Long Aotian’s Beautiful Butler Has Run Away chapter 120

Chapter 120: The Control Method

“So what!” Madam Mei’s furious shout interrupted the private exchange between Rong Xie and Shen Bingsi. “What albizia flowers, what roses, isn’t it all just whatever you say it is? Do you have any evidence? Is there a second person here who can prove your words?”

Rong Xie sighed, his gaze fixed on Madam Mei. “There is, but getting him to admit it is difficult.”

Madam Mei narrowed his eyes, as if understanding something. He sneered, “So there isn’t. If you can invite Elder Red from the Hehuan Sect right now, that would work too. As long as you can prove you aren’t making things up, we will naturally let you leave.”

“At this point, does Madam Mei still think our demand is merely to retreat safely?” Rong Xie shook his head. “Madam Mei is thinking too optimistically. Plundering children from innocent commoners, modifying them into cauldrons to serve as stepping stones for your young master’s ascension—this is one major crime. For the children whose modification failed and died prematurely, or were kept as beasts of burden and menial servants who died unnatural deaths; for the attendant boys whose modification succeeded but were used as tools of control and also died unnatural deaths—these lives were wiped out as easily as grass in your hands. This is another major crime. These two major crimes are no less shocking than the sensational cases judged by the Mirror Palace. I think it would only be fair to send this to the Adjudicator who specializes in judging major cases in the cultivation world.”

“Correct!” Shen Bingsi switched the Shengye Sword to his other hand. “There are no demons here, so I can’t manage this, but for a case like this where cultivation power is used to harm common people, our other distraction-stage Adjudicator will definitely come to handle it. As long as I send a word—”

The Mirror Palace has three Adjudicators, collectively referred to as Adjudicators, though their duties differ. Based on their responsibilities, they also have different titles.

For example, Shen Bingsi is responsible for slaying demons and is called the “Demon-Slaying Officer.” One is responsible for recording events shown in the Sky Mirror and supervising the case-handling process and results of the other two colleagues, called the “Recording Officer.” The third is responsible for adjudicating internal disputes within the cultivation world, called the “Adjudicator.”

These three report directly to the Mirror Palace and are driven and governed by the Heavenly Dao. In terms of position, there is no distinction of rank, but upon closer examination, one person is still a cut above the other two. The matters he handles are the most difficult, requiring sufficient strength and means to properly resolve disputes between major sects and cultivation clans. He is that “true Adjudicator.”

This person’s surname is Jiang. Shen Bingsi and the Recording Officer both call him Big Brother Jiang. Aside from that, nothing else is known. Big Brother Jiang’s cultivation is said to be at the distraction stage, but Shen Bingsi doesn’t know the actual extent. Among the cultivators of the three major sects, Shen Bingsi only respects two people: his master from the Supreme Immortal Mountain, and Big Brother Jiang. If he had to choose one he respects more, it might actually be the latter.

“Shen Bingsi, you really don’t put me in your eyes.” Lu Yingqi interrupted Shen Bingsi. “Before there is solid evidence, no one can leave here, nor can anyone send messages out. If you don’t agree, you can try sending one.”

“You!” Shen Bingsi lunged forward, but was stopped by a fair hand and obediently retreated.

Rong Xie stopped Shen Bingsi and said to Lu Yingqi, “Senior Brother Lu, don’t be anxious. I will naturally give you a reasonable explanation. I only hope that after accepting my explanation, you can treat this matter impartially.”

Lu Yingqi was silent for a moment, then nodded slightly.

Seeing this, Madam Mei was about to shout again but was stopped by Lu Yingqi. “Let him finish. I don’t want to use the Silence Mantra.”

“…” Madam Mei gritted his teeth hatefully. “Fine, let’s see what he can make up. It’s all baseless talk anyway!”

Rong Xie looked down at the child, who still hadn’t woken up. “When Madam Mei saw me bring the child up from below just now, what was the first thing you asked? Madam Mei might not remember, so I can help you recall. You asked: ‘Impossible, impossible to find it so quickly.'”

“…” Madam Mei’s expression changed. Just as he was about to deny it, Lu Yingqi raised his hand to signal him to shut up.

“Senior Brother Lu has better hearing than I do and stood closer, so he definitely heard it more clearly.” Rong Xie said. “As for me, my cultivation isn’t high, but I have one strength: my memory is exceptionally good. As long as I want to remember, Madam Mei, I can recite every sentence you’ve said since we met.”

Shen Bingsi nodded vigorously from the side.

“I will now answer why I could find it so quickly.” Rong Xie continued. “Because before coming here, I guessed that your Lu family doesn’t have any Spirit Spring Well. What you have are albizia flowers.”

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When Rong Xie said this, not only the Lu family but even the Treasure Hunting Team was shocked. Captain Zhao and Ling Long turned to look at Rong Xie in astonishment.

“However, without actual evidence, all guesses don’t count, so I didn’t tell anyone…” Rong Xie smiled apologetically at Captain Zhao and Ling Long. “Instead, I secretly investigated the matter of the albizia flowers first to obtain more information, so that if things were truly as I guessed, I could use it immediately.”

