Chapter 132: Investigation

After searching for a while, Wang Yili found nothing. She didn't feel particularly disappointed; after all, nothing bad happening in the Demon Realm was strange in itself. As long as the Demon Realm didn't explode, she could observe everything with a cold eye.

She simply fulfilled her duty by submitting her conjectures.

[Mhm...]

As soon as the System woke up, it stared at the crude work report in Zora's hand and fell into deep thought. The signature at the bottom was Wang Yili's grand name.

...It was blinded. It absolutely could not accept such an unprofessional work report!

[Is this the best the Demon Realm can do? What is this writing? It's worse than the materials I wrote when I first started my job!]

The letter was extremely concise. Wang Yili stated her suspicions right at the beginning—various kinds of suspicions—and the final sentence gave the sincere suggestion: "How about we just slaughter every last member of that religion?"

It was very straightforward. No need for investigation; just do it.

The System criticized heavily:

[No time noted for the discovery of suspicious points! The location is unclear! There's no detailed report from beginning to end, just a bunch of messy subjective guesses. Too unprofessional! The Demon Realm is doomed sooner or later!]

Zora: "She has a conclusion."

System:

[There's no trace of thought!]

Zora: "..."

She felt that this subordinate probably

had

thought about it, and the result of that thought was to kill them all.

Zora looked at the name "Black Soul Sect": "Does it have anything to do with the evil spirits?"

The System said nonchalantly:

[Who knows? If you want to block it in advance, that's impossible. The Boss hasn't even popped his head out; how can you fight without a health bar?]

What is a Boss?

Zora was confused for a moment, then cast the thought aside. In short, it meant it was impossible to start a fight in advance.

Over the next few days, Zora decided to investigate for herself. Vane was left behind by her to organize the affairs of the Immortal-Slaying Pavilion.

The South was barren, but there were many villages. The Black Soul Sect was considered a relatively large evil cult, so it was easy to find their people.

Zora stood on the dirt street of a village and looked left and right. The commoners were like ordinary people: those selling things were shouting loudly, those stealing things were running hard, and those hitting people were dragging them into alleys to do so. It was all quite normal.

And although Zora had become the Pavilion Master, very few people had actually seen or remembered her face; furthermore, even more people didn't care in the slightest what the person at the top was named.

Zora: "Mhm..."

She remembered when she first came to attack the South, these people were as numb as wood. Could this be a Southern specialty?

The System was used to it:

[When evil spirits invade, no strange occurrence is surprising.]

Seeing the dawn of the task's completion, it was no longer in a hurry; it was even quite leisurely. It just had to wait for the evil spirits to break out. Once the original male and female leads finished saving the world, the Host could retire with honors!

It thought happily.

As the villain is now, it's basically impossible for him to destroy the world. Look at that infatuated state of his; as long as the Host is around, it's impossible. As for after the plot points are finished and the Host completes the task? Without the help of the evil spirits, and with the leads standing in the way, it's impossible for the villain to destroy this small world.

—Furthermore, in the original plot, he was just cannon fodder!

It fully understood that "cannon fodder" breaking through the plot to become a villain was already a miracle, but it truly didn't believe this miracle would happen a second time.

The more the System looked at this expressionless Host, the more satisfied it became. It said buoyantly:

[Host, have you thought about your retirement life? Will you go back to your own world as a master, or stay here? Either way is fine.]

Zora ignored it entirely, walking toward a person in gray robes who was currently preaching.

The System didn't mind; it was used to the Host's temperament and was immersed in the joy of its business being nearly finalized.

The gray-robed man was very tall with a gaunt frame. The hand extending from his cloak was nothing but skin and bones. His chin was covered in stubble, and he stooped his back as he spoke to a passerby who was clearly a young man in his prime: "The Black Soul Sect treats every believer with kindness..."

"What do you think you're doing!" The passerby found he couldn't break free. The hand on his wrist was clearly skeletal, yet its strength was incredibly vast. He was furious, taking a machete from his waist to hack at the gray-robed man's face.

"Ah—!!"

The passerby let out a blood-curdling scream. His entire hand was abruptly severed, blood spurting out, and the machete fell with a

clank

. He clutched his stump, but he could not stop the arterial spray.

The gray-robed man's robe was stained with blood.

This barely counted as a village street. Occasional passersby glanced at the tragedy happening in the middle of the street and then indifferently walked around it.

A vendor standing close by muttered about the bad luck and hurried to push his cart aside to avoid getting stained with blood.

