Chapter 175: Learning the Truth (Patreon)

“Very well, let’s start with your name.”

“I do not have one. ‘Shadow’ is my formal title and designation.”

“I see.”

Liu Wei thoughtfully stroked his beard. A Dao Contemplation Realm cultivator that didn’t even have a name. He’d always known that the Zhong Family had unknown depths, but this surpassed his expectations.

“Then let me ask again, shadow, why did you set up this elaborate scheme just to deliver evidence of your own wrongdoing to me?”

“We were ordered to do so.”

“By whom?”

Shadow stared at the ground in silence for a while before answering.

“Elder Xia.”

Liu Wei’s expression sharpened.

“Explain.”

“The disciple you know as Liting Fei… she is my mistress’ daughter.”

For a moment, Liu Wei only felt confused shock. Then everything fell into place.

The two disciples’ sudden, inexplicable disappearance. The message that hadn’t reached the Fei Family. The fact that they had barely known of the girl’s existence, much less that she was a disciple at the Lunar Peaks Sect.

About eighteen years ago, Elder Zhong had retreated into isolated cultivation for some time. It had been considered somewhat of an oddity at the time. She hadn’t been close to a breakthrough and, considering she was well ahead of her lifespan, there hadn’t been a desperate need for it either. When she had returned after about a year, having accomplished nothing tangible, many elders had suspected that she might have had a hidden purpose for her actions. But since nothing had ever seemed to come of it, the whole thing had eventually been forgotten.

Noone would ever have thought to consider that she had retreated to hide a pregnancy. It simply didn’t fit with Elder Zhong’s image as a cold and aloof master assassin at all… Liu Wei suddenly found himself questioning how much of that image she had deliberately built up as a smokescreen.

“Elder Zhong enrolled her daughter as an outer disciple under her father’s family name to keep her safe. But Elder Xia somehow found out about it and had her kidnapped.”

Shadow nodded.

“I was assigned to keep her safe, watch her at all times.”

Liu Wei frowned. That meant that shadow would have to have spent most of his time directly at the Training Hall, right under his nose. If that was true, he would have to seriously reevaluate the man’s stealth abilities.

“If you spent your time at the sect, how did you manage to hide yourself despite the many elders’ presences?”

Without words, shadow closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Then, his presence folded in on itself, diminishing and changing right before Liu Wei’s eyes. In a matter of seconds, the presence before him was no longer that of a Dao Contemplation Realm cultivator, but that of a someone at the Soul Realization Realm.

It wasn’t full suppression of the presence, like most powerful cultivators could accomplish to a certain degree and the Zhong Family was famous for perfecting, but genuine, deliberate imitation. That wasn’t unique, but it was rare and, in this case, shockingly accurate. Liu Wei knew instantly that, had he not been direct attention to Shadow’s presence, he would not have been able to distinguish it from a genuine one. With this, he could move about most of the sect without ever standing out.

Liu Wei’s mind wanted to pivot into the uncountable possibilities an ability like this opened, what its limitations may be and what the presence of someone like this meant for the sect, but he forced himself to stay on the topic at hand.

“I see. Continue.”

Shadow nodded quietly and his presence returned to what it had been moments before.

“We still don’t know when or how Elder Xia figured it all out.”, he said, bitterness in his tone. “But that night, I was approached by a senior member of our family, one of our mistress’ direct subordinates. She informed me that I my presence was required by Lady Zhong, a matter of utmost urgency. She would stay behind to watch over Liting in the meantime.”

Shadow paused for a moment, his expression pained.

“So I, foolish as I was, departed for our estate. I arrived there to my mistress’ surprise, for she had not summoned me… and to said subordinate still being at her side. It didn’t take long to put things together, and we rushed back to the Training Hall, but it was too late. By the time we arrived there, all we found was a note warning us not to try and make pursuit if we didn’t want harm to befall the girl.”

Shadow’s gaze returned to the ground, as if it might slip out from under his feet at any moment.

