Chapter 62: Chapter 62 - The Pyramid Scheme of Death and Corrupt Regulators

Su Bai broke the meridian connection and slowly opened his eyes.

He stepped off the makeshift bed and straightened his robes with polite professionalism.

Ning Shuang sat frozen on the furs. She hurriedly sent her Spiritual Sense inward, cautiously approaching her own heart.

There it was. The terrifying, ever-watchful Gu worm that had dictated her every waking moment for years was curled into a tight little ball. It was completely unresponsive. It wasn’t dead, but it was sleeping so deeply that if it had a mouth, it would be snoring.

For the first time since she was a little girl, Ning Shuang felt a profound, overwhelming sense of liberation. The invisible chain wrapped around her throat had simply vanished. She could speak her mind. She could actually think without the fear of internal execution.

She looked up at Su Bai.

In the Abyssal Lotus Sect, everyone looked at her like a resource. A tool, a target, or a stepping stone. Over the years, she had developed a sharp intuition for malicious intent.

But sitting here with Su Bai, her instincts were completely silent. He had absolutely zero malice toward her. He had seen her naked vulnerability, held her life in his hands, and simply put her parasite to sleep so she could talk comfortably.

Actually, she was aware he was systematically extracting intelligence from her, but she chose to play the role of a clueless informant to make his job easier.

Either way, she wanted to cooperate. She didn’t want the next generation of children to end up like her.

Before Su Bai could even formulate his first question, Ning Shuang took a deep breath.

"I will tell you everything," she said softly. "Everything I know."

Su Bai sat back down by the fire pit. He gave her his full, undivided attention.

For the next few hours, the horrifying reality of the Demonic Sect’s operations was laid bare.

The Abyssal Lotus Sect treated human lives purely as raw materials. Mortals were abducted by the thousands. The elderly and weak were used as slave labor in their underground mines. Others were tossed into cauldrons and boiled down into Blood Pills.

"The children with Spirit Roots are treated differently," Ning Shuang explained. "Hallucinogenic drugs were used on us. We are thrown into deep, dark survival pits with dozens of other children. The ones who survive the starvation, the violence, and the madness... they become official disciples."

Su Bai’s face remained stoic, but internally, his corporate brain was appalled.

"I was one of those children," Ning Shuang continued, hugging her knees to her chest. "But I almost didn’t make it. Even though I had a Spirit Root, the elders labeled me as trash."

"Why?" Su Bai asked gently. "You reached the Foundation Establishment realm at such a young age. That takes talent."

"I have a Mutated Triple Root," she smiled bitterly. "Water, Earth, and Wood."

Su Bai’s eyebrows knit together. In cultivation theory, those elements didn’t inherently conflict, but they didn’t exactly harmonize either.

"They didn’t fuse," Ning Shuang explained. "The Water made my Qi freezing cold. The Earth made it thick and muddy. And the Wood... caused it to rot. My Dantian was a frozen, rotting swamp. My cultivation was impossibly slow. Because I was useless, I was scheduled to be fed to an inner-sect beast."

Su Bai winced internally. ’Cold, muddy, rot. That isn’t a Spirit Root, that is a biological landfill.’

"But then, my Master found me," Ning Shuang’s eyes softened with a mix of reverence and sorrow. "She didn’t see a flaw. She saw an opportunity. She forced me to practice a highly flawed, extreme-Yin manual she had found long ago."

"The manual that gave you frostbite?" Su Bai guessed.

Ning Shuang nodded. "Yes. To anyone else, the manual is trash. But for me? The extreme-Yin forced the ’Water’ aspect of my root to completely overpower the Earth and Wood. It flash-froze the mud and the rot solid. It kept me alive, but the process..." She shuddered. "The pain was absolute agony. It felt like swallowing knives every time I breathed."

Ning Shuang sighed.

"But... The agony was so intense... it flushed the hallucinogenic drugs completely out of my system. The pain broke the brainwashing. It gave me my mind back."