Only a girl in exquisite clothing stood nearby, staring straight at the scene.

People in the Demon Realm knew that anyone who wore clean clothes here possessed some skill, so no one disturbed her, and no one dared to steal from her.

Zora stroked her chin, tilting her head to stare at the gray-robed man. He was still insisting on preaching to the passerby.

He grabbed the passerby's other, intact hand: "The Black Soul Sect treats every believer with kindness..."

"Fine, fine... I agree!" The passerby was covered in tears and snot.

He knew of the Black Soul Sect, but in the past, those believers would fall with a single punch; because they worshipped all day, they lacked food and warmth, and their bodies were mostly skin and bones, quite terrifying. They couldn't compare to him in his prime; he had even stolen food from other believers.

Who knew he would hit a wall this time? If he had known, he would have perfunctorily agreed first.

The gray-robed man seemed very happy. He was about to drag the passerby away when his robe was suddenly pulled by a force.

He turned his head to see a girl with an innocent and cute face, looking like a soft cloud out of place in the Demon Realm.

Zora looked up—this person was truly tall, seemingly the same height as Vane.

She said in a matter-of-fact tone: "Does your Black Soul Sect know about the evil spirits?"

The System, watching this:

[......]

The Host truly didn't have a single indirect bone in her body.

Fortunately, this person had no idea what the girl was saying. The gray-robed man paused and slowly shook his head. Beneath the hood, a numb gaze seemed to fall on her as he said: "The Black Soul Sect treats every believer with kindness..."

System:

[An NPC with repeating dialogue.]

Zora didn't know what the System was talking about. She ignored the words she didn't understand and interrupted his preaching: "Then has anything strange happened in your Black Soul Sect?"

The blood from the passerby's wrist had just barely stopped. He had lost too much blood, and his vision was turning black in waves. His body slumped down, but then he was held up by the gray-robed man, looking like a limp noodle—the scene was quite farcical.

"...Let me go..." He didn't dare to threaten loudly, just whimpering a few pleas.

However, neither of the two people present cared—no, the gray-robed man

did

care about this "new believer," stuffing a cold, hard bun into his mouth.

Because of the blood loss, the passerby's head was dizzy, but the moment his mouth tasted food, he began chewing frantically; the love of grain was truly in his bones.

The gray-robed man did not answer Zora's question. He reached out to grab Zora's wrist, intending to repeat his trick: "The Black Soul Sect treats every believer with kindness..."

Zora tilted her head. This person's body had been invaded by demonic Qi; it shortened his life but could increase his physical constitution for a short time.

The moment his voice fell, the arm grabbing her was suddenly severed. The gray robe was also cut, and even more blood spurted out than from the passerby. Before the pain could even register, the gray-robed man lowered his head with a delayed reaction. His entire right arm had been cut off; he hadn't even seen how she made her move.

The bleeding hand was still gripping her. Zora took the arm that had lost its owner and easily pulled it off, tossing it casually onto the ground.

The moment the arm hit the floor, the surrounding passersby and vendors quickly pulled back. The shouting stopped, but they all continued their business with normal expressions, just staying far from the center of the event to avoid being caught in it.

They hadn't completely fled because the girl lacked the murderous aura familiar to people of the Demon Realm. Furthermore, they had seen plenty of this; for a person with a clear target like her, one just needed to lower their presence. Panicking and making annoying noises during an escape was more likely to get one killed by mistake.

In any case, if they had the power, they would certainly kill anyone noisy. Empathizing, they showed no sign of panic—at least not on the surface.

Zora looked perfectly natural, showing the gray-robed man an expression that said "I just learned this, and I can cut even more."

The passerby swallowed his bun, as quiet as a chicken.

"Mhm...!" Pain finally reached his brain. The gray-robed man had to release the "new believer," clutching his gushing wound as he retreated several steps.

The passerby didn't dare to stand up; he crawled for a distance first, then peeked to see Zora had no reaction. He quickly stood up and fled, managed to steal something from a vendor's stall with his remaining hand along the way, and vanished in the blink of an eye.

The vendor, who was keeping his head down to lower his presence: "..." He stole a glance at the silent environment. Everyone's footsteps had become very light, and the person clearing bowls was trying his best to reduce the clatter. The vendor held his breath and acted as if he were blind, pretending nothing happened, and didn't bother to chase the thief.

Zora asked sincerely: "Has anything strange happened in your Black Soul Sect lately?"

System:

[......]

This investigation was truly hardcore.