Shu Xin barged into the prison beneath the lake. Instead of returning to the cell where she had initially been held, she went to the one next door.
Those imprisoned on this level were, for the most part, disciples of the Longevity Dao Sect who had committed various offenses. Nearly all of them had been confined for periods ranging from three to twenty years.
In other words, most of these disciples had at least heard of her, but they would have no idea that she had recently caused such a huge commotion in the Longevity Dao Sect.
That was what people meant by an information gap.
No matter how thoroughly the outside forces searched for her—even if they dug three feet into the ground—they would never imagine that she was hiding in someone else’s cell. Unless, of course, those aristocratic clans truly intended to challenge the authority of the Longevity Dao Sect, or test the strength of the elders guarding the demonic cultivators here.
As they said, your platform determined your life.
In this prison beneath the lake, there were simply too many beings one absolutely could not afford to provoke.
So all Shu Xin had to do next was find a disciple under confinement who looked easy to bully and was reasonably agreeable.
【How do you know they’ll cooperate with you?】 the Sword Spirit asked curiously.
Wasn’t that easy?
When you were out in the world, your identity was whatever you claimed it to be.
Shu Xin smiled and pointed at herself. Then, putting on an air of absolute confidence, she used the Sword Spirit’s power to cleave apart the restriction on one of the rooms. She pushed open the door and shouted sternly, “Luo Huannian, your crimes have been exposed! Come with me!”
The disciple meditating inside opened his eyes. Dozens of swords hovering protectively around him instantly pointed their tips at Shu Xin. They only needed their master’s command to turn this intruder who had dared to barge in into a pincushion.
【Oh, come on. Swords with spirits actually dare to act arrogant in front of me?】 The Sword Spirit rubbed its hands together, determined to give these foolish descendants who had yet to develop true intelligence a taste of what it meant to have their bodies and blades broken.
The male cultivator took a careful look at the person who had entered. Only then did he slowly rise to his feet, speaking in an equally unhurried tone. “So it’s Elder Shu. May I ask what brings you here?”
Shu Xin merely glanced at the dozens of spirit swords still aimed at her and said indifferently, “I came looking for you because your case has resurfaced, and the sect intends to reassess your sentence. Gather your things and come with me.”
Luo Huannian did not move. Instead, the spirit swords in the air formed a circle around her, while even the door Shu Xin had pushed open swung shut again.
“Looks like you intend to resist arrest? Think carefully. Resist arrest and you’ll be shown leniency; confess and you’ll spend the rest of your life in prison.” Shu Xin spoke with righteous conviction.
【Right… Wait, no. Aren’t those supposed to be the other way around?】
For a moment, Luo Huannian failed to process what she had said. Once he came to his senses, he looked at Shu Xin with some confusion.
“All right, put the spirit swords away for now. I did use the sect’s token to break through the restriction and come find you, but that doesn’t mean we can’t discuss this.” Shu Xin gave him a friendly smile and casually found a chair to sit in. “We still have some time. We can take things slowly and talk.”
Luo Huannian remained half-suspicious, but he still recalled most of the spirit swords. A few continued to hover in the air.
Shu Xin did not press the matter.
“Martial Nephew Luo, you’ve been in the Longevity Dao Sect for nearly seventy years now, haven’t you? Back then, one of the sect’s disciples, Luo Qiumin, found you abandoned in the wilderness while she was traveling outside. She brought you back, raised you with great care, and treated you as her own. In just fifty years, you successfully knocked upon the Dao Gate, proving yourself to have boundless potential. Quite a few inner sect elders of the Longevity Dao Sect wanted to take you as their inheriting disciple, but you refused them all. You only wished to help your adoptive mother break through to the Dao Nascent realm and become her disciple.”
When it came to its disciples, the Longevity Dao Sect had always cared only about whether their roots were pure and their origins sound. Put another way, they suffered from an extremely serious form of age discrimination!
For example, Shu Xin and Situ Jian had entered the sect in the same year. Both had been rogue cultivators, but Shu Xin was already an adult, had achieved a certain level of cultivation, and possessed a mind of her own. As a result, the sect had only allowed her to become an outer sect elder.
