“The Evil Transmutation Cult.”
Ten minutes later—in fact, in less than ten minutes—Ji Jue's answer swept across all of Tacheng, reaching the ears of every spectator and involved party.
In the sudden silence, everyone was stunned.
Then came bursts of sudden laughter, uncontrollable mirth, or furious rages and cursing fits...
The dormant communication lines buzzed back to life. Tacheng, slumbering under the cover of night, became like a massive cauldron boiling in secret, bubbling and bubbling away.
And everyone began to worry: was this brief silence the final calm before the storm?
No matter how fierce the open struggles and hidden bloodshed had been before, no matter how vicious and terrifying those conspiracies and schemes were...
The moment those four words left Ji Jue's mouth, the rules of the game underwent the most radical transformation!
At this moment, who knew how filthily people were cursing? Many wished they could storm into the police station, grab Ji Jue by the collar—as he sat there leisurely sipping coffee with his legs crossed, going through standard procedure—yank him up, and demand:
*What the fuck do you think you're doing?!*
*You dare get involved with something so lethal? Do you have a death wish?! If you want to die, go die on your own! Why drag everyone down with you? Are you determined to ruin this for all of us?!*
Nothing could be done about it. Such was the terrifying power—or rather, the sheer disgust—of the Evil Transmutation Cult.
An absolute apex of disaster, the definitive meta answer.
Even among the largest illegal organizations in the mortal realm, they used to be nothing more than a loose sheet of sand, a disorganized rabble fighting individual battles.
Yet once Lu Changsheng rose to power, he had quietly pulled off a massive stunt that shocked the entire world.
He unified that loose sand, joined forces with other Great Sin organizations, went head-to-head with the contemporary Tianyuan in Quancheng, and even produced the manifesto of “Transmuting Evil into Righteousness” alongside advanced ideological guidelines of the Great Sins.
With one hand, he tore away the fig leaf of so-called order, and with the other, erected a stage for turmoil, spreading boundless poison.
And just when everyone thought the Federation had ruthlessly crushed him to death, that bastard jumped back out! Even the Heavenly Overseer hadn't managed to kill him. What was more, right in front of the entire world, he seized the Imperial Seal of the Realm, grasped it firmly, and refined it in an instant!
Not to mention that further escalated declaration and notice.
From then on, the Evil Transmutation Cult was elevated into an indisputable menace to the mortal realm!
The scariest part was that, looking back at Lu Changsheng's past deeds, people realized this guy never did anything without reason!
Everything he did was meticulously interlinked, every step threading into the next. Often, a seemingly casual move would ten steps later turn out to be the decisive stroke that clinched victory.
This was precisely one of the reasons why every organization across the mortal realm was sparing no effort in hunting the Evil Transmutation Cult, trying to track down Lu Changsheng.
Anyone could have taken the Imperial Seal of the Realm.
Even if the Federation or the Empire took it, it wouldn't be an issue; at worst, it would just mean intensified exploitation and extortion, and those trailing behind as lapdogs could still scrounge up some scraps of leftovers.
But if Lu Changsheng took it, ghost knew what madness he would unleash!
There was no helping it. With substantial assets and extensive operations, everyone was genuinely terrified. Who wanted to be happily eating hot pot and singing songs one day, only to get blindsided by Lu Changsheng the next? Who could they even complain to?
Yet, despite capturing countless lapdogs and minions, they hadn't found so much as a strand of Lu Changsheng's hair.
Even though the Evil Transmutation Cult was heavily weakened now and didn't dare show its face at all, its threat index was still steadily climbing. No one knew what a hidden, scheming, ambitious fanatic—wielding the Imperial Seal of the Realm and capable of shaking Tianyuan—might do!
Back when they conducted the dragnet for the Evil Transmutation Cult, almost the entire mortal realm had been turned upside down!
The top priority had been the Mid-Continent, and Tacheng was naturally no exception.
Countless people had died without a place to be buried in that brutal search, their spilled blood almost dyeing the wilderness red.
Even among the high-and-mighty figures, plenty had died horrific, catastrophic, inhuman deaths.
After all, people might lack the courage to catch Lu Changsheng, but opportunities to use the pretext to eliminate rivals and enemies were too numerous to count.
Any large-scale investigation and purge, once out of control, inevitably brought nightmarish consequences.
They had already suffered far too much.
