Heavenly Locust Empe Chapter 58: The Traitor Unmasked — Red Ginseng and Rising Ti

Chapter 58: The Traitor Unmasked — Red Ginseng and Rising Tides

There in the cave, the reorganization of the Stone Sect was completed — a mont that would, in the years to co, send ripples of blood and consequence throughout the entire world of immortal cultivation.

"Very good..."

Cao Cuo let his gaze travel slowly across every face in the room. Then, without warning, he smiled — a quiet, cold thing.

"The first decree following the reorganization of the Stone Sect today... is to punish a traitor. One among you has betrayed this sect."

"What?"

"Impossible — a traitor, among us?"

"Who?"

A ripple of unease passed through the group.

Cao Cuo fixed his gaze on one figure in the crowd and said, his voice flat and cold:

"Wei Heng. At this point, do you still have nothing to say? Was it you who leaked information about the Stone Sect?"

Wei Heng went rigid. The color drained from his face. "Master — it truly was not —"

"Speak the truth." The silver light in Cao Cuo’s eyes flickered.

"It really was not—" Wei Heng’s voice broke off. His head erupted with a sharp, stabbing pain, and his body swayed.

"Those Stone Sect disciples who died — over a thousand of them — most were orphans, just like you. The youngest was only seven years old. They were caught in illusion techniques and died in madness. Can you even begin to imagine what that looked like?"

"Ah—!" Wei Heng clutched his head and crumpled to the ground, weeping openly. Broken, gasping sobs tore out of him as his resistance collapsed entirely.

The Heart Chakra Illusion had taken hold.

Cao Cuo pressed on, his voice steady:

"Who is Immortal Master Hao?"

All of Wei Heng’s will to resist had dissolved. He answered truthfully:

"Immortal Master Hao — his full na is Hao Jiantong. He is one of the enshrined cultivators stationed by the Stone Alliance in Shoushan Market Town. He is responsible for—"

Lu Qian, who had been listening quietly, stepped in to provide more detail. "Hao Jiantong is a monk stationed by the Stone Alliance in Shoushan Market Town. He oversees the collection of Origin Stones on behalf of the Alliance. His cultivation is at the peak of Qi Training — he is one of the three most powerful figures in the Enshrinent Hall."

Cao Cuo nodded and continued pressing through the Heart Chakra Illusion.

"How did you first make contact with him?"

By now, Wei Heng had sunk fully into the illusion and could not find his way back out.

"I — I didn’t reveal anything. I had been setting aside small amounts of Spirit Jade in secret, and I used it to purchase elixirs from Immortal Master Hao—"

"Spirit Jade? Spirit Jade from the Stone Sect mines?"

"Yes. I had been stuck at the ninth level of stone arts for too long. I — I only wanted to go further. I took a small amount of Spirit Jade to buy elixirs from Immortal Master Hao. I didn’t an for any of this to happen—"

"So how did Hao Jiantong trace the Spirit Jade back to the Stone Sect? You didn’t tell him?"

"No — no, it wasn’t . Immortal Master Hao kept the Spirit Jade but refused to hand over the elixirs. He secretly followed

back... and found one of the strongholds."

"Then how did you escape without arousing suspicion?"

"I used Lin Suiyun’s disguise technique. He never saw my true face."

"Why didn’t you report any of this to Lu Qian?"

"I was afraid. Afraid that everyone would hate

for it."

...

Everything was now clear.

Earlier, when Cao Cuo had observed the group through his connection to the green locust Gu, Wei Heng had displayed the most violently unstable emotional response the mont the words "those who betray will die from the Gu’s bite" were spoken. It had been the most telling reaction in the room.

Cao Cuo had acted on his instinct, broken through Wei Heng’s defenses with the Heart Chakra Illusion, and drawn out a full confession. The fish had been caught.

And this Hao Jiantong — he very likely had ties to the Phantom Building.

Lu Qian’s expression had gone grey. "It was actually you?"

