Chapter 240: Rupture

The two men looked awkward but still bowed and said, "I am Zhang Ning."

"I am Li Ji."

"Little Daoist, we were ordered to guard the haunted graves here. The Wu Lin Alliance instructed us to trap this group within the white mist and prevent them from leaving before dawn. Everything was going smoothly until you suddenly appeared and fought with them, causing this outcome."

Pan Yun sneered, "You're well prepared—you knew they planned a human sacrifice, deliberately stirred the resentful spirits to intensify their power, ensuring their sacrificial victims were insufficient to break through the mist."

"Too bad they lack everything except people—they offered nine lives. If they still can't break the mist, do you think they'll pick a few Green Robes to kill and make up the number?"

Pan Yun turned to Zhu Zixun: "Zhu Zixun, you've followed Song Bei the longest—has there never been a case before where Green Robes died in the thick fog?"

Zhu Zixun's face turned pale, his breathing quickened, and he instinctively defended Song Bei: "It was the resentful spirits at work—how can you blame us for this?"

Pan Yun sneered, "If I'm right, every time your caravan returns, it brings a large group of merchants, claiming to offer them free protection—but each time, you pick a few, coax them to continue with the caravan, and every single one of them dies in the fog, doesn't he?"

"Zhu Zixun, do you truly not know what they're doing, or are you just pretending not to see or hear?" Pan Yun pressed forward: "If they're willing to sacrifice lives to break the mist, why don't they consider where they'll find replacements if the sacrificial victims fall short?"

"You've followed him for years—has there ever been a time when a Gray Robe died instead of a Green Robe? Is our Wu Gong inferior to the Japanese pirates, or are Green Robes just so unlucky that every time the sacrifice falls short, it's always one of us the resentful spirits lure away?"

At these words, not only did the standing Green Robes turn pale, but even the fallen ones grew ashen. Some, ignoring their wounds, struggled to rise and stared wide-eyed at Song Bei: "Boss, is what she says true?"

Song Bei was completely naked, wearing nothing but a scrap of cloth.

He neither admitted nor denied it, but retorted: "Your families are all on the island—since you joined me, have I ever mistreated you for a single day? Now, because of some stranger stirring up trouble, you believe her?"

"Carrying goods—how can anyone avoid death?" Song Bei said. "But I've taken good care of the families of every brother who died."

"They could have lived," Pan Yun said coldly. "If they hadn't died, their families would have lived better. So it's not you caring for them—it's you robbing them of better, happier lives."

The Green Robes' gazes, softened moments before, hardened instantly as they turned to Song Bei: "Big Brother, you're a Japanese pirate—why did you lie and pretend to be Han?"

Song Bei: "What's the difference between Japanese pirate and Han?"

He shouted: "Aren't we all human? Aren't we all forced into banditry? Is there really a hierarchy of nobility and lowliness?"

"Of course there is!" the Green Robe shouted. "We are Han. You are Japanese pirate. They are different."

"There are Miao people on the island too—are they different too?"

"That's different," the Green Robe said, face ashen. "No matter their ethnicity, they're all subjects of the Great Ming. But you're not."

Song Bei sneered, "Yesterday you were urging me to rebel against the imperial court—you don't care about the Great Ming at all. Now you use 'Great Ming' to draw lines between inside and outside. In truth, you're opportunistic and traitorous—you know I can't beat Pan Sanzhu now, so you abandon me and turn to her."

The Green Robes had never thought that—but once Song Bei said it, it sounded as if they had. Their faces flushed, and they had no reply.

Pan Yun spoke softly: "Brothers, could it be that deep down, you distinguish between Yanhuang descendants and Japanese pirates? Within our own land, no matter their ethnicity, they're all Yanhuang descendants—they're one family. But them,"

Pan Yun pointed at Song Bei and the Gray Robes: "are foreign barbarians. Those not of our kind have alien hearts!"

The Green Robes immediately nodded: "Yes, yes, that's exactly what I meant! If you'd told us you were a Japanese pirate, we'd never have followed you or brought our families to the island."

Song Bei looked at them with disappointment: "So this is how you see me? All these years, I've treated you all for nothing. There are plenty of Japanese pirates on the island, even in the caravan—doesn't everyone know which few of my men are Japanese pirates?"

"You accepted them—why can't you accept me?"

The Green Robes opened their mouths but had no answer.

"We accepted them only because of your word," A Xin staggered to his feet, eyes red. "Japanese pirates are different from us!"

