The Sacred Flame Cult Leader sneered.
"Countless martial arts geniuses have failed to cross the threshold from the early martial realm to the mid realm. How could our Sacred Flame Cult possibly help you break through? If we had that capability, I would have used it myself long ago. Why would it ever be your turn?"
"Then you're useless."
Just as you were about to finish this guy off, you suddenly noticed that because of your earlier attack, his torn clothes had revealed a tattoo on his chest.
It was a flame pattern.
You had seen this pattern somewhere else before.
You retrieved a white mask from your storage ring and pointed at the flame pattern on it.
"Is this pattern the same as the tattoo on your chest?"
"The Sacred Flame Mark, of course it's the same."
You grabbed the stinking, burned scar tissue on this guy's body and lifted him up.
"Speak! Forty-eight years ago! Did you go to the Central Plains and massacre a village called Luoding Village?!"
The Sacred Flame Cult Leader looked at you with a strange expression.
"What's your relationship with that village?"
"Answer my question honestly, don't waste time with nonsense!"
You knew that without applying some pressure, you might not get the answer you wanted.
Today, the clues about the village massacre case might finally see a breakthrough, and you absolutely couldn't let this opportunity slip away.
Ten Thousand Souls Banner!
"Oh—pitiful Sacred Flame Cult Leader, have you ever experienced ultimate despair?"
The black mist emanating from the Ten Thousand Souls Banner wasn't just for creating atmosphere.
When this black mist seeped into the Sacred Flame Cult Leader's seven orifices—his nose, mouth, ears, and eyes—he began screaming in agony.
"No!! Fire God! Don't abandon me!! Lord Fire God!! Burn me!! Lord Fire God!!"
He seemed to be experiencing pain akin to the heavens collapsing and the earth splitting apart, a dual torment of both spirit and flesh.
Looking at his face twisted in agony, you momentarily wondered if he could achieve instant enlightenment through suffering right then and there.
At the very least, this guy truly had faith.
You made the Ten Thousand Souls Banner stop.
The Sacred Flame Cult Leader's expression looked as if he had returned from another world.
"Was... was that an illusion?"
"If you don't answer my questions honestly, it'll become reality immediately!"
"I'll talk! I'll talk! Ah, the Sacred Flame Cult has already fallen to such a state today, what secrets are left to keep?! The Fire God will forgive me!"
"That's a decent attitude to have."
"However, this matter happened too many years ago. What I know is only fragments passed down by survivors from that time..."
From the Sacred Flame Cult Leader's mouth, you learned the general outline of the village massacre case from back then.
What grudge could a first-rate religious force from Xiliang possibly have with a small village in the Central Plains?
Therefore, the Sacred Flame Cult wasn't the mastermind; someone behind them had given the orders.
To put it bluntly, the Sacred Flame Cult was just hired muscle.
To deal with a small village, they didn't dispatch any elites or experts.
They only symbolically sent out a small team to carry out the mission, then contacted their branch organization in the Central Plains and had that branch handle the main operation.
During the Sacred Flame Cult's heyday, their sphere of influence wasn't limited to Xiliang; they also had branch organizations in the Central Plains.
However, since the Central Plains imperial court prohibited religious activities, they couldn't operate under the Sacred Flame Cult name. Instead, they used another form—a martial arts sect.
This sect was precisely the Chixin Sect, the one that the demon tribe's Founding Ancestor, the Azure Dragon, had smashed into dust with a single swipe of its tail.
The Sacred Flame Cult team from Xiliang, along with the martial artists of the Chixin Sect, donned masks bearing the Sacred Flame Mark pattern and slaughtered Luoding Village to the last person.
"Who was the mastermind? Who ordered you to go to the Central Plains to massacre the village?"
The Sacred Flame Cult Leader shook his head.
"I don't know."
"You don't know, or you don't dare to say?"
"Heh... how do you think our Sacred Flame Cult declined? What happened to all those high-ranking members and elites?"
You suddenly realized.
"They were silenced."
"I don't know, I didn't see it with my own eyes, but after years of thinking about it, I believe that's the only possibility."
"Why wasn't the Chixin Sect silenced?"
"Those from the Chixin Sect who participated in the village massacre were also all killed. It's just that the person behind the scenes might not have known about the relationship between the Chixin Sect and our Sacred Flame Cult, so they didn't move against the Chixin Sect."
You fell into thoughtful silence.
"Decades ago, during your Sacred Flame Cult's peak strength, you could rival even the Vajra Temple, one of the Eight Pillars of the Five Domains. You even had branch organizations in the Central Plains. With such a massive organization, who could possibly have ordered you around?"
This leader shook his head with a bewildered expression.
"Back then, I was just a teenage outer sect menial disciple who had just entered the Sacred Flame Cult. How could I possibly know such things..."
Watching another layer of the village massacre case's secrets being peeled back, Chen Yi outside the simulation also sank into contemplation.
"So the Chixin Sect's techniques have many fire elements because it was originally derived from the Sacred Flame Cult.
That's why the Black Stone Gang found the bodies of Chixin Sect disciples wearing Sacred Flame masks in the Qing River—they were actually among those who were silenced.
But, who is doing the silencing? Who is ordering the Sacred Flame Cult? Why massacre the village?"
The clues broke off again at this point.
The fact that the other party could order around the Sacred Flame Cult at its former scale and could later silence almost the entire Sacred Flame Cult afterward indicated that the mastermind was definitely no simple character.
They didn't want others to discover them. For Chen Yi to uncover their true identity would undoubtedly be extremely difficult.
"If I can't find out, it's fine. This person must be very powerful. I also need sufficient strength myself. Only then will figuring out who they are have meaning."
For Chen Yi, investigating the village massacre case was about revenge on one hand, but on the other hand, he wanted to understand their motive.
After all, he was a survivor of the village massacre.
If the other party knew of his existence, they might continue hunting him down.
Only by figuring out what the other party wanted could he respond appropriately.
Investigating this case wasn't just for his slaughtered family and fellow villagers; it was also for Chen Yi himself.
You sent the Sacred Flame Cult Leader to meet his Fire God.
You walked out of the cave, your face heavy with thought.
As you emerged, you saw a person.
Zhen Pin.
He stood beneath a tree, his bald head reflecting the moonlight.
"Amitabha, it seems the benefactor has already settled accounts with those heretics."
You patted your clothes, wearing a relaxed and comfortable expression.
"The hem of my clothes is slightly dirty."
"Benefactor, were you perhaps worried about some danger and didn't wish for this poor monk to intervene, which is why you said those things earlier?"
"No, you're overthinking it. I genuinely wanted to join them, but they were just too difficult to join. A bunch of lunatics. My intolerance for stupidity flared up, so I killed them all. Speaking of which, didn't you leave?"
"After this poor monk departed earlier, I thought it over and felt something was amiss, so I decided to return and take a look."
You gave a light laugh, feeling this old monk was quite a good friend.
You old bald donkey, you...
"I only hope the Sword Lord knows that this poor monk did not stand by and watch his close friend die."
Wrong feeling, you dead bald donkey!
——
Starting today, three chapters daily.
Also, there are simply too many paragraph comments now; Liu Zi can't keep up. If you're dissatisfied with the plot or notice any mistakes I've made, you can tag me when writing paragraph comments. If I think what you say makes sense, I can make revisions (though some changes might affect the entire story structure; even if there are indeed some issues, those likely can't be altered, please understand).
Or write it in the book reviews—the ones where you give a rating. I read all those rating comments since there are fewer of them.
Finally, my dear readers, may I ask for a five-star rating from you?
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