“We were contacted by a subordinate of Elder Xia the next day. Said we’d figure out their identities sooner or later anyway, so they didn’t feel the need to try and hide it. He told us that they had some demands they would make of us, and that refusing to comply would risk my mistress’ daughter’s safety. As a first step, we were to make contact to a demonic cult that had recently reared its head and plan for the assassination of the Burning Thorns Sect’s new patriarch.”

Liu Wei quietly listened to Shadow’s explanation, carefully committing it to memory and evaluating its plausibility.

“Of course my mistress tried to find out where her daughter was being held captive. She managed to infiltrate the Xia Family’s estate undetected, which we believed to be the most likely location, but she didn’t find her daughter there. Elder Xia must have somehow monitored her, because at the next meeting with her subordinate, he handed us Liting’s severed finger, with a warning not to try this sort of thing again.”

Liu Wei felt a flame of anger ignite deep within him. Secret daughter of Yue Zhong or not, that girl was a disciple of his hall, and an innocent child. Kidnapping her and holding her captive was already a despicable act, but actually harming her on top of it? Meixiu Xia would have to pay for this.

“My mistress did not accuse me of it, but it was my failure as a protector that led to her daughter’s abduction. So, when the order for the final step of this operation was delivered to us, I volunteered to lead it. Perhaps, I thought, the torture I might endure as part of your inevitable questioning could help me atone for my failure. Yet here I am…”

His voice trailed off, and he took a trembling breath before weakly continuing.

“…betraying her expectations again.”

Liu Wei took a long look at the man before him. He was still staring at the ground, motionless. He looked utterly defeated, like a man awaiting judgement from the heavens to strike him down. Without his presence, nobody looking at him like this would ever guess that he was a cultivator of his age and power.

“You did what you could to protect your mistress.”, Liu Wei responded, oddly feeling the need to reassure him. He took a while to think before continuing.

“I believe what you have told me. If Elder Zhong continues to act against me, I will have to respond accordingly, but I shall not seek retribution for anything she does or has done under the threat to her daughter’s wellbeing. Elder Xia will have to answer for them instead.”

“…Thank you for your trust, Elder Wei.”

“It is not merely trust, but logic and instinct. This version of events makes a lot more sense than what I was presented with before. That being said, if I am to return to the sect and present it, I am going to need more concrete proof than a mere accusation.”

“Of course.”

Shadow seemed to have somewhat caught himself. Cooperating was in his best interest now.

“Could you give me a detailed explanation of the way the assassination went?”

He shook his head.

“We were not directly involved in the assassination. Nor was Tang Luli.”

Liu Wei paused.

“Excuse me?”

“I do not know who the real assassin was, but Tang Luli was entirely part of the diversion. We called him away from the sect for three weeks to make him a plausible assassin, but he spent the entire time in Sootwater under our supervision.”

Liu Wei stroked his beard. He should probably have reached that conclusion on his own by now, but his mind had been too preoccupied with other things. Considering that this entire operation was a diversion, it would have made very little sense for Meixiu Xia to allow him to interact with the real assassin at all.

“So the reason you killed him at my arrival…”

“Was to keep you from learning that he had no knowledge about the assassination at all. Part of Elder Xia’s orders, of course.”

Liu Wei nodded. Meixiu Xia really had planned all of this out quite extensively. And he hadn’t been far from falling for it all either. Just a single moment more of giving in to the temptation of an easy solution… he shook his head.

“Alright then. If we can’t gather any evidence around the assassination itself, we will have to find something else. Regardless, I can’t postpone my return for long. Whatever Elder Xia’s purpose for all of these games is, leaving her to her own devices any longer is out of the question. We leave for Moonlake City at the break of dawn.”

Liu Wei stood up and reached out with his presence, signaling the elders who were still waiting outside, some distance away, to return.

His time at the Burning Thorns Sect was drawing to a close. There was just one thing he still wanted to address before leaving: Lixian Shen’s breakthrough.