Ten-Year Truth, the Mastermind Behind the Scenes, Three Murderers

"Come on, stop gaping. You're practically about to fall off the Human Ranking already. Shouldn't I be stronger than you?"

"Let's go. Time to uncover the truth."

After stabbing Ma Wuji viciously in the chest once more, Zhang Chu strode into the strange Great Hall.

Zhang Chu could sense that the twenty-odd monks inside were all alive, and their qi and blood were not weak.

But he had only just stepped into the hall.

When a monk immediately came forward to greet them.

The monk stared in surprise at the two people who had suddenly entered, unable to understand why anyone would come here.

"Amitabha, this humble monk is Guangming."

"May I ask, benefactors, this is the Rebirth Hall, a forbidden ground of the Buddhist Sect. How did you enter?"

Guangming pressed his palms together, his gaze sweeping over the two of them.

Compared to the fat monks from before, who carried themselves like bandits, this master before them clearly possessed far more Buddhist grace.

"Greetings, Master. I am Zhang Chu, a Daoist of True Martial Temple. I have come to visit an enemy."

Hearing this, the monks grew even more bewildered.

Coming to the Rebirth Hall to seek an enemy? But other than Young Monks who ate vegetarian meals and chanted sutras, there were only dead people here.

"Benefactor, forgive this humble monk's discourtesy, but we monks of Jinguang Temple have always kept out of worldly affairs. How could we have enemies?"

Zhang Chu said no more and raised two heads.

"Master, that is not quite right. You are indeed true monks who eat vegetarian food and worship Buddha, but some people are not."

Then he held the heads out before them.

Guangming focused his eyes on them. His expression abruptly changed, his breathing quickened, and he nearly collapsed to the floor.

"M-Master Uncles?!"

Those two heads belonged to none other than Yuanjue and Yuanwu, the two most senior Chan masters of Jinguang Temple.

They were actually dead!

The Young Monks behind them erupted in uproar at the sight.

"Benefactor Zhang, what grievance did my two Master Uncles have with you that you would strike with such a vicious hand?!"

Guangming was beside himself with grief and fury, his voice trembling.

"Master, you misunderstand. Though the two Chan masters were killed by me just now, they did not die by my hand. Zhang cannot bear this grievance. I ask that you see clearly."

Zhang Chu explained calmly.

"You're talking nonsense! You cut off our Master Uncles' heads, yet now you say you didn't kill them?"

"That's right! Benefactor, your heart is far too cruel!"

The Young Monks glared indignantly at Zhang Chu. This man had dared to come here, yet he dared to act without daring to take responsibility.

"Is that so?" Zhang Chu's gaze swept across the crowd.

"Then please take another careful look. Did Chan Masters Yuanjue and Yuanwu truly just die?"

Hearing this, the monks suppressed their grief and fury and looked closely.

They had been too overwhelmed by sorrow to notice before.

Only now did they discover that the flesh and skin of the two heads had decayed, with a faint stench of rot. They had clearly been dead for years!

"Th-this... what is going on?"

Guangming staggered back several steps in disbelief.

"Let me explain."

Ma Wuji stepped forward at that moment.

"Big Monk, your Master Uncles actually died long ago. What you saw were merely gu corpses."

"And you don't know this, but those monks at the entrance who looked like bandits were also gu corpses!"

Ma Wuji recounted what they had encountered earlier.

After hearing him out, every monk was shaken.

There were actually so many living corpses in their temple.

Even their Master Uncles were among them!

"No... that's impossible!" Guangming shook his head again and again.

"After that great fire ten years ago, the Master Uncles believed that the former abbot's slaughter had been too grave. That was why they took in those Jianghu people, hoping to cleanse the temple's baleful aura through the act of delivering them from suffering. How could they be living corpses?"

Guangming revealed the origins of those vicious monks. No wonder they possessed not a shred of Buddhist grace and had banditry written all over their faces.

"Master, there is no need to hurry. If you wish to know what happened, you need only ask one person."

Zhang Chu suddenly spoke.

Guangming said, "Whom does Benefactor wish to ask?"

Zhang Chu smiled without answering. He turned toward the black-lacquered coffin in the hall and stared at the person lying inside.

