Chapter 442 The Shadow of the Traitor

After the battle, the Slag Straight Sword hadn't consumed much of its power. After all, it had only been used once properly. I'm very satisfied with its power; it defeated the Peach Blossom Village Lord's avatar with a single strike. Although the Peach Blossom Village Lord's avatar was caught completely off guard.

The power of fire is known for its destructive force. If, under equal conditions, an enemy survives a full-force attack from me when caught off guard, it can only mean that my skill is insufficient.

In a normal exchange, it's impossible to end the fight in just a couple of hits. However, even so, the Slag Straight Sword's endurance is more than enough to sustain a battle. This is largely thanks to the large amount of "slag" I extracted from him during my previous battle with Mingzhuo. Thanks to his infinite resurrection mechanism, the amount of "slag" I obtained from him far exceeded what I got from this battle.

Of course, I still need to be wary that once the enemy realizes the Slag Straight Sword has a limited lifespan, they might drag me into a war of attrition. The Slag Straight Sword is ultimately just a weapon, a weapon for bursts of power in the heat of battle. To truly become stronger, I must steadily improve my fundamental strength.

Since they were able to obtain the slag from the avatar of the Peach Blossom Village Lord, it means that the avatar likely contained a portion of the Peach Blossom Village Lord's original soul. The question is whether the Peach Blossom Village Lord's original body was damaged after truly losing that portion of his soul.

My expectation for this incident is neither to kill the Peach Blossom Village Lord himself, nor to obtain more "slag." I hope to gain more information from this incident brought about by Asaho, especially insights into how I should act in the future.

Back to the present, since a corpse had appeared, Zhu Shi was worried that Xiao Qiao would be frightened, so he went to comfort her and also explained his and my situation to her.

Surprisingly, Xiao Qiao calmed down quickly. She glanced at me, then at her best friend Zhu Shi, and muttered, "Really? I still feel dizzy... My friend is the fiancée of a god, and the senior from my school is that god... Have I accidentally stumbled into the world of some kind of light novel for women?"

"Should I set up a memorial tablet for an older classmate at home, and put a photo of a friend next to it...?"

Zhu Shi couldn't help but say, "If you do that, it will be very difficult for me to visit you again in the future."

"I was just joking," said Xiao Qiao, a junior student.

After the exchange here was almost over, we went to wake up the impermanent being who was lying on the ground, a believer of the life impurity.

After he regained consciousness, he was still somewhat disoriented. At first, he thought he was dead. When he opened his eyes, he saw my face and then stared in disbelief, as if a devout Catholic had somehow fallen into hell after death and seen Satan.

After Zhu Shi gave a brief explanation, the impermanent man gradually came to his senses and his attitude returned to normal, as if nothing had happened.

Although this Wuchang (a person's name) belongs to the transcendentalist camp and is a believer in the corrupted life force, I am, in the public eye, one of his superiors. Under my orders, he had no choice but to give me a detailed report on his activities over the past two weeks.

As I suspected, the reason he had been missing for the past two weeks was because he was engrossed in investigating the "preachers" who had appeared in Saltwater City and several surrounding cities. Normally, even if one is actively working, there is no need to disappear without a trace. However, these high-level impermanent beings often have a great deal of freedom of movement, and coupled with the fact that they often have to deal with unpredictable and bizarre events, it is quite normal for them to disappear for one or two months.

This resulted in them having few strict rules when working, and they could ignore calls from other unseen forces if they wanted to. Moreover, according to Zhu Shi's supplement, the unseen forces in the transcendentalist camp were much freer than those in the pacifist camp, and there wasn't even a requirement to complete a certain number of tasks each year. Of course, as demon hunters, even if they didn't want to solve cases, cases would come to them.

The fact that this level-one Impermanence would take the initiative to track down and attack the "preacher" of Peach Blossom Village is hard to tell. It's unclear whether it's because he's more dedicated than other extraordinary Impermanence, or simply because he's annoyed by the intrusion of external organizations into his territory.

"...While that factor certainly played a part, the main reason is that witchers like us, whose stances are hostile to each other, cannot truly coexist peacefully in the same area. Sooner or later, we will be drawn together by some unseen force, and then conflict will erupt..."

Knowing that he couldn't lie to me, this level-up impermanent was quite honest and revealed his true motives: "Unless I intend to reach a tacit understanding with the other party in private and watch them develop their power... but then I would be tantamount to becoming a traitor to Luoshan."

