Liuyun Sword Sect, Father, Brother, and Sister!
Death is like the wind, constantly by my side.
All people are afraid of death; when true death arrives, just how many people can forsake life for the sake of righteousness?
People are selfish, emotional, and equally rational.
To want a person to not fear life or death...
It boils down to just a few types: either they are righteous men of ambition holding the greater good in their hearts, or you have tied up their entire family from old to young. Besides these...
They are nothing more than some naturally emotional, foolish fellows!
Perhaps...
In this world, there truly exist people of great willpower, but Qin Lu believes...
It is absolutely impossible for them to be the two people before his eyes!
Just by the cowardly appearance of these two, they do not look like stubborn bones either...
Therefore...
After a slight intimidation towards the two, their livers and gallbladders were frightened to pieces!
They knelt and submitted to the ground, kowtowing with their heads striking the earth, bowing like pounding garlic...
One is at the True Martial Four Realms, and the other is at the True Martial Sixth Realm.
With their cultivation not high and in the prime of their lives, who wouldn't want to live a few more years? Even if it means kneeling and surviving ignobly, that is still better than standing and being slaughtered by him!
"Senior! I confess!"
"I'll confess everything!"
One person prostrated himself on the ground, spilling out everything...
As for the other person, he had been knocked unconscious and lay on the ground unable to get up.
Afterwards...
They would conduct further interrogation to cross-examine and verify, so as to avoid being deceived by them...
"Speak..."
"Who are you? What kind of people are behind you? Where do you hail from, and what is your objective?"
"Explain it clearly to this seat one by one. If you say the wrong thing, there will be no chance to take it back. I hope you, little friend, will think thrice before speaking..."
Qin Lu smiled benevolently...
Sitting in the void, he put on an appearance of lending a listening ear...
That person shivered, trembling as he said:
"Junior: Zhuo Wen..."
"Hailing from the Daliang State, Zhengyuan Dao District, the Daliang State is dominated mostly by sects. Therefore, the country is divided into seven Dao districts..."
"Junior belongs to a Qi Condensation force, an inner disciple of the Floating Cloud Sword Sect."
"The crowd that came together this time are all fellow martial apprentices of the Floating Cloud Sword Sect, as well as several executive elders. The objective is to scout Yingchuan County..."
"Because our sect borders Yingchuan, and the source of the Ying River happens to be within our sect's territory."
"Therefore, our sect master dispatched us to lurk in Yingchuan."
"When war breaks out in the future, our sect intends to first forcibly occupy this place, and then use this place as a stepping stone to advance by submitting a letter of allegiance and turning on Zhou..."
"Leading the Da Zhou army to pass through our sect's territory in order to launch a surprise attack on Daliang."
"If the Daliang State does not fall, as a retreat, we will occupy the territory of a single county, gaining merit without crime, and we can also expand our sect's prestige and strive for achievements..."
"At worst..."
"Then using Yingchuan as a stepping stone, we will scatter into individual units and flee far away to other places, in order to reorganize the sect thereby."
After listening...
Qin Lu nodded slightly. This reason was passable after all...
Yingchuan, because of its uniquely endowed geographical conditions, would inevitably not become the primary battlefield; it was an exceptional terrain of advance where one could attack and retreat where one could defend.
This Floating Cloud Sword Sect wanted to strike first to gain the upper hand.
Playing out the idea of substituting a civet cat for a crown prince and replacing them was not bad at all...
However...
What did this have to do with prying into Wenge Peak?
"Then why are you spying on my clan's forbidden grounds, hiding at the source of the Ba River?"
"What kind of intention is this?"
Hearing this...
Zhuo Wen shivered, and with trembling hands, he took out a packet of medicine...
"This item is called: Heart-Corroding Powder."
"It is a violent poison. A mere few grams can cause millions of mortals to have their poisons flare up."
"The elder tossed it into the source of the Ba River. Although this made the medicinal efficacy poor, as the dosage is gradually increased every day, it can thereby form a chronic poison..."
"It can cause a massive number of mortals to suffer from heart failure and weakness, and martial artists' true essence to be defiled, thereby weakening your clan's strength and creating an opportunity for our sect..."
