Under One Person, your rebellious life has reached the heavens?

"Xu Xin."

"Do you still remember your solemn oath? What should you do if you encounter your thirty-six sworn brothers?"

Tang Bingwen gestured for Xu Xin to stand up and kill the traitor in front of him.

"Master!! Senior brother... he's confused! Please, don't force him, let me try to persuade him!!"

Xu Xin was horrified and extremely reluctant to execute his brother, with whom he had spent every day.

He might have been able to accept it if it were any other demon, but Dong Chang, who was like a brother to him and who was inseparable from him even when carrying out missions, was someone he truly couldn't bring himself to harm.

"Senior brother! You...you calm down...don't put Master and me in a difficult position...we sincerely repent..."

Xu Xin's brain was stimulated, and he became so nervous that his hands and feet trembled, and he spoke incoherently.

"Thirty-third brother, you are you... and I am me..."

"I've made so many mistakes along the way, there's no turning back."

Ignoring Xu Xin's advice, Dong Chang, dragging his body which felt as heavy as lead, performed the three kowtows to Tang Bingwen, his voice filled with sorrow.

“Master, I have failed to complete the task you assigned me, and I have also formed a sworn brotherhood with a demon, causing our sect to lose face. I have no desire to live on.”

"I hope that with my life I can still salvage some dignity for the Tang Clan in front of my employer."

"I am ashamed that my master has failed to cultivate me for so many years..."

"If there is an afterlife, I still wish to serve my master and will never make the same mistake again..."

Dong Chang kowtowed three times heavily on the ground.

His response was a dagger that Tang Bingwen casually tossed aside, coated with a special poison made by the Tang Clan, capable of killing in an instant.

"I bow in gratitude...to my teacher's kindness..."

Dong Chang stared blankly at the scene, without complaint, but instead felt fortunate, knowing that his master had ultimately shown mercy.

He shakily reached out his right hand, grasped the cold wooden hilt of the knife, slowly withdrew it, and pressed it against his throat.

He then glanced at everyone, said goodbye, and set off.

"Everyone, I'm so sorry to have dragged you all down..."

"Pfft——!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Dong Chang's heart turned to ashes. With a ruthless slash, the sharp blade left a deep wound on his throat.

Blood splattered, accompanied by heart-wrenching screams.

"Brother!!!"

Xu Xin broke down emotionally, crying out in pain. He struggled to crawl over and try to support Dong Chang's body.

Chapter 194 Exposing It to the Face

Dong Chang's body lay there, blood trickling down his throat, the wound black and lifeless.

Hong Ye and Yang Lie, who were watching from the sidelines, had cold and solemn expressions, without the slightest hint of sympathy. This was the path he had chosen, and he was unwilling to turn back. He could only bid farewell to this world in the form of death.

With his disciple's body lying at his feet, Tang Bingwen's sorrow vanished in an instant.

"Xu Xin...After I remove your cultivation, I promise you a lifetime of food and clothing."

He looked at his trembling disciple who was crying, then at the other disciples, and the coldness on his face softened considerably. He said:

“From now on, you will take turns guarding him. Anyone who dares to let him leave Tang Tomb without permission will be punished the same as him.”

"Understood, Master."

Everyone responded in agreement, overwhelmed with mixed feelings. Many still cherished the camaraderie they had shared with their fellow disciples, and their faces showed a sorrowful regret.

That night.

The Tang Clan summoned their best healers, and under the personal supervision of Tang Bingwen, Xu Xin's tendons and veins were crippled, all his hard-earned skills vanished, and he could no longer even gather Qi.

Afterwards, the doctor used acupuncture and herbal poultices to clean the inflamed wound, promote blood circulation and remove blood stasis. He worked continuously for several hours before stabilizing his condition and finally saving his life.

This night.

Tang Bingwen was exhausted and his internal organs ached from anger. The expectations he had placed on the two of them half a year ago had now come back to haunt him, making his already gray hair even whiter, as if he had aged several years in an instant.

.......

While the Tang Clan was dealing with the traitor, the Yanwu Hall's men gathered information in the martial arts world and joined forces with various forces, eventually finding Liu Deshui's whereabouts.

