Heaven’s Shadow

On Kunlun Mountain, there are many lowly disciples who are at the bottom of this prestigious sect. They do the most laborious and demanding tasks, receiving only meager rewards, while still holding on to a grand dream.

Most people are like this, but only a very few can rise to prominence. In a certain sense, Lu Chen was one of those few.

However, people like Lu Chen are rare. Among the countless lowly disciples who had worked in the Flowing Fragrance Garden before him, many are still struggling and unable to break through.

Zhang Zhi was such an ordinary lowly disciple.

He had been at Kunlun Sect for many years but had seen little progress. In the beginning, Zhang Zhi had worked hard, diligently doing all the tasks he could and persevering through the grueling labor. Despite his efforts, he never had any luck fall into his lap.

Gradually, Zhang Zhi became complacent. He had experienced dissatisfaction, grievances, and anger, but he was an ordinary person—besides his average abilities, he was also quite afraid of death. In the end, Zhang Zhi turned into a seasoned worker, rather than an unpredictable madman.

Because Zhang Zhi had been around Kunlun Mountain for a long time and was well-established in the Flowing Fragrance Garden, his situation among the lowly disciples was not too bad. However, he had recently suffered a setback in a dispute with someone named He Changsheng, getting knocked out on the spot.

Yet, Zhang Zhi and He Changsheng were not the main players in the dispute. The real focus was on several high-ranking aristocratic disciples. The matter eventually faded away. Zhang Zhi felt aggrieved initially, but after some time, he heard about an event—He Changsheng had died.

His death was sudden, mysterious, and apparently quite tragic.

Zhang Zhi didn’t witness the exact details of the tragedy, but from the various descriptions circulating among people, he initially felt a bit of schadenfreude. However, as time passed and his emotions settled, he felt a sense of shared sorrow, as if feeling sorry for oneself upon hearing of a rabbit’s death.

Moreover, it was rumored that the culprit might be a demon from the Devil Cult, which made the situation even more astonishing.

To be honest, Zhang Zhi had known He Changsheng for a while. Although their relationship was average, he didn’t believe that He Changsheng was involved with the Devil Cult. Later, when he almost forgot about the incident, another person named He Yi came to question him for a long time.

What had He Changsheng done? Why, even after so long, was the sect still investigating this case?

Strangely, Zhang Zhi felt a hint of jealousy and envy, as he knew that if he were to meet an untimely end, it would never attract Kunlun Sect’s attention, nor would many people notice.

We’re all just lowly disciples, after all!

Zhang Zhi was an ordinary and somewhat selfish person, with the usual human desires. He once had dreams of becoming an immortal and gaining fame, but now, those dreams seemed impossible.

Yet, who doesn’t want to be different?

Well, if only there was a chance.

Every day when Zhang Zhi left his home, he would glance at the now-empty and abandoned house where He Changsheng once lived, and think to himself that apart from those pursuing the Devil Cult, he was probably the only one who still remembered him.

It was indeed a strange thing.

Until one morning, six days before the sect’s evaluation meeting, Zhang Zhi did not walk out of his door as usual.

By noon, someone passing by noticed something was wrong and reported it. The arriving guards discovered that Zhang Zhi had followed a similar path as He Changsheng.

He was dead, found in his own room.

Reports claimed his death was quite gruesome.

The room was said to be covered in blood.

And once again, it was rumored that the damned Devil Cult was behind it!

—

Whether the Devil Cult had a particular interest in Kunlun Sect was uncertain, but with the upcoming sect evaluation meeting and the unresolved case of He Changsheng, the new murder of Zhang Zhi was undeniably a severe slap in the face to Kunlun Sect in front of everyone on Kunlun Mountain.

The Devil Cult’s audacity was infuriating!

The one most hurt by this slap was, of course, Kunlun Sect’s leader, Xian Yue Zhenren. As the head of the sect, consecutive incidents like these, with one perhaps being an accident, but another making people question his competence, were unacceptable.

Thus, Xian Yue Zhenren was furious. His roar from the Zhengyang Hall on Tian Kun Peak could be heard not only outside the hall but even down at the foot of the mountain.

However, despite Xian Yue Zhenren’s evident rage, some matters are beyond his control, and some people are not afraid of his fury.

