Sun Ru stood in the way, preventing Pingu from handling Granny Ju. “I cannot sanction us harming an old lady when there’s no proof of anything you’ve said. They’re just conjectures.”

  “Don’t worry, good sister. I won’t be punishing her but testing her guilt.”

  “Huh?”

  “A trial by fire is what I propose. The flames will melt away the lies and reveal the truth of the matter.”

  “What?” the Village Head yelled. “This is barbaric! You would have us burn our own medicine woman for these absurd accusations?!”

  The village men’s voices added to the fold, proclaiming their outrage as well.

  But Zeng Fei wasn’t appealing to them in the first place. “The Pure Yang Heavenly True Fire from the Pure Yang Phoenix Fist will only cause an extreme reaction against evil yin entities, so it’ll become apparent straightaway if Granny Ju is lying or not.”

  Sun Ru frowned. “But, Brother Zeng, devilish entities can be of yin and yang constitution, so—”

  Zeng Fei had forgotten this, and became flustered from her rebuttal. To cover his tracks, he quickly changed tracks.

  “Sister Sun Ru, do you not have faith that the heavens will protect her if she is truly innocent?” Zeng Fei shouted over her.

  “No, that’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying this a flawed test—”

  “I ask thee, Disciple Sun Ru of the Treading Infinity Sect,” he bellowed in his most commanding voice. “Are you a true Dao-seeker of the Flame, or were you merely dressing up as one? Does the desire for justice not course through your veins and the love of fire through your meridians? I tell thee, the Holy Flames will burn away all false pretences, so better you confess now if you were acting to be a pyromaniac all along!”

  As expected, wielding Sun Ru’s kryptonite against her in the manner of a preacher caused her to lower her head and acknowledge her loss. Her final, wavering resistance was washed away, even though her misgivings remained.

  “If Esteemed—” Sun Ru cleared her throat. “If Pingu believes such actions will genuinely result in justice, then I will choose to believe in you. But if I may quickly lay the case against it, Pingu, I want to remind you that we have no proof of Brother Zeng’s claims. Moreover, in the case that Granny Ju is innocent, who knows if she’ll survive even the ordinary damage caused by the flames given how frail her body is.”

  Pingu tilted his head. “Brr?”

  Zeng Fei watched with an impassive expression, doing his best to conceal his emotions as he knew he’d otherwise be snickering at her attempts to pervert the course of justice, however well-intentioned she may be.

  There was no need for him to fear Pingu would be convinced by her appeals.

  If Zeng Fei had gleaned anything about his minion by now, it was that his loyal minion was borderline enthusiastic about beating up humans, case in point Pingu’s beatdown of Dong Ju and even Sun Ru - even if he had misunderstood the orders, notice how he hadn’t hesitated in the slightest to carry them out.

  This penguin did not give a single crap if you were a man or woman, young or old, resisting or not: he would beat you up all the same. No wonder when he’d been a member of the legendary Blackcoats, the Emperor’s elite infantry who’d once been feared the world over.

  Pingu waddled forward, and Sun Ru interpreted this as his answer; she consequently got out of the way.

  The men standing there also had no choice but to move as Pingu cast Pure Yang Phoenix Fist, which now at level 16 caused the flames to emerge out of his wing with such intensity it forced them to back off.

  All that remained was poor Granny Ju in her bed, cringing away in abject fear.

  Yet, just as Pingu stepped into her proximity, Granny Ju launched herself to the other side of the bed with such sudden haste that the people there failed to capture her movement.

  Nonetheless, this didn’t apply to the penguin in front of her, whose attack homed in onto her figure even after she’d moved away, the roar of flames washing over her.

  These flames were chilli-pepper red and accordingly burnt Granny Ju’s very essence, causing her to shriek and wail.

  “Huh, so it turns out she was a yin entity after all,” Zeng Fei remarked. This was his first observing the Pure Yang Heavenly True Fire being used against a yin-aligned entity, and he had to say its effectiveness had not been exaggerated in the slightest.

  After all, it was likely that Granny Ju possessed techniques that would allow her to get out of this predicament or even fight back, but what use were they when she wasn’t given an opening to be able to use them?

  With her body burning away, she urgently needed to get rid of the Pure Yang Heavenly True Fire. But to get rid of it, she needed to douse it with qi, which if she were to do at her level would leave her drained of qi. This meant she was as good as dead whether she acted or not.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  She must have realised this as her struggles abruptly stopped, and she directed her remaining willpower and qi for a different purpose instead.

  Pointing at the mastermind of her undoing, she howled in a malignant voice. “You, bastard child, with all my remaining essence I curs—”

  “No chance - finish the hag, Pingu!” he yelled over her. As if he was going to get himself cursed by a two-bit villain.

  Congratulations! Pingu’s Kung Ho has advanced to Level 8!

  Pingu delivered a brain-rattling blow to her head before she could complete the curse, saving his master from the effort of going through pain in the arse ordeals to get rid of it.

  This marked the end of Granny Ju - even though Sun Ru rushed in and doused the flames using her qi, all that was left was a charred corpse.

  Everyone in there cleared the smoky cottage and chucked the corpse outside.

