Chapter 18 - It Really Is Fragrant
The cultists looked at each other in confusion. The girl had something on her? That couldn’t be right—they had already searched her before bringing her here.
The middle-aged man gave a signal, and the old woman hurried over to search Xiaobing again. She groped around inside Xiaobing’s clothes, but when she wasn’t paying attention, Xiaobing suddenly leaned forward and bit down hard.
“Ow!”
The old woman cried out in pain, furious as she raised her hand to slap her.
“Don’t hit her!” Zhang Baocheng shouted again. “Tomorrow the Protector will personally preside over the Sacred Descent ritual. If you damage her, where am I supposed to find another suitable candidate?!”
The old woman immediately withdrew her hand in fear. She wanted to continue the search, but was afraid of getting bitten again.
Xiaobing bit viciously.
Zhang Baocheng was both annoyed and amused by his subordinates.
He smiled and said, “Little girl, if you don’t cooperate, I’ll have two of the guys search your whole body, alright?”
Although Xiaobing was a captive now, after tomorrow’s ritual she would become a Protector of the Holy Cult—ranking even above him. So Zhang Baocheng didn’t want to offend her too badly right now.
His threat worked.
The moment Xiaobing heard it, she stopped resisting. If two scruffy old men really came over and started messing with her body, she would rather die.
The old woman resumed the search, while Zhang Baocheng sat on a chair. His gaze fell on the large pot on the table and the porridge in everyone’s bowls.
“Where did this come from?!”
“Reporting to Guard Lord…” the middle-aged man replied hesitantly, “when we brought her here, the porridge on the stove smelled really good, so… we brought the whole pot along…”
Zhang Baocheng slammed the table with a loud bang and cursed again:
“Have you got any ambition at all?! Haven’t you ever eaten before?!
I told you to kidnap someone, and you brought their cooking pot too?!
What the hell is wrong with you idiots?!”
The group didn’t dare speak—they knew it was ridiculous.
Finally, the sallow-faced man tried to flatter him. “My lord, it really does smell great. We saved you a good portion… we even reheated it…”
Zhang Baocheng wanted to keep cursing, but he hadn’t eaten yet and his stomach was starting to growl, so he scooped himself a bowl.
…
…
…damn, it really is fragrant!
The old woman searched for a long time but found nothing. She was worried she’d be called useless again.
But after eating the preserved egg and lean meat porridge, Zhang Baocheng seemed to be in a better mood.
“Forget it,” he said. “I’ve already brought the person here. Let’s interrogate him.”
Just then, the two men from the factory entrance carried Lu Yuan in and placed him on the ground.
When Xiaobing saw her brother lying there, not knowing whether he was alive or dead, she exploded. She screamed and leapt up, the ropes barely holding her.
The old woman and the middle-aged man beside her were startled, and it took several people working together to pin her down.
“Brother!”
“So damn noisy! Can’t you just shut her up?!”
Hearing their leader’s reprimand, the subordinates quickly sealed Xiaobing’s mouth with tape.
Zhang Baocheng crouched down and slapped Lu Yuan’s chest and abdomen a few times. Lu Yuan slowly opened his eyes.
“Student Lu Yuan, take a look—who is this?”
He grabbed Lu Yuan by the hair and forced his face toward Xiaobing.
“See? I told you I could help you find your sister. Why didn’t you believe me?”
He even had the mood to joke.
“Xiaobing!”
“Mmmph! Mmmph!”
Her mouth was sealed, so she couldn’t speak.
“What did you do to my sister?!”
“What could I possibly do to her? Your sister is lucky—by tomorrow, she’ll be above everyone else.”
Zhang Baocheng said leisurely, “As for you, Student Lu Yuan, you should think about yourself.”
“Now tell me—what exactly did you hide on her?”
“Zhang Baocheng, why are you doing this?! Everyone has the duty to eliminate cultists—you’re betraying humanity!”