’A pain-induced hard factory reset,’ Su Bai realized.

"Eventually, I grew numb to the pain," Ning Shuang said. "My cultivation skyrocketed to where I am today. But my Master... she suffered even more. She was also abducted as a child. Before she found that manual and broke her own brainwashing, she suffered unimaginable humiliation and defilement at the hands of the higher-ups." 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Ning Shuang clenched her fists.

"She survived. She cultivated like a madwoman until she was strong enough to slaughter the men who hurt her. In the demonic sect, killing your superiors is allowed, as long as you have the strength to justify it."

Su Bai nodded. Pure meritocracy through violence.

"So, your Master is a high-ranking executive now. Why are you both still trapped?" Su Bai asked.

Ning Shuang pointed to her chest. "Because of the [Heart-Sealing Blood Gu]. It’s how the Sect Master controls everyone. I have a Child-Gu in my heart. My Master holds the Mother-Gu that controls mine. But... my Master also has a Child-Gu in her heart, and the Sect Master holds her Mother-Gu."

Su Bai’s eyes widened in profound, horrifying realization.

’It’s a multi-level marketing scheme. A pyramid scheme of death!’ Su Bai’s corporate soul recoiled in absolute disgust. ’If the employee defects, the middle-manager has to execute them immediately. Because if the middle-manager doesn’t, the CEO will detonate the manager’s heart instead!’

No wonder the Demonic Sects were so structurally sound. The chain of command was enforced by biological hostage-taking.

"If I don’t return, or if they find out I’ve betrayed them," Ning Shuang whispered, "my Master will have no choice but to kill me. If she hesitates, the Sect Master will kill her."

Su Bai let out a long breath. The cruelty was staggering.

But the final piece of intelligence Ning Shuang revealed completely shattered Su Bai’s worldview.

"There is one more thing you must know," Ning Shuang said. Her voice dropped to a terrified whisper. "The Abyssal Lotus Sect... we don’t keep the best children. If we find a true prodigy with a good Spirit Root, we don’t throw them in the pits."

"What do you do with them?" Su Bai asked.

"We trade them," Ning Shuang said. "To the Righteous Sects."

The cavern fell dead silent. Only the crackle of the dying fire could be heard.

"What did you just say?" Su Bai’s voice was completely devoid of emotion.

"The demonic factions have secret agreements with certain Righteous Sects," Ning Shuang confessed. "We supply them with kidnapped, brainwashed prodigies to bolster their ranks. In exchange, those Righteous Sects turn a blind eye to our abduction networks. Sometimes, they even help cover our tracks."

Su Bai froze solid.

Memories of Inspector Zhao, the corrupt Righteous official who had happily gassed him to protect a demonic supply chain, flashed through his mind.

At the time, Su Bai thought it was just a localized case of middle-management corruption. A greedy branch manager skimming off the top.

But this? This was institutionalized collusion. The supposed "protectors" of the mortal realm were engaging in high-level B2B human trafficking with the underworld to monopolize global talent.

Su Bai’s blood didn’t just boil. It erupted.

His corporate brain throbbed with a massive, agonizing headache. The market wasn’t just deregulated. It was a complete, continent-wide monopoly controlled by hypocrites.

There was only one place Su Bai knew of that didn’t operate like this.

The Radiant Sky Sect.

’They are the only clean auditors left in this entire rotten world. If the other Righteous Sects are colluding with Demons, then the Radiant Sky Sect isn’t just an eccentric workplace. It’s the last remaining bastion of actual righteousness.’

Su Bai stood up. His eyes were cold, sharp, and filled with a terrifyingly clear resolve.

He had to get this intelligence back to the Radiant Sky Sect. The geopolitical audit currently happening at their gates might not just be a friendly check-up. It might be a siege by corrupt monopolies trying to tear down the only clean company left on the board.