News of the Eternal Life Society

"I'm sorry."

"What!?" Zhang Ying thought she was hallucinating.

"Yingzi, I'm sorry. I should have discussed it with you beforehand."

This was Zhang Hongxing's first apology since returning to Earth, and his first in more than fifteen thousand years of life. No matter how many powerful enemies he had faced, he had never once bowed his head.

Yet this time, he had apologized for killing an evil man.

For his daughter, for the thirty years of fatherly duties he had failed to fulfill.

In the end, he had bowed his head.

The mighty Thunder Immortal Venerable, whose word had always been law, had bowed his head just like that.

If anyone in the Immortal Cultivation World heard about this, every last one of them would be utterly dumbfounded.

"Forget it."

Zhang Ying turned and went back inside. The resentment had already taken root, and it would take far more than a day or two to dissolve it. Fortunately, Zhang Hongxing now had all the time in the world.

As long as Zhang Ying stayed here, he would always have a chance.

"Dad, you and Yingzi deliberately stepped away from us because of Qin Dagang, right?"

Not long after Zhang Ying left, Zhang Jun came over.

"Did your mother send you?"

"No, I was just curious."

"Mind your own business instead of poking your nose into everything. Have you made any progress with the cultivation technique I taught you?"

"Uh... well, Dad, Mom's calling me. I'm going inside."

Zhang Jun slunk away.

Of his three children, Zhang Jun was the one Zhang Hongxing worried about least.

After sitting alone for a little while, Zhang Jun finally remembered the Black Knife Daoist outside the courtyard. He picked up the teapot Zhang Jun had just brought over and headed outside.

By then, the Black Knife Daoist had been sitting in a daze for almost forty hours. Before those forty hours, he had been leaping around nonstop for seven days and seven nights.

Such stamina already surpassed that of an ordinary person.

But no matter how strong his constitution was, after that much punishment, he was bound to look half-dead.

When Zhang Hongxing lifted the formation's suppression on the Black Knife Daoist and walked up to him,

his eyes remained completely unfocused.

That lasted until Zhang Hongxing reached out, patted his face, and poured from the teapot's spout onto his cracked lips.

The sudden moisture in his mouth instantly jolted the Black Knife Daoist back to life.

He began gulping it down.

Only when Zhang Hongxing stopped pouring did he stop drinking.

"Pour. Pour! Keep pouring!"

A vicious gleam flashed in the Black Knife Daoist's eyes, and his equally shriveled arm shot out to grab Zhang Hongxing.

"Still trying to lash out when you're in this state? Looks like I need to keep you trapped for a few more days."

With a light leap, Zhang Hongxing retreated half a meter, narrowly slipping free of the Black Knife Daoist's grasp. At last, the man came to his senses.

"You... you... are... the owner here."

"You're not entirely stupid. Tell me why you came here and who sent you."

"I..."

"Don't even think about lying to me. I have far more tricks at my disposal than you could imagine."

"I'm the Black Knife Daoist. I came for the thing inside that mulberry tree. No one sent me. I created that thing myself."

The Black Knife Daoist offered a mixture of truth and lies. He could not gauge Zhang Hongxing at all, and the illusion formation he had endured over the past several days still terrified him. Facing a man like this, he did not dare fabricate everything.

"At least you're being somewhat clever."

As he spoke, Zhang Hongxing suddenly reached out and tapped the Black Knife Daoist between the brows.

"You... what did you do to me?"

He felt something like an insect burrow in between his brows and scurry around inside his head.

"Don't be scared. I only put a little something inside. You've heard of a Soul-Eating Insect, haven't you? With it doing the work, you won't feel any pain."

"I... what exactly do you want to know? I really wasn't lying."

"I never said you were lying. I simply don't trust people, that's all. Don't worry. A Soul-Eating Insect isn't fatal one hundred percent of the time. You have a one percent chance of surviving."

Zhang Hongxing gave the Black Knife Daoist a sinister smile, and the overwhelming presence unique to an Immortal Venerable instantly enveloped him.

"Spare me! Please, spare me! I'll talk! I'll tell you everything, just please let me go!" The Black Knife Daoist fell to his knees before Zhang Hongxing and repeatedly kowtowed.

That Immortal Venerable's presence instantly broke him. It already surpassed even the strongest leader in their organization.

At that moment, all he wanted was to survive.

His experiences in the illusion formation had broken him countless times already. If he had dared to die, he would probably have died long ago.

Only those who had died once truly treasured life.

What the Black Knife Daoist had endured over the past several days could not compare to actual death, but it certainly counted as coming halfway there.

Zhang Hongxing reached out again and tapped the Black Knife Daoist's forehead.

The sensation of an insect scurrying around immediately vanished.

"My lord, I truly am the Black Knife Daoist, and I did come here for the thing inside that great mulberry tree. But the ones who sent me were an organization called the Eternal Life Society."

"The Eternal Life Society?"

"Yes, the Eternal Life Society. Its members are all people who long for eternal life. Their leader is an old man who wears a mask bearing the character 囧. I don't know his actual identity, but I'm certain he's very powerful. Of course, however powerful he is, he can't compare to you."

"Good. Record everything you know about the Eternal Life Society."

Zhang Hongxing set his phone to record and handed it to the Black Knife Daoist.

Having already revealed so much, the Black Knife Daoist could hardly refuse now. He took a moment to gather his memories, then began rattling off everything he knew. In the meantime, Zhang Hongxing did not begrudge him the remaining half-pot of tea.

"My lord, I've told you everything I can. Could you..."

"Very good. Then it's time to send you on your way."

"You..."

Bang.

The Black Knife Daoist fell straight backward. Naturally, Zhang Hongxing had no intention of letting him go.

Even setting aside the fact that the Black Knife Daoist had dared to raise an evil spirit inside the great mulberry tree, Zhang Hongxing's approach to handling things, honed in the Immortal Cultivation World, meant the man could never have left alive.

After killing the Black Knife Daoist, Zhang Hongxing lifted his corpse with one hand and vanished into the night in a few bounds.

This was modern society. After killing someone, he could not simply dump the body wherever he pleased.

By the time he had taken care of everything and returned home, an hour had passed.

"Dad, what did you do with that man?"

Once again, Zhang Jun was the first to approach him.

"Tossed him far away."

"Then he..."

"Stop asking so many questions. He wasn't a good person either. Listen to this recording, then hand it over to the government. Figure out how to do that yourself."

Zhang Hongxing handed the Black Knife Daoist's recording to Zhang Jun. After what had happened with Zhang Ying, he needed to change his way of handling things a little.

His family had finally come together again. He could not let his own actions tear them apart.

As the recording played, Zhang Jun's view of the world gradually shifted once more. The Eternal Life Society's many atrocities revealed a world steeped in evil.

He had never imagined that such things could exist in this peaceful world.

"Dad, did the things in this recording really happen?"

"Don't you already have your answer?"

"But... aren't they afraid of getting their just deserts?"

"Even the law can't scare them. What would a mere warning about getting their just deserts accomplish?"