"As for spying on your clan."
"It was because a certain elder discovered some... some..."
"Traces... concerning the Cangnong Qi Clan..."
The sound of his voice grew smaller and smaller...
Within the dungeon, the silence sank even deeper...
The crisp sounds of iron chains colliding echoed repeatedly inside the dungeon, appearing spine-chilling...
Qin Lu's expression was waveless...
He did not feel surprised; being discovered by others in terms of clues was normal after all...
After all, in the world, there are fundamentally no absolute things.
Yet logically speaking...
He should have completely erased all past traces concerning the Qi Clan. Qin Lu did not know where exactly he had exposed his flaws...
"Oh?"
"Where did you guys figure it out from? Or did you find something?"
Hearing Qin Lu's meaningful reply, Zhuo Wen appeared even more restless, suddenly feeling... how is it that the more he speaks, the closer he seems to death!
This could not help but make him swallow a mouthful of saliva as he said:
"This matter has to be spoken of starting from half a year ago..."
"At that time, there was a demented old man named Han Xuan who was hawking wares in the market, saying he had Ancestor Qin Lu's early-period pills..."
"As long as someone found his daughter, he would bestow this pill as a gift."
"An elder of our sect grew interested."
"And so he lured and trapped him to death, seizing a Purple Rhyme Mysterious Qi Pill..."
"Although the medicinal efficacy was incomplete, it was indeed one of the signature pills of the Cangnong Qi Clan back then, and consequently drew the attention of our sect's elder..."
"Afterwards..."
"That elder inexplicably died within your clan's forbidden grounds..."
"Several other elders of our sect felt the matter was fishy, and so they secretly probed for news, learning of your clan's process of making a fortune over the past twenty years..."
"Coupled with that Purple Rhyme Mysterious Qi Pill, they consequently surmised that your clan had seized the inheritance of the Cangnong Qi Clan."
"Or perhaps..."
"Your clan is one of the hidden branches of the Cangnong Qi Clan..."
"In order to confirm the veracity of the news, another elder then sneaked up the mountain..."
"And after that, it turned out like this..."
Having clarified the cause and effect, Qin Lu was also suddenly enlightened at this moment!
So it turned out...
It wasn't that he hadn't hidden things well, but rather that the defective products left behind when he initially refined pills back then had become his fatal flaw...
Fortunately back then...
He had altered the pill formula early on, not letting the Ziyun Wood Essence Pill circulate too much...
It seems that after this matter, he still needs to release more rumors outward to thereby cover up what happened twenty years ago...
As for that Han Xuan...
Ultimately meeting such an end, it was also his own deserved retribution...
As for Han Xuan's daughter, that Han-surnamed cauldron...
As early as many years ago, she had already been wrung dry by Qin Lu, turning into a heap of yellow soil; Qin Lu had even long since forgotten her name and appearance...
He only remembered that at the very end...
Before that cauldron died, she was still shouting her father and elder brother's names.
In the end, she was buried to sleep peacefully at the foot of Muxuan Mountain, transforming into nourishment...
Nourishing the mountains, rivers, plants, and trees.
"That's fine as well..."
"You father, daughter, siblings-your whole family can reunite down in the netherworld..."
Thinking of this...
Qin Lu's mind relaxed, and with a benign expression, he said:
"That is to say..."
"The people who currently know the news are solely you, little friend Zhuo Wen, and this martial apprentice of yours?"
Hearing this...
Zhuo Wen nodded forcefully, his eyes revealing a plea of intent...
At this, Qin Lu really couldn't bear to kill him. Who told him to be so kind-hearted? In the end, he possessed the benevolent heart of a physician, so he would spare his life for the time being...
Afterwards...
Qin Lu knocked Zhuo Wen unconscious and woke up the other person...
After a round of threats and comparisons, Qin Lu also confirmed its veracity. Following that, with a single sword strike to the neck, he lopped off his head and hacked him into a mush of flesh, only then finding peace within his heart...
"Living as one is enough."
"If you want to blame someone, blame yourself for not speaking earlier..."