Chapter 511 — Posing a Deafening Question
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
"Only now do I understand Wenyuan's breadth of mind and ability—how far they surpass the rest of us cult leaders. " In the rear garden of Wenyuan Hall, the former cult leaders rose one by one.
Si Yuanwei, overcome with feeling, suddenly recalled something and said, "Why was it, again, that I took you as a disciple back then? It strikes me all at once—what excellent judgment I had! " The young patriarch flushed slightly. "When you took me as your disciple, Master, you said it was because I was beautiful and gifted—though the chief reason, of course, was that I was beautiful.
" Shen Mu looked around him. Everyone here was handsome or lovely; among the successive leaders of the Dark Demon Cult, the young patriarch included, there was not one ugly face. Si Yuanwei's cheeks reddened a little too.
She laughed. "Now I remember.
I took you as a disciple meaning to have you break my dao-heart through the love of man and woman. My Great Nurturing Dark Demon Scripture is chiefly a cultivation of the heart. I broke my own master's dao-heart, and so I took his seat as cult leader. I, too, needed someone to break my dao-heart—for nothing stands until something is broken. If you could break my dao-heart, you would be cult leader; if you could not, you would only drive me one step further, and perhaps I might become a demon, or a god. Only afterward I kept watch against you, and Cult Leader Yulian found his opening and struck me down in secret. " Cult Leader Yulian looked smug. "Master only guarded against the little junior brother's love, never guessing that an arrow from the dark is the hardest to fend off. How old was the little junior brother then? And already you had your eye on him.
Had you not harbored such designs, had you kept better watch against me, perhaps the little junior brother really could have become the Holy Cult Leader. " Shen Mu fell into thought. The reason the Dark Demon Cult had the word "demon" in its name was, he suspected, bound up with this very manner of master-and-disciple inheritance. This style of master—indulging a disciple to strike at her—could only be called demonic. Fan Xuanshu was a case in point.
When Granny Zhu plotted against Fan Xuanshu, Granny Zhu was still only at the Heaven-Human realm; by true strength she could never have killed Fan Xuanshu, who was already at the Spirit Bridge realm. And yet Fan Xuanshu had given her the chance.
The master-disciple strife of the Dark Demon Cult must have begun with the founding patriarch. But the founding patriarch's purpose had been to make each generation of the Dark Demon Cult stronger than the last, and so he laid down the rule: a disciple who defeated his master could become cult leader. That rule, without anyone noticing, had slowly soured. Add to that the Great Nurturing Dark Demon Scripture, so uncanny and unfathomable, so apt to breed demonic nature, and a rule that looked so fine had gradually degenerated into what it was today. The young patriarch laughed.
"Had I become Holy Cult Leader, I would most likely have been like all of you—tangled up in the interests of the Heavenly Sage Cult and heedless of the common people.
Not becoming cult leader was, in the end, my salvation. " The successive cult leaders nodded in agreement. "As for Cult Leader Shen. .
. " Si Yuanwei turned to look at Shen Mu and was silent a moment. "We shall not hold it against you that you came to the cult leader's seat by irregular means. Since taking the seat, you have done tolerably well—though had it been us, we would have done tolerably well too.
" Shen Mu said modestly, "Naturally. Every one of you former leaders is a dragon among men, a phoenix among women. In my seat, you would surely have done better than I. It is only that when you held my seat, you did nothing at all.
" The faces of the former leaders twitched; their expressions shifted through sun and shade as they choked down the urge to kill him.
The boy had nothing to fear, after all.