  Sun Ru ordered the village men to bury it under a shallow mound of dirt here, not out of respect but to get rid of the sickening smell of burnt human flesh.

  While they did this, she marched up to Zeng Fei and grabbed him by the collar. “Why did you execute her so swiftly, Brother Zeng? Do you even understand what you’ve done?!”

  He brushed her hands away. “Oh, come on, how can you blame me when I was right about her guilt?”

  “Yes, exactly! You were right, and now that you’ve executed her, we’ve lost the opportunity to interrogate answers out of her! All we know is that she was most likely the culprit behind the disappearances, but no more. Was she working with others? Is there a tamed demon beast under her control hidden somewhere? How was she causing the disappearances? Who knows if we’ll find out answers for those now.”

  Zeng Fei cleared his throat. “The stupid hag shouldn’t have tried to curse me, then.” Despite saying this, he knew he was at fault here.

  He’d expected Granny Ju to reveal her true colours when under threat and had planned to hurt her into submission. It was just when she’d begun cursing him, he’d impulsively reacted and ordered her death, thinking fuck that.

  Sun Ru walked away in exasperation, rubbing the tension out of her brow, simultaneously updating her view of Zeng Fei.

  On one hand, her peer was remarkably impressive in how he’d seen through to the truth of the monster haunting this village within hours of landing, despite having observed the same details she had. It was almost like he was a seasoned veteran at solving such problems.

  Yet, on the other, he clearly had at least one screw loose, and most likely several. He was lacking in certain areas of thought so much that it was to the point she wondered if he was an idiot savant.

  Meanwhile, the village men and head were shaken by what they’d witnessed in there, as well as by the ramifications of Granny Ju being the likely culprit behind the string of disappearances.

  After all, she had been the midwife for most of their births and their children’s births, someone who they had known and trusted their entire lives. Even now, it was close to impossible to believe she had been the one targeting them, her own community, in such a merciless manner.

  Their view of the two cultivators had also drastically shifted, especially of Zeng Fei who had displayed immense power and chilling ruthlessness in how decisively he’d dealt with Granny Ju.

  The Village Head approached him with a visible tremor, followed on by the men, and kowtowed in front of him. “Esteemed One, I hope you won’t take to heart any of our actions in there. We didn’t know… we wouldn’t have ever thought.”

  Zeng Fei brushed it aside. “No matter.”

  “Thank you for your benevolence and understanding, Esteemed One. But regarding the disappearances, do you know if…?”

  Zeng Fei turned towards the cottage. “Well, I’d like to wait till the smoke has cleared before having a thorough look through her stuff. But I can tell you that everyone who disappeared is almost certainly dead, exactly as you feared. You see, I don’t think her cultivation base was from spending early years in a sect - I think she was practising a form of devilish cultivation whereby you accumulate condensed qi from other people.”

  “But none of the people taken were cultivators…”

  “Well, cultivators are the best targets, but mortal bodies would still do at the low level she was.”

  “Actually, mortal bodies can work as a cultivation resource for higher levels too depending on the type of devilish cultivation you practice,” Sun Ru added, having paced around the cottage several times and hearing their discussion.

  “The type of devilish cultivation you’re thinking of, Brother Zeng, is the traditional type whereby the practitioner steals chunks of other people’s cultivation bases to add to their own. Those who follow such methodologies form devilish sects, what are also sometimes referred to as unorthodox sects. But I suspect this Granny Ju to have belonged to the other type of devilish cultivators.”

  Zeng Fei frowned. “There’s another type?”

  “Yes, the key difference being that they don’t directly steal the cultivation base of their victims - instead, they use those corpses as sacrifices to eldritch beings, which in turn reward them with power. That’s why I didn’t immediately sense Granny Ju’s nature as it’s not possible to glean from her cultivation base that she’s a devilish cultivator. That’s also why it was crucial we interrogated her - she was a cult member!”

  “Lord, a response has come from the Divine Truth Scouring Abode.”

  A low hum. “At least they were quick this time. What reads it?”

  “Your message was most-effective Lord: they have kindly provided us Zeng Fei’s location.”

  Bai An smirked, glad to hear they’d understood their situation well from his little warning. “And?”

  “The disciple should currently be at the Little Ox Village in the Verdant Mounds Province. He took out a mission to complete a task there and has yet to return.”

  “Can any of our agents reach there quickly? That additionally would be suitable for this mission?”

  “In terms of speed and suitability, the best would be Sharpshooter Shen, who’s less than a day’s travel away if he goes at full speed.”

  Bai An parsed his memory for a moment. “Ah, right, he was cultivating in that pocket realm nearby there. If he’s back, he must have achieved the peak of early Nascent Soul.”

  “It is as you say, Lord.”

  “Very good - his skill set is perfect for this. Have him make the journey at once.” Bai An paused, narrowing his eyes. “And make absolutely clear to him what his mission is. Nothing, and I repeat, nothing must go awry. If this child truly is the Heavenly Demon Emperor’s successor, then we are officially living in the nightmare that our forebears warned us about. Even if everyone else has forgotten and turned their backs on our mission over time, we must endeavour to protect them all the same. The Emperor shall not rise again.”

  “Not for as long as I live,” his minion intoned. “I will see to your instructions at once, my lord.”