Chapter 687: Becoming a Joke!

You are talking nonsense!

Ling Zhaixing's voice was loud, as if she were forcefully holding down something about to collapse.

Her lips were still trembling, the watery glint in her eyes flashing even more intensely, yet she held on tightly, chin lifted, throat tightening.

She repeated it once, her voice a bit lower than before, as if something had pulled a segment out from beneath her.

You are talking nonsense…

This time, the tail of her voice quivered slightly.

Jiangnan Wang looked at her, saying nothing further.

He simply leaned against the pillow, his gaze fixed on Ling Zhaixing's face, waiting quietly.

Ling Zhaixing stood there, her chest heaving violently.

But her brain was no longer calm.

Those images kept surfacing, stirring her thoughts into complete chaos.

She saw Master and the senior brothers sitting on the ground dividing money, the satisfied smile on Master's face.

She saw the senior brothers return from Outside, cloaked in night dew, their hems stained with mud, yet their eyes shining hot, excitement hushed as they gathered to inventory items.

She saw Master don a new fur cloak, saw a senior brother's wrist adorned with a costly Jade Ring, and saw the food in the kitchen shift from coarse grains to delicate dishes.

Master told her that all of this was robbing the rich to aid the poor.

She believed it.

She had never doubted.

She closed her eyes, then opened them again.

But those images wouldn't stop.

She recalled a senior brother casually snapping a photo of a Jade Buddha worth tens of millions.

She remembered having unintentionally flipped through Master's ledger, its pages densely filled with property addresses across regions, names written as various aliases, yet she recognized the handwriting.

At the time, Master said those were fallback routes left for the followers.

She believed it.

Back then she thought Master was the most remarkable person under heaven, with formidable martial skill, meticulous mind, treating each disciple as if they were her own child.

But now, those details she had never examined, pressed into the hidden corners of her heart, were ripped open from beneath by a crowbar, exposing everything to daylight, nowhere to hide.

The image of Master in her brain seemed to split with a crack.

The crack widened, like a pot of porcelain struck, spiderweb-like fissures spreading from the center outward, the entire glaze collapsing.

She tried to press the crack shut, trying to tell herself it was all false, all Jiangnan Wang's sowing discord…

But the harder she pressed, the faster the crack crumbled.

She stood in place, her throat feeling as if something blocked it.

The fist she had clenched slowly loosened, the thin blade she had held in her palm still digging a red imprint into her hand, yet she no longer had the strength to grip tightly.

Jiangnan Wang watched her for a moment, then sighed slowly.

I admit, the destruction of the Feixing Gang…

He said, his voice a bit lower.

Admittedly, I… the reason we deliberately dealt a fatal blow back then was for the Southern Frontier Tiger Talisman.

Ling Zhaixing's eyelashes twitched violently.

But the Feixing Gang was by no means innocent.

He looked at Ling Zhaixing, his gaze earnest.

If you hadn't truly known nothing, if it weren't for Mr. Jiang…

He turned his head to glance at Jiang Feng, then turned back.

I'm too lazy to say so much.

He paused.

But since it's been explained, we must speak openly.

Ling Zhaixing stood there, head lowered, shoulders slightly hunched, like a tree wilted by a torrential rain.

She gave no answer, nor lifted her head.

Jiangnan Wang tilted his head, looking toward the person standing at the doorway.

General.

Present the evidence.

Song Dianjun immediately clasped his fists, his back straight, his voice deep and powerful.

Yes, Prince.

He turned and hurried out the door.

Ling Zhaixing still kept her head lowered, motionless.

Before long, Song Dianjun returned.

His steps were a few beats faster than when he left, a thick stack of papers in his hand, the pages already yellowed, edges slightly curled, showing their age.

He walked to Ling Zhaixing, paused, then handed the stack of papers to her side.

Miss Ling…

His voice was a bit lighter than before, as if weighing his words.

This is, after the destruction of the Feixing Gang, based on Mu Laoyue's confession, we have sealed the Feixing Gang's property records.

Ling Zhaixing's hand moved slightly, but did not lift.

Song Dianjun waited a moment, placed the papers on the low table beside her, then stepped back, standing upright.

His gaze lingered for a moment over Ling Zhaixing's lowered head, then moved away.

"Just your Master Ling Jue's personal assets exceed seventy‑plus hundred million."

Ling Zhaixing's body jolted as if someone had pushed her from behind.

"As for your senior brothers…"

"Even the lowest net worth is close to two hundred million."

His eyes dropped, landing on the stack of papers on the low table.

"The entire Flying Star Sect's domestic and overseas assets total nearly thirty billion."

Ling Zhaixing's nails dug into her palm, and the crescent‑shaped marks turned deep red.

Ling Zhaixing's mouth opened slightly, but there was no sound.

Song Dianjun was silent for a heartbeat, then uttered the second half.

"The crucial point is, they're also involved… in human trafficking."

When those four words fell, Ling Zhaixing seemed struck at a vital point, and her whole body trembled violently.

Ling Zhaixing's head lifted.

Ling Zhaixing's eye sockets were blood‑red, but Inside that layer of watery light seemed frozen, lingering there without falling.

"Human… "

Ling Zhaixing's voice squeezed out of her throat, like sand grains that had been crushed and reassembled.

"Trade?"

Song Dianjun looked into Ling Zhaixing's eyes, did not look away, but a hint of hesitation appeared in his gaze, as if a harder‑to‑say sentence was stuck at the tip of his tongue, unsure whether to speak.

He hesitated for a few breaths, then finally spoke.

"For example, Miss Ling, you."

"Probably also… goods trafficked by them."

Ling Zhaixing's eyes widened sharply.

The light in Ling Zhaixing's pupils seemed to be swallowed whole, her whole face instantly lost its color, even her lips turned pale.

Ling Zhaixing's body swayed, her knees gave way, and she fell downward.

Ling Zhaixing crashed onto the floor, her back leaning against the foot of the bed, both hands braced on the icy Ground.

Ling Zhaixing lowered her head, stray strands fell from the side of her hair, covering most of her face, only her Shoulders trembled slightly.

The room was eerily quiet.

Jiang Feng's brows knit.

He turned his head, looked at Ling Zhaixing sitting on the floor, then glanced at Song Dianjun, his voice deepened a few degrees.

"Can this matter be confirmed?"

Song Dianjun nodded, then shook his head.

Mu Laoyue had mentioned this before she died…

"But the specific details still require further verification. The confession mentioned that Miss Ling was brought back from a town in the south; she was still very young at the time, and Ling Jue took her as a disciple after seeing that her bone structure was decent. As for where Miss Ling's original home was, or whether she still had any relatives, Mu Laoyue did not clarify."

He paused, then added.

"However, regarding the human‑trafficking side, the Flying Star Sect is indeed involved. When we were auditing the industry, we discovered account books from several strongholds, and the recorded information… matches that of several other disappearance cases."

Jiang Feng asked no further questions.

He lowered his head, looking at Ling Zhaixing sitting on the floor; her Shoulders were still trembling, but the amplitude was diminishing.

Ling Zhaixing's fingers planted on the Ground flexed twice, the Fingers turning slightly pale.

Sunlight streamed in through the Window, falling on her loosened hair, coating it with a thin golden rim.

Her shadow curled on the floor, small, like an injured animal that had curled into a ball.

In an instant, it seemed the whole world had abandoned her.

All the perseverance she had shown now seemed to have become a joke.