult… During this period, it would be better not to let Zhang Daniu go out, lest he bring trouble down on himself.

Yet just as Qin Ming had finished deciding on this strategy, Shen Fubai hurried over and delivered a piece of devastating news to Qin Ming. “Zhang Daniu… is gone!”

Qin Ming: “...?”

Qin Ming froze for a while before finally coming back to himself from his confusion. “What did you say? What did Zhang Daniu go off to do?”

“I do not know. The gatekeeping disciples only said that Zhang Daniu had no orders, yet charged recklessly through the mountain gate, and then vanished without a trace.” Shen Fubai’s expression was extremely grave as he guessed, “This subordinate suspects that he may have been afraid of dragging our cult down, so he took the initiative to seek out the Huazhen Sect to resolve this matter?!”

“What?!” Qin Ming was so shocked that he could not help slapping the desk and rising to his feet. He hurriedly ordered, “Send people to find him and bring him back at once. This is nothing but courting death. We cannot let him act rashly!”

“Yes!” Shen Fubai immediately received the order and sent people down the mountain to search.

But by the time they realized Zhang Daniu had left, the other party had already been gone for half an hour. Even if they chased after him now, they simply could not find any trace of Zhang Daniu. Moreover, during this sensitive period, the Demonic Cult could not search for someone with great fanfare. As a result, they searched until nightfall, but Shen Fubai still did not find any trace of Zhang Daniu.

Before meeting Qin Ming, several of their undercover agents also gathered together to discuss the current situation.

“This is bad, this is bad. With that reckless temper of his, he couldn’t have really gone to find the Huazhen Sect in a fit of anger, could he? What are we going to do!”

Yang Xu was so anxious he paced in circles. These undercover agents had lived together for so long that feelings had gradually formed between them. No matter who encountered danger, even if they said nothing aloud, they would still be worried in their hearts. And the one Yang Xu had always worried about most was Zhang Daniu. Among this group, Zhang Daniu’s martial arts were not strong, and his brain was not very useful either. He was always prone to suffering losses.

Chen Lue and the others also showed worried expressions, but Chen Lue pondered for a moment before shaking his head. “Not necessarily. Although he cannot be considered clever, he is absolutely not stupid. He would not do something that amounts to seeking death.”

“Is there a possibility…” Chen Lue guessed unhurriedly, “that he ran away from home in a fit of anger?”

“Ran away from home?” Everyone looked at one another. It seemed like an emotionally impulsive action, but when applied to Zhang Daniu, it actually seemed quite reasonable!

“Then the place he would most likely go in a fit of anger is—”

Suddenly, the words Little Hong Sect echoed through the minds of all the undercover agents.

…No way.

…

In fact, their guess was not wrong. Zhang Daniu had long been looking forward to returning to the Little Hong Sect. Almost as soon as he got heated and left the Demonic Cult, he instinctively started walking in the direction of the Little Hong Sect.

But halfway through the journey, his anger subsided, his mind cooled, and he began to hesitate over whether his choice was correct.

“...Although I’m one of the Demonic Cult’s people now, no one knows except Master. Master loves me so much. As long as I explain the reason, he definitely won’t just watch me suffer!”

Silently thinking this to himself, Zhang Daniu finally made up his mind. He would return to the Little Hong Sect first and then decide.

The Little Hong Sect was only four days’ journey from Shilian Mountain. Zhang Daniu’s urgent longing to go home made him feel no exhaustion despite the bumpy journey, and he forcibly shortened the travel time by quite a bit before arriving in front of the Little Hong Sect’s gate.

Looking at that familiar gate, Zhang Daniu could not help feeling tears well up in his eyes. His heart was incomparably excited, and he could not resist knocking on the door and shouting, “Someone come! I, Zhang Daniu, am back! Hurry up and open the door!”

The disciple in charge of guarding the gate poked his head out in confusion. When he saw Zhang Daniu’s familiar face, he froze for a long while before crying out in shock, “You’re… Daniu?!”

Even though they had not seen him for a year, Zhang Daniu’s unique appearance and the fact that he did not know martial arts had ensured that not a single person in the Little Hong Sect had forgotten him to this day.

“It’s me! Hurry up and open the door!” Zhang Daniu said cheerfully.

The gatekeeping disciple quickly ran back inside and reported the matter to the disciples within the sect. Before long, all sorts of familiar faces walked up to the front gate one after another, all looking at Zhang Daniu in surprise. “You, didn’t you withdraw from our sect a year ago? Why have you suddenly come back?”

