Chapter 1042: Slander
Lu Wu's furious roar ignited anger in the hearts of all the Saint servants present. Lu Wu had not only cursed them as harlots, but even accused them of being the killers of these people; how could they not be enraged?
"Which eye of yours saw us commit murder? " Zuo Meng asked, her gaze fixed on Lu Wu, her tone distinctly unfriendly.
"If you didn't kill them, did they commit suicide then? Have you ever seen someone who committed suicide end up like this?"
Lu Wu pointed at a mummified corpse in front of him, roaring furiously at Zuo Meng with agitated emotion. This corpse was none other than the old woman who had opened the door when Yang Haoran had first arrived at this small courtyard.
"You muscle-brained idiot, when have you ever seen our Saint Mother Cult use such cruel methods to kill people?"
Zuo Meng asked in a deep voice. If not for Xia Xinger's specific instructions before their arrival, Lu Wu's insulting words alone would have prompted her to teach him a lesson.
Her question, surprisingly, stumped Lu Wu. The agitated expression on his face instantly froze.
At this moment, Shui Ling, Xiang Chuan, and Huang Sha had already meticulously inspected all the corpses in the area. They stood up, exchanged glances, and all gently shook their heads.
The three returned to Yang Haoran's side, and Shui Ling reported to him with a regretful expression.
"Emissary, we have checked. Their souls are not in their bodies."
Shui Ling did not say much else, because in her opinion, reaching this level of detail was sufficient. As for whether these people's souls were scattered or taken, she believed Yang Haoran would certainly have his own judgment.
"Their souls are not in their bodies, which means their souls have all been completely scattered. The perpetrator is even more ruthless than I imagined!"
The speaker was not Yang Haoran, but a furious Lu Wu.
Zuo Meng's retort had just given him a wake-up call. In his impression, the people of the Saint Mother Cult indeed did not use such vicious methods. Therefore, from this perspective, these people were probably not killed by the Saint Mother Cult after all. It was precisely because of this that he did not continue to direct his spearhead towards the Saint Mother Cult.
Not finding souls in the corpses did not necessarily mean the souls were scattered. Although Lu Wu's words were somewhat arbitrary, in Yang Haoran's view, it was probably close enough; even if these people's souls weren't scattered, it was likely they had met a grim end.
In the past few days, Yang Haoran had recruited nineteen Night Watchers. To help these nineteen grow as quickly as possible, he decided to personally train them.
However, cultivating these Night Watchers required a considerable space. The small courtyard where he was temporarily staying, which was also his current location, simply did not meet his minimum requirements. So, he chose a remote, abandoned area within the territory formerly managed by the Underworld Office to train these Night Watchers.
As these Night Watchers each had their own lives and jobs during the day, he arranged for the training to take place at night. Once these Night Watchers gained power, they were no longer like ordinary people. Even if their nighttime rest was less than that of ordinary people, they would not feel tired the next day; on the contrary, they would be more energetic than common folk.
For safety, he distributed a Communication Talisman to each Night Watcher and instructed them that if they encountered danger, they could use the Communication Talisman to call for his help.
The small courtyard where he was currently located had one Night Watcher he had personally selected. Tonight's training had not yet begun, but several of them had already gone to the training ground early to wait, partly to set up the site according to the training projects, and partly to ensure that no one else was hidden nearby. He had just recently received a Communication Talisman from this individual, but the talisman contained no information whatsoever, not a single word.
Under normal circumstances, no one would do such a thing. Furthermore, Yang Haoran had explicitly told these Night Watchers that the Communication Talisman was for saving their lives, so such a situation should absolutely not have occurred. Since this incident still happened, there was only one explanation: something had happened to the Night Watcher who possessed that Communication Talisman.
Thus, Yang Haoran left Shui Ling's trusted Night Watcher in the ruins, signaled to the other Night Watchers who had arrived for training, and then led Shui Ling and the other three to this small courtyard, where he witnessed the scene before him.