"If we want to know everything, naturally we must ask the true culprit behind the scenes. Isn't that right, Chan Master Yuan Hui?"

Following Zhang Chu's gaze, Guangming's face filled with horror again. The true culprit Benefactor Zhang spoke of was actually Master Uncle Yuan Hui, who had already entered nirvana?!

Boom!!

Zhang Chu wasted no words and shattered the coffin with a single palm strike.

The corpse within was exposed.

Who else could it be but Yuan Hui, who had died that day!

"Still want to keep acting, Chan Master Yuan Hui?"

Zhang Chu sneered. Seeing no reaction from the coffin, he snorted and continued speaking to himself.

"Since that is the case, I'll make you lose with utter conviction, so no one can say later that I wronged you!"

Then Zhang Chu continued on his own:

"All along, I couldn't understand it. You and I were separated by hundreds of miles, with no connection whatsoever. Why did you want to kill me?"

"Only after seeing those living corpses did I understand. You did not want to kill me—you wanted to refine me into a living corpse!"

"As for the reason, it was because of those bandits, wasn't it? There were living corpses you had refined among them, and I happened to kill them. You feared your secret would be exposed and were enraged by the loss of your subordinates, so you set your sights on me."

"Do you remember those two men of the Li Family who could use the Flesh Power Fist? That martial art was too strange. At first, I thought Jin Kui had taught it to them. Only after I killed Jin Kui with my own hands did I suddenly realize that what they practiced was different!"

"Or rather, the Flesh Power Fist those two practiced was the true Six Storehouse Scripture. It was a martial art that could stop a person's heartbeat without damaging the fleshly body! Exactly like that punch you used to ambush me!"

"But what Jin Kui practiced was actually a fake martial art you had altered! He was the scapegoat you prepared in advance in case you were exposed! Everything could be pinned on his head!"

"How laughable. That idiot never knew until his death that even his Dark Strength Realm was fake!"

At the time, Zhang Chu had felt that Jin Kui was absurdly weak.

That chaotic, disordered strength.

It did not resemble that of a genuine Lesser Grandmaster of Dark Strength at all.

"And the reason you painstakingly arranged all this was because you knew you were about to be exposed! Or rather, the secret of all Jinguang Temple was about to be exposed."

"I once happened to hear Brother Ma mention the great fire from ten years ago. Even then, I found it strange. What kind of fire could burn a Lesser Grandmaster of Dark Strength to death, even killing dozens of people?"

"You must know that seeking fortune and avoiding misfortune is human instinct. When people see a fire, running is their first instinct. Yet they failed to escape and were all buried in that sea of flames."

"I thought that perhaps it was not that they did not want to run, but that they had already died before the fire began!"

As he spoke, Zhang Chu took out that Golden Cicada.

He continuously turned it over in his hand.

"More coincidentally, today I happened to obtain this precious medicinal treasure from a woman."

"At the time, Brother Ma suspected it too. How could a mere First-rate Realm cultivator possibly steal the Golden Cicada from the temple?"

"Now it seemed."

"This medicinal treasure was given to her by you, wasn't it!"

"And the reason you gave it to her was because she had also discovered Jinguang Temple's secret. She was the daughter of the second leader of the Twin Dragon Society, so you did not dare act rashly."

"Thus, you could only be blackmailed. Later, you sent people to pursue and test her, wanting to see whether the Twin Dragon Society knew everything!"

"Unfortunately, you fell short at the final step. Not only did you fail to probe the Twin Dragon Society, you even let me obtain the medicinal treasure!"

As he spoke, Zhang Chu looked at Guangming again.

"Didn't Master just ask how the mastermind behind the scenes could possibly be Yuan Hui? Then I'll tell you the truth!"

"Because the great fire ten years ago was not the work of the Demonic Cult at all. The old abbot had set it himself! That was also why he was burned to death!"

"What?!!"

The entire hall was stunned by those words.

Zhang Chu's words bewildered not only the monks of Jinguang Temple, but even Ma Wuji's eyes went wide.

"The old abbot set a fire and burned himself to death?"