Situ Jian, however, had been merely fourteen at the time. He had yet to mature, and had only just entered the Qi Refining stage. He was still ignorant of the ways of the cultivation world, which, in the eyes of the Longevity Dao Sect, made him worth nurturing. Thus, once his exceptional aptitude was revealed, the sect quickly took him in and devoted itself to cultivating him.
As for someone like Luo Huannian, who had entered the sect while still an infant and had neither roots nor connections, he was practically the exact sort of person the Longevity Dao Sect liked best.
For a long time, Luo Huannian had been regarded as the next Situ Jian. Before Situ Jian broke through to the Dao Nascent realm, people had often mentioned the two of them in the same breath.
From a certain perspective, Situ Jian and Luo Huannian really did have a great deal in common.
Shu Xin had noticed him precisely because he shared so many similarities with Situ Jian.
Luo Huannian remained unmoved. Everything Shu Xin had said was common knowledge.
“But what’s interesting is that, twenty years ago, Luo Qiumin had clearly made preparations down to the smallest detail. Yet when she attempted to break through to the Dao Nascent realm, she failed at the final hurdle. Her spiritual essence was ultimately exhausted, and she died. With no other choice, you became Elder Li’s disciple. Then, late last autumn, Elder Li also failed in his breakthrough and died in exactly the same way as Luo Qiumin. As for you, it was discovered that you had secretly entered the alchemy room while Elder Li was refining pills. Although there’s no concrete evidence proving that you caused his death, his disciples and relatives still went out of their way to make trouble for you and had you locked up here.” Shu Xin smiled calmly. “And yet you don’t seem nervous at all.”
“It wasn’t me,” Luo Huannian said amicably.
“Indeed, they have no evidence.” Shu Xin nodded knowingly. “But I’m different. I’ve been in charge of the sect’s outer affairs for many years. I understand quite a few things that you probably don’t.”
“There’s a spirit herb in the sect called the Fragrant Immortal Fungus. It’s an ordinary herb with nothing particularly special about it. All it does is make dishes more fragrant when culinary cultivators use it in their cooking. So its price has always been low, and its supply has been nothing exceptional either. After all, it has only one practical use and offers little assistance to cultivation. That’s why the outer sect has always bought it at the rate of ten stalks for a single spirit stone.”
Shu Xin saw that Luo Huannian’s expression had not changed in the slightest, and she knew she had chosen the right door to open today.
If she had encountered someone whose emotions were written all over his face, it really would have been difficult to get him to help her.
“But from three years ago until last year, the price of Fragrant Immortal Fungus changed. It went from ten stalks per spirit stone to one stalk per spirit stone—a tenfold increase. Naturally, I investigated the matter. To my surprise, someone had been secretly buying up the Fragrant Immortal Fungus, which was why so little of it was being sold to the sect.”
“Fluctuations in the price of spirit herbs are nothing unusual.”
“But if thousands upon thousands of Flavor Immortal Zhi are refined together, they can be made into a special ingredient. Added to a pill, it can neutralize more than seventy percent of the pill’s medicinal properties. It’s merely a spirit herb used to enhance flavor, and it’s non-toxic, so naturally no one would detect anything unusual. But if a cultivator swallows such a pill to save their life at a critical moment while breaking through, only to find that its effects have been drastically weakened, the chances of failing the breakthrough will increase tremendously.” Shu Xin drawled, “Martial Nephew Luo, tell me—who do you think bought this spirit herb in the first place?”
Luo Huannian’s expression finally changed.
“You were the one who reported it?”
“Of course not. But I believe I’m the only person who could have discovered it. You know that I’m an outer sect elder. If I altered a few records, no one would ever know. And as you said, it’s only an ordinary spirit herb. No one pays it any attention.” Shu Xin revealed a brilliant smile. “But whether or not I report it depends on whether Martial Nephew Luo is willing to cooperate.”
“I’ve already avenged my great hatred. Report it if you want.” Luo Huannian finally abandoned his earlier calm demeanor and glared at Shu Xin with a vicious look. “Provided, of course, that you can walk out of here alive.”
With a sharp ringing sound, all the spirit swords rose into the air again.
Shu Xin pressed down on them, making the Sword Spirit behave and stop thinking about attacking.
