The Plot Exposed

From the day White Foothill City was built, it had never suffered a disaster, apart from the beast tide that had swiftly been suppressed without a trace.

Who would have thought that, in the space of a single night, someone would first set fire to the city lord's residence, and then considerable tremors would shake a continuous stretch of the central and southern districts?

Before anyone could figure out what had happened, a disturbance arose in the moat outside the city, and the water surged toward a single spot.

People were still worrying that the riverbank had collapsed when they saw the entire moat begin to freeze, starting from the place where the suspected collapse had occurred.

It was early April, and the weather could hardly be called cold, yet fine snowflakes drifted over half of White Foothill City and the frozen moat.

Several households in the city that had felt the tremors also discovered a thin layer of white frost on their floors.

One cultivator reached down and touched the frost. "This was caused by Sword Qi!" he exclaimed in surprise. "I wonder which formidable sword cultivator has such ability!"

Unlike him, others were angry. "I don't care how good his swordsmanship is. Even if he wants to practice, he doesn't have to freeze our houses!"

As everyone chattered about it, the magnificent, towering city lord's residence came crashing down. Fortunately, the fire at the residence and the continued tremors afterward had made those inside fear for their safety, and they had evacuated long ago.

People were congratulating themselves that no one had been hurt when four figures emerged from the ruins of the residence.

Two of them were noticeably taller and larger. As soon as they flew out of the ruins, they fell heavily to the ground.

Everyone hurried forward to check on them, only to discover that one of the fallen men was the city lord they held so dear!

What was more, the other person who had fallen with the city lord had a face covered in blue-green scales and a long, greenish-blue snake tail for a lower body... No, that was no person. He was clearly a member of the Demon Race!

Although relations between human cultivators and Demon Cultivators in the cultivation world were no longer as hostile as they had been a thousand years ago, they could hardly be called harmonious. The Demon Race kept to themselves and had always looked down on human cultivators' fondness for elaborate formalities. The two sides lived in separate regions and rarely came into contact, except at grand gatherings where all three sides assembled.

Seeing a Demon Cultivator in White Foothill City left everyone astonished.

"City lord, how were you injured? Who hurt you? And what's going on with this Demon Cultivator?" A cultivator who respected Luo Fengyuan hurried over to help him up and even tried to feed him a medicinal pill he carried with him.

At a time like this, Luo Fengyuan naturally had no regard for his dignity as city lord. He hastily swallowed the pill offered to his lips.

He was just about to make up a story when Si Jing stepped forward. "Why, this Demon Cultivator is the city lord's good friend. The two of them were even working together on a big deal!"

The crowd was startled, and Luo Fengyuan clearly felt the cultivator supporting him stiffen all over.

"You're talking nonsense!" Even gravely injured, Luo Fengyuan struggled to refute Si Jing in a voice like a wheezing bellows.

"Nonsense?" Si Jing sounded as though he had heard a joke. "Then do you dare let people search your residence? Let them see whether there's an underground palace inside, whether there are iron cages for prisoners hanging in that palace, and whether those cages are stained with the blood of mortals?!"

His words were like a drop of water falling into a pan of hot oil, setting off an uproar of discussion.

Nan Gurong supported the exhausted Sang Ying as they hid in the crowd, watching Si Jing confront Luo Fengyuan.

The earlier strike had left Nan Gurong dumbstruck, but it had also drained all of Sang Ying's spiritual power and strength. If not for Nan Gurong, she would probably have been buried along with the collapsing underground palace.

Indeed, after the four of them had fought, half the underground palace had collapsed, and most of the evidence Si Jing mentioned had actually been destroyed.

He had only brought it up to bluff Luo Fengyuan, taking advantage of the fact that Luo Fengyuan had been too anxious to notice.

Sure enough, Luo Fengyuan fell silent at his words.

But he quickly found an excuse to absolve himself. "I am the lord of this city. Shouldn't I build a dungeon to imprison cultivators who have committed crimes? Besides, you have no proof. To think a few lies could convict me is rather naive!"

