Ye Rulan fell silent for a long while, seemingly recalling something. After a long time, she finally spoke slowly, but her voice remained frighteningly low:
"Li Kui, Feng Hai, and the others knew perfectly well that they had botched the job. If they returned to the sect with their tails between their legs, severe punishment would certainly await them.
"So those villains came up with an utterly sinister, cunning idea. Since they had already gone this far, they would go all the way: slaughter every man, woman, and child in the village, then use the Corpse Puppet Sect's special methods to refine their corpses into puppets!
"Once they finished, they would tell everyone that those vile demonic cultivators had done it, and that all they had found upon arriving was a scene too ghastly to bear..."
At this point, Ye Rulan's gaze grew even colder, as though it could freeze the air around her.
"Li Kui and his accomplices acted at once. Like ravenous tigers pouncing on their prey, they slaughtered the entire village, leaving neither chickens nor dogs alive, not a scrap remaining. Even travelers passing within several miles were not spared. They killed them all.
"Zhao Bufan's parents hid him using their only invisibility talisman. Only through that stroke of luck did he escape Li Kui and the others' notice. Still so young, he watched in agony as his loved ones were violated and brutally slaughtered before his eyes.
"Li Kui and the others continued their atrocities for an entire day before returning to the sect, satisfied, to report what had happened. I happened to be a disciple of the Enforcement Hall and was sent to investigate.
"That was when I found Zhao Bufan trembling among the ruins. He was only a child of six or