“Don’t be so angry, Nephew. Here, have some loofah soup to calm down.” Shu Xin waved a hand. “Since I came here to tell you all this, I obviously didn’t come to report you. On the contrary, I’ve gotten myself into a bit of trouble too, and they’re currently looking for me outside. I need you to hide me until things blow over, after which I’ll leave. I promise that no one will ever find out about your affairs.”
Luo Huannian said nothing. He merely wore an expression of disdain.
Tsk. I’m an expert at dealing with rebellious teenagers.
Back then, even Situ Jian behaved himself in my hands. Why would I be afraid of you?
“Do you really think you’ve avenged your hatred?” Shu Xin propped her chin up with one hand. “Your adoptive mother was quite talented back then. Breaking through to the Dao Infant realm should have been practically guaranteed. If she had broken through while bringing you along, plenty of people in the sect would have been willing to recruit the two of you together. Why go to such lengths to kill her? Not to mention that Elder Li was nothing special. Even you were able to kill him—how could someone like him possibly have been capable of murdering your mother?”
“I investigated it. He was the only person who saw my mother before her death, and he admitted to it.”
“Then who ordered him to do it? Killing a cultivator on the verge of breaking through to the Dao Infant realm within the sect’s territory would inevitably attract the attention of the Enforcement Hall. If someone truly wanted to kill your mother, wouldn’t it have been much simpler and more direct to ask demonic cultivators for help while she was traveling outside? And now that Elder Li is dead, his relatives refuse to let the matter go. They were certain that you killed him and fabricated charges against you. Yet you were only sentenced to three years of confinement. Who helped you? Luo Huannian, think carefully. Once you leave seclusion, whom are you going to rely on? And the person you plan to rely on—is he truly your benefactor, or is he your real enemy?”
Shu Xin’s successive questions shattered Luo Huannian’s calm and indifferent façade.
【Tsk, tsk. You humans really are disgusting.】
“So you have to help me. You should know what I’m capable of. I’ve been balancing the interests of the aristocratic families and the sect for so many years, and I even managed to protect Situ Jian and help him become a core disciple of the sect. The secrets I know and the connections I possess are far greater than you can imagine.” Shu Xin smiled. “Once you’ve helped me, I’ll help you uncover the real culprit!”
Luo Huannian gazed deeply at her, as if he were only now realizing just how terrifying this outer sect elder was—the woman whom the sect considered to have no future, yet who was slippery and shrewd beyond belief.
The young disciples whom the sect valued highly had, in fact, formed their own circle.
Luo Huannian and Situ Jian were both part of it.
And who knew how many people had privately said that Situ Jian's fiancée was merely taking advantage of the favor she had once shown him, and was completely unworthy of him? Yet Situ Jian had never flirted with anyone else. He turned a blind eye to every overture from the daughters of powerful aristocratic families, causing countless people to envy him bitterly.
Luo Huannian had never understood it either. His adoptive mother had been murdered, and he knew very well that people like them could not protect those close to them before they grew powerful enough.
He remembered that he had once sought out Situ Jian in private and urged him to break off the engagement. It wasn’t for any other reason. He simply didn’t want Situ Jian to end up like him, watching helplessly as someone important to him died because of him.
In this sect, cultivators who had no roots or backing yet possessed outstanding talent could not afford to have an obvious weakness.
But Situ Jian had only replied, “You don’t understand.”
At the time, Luo Huannian hadn’t understood. Now, perhaps, he understood a little.
This female cultivator named Shu Xin understood far more clearly than they did what the sect represented. She was also much better adapted to life within the sect—and far more skilled at playing this game.
“Fine. So long as you keep your word.”
“See? Wasn’t that easy? Situ Jian and I played this exact game a hundred years ago.” Shu Xin turned toward the Sword Spirit. “Young people really are easy to handle.”
【Indeed. How could innocent young men like them possibly outplay you?】
【Are you sure you weren’t transformed from a fox spirit?】
“If I were a fox spirit, how could humans have ever taken the throne in this world?” Shu Xin stretched lazily. “All right. Now we’ll just have to see what move the sect makes next.”
What she liked most was fighting battles that highlighted her own intelligence while making everyone else look like idiots.