Wei Heng was one of the orphans he had taken in with his own hands. Lu Qian had poured countless hours into raising and training him, treating him as no different from his own child. And yet this was the result — a disaster brought upon the entire sect because of a craving for a few elixirs.

The feeling that settled in Lu Qian’s chest in that mont was not so different from a father watching a son he had raised with his own hands destroy everything he had built. The bitterness and anguish of it were not things that could be explained to an outsider.

Hou Shan stepped forward, his voice cold and asured. "Master, let the Gu punishnt be carried out. Let it serve as a warning to all others."

Jintong frowned, his expression uneasy. "He has committed a cri, yes — but the cri does not warrant death."

Hou Shan’s retort was swift. "Over a thousand people in the sect are dead, and the manner of their deaths was horrific. That is Wei Heng’s fault — all of it. If he had not drawn the attention of the Enshrinent Hall monks, none of this would have happened. He must be punished severely."

At the ntion of the fallen disciples, Jintong’s jaw tightened. He said nothing more.

Qing Shuang spoke up quietly. "Even so — Wei Heng did not act with malicious intent. The true murderers are the Phantom Building. Why must the leader be the one to take his life?"

Hong Xiu cut her off sharply. "Qing Shuang — careful."

...

Wei Heng knelt on the ground, his eyes vacant and unfocused. He had erged partially from the illusion, but the faces of more than a thousand innocent souls still crowded his mind — all of them dead, all of them because of him — and the weight of it crushed him from the inside. He had already made his peace with dying. He was certain that was where this ended.

"Enough."

One word from the leader — and the cave fell completely silent.

The technique Cao Cuo had demonstrated monts ago, pulling the truth from Wei Heng with nothing but a glance and a flicker of silver light, had already done its work. Authority had been established without the need for a single raised voice.

Cao Cuo turned to Lu Qian and asked evenly, "This Wei Heng — what has his conduct been like within the sect?"

Lu Qian replied, "My lord, in all the years I have known him, this person has been diligent and conscientious. He rarely made mistakes, worked well alongside his fellow disciples, and was genuinely well-regarded within the sect."

"Then let him live." Cao Cuo’s tone was final.

Wei Heng’s head snapped up. A fragile, disbelieving spark crossed his hollow eyes. He had been prepared to die — and now he was not. He pressed his forehead to the ground. "Thank you, Master—"

His genuine remorse had been one of the reasons the verdict had gone as it did.

Cao Cuo continued: "A death sentence may be commuted, but living cris cannot go unpunished. If you endure seven days within the illusion punishnt, this matter will be considered settled and closed. If you do not survive it, then let that death serve as your atonent."

Wei Heng’s chest tightened. Seven days inside an illusion — a place where every mont felt worse than death. He did not know whether he had the fortitude for it. But there was no room left to bargain.

"Yes," he said.

Around him, several of the other disciples let out slow, quiet breaths. They had co up through the sect together. Wei Heng was hateful for what he had done — but none of them had truly wanted to watch him die.

Cao Cuo observed each reaction carefully. The transgression Wei Heng had committed existed sowhere between reckless and catastrophic — he had used the sect’s Spirit Jade to attract outside attention, and the consequences had been devastating. But among the nine, the clear majority had wished for his survival. That could not be ignored.

By sparing Wei Heng while imposing the illusion punishnt, Cao Cuo struck both marks at once — rcy and authority, reward and consequence, delivered in the sa breath. These had always been the twin pillars of commanding loyalty.

He could, with his cultivation alone, impose absolute obedience without any of this. But a blade that could also be a bridge was worth more than a blade alone.

After the stick, it was ti to offer the jujube.

Cao Cuo produced a jade box and opened the lid.

Inside lay a single stalk of Red Crystal Ginseng — as thick as a man’s forearm, its entire body glowing the deep, saturated red of cooling embers. Crimson vapor drifted lazily from its surface, and the temperature in the cave rose perceptibly just from its presence.

