System Granted Me Immortality; I Outlived Everyone

Chapter 27: The Traitor Revealed, An Unexpected Identity

Elder Turtle’s sudden ambush caught everyone entirely off guard.

Hu Zhan and Lin Hu were outright stunned.

They simply couldn’t fathom why the Wolf King’s right-hand man would suddenly turn on him.

Despite the sudden assault, the Wolf King reacted with blinding speed, attempting a lethal counterattack.

But the moment he tried to mobilize his spiritual power…

He discovered a horrifying truth: the formidable strength he so heavily prided himself upon was completely unresponsive.

Seeing this, Elder Turtle spoke with leisurely indifference. “Don’t waste your breath. I helped you reach Soul Formation Perfection; naturally, I embedded a countermeasure.”

With a casual tug of his right hand, Elder Turtle ripped out the Wolf King’s heart, dragging his entire cultivation base out along with it.

The crimson, beating heart rapidly condensed into a perfectly round Pill. Tucking the prize away, Elder Turtle turned his gaze toward the eerily calm Chen Changsheng.

“Why aren’t you afraid of me?”

Boom!

Without even looking, Elder Turtle casually slapped Hu Zhan and Lin Hu flat against the earth with a flick of his wrist.

Facing the overwhelmingly powerful Elder Turtle, Chen Changsheng’s eyes lacked even a flicker of fear. Instead, he sighed softly.

“Ancestral Master, even at this stage, are you still going to hide behind that shell?”

Elder Turtle froze for a fraction of a second before speaking.

“So you figured it out. You truly are the Shangqing Temple’s most outstanding disciple in the last five hundred years.”

As he spoke, his frail, elderly frame began to morph, shifting and elongating until he completely transformed into a refined, elegant young man.

He was none other than the founding master of the Shangqing Temple and the man who guided Chen Changsheng onto the path of cultivation: Perfected Master Yuhua.

“Traveling thousands of miles to reach the Night Moon Country… you really have suffered.”

“Tell your Ancestral Master. How did you see through my disguise?”

Perfected Master Yuhua slowly strolled to Chen Changsheng’s side, his tone dripping with grandfatherly warmth and gentleness.

Looking at that deeply familiar silhouette, the corner of Chen Changsheng’s mouth twitched into a cynical line.

“Ever since Third Senior Brother delivered the tragic news, I’ve been hung up on a single question.”

“How did the Shangqing Temple fall so easily?”

“Yes, the Night Moon Country’s cultivator ranks had swelled, but Master and the others weren’t greenhorns. There is no logical universe where they get utterly exterminated without leaving a trace.”

Perfected Master Yuhua nodded calmly. “So you suspected a traitor within the Daqian Dynasty?”

“Initially. But the math never added up. What kind of traitor could pull off such a clean sweep?”

“We cooperated with the imperial court, yes, but Master’s combat movements were strictly classified within our own walls. Even the Emperor himself wouldn’t have the full itinerary.”

“Meaning, no external political faction could have orchestrated the total annihilation of the Shangqing Temple.”

“The only rational conclusion was an inside job.”

“Once I established that, I put everyone on the suspect list. I even heavily weighed the possibility that Master had faked his own death.”

“But I never once considered you, Ancestral Master.”

“You are a Soul Formation powerhouse. Your status within the Daqian Dynasty is untouchable. The Night Moon Country literally does not possess the capital to buy your loyalty.”

“A perfectly sound logical baseline,” Perfected Master Yuhua agreed with an approving nod. “Then how did you ultimately arrive at my name?”

Chen Changsheng exhaled a long, measured breath.

“I only locked you in as the culprit just now.”

“Shortly after infiltrating the Night Moon Country, I clashed with a demon.”

“She recognized the Shangqing Temple’s most heavily guarded secret technique—Blood Escape—on sight. She knew our sect inside and out.”

“Yet, fascinatingly enough, despite her intimate knowledge of our inner workings, she confidently stated that the Shangqing Temple only had nine true disciples.”

“I might keep a low profile, but any basic spy network worth its salt would uncover my existence.”

“That glaring blind spot confirmed the traitor was one of our own.”

“More importantly, the traitor clearly favored me. They intentionally scrubbed all records of my existence from the intelligence they handed over.”

“I even ran a small stress test. I registered for the recruitment assembly using my real name.”

“Yet the Night Moon Country remained completely oblivious to my true identity. That proved the leak was actively protecting me.”

Chen Changsheng finally met Perfected Master Yuhua’s eyes.

“Do I really need to connect the rest of the dots, Ancestral Master?”

Perfected Master Yuhua chuckled affectionately. Reaching out, he plucked the little white wolf straight from Chen Changsheng’s arms.

He casually sealed the wolf’s movements and began stroking its fur with rhythmic, gentle pats.

“Please, indulge me. Hearing my own biography narrated by someone else is rather refreshing.”

“Of course. If you want the full breakdown, I’ll happily provide the review.”

“To unilaterally dictate intelligence flow, the traitor needed absolute authority. I personally verified Master’s corpse upon entering the forbidden land, scratching him off the list.”

“Prior to cracking the Bronze Ancient Hall, I lacked the one thing required to accuse you: motive.”

“But the moment that mural assembled, your endgame became painfully obvious.”

“Coupled with the anonymous travelogue I found rotting in the Shangqing Temple’s Book Tomb, detailing this exact forbidden land…”

“That text dates back over five centuries. You started laying this groundwork five hundred years ago, didn’t you?”

“Hahaha!”

Perfected Master Yuhua threw his head back and laughed, genuine delight echoing in the clearing. “Bringing you into the fold was undeniably the greatest decision of my life.”

“A five-century masterstroke, effortlessly dismantled by a junior in five short years. Your deductive reasoning is practically a supernatural anomaly.”

“But why?”

Despite his deadpan pragmatism, Chen Changsheng couldn’t suppress this one lingering question.

“There’s no sin in chasing ultimate power, Ancestral Master. If you wanted to overthrow the throne and forge a new dynasty, Master and the others would have marched right behind you.”

“Why butcher your own people?”

The warmth evaporated from Perfected Master Yuhua’s eyes, replaced by cold clinicality. “The Daqian Dynasty was merely my past; the Shangqing Temple was my magnum opus.”

“I never intended to drag the sect into this.”

“But they were hopelessly dogmatic. When they stumbled upon this secret, they didn’t kneel—they played the martyr and leaked it.”

“How else do you think the busybodies from the Linglong Sect and the Heavenly Buddha Temple sniffed out my trail?”

“I cultivated this harvest for five hundred years. I will not tolerate a handful of bleeding hearts spoiling the yield.”

“And Third Senior Brother?”

“Why did you let him live?”

“You know Jinshui’s lazy disposition better than anyone. When Qingfeng and the rest unearthed the truth, he was out slacking off. He remained blissfully ignorant, so he survived.”

Having answered the questions, Perfected Master Yuhua tilted his head.

“Now, it’s my turn. How did you know extracting this power required a blood sacrifice?”

A highly cynical, almost pitying smile tugged at Chen Changsheng’s lips.

“You’re a certified genius, Ancestral Master. How are you missing the obvious? You must have scoured the Boundless Secret Realm a thousand times over.”

“Did you honestly not notice I withheld a piece of the mural?”

“Hehehe!”

Perfected Master Yuhua smacked his own forehead, chuckling brightly. “Look at me. I’m so overjoyed by my prized pupil’s brilliance that I’m slipping up.”

“Knowing your paranoid disposition, holding back a trump card is perfectly on brand.”