Chapter 35: Soul Search
In just one day, the sect's expansion recruitment came to an end.
With his cultivation at the ninth level of Qi Refining, Hu Da easily took first place.
The other nine who passed the competition were all fairly well-known cultivators among the menial disciples, each at the eighth level of Qi Refining. This time, those who were exceptionally promoted into the Outer Sect did not include any standout geniuses.
"Winners, follow me. The rest of you, disperse on the spot."
Zhang Xiansheng led Hu Da and the others away from the spiritual field, but they did not head straight into the Outer Sect. In the Verdant Cloud Sect, elders who had reached the Golden Core realm each possessed their own mountain peak, and Zhang Xiansheng brought everyone to the main hall on one such peak.
"We've struck it rich! Could it be that a Golden Core elder has taken a liking to us? I wonder which elder it is," one cultivator in the crowd said excitedly. He had thought that getting into the Outer Sect early through this lucky break was already a big win, who would've guessed they'd run into such incredible fortune and even come into contact with a Golden Core elder?
Walking at the front of the group, Hu Da also curled his lips into a smile. "What are you dreaming about? How could a Golden Core elder possibly take a liking to people like us? Still, it's probably because they're short-handed and need to assign us to work under a Golden Core elder. Even so, that's an enormous opportunity for us."
After a moment's thought, Hu Da suddenly turned around and said to those who had passed the recruitment test, "Brothers, we all advanced exceptionally from menial disciples. There's a good chance the senior brothers who climbed up step by step in cultivation will look down on us. We have to help each other and stick together. Otherwise, we'll very likely get bullied by the people on the peak."
"Senior Brother is right. Outer Sect disciples are at least at the tenth level of Qi Refining. If we go in as lone wolves, we'll probably be targeted. Only by banding together can we avoid being looked down upon."
"What 'Senior Brother'? We should call him Boss Hu!"
"Boss Hu, from now on this little brother will follow your lead in everything."
As Hu Da and the others were talking, Zhang Xiansheng, who stood off to the side, gave a disdainful smile and then cleared his throat lightly.
The great hall instantly fell silent, leaving only the sound of footsteps.
The old man who had been on the viewing platform slowly walked in from outside the hall.
"Not bad. You all look full of spirit."
The old man wore a smile, but from that smile, Hu Da and the others felt no kindness at all. Instead, their hair stood on end. They subconsciously shut their mouths and stood properly in line.
"I am Huo Chuan, an elder of the Deep Literary Pavilion. I summoned you here to have you assist me in uncovering the truth behind a certain matter."
Huo Chuan suddenly raised his hand, and a menial disciple was abruptly pulled in front of him, his forehead seized in Huo Chuan's grasp.
"Dongfang Bubai!"
Huo Chuan shouted sharply. A burst of light flared from his palm, and the disciple whose forehead he was gripping instantly had his facial features twist out of shape. He screamed in agonizing pain, as if his heart were being torn apart.
It was the Soul-Searching Technique!
The so-called Soul-Searching Technique does not instantly extract a person's soul and all their memories. Instead, it uses spiritual energy to stimulate the brain, forcibly dredging up the images the caster wants to see. The name Huo Chuan had just shouted—Dongfang Bubai—was merely a trigger.
The disciple whose forehead was being gripped wailed in agony for a long while. In the end, his whole body convulsed as he collapsed to the ground. His limbs twitched uncontrollably, his body curling into a ball, his nose and eyes crooked, his mind clouded and unfocused.
Seeing that the disciple had failed to reveal any information about Dongfang Bubai, Huo Chuan showed no sign of surprise. He casually grabbed two more people. "Relax, you won't die. Don't resist. As long as you endure the soul search, the Deep Literary Pavilion will provide for you for the rest of your lives."
A string of agonized cries rang out in the great hall. One after another, Huo Chuan carried out soul searches, deliberately leaving Hu Da for last.
"Well now, you're the only one left. Do you have anything you'd like to say?" Huo Chuan said with a smile as he looked at the trembling Hu Da. Compared to crippling Hu Da with the Soul-Searching Technique, Huo Chuan would rather plant a living nail—a spy—by Dongfang Bubai's side.
