The Transmigrated Male Lead Confessed to Me - Chapter 20 (Part 2)

“If Ziheng spoke rudely and offended him…”

“Ziheng wouldn’t be so tactless…”

“He and his senior sister are as incompatible as water and fire. As for that Su person, it’s not as though she ever provoked him—she simply didn’t coddle him. Yet he disregarded her talent and background, offending her to no end…”

They hadn’t spoken long when the captured demon cultivator slowly regained consciousness, lifting his head to stare at them.

The shift in his spiritual energy was sensed by the Zhou clan members, who immediately fell silent.

“Fools.”

The demon cultivator’s voice was hoarse, “This isn’t the first time I’ve dealt with your clan. If I had known earlier that your clan’s young members had treasures worth my attention, would I have waited until now?”

“So you admit you didn’t know before!”

“…If I had killed him, I’d have gone into hiding long ago. Did you think you could catch me so easily?”

A clan elder sneered, “And who is Immortal Li? When you slaughtered the entire town of Luhe, from ninety-year-old women to infants in swaddling clothes, you burned them all in a sacrificial fire to your demon god. And after that, you didn’t even…”

“They were mere mortals!”

The demon cultivator, as if appalled by the man’s stupidity, shook violently at the words, the chains on his body rattling.

“Kill them? I killed them. Why should I hide? How are you any different? Your clan has six or seven members at my cultivation level, not to mention those a realm or two above me!”

“What use is it even questioning him?”

Zhou Ziheng’s father said coldly, “If this man has erased the relevant memories, it’s a waste of time for us to keep questioning. I suggest we use the Soul-Rending Talisman to ensure he dies in excruciating pain.”

The demon cultivator began cursing, uttering profanities in a vile tone, “I am a follower of the Demon God of Blood Sacrifice, not some lowly miscreant or scurrying rat! Erase my memory? Those pitiful tricks, I’d never waste my time on such—”

His curses were immediately cut off by a silencing array.

An elder of the clan, clutching his head, muttered, “No, we can’t! Without the Ganwu Spirit Orb’s whereabouts, even if he tampered with his memories, we might still find some clues.”

Zhou Ziheng’s father’s face twisted in anger, “All you care about is—”

Before he could finish, a thunderous sound suddenly echoed from above.

Everyone’s expressions changed.

The demon cultivator alone froze momentarily, then his face filled with ecstatic delight.

An immense, terrifying spiritual energy surged forward like a furious tidal wave, shattering the barriers surrounding the prison inside and out.

Meanwhile, outside the prison, the spiritual energies of several Zhou clan disciples extinguished rapidly, like candles in a hurricane.

They were dead.

The silencing barrier in the center of the prison shattered, allowing the demon cultivator’s exultant voice to reach them, “Senior Brother—”

“Esteemed Immortals of the Zhou clan, it’s been a long time.”

A soft, melodic voice suddenly echoed in the prison.

Everyone blinked, and in that instant, a figure appeared like a ghost within the cell, standing between them and the prisoner.

The newcomer was tall and lean, with a handsome, almost ethereal face. He wore a wide-sleeved crimson robe, giving him a frail, refined appearance at first glance. However, his skin was deathly pale, his lips as red as coral, and his thick white hair, with a few strands dyed blood-red, hung loosely in a braid down his back.

Blood jade and mutton-fat jade beads were woven into his hair, their colors echoing the hues of his hair, adding an eerie, striking beauty to his appearance.

“It’s his own fault that he was captured here,” he remarked, not even glancing at his bound junior brother behind him. “But… Just what do you all intend to do with him?”

The Zhou clan members’ faces darkened, all traces of earlier anger now replaced with dread.

Even Zhou Ziheng’s father, who had previously been seething, showed nothing but fear. They all knew the demon cultivator’s identity and were aware of his power. Without the Zhou clan’s family head present, none among them stood a chance, not even for a moment.

It would be futile even if they attacked him together.

Unless he had just sustained serious injuries, a Golden Immortal expert at full strength couldn’t be subdued by a group of Heavenly Immortals and Earth Immortals.

Worse still, he was a Soul Devouring Sect demon cultivator, known for mastering lethal forbidden techniques.

Righteous cultivators only shouted to kill demon cultivators when they clearly held the upper hand.

At this point, even if they combined their strengths, it would be a pointless sacrifice. Moreover, there were no major sects in the entirety of Hanguang State —only a few second-rate sects, whose leaders were at best in the Golden Immortal stage.