After a chase, Liu Deshui, who had been on the run for ten days, was too weak to fight anymore. The wounds all over his body filled him with despair. The thought of being captured and kept like livestock, with his cultivation destroyed, made him feel that life was worse than death.

"You wretched creature! Surrender now and repent before it's too late!!"

"Junior brother, come back with us."

"Having committed such a grave mistake, are you still so stubbornly unrepentant?!"

A dozen or so experts from the Yanwu Hall stood not far from the cliff, admonishing and warning Liu Deshui, their voices constantly stimulating his chaotic nerves.

Thinking of the miserable fate he would face for the rest of his life, he looked grief-stricken and indignant. It was unclear what choice he had made, but his fat body was trembling all over.

"what!!!"

"Don't come any closer!!"

Two streams of tears welled up in his eyes. Looking at the crowd closing in, Liu Deshui felt an unprecedented fear.

He lived his whole life driven by ambition, wanting to stand out from the crowd, to be the best in the martial arts world, and even to defeat his old friend from the Sanyi Sect.

Since the Lu family gatherings two years prior, his inner turmoil had been largely resolved. However, he simply couldn't accept the severe punishment of having his cultivation stripped away.

This was worse than death for him. He never wanted to go back to those days of helplessness, being unable to do anything, and having to be subservient to others.

“Traitor, come back with me, and we can still discuss everything.”

The head of Yanwu Hall had a frosty expression. He stepped forward, trying to persuade his disciple to come back.

"Master...no...we can't go back..."

Liu Deshui was distraught, his eyes bloodshot, and a chaotic cacophony of voices emanating from the depths of his mind—insults, rebukes, and contempt. Under the ravages of his inner demons, his last shred of reason collapsed.

Accompanied by Liu Deshui's incoherent ramblings, no one could understand what he was muttering, but they suddenly felt something was wrong.

"Traitor! What do you think you're doing?! Stop right there!"

As if he had guessed something, the head of Yanwu Hall suddenly narrowed his eyes and shouted angrily, but little did he know that it was too late.

“Master…”

Liu Deshui was heartbroken and turned to flee. He jumped off a cliff hundreds of meters high without thinking of anything else.

"what?!"

"He'd rather die than go back with us, that bastard."

"Search! We need to find them alive or dead."

The crowd was filled with shock and anger. They immediately lowered the grappling hooks and, with the agility of monkeys, swung down from the heights.

When they reached the bottom of the cliff, all that was in front of them was a mangled body, smashed to pieces, scattered pitifully among the rocks. The familiar, tattered clothes already gave them away.

Liu Deshui, one of the Thirty-Six Thieves, had nowhere to turn and chose to jump off a cliff to his death.

........

The following day, news of Huodezong arrived.

After Fengping was detained, his master personally crippled his cultivation. He did not eat or drink for two consecutive days, and in the early morning of the third night, he chose to commit suicide.

Since the talks ended, the various factions have accelerated their actions, arresting traitors within the organization one after another.

Meanwhile, the Secret Painting Sect could no longer suppress the wrath of the martial arts world and faced its trial.

Led by the Wang family, a group of sects arrived at the Secret Painting Sect in a grand procession, bearing the banner of righteousness, determined to purge the evil people who colluded with the Quanxing Demon Lord, and demanding that Dou Ruchang appear and give an explanation.

Left with no other choice, the head and second-in-command of the Secret Painting Sect could not think of any other solutions, so they brought Dou Ruchang in front of everyone and asked him to explain the whole story. They also privately promised to do everything they could to save his life.

On the high platform, facing pairs of questioning, angry, and even gloating gazes, Dou Ruchang found himself in an awkward situation.

His confidence instantly plummeted, cold sweat poured from his forehead, and under immense psychological pressure, he argued:

“I acknowledge my sworn brotherhood with Wugensheng... but I did not collude with Quanxing. When we swore brotherhood, he had already declared that he had withdrawn from Quanxing.”

"Oh? Is that so!"

From the crowd, the head of the Wang family sneered and slowly stepped forward, his killing intent blazing. Today, he would ruin this man's reputation.

"Now that things have come to this, you still want to speak up for that devil?"

