86: Chapter 86: The Mole and the Deal

The ruins after the explosion were still billowing black smoke, and the air was filled with the smell of burnt material and blood.

In the makeshift confinement room, the atmosphere was even colder and more piercing than the ruins.

Senior Sister Xie Handeng sat on a grand armchair, toying with a short sword, the blade still stained with undried mud.

Opposite her, Wen Xi was rapidly swiping across a glowing crystal board, her fingers moving so fast they were only a blur.

On the crystal board was a dense stream of data—the activity logs of all the Disciples of Hengchuan Peak over the past three days.

"Found it."

Wen Xi suddenly stopped her fingers and pushed up her glasses, her voice as cold as ice beads hitting the ground.

"Senior Sister Xie, no need to interrogate them one by one."

She turned the crystal board toward Senior Sister Xie Handeng, where a red light point locked onto a name.

"Suspect: Zhang Wei, mid-level manager of Munitions Line No. 2. Employed for three years, no bad records, usually reticent, doesn't even dare to kill a chicken."

Wen Xi pointed to a set of data below, "But this is his heart rate monitor from the moment before the explosion."

"A normal person's heart rate would spike above 120 upon hearing an unusual sound before an explosion; that's instinctive fear."

"But his was only 75."

Senior Sister Xie Handeng narrowed her eyes: "75?"

"Yes, meaning he was just slightly nervous, as if... waiting for a confirmation call."

Wen Xi tapped with her fingertip, "Also, three days before the explosion, he left the mountain privately once, supposedly to 'purchase personal items,' but during those two hours, his location signal disappeared for half an hour. Where did he go? Only the Law Enforcement Hall or... a more Advanced Formation could hide it."

Senior Sister Xie Handeng sneered and stood up abruptly.

"Bring him in."

Zhang Wei was shoved inside.

He was a young man who looked very honest, slightly chubby, currently trembling all over, his face as pale as paper.

He knelt on the ground, not daring to lift his head, kowtowing frantically: "Peak Master! Senior Sister Xie! I'm wronged! I really didn't blow up the warehouse! I don't even know how to draw that Formation!"

"I have an old mother at home, I really wouldn't dare!"

Senior Sister Xie Handeng looked at him coldly, saying nothing.

She simply walked over and waved the short sword in her hand gently.

"Swish—"

A strand of Zhang Wei's hair was cut off by the Sword Qi and fluttered to the ground.

Immediately after, a cold Sword Intent traced along his neck.

"Zhang Wei, I didn't say you were the one who blew it up."

Senior Sister Xie Handeng bent down and whispered in his ear, "I was just wondering, how did you bring in the Law Enforcement Hall's 'Silence Lock'?"

"Do you know? That kind of talisman pattern can only be accessed by deacons of rank four or higher."

"A lowly manager carrying this kind of thing, what is the punishment?"

Zhang Wei's body stiffened abruptly.

The fear of imminent death made his whole body spasm.

"I... I don't know... that's a misunderstanding..."

"A misunderstanding?"

Senior Sister Xie Handeng's sword tip pressed down slowly, piercing the skin on his neck, and fresh blood flowed down the blade.

"Wen Xi, show him the image reconstructed by the System."

"Let him see what the talisman pattern he kept under his pillow for three months actually is."

Wen Xi flicked her finger, and a projection appeared in mid-air.

It was a scene reconstructed by the System using the "Low-Frequency Retracing Formation" combined with Zhang Wei's own spiritual power fluctuations.

In the image, a person in a black robe, whose face could not be seen, stuffed a talisman paper emitting a faint blue light into Zhang Wei's hands.

And the pattern on that talisman paper was the very culprit that caused the Munitions Line's perception to fail.

Zhang Wei looked at the image, and his psychological defenses collapsed instantly.

He stopped defending himself and suddenly hugged his head, letting out a heart-wrenching wail.

"I'm guilty... I'm guilty..."

"But I had no choice! I really had no choice!"

He raised his head, his face full of tears, snot and tears mixed together, looking utterly wretched.

"It was them... it was what that person said!"

"If I didn't provide intelligence, if I didn't help..."

"They would put my whole family... my younger brother who is still studying, and my half-paralyzed parents... all on the sacrificial list!"

[System Retracing: Threat Scenario Reconstruction]

[Source: Memory Fragments + Low-Frequency Spiritual Recording]

[Scene: Three days ago, abandoned pavilion behind the mountain]

[Black-robed figure's voice (voice-altered):]

"Zhang Wei, don't be nervous. We just need a few blueprints, and... a small adjustment to the array eye of Line No. 2."

[Zhang Wei's voice (trembling):]

"This... this is a capital offense! The Peak Master will kill me!"

[Black-robed figure's voice (chuckle):]

"If the Peak Master kills you, that's a quick death."

"But if you refuse..."

"Remember your brother's name, right? Zhang Xiaosan. On duty next month."

"As long as I move my finger on the sacrificial list and write down 'guilt by association,' with the reason being 'relatives colluding with evil spirits'..."

"Guess how your brother will die?"

[System Annotation: Guilt by Association Sacrifice]

[Definition: The cruelest clause in the old System, allowing for the punishment of one person by implicating the entire clan, directly placing their relatives into the mandatory sacrificial sequence.]

