Feng Yongrui and the other three were glaring at Hu Zemin, but they were weak and could not muster the strength to stand up.
"Pfft~" Hu Zemin broke into laughter. His previously humble and gentle disposition was gone in a flash.
"Hahaha... I thought you were some sort of powerful cultivator... Turns out you are all just a bunch of useless fools..." Hu Zemin was smiling gleefully as he took in the pained expressions of the four people before him.
"You... why are you doing this?" Ma Bo cried.
"Oh well, do you really not know?" Hu Zemin heaved a sigh and generously explained.
"You outsiders came into my Hu Manor and almost exposed our deeds... How can I let you go? Forget it. Since you're all going to die anyway, I'll be a good person and tell you everything," he smirked.
"You know, the one who put the demonic artifact inside me was none other than myself," he said.
Boom! Feng Yongrui felt like he had been struck by lightning.
Hu Zemin was the one who put the Mystic Stone inside himself? What... Was this some sort of self harm? Why would he do so?
"Well, I believe you must be confused, right? Don't worry, the poison I gave you is a slow-acting one. I have enough time to explain everything to my dear~ guests..." Hu Zemin said smugly.
Hu Zemin began explaining everything. His mother was Hu Feizi's first wife, but Hu Feizi had always despised her. You see, before he married her, Hu Feizi had a childhood sweetheart and he wanted to be with her.
However, Hu Feizi's family had already arranged his marriage. Hu Feizi's childhood sweetheart was also wed to another man. Hu Feizi despised his first wife, and when she gave birth to Hu Zemin, he wasn't happy.
Hu Zemin's mother gave birth to his little sister when he was five years old. Hu Zemin treasured his little sister, Hu Linghua, and took care of her as if she was the pearl on the palm of his hand.
When she turned seven years old, Hu Linghua accidentally discovered that Hu Feizi was experimenting on Gu worms. Hu Linghua was terrified, and she was eventually found out by Hu Feizi.
Furious and worried that she would expose his secret, Hu Feizi gave her severe punishment. He also made her kneel in the rain for three days.
How could a seven year old stand it? Hu Linghua became sick with a fever, but Hu Feizi did not allow any doctors to check on her. He thought it would be better if she just died.
That way, no one would find out about his secret.
At that time, Hu Zemin and his mother begged him to save Hu Linghua, but he turned a deaf ear. Hu Zemin could only nurse his sister as best as she could.
Hu Linghua died soon after that, and Hu Feizi was relieved. What he didn't know was that Hu Linghua had told Hu Zemin about Hu Feizi's secret.
Now it must be said that Hu Zemin was a kind and gentle person. He was slow to anger and had a calm temperament. He could never get angry at anyone, and he was like a little angel.
When his younger sister died, Hu Zemin was angry. It was an unknown emotion for him, and for the first time in his life, he wanted to kill someone.
But Hu Zemin realized that he couldn't do it. No matter how angry he was, his temper was naturally kind and gentle. He found that he couldn't even hate his father!
After some time, Hu Zemin finally realized where the problem lay. He had a light spirit root -- a pure, untainted spirit root that made him naturally kind and good.
But Hu Zemin didn't like it.
What was the use of being kind and good if he ended up losing his loved ones?
Hu Zemin began growing his own power. He had his own subordinates, his own network, and... he found a demonic artifact. He wasn't entirely sure of its purpose, but he found a way to put it near his dantian.
He wanted the demonic artifact to corrupt his light spirit root and allow him to become a heartless person.
And Hu Zemin succeeded.
Although the process was painful, and he became weak and sickly for some time, Hu Zemin managed to endure it and become stronger.
The kidnapping of the children and the array was all part of Hu Zemin's plans. He pretended to be a filial son, telling Hu Feizi that the array was for Hu Feizi to raise his own cultivation level.
Of course, Hu Zemin was lying. He was simply using his father. He wanted his father to feel elated, and then betray his father, pushing him down into the abyss. He wanted his father to feel utter despair.
...He never anticipated that four no-name cultivators would actually get in his way. Thankfully, these cultivators weren't very smart and thought the person behind all this was his father.