And now, hearing that an ignorant young brat dared to cross the red line and wanted to restart another witch hunt, everyone felt as if they'd touched a live wire—their vision instantly went black!
That included Mudahka, who had been pushed forward to lock horns with Ji Jue. He stood equally dumbfounded, incapable of comprehending it: it was like stepping into the ring, throwing out a tentative jab, only for the opponent to pull a grenade right out of their fourth-dimensional ass...
What are you even trying to gain, big brother?!
Didn't they just blow up one of your offices? And you immediately set this kind of fire? Have you lost your mind?!
Yet even so, everyone had to admit that this was, in a certain sense, a brilliant move—not only did it leap out of the original passive situation and cast off the constraints of the rules, but it also opened up a brand-new battlefield.
*Your mud pit is terrifying, so I've decided to dump a load of manure into it. Are you ready?*
Bloody hell, completely unhinged!
But playing with shit came with a price.
Such a disgusting affair terrified everyone, and equally, annoyed everyone.
One careless slip, and under the weight of public fury, you'd be crushed completely!
Even with the best luck, if you botched it in the end, you would lose all qualification to participate, stripped of your seat at the table forever. You could forget about ever taking a place there again.
The question was...
“Does that kid Ji Jue actually care?”
Reclining on his couch, Shaban, the dragon head of Tacheng, smiled faintly as he asked the person on the other end of the phone, “Brother Dugu, for you, being expelled from the field is an immense loss. But for him, what does he have to worry about?
“Regardless of how out of hand things get, or how terrible the fallout is, at worst Haichao pulls completely out of the Mid-Continent market. A bit of compensation, a bit of flesh cut off.
“No matter how much money it takes, a craftsman of Heavenly Work can always afford it.
“Besides, backed by the Association and the Security Bureau, with Lyu Yingyue as a patron, and holding the Medal of Exalted Virtue—as long as he behaves with some decency and agrees to walk away, he certainly won't lose his life over this, will he?”
“...”
On the other end of the line, Huanyu Heavy Industries' agent, Dugu Ming, fell completely silent.
His teeth were nearly ground to dust!
It was as though a cooked duck had dropped a massive pile of shit right in front of him before flapping its wings and flying off... and worse yet, he had to pinch his nose and eat that shit.
Indeed, Ji Jue's greatest weakness lay in having “nothing.”
In this unfamiliar city, he had nothing. No foundation, no friends, no allies, no assistance.
And Ji Jue's greatest strength lay in the exact same thing:
Nothing to lose.
Since he had nothing to begin with and nothing to lose, why not invite everyone to experience that same feeling together?
Dogs biting dogs, fur flying everywhere, fighting to the death while spectators laughed—how unsightly was that?
Why not step outside the established rules, use magnanimous generosity and gentle compassion to forgive everyone's offenses?
Without hesitation, repaying hostility with virtue!
And then leap into the air, spin a full 360 degrees, and deliver a resounding slap across all their faces!
*Don't worry, everyone. You're all good people. I merely suffered a minor setback; how could I suspect you? All these bad deeds must have been done by the Evil Transmutation Cult!*
*So, let's all enjoy a merry witch hunt together!*
*Light the roaring bonfire—next up is a fun barbecue party!*
“—He's dreaming!”
Dugu Ming's expression was blank, his eyes gradually turning icy. “Grasping at shadows and spouting nonsense—who can't do that? If he can't get this fire burning, he's just a clown. I'd love to see where he conjures up the Evil Transmutation Cult from!”
“And that is the problem.”
Shaban sighed softly over the phone. “How can you be sure there isn't an Evil Transmutation Cult in Tacheng...?”
At that, Dugu Ming fell silent as well.
Everyone knew the answer in their hearts.
Fuck, how could there *not* be?!!
That bastard Ji Jue only had to be responsible for lighting the spark. The people who might get dragged into it had far too much to worry about.
Almost the moment the rumors spread, the dead of night across Tacheng erupted.
Vagrants and paupers could still drool in their slums, lost in dreams, but in the brightly lit urban districts, countless people had already been jolted awake by phone calls, gripped by dread.
Fear began to take root in their hearts—was this the start of another storm?
Wait, hadn't they just held a meeting preaching stability and order, saying no more stirring up trouble? But then again, did the Federation and Empire keep their word? Their promises were like farts in the wind!
Afraid. Terrified. Everyone was terrified.
They weren't afraid of Ji Jue; they were afraid Ji Jue was merely a proxy for someone behind the scenes looking to purge Tacheng once again!
