After Transmigrating into a Book as Cannon Fodder, I Pampered the Villain - Chapter 33

Chapter 33: Harvesting

“Tsk, this corpse stench… it was your lot that attacked my sister before, wasn’t it?” Yang Xunzhou tapped her brush twice in the air, and the lingering odor vanished.

For a cultivator, this specific scent was easy to distinguish. Sanxi City had been plagued by these incidents for a long time. Curiously, although the Tianqiu Sect had stepped in to handle the mess, they always seemed to leave “loose ends.” After a while, the trouble would inevitably flare up again.

Yang Xunzhou smelled a conspiracy. Following Yingxia’s recent “accidents,” she had investigated the murky depths of the situation. Unsurprisingly, while the surface evidence pointed toward the missing Master of the Longevity Sect, there were countless invisible “threads” connecting the events back to the Tianqiu Sect.

She couldn’t see exactly who the threads led to, which meant the culprit was at least as strong as she was. Only three people in the Tianqiu Sect met that criteria. Whichever one it was meant endless trouble.

Yang was in an awkward position; if she intervened too deeply, she risked exposing her own identity to her old enemies. She didn’t want to turn a “one-on-two” fight into being hunted by a mob. However, if these creatures dared to target her newly adopted sister, she was more than willing to teach them that some people are off-limits.

One thing puzzled her: her new sister had been a mere mortal with no connection to these powers. Why were they targeting her so persistently?

Yang’s expression grew grim as she tried to extract clues from the creature’s soul. But when she used her abilities to question the soul, she only received screams of agony.

“Why are you stalking my sister?”

“Spare… spare me! I won’t do it again! It hurts so much…” The distorted soul wailed. It was halfway out of its shell, and the physical body it left behind wore an expression of terminal terror, as if it had been frightened to death.

The creature’s mental state had completely collapsed. Its only thought was to beg the person responsible for this pain for mercy or a quick death.

The shrieking made Yingxia’s skin crawl. She tried to poke her head out from behind Yan Huaixi to see the enemy.

Suddenly, a hand covered her eyes. The crimson glint in Yan Huaixi’s eyes hadn’t faded; a single look from her right now could make a soul tremble with primal fear.

“Don’t look. You’ll have nightmares tonight.” Yan’s murderous intent retracted slightly. Because she was speaking to Yingxia, she softened her voice to keep it from sounding too sharp.

“Is it another living corpse?” Yingxia obeyed, staying perfectly still.

Yan Huaixi’s meticulous protection caused her heart to flutter. Her vision was pitch black, but she was enveloped by the familiar scent of medicine clinging to Yan, which brought an inexplicable sense of peace.

Don’t overthink it, she told herself. Don’t forget what Yan just said about ‘overstepping.’

“Yes. Probably from the same source as the others.” Yan Huaixi turned slightly to look at Jiang Li. Seeing the signal, Jiang Li nodded.

I’ll notify them to move out immediately, Jiang Li sent via telepathy.

Some people truly lacked a survival instinct. They had been jumping around for so long, and now they had finally kicked a steel plate. They had touched the Master’s person. The Master had personally tracked one of their strongholds, and her subordinates were already surrounding it. If blood didn’t flow like a river tonight, the Master’s wrath would not be appeased.

Yang Xunzhou was still trying to pry information from the soul when she noticed something wrong.

The struggling soul bore “tear marks,” as if it were being physically shredded. The living corpse’s first reaction upon being caught should have been suicide to protect its secrets showing it wasn’t afraid of death. It was a fanatic, a death-soldier. Initially, its face had been mocking, but then it had suddenly tried to flee its body in a panic. It was a contradiction.

Yang did a deeper check and was chilled by the answer: the soul hadn’t left the body voluntarily. It was being ripped out by force!

The soul was being torn apart like skin being peeled from a living person. This meant that besides herself, there was another cultivator present using a method she couldn’t even perceive to intervene!

Who? The doctor? Yang glanced at Jiang Li, but seeing the woman’s bewildered expression, she looked away. No, her cultivation is much lower than mine. I would have felt it.

Then… Yang glanced toward the other side. She caught Yan Huaixi’s eyes for a split second. She froze, wondering if her eyes were playing tricks on her she thought she saw a faint, bloody red.

That bloodlust was gone in a flash, but in that moment, Yang had seen a dense, suffocating swarm of the character for “Death.” There were so many that her vision actually went black for a second.

