Chapter 105 - 85: Gifts Come from All Sides While Sitting at Home: 7th-Grade Secret Medicine and 6th-Order Spirit Wine

Chapter 105: Chapter 85: Gifts Come from All Sides While Sitting at Home: 7th-Grade Secret Medicine and 6th-Order Spirit Wine

Dawn was breaking, the sky a hazy gray.

In the brazier, charcoal embers glowed faintly.

The memorial tent had not yet been taken down. As Zhang Qing held an all-night vigil for his sister, his heart leaped in alarm when ’Master Han’ suddenly appeared, covered from head to toe in blood.

"Master!"

"Where have you been for the last three days? Your injuries..."

His heart tightened as he remembered what Han Ying had said upon leaving three days prior. He hurried forward to support the man, stumbling as he helped him into his room and lit a candle.

As it went in many Martial Dao tales, once a person started arranging their final affairs, it was a sign their fate was sealed. His own elder brother, Ji Xiu, often said as much.

Zhang Qing had already resigned himself to the idea that once his sister’s vigil was over, he would immediately have to don mourning clothes for ’Master Han’ and perform the rites of a disciple.

Then, he would follow his master’s last wishes, travel to Jiangyin Prefecture, and settle his final affairs.

But Master Han had somehow defied that logic. After leaving what seemed to be his final, ominous instructions, he hadn’t met with some mishap outside—he had actually returned, alive!

He didn’t know where his master had gone or what he had done...

But Zhang Qing’s heart was still filled with gratitude for this master, who had taught him a legitimate form of Entering Force Martial Arts and personally guided him through the gates of becoming a Martial Artist, saving him from a lifetime of floundering in the mud.

"COUGH, COUGH, COUGH!"

"It’s nothing... At least I won’t die."

"The ’Jade Talisman’... is it still in your possession?"

Han Ying lay half-reclined on Zhang Qing’s bed, feeling as though his internal organs had been shaken to pieces. His very flesh, bone, skin, and membrane felt slack and torn, pushed far beyond their limits.

Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth and his eyelids drooped. As he recalled the events of the past three days, a flicker of profound exhaustion crossed his eyes.

His entire demeanor had lost the sharp, driven spirit of a Martial Artist on the path of fierce and vigorous progress, replaced by an air of utter dejection.

There is no greater sorrow in life than a shattered faith, like a candle finally burning itself out.

And this was the current state of Han Ying. He was once the chosen successor to Luo Daocheng, the Garrison Commander of Jiangyin Prefecture, but had lost his bid to become a Martial Examination Official at the Mansion Courtyard.

He had previously failed the Martial Examination, used as a stepping stone by the scions of noble families—those who were backed by a True Inheritance and spent their days steeping in medicinal tonics—who had snatched away his chance at merit and fame. Because of this, a crack had formed in his Martial Arts Zen Heart.

Then, by chance, he witnessed a divine manifestation of the Central Yellow Sect in Jiangyin Prefecture.

In that moment, he was led astray, judging only by what he saw on the surface.

He stubbornly and naively came to believe that this Outer Dao sect—a faith from beyond the realm that gathered followers with a doctrine promising ’all men can be dragons, all are equal under divine decree’—was a truly orthodox and righteous path.

He believed they were more suited to rule this land than the Thirty-Six Professions, the great clans, the wealthy houses, or even the upper echelons of the rigid hierarchy: the Six Great Xuan Registers, the Prefecture Officials, and the nobles with their fiefdoms. And so, he went all the way down that dark path.

Han Ying had once believed in this without a doubt. He worshiped at their divine shrines, put his faith in the ’Spirit Summoning and Saint Manifesting General’—one of the thirty-six Dharma Guardian Generals of the Central Yellow Sect—and cultivated the Central Yellow Myriad Spirits Scripture.

As his cultivation skyrocketed and he drew ever closer to the level of a Qi Cultivation Grandmaster, he even began secretly spreading the faith in Anning County with the help of the Three Great Gangs.

But there are two sides to every story.

A few days ago, a conflict had broken out between Zhang Qing and Yang Yan, the son of Tiger and Leopard Hall’s Yang Daohan. This incident planted the first seeds of doubt in Han Ying’s heart.

He hadn’t known what to look for, but once he started investigating, he was shocked by what he found.

Leaving aside other regions, just within the five-hundred-li radius of Anning County, every single Commander, Dharma Protector, and Cultist who worshiped at the Spirit Summoning and Saint Manifestation Grand General Altar—a branch of the Central Yellow Sect—was a formerly notorious great thief, swordsman, or bandit whose infamy echoed throughout the surrounding prefectures and counties.

Take Wei Changjiao, the head evangelist of the Anning Sub-Altar, serving under the Spirit Summoning and Saint Manifesting General.

He was once a leader of the Chaotic Heaven Bandits in the East Canghai. He’d gathered a navy of three thousand men and caused so much trouble that even Han Ying’s master, Luo Daocheng, had considered him a major headache. In fact, Wei Changjiao held the tenth and final seat among the Ten Brothers of Chaotic Heaven!

Then there was the ’Ghost Hand Judge,’ Wang Hongzu. He was capricious and utterly unscrupulous. His favorite pastime was rampaging through the Prefecture City, preying on the young and weak. He would seek out the disciples and descendants of rivals he couldn’t defeat himself, stirring up trouble until he provoked public outrage and was attacked by all sides.

As for the rest—be they Skin Refining Guardians or Cultists at the Bone Tempering and Bone Marrow stages...

...they were almost all swordsmen and bandits from the nearby mountain paths. They had joined without a second thought because faith in the Central Yellow Sect granted them the Central Yellow Myriad Spirits Scripture to boost their Martial Dao cultivation. They were all self-serving and profit-driven.

Look past the surface, and it was clear: they were all just opportunists chasing fame and fortune.

Incense and candlelight curled up from the Grand General Altar, yet the Divine Being had never once opened its eyes!

Were all these Central Yellow Cultists truly the kind of people who had cast down their butcher knives to instantly achieve enlightenment?

Obviously not.

But it was only when Han Ying peeled back the layers and stumbled upon the Central Yellow Sub-Altar’s detailed records concerning the ’Central Yellow Manifest Saint’...

...that a true chill went down his spine, for he finally saw the true face of the Central Yellow Sect’s divine beings.

He finally understood why his master, Luo Daocheng, always wore such a grave and troubled expression whenever he spoke of these religious sects.

It was because these Outer Dao Divinities all played the part of the savior.

They would, in fact, manifest their holy power in times of widespread suffering and misery. With overwhelming divine might, they would purge evil and spread their faith.

But... all that suffering, all that devastation, was orchestrated and brought about by the divinities themselves.

Once this hypocritical veil was torn away.

Realizing something was terribly wrong, Han Ying had immediately tried to get out and flee.

However, his luck was poor. He was relentlessly hunted by Wang Hongzu, ranked thirty-seventh on the Outsider Kill List.

If it weren’t for a trump card his master had given him long ago, he would already be dead. Even so, his internal organs had nearly been shaken to pieces.