Li Miao twirled his fingers, roughly sorting things out in his mind.
About fifty or sixty years ago, the Gu worm controlled the Miao King's corpse, causing her to emerge from the Miao King's Tomb, find the Twelve Sect Branches, and parasitize a Miao woman named Ge Pu Duo, giving birth to Ji Tianrui.
Thirty years ago, Ji Tianrui single-handedly fought against the Five Great Factions and took control of the Ming Cult.
Fifteen years ago, Ge Pu Duo ordered the Great Witches of the Twelve Sect Branches to assist the Ming Cult in their rebellion. As a result, Ji Tianrui died, and the Ming Cult was crippled, forced to go underground.
Ge Pu Duo also passed away at that time, and the Gu worm then parasitized the current Miao King, Ge Pu Qi, giving birth to Ji Tianrui.
Ten years ago, for some unknown reason, Ge Pu Qi left Miao territory, met Yongjie, and disappeared after giving birth to a daughter. It's likely she returned to Miao territory at that time.
It's not very complicated, merely two Miao Kings giving birth to two successive Ming Cult Leaders; it can be summarized in one sentence.
However, there are still two questions.
First, where did Ji Tianrui's Ming Cult martial arts come from?
Second, by this calculation, isn't Ji Tianrui only fifteen years old? A fifteen-year-old Celestial Master with three paths combined? Even Damo wouldn't dare make such a joke!
In this story, two very important figures are clearly missing—the mothers of the two Leaders have been found, but where are their fathers?
These two questions will most likely fall upon these two unknown fathers.
Li Miao turned to look at the elder, asking the classic question: "Where did their fathers go?"
The elder, however, smiled bitterly and shook his head: "Lord, we don't know that either."
"Although it's clear this point is very important, under the oppressive power of the Miao King, we didn't dare to investigate."
"That's all I know. We can't help you with anything else, Lord."
"Oh?"
Li Miao nodded.
"I see."
"So, you're saying you're useless, right?"
As soon as Li Miao spoke these words, the elder suddenly broke into a cold sweat, his face pale, his lips trembling.
How could he not understand the meaning of these words—if they were useless, they would die!
"Lord... everything we did before was forced upon us!"
The elder cried, tears streaming down his face.
Li Miao spread his hands.
"I don't care about that. Your ancestors caused trouble, and you followed along. If I don't come for you, who should I come for?"
The elder shouted.
"The Ming Cult! The Miao King!"
Li Miao, however, scoffed with a disdainful smile.
"It's not like I won't kill them, but you still have to take responsibility for your part. One thing at a time."
"Besides, aren't I about to go kill the person who forced you to do evil? Is it appropriate for you not to lend a hand?"
Neither of them spoke clearly, yet they both understood each other's meaning.
Li Miao wanted them to go with him to find the Miao King, while the elder feared that if the Miao King saw them as traitors, she would directly activate the Gu worms to kill all the people of the Twelve Sect Branches.
Their previous secret warnings and clues were also based on the idea of informing the imperial court, letting the imperial court kill the Miao King, while they stood by, going with the flow and watching from the sidelines.
Li Miao stepped forward, placed his hand on the elder's head, and shook it a few times.
"Old man, just because I didn't kill you just now, do you think I'm a great benevolent person?"
"Do you think you can play the victim, cry a few times, and then order me to risk my life killing people for you, while you hide behind and watch the show?"
"Don't forget, we Jinyiwei (Imperial Guards) are not benevolent people."
Li Miao smiled grimly.
"More evil than evil, more vicious than vicious."
"Big mistakes lead to beheadings, small mistakes to severed hands. We overcorrect and root out evil. We kill until you'd rather die than do evil."
"This is the Jinyiwei (Imperial Guards)."
Li Miao's hand gradually curved into a claw, gripping the elder's head tighter and tighter, until the elder wailed, and blood flowed from his head.
"Moreover, don't think that just because you speak cleanly, you can absolve yourselves. A whole nest of dog shit, and yet you few are supposed to be pure as white lotuses?"
