Chapter 1355 – Settling Accounts After Autumn (Part Two)
“Anyone can talk big; I just hope you don’t scare yourself silly later.”
If it weren’t for the master not allowing Ta Xue to take action, she would have found a way to sabotage the opponent long ago. How could she just let them act recklessly?
Jiang Pengji replied, “I’m not afraid of scaring myself; I’m afraid the enemy will become foolish first.”
Ta Xue gritted her teeth, unwilling to reveal any information about the main System.
“You, this abominable possession spirit, won’t have a good end! Don’t waste your effort; I will never betray the divine.”
Ta Xue thought she was being tight-lipped, but little did she know that Jiang Pengji really hadn’t asked anything out of her.
Still, Jiang Pengji felt the need to “praise” the main System’s brainwashing powers.
She sighed, “If whatever’s behind you would use that brainwashing skill elsewhere, every being in the world would probably become its most loyal follower, too scared to dare go east when told west. Then where would be the situation of various lords carving their own territories? It would have unified long ago.”
Why was the Red Lotus Sect so rampant back then?
Why did religious doctrines spread more easily in chaotic times?
Because the common people lacked the courage to face reality, they preferred to place their hopes in faith.
To put it simply, the impoverished masses, unable to change their fate, are told by their faith that their suffering in this life is due to sins from their past lives.
As long as they clear their karma in this life and accumulate virtue, they will be wealthy and happy in the next life.
If they remain restless and do not settle their past debts, they will continue to suffer in the next life, unable to end well.
Faced with such intimidation, the gullible common folk would naturally be stunned.
This is the terrifying part of brainwashing.
Jiang Pengji truly didn’t understand why the main System, capable of dodging her for almost a decade, was not pitifully useless, therefore why did it choose to send out a puppet that couldn’t achieve anything?
It brainwashed everyone in the world, and the other lords just carry on?
With all these schemes, they still hadn’t achieved their goals; what were they even after?
Thinking further, since the sub-system had been tight-lipped about the dimension-patrolling merchants, perhaps the main System was also afraid of its nemesis and forced to back down?
Contemplating this, Jiang Pengji felt a sense of schadenfreude.
Faced with such merciless sarcasm, Ta Xue’s pale face, already drained of color, flushed a bit with anger.
She cast a glance at Qi Guanrang, who was standing beside Jiang Pengji, a flash of resentment in her eyes.
Knowing that Jiang Pengji was a spirit possessing a body, this person remained indifferent?
Clearly, she was under the malicious charm of the spirit!
“Ta Xue, think carefully. To me, if you don’t cooperate, your value becomes null. And I have no patience for those without value.” Jiang Pengji said with a smile, drawing out her God-Slaying Blade, the white blade emanating a chilling aura, “Are you really not afraid of death?”
Ta Xue looked in terror at the blade in Jiang Pengji’s hand, the edge pressed against her neck, just a little closer would draw a stream of blood.
“If you really were up to killing me, would you still babble so much?”
Jiang Pengji leaned close to her ear, whispering.
“Do you really think I would hesitate? You seem to overestimating your own importance.”
Ta Xue grinned maliciously, “Then go ahead and kill me!”
“Oh.”
Jiang Pengji answered simply, and a sound of blade piercing flesh echoed through the air; the smile on Ta Xue’s face froze.
As she lowered her head slightly, the long blade pierced straight through her.
Jiang Pengji’s strike was precise, ensuring Ta Xue’s inevitable death while allowing her to linger on for a few breaths.
“Did you really think I knew nothing?”
Jiang Pengji’s breath tickled against Ta Xue’s ear as she spoke a name.
Upon hearing it, Ta Xue’s eyes widened in shock, ultimately unwillingly gasping out her last breath.
She died with her eyes wide open.
Jiang Pengji straightened up, pulling her long blade from Ta Xue’s flesh, the thick scent of blood filling the air.
“How did the Lord kill her?” Qi Guanrang asked.
“She became worthless, and besides, she could never be swayed to my side; keeping her would just waste food.”
Qi Guanrang had no response.
Having interacted with Ta Xue previously, she had always insisted that Jiang Pengji was an abominable possession spirit, and Qi Guanrang had already prepared himself mentally.
Thus, he accepted this supernatural setting calmly.
“Can you disclose your original name, my Lord?”
“Jiang Pengji,” Jiang Pengji replied.
Qi Guanrang honestly said, “It’s not as pleasant as Liu Xi.”
Could he say the name sounded a lot like a dish freshly promoted by the Zhi Ke Zhai restaurant?
Big Plate Chicken.
He had the thieving heart to think it, but didn’t have the thieving guts to say it out loud.
Jiang Pengji said, “A name is just a code; whether Liu Xi or Jiang Pengji, they’re all just what people call me.”
Qi Guanrang chuckled, “You are quite magnanimous, my Lord.”
Though sages often preach against speaking of deities and spirits, the common folk held a strong fear of them and truly believed in their existence.
Being an ancient person, Qi Guanrang could not escape this paradigm.
He asked, “My Lord, there’s something I don’t understand.”
“Go ahead and ask,” Jiang Pengji said.
Qi Guanrang shifted his gaze to Ta Xue’s corpse on the ground, seemingly hesitant to speak.
Jiang Pengji knew what he wanted to ask and simply said, “I also don’t know how I woke up from Liu Xi’s body. At that time, the situation was dire, and I didn’t think much about it. Later, I uncovered clues indicating someone was controlling everything from the shadows. From the initial information, their ambitions are vast. They aim not just for the whole world, but perhaps to plunder the fortune of humanity or the fortunes of a nation.”
Fortune is an elusive concept.
Anything related to a “nation” involves millions of common people.
Once Qi Guanrang heard this, his brow furrowed, and he looked at Jiang Pengji with concern.
She waved her hand, “That thing seems wary of something, not daring to openly harm me—at most, they’re just playing tricks.”
Qi Guanrang said, “Please be cautious, my Lord; your safety comes first.”
Jiang Pengji chuckled, “Your reaction is truly amusing, for a typical person who learns I’m an unknown possession spirit would rush to find a master or monk to eliminate me or at least be scared out of their wits. The fact that you accepted it so easily makes me feel uneasy.”
Qi Guanrang asked, “Is the Lord an evil person?”
Jiang Pengji shook her head, “While I can’t be considered a good person, I can’t be called evil either; at least I act without guilt.”
Qi Guanrang inquired, “Then is the Lord a malevolent spirit?”
Jiang Pengji laughed, “Malevolent spirits would run away upon seeing me.”
Qi Guanrang said, “If that’s the case, then why fear? Even if the Lord were a malevolent spirit, what of it? In times of chaos, where ordinary folk suffer, and the gods and spirits ignore the life and death of all beings, isn’t it better for a ‘malevolent spirit’ to come out and uphold justice? What’s wrong with proclaiming ‘malevolent spirit’ as the ruler?”
Gods do not care about the life or death of beings; if a malevolent spirit unifies the world, restoring peace to the common folk, who is really evil, and who are the deities, it no longer holds any comparative significance.
