Chương 89: Not a Bad Person

Wang Hu got up in the middle of the night to take a piss. Still half asleep, Li Sanshui's shout jolted him wide awake. He ran over without even tying his pants.

"What's wrong, Magistrate?" Before Li Sanshui could answer, Tang Yue stepped forward, his face full of excitement.

"Come on, join the Anti-Cultivator Alliance! Let's join hands and work together to drive out those evil rebels!" That's right. Tang Yue thought the "rebel" Li Sanshui was talking about was Fang Cheng. When Wang Hu rushed over to tie him up, he didn't even resist. He thought it was part of a ruse. It wasn't until Wang Hu and Li Sanshui dragged him to the backyard of Harmony Wine Shop and found that evil City God that he realized he'd been caught.

"Traitors! You two traitors! You betrayed the organization!" Tang Yue struggled and roared, but his arms were tightly bound with rope. He couldn't break free. Wang Hu held him down on the ground. Li Sanshui looked at him with a cold laugh.

"How could I possibly be on your side? I was pretending, you idiot." He turned to Fang Cheng with a flattering smile.

"Great City God, I've caught a would-be rebel. How would you like to deal with him?" Fang Cheng scratched his head, confused. He and Li Shuyan had been searching Old Xu's backyard. Before they could finish, Wang Hu and Li Sanshui had suddenly appeared, with Wang Hu holding a prisoner. He looked at Wang Hu.

"What happened?" Wang Hu was just as bewildered. He shook his head.

"I don't know. I just finished taking a piss when the Magistrate shouted at me to catch the idiot. So I tied him up." Fang Cheng turned to Li Sanshui for answers. Li Sanshui cleared his throat.

"City God, I was at the Yamen working overtime on the plan when this idiot burst in and started badmouthing you. I knew he was up to no good, so I played along to get some information. And then..." Li Sanshui recounted the whole story, emphasizing that while Tang Yue was slandering Fang Cheng, he was burning with rage inside. The smile on his face was all an act, a performance for Tang Yue. Fang Cheng nodded slightly and kicked the shameless Li Sanshui.

Based on the description, this idiot named Tang Yue was a member of the New Era Anti-Cultivator Alliance. And as Fang Cheng had guessed before, the organization's headquarters was in the Great Sheng capital. Fang Cheng asked Tang Yue, "Who is the Helmsman?" Tang Yue snorted.

"The Helmsman is the Helmsman. He's the leader of the new era, the one who will overthrow you evil cultivators." Fang Cheng frowned. So the Helmsman was the leader of the Anti-Cultivator Alliance. Was he a mortal or a cultivator? Why was he stirring up mortals to rebel? Did he have some other purpose, or did he genuinely care about the suffering of ordinary people? If he really cared about mortals, what made him think he could overthrow the cultivators' rule?

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. All the reception halls in the mortal realm combined had at least dozens of great cultivators. With a wave of their hands, they could wipe out millions of lives. How could mortals possibly resist?

"The great chaos is about to rise; the great tide is about to turn." Fang Cheng thought of this phrase again. His expression grew serious. The man codenamed Helmsman was no fool. He must have seen that an unknown storm was coming, a storm powerful enough to shatter the cultivator order established by the reception halls. That was why he had founded the Anti-Cultivator Alliance. This was the so-called new era.

The upper ranks of the cultivator world would be destroyed by some unknown disaster, and the Anti-Cultivator Alliance, standing on the front lines, would rise and take over the rule of mortals. As a righteous cultivator, Fang Cheng couldn't just sit back and do nothing. Even if he couldn't stop the disaster, he had to protect White Flower City. This city had been built with countless efforts by him and Qin Hao. He couldn't let anyone destroy it.

With that thought, he opened his Heavenly Eye and looked into Tang Yue's heart. He asked again, "Who is the Helmsman? What does he look like? What are his features, his build, his clothes, his habits? Tell me in detail." Tang Yue clamped his mouth shut and said nothing. He just stared at Fang Cheng with a look of defiance. That's right. He would never betray the organization. Everyone dies sooner or later. What was there to fear?

"Come on, kill me. If I die, thousands more will rise. The wheel of history rolls forward. No cultivator can stop it. The great new era will come!" Tang Yue shouted. His heart shone as bright as day. So bright. Too bright. Fang Cheng could hardly look at it. His eyes were about to go blind.

"Fine. You win." Fang Cheng sighed helplessly and withdrew his Heavenly Eye. This idiot named Tang Yue had the purest heart he had ever seen. No distracting thoughts. Not a trace of black energy inside him. Truly rare. Compared to Tang Yue, Fang Cheng felt utterly ashamed. Facing someone like this, he didn't want to use any form of torture or interrogation.

"Get lost. I don't want to see you. Magistrate Li, give him some silver and throw him out of White Flower City." Fang Cheng couldn't keep him in the city, stirring up the people. He had to send him away. What happened to him after that, whether he got killed by some other cultivator, was up to fate. Li Sanshui nodded and left with Wang Hu, escorting Tang Yue away. Fang Cheng watched Tang Yue retreat and let out a sigh, his heart full of melancholy.

Li Shuyan, standing nearby, noticed Fang Cheng's worry and spoke up.

"We didn't get an answer out of him, but we did learn that the name Tang Yue was given to him by the Helmsman. Ordinary families wouldn't give the surname Tang." Fang Cheng suddenly understood.

"You're saying the Helmsman is someone from the royal family?" Li Shuyan nodded.

"Very likely. And not a marginal figure either. Someone with real power. The magistrate of Xiangshi City joined the Anti-Cultivator Alliance, and he's no fool. He listened to Secretary Zhou Zhixin because he saw that someone in the alliance could get him promoted."

"Yes, yes. You're right." Fang Cheng grew even more enlightened.

"I even suspect the Helmsman has the backing of the entire Great Sheng royal family. The royal family has long been unhappy with the Hall of Eternal Life's oppression. And they certainly have the ability to lead mortals in overthrowing the Hall's rule." Li Shuyan shook his head.

"No, Brother Fang. You're overthinking it. There are many cultivators in the Great Sheng royal family too. Even if they wanted to overthrow the Hall of Eternal Life, they wouldn't create an Anti-Cultivator Alliance. I think it's more likely the Helmsman is acting alone."

"Either way, now that I know the Helmsman is from the royal family, it'll be easier to investigate." Fang Cheng clapped his hands, then frowned again.

"But how are we supposed to investigate from White Flower City? Do we have to go to the capital ourselves? But I can't. I promised Steward Tang I'd stay put in White Flower City." Li Shuyan thought for a moment.

"We'll have to go to the capital eventually, but we can't rush it. I have a few friends who are officials in the capital. I'll write to them and ask them to look into it. In the meantime, we'll stick to the plan. Keep developing White Flower City and work on raising our cultivation levels. We have a big problem right now: we don't have enough high-level cultivators. Once you leave White Flower City, its safety becomes an issue." Fang Cheng understood what Li Shuyan was getting at.

He wanted him to open up the inheritances and take on more high-level disciples. But the inheritances were inside him, and he had no idea how to use them. The last time he'd taken on Li Shuyan as a disciple had been an accident.

"Fine. You get in touch with your contacts and gather information. I'll go back and study the Emperor's inheritance. As for Old Xu, we'll put him on hold for now. A monk can run away, but the temple can't. He's a guardian of the celestial realm. He'll have to come back eventually."