Chapter 280: Exposing Ximen Ren-Second Half
He hid all of his delight behind an expression of concern before walking toward Song Wan.
Startled, Song Wan unconsciously took a step backward.
"Don’t worry, Song Wan. You’re here, in this hall. You can tell the truth. Even if I perish today, I’ll protect you!" Ximen Ren declared righteously.
"That’s right, Lady Song! I’ll protect you as well!" Bodyguard Zhao chimed in as he stepped between Song Wan and Wei Chen, positioning himself as her shield.
"The truth?" Song Wan sneered.
The moment Ximen Ren saw that sneer, a bad feeling rose in his heart.
"The truth is that you, Ximen Ren, are the demonic cultivator! You’re cultivating forbidden demonic arts that grant you a demon body! Furthermore, you force-fed me your Control Gu and tried to control me!"
She revealed everything in one breath.
"What?" Bodyguard Zhao froze in shock. "What are you talking about, Lady Song?"
He immediately turned toward Wei Chen.
"You! It was you, wasn’t it? You’re the one who forced Lady Song to..."
Slap!
With a single slap, Wei Chen sent Bodyguard Zhao flying sideways. His body crashed into one of the massive pillars before he fell unconscious.
"Okay... where were we? Right, clearing up the accusations."
Wei Chen turned to look at Ximen Ren.
"I bet your confidence came from the fact that you could still sense your Control Gu inside her body. And since this kind of gu can’t be removed carelessly without risking the host’s life, you assumed no one could expose you."
"I’m not some miracle doctor, so instead I gave her a medicine that sealed the gu, preventing your commands from forcing her to do anything against her will."
"That also gave me enough time to consult an expert about this type of gu."
"It turns out that once it’s sealed by this medicine, any competent physician can easily detect it because the seal separates the gu from its host and prevents it from fully integrating."
Wei Chen looked around the hall.
"Is there a physician here? Anyone?"
"I am. I can examine Lady Song."
An elderly man standing near Ximen Hong’s throne raised his hand and stepped forward.
"Physician Qin," Ximen Hong quietly said, acknowledging the doctor.
Physician Qin was the current head of the Ximen Clan’s Medicine Hall and Ximen Hong’s personal physician. He had faithfully served the clan for more than five hundred years. His cultivation was only at the Early Core Formation Realm.
His true value, however, lay in his medical expertise.
From treating ordinary injuries to containing plague outbreaks capable of killing millions, he had guided the Ximen Clan’s healthcare through countless crises.
Physician Qin walked toward Song Wan without the slightest hesitation, leaving his back completely exposed and showing no concern about Ximen Ren.
Ximen Ren glared at Physician Qin.
Dark thoughts flashed through his mind.
Should he kill the old man?
If he acted quickly enough, perhaps he could strike Physician Qin down and let another physician examine Song Wan instead.
Preferably one from his own faction.
That way, he could control the diagnosis.
But the moment he wanted to make his move...
He couldn’t.
Not because his conscience had suddenly awakened.
It was because Wei Chen was staring directly at him.
Those sharp eyes watched every movement he made.
If he made even the slightest suspicious move, Ximen Ren was certain the sharp claws on Wei Chen’s hand would tear straight through him.
While Ximen Ren hesitated, Physician Qin had already finished examining Song Wan’s pulse.
A few moments later, he frowned before checking her other wrist as well.
After another careful examination, he let out a heavy sigh and turned toward Ximen Hong.
"Reporting to the Patriarch. Lady Song truly has a gu inside her body. It appears to be dormant, as though it has been sealed by some kind of power."
Ximen Hong slowly turned to look at Ximen Ren.
His eyes were filled with confusion.
He opened his mouth as though he wanted to ask something, but in the end, he remained silent.
Ximen Ren knew that if this continued, he would be exposed.
Without hesitation, he activated the Control Gu inside several of the people supporting him, forcing them to speak on his behalf.
One of the elders suddenly winced in pain.
He didn’t want to defend his tormentor.
He didn’t want to defend the hypocritical bastard who had tormented both him and his family.
But the agony inflicted by the Control Gu wracking his body was far beyond what his endurance and willpower could withstand.
"That’s not true! I’m sure the gu inside Lady Song’s body was planted by this bastard!"
The controlled elder shouted while pointing at Wei Chen.
His face remained pale, and cold sweat dripped from his forehead as the Control Gu continued tormenting him.
