Chapter 100 - 99: Put Up or Shut Up
Early the next morning, Wu Bingjian and the others gathered all the clues they had found while tracking Uncle Kou after his escape.
Uncle Kou had been severely injured and vanished after fleeing into Mountain Monarch Ridge outside East Mountain City.
However, since Uncle Kou’s disappearance into Mountain Monarch Ridge, they had discovered that many Jianghu People had gone missing in East Mountain City. Furthermore, the number of passing merchant caravans had suddenly increased, making the city seem to have become prosperous overnight.
Therefore, Wu Bingjian and his men deduced that someone in East Mountain City was definitely colluding with the Blood God Sect, and Uncle Kou was not the only fiend from the sect in Mountain Monarch Ridge.
If it were just Uncle Kou healing his wounds, a few Martial Artists would have been enough.
But according to their investigation, the number of known missing people was already over ten, not to mention those who had vanished without their knowledge.
So, there was definitely a considerable number of Blood God Sect fiends in Mountain Monarch Ridge.
Once they had confirmed their target, the group immediately headed straight for East Mountain City.
Along the way, Wu Bingjian promptly briefed everyone on the details of the forces within East Mountain City.
Just like Pian Guan City, East Mountain City was also dominated by a single Small Noble Family: the Zhang Family.
However, compared to the Lin Family of Pian Guan City, the Zhang Family was slightly weaker, with only three members at the Sea of Reincarnation Realm.
In a small city like this, it was actually normal for one family to hold a monopoly. A situation like Linyuan City, where four families shared power, was the exception.
After listening, Du Tianfeng frowned slightly. "I know of the Zhang Family. They have been established in East Mountain City for over two hundred years. The family mainly makes its living from the mountains, purchasing Spiritual Medicine produced in Mountain Monarch Ridge and selling it for high prices in the outside world. They’ve always been considered diligent and stable."
"Why is it that it’s always these Small Noble Families colluding with the Blood God Sect? It’s rare to see a Sect involved, in fact, almost never."
Chen Yuan said, "Because a Sect belongs to a large group of people, while a Noble Family belongs to a small few."
"In a Sect, even if you’re just a servant disciple, you could one day become the Sect Leader. So naturally, you would work to protect the Sect’s interests."
"But in a Noble Family, there are only a few in the Direct Lineage. No matter how hard a Side Branch member works, they can never become the Patriarch unless they usurp the position."
"When colluding with the Blood God Sect, the ones who benefit are always a small minority."
"If you dared to do something like this in a Sect, countless people below you would be scheming to pull you down."
The superiority and inferiority of these two systems of inheritance, Sects and Noble Families, were clear at a glance.
Relying on bloodline inheritance was inherently unstable, and the division between the Direct Lineage and Side Branches would cause extreme fragmentation within a Noble Family.
After a certain amount of time, the blood ties between the Direct Lineage and Side Branches would become very thin, and conflicts would grow more severe.
Cases where the Direct Lineage was overthrown by a Side Branch, which then became the new Direct Lineage, were countless.
That is why there are only the Eight Great Noble Families in the world, while other sect alliances, orthodox traditions, and religious factions are innumerable.
Upon arriving in East Mountain City, the group subdued the Zhang Family with almost no effort.
Facing numerous Martial Artists of the Condensing Truth Realm, the Zhang Family had practically no power to resist.
Several hundred Zhang Family Martial Artists were forced to kneel in the courtyard, with the three Sea of Reincarnation Realm Martial Artists of the family kneeling at the very front.
The Zhang Family had no single Patriarch; instead, three branches of the family managed its affairs jointly, and their strengths were roughly equal.
Chen Yuan stepped forward, stared at the heads of the Zhang Family’s three branches, and said coolly, "Speak. Did the entire Zhang Family collude with the Blood God Sect, or was it just one of you?"
"My lord, we’ve been wrongly accused!"
"The Blood God Sect is infamous! Why would we ever collude with them?"
"My lord, please see the truth! The cautionary tales of the Lin Family in Pian Guan City and the Sun Family in Linyuan City are right before our eyes. How could we dare to collude with the Blood God Sect?"