The projection stopped there.

There was dead silence in the confinement room.

Zhang Wei slumped on the ground as if his spine had been pulled out, muttering to himself: "Guilt by association... guilt by association... I didn't want to implicate my family..."

Shen Xingzhou had been standing in the shadows, watching this scene.

Only now did he slowly walk out.

His expression was terrifyingly cold, even colder than Senior Sister Xie Handeng's just now.

But he didn't get angry, he didn't fly into a rage.

That kind of calmness made people feel an even deeper fear.

"Guilt by association sacrifice..."

Shen Xingzhou chewed on these four words.

He looked at the trembling fat man on the ground, a complex feeling rising in his heart.

Anger?

Yes. To blow up his own comrades just to survive, such a person deserves to die.

But there was more... a sense of desolation.

In this cannibalistic world, human life is a consumable, and family affection is the most fragile fuse tied to that consumable.

"Old System."

Shen Xingzhou turned around, looking at Wen Xi and Senior Sister Xie Handeng, his voice low.

"It not only treats those on the front line as consumables but also uses their relatives behind them as bargaining chips."

"How is this the rule of the cultivation world."

"This is clearly a torture of Hell."

[System Sidebar: Individual Judgment Recommendation]

[Subject: Zhang Wei (Mole)]

[Crimes: Leaking military secrets, sabotaging Munitions Line, causing serious injury to fellow Disciples.]

[Motivation: Extreme coercion (survival instinct + threat to relatives' lives)]

[System Analysis:]

If Zhang Wei is killed, it may appease temporary public anger, but it cannot eradicate the fear brought by 'guilt by association.'

If he is treated leniently, it can establish a model of 'resisting the old System' and break the deterrent power of 'guilt by association.'

[Recommendation:]

Can be treated leniently (destroy Dantian/imprisonment), but a 'anti-guilt by association mechanism' sample needs to be established.

Tell everyone: At Hengchuan Peak, the Heavenly Dao does not have such a thing as guilt by association.]

Shen Xingzhou looked at the System's recommendation and was silent for a long time.

He walked up to Zhang Wei and squatted down.

Zhang Wei shrank into a ball in fear: "Peak Master! Don't kill me! Please don't kill me! I won't dare to do it again!"

"I won't kill you."

Shen Xingzhou reached out and wiped the snot and tears from his face.

The movement was very light, but it made Zhang Wei even more terrified.

"You caused the death of three brothers and seriously injured seven. This debt cannot go unpaid."

"According to my rules, a life pays for a life."

Zhang Wei was about to scream, but Shen Xingzhou continued: "But your life is not yours. It's what the person who forced you to do this wanted to take."

Shen Xingzhou stood up and looked at Senior Sister Xie Handeng.

"Destroy his Dantian, expel him from the Munitions Line. Life imprisonment in the labor camp, doing the dirtiest and hardest work until the debt is paid off."

"Also, bring his whole family to Heng Mountain immediately."

Shen Xingzhou's voice suddenly rose, resounding through the entire confinement room, and even reached the ears of the Disciples eavesdropping outside.

"From today on, whoever dares to touch a hair on Zhang Wei's family, is going against me, Shen Xingzhou!"

"Is going against Hengchuan Peak!"

"On this mountain, there is no such thing as 'guilt by association'!"

"If you want to kill someone, come at me!"

Zhang Wei was stunned.

He stared blankly at Shen Xingzhou, his mouth wide open, the sound of his loud wailing stuck in his throat, turning into a whimper.

He didn't know if it was gratitude or shame.

But he knew that the blade hanging over his family's heads had been forcefully caught by Shen Xingzhou.

After dealing with Zhang Wei, Shen Xingzhou turned around, his eyes becoming incomparably sharp.

"Now, let's talk about the employer."

He looked at the fat man slumped on the ground, "Who is that person?"

Zhang Wei trembled; he originally didn't dare to say it.

Because that person's shadow was too big, big enough to cover the sky and sun.

But looking at Shen Xingzhou's firm eyes, looking at the man who had just blocked the death sentence for his whole family.

He gritted his teeth and tremblingly spat out two words.

These two words were as light as smoke, yet as heavy as a mountain.

"Cen... Central Continent."

[System Record]

[Employer Tag: Central Continent Rating System Related Personnel]

[Method:]

Using the loopholes in the existing sacrificial System to conduct 'guilt by association threats' and 'political extortion.'

[Analysis:]

This is not a personal vendetta.

This is a siege starting from top-level design.

They not only want to eliminate Hengchuan Peak on the battlefield but also want to disintegrate the will of Hengchuan Peak from the inside using fear.

Shen Xingzhou closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

Central Continent.

That high-and-mighty place that sets the rules and enjoys all the privileges.

So, the mastermind behind all this really is them.

That so-called 'rating System,' that System that divides people into different ranks, had actually become a weapon they used to extort the lower classes.

He opened his eyes and looked at the line of text slowly emerging at the bottom of the System interface.

That was the most ruthless mockery of this world.

[System Bottom Bar Hint]

"They are using the rules of the Heavenly Dao as a tool for extortion."

Shen Xingzhou clenched his fists.

"Good."

"What a good Heavenly Dao rule."

"Since you want to play by rules."

"Then I will... uproot this entire set of rules."