Seeing the elder’s pale complexion and the sweat covering his face as though he had just endured unbearable pain, Wei Chen immediately guessed that this elder also carried a Control Gu.
He looked toward the group with an indescribable expression.
Many of them seemed to be suppressing powerful emotions, while several secretly looked at Ximen Ren with hatred hidden deep within their eyes.
Seeing that, Wei Chen understood.
These people had never followed Ximen Ren willingly.
"I see... so I’m the one who planted the gu inside her? I think that’s easy enough to verify."
Wei Chen raised the hand covered by the Underworld Bone Claw.
"You see, this technique is called the Underworld Bone Claw. It can cut things that normally cannot be cut, and it can also reveal things that ordinary people cannot see."
With that, Wei Chen waved his claw through the air in a strange pattern.
A thin black thread suddenly became visible, linking Song Wan’s body directly to Ximen Ren’s.
Most of the people in the hall looked confused by the dark thread.
However, several frowned as though recalling something from memory, while a few even stood up and stepped closer to examine it more carefully.
"Physician Qin, I’d like to ask you something."
Wei Chen turned toward the old physician.
"You confirmed that the gu has been sealed, right? If I kill the gu, or if something happens to its soul, will it harm the host? Or will the host suffer the backlash in its place?"
Physician Qin checked Song Wan’s pulse once more before sending a strand of spiritual qi into her body for another examination.
After a moment, he shook his head.
"Since the gu has already been sealed, killing it won’t cause any major harm to the host. I’ll simply prepare a medicinal decoction for Lady Song afterward to help her expel the dead gu from her body."
He paused as though remembering something.
"By the way... how exactly are you planning to kill it?"
Wei Chen didn’t answer.
Instead, he casually slashed his claw across Song Wan’s body.
The sudden movement startled both Song Wan and everyone present in the hall.
Yet after a brief moment, everyone realized nothing had happened to her.
Her clothes weren’t even disturbed.
What appeared within Wei Chen’s claw was the soul of a centipede-like insect, still writhing violently as it struggled to escape.
Its head was missing.
Yet the black soul thread remained firmly connected to Ximen Ren.
Wei Chen looked at Ximen Ren with a mischievous smile.
"You said I planted this thing inside her body, right?"
"But the soul thread controlling the gu is connected directly to you."
"I wonder what will happen if I destroy the gu’s soul."
"Without a host to receive the backlash for you... where do you think that backlash will go?"
This was common knowledge among cultivators.
When the gu inside a host’s body was destroyed, the resulting backlash would normally be transferred to its controller, unless the gu had been specially bred to redirect the backlash onto its host instead.
Ximen Ren’s face paled. He knew exactly what this meant. Especially with his gu. Since it controlled others through unbearable pain, the backlash would be ten times, or even a hundred times, greater than the agony it inflicted on its host. That terrifying pain would rampage through his entire body.
"No..." Ximen Ren’s mask finally slipped. He reached toward Wei Chen’s claw as if trying to save the gu soul.
But it was too late.
With a flick of his claw, the gu soul was sliced to pieces. It disintegrated into soul power before vanishing into the Underworld to be reused there.
Gu were, by their very nature, artificial creatures created for various malicious purposes. In rare cases, a gu’s soul was someone the Underworld had sentenced to be reborn as a gu as punishment.
However, such cases were exceedingly rare. Most of the time, the Lord of Death would instead have sinners reborn as maggots while retaining the memories of their previous lives, condemning them to an existence of endless torment.
Thus, destroying the gu soul created no complications for the Underworld.
The moment the soul was destroyed, the gu embedded inside Ximen Ren’s body began to rampage.
"AAArGHH!!!-----------!!!!!!"
Unbearable, unimaginable pain ravaged his body as his limbs twisted into unnatural angles. Bones snapped as they bent beyond their limits, while muscles and spiritual veins ruptured under the backlash, which was hundreds of times more intense than the pain the gu had inflicted on its host.
Ximen Ren’s body contorted into a grotesque, doll-like shape, resembling a twisted ghost that crawled on its hands and feet while its limbs bent at impossible angles and its torso arched upward.
The sound of cracking bones and tearing muscles, combined with the horrifying sight of such grotesque cruelty, terrified everyone in the hall.
Ximen Ren lost consciousness the instant the pain overwhelmed him, only to awaken moments later because of the agony. He repeatedly drifted between consciousness and unconsciousness as the excruciating torment continued, the cycle repeating several more times.