The Flowers Are Innocent; It Is People Who Are Guilty

Yun Shu stood in the flower field, her fingertips suddenly curling tight.

She was all too familiar with the flowers before her eyes.

The people of this world called them Soul-Enthralling Flowers.

But in the world she used to live in, they went by another name. They grew in vast fields across the Golden Triangle, and behind every single bloom lay a trail of human lives.

In her past life, she and countless colleagues had paid with their lives to destroy this very thing.

Even so, they could never make it vanish. Once it took root in the human heart, no matter how many of these flower fields they cleared, new ones would soon crop up.

As long as human desire knew no end, it would exist forever.

Back when she read Luo Daoqing's memories, she discovered that he had created Five Minerals Powder to better control Emperor Ling of Yong and his court officials to monopolize power. She had thought about eradicating this cancer, but she had been so busy with affairs in the north that she simply had no time to spare for the south.

With this delay, the Soul-Enthralling Flowers had spread to the north at a speed that caught her completely off guard.

No one understood the dangers of the Soul-Enthralling Flower better than she did.

Unlike crops, the Soul-Enthralling Flower was not difficult to tend to. As long as there was water and soil, it could survive. Moreover, it was far more valuable than grain; once people started growing it, they would never want to plant crops again.

Now that the north already had cultivation sites of this scale, there would only be more in the south.

If they did not find a way to curb it, and these flower fields fell into the hands of those with wicked intentions, they would ultimately turn into a dark, ruinous riverbed that destroyed countless families.

The little fox looked at the flower field and shook its head with a sigh. “If these flowers didn't harm people, they would actually be quite beautiful.”

Having looked at Yun Shu's personal profile once, it was impossible to forget. It knew exactly why she had died so tragically in a foreign land in her past life, and it knew what she hated most.

Every time it recalled the scene it had glimpsed while looking up Yun Shu's file—of her being flayed, her bones broken, and her body discarded in a flower field—its heart would suddenly throb with pain.

It still could not understand what had driven Yun Shu to endure such inhumane torture without revealing a single shred of information about her undercover identity, just as it did not understand why it, an artificial intelligence without a heart, would feel heartache.

After a moment of silence, it added, “Host, why don't we sneak out tonight and eradicate all of them!”

“The flowers are innocent; it is people who are guilty.”

Yun Shu raised her hand and gently stroked the little fox's head. Her dark-gold sleeves brushed past the flowers in the field with her movement.

Even though she now possessed many sets, making a plant species go extinct overnight was still beyond her capabilities.

Besides, the Soul-Enthralling Flower was also a medicinal herb. Many effective remedies required it, and she could not abandon it entirely out of fear of its abuse.

Regarding these Soul-Enthralling Flowers, she had to think of a way to have the best of both worlds. As for those who had committed countless atrocities, she had never believed in the saying of 'laying down the butcher's knife to become a Buddha.' If anyone with blood on their hands crossed her path, she would only kill them, never offer them salvation.

The person and the fox stood in the flower field just like that, yet not a single soul noticed them, as if they did not exist at all.

Wei Laosan tugged the rope and walked forward, leading the string of people behind him out of the flower field.

From the heads hanging as a warning at the stronghold gates to the mutilated, numb workers in the flower field, everyone had resigned themselves to their fate. They followed Wei Laosan with terrified expressions.

They even kept their breathing and footsteps as quiet as possible, terrified of angering the volatile Wei Laosan ahead and ending up with their ears and tongues sliced off, or their limbs severed.

Just as they reached an open space in front of a row of bamboo huts, a shrill, agonizing scream pierced their ears.

Everyone looked up blankly, tracing the sound.

In the next second, an incredibly horrifying and gruesome sight met their eyes, one they would never forget for the rest of their lives.

In the open space, an iron pot sat over a fire. A burly man with a thick beard was using a small knife to carve the flesh off a young man's calf, piece by piece.

Several slices of meat floated in the boiling pot.

The young man hanging beside the hot pot already had nothing left of his right calf but bloody bone.

“Ugh—”

Many people covered their mouths and vomited on the spot.

Seeing how pathetic these people were, Wei Laosan sneered. He walked over to the bearded giant.

“Chief, what did this guy do? To think you'd get this angry and do it yourself.”

The bearded giant glanced at him.

Just then, a young man dressed as a scholar walked out of the largest bamboo hut.

“Laosan, you're back?”

He walked over to the iron pot, picked up a red-hot branding iron from beneath the pot, and pressed it mercilessly against the man.

The man's entire body shook violently from the pain, but he could no longer make a sound because his tongue had already been sliced off by the bearded giant and thrown to the ground, covered in dust.

Seeing that the man was about to pass out from the pain, the scholar with slanted eyes finally put down the branding iron and looked at Wei Laosan. “The Chief and I entrusted you with the heavy responsibility of guarding the stronghold, yet you allowed this person to sneak into Black Wind Stronghold. If the Chief hadn't caught him red-handed today, he would have escaped down the mountain with his parents.”

Hearing this, Wei Laosan felt a jolt of panic.

The one he feared and respected most was actually not the Chief, but this ordinary-looking Second Chief before him.

The Second Chief, the scholar with slanted eyes, was named Zhang Xun. He was a disgraced scholar from a noble clan who had fled from the south.

Before Luo Daoqing's downfall, he had enjoyed immense prestige as the State Preceptor's right-hand man.

However, when the tree falls, the monkeys scatter. The State Preceptor, Luo Daoqing, had been defeated at Xindu City, his fate unknown. Having lost his backer, and with all the people he had harmed clamoring for his head, Zhang Xun could no longer remain in the capital and had no choice but to flee to the north.

The Soul-Enthralling Flowers were brought from the capital by Zhang Xun, and it was he who had taught them how to run the business and make a fortune.

Everyone in Black Wind Stronghold knew they would rather offend Chief Wang Meng or Third Chief Wei Laosan than cross Zhang Xun. Zhang Xun was incredibly ruthless and would make a person's life a living hell.

“Chief, Second Brother, this was my oversight,” Wei Laosan said, his eyes scanning the newcomers who had just been brought up the mountain with a sinister gaze. “I promise this will never happen again!”

Zhang Xun patted his shoulder. “Laosan, although none of us have ever seen the Divine Lady that her followers speak of, those believers managed to pacify the north in one fell swoop. They are quite capable. You must be careful not to fall into their traps.”

Rumors about the Divine Lady of the north had actually reached the capital long ago, but few took them seriously.

This was because the rumors were far too exaggerated—bestowing a bowl of white porridge out of thin air, bringing a bountiful harvest with a wave of a sleeve, raising the dead with a single tear, slaying an evil dragon with a single sword strike...

It was practically treating people like fools.

Most importantly,

having spent days and nights with the State Preceptor, Luo Daoqing, he had long realized that Luo Daoqing was no immortal reincarnate. Luo Daoqing merely possessed some clever tricks that others did not.

Therefore, in his eyes, this Divine Lady of the north was likely just playing tricks and putting on a show, just like Luo Daoqing.