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“Fifth Elder, you’re being too harsh,” Elder Tianyin, who was sitting nearby, twirled a strand of her long hair with her fingertips and chuckled lightly. “No matter what, A Shang is still Daojun Yanzhi’s partner. As the saying goes, ‘love me, love my dog.’ How can you expect Second Elder to make this decision personally?”
Hearing the woman utter the grating phrase “love me, love my dog,” Qingyu Zhenren clenched his fists tightly, his expression darkening. He coldly said, “Someone, take this vile creature to the Immortal Punishment Hall.”
The Immortal Punishment Hall was where the Immortal Sect dealt with and imprisoned the most heinous demonic beings.
A Shang had killed a fellow disciple, a crime of the utmost severity, and deserved to be thrown into the Immortal Punishment Hall.
As the disciples moved forward to drag her away, A Shang glanced at the two figures not far away and spoke to the crowd, “It’s my fault that I killed someone. I can go to the Immortal Punishment Hall, but why should those two be allowed to stand aside unscathed?”
A Shang suddenly raised her hand and pointed at He Zong and Lu Si in the distance. “These despicable individuals, with their wicked intentions, threatened disciples to use them as cauldrons to enhance their own cultivation. How can such vile scum be allowed to stand there without consequence?”
“You… what nonsense are you spouting!”
Seeing A Shang publicly expose the evil deeds the three of them had committed, He Zong couldn’t help but shout, “Don’t you dare slander us! It was clearly you who tried to seduce Zhong Hua, but when he resisted your charms, you flew into a rage and took his life. If we hadn’t run fast enough, we would have ended up like Zhong Hua—dead by your blade!”
“That’s right! It was clearly you who deliberately seduced him!” Lu Si, who was standing nearby, suddenly dropped to his knees with a thud, facing the three elders above.
“Elders, please see the truth! This half-demon is spouting nothing but lies! Using fellow disciples as cauldrons to enhance one’s cultivation is strictly forbidden by the sect. Even if we had the courage of the heavens, we would never dare to do such a thing!”
“Junior Sister A Shang,” He Zong, standing beside him, had tears glistening in his eyes, his face filled with anguish. “We have no grudge against you. Why are you trying to harm us like this? Earlier, when no one was willing to go to the Ten Thousand Spirit Valley with you to gather herbs, I thought, as fellow disciples, I didn’t want to see discord among us. That’s why I volunteered to the steward to go with you.
I admit, I was wary of you because of what had happened to you before, so I specifically invited two fellow disciples I was close with, Zhong Hua and Lu Si, to join us. But I never expected that my meddling would end up costing Zhong Hua his life…”
He Zong’s face twisted in pain as he glanced at Zhong Hua’s lifeless body nearby. He fell to his knees before the corpse and began to wail loudly.
A Shang watched everything with cold eyes, disgusted by his repulsive acting.
Finally, she understood why He Zong’s name had sounded familiar to her.
In her previous life, she had heard of He Zong—or rather, she had seen the names of all three of them on the sect’s announcement board.
“He Zong, Lu Si, and Zhong Hua, for violating sect rules and committing heinous crimes, have been unanimously decided by the sect elders to have their spiritual roots destroyed, receive thirty lashes of the Bone-Devouring Whip, and be expelled from the sect, never to return.”
As for why the three of them had violated the rules, A Shang finally remembered. It was said that the three had somehow learned a method to use others as cultivation cauldrons, and several disciples had suffered under their cruelty.
Their crimes were only exposed when, during their final act of violence, their victim turned out to be a young lady from a prominent family who had disguised herself and joined the sect as a disciple. After enduring unbearable humiliation, the young lady took her own life, and the three’s despicable deeds were brought to light.
A Shang didn’t know whether the three had faced retribution from that family after being expelled from the sect, but she was certain they had.
Because they truly deserved to die!
“You used this disgusting yet masterful acting to deceive one female disciple after another, didn’t you?” A Shang said coldly, her eyes fixed on the two wailing on the ground.
The two of them were momentarily stunned by her words. “What?”
“All of you are here, right?” A Shang turned her gaze to the crowd present, speaking each word clearly. “I know these three beasts have done vile and despicable things to you. I, too, nearly fell victim to their cruelty, which is why I killed Zhong Hua. That’s my reason for killing him—because he deserved to die. They all deserve to die.
But I don’t regret it. The only thing I regret is that I only killed one of them at the time. For scum as despicable and repulsive as these three, even a thousand cuts wouldn’t be enough to satisfy your hatred.”
A Shang’s eyes bore into the two on the ground. “Right now, I have no evidence. I also know that these two have the audacity to stand here and twist the truth, shifting all the blame and filth onto me. They must have erased everything that was once recorded in the Memory Pearl.
“I know you’ve been silenced by their threats, too afraid to come forward and expose their crimes. After all, such things are truly difficult to speak of. But I don’t understand—why? Why should perpetrators like them, who have committed countless evils, live openly in this world as if nothing happened? Why should we, the victims, cower in fear, enduring humiliation and living in constant terror?
They’ve done wrong, and they must pay for it. Perhaps my words today won’t be enough to convict these three beasts. Perhaps my words will only scare them into laying low for a while. But once the storm passes, once no one speaks of this matter anymore, they will stretch their claws toward the next victim, and the next.”
“You… you…” He Zong’s face turned ashen as he listened to her words. “What nonsense are you spouting!”
“Nonsense?” A Shang pointed at them, each word cutting like a knife:
“As cultivators, if we cower and hide in the face of injustices that defy the heavens, then what right do we have to cultivate? What path are we following? What demons are we vanquishing?
The heavens are just, and I refuse to believe that those who commit such vile deeds will laugh till the end. Today, I may not be able to convict the three of you, but one day—one day—those who have suffered under your cruelty will surely bring you to justice. Even if it’s not me, someone will stand up, just as I have today, and expose all the evils you’ve committed!”
After A Shang finished speaking, the entire hall fell silent, deeply moved by her words.
Her words were filled with such hatred, such truth, that everyone present couldn’t help but believe her.
But… words alone were not enough. She had no evidence, and they didn’t know whether they should trust her.
Until the first voice rang out from the crowd:
“Disciple Wu Xin is willing to testify that He Zong, Lu Si, and Zhong Hua once forced me to be their cultivation cauldron. When I refused, they used a Memory Pearl to record the process of my humiliation and used it to blackmail me.”
“Disciple Fang Wei is willing to testify that He Zong, Lu Si, and Zhong Hua forced me to be their cultivation cauldron.”
“Disciple Su Yan is willing to testify that He Zong, Lu Si, and Zhong Hua forced me to be their cultivation cauldron.”
“Disciple Luo Ting is willing to testify that He Zong, Lu Si, and Zhong Hua…”
One by one, seven or eight disciples dressed in outer sect robes stepped forward to testify against the three, both men and women among them.