"Did you not send people to Shuntian Prefecture fifteen years ago?"
"Did you not contribute to the accumulation of so many Gu Soldiers for the Ming Cult?"
"Only a ghost would believe that!"
"If you want to live, first hand over your 'certificate of allegiance'."
The elder could no longer endure the torture; he felt that in another moment, his head would be crushed by Li Miao's bare hands, and he could only wail.
"Lord! Lord! I'll go! I'll go!"
Only then did Li Miao release his head, letting the elder collapse to the ground, tears and snot streaming, gasping for breath.
After a while, when the elder had recovered, Li Miao said calmly.
"Pick a few capable Great Witches from those lying on the ground to bring along."
"We'll go kill that Miao King now."
The elder was stunned by these words, then said anxiously.
"Lord, aren't we waiting for the imperial army? The Miao King is not as weak as we are. What if something goes wrong?"
Li Miao gave him a strange look.
"Do I look like I have a lot of time?"
"Be quick about it. After killing the people here, I still have to rush to Shuntian Prefecture to kill people there."
——————
At the same time, outside the Twelve Sect Branches' village.
Every word, every sentence, every detail is being watched!
Yongjie finally arrived.
An Ziyang followed behind, dizzy and seeing stars, feeling as if he was about to collapse to the ground and pass out.
Heaven help him, Yongjie, after receiving cultivation from Xing Chi and with his previous foundation, was now a true supreme master. Compared to him, a middle-tier second-rate, there were thirty Liu Baiyuns and still two Mei Qinghes to spare.
Yongjie traveled quickly with his light-body martial arts, and An Ziyang, dragged along, was already at his limit not to pass out.
"Master... Master, I, I can't go on..."
With that, An Ziyang fell to the ground with a thud, his eyes hollow, his entire being seemingly turned black and white.
Yongjie turned to look at him and said: "Patron, please wait here for a moment. I'll go find Chief Lao of the Beggar Clan."
With that, he flashed away, leaving An Ziyang to close his eyes and regulate his breathing.
After a while, Yongjie returned with Lao Qifeng.
"Master, this young brother, follow me. Be careful not to let the people from the other factions see us."
Lao Qifeng instructed, then led the two to the entrance of the secret passage Li Miao had entered.
"Lord Li has already gone in. If you're looking for him, you can enter from here."
"The others are all here, so I can't leave for too long. I'll be going now."
With that, he turned and left.
Yongjie turned to look at An Ziyang.
"Patron, wait here. If I don't come out, you can at least take a message back to Shaolin for me."
An Ziyang, however, forced a smile.
"I'm going down too."
Yongjie stared into An Ziyang's eyes, trying to find a trace of hesitation.
But there was none. An Ziyang was serious.
"Why? This matter has nothing to do with you, Patron. Why take the risk?"
An Ziyang twitched the corner of his mouth, trying to show a carefree smile.
"Master, do you want to hear the truth or a lie?"
"The truth."
"The truth is, the Ming Cult offended my An Family and almost killed my father. Even if I can't do much, I can't just wait for others to avenge me. Even if it's just spitting on its grave with my own mouth, it's worth going down there."
"And the lie?"
An Ziyang smiled.
"The lie is, I lost my mother at a young age, so my situation is similar to Ling'er's, and I also know how important you are to her."
"I took her father away; if I can't bring him back, then I have no face to live, so it's better to just die together and be done with it."
Truth and falsehood were hard to distinguish, with the proportions of each hidden beneath An Ziyang's cynical demeanor.
Yongjie suddenly felt that this young man wasn't so annoying after all.
"Huh? What I just said seems quite profound..."
An Ziyang suddenly raised his hand to stroke his chin, glancing mischievously at Yongjie from the corner of his eye.
"I need to write this down quickly and tell it to Ling'er when I get back. She'll definitely adore me after hearing it."
......
Amitabha, still annoying.