The Zhou family wasn’t close by, and since the demon cultivator hadn’t attacked their main family residence, naturally, they wouldn’t take action so easily just for the Zhou family.

“We only invited Immortal Li to say a few words, but the young ones sent to bring him misunderstood, resulting in this offense,” one clan elder said, summoning his courage. “Had we known he was your junior brother, we would have punished them properly and offered, um, proper reparations—”

Before he could finish, the demon cultivator had already stepped forward, pressing a hand to the elder’s forehead.

The movement seemed unhurried, yet none of the others even had time to react, let alone intervene.

The Zhou clan elder couldn’t evade the attack. The moment he was touched, his eyes rolled back, and flashes of past memories streaked through his mind.

“Hmm.”

The demon cultivator smiled. “The only capable fighter is still in Tiandu. That makes things simpler.”

Before anyone could respond, crimson light surged up from the prison floor, sinister blood-red patterns unfurling and expanding, rapidly forming a massive spell array.

Above the formation, a fog of blood swirled, out of which countless pale hands emerged. Each hand branched into more arms, ending in fingers sharp as iron hooks.

Hundreds of hands reached out from the red mist, clutching the Zhou clan cultivators tightly.

From the moment the formation appeared, they found themselves glued to the floor. Even those who tried to abandon their physical bodies and escape as primordial spirits failed.

Then, one by one, each of them was seized by the hands clamping onto their limbs and throats, torn apart in an instant, and their remains scattered into a grisly mess of severed limbs and minced meat.

Their glowing primordial spirits were yanked from their bodies, yet the claws held them just as tightly. The claws sank into their primordial spirits, draining them of spiritual energy.

In mere seconds, the once-radiant primordial spirits dulled and shattered into particles of light.

Just like that, over a dozen cultivators from the Upper Seven Realms died in utter silence.

The perpetrator stood amidst the carnage, reaching out to catch a wooden orb as it fell from the air.

Since they had been directly sacrificed to the Demon God, the resurrection power within the Ganwu Spirit Orb had no opportunity to take effect.

He played with it for a moment, then slowly turned to face his bound junior brother.

“I read that man’s memories just now.”

The demon cultivator smiled as he said, “The head of Weiyun Peak claimed that Zhou Ziheng was under the influence of a Bewitchment Curse. If that’s true, the culprit was likely a Chariot Sect disciple, aiming to frame this incident on you.”

The prisoner ground his teeth and said, “Followers of the Demon God of Decrees are nothing but a bunch of vile rats and scorpions—”

The demon cultivator appeared amused by the situation.

He didn’t hurry to release his junior brother from his restraints. Instead, he lifted his hand, and with a slight movement of his fingers, a ring, dark green mottled with white, floated up from the pool of blood

“Look, this Jie Jade ring has been purified of lingering spiritual marks to prevent its owner’s experiences from being traced back by spells…”

He smiled, his eyes narrowing, “If the killer was indeed a Chariot Sect disciple, they could easily alter their size and appearance to avoid recognition. The only clues would come from specific techniques or phrases they used that might give them away. It’s likely that someone in the Zhou clan recognized the attacker, so the killer took these measures to avoid being traced.”

The prisoner was taken aback. “Couldn’t they have simply destroyed the ring?”

“Of course, but if their cultivation was weak, destroying it would take a great deal of time. And without the ring’s protection, any jade slip they left might have been destroyed by the demonic creatures at Blood Maple Mountain, which would prevent it from reaching Yuchen Xianzun. How else could they prove Zhou Ziheng was colluding with demon cultivators?”

The two exchanged a glance.

“The rest of this is no longer your concern.”

The demon cultivator took two steps forward, stopping just in front of the prisoner.  “I’m rather excited now. Since you’re so incompetent, let’s make use of what’s left of you.”

With that, he reached out and pressed his hand against his junior brother’s brow.

The latter was startled—red, fragmented lines began to spread across his face.

His entire body began to tremble violently, as though he were being cast into a furnace. His flesh began to dissolve, and his primordial spirit started to shatter, consumed by an indescribable agony.

“Yes, yes!”

But his face betrayed no fear or anger, only sheer madness and fanaticism. “A soul for the sacred altar, blood for the Divine Lord—”

As he spoke, his body exploded, filling the prison with a thick blood mist and a stench of iron.

The cell was now empty, save for the one who remained.

The demon cultivator toyed with the ring in his hand, glancing down at it with mild interest in his eyes.

“I’ll come to meet you in person.”