Chapter 781: Sinner (1)
Chapter 781: Sinner (1)
A murderous atmosphere covered Nanyuan.
Great Wu.
Chen Yong and Feng Ji had just killed a Mountainsea. They were currently busy running for their lives.
Feng Ji kept coughing blood when Chen Yong was dragging him along as he fled. Despite the miserable state they were in, he had a joyful smile on his face. One could even say that he looked deranged.
"Feng Ji, are you going to die on me?"
"I don't think so."
Chen Yong instantly burned every mouthful of blood Feng Ji spat out. He said, "We have probably exposed ourselves. We won't be able to keep running for long. That fellow sure is patient. I don't know if he will show up even if we kill all these people."
Feng Ji was also smiling despite his deathly pale complexion. He said nothing.
"Reveal yourself and return to Great Xia..."
"What about you?"
"Me?" Chen Yong grinned, "Someone needs to take responsibility for all this. Old Feng, I don't think I can return any more. From the moment I left Great Xia, I knew I wouldn't be returning. If I return, I will be the prime suspect. People will start suppressing me. Everyone will be monitoring my every action."
He had decided to not return. Logically, he should have stopped right after the Six-Winged Divine Sect stopped hunting them. But he had continued. The moment that choice was made, he could no longer return. At this point, more and more people were suspecting him.
One of the experts pursuing them shouted, "Are you Chen Yong and Feng Ji? Stop! Surrender and your life might be spared!"
The pursuers were shouting Chen Yong's name, but they weren't too sure. Nevertheless, Chen Yong and Feng Ji were indeed the prime suspects. If the two had stopped and revealed themselves after the Six-Winged Divine Sect fled, there wouldn't be too much suspicion on them. But since they had continued, the suspicion on them had been growing.
Chen Yong grinned and said, "Are you seeing this? I was unable to stay patient. After so many years of patience, I finally lost control."
He had completely let himself loose. Even after the departure of the Six-Winged Divine Sect, he was still unwilling to stop. He had seen this day coming. Feng Ji said nothing.
Chen Yong continued, "I'll take all the blame. Don't say anything. You're too weak. In fact, you have been dragging me down. I would be able to enjoy this more without you here. Go to Great Xia and look for my teacher. He will protect you."
"You—"
"Listen to me!"
His clear eyes were tinged with a slight red of madness as he said, "I can't return anymore. Nor do I want to return. Rules are nothing but limitations and cages for the just, the weak, and the victims. I don't want to return to this cage. I don't need the protection of these rules. I'll leave my fate to the heavens. The day I walked out of Great Xia, I decided to let go of everything.
"I'm going to keep at it. I need to avenge our old brothers. I also need to avenge Jia's parents. Back then, they died miserably to save me. The two animals from the Six-Winged Divine Sect are still alive. If I return, I'll be under observation. The moment they find proof of wrongdoing, they will want to kill me and there won't be anything I can do about it. Rather than subjecting my fate in the hands of others, I might as well do everything I can myself.
"Take care of Jia for me. My teacher, my junior brother, my martial uncle, and I, including my grandteacher, are all nothing but chess pieces. Heh."
Chen Yong sneered, "None of them have expected insignificant individuals like us to actually fight back even when things are so bad. They want to keep suppressing us for a few decades and buy more time for them. At that point, we will all be reduced to cripples while the myriad races will no longer be wary of us..."
He talked about all sorts of topics, some seemingly completely unrelated to each other. But Feng Ji understood what he was saying. Grief welled in his heart.
"That might be the case for you guys. But is that the case for the fifth principal as well?"
The fifth principal had nearly succeeded. Was someone like that a chess piece as well?
Chen Yong laughed, "There are things that you won't even be able to imagine. Perhaps those people were the ones who had schemed my grandteacher to death. I don't know the exact details yet, but I will continue my investigation. As long as I'm still alive, I won't stop. Who knows what the truth is about my grandteacher? There is only one thing nobody can deny. My teacher and martial uncle have always been the chess pieces used to attract all attention. All the official multiple character faction members are nothing but cannon fodder. Feng Ji, this is a massive game of chess..."