A sharp, potent fragrance flooded the air. Every disciple felt their internal energy stir and quicken of its own accord.

"Cloud-Mountain Captured Red Crystal Ginseng!" Hou Shan was the first to identify it, his voice rising slightly despite himself.

"This strain has been accumulating dicinal power for at least eight hundred years," Lu Qian said, his expression shifting with recognition.

Every pair of eyes in the cave burned with undisguised hunger.

Red Crystal Ginseng was a rare elixir grown in the peaks of Qinyun Mountain. Its body was uniformly crimson, its dicinal essence dense and concentrated. It was among the finest blood-nourishing treasures known to the secular world.

Its effect on cultivators was limited — but for practitioners of stone arts, it was peerless. The elder who had brought the stone arts to their thirteenth level was said to have consud a specin far older and more potent than this one.

Cao Cuo lifted the ginseng from the box and held it in his open palm.

The most precious elixir recovered from Yin Shisan’s storage pouch — and even so, it had not quite reached the threshold of a thousand-year plant. A pity. Another two centuries and its value would have tripled, enough to push all nine disciples’ stone arts forward by a full level in one go.

But the gap between what it was and what it could be was not without redy.

"Fla."

Before every watching eye, a ball of fire kindled in Cao Cuo’s palm and enveloped the ginseng entirely.

The precious root did not burn. It only turned a deeper, more brilliant red.

"The heat is insufficient."

"Red Lotus."

The flas shifted — blazing upward into a vivid, searing crimson. The Red Lotus Karmic Fire was not ordinary fla. An eight-hundred-year elixir could not withstand it. The ginseng began to liquefy under its heat, and the sharp, spiced fragrance thickened until the air itself seed to shimr with it. Drop by drop, the ginseng liquid fell and collected in the jade box below.

The Red Lotus Karmic Fire was a blood-born strange fla — one of the rarest true fires in existence. Beyond its formidable use in combat, it carried extraordinary properties in alchemy and weapon refinent alike.

When the last drop fell, what remained of the entire plant weighed less than a fifth of its original mass. Pure, concentrated dicinal essence.

Cao Cuo drew his right hand slowly across his chest. A small incision opened above his heart, and from the heart orifice, one-tenth of the Crimson Palace Precious Blood was carefully drawn out.

To the watching disciples, the leader’s face simply grew slightly pale. No one suspected anything more.

The Crimson Palace Precious Blood fell into the ginseng liquid. The karmic fire surged in response. The already-concentrated dicinal essence compressed further still, and the scent of it softened — losing its raw edge and becoming sothing almost warm. Sothing almost alive.

Every disciple felt it imdiately. The flow of their stone arts techniques quickened, as though a current had been added to a river that had been moving too slowly.

Crimson Palace Precious Blood was, in its own right, a dicine capable of restoring the dead and regrowing severed flesh. Added to the refined essence of the Red Crystal Ginseng, it amplified the dicinal power to a level that rivaled an elixir of a thousand years.

Cao Cuo extended his hand. Ten fiery red pills leapt upward from the jade box of their own accord, and the box itself crumbled to fine powder in the sa instant.

"This pill is called the Red Crystal Pill."

He regarded the ten pills in his palm with quiet satisfaction. Each one was a perfect, uniform red, still radiating warmth, the dicinal fragrance so full it seed to breathe.

These were not formal pills in any strict alchemical sense — at best, a refined distillation of a treasured dicine. But in the secular world, they were nothing short of a divine elixir.

The nine disciples watched with barely concealed eagerness. Cao Cuo tossed the pills from his palm — one to each person without hesitation, and not one of them was left empty-handed. The warmth was felt the instant the pills touched skin.

Even Wei Heng received one. Lu Qian received two.

"The dicinal power of the Red Crystal Pill dissipates quickly. Take it now, and I will help you push through the bottleneck in your stone arts."

There was no point in storing what could not be preserved. They would refine and absorb it here, without delay.