Almost everyone felt endangered.
In just half an hour, the wind mentioning the Evil Transmutation Cult had blown into the Federation's military garrison. Fan Yun, who had just changed into pajamas, was called out of bed.
To take a call.
He had to answer it.
It was the commanding officer of the Empire's garrison, a figure of real power in the Seven Stars Building, a frontier duke invested by the Emperor—Duke Passarella.
“Old Fan, we've known each other for so many years. Though we've had our frictions, we can still be said to advance and retreat together, maintaining an understanding.”
Duke Passarella sighed and asked bluntly, “Tell me the truth. Are you trying to start another purge? You can't do this—didn't we just do one last month?”
Fan Yun's expression was grim. “This wasn't my idea.”
“Whether it was or not, the issue must be dealt with immediately,” Passarella said, not hiding his displeasure. “If you won't handle it, I will!”
“Fine then. Investigate!”
Fan Yun showed no emotion. “Have the Security Bureau and the Secrecy Bureau investigate together. Thoroughly, meticulously—don't let a single suspicious point slip by! Let everyone see whether the Evil Transmutation Cult is behind this mess!”
If there was, whoever jumped out would be crushed to death!
If there wasn't... heheh, someone was going to suffer terribly!
And so, the investigation began.
In less than five minutes, amid continuous sonic booms, Celestial Chosen from the Security Bureau and the Secrecy Bureau deployed through the air, touching down beneath the building.
The personnel tasked with the operation were expressionless, gazing silently at the adversaries with whom they had fought tooth and nail in days past.
“Tong, long time no see.”
The blonde woman leading the Secrecy Bureau grinned, her smile genial. “Are your injuries healed? Want to set up another match sometime?”
“Sure. Why don't we pick an auspicious day, have the Wilderness Market bear witness, and fight to the death to settle it once and for all?” Tong Shan proposed. “That would be simpler and more direct. One of us dies. How about it?”
“Haha, same as always.”
Olivia tilted her head, lit a cigarette, and disregarding their past life-and-death enmity, stepped up and threw an arm around his shoulders. “What kind of nice toys did you guys cook up this time?”
“It has nothing to do with us,” Tong Shan said sternly. “The Evil Transmutation Cult is the enemy of the mortal realm. Everyone has a duty to eliminate them.”
“For real?”
Olivia was amused. With their hands behind their backs, they stepped into the air, ascending toward the blast site. She shook her head with a sigh, as if hinting at something: “I heard you and that Mr. Ji are old friends? Even if you're putting on an act, be a bit more professional. Send someone else.”
“Whether we're friends has nothing to do with this,” Tong Shan said coldly. “Say what you mean, spit out what you have to say, and stop wasting breath and time.”
“Who's wasting time?”
Olivia retorted, “For the better part of a year, the label of the Evil Transmutation Cult has been slapped on everything, dirty water splashed back and forth. When has it ever been reliable? Who hasn't used it? You haven't? I haven't? We've all used it. Who doesn't know what's going on? Let's just call it a day.”
“I haven't used it. Not once,” Tong Shan answered without hesitation. “And Ji Jue doesn't shoot his mouth off. I believe him.”
“...”
Olivia fell silent, taken aback. She hadn't expected such blatant favoritism and bias to come from Tong Shan. It was unbelievable, incomprehensible.
What was more, she suddenly realized she had no ground to question it.
If something like integrity truly existed in a godforsaken shithole like the Mid-Continent, then without question, Tong Shan's conduct over the past six months was pure gold standard!
Steadfast and thorough.
He didn't take bribes, didn't make trouble, didn't vie for power, didn't chase profit, and absolutely never backstabbed colleagues or sacrificed subordinates! The scars that had multiplied beneath his shirt over this period were absolute proof!
“Fine. If it was the Evil Transmutation Cult, then answer me this: why didn't they attack you? Why didn't they attack me? Why did they target him of all people?”
Olivia smiled. “It can't be because he's handsome and they wanted to book a session, can it?”
“Because of a blood feud,” Tong Shan glanced at her as if looking at a fool. “Don't tell me your Empire doesn't have reports and files on what happened in Quancheng.
“In that war against the Evil Transmutation Cult, Ji Jue took the greatest credit!
“Although detailed information wasn't made public, without him, the Security Bureau would have lost who knows how many people in that incident.
