Chapter 592

"Huh? Where’s Jiege?"

Zhang Chulan strode out of the arena, beaming with pride, eager to share his joy with Zhang Jie,

only to find Zhang Jie had already vanished without a trace.

So what was Zhang Jie doing at this moment?

Answer: He was being interviewed by reporters.

"Mr. Zhang Jie, we hear you’re Zhang Chulan’s companion. What do you think of his backstabbing, treacherous behavior?"

A reporter from the Yaoxing Society shoved his microphone and recorder almost into Zhang Jie’s nose.

His face still wore a professional, smiling mask, but his eyes burned with the thrill of breaking a major story.

Zhang Chulan’s shameless, brazen conduct had ignited public outrage over the Luotian Da Jiao.

If they could dig up more secrets, their Yaoxing Society’s clicks would explode!

In this era where traffic rules all, clicks mean traffic, and traffic means white, gleaming silver!

"This Yaoxing Society reporter’s nose is sharp indeed."

Zhang Jie sighed inwardly, surrounded by microphones and cameras pointed at his face.

He hadn’t expected that, after keeping such a low profile, he’d still be cornered by Yaoxing Society reporters.

The outside world had already sprinted into the internet age,

where people across heaven and earth could connect through a single network, sharing joys and sorrows as if they were right beside each other.

As a hidden subculture intimately tied to ordinary society, the yiren world naturally felt the impact of this internet storm,

and many yiren had grown deeply interested in it.

The Yaoxing Society was an organization formed by yiren specializing in information and networks.

These guys operated like Morgan le Fay from One Piece’s World News Agency—

that birdman who thrived on chaos, always chasing a big story.

And sure enough, the moment Zhang Chulan’s scandal broke, these dog-nosed bastards showed up.

"Who’s Zhang Chulan? I don’t know him. I don’t recognize him!"

Zhang Jie, while pondering the Yaoxing Society, gave a firm, decisive denial.

Zhang Chulan’s reputation had sunk to the level of feces—utterly stinking.

Anyone linked closely to him and exposed by Yaoxing Society would surely get covered in filth.

To protect Jiege’s reputation, cutting ties—must cut hard!

"Mr. Zhang Jie, our sources tell us you and Zhang Chulan ascended Long Hu Mountain together, and were extremely close..."

The Yaoxing Society reporter pressed on relentlessly.

Zhang Jie’s expression didn’t change: "You’ve mistaken me for someone else!"

"I have matters to attend to. I won’t waste your time."

Zhang Jie finished speaking and strode away with long, confident steps.

"Mr. Zhang Jie..."

The Yaoxing Society reporter could only watch helplessly as Zhang Jie’s back disappeared from view.

Zhang Jie’s lips curled slightly as he left the Yaoxing Society reporters far behind, not even catching their exhaust.

The reporters had found him earlier only because they caught him off-guard;

now that he was deliberately avoiding them, there was no way they could keep up.

If they could, Zhang Jie thought, the true leader of the yiren world wouldn’t be Long Hu Mountain’s Tian Shi Fu—

it should be Yaoxing Society, and even the Old Heavenly Master should step down and yield his throne.

Even when they’d found him just now, it was only because they were too weak to reach Zhang Jie’s threshold of alertness.

Just as humans avoid other humans, but do they deliberately dodge a few ants?

Zhang Jie frowned slightly: "But... did these Yaoxing Society bastards sense something?"

The Yaoxing Society publicly claims to have been founded by Qu Tong, a returnee from overseas studies,

and declares itself a non-profit civilian organization focused on yiren rescue and information consultation.

Due to its clean background, it initially didn’t raise alarms at Naidu Tong Company.

It grew explosively, becoming one of the top intelligence organizations in the yiren world within just a decade,

ranked alongside "Jianghu Xiaozhan" as the two great "all-knowers." But unlike Jianghu Xiaozhan, which focused only domestically,

Yaoxing Society’s tentacles stretched overseas, forming a far vaster intelligence network.