Naturally, Hu Zemin played along. He didn't mind if his father died. He also didn't mind pretending to be innocent and weaving a web of lies.
In any case, Feng Yongrui and the other three had to die.
"Haha... You all never expected it, right?" Hu Zemin smiled. "This is why you shouldn't peek into other people's secrets... If you all just stayed put and never interfered, this wouldn't have happened."
Feng Yongrui bit his lips and looked at Hu Zemin calmly. So it turned out to be like this...
"Well, you're all going to die in a minute. When you meet King Yama, don't be too upset, okay?" Hu Zemin said tauntingly. He rose from his seat and started walking away.
"Stop right there!" Feng Yongrui yelled.
In one swift motion, he had unsheathed his sword and threw it at Hu Zemin. Hu Zemin was completely unprepared. He did not have the chance to turn around and the sword directly pierced through his chest.
Eyes wide with disbelief, Hu Zemin turned around slowly.
"Y-you..." the rest of his words were swallowed away when he saw the other three stand up, as if nothing had happened.
"Weren't you all poisoned? I used the best poison I could find... There's no way you're all unharmed..." Hu Zemin huffed.
Blood was slowly trickling out of his wounds, and he struggled to stay awake.
Feng Yongrui gave a small hum in reply.
"Master, you're so cool, Master!" Ma Bo said happily. Hou Renshu also gave a small grin as well.
"Master, how was my acting skills?" Hou Renshu asked shyly.
Feng Yongrui gave him a thumbs up. "It was great. You all did well," Feng Yongrui said.
"A-acting...?" Hu Zemin whispered. His vision became blurry because of blood loss and he lost the strength in his legs.
Flop!
Hu Zemin fell limply to the ground, dead.
Even at that last moment, he still did not know what went wrong. Just why did this happen?
Feng Yongrui grinned widely, satisfied. When he killed Hu Feizi, Feng Yongrui had already felt that something wasn't right.
If Hu Feizi was really the mastermind behind all the kidnappings, then Feng Yongrui should've received the System notification telling him that he had had completed the side quest.
However, when Hu Feizi died, nothing happened.
This could mean two things: either Hu Feizi wasn't dead, or the mastermind wasn't him to begin with. Feng Yongrui believed the latter.
He found that Hu Zemin was really suspicious. His actions and words were really strange. It was even more strange that he invited them to eat together.
If a person you hated suddenly died and you found intruders in your home, would you really ask them to eat, and be in the mood to eat and drink?
Hu Zemin also didn't ask them to help him remove the demonic artifact inside him. Instead, he babbled on and on about how much he hated his father. It seemed like he was buying time...
Also, when Feng Yongrui had first started eating, he heard a notification from the System. He was poisoned. Feng Yongrui concerns were confirmed -- Hu Zemin was not a good person.
Initially, Feng Yongrui had been panicked. If the food was poisoned, the System could heal him immediately. Even if Feng Yongrui had to spend some points, it was still fine.
Feng Yongrui wasn't worried about Zhong Weimin either, he would definitely be okay. But if his disciples were poisoned, how was he supposed to heal them secretly and still prod Hu Zemin's intentions?
Thankfully, the System told him something. When Feng Yongrui first accepted his disciples, he gave them each a jade pendant as a welcoming gift.
It turns out those pendants had a detoxifying spell inside. As long as the owner of the pendant tapped it three times, he or she would be detoxified.
For the first time, Feng Yongrui wanted to applaud the System for being amazing.
Since his disciples would be okay, Feng Yongrui had transmitted a message into their heads, explaining the situation. He told them to tap their jade pendants to detoxify themselves, but to pretend to be poisoned.
Only if they were poisoned would Hu Zemin let down his guard. At that time, they could figure out his intentions and find out what exactly was going on.
And, well, their plan worked perfectly. Feng Yongrui's side quest was also completed.
***
Wow~ Did any of you guess that Hu Zemin was actually like this? And, did anyone notice that Feng Yongrui had been acting all along?
Comment below~