"How was that possible!"

"Daoist Priest, could you be mistaken?"

Ma Wuji could not accept this result, nor could he believe it at all. It was simply too bizarre.

Guangming and the other monks were the same.

Though Zhang Chu's account was vivid and lifelike, it was too unbelievable for them to accept.

Seeing their doubts, Zhang Chu continued.

"I know everyone may find this difficult to accept for the moment, but all signs point to this being the truth."

"And I believe the old abbot did it because he had no other choice. He may have already been trapped at the time and could die at any moment, so he could only resort to this desperate measure."

"If there must be a reason, I suspect the old abbot's true intention was to destroy the Three Treasures of Red Lotus! At the same time, he used the fire to warn the monks in the temple to run quickly!"

"But heaven did not grant his wish. I do not know whether the Three Treasures of Red Lotus were destroyed, but not a single monk escaped!"

When his words fell.

The Great Hall became deathly silent.

Everyone was too horrified to speak.

Until one Young Monk stood and said, "No, Benefactor Zhang's deduction does not hold. Someone escaped. They were the three Master Uncles!"

The other monks nodded as well.

If Zhang Chu's deduction was correct, the monks had already been killed. How had the Master Uncles escaped?

Zhang Chu did not rush to refute him.

Instead, he looked toward Yuan Hui in the coffin.

"That's right! Such a perfect arrangement— even the old abbot fell for it—yet some people happened to escape!"

"Can Chan Master tell Zhang why? Or could it be that you three... were actually the murderers!"

Crash—

At those words, the entire hall descended into chaos.

Everyone looked at Zhang Chu in utter disbelief.

He was actually claiming that the three Master Uncles had been the masterminds behind that day's events, which was why they had escaped!

That was complete nonsense. It was impossible.

Yet at that very moment.

An even more unbelievable scene unfolded!

Yuan Hui, who had long been dead.

Slowly sat up from within the coffin!

The sight nearly made everyone jump on the spot. Their dead Master Uncle had actually come back to life!

Ignoring the stunned crowd.

Yuan Hui looked at Zhang Chu.

"You are very clever. You could actually infer so much from such tiny clues. Just like that damned girl before, you truly are irritating!"

Yuan Hui fixed Zhang Chu with an icy stare.

"But this old monk is very curious. When did you begin to suspect me, and how did you confirm it?"

As he spoke, Yuan Hui rose from the coffin beneath everyone's unbelieving gazes and walked forward.

"Curious? Then I'll grant you this final wish before you die. The evidence is this. See for yourself."

Zhang Chu tossed over the blood letter from his robes.

But when Yuan Hui saw the blood letter before him, there was not the slightest trace of curiosity. Instead, he looked as if he had seen it long ago.

"Just one blood letter?"

"Of course. If you had not tried to be clever, how would I have known that the murderer who wanted to kill me was actually not dead!"

"When you forced Jin Mu to write this blood letter, did you not notice that there were actually more words on the paper?"

"Hm?" Yuan Hui looked puzzled.

"Idiot, look at that streak of blood at the back!"

Zhang Chu's expression turned grave. "Tell me, if someone truly wanted to hide the traces, why would he add an unnecessary stroke after the words 'there is a ghost'?"

"That was because someone forced him to write it. He had no choice but to write it; it was not because he feared exposing anything! That was why there was that stroke. Jin Mu was trying to write the murderer's name."

"Unfortunately, you were too stupid to notice!"

Yuan Hui's pupils contracted after hearing this.

The situation had been urgent that day. The Refining Corpse Sect could absolutely not be allowed to enter the Sky Patrol Guard. He truly had overlooked that detail!

"But? So what!"

Yuan Hui suddenly burst into loud laughter.

"You say this old monk was too clever for his own good, but is Daoist Priest Zhang any different? Since you knew I had painstakingly lured you here, didn't you still come?"

"And Daoist Priest has underestimated Jin Mu. In fact, after you questioned him about me in the Boat Gang's central hall that day, he had already begun to suspect something. He simply did not know the key point."

"However, none of that matters anymore."

His laughter gradually faded, ghostly light flickering in his eyes.

"Because today, you came!"