A look of despair could be seen in his eyes as he said, "It's so big that we're nothing but cannon fodder that can be thrown away at any time. And for most people, there is nothing wrong with that. The people who have been scheming against us are in the right. In this game of chess, we are the villains. I am not willing to accept this. I can't accept this. We are also working hard for humanity. Why must they treat us this way? My martial uncle and teacher are probably aware of all this. They have decided to stay silent. But I don't want to do that. I've been silent for too long. Jia's injuries and Su Yu's departure told me that I couldn't stay silent anymore."
Feng Ji wanted to say something, but Chen Yong cut him off, "Stop talking. It's time for you to leave. Return and tell everyone that I did everything. You were merely taken hostage by me and forced to work alongside me."
"Big Brother Chen!"
"No matter what, you're a Mountainsea. I guess it's a good thing you're not a part of the multiple character faction. Take care of Jia for me. My teacher is quite unreliable. He will do something crazy sooner or later. That's the case for my junior brother as well. Our entire line...all of us are nothing but sacrificial lambs."
With a bleak smile, he said, "Jia has yet to take part in all this. That is fine. Get her to distance herself from everything. Su Yu has been involving himself too much so he might not be able to avoid this anymore. It is up to him what he wants to do next."
At that point, he released the strength in his blood essence and moved even faster than before. In the blink of an eye, they vanished into thin air.
After some time, they arrived on a mountain. Chen Yong placed Feng Ji on the ground and smiled, "Brother, do me this last favor. Take care of Jia. I have no other request. After today, Chen Yong will stop being Chen Yong."
After saying that, he struck Feng Ji with a palm attack, causing Feng Ji's injuries to worsen.
Chen Yong crouched down, faced Feng Ji who was sprawled on the ground, and said, "I need to tamper with your memories. It might be better for you to forget all that we have done. You only need to remember that you have to take care of Jia for me. It has been hard for you these years."
Feng Ji pleaded, "Can I preserve my memories? Brother, I don't want to live a clueless life like that!"
"Forget about that. We don't want any Invincibles to see through your memories and act against you instead."
Then, Chen Yong knocked Feng Ji unconscious before extracting some blood essence from Feng Ji. During the process, Feng Ji's body started withering away. Drop after drop of blood essence was extracted. Then, Chen Yong started working on the memory fragments. Beads of sweat formed on his head as he worked.
After about an hour, he inserted the blood essence into Feng Ji's body again. With that, Feng Ji started recovering. Chen Yong smiled and further helped with the recovery. When he saw that Feng Ji was on the verge of waking up, he launched an attack on a nearby mountain. The attack was loud, creating a massive ruckus.
And when Feng Ji's eyelids started trembling, Chen Yong vanished with a flicker. A short moment later, several Mountainseas and a Sunmoon arrived. They saw the unconscious Feng Ji. At the same moment, Feng Ji opened his eyes. He looked at them with a blank look in his eyes.
"Feng Ji?"
After coughing a mouthful of blood, Feng Ji asked, "Who...who are you?"
"Are you Feng Ji?" The Sunmoon cautiously asked, "Why are you here?"
"Me?"
Feng Ji's head was hurting badly. He seemed to be recalling something, but he also seemed to have forgotten something. He remained in silence for a long while.
The Sunmoon coldly said, "Speak! Why are you here?"
Feng Ji said nothing. His memories were in a mess. He only remembered that Chen Yong was heading somewhere with him one day when Chen Yong suddenly wanted to kill someone. He tried to stop Chen Yong, but he was knocked out. His memories became a mess after that.
Why? That wasn't right. Why did he try to stop his Big Brother Chen? But that was what he remembered. Big Brother Chen wanted to kill a commander at the Rising Sky Sea. He also remembered seeing his Big Brother Chen killing a few other individuals.
"Brother, take care of Jia for me. I don't care about anything else."
This was the clearest memory in his mind. Everything else was unclear. It was as though he had been sleepwalking until now. The Mountainseas looked at the Sunmoon, awaiting his decision. The Sunmoon from Great Wu frowned. Great Wu had a good relationship with Great Xia. And Feng Ji came from Great Xia. Thus, he also didn't know how to handle this. Were Feng Ji and Chen Yong really the murderers?
"Feng Ji, I'm asking you a question."
Feng Ji looked up, clenched his teeth, and said, "What do you want? I killed someone. What else do you want me to say?"
"Hmm?"