The three men kowtowed repeatedly, crying out their innocence, each appearing as pure as the driven snow.
Chen Yuan shook his head gently. "Why are you all so stubborn when death is at your doorstep?"
With a wave of his hand, Chen Yuan called over Wu Bingjian, pointed at the crowd of Zhang Family members, and ordered, "Drag them out one by one and behead them. Keep going until they talk."
To the head of a family, the meaning of family lies in its continuation.
If the entire family is wiped out, then being a Patriarch is meaningless. One would be no different from an Independent Martial Artist.
Chen Yuan’s method was simple: kill them until they couldn’t take it anymore.
As soon as these words were spoken, the faces of the heads of the three Zhang Family branches changed drastically. The other family members began to wail and howl, begging frantically for mercy.
Hui Ming frowned. He glanced at Xing Shen and saw that he too was frowning deeply, clearly also displeased with Chen Yuan’s actions, feeling he was being too brutal.
Seeing this, Hui Ming stepped forward and said in a low voice, "Lord Chen, you aren’t even sure who in the Zhang Family has colluded with the Blood God Sect, yet you want to kill indiscriminately. How is that any different from slaughtering the innocent?"
Chen Yuan scoffed. "Slaughtering the innocent? Let me ask you, Master Hui Ming, were the Jianghu People abducted by the Zhang Family and sent to the Blood God Sect fiends to be made into Qi Blood Elixirs innocent?"
"Even if some of them didn’t know their family was colluding with the Blood God Sect, the Zhang Family took benefits from the sect to grow stronger, and they all profited from it. Can you call that innocent?"
"You can’t just be a member of the Zhang Family when it’s time to reap the rewards, and then claim to be an innocent bystander when things go south, can you?"
Chen Yuan had always believed there was a certain logic to the extermination of nine generations of a clan.
’Why should you get to enjoy all the benefits, but when trouble comes, only one person has to pay with their head?’
"You’re twisting words and logic!"
Hui Ming snorted coldly. "For those who collude with the Blood God Sect, it is enough to execute only the ringleaders. We of the Buddhist Sect will absolutely not permit the slaughter of innocents!"
Chen Yuan’s expression darkened as he said coldly, "So, I get to be the bad guy while you all get to play the part of a Bodhisattva?"
"Fine. If you’re so capable, then you do it. Go ahead and ’enlighten’ them. Get them to confess who the ringleaders are."
Hui Ming snorted, stepped in front of the Zhang Family members, and clasped his hands together, his voice deep. "Benefactors, I am the Monk Hui Ming of the Vajra Prajna Temple."
"The Blood God Sect has committed unforgivable sins. If any among you have colluded with them, stepping forward now would be a chance to turn back from the brink."
"I swear on the name of the Vajra Prajna Temple that we will only execute the ringleaders and will not implicate the innocent!"
After Hui Ming finished speaking, the Zhang Family courtyard fell silent for a moment, followed by another round of cries of injustice. No one stepped forward to confess.
Xing Shen sighed and said in a low voice, "Hui Ming, come back. Don’t delay Lord Chen’s work."
Chen Yuan let out two soft chuckles, but the sound was like a slap to Hui Ming’s face, causing his complexion to alternate between red and white.
"There’s a time and a place for a Bodhisattva’s compassion. A time like this calls for a Vajra’s methods!"
Chen Yuan waved his hand and said flatly, "Begin the killing."
As his voice fell, Wu Bingjian and his men began beheading them one by one.
The five Monks from the Vajra Prajna Temple, however, all turned their backs, chanting the Rebirth Spell with expressions of pity on their faces.
Chen Yuan curled his lip.
’The thing he despised most about these Monks was their hypocrisy.’
’They clearly wanted to find the Blood God Sect’s trail as quickly as possible, and had actively given up on saving these Zhang Family members, yet they still put on a show of unbearable compassion. He had no idea who they were trying to impress.’
After several dozen people were killed, the three branch heads of the Zhang Family finally broke down and began to confess.
The leaders of all three branches had colluded with the Blood God Sect simultaneously. Not a single one of the three Zhang branches was innocent.