"I wouldn't do that without giving me enough benefits."

Upon hearing the last sentence, Zhu Shi looked speechless and said, "Your stance is really quite 'firm'."

The fickle man, seemingly oblivious to the sarcasm, readily agreed, saying, "Of course. The amount required to betray Luoshan and the gods would be extremely high. Mere petty gains could never shake my unwavering loyalty to Luoshan."

"In short, if we let him continue to operate freely in this area and develop his power, it will become more difficult for me to deal with him later. Rather than that, it is better to eliminate him as soon as possible."

"But who knew..."

Zhu Shi continued, "Who knew he would actually prepare Zhuang Cheng's forces beforehand to deal with you, a believer in Mingzhuo?"

Wuchang shook his head and then said, "No, the problem lies before that... Why did he know I was a follower of the Fate-Turbidity Cult? Zhu Shi, have you ever heard of me being a follower of the Fate-Turbidity Cult before?"

"This is the first time I've heard of this," Zhu Shi said.

So, when Zhu Shi first mentioned this concept of impermanence to me, he didn't mention that he was a follower of the Mingzhuo sect. If Zhu Shi had known this information from the beginning, he would definitely have told me at least a little. After all, there's a deep-seated grudge between Mingzhuo and me.

In other words, the fact that "the level of the Impermanence in charge of Xianshui City and several surrounding cities is actually a follower of Mingzhuo" was a secret that even Zhu Shi, the Impermanence of Xianshui City, did not know before. This is no ordinary matter. You must know that during the period when I was at odds with Mingzhuo, the Zhu family was also running around collecting intelligence, but they were not even able to find out that the person in charge of their own city was actually a member of Mingzhuo, which shows how high the level of secrecy was.

So why is it a secret that he is a follower of the "impurity of life" (命浊) sect? Is there some special reason?

Upon further questioning, he seemed to realize he could not lie or remain silent in front of me, and could only honestly confess: there was actually no reason for this, it was merely a practice passed down through generations of believers in the "Life-Taking Turbidity" sect.

Looking back, we find that neither Lu Youxun nor Shen Qiang initially knew they were Ming Zhuo's subordinates. Ming Zhuo's personality seems to lack any element of uprightness; he prefers to remain in the shadows, creating a dark and terrifying atmosphere through his omnipresent eyes and invisible hand to achieve his desired results.

He also had certain needs that required intangible means to fulfill. For example, in the past, he had his subordinates kidnap and kill a large number of people born with strong spiritual abilities in an attempt to open a bridge to the afterlife. Of course, this was something that Fazheng could not allow, and the two Great Impermanences had clashed over it. Later, Mingzhuo moved this activity to the shadows. Fazheng always insisted on having a legitimate reason for his actions, and without concrete evidence, it became difficult for him to take action against Mingzhuo again.

"It's not that I didn't know this place was a place of destiny for the god Zhuangcheng, nor that I didn't know that as a believer of the god's fate, I would be strongly restrained by Zhuangcheng's power... However, I didn't expect that my background would be known to outsiders in advance," said Wuchang.

"Isn't it because you used the power of life turbidity somewhere before, and someone caught you with a clue?" Zhu Shi asked.

"All the enemies who witnessed me using the power of life's corruption have been killed by me, and I thoroughly cleaned up the battlefield afterward. I don't believe this was caused by my negligence," the Impermanent One said earnestly. "It must be that someone within our ranks has betrayed us."

There is a traitor among Mingzhuo's subordinates... Could this be a clue to my future actions?

After the exchange, the impermanent man summoned the agents to settle the ordinary people. As for the "preacher's" corpse on the ground, I severed its head and took it away.

It was already night. Zhu Shi first took Xiao Qiao, a junior student, to her home, saying she wanted to meet her parents and explain the situation to them so they would agree to Xiao Qiao transferring to Luoshan College. Things seemed to go relatively smoothly. As night fell, Zhu Shi called me after the discussion. I went to Zhu Shi's villa and saw her again in the living room on the first floor.

"Shouldn't this matter be over? After all, you even fought against the avatar of the Peach Blossom Village Lord in this incident, so it's certainly not an ordinary event..."

Despite saying that, Zhu Shi's expression still showed unease, clearly indicating that things might not be completely over yet.

I shared the same view, and then I took the head of the "Preacher" out of the flames.

"Whether there will be any follow-up to this incident, we'll have to ask this guy's head later," I said.

(End of this chapter)