Then, everything returned to calm. The bloodlust, the “Death” characters all gone. It was as if they had never existed. Yang Xunzhou knew she wasn’t so old that she was hallucinating. She quietly shifted her gaze.

At that moment, the soul that had been tearing itself apart went still. Its expression was frozen in agony, eyes staring straight at the ceiling.

“She… she ruined our plans. Took our Immortal Pill. Drew the Tianqiu Sect to us. Word came from above… if we suffer, she must suffer too.” The soul’s voice was flat, like a puppet.

“Who is your superior? Where are they?” Yang reached out to stabilize the fading spirit to ask more, but as soon as her hand touched the phantom, it crumbled into dust and vanished.

“Soul dissipation? Figures.” The souls of living corpses are refined into puppets; they grow weaker over time. This soul couldn’t withstand “someone’s” intervention.

Yingxia heard the creature’s “dying words,” and her face grew even paler. She realized the “she” being targeted was herself.

“The people who trashed Auntie Peng’s house really were looking for that lost pill. They’ve been watching the neighborhood.” Even with her caution, she had been found out.

“What pill?” Yang asked. She hadn’t heard this part yet.

Yingxia explained how she had traded for the pill from the neighbor’s child, omitting Yan Huaixi’s involvement.

“No wonder they’re after you. Those lunatics are bold enough to refine corpses in broad daylight. They have a backer; no matter what mess they make, someone high up cleans it up for them,” Yang sneered, kicking the physical corpse further away in frustration. “A righteous sect with ten thousand years of history… rotting from the inside.”

Yan Huaixi waited until the corpse was far enough away that Yingxia wouldn’t see it before releasing her eyes. In the distance, the mountains were hidden in ethereal clouds, looking like a paradise.

But this place was like a hollowed-out tree—the rot and stench inside were no better than the Longevity Sect’s. She wondered how many of the Tianqiu Sect’s upper echelon were involved.

“A backer? Sister Yang, did you find something?” Yingxia guessed this was Yin Duo’s handiwork, but she lacked proof. If she had evidence, she could send it to the “Samoyed” in the Tianqiu Sect… ahem, Fang Yuetong.

She couldn’t help it; the heroine looked so much like a Samoyed that her mind frequently wandered to the comparison.

“It’s hard to keep investigating. The water is too deep.”

Silence fell over the room, broken only by Yingxia’s soft sigh.

“Who’s out there!” Yang Xunzhou suddenly sensed a powerful, stranger’s presence. It was as sharp as a bared celestial sword. She gripped her brush, alert.

Her alertness turned to surprise, while Jiang Li’s face turned to pure horror. Jiang Li barely restrained herself from throwing a handful of poison.

Why is Fang Yuetong here?!

Fang Yuetong stood near the doorway, looking like a child who had done something wrong. She had sensed the aura of a living corpse near the Yu courtyard and rushed over immediately. In her haste, she didn’t use the door she had literally dropped from the sky.

She arrived just in time to see the corpse already handled and to hear Yang Xunzhou’s mockery of the Tianqiu Sect. Normally, she would have “discussed” the cost of slandering her sect, but lately, she had discovered actual filth within the sect. Yang’s sarcasm had become an undeniable truth.

Seeing the “Little Samoyed” looking so pitiful, Yingxia stood up and led the dazed girl inside.

“Ahem… I know Daoist Fang is a person of integrity. My words didn’t include you,” Yang coughed awkwardly. Nothing was more embarrassing than being caught badmouthing someone’s family.

“I will find the mole within the sect as soon as possible. I’m sorry, Miss Yu, for involving you again,” Fang Yuetong said with deep guilt. “I’ve located the stronghold of these people. I’ll wipe them all out tonight.”

At this naive thought, Yan Huaixi let out a soft laugh the kind of look one gives a neighbor’s “special” child.

Yingxia secretly tugged on Yan’s sleeve. Yan glanced at her, reading her subordinate’s plea to be gentler with the “silly kid.”

Fine, Yan thought. For Yingxia and A-Wu’s sake, I’ll hold back.

“If the root of this is indeed within your sect, as Miss Yang says, then you won’t be able to ‘wipe them out.’ Every move you make is likely being watched,” Yan said.

“You’d better move faster. Otherwise, you won’t find anything at all.” The one in the Tianqiu Sect is already scurrying to hide his tracks, and I am currently harvesting the people he couldn’t hide in time. If Fang Yuetong is too slow, she won’t even find a witness who can still breathe.

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