Chapter 2005 - The Truth Laid Bare

Left alone amid the desolate ruins, Liu Wuxie fell into deep thought. The mission was over, yet Zheng Ruhai had not asked him to hand back the Law Enforcement Token. That was strange. The Azure Jade Palace should have reclaimed it, since they had given it to him solely to facilitate the investigation.

He had no doubt that the two deputy palace masters knew every move he had made in Mulberry Sea City over the past two days. But what did the sect intend for him? Were they nurturing him, or subjecting him to trials? The deputy palace masters had to be at the Azure Jade Palace. Who, then, was keeping watch over him in secret? The questions lingered unanswered, weighing on his mind.

In a distant tree, a bird abruptly went rigid in the midst of preening its feathers. As a powerful wave of divine sense swept through the area, it gave an alarmed chirp, beat its wings frantically, and disappeared into the darkness.

"So that bird has been trailing me this whole time? Why is it keeping watch on me?" Liu Wuxie muttered, his brow furrowing. Earlier, his soul energy had lacked the strength to detect it, but refining the Soul Stone had sharpened his perception enormously.

"Long Yuanxiong ought to be nearly finished by now," he murmured. Liu Wuxie withdrew his gaze from the horizon where the bird had vanished and returned to the Chai Clan.

Light blazed throughout the Chai Clan against the surrounding darkness. Everyone stood taut with tension, as though preparing to face a formidable enemy.

"Patriarch, two people who say they're from the Long Clan are asking to see you at once. They've brought two bound men dressed in black!" a disciple reported, having rushed into the main hall and dropped to one knee.

"Show them in," Chai Qian said, rising from his seat to escort the visitors from the courtyard himself.

A dozen breaths later, Long Yuanxiong came striding into view, carrying a bound man in black in each hand without the slightest effort. Long Ying followed in his wake.

"What's going on here?" Chai Qian asked. He knew for certain that neither newcomer belonged to any of the three rival clans. If they had not come as enemies, why had they brought prisoners?

"Liu Wuxie instructed us to capture these men and bring them directly to the Chai Clan," Long Ying explained without emotion.

"Ah, I understand. Please, come in!" Chai Qian said warmly, gesturing for them to enter. If Liu Wuxie had sent them, something must have occurred.

Neither captive had regained consciousness. When the siblings entered the main hall, the elders and deacons instinctively parted to let them through. As an exalted Great Golden Immortal, Long Ying had a status comparable to Chai Qian's. The pressure radiating from her left everyone in the hall sweating nervously.

With a casual motion, Long Yuanxiong tossed the two men onto the floor. The heavy impact jolted them awake, drawing groans from both. One opened his eyes, recognized the familiar hall, and sprang upright.

"Patriarch, what am I doing here?" Chai Hu asked, his heart sinking as he caught sight of Chai Qian.

Chai Shan and the others bellowed, advancing on the siblings, "Who are you, people? Why have you taken Elder Chai Hu captive?!"

Chai Qian motioned for them to stop with a wave of his hand.

"Chai Hu... I never thought you would be the one," Chai Qian said, grief and fury etched across his face. Until now, he had kept Liu Wuxie's warning of a traitor within the clan to himself.

"Patriarch, I have no idea what you mean!" Chai Hu protested. He tried to scramble upright, only for horror to seize him as he discovered that his dantian was completely sealed. He could not summon so much as a trace of energy.

"You still dare pretend you are innocent!" Chai Qian snarled.

A soft heart had not won him the patriarch's seat. He stepped forward and drove a vicious kick into the second captive's ribs. The man had already awakened and was pretending to be unconscious.

"AARGH!" the man shrieked as the kick shattered several bones. He knew he could no longer pretend and sat up.

With a ruthless swipe, Chai Qian tore off the black mask. A startlingly familiar face stared back at him.

"It's Liang Chengshan!" A wave of shocked exclamations swept through the hall. A direct relative of Liang Chengzhou had fallen into their hands.

"Elder Chai Hu, what were you doing in Liang Chengshan's company?!" Chai Shan bellowed. The gathered elders and deacons now grasped the gravity of the affair. Being caught with a member of the Liang Clan made it far more serious than they had imagined.

"Lady Long, Young Master Long, can you tell me exactly what happened out there?" Chai Qian asked. Seeing the two prisoners together confirmed beyond doubt that Chai Hu was the traitor, but he still wanted to hear the siblings' full account.

"Brother Liu asked us to take someone captive in the woods outside the city..." Long Yuanxiong gave a vivid account of the entire incident, including the conspiracy the two men had discussed.

A suffocating silence descended upon the hall, broken only by the heavy, ragged breaths of furious men.

"CHAI HU!" Chai Shan roared. "How dare you betray the clan and conspire with the Yan, Liang, and Wen Clans!" He lunged forward, seized Chai Hu by the collar, and violently hauled him off the floor.

Murderous intent burned in every gaze fixed upon Chai Hu. Only his long-standing status as a senior elder of the Chai Clan kept the deacons from tearing him apart on the spot.

"Do whatever you want with me," Chai Hu said, his face ashen. Now that matters had come this far, he saw no point in explaining himself.

"Don't you feel any remorse?! Beg the Patriarch for mercy! Repent, and there might still be a way to save you!" Chai Shan roared, shaking him violently. Heartbreak fueled his anger. He had rushed forward, clinging to the blind hope that his old friend would confess, desperately seeking a way to spare his life for the sake of their shared bloodline.