According to their confession, only one person from the Blood God Sect had been hiding in Mountain Monarch Ridge before, but recently, many more Blood God Sect Martial Artists had arrived, and their demands for people had been increasing.
But in return, the benefits the Blood God Sect gave them were also increasing, even including an Earth Level Technique and a large quantity of Blood Refining Elixirs.
Although they knew these elixirs were refined from the Qi Blood of living people, they couldn’t resist the temptation to take them. They even risked being discovered by Zhenwu Hall to deliver Martial Artists to the sect.
As for how many people were in Mountain Monarch Ridge, they didn’t know the exact number. However, based on the number of Martial Artists they had sent in the past, they estimated there were about ten people, and there were definitely Condensing Truth Realm Martial Artists among them.
This was because only Blood God Sect Martial Artists at the Condensing Truth Realm required Qi Blood from those at the Blood Movement Realm or higher to absorb.
Regarding their hiding place, the Zhang Family members suspected that the Blood God Sect was hidden on the cliffs on the eastern side of Mountain Monarch Ridge.
When they delivered people, they only brought them to the base of the cliffs. The Blood God Sect members would then lower ropes from above to haul them up.
After learning the general intelligence, Zhenwu Hall left a small contingent behind to deal with the Zhang Family, while the rest headed straight for Mountain Monarch Ridge.
Mountain Monarch Ridge was so named because the mountain range was once home to numerous tigers, which would even come down from the mountains to harm people.
Later, many Jianghu People came to Mountain Monarch Ridge to hunt tigers and sell their pelts. Within a few short years, not a single tiger could be seen in the ridge anymore.
At this moment, on a broken cliff face in Mountain Monarch Ridge, a cave had been artificially carved out.
Inside the cave, a thick, bloody mist permeated the air, and dozens of Martial Artists lay scattered around.
Some of these Martial Artists were completely unconscious, while others were awake but had their major acupoints sealed. They could only whimper and roar in terror.
Over a dozen Blood God Sect Martial Artists were siphoning their Qi Blood, using their Inner Strength to forcibly extract it through the surface of the skin. The Qi Blood was then gathered into pure, dense spheres and injected into the body of a gaunt middle-aged man sitting cross-legged in the center.
The middle-aged man was tall and thin, but he had barely any flesh on his body, looking like a bag of bones.
His face was especially terrifying: his eye sockets were sunken, his eyes were blood-red, and his skin was pale. He looked like a walking skeleton.
He was the Blood God Sect Hall Master, ’Evil Bone Blood Slaughter’ Gongyang Li.
Among the Blood God Sect Martial Artists present, there was also a Condensing Truth Realm Martial Artist named He Cheng.
Before Gongyang Li’s arrival, it was he who had gathered these Blood God Sect Martial Artists, preparing to leave Ning Province.
When Uncle Kou brought the news of the Lin Family’s destruction and Feng Xieyun’s death, He Cheng sensed that Ning Province had become dangerous.
Zhenwu Hall had begun a large-scale search for Blood God Sect Martial Artists. They could hide for a time, but not forever.
Moreover, always being in hiding was hindering their cultivation, so he had gathered a portion of the Blood God Sect disciples to prepare to leave for You Province.
But who would have thought that Gongyang Li would suddenly arrive in Western Ning Province and force them all to stay, ordering him to gather the Qi Blood of Martial Artists to help him recover from his injuries.
Gongyang Li was a Hall Master of the Blood God Sect from Qin Province; he was not their direct superior.
However, the Hall Master of Ning Province was away on business, and according to the rules of the Blood God Sect, they had to obey Gongyang Li’s orders.
Once Gongyang Li finished absorbing the Qi Blood, He Cheng walked up to him and said, "Lord Gongyang, Zhenwu Hall has already begun searching for our Blood God Sect members here in Ning Province. Their methods are ruthless; they’re using slaughter to force the local Jianghu Forces to expose us. If we continue to stay here, I’m afraid we will attract Zhenwu Hall’s attention."
Gongyang Li stared at He Cheng with his skeletal face. "What? Do you think that just because my Primordial Pill is shattered and I no longer have the cultivation of the Grandmaster Realm, you can look down on me and presume to tell me what to do?"