At the leader’s instruction, no one hesitated further. The pills were taken. The mont the Red Crystal Pill dissolved on the tongue, the taste hit like fire — sharply, intensely spiced, almost unbearably so. More than a few people gasped or winced aloud from the shock of it.

The dicine spread through every ridian like a lit fuse. One by one, the disciples sat cross-legged and turned inward, channeling the blazing dicinal current with full force against the barriers of their stone arts bottlenecks.

When Cao Cuo said he would help them break through, he had not been speaking lightly.

He had spent years studying both the complete Chapter of martial arts and the supre techniques of the Stone Sect’s core discipline. His understanding of the stone arts ran deep — and through the green locust Gu, which had been dwelling within each of them for years, he possessed an intimate awareness of their internal states that went beyond what words could describe.

Through the symbiotic resonance of the Gu, Cao Cuo guided the creatures dwelling in each disciple’s body. The Gu worked alongside the surging dicinal power, bridging the flow of vitality and mana, threading strength through strength, focusing the combined force like a battering ram against each disciple’s individual bottleneck.

The source of the thod had been Lu Yunfei — the way mana and vitality entangled within him, that strange interwoven force that had proven capable of breaking through every wall stone arts had ever placed before him. Cao Cuo had simply understood it, refined it, and turned it into a tool.

...

Three days later.

Lu Qian, who had long been sitting at the eleventh level of stone arts — the very peak of what he had ever dared hope to reach — broke through first.

A faint, unmistakable aura of Foundation Establishnt power rippled outward from his body as he opened his eyes. They were clear and cold and bright, like distant stars. He bowed deeply, his voice thick with sothing he could not fully na.

"My lord. Thank you for this gift."

The twelfth level of stone arts. The sa realm Ye Tinghai once occupied. I, Lu Qian, have finally reached it.

He did not say the words aloud. But the weight of them showed plainly in his eyes.

Not long after, the remaining disciples broke through their own bottlenecks in succession. Each had risen a full level in their stone arts. They knelt together as one.

"Thank you, Master, for your generosity."

Cao Cuo shook his head.

"That you were able to break through is the result of your own cultivation and hard work. The Red Crystal Pill was only a push in the right direction."

With Lu Qian now equivalent to a cultivator who had completed his Qi Training, and the remaining eight carrying the strength of late-stage Qi Training practitioners — they were worth deploying.

Cao Cuo turned his thoughts to the matter at hand and spoke:

"I had expected that investigating the Phantom Building would require considerable effort and ti. I didn’t anticipate that this Hao Jiantong would simply appear and hand us a thread to pull. He will serve our purposes perfectly."

Lu Qian nodded in agreent. "Indeed. The attack on the Stone Sect must trace back to Hao Jiantong at its origin. He is the connection."

"Tell

more about the Enshrinent Hall. What is its strength?"

"There are thirty-four monks stationed in the Enshrinent Hall," Lu Qian said. "All are at the Qi Training level. They are led by three peak Qi Training cultivators — Hao Jiantong among them."

"Thirty-four — that many?"

"Monitoring the Stone Alliance alone wouldn’t require so many. Most of the monks in the Enshrinent Hall remain in Shoushan for the comforts and pleasures of city life. They’ve grown soft and indulgent. Their discipline is poor."

"n who’ve lost their edge over worldly comfort are not worth worrying about."

"Exactly. If we want Hao Jiantong specifically, we only need to deal with the three peak Qi Training cultivators."

"Moving against all three at once would be too conspicuous — it would send a signal straight into Shoushan Market Town. We cannot afford to move in the open. We need Hao Jiantong alone, isolated and separated from the others."

Cao Cuo was quiet for a mont, then spoke with calm finality:

"Nothing can be done within the Enshrinent Hall. We need a way to draw Hao Jiantong out — and when he cos, we take him quietly, without a sound, without a ripple. The snake must not be startled before we strike."