“Oh, give me a break. I’m betraying humanity?” Zhang Baocheng sneered. “The ones betraying humanity are those high-and-mighty cultivator lords!
The Holy Cult is humanity’s true path.
Forget it—you wouldn’t understand anyway.”
Zhang Baocheng didn’t bother explaining further. He casually pulled out a dagger and flipped it in his hand.
“Student Lu Yuan, I can’t touch your sister—but I have no such concerns about you.”
He pressed the blade against Lu Yuan’s finger and threatened:
“You don’t have to answer. But every second, I’ll cut off one of your fingers.
After your fingers, your toes.
After that, I’ll slit your throat.”
At this point, he chuckled. “That gives you twenty seconds to think before you die. How about it?”
Before Lu Yuan could respond, Xiaobing shook her head frantically. She had never been this terrified.
“Tell me honestly, and maybe for your sister’s sake, we’ll allow you to join the Holy Cult. What do you say?”
Zhang Baocheng made his final attempt to persuade him.
Lu Yuan gritted his teeth and shouted, “You’re dead!”
“Still stubborn!”
Zhang Baocheng’s expression turned cold, and he slashed down with the dagger.
At that very instant, a sorrowful voice rang out from outside the factory:
“Kid, just agree to him already!”
Before the words even finished, a surging fist force blasted through the wall, charging straight toward Zhang Baocheng.
The sallow-faced middle-aged man stood in its path. Before he could react, his body was torn apart by the overwhelming force.
“Ji Yin!”
Zhang Baocheng’s soul nearly left his body. At this moment, he couldn’t care about Lu Yuan anymore. Facing Ji Yin’s attack, he hurriedly tried to block it.
A faint white glow appeared on his arms as he barely managed to raise them in defense—only to be struck head-on by Ji Yin’s punch.
Crack!
Zhang Baocheng screamed as he was blasted backward, crashing into the wall behind him and bouncing off. His arms hung limply—clearly broken—and cracks spread across the wall.
The sheer power of that punch was terrifying.
Only then did the dust from the shattered wall settle. Ji Yin stood there, tall and imposing like a war god.
The remaining cultists trembled. They wanted to run, but their legs were too weak to obey.
Sounds of battle came from outside the factory. It wasn’t just Ji Yin—the Internal Affairs Bureau’s combat units had surrounded the cult stronghold.
“Kid, you alright?”
“I’m fine.”
Ji Yin reached out, intending to pull Lu Yuan up.
But Lu Yuan scrambled over and hugged his sister instead.
“Xiaobing!”
“Brother, I want to go home! Wuuuu…”
The siblings clung to each other.
Ji Yin’s outstretched hand hung awkwardly in the air.
“Ahem!” Zhang Baocheng coughed up blood as he sat up, unwilling to accept defeat. “Ji Yin… how are you here?”
“What, you really thought I went into seclusion?” Ji Yin grinned brightly.
Zhang Baocheng looked at Ji Yin, then at Lu Yuan untying Xiaobing. Suddenly, he understood. Hatred burned in his eyes.
“You… you set me up!”
“Oh? Finally figured it out?” Ji Yin laughed loudly.
To understand what happened, we have to go back a bit.
For some time now, Ji Yin had been investigating the cult hiding in Ningcheng.
But several carefully planned operations had all ended in failure.
Ji Yin suspected there was a mole within the Internal Affairs Bureau.
However, he didn’t make it public. First, he didn’t want to shake morale. Second, cultists were extremely difficult to identify—it required close-range spiritual detection to confirm. As a half-baked Single-Leaf cultivator, he couldn’t perform such complex techniques.
Ji Yin had been troubled by this for days, even considering asking his junior sister for help. Then he happened to run into Lu Yuan at the bureau.
After Xiao Zhou explained the situation, Ji Yin’s judgment matched Lu Yuan’s—he also believed Xiaobing had been kidnapped by cultists.
So on the spot, Ji Yin came up with a plan.
But this plan required Lu Yuan’s full cooperation.
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