“He didn't hesitate to disfigure himself in disguise, sacrificing himself to infiltrate Kanemoto's workshop and rescue another Security Bureau colleague. Furthermore, even while trapped in a snare, he coordinated inside and out with the Artisans Association, ultimately successfully dismantling the secret ritual of Quancheng.
“And before that, when the Evil Transmutation Cult's Chrono Ruin bomb was meant to pollute Yacheng, he was the one who took the initiative to resolve it! To put it bluntly, all the strikes your Secrecy Bureau has made against the Evil Transmutation Cult for this entire time don't add up to what Ji Jue did alone!”
Tong Shan demanded, “If you were the Evil Transmutation Cult, wouldn't you hate his guts?”
“...”
For the second time, Olivia was left speechless.
In fact, it wasn't just her.
Anyone who knew the details would never doubt the hatred between Ji Jue and the Evil Transmutation Cult—it was an irreconcilable, absolute blood feud.
Once the Security Bureau brought out Ji Jue's record, that doubt was never raised again. Ji Jue was genuinely someone the Evil Transmutation Cult would hold a grudge against and want to assassinate!
“Even so, there actually has to *be* an Evil Transmutation Cult here, right?”
Olivia scratched her head in annoyance. Not out of embarrassment, but because if it were true... her damn workload would explode again, and she hadn't even had a bite of the duck she'd just ordered!
Things were getting more and more troublesome!
Worst case, it could mean another major purge...
Yet was there really an Evil Transmutation Cult involved?
The answer was yes.
There fucking was!
And if Ji Jue wanted there to be one, there could be!
In under three minutes, several ceramic shards were retrieved from the rubble of the scene.
In a rare moment of cooperation between the Federation and the Empire, with the Secrecy Bureau and the Security Bureau giving their all, the entire scene underwent recreation, backtracking, and reenactment.
All clues emerged before everyone's eyes.
Naturally, personnel from the Aether lineage conducted analysis and tracing—and finally concluded that whoever the mastermind behind the scenes was, they had certainly taken precautions. It could only be traced back to when the finished product was completed; the transport process and details over distance had been jammed, rendering them unreadable.
*As expected, grasping at shadows!*
Olivia gave a cold sneer, but before she could speak, she caught a discreet glance from a subordinate.
Making a casual excuse, she pulled away temporarily and listened to the on-site analysis report.
Her face gradually darkened.
“Are you certain?”
Tong Shan's brow slowly furrowed as he looked at his subordinate. The subordinate smiled bitterly: “I wish I couldn't be certain. But... it really might be...”
Among the fragments at the scene, after undergoing reversal through a relic of the Eternal Gate, a wisp of spiritus resonance so faint as to be virtually nonexistent was discovered.
Its source was an extraordinarily concealed curse!
The curse didn't even have a complete structural form, but it was so well-hidden that it was barely visible even under a magnifying glass. At most, it was just a trace of specially transmuted spiritus. Its primary purpose was tracking and serving as a vector for laying a curse. If accidentally tainted, the victim would be marked by the caster.
When necessary, when Ji Jue let his guard down, it could even be used as a conduit to manipulate fate and cause him to die suddenly in a seemingly plausible manner!
A thought of malice, a heart of venom—once tainted, it knew no beginning or end, relentless until death!
Even in death, it would never rest!
And the source of this curse was one of the holy lords venerated by the Evil Transmutation Cult, a subordinate of the Great Sin Abyssal Depths—
—The Wheel-Turning Holy King!
The moment it was confirmed, Tong Shan and Olivia exchanged a glance.
Tong Shan was expressionless. Olivia had already torn open her third pack of cigarettes for the day...
At this point, what was left to confirm?
Put it this way: over all this time in the Mid-Continent, across all the affiliates and peripheral members the Security Bureau and the Secrecy Bureau had captured from the Evil Transmutation Cult, if you combined them all, their lineage wouldn't be half as pure as this single bomb!
What else could they say?
When the report was submitted to their respective superiors and then placed before the commanding officers of both military bases, before dawn had even broken—in less than half an hour—it had already spread across all of Tacheng.
Though it was merely a single thin report, it felt like a heavy shovel of dirt tossed onto who knew how many people's coffins!
As their vision blurred and ringing filled their ears, people could almost hear that bastard Ji Jue's gentle whisper:
*Time to check everyone's credentials, ladies and gentlemen!*
*Are you ready?*
*The grand investigation is about to begin!*
Chapter 572