Having now heard Shui Ling's report, his expression showed little change, but he felt deep regret. If their souls were still present, they would not be truly dead. As an Underworld Official, he would have methods to allow them to continue existing in this world. But with their souls gone, no matter how many techniques he possessed, it would be futile.
He nodded, indicating to Shui Ling that he understood. Seeing that he had no further instructions, Shui Ling respectfully retreated to stand behind him.
At this moment, Zuo Meng's low voice echoed in the small courtyard, her tone distinctly unfriendly.
"I received news that not only are there still Death God cultists here, but even the Underworld Office's newly arrived Emissary of Death is hiding among us. Originally, I had some doubts about this, but now it seems the information was accurate."
Although Yang Haoran was not currently emitting any power fluctuations or Yin Qi, Lu Wu and Shui Ling were both emanating Spirit Power. Only an idiot wouldn't know that Lu Wu and Shui Ling were members of the Underworld Office.
Furthermore, Shui Ling was respectful towards Yang Haoran and addressed him as Emissary. If she still couldn't guess Yang Haoran's identity from this, then her position as the second-in-command of the Saint Mother Cult would have been for naught.
At this point, her gaze swept over the corpses on the ground, then landed back on Yang Haoran, and she continued speaking.
"These deceased individuals, I presume, must all be followers of your Underworld Office's Death God!"
It was not surprising that Zuo Meng would make such a judgment. If these deceased were not Death God followers, Yang Haoran would not have appeared here, nor would he have immediately checked if the deceased's souls were still in their bodies.
In her opinion, even if the tragically deceased in this small courtyard were not Death God followers, they definitely had some connection to Yang Haoran. Otherwise, how could a dignified Emissary of Death care about the lives and deaths of a few ordinary people? But she still felt that the possibility of these tragically deceased being Death God followers was higher.
Yang Haoran did not answer Zuo Meng's question. He made no response regarding either his own identity or the identity of the tragically deceased in the small courtyard. However, he did not remain silent, but instead uttered a sentence that surprised everyone present.
"All mistakes can be forgiven; to forgive others is to forgive oneself. Heh heh, if I'm not mistaken, this is roughly the meaning of your Saint Mother Cult's doctrines. But for you to use such cruel methods to kill these people, that truly surprised me. I wonder if this action of yours counts as violating your Saint Mother Cult's doctrines?"
Yang Haoran's words utterly surprised everyone present. Neither the Saint servants of the Saint Mother Cult nor Xiang Chuan, Huang Sha, and the other four had expected Yang Haoran to say such a thing.
The literal meaning of his words was not hard to understand: he believed that the tragically deceased in the small courtyard were all killed by the Saint servants of the Saint Mother Cult present, and he felt deeply confused by this, as he thought the Saint Mother Cult's people should not have done such a thing.
Even Lu Wu, a person who didn't particularly enjoy using his brain, felt that the tragic deaths in the small courtyard should not have been the work of the Saint Mother Cult, because he had never seen Saint Mother Cult members use such cruel methods to kill.
If even he could think of this, then it went without saying for Xiang Chuan, Huang Sha, and Shui Ling. They likewise felt that this method of killing did not seem to originate from the Saint Mother Cult. In other words, the tragically deceased on the scene should not have died by the Saint Mother Cult's hand.
But Yang Haoran's words at this moment were completely contrary to their thoughts. From Yang Haoran's words, he was not guessing that these tragically deceased were killed by the Saint servants present; rather, he had directly concluded that the murderers were these Saint servants. This astonished them and simultaneously gave rise to doubts; they did not understand why Yang Haoran would make such a judgment.
As for the Saint servants present, besides astonishment, their hearts were filled with even more rage. Because they knew perfectly well that these people were not killed by them at all. Yang Haoran's words were simply slander, forcibly pinning the blame on them. How could they not be angry!
Comments