Luo Fengyuan had been city lord for many years, after all, and had the merit of protecting everyone during the beast tide. For the moment, far more people believed him than they did the stranger Si Jing.

Si Jing had expected as much. Fortunately, before they came out, Sang Ying had given him all the booklets she had obtained as evidence.

"It doesn't matter if you refuse to admit it, city lord, but surely you recognize your own handwriting?" Three booklets appeared in Si Jing's hand out of thin air. How could Luo Fengyuan fail to recognize what he wrote in every day?

The instant the booklets appeared, Luo Fengyuan's eyes widened, as though he could already see his own end.

They contained not only Luo Fengyuan's contract with the Red Snake Clan, but also records of the mortals he had abducted over the years.

At first, Luo Fengyuan had only ordered people to target solitary mortals who came to White Foothill City to make a living. Later, the Scarlet Snake Clan brought in the Cold Crow Devil Lord, who said there were not enough human medicine subjects. Only then did Luo Fengyuan begin plotting against the people of Listening Willow Village.

As it happened, Luo Fengyuan's daughter, Luo Min, had been harmed by one of his enemies around that time, leaving her face covered in sores and scars. He came up with a way to kill two birds with one stone, putting all the men and women of Listening Willow Village "to their fullest use." He also fabricated the illusion of a "demon wedding" to deceive the mortals.

The reason no cultivator had gone to Listening Willow Village to eliminate the demon for so long was also that he had been pulling strings behind the scenes.

Luo Fengyuan had never imagined that everything he had managed and plotted for so long would be ruined by one insignificant sword cultivator.

While Luo Fengyuan was wallowing in self-pity, Si Jing had already handed the booklets out to the crowd.

Back then, to verify Luo Fengyuan's sincerity, the Scarlet Snake Clan had required him to stamp the contract with the city lord's seal when they signed it.

Luo Fengyuan had believed no one would ever learn of it, so he had naturally granted the Demon Cultivators' every request.

Now the city lord's seal on the contract had become evidence he could not explain away, no matter how he argued.

The cultivator supporting Luo Fengyuan let go of him completely, and the city lord who had once been loved by so many fell back to the ground.

The Demon Cultivator beside him, who had been quiet for a long time, gave a cold snort. "Hah. You humans are selfish and self-serving, yet the Heavenly Dao favors you alone, giving you better cultivation aptitude than either the Demon Race or the Devil Race. But don't get too pleased with yourselves. Sooner or later, we of the Demon Race will trample you underfoot again!"

After the slit-eyed Demon Cultivator spat out those words, he suddenly threw back his head and let out a long howl.

Si Jing frowned at the sight. "This is bad! He wants to detonate his inner core and take everyone down with him!"

The people who had gathered around immediately used their Movement Methods to flee, but it was already too late. Si Jing threw himself at the Demon Cultivator without regard for anything else, but Luo Fengyuan was faster.

He held the Demon Cultivator in an iron grip, and a vast amount of spiritual power enveloped them both.

Sang Ying saw only Luo Fengyuan cast a long look in one direction. The next moment, all she could see was a rain of blood filling the sky.

Sang Ying could not make out what happened afterward, because Si Jing had appeared beside her at some point and raised a hand to cover her eyes.

"Don't look. Children shouldn't see such bloody things." His words carried a barely perceptible note of feeling.

The Demon Cultivator had failed to detonate his inner core because City Lord Luo Fengyuan had used his own body as a barrier, blocking the force that could have destroyed heaven and earth.

Sang Ying did not know whether he had done it for his daughter, who was still in the city, or whether he still held some kindness for the city residents he had protected for so many years. All of it was buried with Luo Fengyuan's death.

White Foothill City, where the skies had always been fair and the breezes gentle, was suddenly covered by dark clouds, and torrential rain fell in an instant. Presumably, once the downpour passed, everything would take on a brand-new appearance!