“What happened in the city? Tell me.”
Jiang Li had originally sought out Elder Zhong to provide information. The information he possessed was far from what he could handle by himself.
After all, this was an important matter. If the sky collapsed, it should be held up by giants. He felt that there were some things that the sect needed to prepare for.
Therefore, after tidying up his thoughts, he spoke about everything that had happened in the city.
“You’re saying that 11 disciples disappeared every day?”
Jiang Li did not say the information about the spiritual root seed directly. Although there was already a lot of evidence regarding this matter, if he risked his life to verify it, it might be enough to make the sect believe him!
However, it could be seen from many places that this spiritual root seed was definitely not something that had only appeared recently. Furthermore, this thing could even control Golden Core cultivators. If this was not an exception, the things involved would probably be even more terrifying than Jiang Li imagined.
If a mere Qi Refinement realm cultivator revealed such a secret, even if this secret could really cause a huge change in the cultivation world, how could he not be killed along the way?
At that time, if he risked his life to verify it, he would really die.
On the other hand, Jiang Li could not explain why he knew so much.
His earliest understanding of the “spiritual root seed” came from a name identified by appraisal. Coupled with the bold assumption and careful verification later, he had a rough understanding of it now.
However, how could he explain the “appraisal technique” to the sect?
It was possible that the sect would suspect him and treat him as a traitor or discover some clues to investigate to the end.
It was very likely that he would expose his own uniqueness. In the end, he might become the first unlucky person to die during the calamity of the spiritual root seed. The gains would not make up for the losses.
Therefore, he only repeated the number ’11’ and described in detail the possibility that the “missing outer sect disciples” might be controlled or even possessed.
He hoped that the sect could pay attention to this and investigate in detail from the perspective of possessing someone’s body. From there, they would uncover all the parasitic cultivators with spiritual roots that might be hidden in the cultivation world.
“In fact, I’m not sure how many disciples went missing on the third day. However, eleven people did go missing two days ago. Furthermore, the senior and junior brothers who went missing were all found in the cave where the rebels were hiding.”
“It’s said that when they disappeared, they were all scammed by disciples who were also missing.”
Jiang Li added in more detail again. Elder Zhong clearly had his own thoughts.
Elder Zhong: “When they were found, were they all unconscious? No one was actually killed?”
Jiang Li wondered if Elder Zhong had gotten wiser, but he still answered quickly: “Yes, yes, yes. Moreover, the hair of all the unconscious disciples has turned white.”
Elder Zhong: “Did they all betray the sect and attack you instead?”
Jiang Li: “Yes, yes. Their behavior and actions are completely different. They must be controlled by someone.”
Elder Zhong: “Did the lightning tribulation suddenly start not long after they died?”
Jiang Li: “Yes, yes, yes…”
Wait, what? Why did he suddenly mention the lightning tribulation?
Jiang Li hoped that the other party would notice the method of controlling cultivators.
However, it was obvious that this elder’s attention was not in the same direction as Jiang Li. He was clearly more concerned about their goal of controlling the outer sect disciples.
However, it made sense. Jiang Li had gathered some other information and learned that the spiritual root seed even possessed a terrifying power that could control Golden Core cultivators. Therefore, he naturally placed great importance on this.
However, the sect elder did not know about the matter of the spiritual root seed. In his understanding, it was just a few outer sect disciples in the Qi Refinement realm who were controlled by others. Wasn’t that a simple matter?
Even he himself had two or three methods to do it, so it was not surprising that Duan Shuang, who was also a Golden Core cultivator, could.
He was more concerned about Duan Shuang’s goal.
Jiang Li still wanted to say something, but when he thought about it, it seemed like if he said anything more, he would expose himself.
Jiang Li dared not reveal the fact that he was concerned about appraisal. Between protecting himself and protecting others, Jiang Li’s choice would not be unexpected at all.
If he wanted to remind the sect, he could wait until he had a backer to officially acknowledge a master before finding a suitable opportunity to let the sect discover it.
After all, there were still more than two thousand ticking time bombs in the sect. As long as he handled it properly, he had a hundred methods to make them unable to stay and reveal their true colors.
Jiang Li was an inner sect disciple after all. Although saying this might feel like bullying others, it was not difficult for him to create trouble for a group of outer sect disciples with ulterior motives.
Of course, there was clearly a better solution. Jiang Li would not foolishly spout nonsense now and throw himself into the fire.
However, when Elder Zhong spoke about the lightning tribulation, Jiang Li was filled with doubt and interest towards it.
After giving an affirmative reply, Elder Zhong revealed an understanding expression.
“No wonder, no wonder it’s like this. No wonder the lightning tribulation suddenly erupted after being entrenched in the sky for so long. I didn’t expect that Duan Shuang would be so vicious.”
Seeing that he did not continue, Jiang Li took the initiative to ask, “Elder Zhong, can you tell me about the lightning tribulation?”
“You don’t know about the lightning tribulation? That’s right, you’ve just entered the sect at this age. It’s normal for you to not know about it since you haven’t been taught about it in the Cultivation Hall.”
Elder Zhong glanced at Jiang Li’s slightly surprised expression, but when he saw Jiang Li’s young appearance, he came to an understanding.
“You’re an inner sect disciple now. There’s no harm in knowing more about this divine punishment.”
“Jiang Li, do you know what sin is?” Elder Zhong threw out a new term, causing Jiang Li to be at a loss.
“Disciple doesn’t know. Elder, please enlighten me.”
“Sin is the bad karma that arises from evil deeds. It has many forms, and divine punishment is the Heavenly Punishment that is triggered by the accumulation of sins…”
As Elder Zhong explained, Jiang Li finally understood many things that he had been unable to figure out previously.
It was no wonder that cultivators did not casually kill mortals.
It was no wonder the sect only surrounded and did not attack when Elder Duan Shuang fled into the city.
This was because the cultivators were afraid of being tainted by this sin.
Sin was the measurement of evil deeds done by the intelligent beings of this world through the Heavenly Dao.
Generally speaking, killing one person would result in one unit of sin, while killing ten people would result in ten sins. One would more or less accumulate one unit of sin by committing minor deeds over time.
When a person had bad karma on them, they would not be able to see much difference when it was little. It would not affect them at all.
But if there were more than a hundred, that person would be covered in a black aura. Many people who were proficient in divination could tell at a glance.
This type of person would normally be unlucky for a period of time. For cultivators, they would only be able to make it through a few years of seclusion, but for mortals, it was very easy for them to have a bad end.
If there were more than a thousand units of sins, they would have a foul smell in their mouths and would live alone from then on, hated by everyone.
This kind of person had done too much evil. They would be surrounded by malevolent aura all year round. When everyone saw them, they would instinctively feel disgusted. Even their parents and family would not want to look at them anymore.
However, for cultivators, there were still methods that could deal with this. Some of the less complicated spell techniques could change their auras and hide this abnormality.
10,000 units of sins was basically exclusive to cultivators. No matter how cruel and brutal an ordinary mortal was, it was very difficult for him to kill 10,000 people.
At this level, the natural thing to occur would be the lightning tribulation that would cause countless cultivators to turn pale.