He leaned on his sword, stepping forward slowly, tears nearly spilling: "We pirates only raid sea merchants and wealthy landowners—we take goods, never lives."

He spoke slowly, each word heavy: "But Japanese pirates? They raid everyone—rich or poor. They kill everyone they see, just for fun. They rape our mothers and sisters, drag them away, and we'll never see them again…"

"I hate Japanese pirates—and it's you!" A Xin snarled. "You told us they were just newly arrived ronin, never pirates, never committed these crimes—that's why we accepted them!"

"But you lied to me. You lied to us!" Two streams of tears rolled down his cheeks, yet his eyes remained wide, fixed on Song Bei: "I treated you like my own brother—and you're a Japanese pirate! You're a Japanese pirate!"

The other Green Robes' eyes turned red—they were all from coastal fishing villages who turned to banditry.

But they hadn't started as pirates.

They became pirates because they couldn't survive. Why couldn't they survive?

Some were simply exploited by landlords and officials—no matter how much land they tilled or how hard they worked, they couldn't feed themselves or their families, so they fled and became pirates;

Others could barely support themselves and their families through farming, but kept being raided by pirates—so they became pirates themselves.

So they had their own code: never rob the poor, only take wealth, never kill, never rape.

And these men had participated in raids so few times they could be counted on one hand—they mainly used the money to buy contraband inland.

Daily necessities like salt and tea;

Weapons like knives, swords, matchlocks, and gunpowder.

Their island had cannons, seized from sea merchants' ships.

In short, they were logistics.

A Xin always believed they were righteous pirates.

After all, any merchant ship on the sea belonged either to the imperial court or the royal family, or to corrupt officials allied with the garrison.

Whoever they robbed, they felt no guilt.

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But Song Bei was a Japanese pirate.

Then… what about the men behind him? The people from the other island?

All the things they'd worked for these years had ended up in Japanese pirate pockets…

Just imagining this possibility made A Xin shiver with cold; the other Green Robes stared at Song Bei with icy eyes, the bonds of loyalty gone.

Zhu Zixun couldn't understand them: "But he paid us—he hired us…"

Pan Yun found him unbearable. She condensed a ball of Nascent Soul energy and struck it into his neck's acupoint. Zhu Zixun rolled his eyes back, then collapsed with a thud.

Zhang Ning, seeing the rift complete, said at once: "Now that you're done, can we go save them?"

Pan Yun glanced at them dismissively: "Why the rush? Zhang Weiqin is at least a fourth-year student of Long Hushan. Even if his skills are poor, he still knows how to survive in resentful energy. The others may be worse, but surely each carries at least one protective talisman?"

Zhang Ning broke into a cold sweat: "But the three Wu Lin Alliance members who vanished—they don't know occult arts and have no talismans!"

Pan Yun: "So what? Let them die. Let them feed the resentful spirits."

Zhang Ning and Li Ji's faces changed. Li Ji said angrily: "How can you say that? Those are three lives! Are Daoist Priests of Long Hushan so callous toward human life?"

Is it not fine to regard human lives as grass and weeds?

"Of course it is not," Li Ji exclaimed. "If a person regards the lives of their own kind as grass and weeds, what difference is there between them and beasts?"

"So you know you are no better than beasts?" Pan Yun's eyes were cold as blades. "You ignored the lives of nine people, yet now you panic over three. What, do human lives have hierarchies of high and low, noble and base in your eyes?"

Zhang Ning and Li Ji realized she was referring to the nine who had fled—they had indeed chosen not to stop them.

Now that they put themselves in her place, shame and anger surged through them; they stammered, unable to speak.

Pan Yun snorted, then retrieved the array plate beside Zhang Weiliang, her face icy. "Bind everyone. Bring the corpses here. Saving them won't be hard—aren't there already ready-made human sacrifices?"

Those standing stepped back in fear; those lying down stared with terror in their eyes.

Pan Yun waved at them. "Don't worry—you aren't Wō people. Though pirates are despicable, I rarely take lives."

The crowd: …

Master Pan Sanzhu doesn't seem as honest as they imagined.

More than half the people lying on the ground were her doing—and yet she claimed she rarely kills?

Hu Jing and Su Ying exchanged a glance and hurriedly said, "We don't need to be bound, look—we haven't moved a muscle since you stripped him."

Pan Yun's face turned black. "Fine, no binding—but let me seal your acupoints. You two have precedent. What if you seize Master Zhang of Long Hushan and threaten me later?"

Seeing Miao Zhen nodded vigorously.

See you tomorrow

(End of Chapter)