“He was Quanxing before, he is Quanxing now, and he will be Quanxing for all eternity. As the leader of Quanxing, how many immoral things has he done? Washing away his sins is not a simple matter of simply leaving Quanxing.”

The head of the Wang family paid close attention to the expressions of those around him, some of whom were dissatisfied, some of whom were resentful. The opportune moment had arrived.

He was not distracted by Dou Ruchang's words, but instead pointed out the problem with sharp words.

"The matter of the demon is too unlucky to mention for now. We are all here today for you."

The head of the Wang family suddenly raised his voice and mocked coldly:

"As the third leader of the Secret Painting Sect, how many people have your disciples, teachers, and Quanxing Sect killed, including many you personally experienced and led? You owe your fellow disciples an explanation. How can you face them?"

"I even suspect that the deaths of the senior Secret Painters over the years were the result of your conspiracy with the Quanxing Sect. Where is your conscience?!"

The head of the Wang family spoke at length, stirring up public anger. Not only outsiders, but even many disciples within the Secret Painting Sect felt resentful.

Dou Ruchang, standing on the stage, felt a chill run down his spine and replied in fear, "I...I have never done anything to betray the secret painting. I have a clear conscience and a clear conscience."

“Wugensheng and the Quanxing group we fought against were never the same thing from beginning to end.”

This move played right into the Wang family patriarch's trap, prompting him to laugh: "Ha? Still being stubborn?"

Immediately, to Dou Ruchang's unease, the head of the Wang family turned to face the crowd and shouted, "Everyone, listen carefully!"

"he--"

"The third leader of the Secret Painting Sect keeps saying that he has not wronged the sect. Well then, I will not hide it from you all."

“A few days ago, the Lu family held a meeting. Coincidentally, a friend of mine with whom I have a fairly good relationship informed me that all the captured sworn traitors had your secret blood ink engraved on their bodies.”

"And, Dou Ruchang, do you want to guess how all those cronies of yours were caught in one fell swoop?"

"It was by using your secret proclamation to request aid and make contact that you turned the tables and killed more than a dozen demons."

"This matter is not only known to my Wang family, but also to all the sects present that day. What excuse do you, Dou Ruchang, have to offer?"

"If all else fails, an autopsy is fine too. Coincidentally, Master Hu from the Shuzi Sect is here as well. You can ask him if it's true?"

After a barrage of sharp rebuttals, Dou Ruchang staggered backward, his mind blank as if struck by lightning, unsure how to respond.

"What? The Third Master actually passed on the proclamation to them?"

"Sigh... I never thought he would lie to us."

"You heartless wretch! Give me back my master's life! You don't deserve to be my uncle-master!"

As a witness to the talks, Hutu also rushed to the Secret Painting Gate today to corroborate the arguments of the Wang family head.

“What Brother Wang said is true. We have verified the matter of the proclamation, and even went to Huodezong’s place. Blood ink was also left on the corpse. We did not wrong you, Dou Ruchang.”

"With such irrefutable evidence, you say you've done right by the secret painting? On what grounds do you think you've done right by it? By your silver tongue and your ability to distort the truth?"

Hu Tu's words caused the head and second-in-command of the Secret Painting Sect, who had originally intended to protect Dou Ruchang, to turn terribly dark-faced.

The matter of sworn brotherhood was serious enough, but now there was the added charge of leaking sect techniques. They couldn't think of any reason to convince themselves to let Dou Ruchang go, and they even wanted to kill him more than outsiders.

"Junior brother, is this true?"

The second-in-command of the secret society was so angry that his hands and feet trembled, and he almost couldn't recover. He felt like the sky was about to fall.

"......"

Dou Ruchang remained silent, but the relentless barrage of insults, like rolling waves, utterly crushed his already crumbling self-esteem.

"Speak up, junior brother! How long are you going to keep this from us?"

The head of the Secret Painting Sect was heartbroken. The noise from the crowd and Dou Ruchang's reaction had given him a rough idea of ​​what was going on, but he was still determined to verify it with his own mouth.

"I did not teach them how to make blood ink."

Under immense pressure, Dou Ruchang had no choice but to reveal the truth: