Players: All NPCs in the Sect Are Moles

'This... so fast...'

"Y-you... stay away!!"

Zhang Ao's legs went weak with fear, and a warm stream trickled down his trousers. He scrambled backward on all fours until his back hit a large tree. With nowhere left to retreat, he could only put on a brave front and roar, "I'm a mortal! I'm the young master of the Zhang Family! I have a registered household! I have an official rank! According to the rules of the righteous path, you can't kill me! This is the senseless slaughter of an innocent!!"

Su Ling'er walked up to him and looked down at this so-called "young master," who reeked of piss.

She simply raised her scabbard and smashed it viciously against Zhang Ao's jabbering mouth!

"CRACK—!!" The blow was heavy and powerful, completely mangling Zhang Ao's mouth! Teeth and blood sprayed into the air!

"Ugh, argh—!!!" Zhang Ao let out a pig-like squeal.

"By your logic, that makes you a rabid dog right now." Su Ling'er stared at him coldly. "Have you ever seen anyone try to reason with a rabid dog?"

"My... my father is Mr. Zhang..." Zhang Ao mumbled tearfully, clutching his ruined mouth. "I have money... I'll give it all to you..."

"Such a steady hand, wasn't it? Such an accurate shot, right? Did your hand tremble at all when you were shooting those refugees just now? Why is it shaking like a leaf now?"

"CRUNCH—!!" With a blank expression, Su Ling'er stomped down hard on the right hand that had once drawn a bow and shot arrows.

The sound of shattering bone was sickeningly clear. The once-pampered hand was instantly reduced to a pulp of flesh and bone!

"AAAAH! Kill me! Just kill me!!" Zhang Ao writhed on the ground in agony, his face a mess of snot and tears. Where was the arrogant swagger he had before, when he was gleefully slaughtering commoners?

"You want to die?" Su Ling'er flicked her Wooden Sword, pinning him against the tree trunk so he couldn't move. "When that refugee didn't want to die, did you give him a chance?"

Su Ling'er raised her scabbard again and brought it down hard on Zhang Ao's knee!

"CRACK!"

"AAAAAAGH!"

"Did you give a chance to that innocent man you turned into a pincushion?"

"CRACK!"

"Since you didn't, what makes you think you deserve one now?"

"Ah... ah... ah..."

Zhang Ao lay slumped on the ground like a deboned dog, the intense pain causing his body to convulse. He couldn't even sustain a proper scream. But his fear was nothing compared to the collapse of his entire worldview.

The status he was so proud of, the rules he lived by—under this madwoman's sword, they weren't even worth a scrap of paper!

It was the same despair of being treated like an ant, a plaything, a beast to be trampled at will. Only this time, it was his turn...

Su Ling'er planted a foot on his chest and pressed the tip of her sword to the point between his eyebrows, her gaze like she was looking at a pile of trash. "In my book, a monster like you wearing human skin is just a rogue Evil Cultivator."

"And I specialize in killing Evil Cultivators."

In that moment, Zhang Ao finally understood.

There was no room for negotiation, no possibility of reason. In this woman's eyes, even without a shred of Cultivation, he was still an Evil Cultivator.

When despair reached its peak, it turned into the most frantic venom.

In the final moment before the Wooden Sword pierced him, Zhang Ao used the last of his strength to glare with his bloodshot eyes and let out a final, wretched roar: "Mad... woman!! You... you're the Evil... Cultivator!! You're the... real... demonic path!! You'll... suffer..."

"SQUELCH—!"

The Wooden Sword ran through his throat, choking off his remaining words and his filthy soul along with them.

Zhang Ao's pupils began to dilate. In the last moments of his life, a spinning lantern of his memories flashed through his mind.

Even in death, he couldn't understand.

'Why...'

'Why did this happen...'

'Aren't Immortals supposed to be aloof and above it all...? Why would one act like some street-corner vigilante, meddling in this kind of unprofitable business...? Weren't those people just a bunch of rotting meat...? How did killing a few pieces of rotting meat... make me an Evil Cultivator...?'

Zhang Ao's body slid limply to the ground. His eyes, filled with confusion, venom, and bewilderment, slowly lost their focus and turned a dead, ashen gray...

Meanwhile, [Ten Steps, One Kill], who was watching nearby, saw his own corpse avenged and the once-arrogant Mr. Zhang executed like a dead dog. He couldn't help but type a line of bold text into the City Patrol channel:

[Ten Steps, One Kill]: Miss Su is a badass!!! KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL! I dare you to chop off my corpse's head now! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

...

The wind died down.

A dead silence returned to the woods, with only the thick stench of blood lingering in the air.

Su Ling'er stood in the clearing, which was littered with corpses. It seemed that because this was her first time slaughtering mortals, her body was able to absorb a trace of blood qi.

"Immortal..."

A trembling voice called out from behind her.

The old man she had rescued stared at the black-clad woman before him, who was covered in blood.

Was he afraid? Yes.

The headless corpses scattered across the ground were enough to give anyone nightmares.

But... the old man looked at Su Ling'er's eyes. Though splattered with blood, they were still clear.

It didn't matter if she was an immortal or a demon, righteous or evil.

She was the only Immortal who had stood in front of them when they were about to be shot down.

She was their savior.

THUD!

The old man fell to his knees and kowtowed heavily, his forehead pressing into the blood-soaked earth as he choked back sobs.

"Thank you, Immortal... for saving our lives!!"

"Thank you, Immortal!!"

Behind him, the women, children, and all the other once-despairing refugees fell to their knees, kowtowing piously in Su Ling'er's direction.

Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the leaves, shining on Su Ling'er's bloodstained black clothes and on the kneeling crowd.

The sky over Anhe City seemed to have truly changed in that moment.

...

「A long time passed.」

Su Ling'er sheathed her Wooden Sword. With a flick of her fingers, she performed the Dust Cleansing Skill, and the bloodstains on her body vanished in an instant, revealing the same black clothes from before.

And amidst the refugees' tearful accounts, she finally learned that their families hadn't fallen on hard times due to natural disasters or human calamities, nor had they sold their ancestral properties because of poor business management.

It was all just an orchestrated hunt.

The gentry and powerful families in the city were responsible for applying pressure and setting traps out in the open, creating trouble. Then, the money shop named "Tongli" would opportunely offer a high-interest loan contract that looked like a lifeline but was actually a death sentence.

When the interest compounded until the families were bankrupt, it was time for the powerful families and the money shop to join forces and reel in their nets.

Their fields were seized, their homes were taken, and with no one to take them in, law-abiding citizens naturally became refugees. And now, those refugees had become prey to be hunted.

In this black market industry, Zhang Ao, who had just lost his head, was the butcher responsible for carving the meat from the bone.

'And as for the demon holding the knife, the one responsible for dividing the meat and drinking the blood... she's probably wearing plain white mourning clothes right now, putting on a show of deep sisterly love at her best friend's Spirit Hall.'

'Whether Liu Yue was involved in An Qinyao's murder or not, everything that happened here seems to be inextricably linked to the money shop.'

Su Ling'er slowly raised her head.

Her gaze pierced through the blood-soaked woods and the towering city walls, landing directly on a place within Anhe City, a place currently hung with white funeral banners and filled with the sound of mourning music.

'The An Family Ancestral Hall.'

'In that moment, the clue seemed to point to a single name.'

'Liu—Yue—!!'

...

「Meanwhile, before Su Ling'er dealt with the refugee matter, at the Tongli Money Shop in the south of the city.」

The events of the past two days had also nearly driven Liu Yue insane...