"Elder, spare me! Elder, spare me! I don't know any Dongfang Bubai!" Hu Da dropped to his knees with a thud and began banging his head repeatedly against the floor.
Huo Chuan's smile vanished. He placed his hand on Hu Da's forehead. In the face of a Golden Core cultivator, a Qi Refining cultivator had no possibility of resisting. The spiritual energy Hu Da desperately tried to muster was dispersed with a light grasp from Huo Chuan.
"Speak. Where is Dongfang Bubai?!"
Light flared again from Huo Chuan's palm, and Hu Da began to convulse and scream in agony. Yet no matter how Huo Chuan searched his soul, Hu Da did not give up a single piece of information about Dongfang Bubai.
"Master..." Wu Tong, who was standing to the side, saw that Hu Da no longer even had the strength to scream and hurried over to Huo Chuan's side. "If you continue, Hu Da will die."
Thud
Like tossing aside a filthy rag, Huo Chuan threw Hu Da onto the ground. "It seems Dongfang Bubai's people have some understanding of the soul and have cultivated some methods to resist soul searching. No matter. Take these people away and keep them under close watch. Once they recover a bit, we'll search their souls again. I'd like to see just how many times he can endure this."
After receiving Huo Chuan's orders, Wu Tong exchanged a look with Zhang Xiansheng. Zhang Xiansheng then summoned four Foundation Establishment disciples. Each of them carried two menial disciples, and the five of them escorted the ten menial disciples who had just passed the recruitment away.
'Damn it, why the hell are you doing this to me?!'
Being carried by a Foundation Establishment cultivator, Hu Da convulsed while cursing furiously in his heart. Before joining the Verdant Cloud Sect, Hu Da had been a bandit cultivator, doing all sorts of wicked deeds. Not only had he never been punished for them, he had even accumulated a decent stash of wealth. He'd planned to rely on that fortune to break through to the Foundation Establishment realm. That was why he had joined the Verdant Cloud Sect in the first place—hoping that after reaching Foundation Establishment, he could become an inner disciple of the Verdant Cloud Sect and obtain the cultivation methods to reach Golden Core.
This time, getting an unexpected chance to enter the Outer Sect early, Hu Da had thought his fortune had finally turned. He never imagined that instead of stepping into prosperity, he had stepped straight into hell.
Luckily, having once lived the brutal life of a bandit cultivator—sleeping rough, fighting to survive—Hu Da's body was tough enough. A single round of soul searching would leave an ordinary cultivator half-crippled, but Hu Da not only endured it, he even had some strength left.
'No, I've got to find a chance to run. If they do this again tomorrow, I'll be done for,' Hu Da thought, wailing aloud while squinting around to survey his surroundings.
Zhang Xiansheng and the other four Foundation Establishment cultivators tossed Hu Da and the others into a firewood shed and left them there. Perhaps they thought this group of Qi Refining cultivators couldn't withstand soul searching anyway, because they didn't even leave a single guard behind.
After lying on the ground groaning for a while, Hu Da rolled over and climbed to his feet. He gently pried open a small gap in the window and peered outside. After confirming that there was no one around, he carefully opened the window.
"Boss Hu..." A constantly twitching cultivator grabbed at Hu Da's pant leg. It was the same menial disciple who had been the first to change how he addressed Hu Da and call him "Boss."
"Fine. Since you called me boss, I'll do one good deed for you," Hu Da said coldly. He brought his foot down and crushed the man's neck. Then he flipped out through the window and sprinted madly back along the way he had come.
"This Verdant Cloud Sect can't be stayed in. I've got to leave this city. With my own savings, I'll just lie low and cultivate peacefully until Foundation Establishment, then switch to another sect." Afraid of running in random directions and getting lost, Hu Da could only head toward the familiar spiritual field. "Once those people realize I've escaped, they'll definitely come after me. Damn it, they're all Foundation Establishment cultivators—what the hell am I supposed to do?!"
Subconsciously, Hu Da suddenly thought of Lu You. "Right! That trash has a treasured artifact. I'm at the ninth level of Qi Refining, if I can get my hands on that treasured artifact, I could kill even a Foundation Establishment cultivator!"
A vicious glint flashed in Hu Da's eyes. He quickened his pace and ran straight toward Lu You's wooden hut.
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