“Sure enough, more and more signs indicated that my guess was correct. Some families in the village still remember their children saying the flowers eat people—actually not eating people, but the albizia flowers wrapping the children inside for modification. Also, in Little Ya’s story, there was an unreasonable point. Why was it so easy for Little Ya and Lu Yinglin to succeed in dual cultivation? Superficially, it seemed because they had already had relations, but dual cultivation is also a cultivation technique that must be practiced to succeed. If they had never practiced it, could mere familiarity allow Lu Yinglin to drain all of Little Ya’s spiritual energy at once? I don’t think so.”

“Later, I learned from certain channels that you have been training these attendant boys in dual cultivation techniques since childhood. If it’s just to serve people, they don’t necessarily need to learn this, right? Or were the attendant boys you created meant to be tools providing spiritual energy to the young masters and misses from the start?”

“The most crucial evidence lies in Little Ya’s death. I was misled, thinking he died because you controlled him with drugs or something like Gu poison. Actually, no,” Rong Xie paused, feeling Lu Yingqi’s gaze focus on him. “There is no drug that can precisely control a person’s life and death from thousands of miles away. You wouldn’t even know immediately whether he had actually betrayed you…”

Madam Mei wanted to say something, but hearing this, his two crimson-painted lips pressed tightly together.

Behind him, the Old Master’s lips trembled, his face turning green. He stepped forward and clutched Madam Mei’s arm tightly. “Don’t say it, don’t say anymore.” The Old Master mouthed silently.

“The attendant boys die not because of your control, but because… cauldrons are not conventional cultivators to begin with. They are prone to premature death.” Rong Xie sighed. “This doesn’t need investigation; it’s common knowledge in the cultivation world. Once I guessed that the so-called Spirit Spring Well didn’t exist and that you were modifying cauldrons with albizia flowers, these inexplicable points suddenly made sense.”

It is indeed common knowledge in the cultivation world that cauldrons are prone to premature death. After all, cauldrons are tools for cultivation, consumables. Rong Xie put it very euphemistically.

Little Ya died because of excessive “wear and tear.” To help Lu Yinglin pass the Foundation Establishment assessment, Little Ya didn’t resist Lu Yinglin’s self-righteous prank and let him drain all his spiritual energy. Neither the young and ignorant Little Ya nor Lu Yinglin knew what irreversible consequences this would cause. An overused cauldron breaks and can no longer absorb spiritual energy. Since they rely on false spiritual roots equivalent to having no spiritual roots, the backlash from the Heavenly Dao affects them even more violently.

Only when Little Ya realized his condition was wrong did he contact the Lu family, telling them his situation and the cause and effect. After learning this news, the Lu family regretfully told him that because he failed to watch over Lu Yinglin, the family “made” him unable to cultivate as punishment.

Before this, the Lu family gave no warning at all, as if they knew nothing—in fact, they really knew nothing.

This kind of “punishment,” which even Madam Mei and the Old Master who controlled the attendant boys’ fate didn’t know when it would descend, was the most terrifying and unpredictable. The power of interpretation lay entirely with them.

“So, my next focus was on researching the usage of albizia flowers.” Rong Xie said. “Although recalling so many details at once isn’t easy, given enough time, I could remember every bit and piece.”

Time was what Rong Xie had most. He didn’t need to cultivate, and without Shen Bingsi pestering him all day, aside from visiting the Blue Plain Villa every few days, the rest of the time was his own. By organizing this, Rong Xie wrote down relevant information about albizia flowers from memory and deduced that when modifying children, the flower would wrap the child into its center. Spiritual energy needed to be injected into several points on the root, stem, and calyx to open the flower.

It was also because he prepared the method to open the albizia flower in advance that Rong Xie could bring out the child so quickly. While the Treasure Hunting Team hadn’t imagined a child could be hidden in such a small flower, Rong Xie skillfully retrieved the child from inside as if he had seen others do it before, startling everyone.

Until just now, Captain Zhao thought Rong Xie knew the child was hidden in the albizia flower because he was inspired by the foolish child’s sleep talk. He hadn’t expected Rong Xie to have prepared so early, even figuring out how to open the albizia flower.

“If…” Rong Xie looked up, staring directly at Madam Mei. “What I said is false, how do you explain that I could bring the child out of the albizia flower so quickly? Just like you said, it’s impossible to find it so quickly.”

“…” Madam Mei’s face was ashen. The Old Master was still tugging at his sleeve, muttering something in his ear. Madam Mei suddenly swatted the Old Master away, turned his head, and said angrily, “What could I do? This is all trouble caused by your Lu family’s Young Master, people he brought back! What could I do?”

“It was you… it was you…” The Old Master said with a trembling voice. “You brought back the flowers. You said this could allow children to cultivate, and these children could help the Lu family descendants improve their cultivation and verify the Great Dao! We Lu family members believed you, that’s why we created such a scandal. Our Lu family didn’t have such things originally, and we didn’t know anything about albizia flowers or cauldrons—”