Mountain Rain (2)

Hua Wuyi knew that this matter needed a proper explanation—not merely for the Profound Heaven Sect, but for the entire cultivation world.

The cultivation world was filled with sects, its various powers tangled in a web where tugging one hair moved the whole body.

If their direct disciples had truly come to harm within Hehuan Sect territory, and the Profound Heaven Sect came knocking to demand accountability, she would indeed have little to say in rebuttal. But since they had not suffered any irreversible injuries, then in the end, they had chosen to wade into these muddy waters themselves. They had brought this suffering upon themselves and could not blame anyone else.

Yet if word got out that a lawless band of evil cultivators had been hiding within the Hehuan Sect's sphere of influence, specializing in the trafficking of people—and that their victims were all children and young women, including even cultivators who had already embarked on the path of cultivation—the severity of the matter would be beyond imagination.

Who had not struggled step by step from the Qi Refining Stage? What sect had no low-level disciples? Though such disciples usually played little part in a sect's major affairs, they were all the sect's future—especially those promising seedlings with exceptional talent, upon whom great hopes were placed.

Trafficking children was already a heinous, outrage-inducing crime. For these evil cultivators to dare lay hands on sect disciples was an open provocation against every sect.

If they did not even fear a great sect like the Profound Heaven Sect, would they really be wary of weaker sects?

Certainly, because their disciples had become involved this time, the Profound Heaven Sect would inevitably become the laughingstock of other sects. But compared to them, the Hehuan Sect would undoubtedly suffer a far greater blow.