The Yuan Ying stage masters from the Baicao Hall were greatly displeased with the situation. They bluntly stated that with the Devil Cult so rampant, whether Kunlun Sect would still be habitable in the future was in question. They wondered if the sect’s reputation meant nothing anymore and why the murderer hadn’t been caught yet. Was it because the murderer was too cunning or because their own people were incompetent?

These questions were like sharp blades stabbing at Xian Yue Zhenren, leaving him struggling to respond. As the sect leader, it was his responsibility to protect his sect’s weaker disciples, and even White Morning True Monarch, who might have wanted to speak on his behalf, was at a loss for words.

To compensate for the shortcomings and to demonstrate his stance, Xian Yue Zhenren, in his rage, initiated a large-scale investigation within Kunlun Sect, vowing to capture the detestable Devil Cult murderer.

For a time, Kunlun Sect was in turmoil, with heightened vigilance and chaos everywhere.

Lu Chen was somewhat distanced from this chaos and wasn’t greatly affected. The Feiyan Platform remained quiet, and Su Qingjun’s past influence was enough to keep him there.

However, Lu Chen was clearly dissatisfied. He still had his own matters to address. The most crucial and perplexing issue was: Who was the murderer of Zhang Zhi?

No one knew better than Lu Chen how He Changsheng had died, but Zhang Zhi’s death left him puzzled. The murderer could not have been Lu Chen himself, but it didn’t seem to fit the Devil Cult infiltrator he had been pursuing so persistently.

The mysterious Devil Cult infiltrator had drawn a diagram and set a time, but Lu Chen couldn’t think of a reason for this infiltrator to suddenly commit murder. Shouldn’t the infiltrator be more discreet during this period?

With a multitude of questions in his mind, Lu Chen decided to visit Zhang Zhi’s residence.

The house appeared similar to the one He Changsheng had lived in—ordinary quarters for lowly disciples. Due to the recent murder, guards had been stationed outside, making it difficult for ordinary people to approach.

As Lu Chen observed from a distance, a mountain breeze blew, and he soon detected a faint smell of blood.

He didn’t approach the area but watched from afar.

If the mysterious infiltrator had not suddenly acted out of character to create another major incident, Lu Chen found it hard to believe. The only remaining possibility was that truly elite Devil Cult members had infiltrated Kunlun Mountain.

Lu Chen’s expression remained unchanged, but as he prepared to leave, his gaze suddenly shifted to a certain direction.

It was a large, dense forest.

—

Lu Chen took a detour and entered the forest from another side. He made his way skillfully to the center of the forest, arriving at the large rock he had visited previously.

Looking around, he saw that the surrounding trees were as dense as before, the air fresh, but there didn’t seem to be many notable changes, aside from some collapsed stone pillars and slabs.

Lu Chen searched the area but found no suspicious signs and even examined the tree bark without success.

Just as he thought that the new Devil Cult demon might not understand the rules and had left no marks to indicate their identity, Lu Chen suddenly noticed something different in another part of the forest.

It was the large rock.

He approached and searched carefully for a while, finally spotting a pattern near the soil.

It was a pattern of a large tree with two leaves and a flower.

—

“Please show yourself and reminisce.”

This was part of the new Devil Cult pattern that Lu Chen could decipher.

Lu Chen’s expression grew grim.

The situation was very clear. The method used to kill He Changsheng was a rarely passed down reincarnation formation, which had attracted the attention of both the Devil Cult infiltrator and other Devil Cult members from outside Kunlun Mountain, and they had extended their reach here.

However, Lu Chen also noticed an anomaly in this strange situation. It seemed that even the Devil Cult members outside Kunlun Sect were unaware of the situation with the infiltrator within Kunlun. They risked the danger of being attacked by such a powerful and prestigious sect to make their presence known and attempt to contact the infiltrator.

This surprised Lu Chen because he clearly remembered that when Tian Lan Zhenjun spoke about this matter, it was directly and clearly stated that the Devil Cult infiltrator was someone upon whom the entire fortune of the Devil Cult was pinned!

How could such a person be unknown within the Devil Cult? Even after the incident, they were still trying to guess and find people?

There must be something wrong with this situation! (To be continued.)

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