Zhang Daniu was startled. Only then did he realize that Master had described his mission as going undercover in the Demonic Cult as him withdrawing from the sect. So he simply went along with it and explained, “I learned peerless martial arts, so I wanted to come back and see you all. Where’s Master? I miss him so much.”

“Peerless martial arts.” Someone immediately could not help letting out a snort of laughter, their gaze sweeping over Zhang Daniu full of contempt.

“...Does he even know what peerless martial arts are? He just opens his mouth and says whatever. A year ago, he couldn’t learn martial arts no matter how hard he tried. Could he have overturned the heavens now?”

“He already withdrew from our sect, yet he still has the face to come back. Did we not mock him enough?”

The disciples of the Little Hong Sect whispered among themselves, their tones filled with ridicule.

But Zhang Daniu, immersed in the joy of returning home, did not notice. He was still constantly looking around for his master. At this moment, an old man with gradually whitening hair finally appeared. That even more aged face made Zhang Daniu’s spirits tremble, and tears nearly rolled down his face. “Master! I, I finally came back to see you!”

However, when the old man looked at him, there was none of the emotion he had imagined. Instead, the old man was utterly shocked, even somewhat terrified.

He hurriedly found an excuse to have the other disciples leave the area, then pulled Zhang Daniu into a secret room and spoke in a low voice. “Why are you here? What about the Demonic Cult? Did you not go to the Demonic Cult?”

Zhang Daniu scratched his head with a dry laugh and looked away. “I came back secretly. The Cult Leader doesn’t know.”

Yu Canghai was even more terrified. Although he had long known that Zhang Daniu was a reckless fellow, he had never expected him to actually disregard the danger to his own life and leave the Demonic Cult without authorization. “Daniu, you’re muddleheaded! If the Demonic Cult discovers this, not only will you be unable to escape the consequences, even my Little Hong Sect will be implicated. You should hurry back!”

“I only just came back, and Master is already chasing me away…” Zhang Daniu’s heart sank abruptly. None of this was quite the same as what he had imagined. His senior and junior brothers did not welcome his arrival, and even Master was afraid that he would implicate him. It was as though… returning to the Little Hong Sect was not happy at all.

“Don’t worry. The Demonic Cult won’t know where I am.” Zhang Daniu could only muster his spirits and change the topic. “Master, I learned martial arts! Really strong martial arts too. I just wanted Master to see!”

But Yu Canghai had no mind to care about whether he knew martial arts or not. Seeing that Zhang Daniu had no intention of leaving, he could only go along with him and let him rest in the Little Hong Sect for a few days, while still calculating how to make him leave.

Zhang Daniu had been away from the Little Hong Sect for a year, and within the sect, things had long since changed. Those who had once been relatively close to him only exchanged a few pleasantries with him before no longer drawing near. As for those who had always mocked him coldly, they had no intention whatsoever of giving him a pleasant expression.

“Zhang Daniu? What is someone who already left the sect doing coming back?”

Whenever Zhang Daniu was mentioned, the disciples of the Little Hong Sect were all this dismissive. Then someone brought up, “Have you heard the rumors from the Huazhen Sect? They’re looking for someone. What a coincidence, that person is also called Zhang Daniu. But that Zhang Daniu is strong enough to injure disciples of the Huazhen Sect. Compared to our Zhang Daniu, they’re simply one in the sky and one underground.”

“Hahahaha, same name, different fate. That martial arts good-for-nothing Zhang Daniu must be so envious.”

When Zhang Daniu heard everyone’s jokes, his first reaction was not anger. Instead, his head heated up, and he emphasized, “I’m that Zhang Daniu! My martial arts are strong enough to beat even the Huazhen Sect! Isn’t that amazing?”

“...” Hearing this, the disciples of the Little Hong Sect looked at one another, then burst into roaring laughter. “Hahahaha, what kind of dream are you having? You can beat the Huazhen Sect? Do you really think you can impersonate that Zhang Daniu? Stop making a fool of yourself!”

“It really is me!” Zhang Daniu was so anxious that he circled in place, urgently wanting to prove himself and make his fellow disciples change their opinion of him. Therefore, he suddenly picked up a broom used for sweeping and, using the broom as a staff, actually performed the first form of the Dog Beating Staff Technique, “Staff Strikes Two Dogs,” with practiced ease. The staff swept out swiftly and dazzlingly, attacking his fellow disciples’ insteps and beating them until they cried out in disorder.

“How about now? Do you believe me this time?” Zhang Daniu nimbly dodged one senior brother’s attack, then used the move “Fling the Dog Toward the Sky.” He rapidly extended the body of the staff, and with a smack, he flicked up the front end of his opponent’s weapon, disarming him.

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