The Sunmoon frowned as suns and moons spun in his eyes. Feng Ji seemed way too ready to take the blame for this.
"Where's Chen Yong?"
"How am I supposed to know? It has been years since I last saw him."
"Bullshit!"
The Sunmoon berated and frowned. This was getting troublesome. Feng Ji had confessed to being the murderer while Chen Yong had disappeared. What was going on? These murders had long attracted the attention of experts. These experts referred to Invincibles, not mere Sunmoons like him.
After all, killing several Mountainsea commanders in a row was a major incident. The Sunmoon himself had not expected himself to succeed at catching anyone. But for some reason, Feng Ji had fallen into his hands.
"Feng Ji, you better speak honestly. Otherwise...this incident has attracted the attention of some Invincibles. Even if you refuse to speak the truth, the Invincibles will have the means to read your heart, examine your memories, and check your past."
Then, he ordered, "Arrest him! I'll report this to the two holy lands, the various prefectures, and the armies of the three seas."
This involved more than a single prefecture. And Feng Ji himself was a genius human Mountainsea. After the death of Great Wu King, Great Wu's strength had deteriorated. They had been relying on Great Xia as their backer, but Great Xia had been in chaos recently. Thus, they had no choice but to report this to the two holy lands.
But prior to that, it would still be a good idea to inform Great Xia of this capture. It wasn't a good thing for Great Wu to be the one to capture Feng Ji. Alas, that had happened out of nowhere. Before long, the Mountainseas flew away with Feng Ji in hand. The Sunmoon continued to scan the area with a frown before vanishing into thin air.
After an indeterminate amount of time, the Sunmoon reappeared. He muttered, "Chen Yong, did you leave Feng Ji behind to clear his name of the crimes? I don't know what you're thinking. Do you have the means to hide the truth from Invincibles? Or is Feng Ji really innocent? It doesn't matter. I will act according to your wishes. He will be sent to Invincibles. Great Wu and Great Xia have maintained a good relationship for hundreds of years. I don't want to see anything bad happen as well..."
There was no reply. The Sunmoon sighed before vanishing again. This time, he did not reappear. After a while, someone started moving through the ground under the mountain and departed the area. This person was using the ability of the mountaindrill bull race.
Water escape, shadow escape, earth escape, and fire escape.
Not even Su Yu had expected this to happen.
The shadow was capable of escaping through shadows.
The water elemental was capable of escaping through water.
The mountaindrill bull was capable of escaping through ground.
The fire crow was capable of escaping through fire.
The white civet was capable of escaping through wind.
As for the suanni, his main element was the metal element. And that element specialized in killing. He thus lacked an escape ability.
Chen Yong was an incredibly knowledgeable person. He had been preparing for this many years ago. He was an astonishing genius. He had been able to enter the Mountainsea Realm many years ago. At the time, Hong Tan even started thinking of reviving the multiple character faction through Chen Yong, his incredible first student. But Chen Yong had remained a Cloudbreach for so many years. As a result, many people had started to forget how much of a genius he was.
***
Feng Ji had been captured. He had confessed to being the culprit behind the murders.
This piece of news started spreading among the circle of Sunmoons and Invincibles. Great Han King who was in charge of guarding the Human Realm and Silk Destroying King who had just returned from the Allheaven Battlefield with Great Song King were all notified of this.
This was an important matter. Five Mountainsea commanders had been killed, with three of them being high-stage Mountainseas. The remaining two were middle-stage Mountainseas. These were all the elites of their respective prefecture.
The captured culprit was a human genius who had faked his death many years ago. This matter might also involve Chen Yong, a recently promoted elder. He was the student of a Sunmoon and the grandstudent of the fifth principal.
This matter was creating waves among the upper echelons of humanity. It had been decided that Feng Ji would be publicly trialed.
Not long after, Feng Ji was taken by someone from Great Xia. General Zhao was in charge of escorting Feng Ji back. During the journey, Feng Ji never stopped confessing to being the murder.
As for how all the murders were performed, he said nothing. But it was clear he wasn't strong enough to kill all those experts. He also claimed that he had not seen Chen Yong at all.
As for why he fainted on the mountain, he claimed that the last Mountainsea he killed had injured him too heavily, resulting in him losing consciousness on the mountain. What was the reason for the murders? He claimed that it was due to a personal grudge.