His words drew a look of anguish across Chai Hu's face.

......

By the time Liu Wuxie slipped back into the Chai Clan's estate, it was past midnight. He kept clear of the main hall, knowing that the aftermath of the betrayal required no further attention from him.

Long Ying stood near the edge of a pavilion. She spotted him as soon as he crossed the threshold and, with a flicker of movement, appeared in front of him.

"We've captured them. Will you finally tell us what all this was about?" she demanded.

"Follow me," Liu Wuxie replied.

After only brief dealings with Long Ying over the past two days, he already knew how relentless she could be. Nothing short of a full explanation would make her leave him in peace.

The moment Long Yuanxiong saw his sister walking away, he followed her. Behind them, the furious interrogation continued in the main hall, but Liu Wuxie and the siblings were not interested in the clan's internal conflict.

......

"Chai Hu, our clan has treated you well for all these years. Why did you turn against us?!" Chai Qian asked, grief weighing heavily in his voice. He had discovered a porcelain bottle containing black medicinal water in Chai Hu's interspatial ring.

"Spare me the hypocrisy, Chai Qian. While other clans have flourished, the Chai Clan has made no progress under your leadership. If you'd agreed to raise the price of immortal rice alongside the other three clans, none of this would have happened," Chai Hu retorted, fixing him with a vicious glare. Knowing there was no way out, he cast aside all restraint.

Because Chai Qian had insisted on selling immortal rice at a fair price, the three clans had besieged the Chai Clan. It had never recovered from that siege.

"So that was your reason for conspiring with them to ruin our harvests for the past decade?" Chai Qian asked, fighting to keep his murderous intent under control. He understood better than anyone what the clan had endured just to survive during this time.

"Exactly. If the harvest fails again this year, I'll be able to call for a council assembly to strip you of the patriarch's position," Chai Hu sneered.

Dissatisfaction with Chai Qian had lingered among many elders for years. In recent years, many had voiced their opinions about replacing him.

Leaving Chai Qian and the Grand Elder aside, Chai Hu possessed the highest cultivation in the clan. That made him the likeliest candidate to become the next patriarch.

"Even if you forced me out, the Grand Elder would succeed me. Have you given any thought to how much the clan has suffered over the past decade?" Chai Qian sighed. As patriarch, he too bore responsibility for failing to resolve the clan's troubles.

"Now that it's all out in the open, I may as well tell you everything. Master Bian was a fraud, and I deliberately recommended him to the Grand Elder. Once the spiritual fields were ruined, the Grand Elder would bear part of the blame," Chai Hu said. He was unaware that Chai Qian had already conducted a thorough investigation into Master Bian.

At one side of the hall stood the Grand Elder, his face set in a terrifyingly grim expression.

"All this, just to become patriarch? You could have told me what you wanted sooner. I might have agreed to step aside. Why did you have to hurt the clan?!" Chai Qian asked, heartbroken.

The truth was now exposed. Coveting the patriarch's position, Chai Hu had conspired with the three rival clans to force Chai Qian out.

In the earlier years, Chai Qian's standing had been secure, and the clan had respected him greatly despite the failed harvests. Even if Chai Hu requested a council assembly, his chances of success would have been slim.

After a decade, however, Chai Qian's standing within the clan had plummeted. More than half the elders were already calling for his replacement.

"Your stubbornness brought all of this on us! If we'd raised our prices together, we would have gained the most. The Chai Clan would never have fallen so far if you hadn't stood in the way!" Chai Hu retorted. He still sought to pin the blame on Chai Qian's refusal to raise prices in line with the three clans.

"Do you really think raising our prices would have made them leave us alone? You're far too naive! They've used you, and you don't even see it. Had we raised our prices back then, the three clans would have lowered theirs. We wouldn't have sold so much as a single grain!" Chai Qian said, sinking wearily into his chair. He had risen to become the patriarch of a third-tier clan. He was no fool. No choice the Chai Clan could have made a decade ago would have spared it trouble.

"Liang Chengshan, is he telling the truth?!" Chai Hu demanded. His heart sank with foreboding as he turned and seized Liang Chengshan by the neck.

"HA, HA, HA! Chai Hu, you're nothing more than a pitiful fool we've spent an entire decade manipulating!" Liang Chengshan admitted openly. There was no use resisting further. Now that the three clans' conspiracy was exposed, Chai Qian would search his memories.

Chai Hu slumped to the ground, his face draining of all color. He knew that he had become a sinner against his own clan. Without his greed for the patriarch's position, the three clans would never have found an opening.

At last, everyone understood the truth. Their immortal rice had blackened at every harvest because a traitor had lurked within their ranks. All along, Chai Hu had been tampering with the spiritual fields.

......

At the center of the Chai Clan's estate, Liu Wuxie took a seat in a pavilion with Long Ying and Long Yuanxiong.

"The truth is, I received three missions from the sect," Liu Wuxie said, drawing three mission sheets from his interspatial ring and presenting them to the siblings.

Long Yuanxiong snatched the sheets at once and finished reading them within a few breaths. Long Ying then took them from her brother. Her brow furrowed after reading them.

"These three missions alone don't warrant the sect issuing you the Law Enforcement Token. Is there something else you're keeping from us?" she asked, her sharp gaze locked on Liu Wuxie's face.