Chapter 5

The girl’s cultivation was clearly formidable.

Her sudden charge caught several elders completely off guard.

Just then, Fu Ning approached at an unhurried pace. He raised one hand slightly, disarmed her in an instant, and pinned her so thoroughly that she could not move.

“Fu Ning! You still dare show your face?” Forced to her knees, the girl stubbornly lifted her head and glared at him. “My sister died because of you. Every girl sacrificed here died because of you. Don’t you have nightmares when you sleep?”

Fu Ning lowered his eyes and gave her the faintest glance.

One elder could bear no more and frowned. “Enough of your insolence. Your sister sacrificed herself for the Changheng Sect. It was her honor.”

“Ha! Honor? Fuck your precious honor! You call yourselves a righteous sect, but you’re the real cult—the real demons! You’re worse than the demon race!”

“You! Silence! Do not think your high cultivation gives you license to do as you please. You have enjoyed the benefits of the Changheng Sect, so you should act in its interests!”

“If I’d known you sustained your spiritual energy and your sect through such vile means, I never would have joined this godforsaken place!” The girl spat viciously, then turned to fix Fu Ning with a deathly stare. “I hear Immortal Fu Ning has attained the Great Dao and will soon ascend, is that right? No wonder the sect has needed more and more spiritual energy lately. So it was all for your benefit. Congratulations—so many people’s blood and bones have paved the road to your ascension and the glory of your Changheng Sect. How utterly disgusting.”

I frowned as I listened.

I had yearned for the Changheng Sect even before joining it.

A great sect that had stood unshaken for a thousand years. Tens of thousands of gifted and powerful cultivators before it, and behind them Fu Ning, the first and only Immortal in a millennium to attain the Great Dao. Though his ascension had failed, he remained the person closest to the Heavenly Dao.

Such renown alone could keep the sect standing for countless generations.

But what if… their road to fame had been paved with the blood and bones of these girls?

Fu Ning met her gaze and ordered without expression, “Take her away. Lock her in the water dungeon.”

I stood among the girls awaiting sacrifice. I clenched my hands, tried to endure, and nearly stepped forward.

Just as I was about to rush out, someone seized my wrist.

It was a girl I did not recognize, dressed in the same sacrificial robes as me. Her expression was blank, and her gaze cool and clear as she looked at me.

She said, “Zhao Fuqu.”

Me: “?”