The Truth and the Deal

"What exactly was the Ten Thousand Immortals Cult's objective tonight?"

Su Han asked the question on his mind.

The Ten Thousand Immortals Cult had made a major move tonight, confronting the two major powers of the outer city head-on. Quite a few people had died, too.

With an operation like this,

all it took was a moment's thought to realize that the Giant Whale Sect was definitely just a smokescreen.

Whatever the Ten Thousand Immortals Cult was planning had to be far bigger.

Chen Yixi fell silent for a few seconds, seemingly hesitating.

But she soon smiled, a hint of madness in her smile.

"You don't have long to live anyway, so there's no harm in telling you."

She then truthfully explained the purpose of the operation.

"Our objective this time was to establish the 'Heaven and Earth Eight Trigrams Blood Sacrifice Grand Formation.'"

"We specifically researched this grand formation."

"Sub-formations were set up at eight locations around the center of Jinghai City. Once activated together, they can collect blood and turn it into blood pills."

"And these blood pills are best suited to members of the Ten Thousand Immortals Cult. They can forcibly raise our cultivation."

She paused and looked at Su Han.

"The Giant Whale Sect is at the Kan position, one part of the grand formation."

"The reason we made such a big commotion and brought everyone along, including the menial workers..."

Chen Yixi's smile grew colder.

"Was to cause casualties."

"Not only did we need all the cannon fodder to die, but we also needed people from the Giant Whale Sect and ordinary people to die."

"The more chaos, the better. The more deaths, the better."

"That way, more blood could be collected, and the quantity and purity of the blood pills would be better."

"That helps improve our Immortal Martial Arts."

As Su Han listened, his expression changed.

He had finally come to understand what the Ten Thousand Immortals Cult truly was.

They refined human blood into blood pills and used them as a resource to raise their cultivation.

It was no wonder the authorities had classified them as an evil cult.

They truly stopped at nothing, used vicious methods, and treated human life as nothing.

As long as there was something to gain, there was nothing they wouldn't do.

"You..." Su Han's voice was icy. "You really deserve to die."

Chen Yixi dismissed his words and sneered.

"Deserve to die? This world has always been one where the weak are prey to the strong."

"It's an honor for those ants to contribute to our cultivation."

Su Han stopped arguing with her about it.

There was no point.

He took a deep breath and asked the question that mattered most to him.

"My parents were murdered, my sister was gravely injured, and I was framed."

"How much do you know about that?"

With the Ten Thousand Immortals Cult's resources and investigative capabilities,

they might know something.

After all, they had given him information about his sister before.

Now that Chen Yixi had fallen into his hands, this was the perfect chance to ask her. She might know something about his enemies.

Chen Yixi glanced at him and nodded.

"I know a little."

Su Han's eyes lit up, and he hurriedly asked,

"Tell me."

Chen Yixi answered directly.

"The murderer was a noble from the Self-Circulating City."

"The Sturgeon Group handled the aftermath."

"Things like this happen often: people disappearing from time to time, nowhere to be found alive or dead, all kinds of heinous murders, and so on."

"In fact, most of them were committed by people from the Self-Circulating City."

The Self-Circulating City? Su Han clenched his fists.

A trace of anger appeared on his face, and he couldn't help asking,

"Why? Why did they do it?"

"Why?" Chen Yixi couldn't help sneering at Su Han's naive question.

"To vent, of course. Purely to vent."

"After all, in their eyes, people from the outer city are all ants."

"What does killing a few ants matter?"

"Would you need a reason to stomp a few ants to death?"

Su Han fell silent.

His heart felt as though an invisible hand had clenched around it, leaving him unable to breathe.

To vent?

They killed his parents and crippled his sister just to vent?

They destroyed everything he had just to vent?

What kind of damn reason was that?

Weren't the lives of people from the outer city human lives too?

What gave them the right?

A blaze of anger rose in Su Han's heart, but he knew there was no use getting angry now.

Only by learning who his true enemies were

and then improving his strength would he have a chance to exact his revenge.

He forced down the anger in his heart and continued,

"Then do you know who those nobles are?"

But this time, Chen Yixi shook her head.

"I don't know that."

"The Sturgeon Group keeps its clients' information confidential whenever it takes this kind of job."

"All I know is that they came from a super family in the Self-Circulating City."

"I don't know which family or who exactly."

Su Han fell silent again, a thousand thoughts running through his mind.

He looked at Chen Yixi again, intending to ask more.

But just then,

"Ring, ring..."

Chen Yixi's phone suddenly rang.

Su Han walked over and took the phone from Chen Yixi's pocket.

The caller ID read: Kong Fuxian.

This was probably the Senior Brother Kong Chen Yixi had kept talking about.

Su Han answered without speaking.

Kong Fuxian's voice came from the other end, calm and steady.

"Junior Sister Chen, where are you?"

Su Han was silent for a few seconds before he spoke.

"She's with me."

There was silence on the other end for a few seconds as well.

That voice wasn't Chen Yixi's.

Something had gone wrong.

Then Kong Fuxian's voice turned cold as he ventured a guess.

"Are you Su Han?"

"Yes."

"Where's Junior Sister Chen?"

"She's in my hands," Su Han said bluntly. "If you want her to live, trade an Immortal Martial Arts cultivation method for her."

There was another few seconds of silence on the other end.

Kong Fuxian laughed.

"You're clever."

"All right."

"As long as you release Junior Sister Chen,"

"I can give you the cultivation method for the fourth Immortal Martial Arts realm, the Wolf Smoke Realm."

By rights, Su Han should have accepted those terms.

But Su Han merely shook his head and refused.

"Not enough."

"I want all of them."

"From the Wolf Smoke Realm to the final Immortal Martial Arts Realm, I want them all."

Su Han had now thoroughly offended the Ten Thousand Immortals Cult.

And these Immortal Martial Arts cultivation methods really were valuable.

If he didn't seize this opportunity to get them, it would be difficult to obtain the subsequent Immortal Martial Arts cultivation methods later.

He might as well open his mouth as wide as a lion and take as much as he could get.

But how could Kong Fuxian possibly accept such terms?

He refused outright.

"Impossible."

"The Immortal Martial Arts cultivation methods are the cult's highest secret. I can't possibly give them all to you."

Su Han sneered and issued a direct threat.

"What about Chen Yixi's life, then? Do you still want to save her or not?"

"If you don't, I'll kill her right now."

A trace of anger entered the voice on the other end.

"You're asking for too much. It's not good to be too greedy."

But Su Han wasn't about to listen to his nonsense.

"I'm an outlaw with nothing to lose. What's wrong with being a little greedy?"

"Chen Yixi is in my hands right now. You can trade a few cultivation methods for her life. That's quite a bargain, isn't it?"

The other end went quiet. Kong Fuxian seemed to be considering Su Han's terms.

But in the end, he made only one concession.

"At most, I can give you the cultivation methods through the fifth realm, the Blood Pillar Realm."

"That's my limit."

"Anything beyond that, and never mind that I can't give it to you-even if I did, you wouldn't be able to cultivate it."

"Besides, Chen Yixi isn't worth that price."