It had long infiltrated the upper echelons of the yiren world, securing funding from one of the Ten Elders,

and even had moles within Naidu Tong’s senior leadership—

though it was unclear whether they were controlled or simply cooperating for mutual benefit.

Director Qu Tong, whom Ma Xianhong called "sister," was in fact the hidden puppet master.

Based on plot clues and name hints ("Yao" derived from Feng Yao, the original name of Wu Gensheng),

she is almost certainly one of the original Thirty-Six Thieves, Duanmu Ying, who mastered one of the Eight Marvelous Techniques: Shuang Quan Shou.

Her ability not only alters a person’s appearance and physique (Red Hand),

but also enables mental control (Blue Hand) to "brainwash" yiren,

creating utterly loyal, death-defying subordinates.

The Biyou Incident involving one who possessed one of the Eight Marvelous Techniques—Shen Ji Bai Lian—was entirely orchestrated by Qu Tong:

Qu Tong advised Ma Xianhong to build the Xiushen Furnace, secretly altered his memories, and used him to assemble the Old Fifteen Superior Disciples.

During Ma Xianhong’s transport by Naidu Tong, Qu Tong even risked hijacking the prisoner transport to rescue him.

According to later records, she had already begun monitoring Feng Baobao during the Luotian Da Jiao;

and in the Naisen Island arc, she arrived on the island before the main group and successfully kidnapped Ruan Feng.

To be fair, Qu Tong’s actions fit the classic mold of a hidden mastermind villain.

Although when Zhang Jie crossed over, her storyline hadn’t yet concluded,

and as a book-reader, he couldn’t know every detail of her past,

Qu Tong’s ultimate goal remained shrouded in mist—but most believed she sought to use the Xiushen Furnace and Shuang Quan Shou

to unravel the secrets of the Jia Shen Uprising and the Eight Marvelous Techniques, possibly even attempting to reshape the yiren world’s life order through "Immortal Creation."

Zhang Jie pondered for a moment, then shook his head, pushing these thoughts aside for now.

No matter what schemes Qu Tong had, how many hidden moves, how deeply she concealed herself—he feared nothing.

Why? Because his fists were big enough.

The upper limit of power in the yiren world was fixed; no matter how Qu Tong schemed,

her strength couldn’t grow infinitely—maximum, she might reach or surpass the Two Heroes.

Ding An had used all his strength to control only one of the Old Heavenly Master’s hands—well, actually, his neck.

If Qu Tong kept hiding, fine. But if she dared stir up trouble,

revealed herself—she’d be swatted like a fly.

In Zhang Jie’s view, as long as the Old Heavenly Master didn’t ascend, the so-called Two Heroes were fake:

one specialized in Henglian martial arts, with supreme body strength, a pure close-combat expert;

the youngest and least experienced among the Ten Elders, yet the only one who entered their ranks solely through personal martial prowess—

the owner of Xigu Pavilion, that tiger-like figure, Na Hu.

The other Ten Elders all had family or sect backing; the Old Heavenly Master was purely off-the-chart.

Moreover, aside from the Old Heavenly Master as a glitch, Tian Shi Fu’s strength was no weakling either—

several of the Old Heavenly Master’s disciples, besides Zhang Lingyu, were over thirty, each a top-tier martial artist.

The eldest disciple, Master Da, Zhang Qianhe, was over sixty, famously low-key,

responsible for daily cleaning duties on Long Hu Mountain, known as the "Sweeping Old Daoist."

Though he rarely appeared, he was deeply trusted by the Old Heavenly Master,

the anchor holding the mountain when the Heavenly Master was away.

In truth, if not for the Old Heavenly Master’s unyielding vitality—his age over 120 making him even more inscrutable,

as if he’d stolen another fifty years from heaven—the true first heir to the Tian Shi Fu throne would be this eldest disciple.

With so many experts present, even if the Old Heavenly Master declared the mountain sealed forever and vowed never to fight again,

his position among the Ten Elders was absolutely secure.

He would never strike again, and his position among the Ten Elders was absolutely secure.