Dual Cultivation System: The Villainous Servant’s Rise

Chapter 249: Public Execution! Chi Lian’s Lesson on Ruthlessness

If these were enemies from a hostile sect, Han Lie wouldn’t have blinked at slaughtering thousands of them. He would have wiped them out without a second thought.

The problem, however, was that these were his own people.

The disciples of the Overlord Hall wore the same robes, walked the same paths, and bowed to the same ancestors. And there were thousands of them.

Am I really going to massacre them all?

Han Lie had never liked the Overlord Hall—they were arrogant and abrasive—but mere dislike didn’t usually warrant genocide.

“Do I seem heartless to you? Heh…”

Seeing the furrow in Han Lie’s brow, Chi Lian smiled, her expression radiantly cruel. “If we were an orthodox sect preaching righteousness and mercy, perhaps we wouldn’t practice collective punishment. But this is the Heavenly Void Sect. We are a Demonic Sect.”

She stepped closer, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. “It has been written in our laws since the founding of the sect: If a Hall Master turns traitor, their entire lineage is culpable.”

“This is why the outside world fears us. This is why they call us monsters.”

Chi Lian reached out, smoothing the lapel of Han Lie’s robe. “To govern a beast as large as this sect, your hand cannot tremble. Softness is a disease. That is the second lesson I am teaching you today.”

Her eyes bored into his, intense and unyielding. “In the world of cultivation, mercy is a luxury you cannot afford. If you hesitate, you will never stand at the apex of this continent. Do you understand?”

Han Lie held her gaze for a long moment. Finally, he nodded slowly. “I understand, Sister Chi Lian. I will… adapt.”

Having clawed his way up from the bottom for over a century, Han Lie was no stranger to cruelty. He knew that kindness often led to an early grave—it was why he hadn’t saved those women at the Drunken Immortal Pavilion. But executing thousands of potentially innocent disciples based on the principle of guilt by association… that was a level of tyranny he hadn’t yet embraced.

Perhaps this was the final shedding of his humanity required to ascend.

“Not ‘adapt.’ You must,” Chi Lian corrected him, her tone sharp. “Think of it as excising a patch of gangrenous flesh from your own body. It will hurt for a moment, yes. It will bleed. But once the rot is gone, the body heals stronger than before. Isn’t that better?”

She checked the sky. “Alright. The hour is upon us. It’s time to make our entrance.”

Chi Lian grabbed Han Lie’s arm, and together they descended from the sky, landing heavily on the main platform of the Martial Arts Square.

The moment the Grand Elder and the newest Elder appeared, the cacophony of tens of thousands of whispering disciples died instantly. Silence fell like a guillotine.

From his vantage point on the tribunal platform, Han Lie scanned the crowd.

The disciples of the Overlord Hall had been corralled into a separate, isolated zone, ringed by enforcers. They looked like sheep penned for slaughter. Some wore expressions of confusion, looking around nervously; others were visibly trembling, sensing the malice in the air. A few still seemed oblivious to the gravity of their situation, whispering among themselves.

Chi Lian didn’t waste time with flowery introductions. She stepped forward, her voice amplified by spiritual energy, booming across the square.

“Regarding the war between our sect and the Sun Moon Sect over the past half-month… whether you are a disciple, an instructor, a deacon, or a Hall Master, the memory should still be fresh in your minds. I will not mince words.”

“The primary objective of the Sun Moon Sect’s massive invasion was to eliminate Elder Han Lie, who had just ascended to the Elder Council.”

“Elder Han has a deep enmity with the Sun Moon Sect. It is natural that they would want him dead.”

Chi Lian paused, letting her gaze sweep over the crowd like a searchlight.

“However… during this crisis, while our brothers and sisters bled on the front lines, there was a traitor within our walls. Someone high-ranking colluded with the enemy, orchestrating an internal strike to murder Elder Han Lie. Their treachery nearly cost this sect everything.”

Whoosh!

The silence shattered. The square erupted into a frenzy of shock and rage.

“Who?! Drag them out!”

“We have a blood feud with the Sun Moon Sect that spans generations! Who would be insane enough to sell us out to them?!”

“Wait… surely it isn’t…”

“Traitors must die! Skin them alive!”

Indignation boiled over. Tens of thousands of cultivators—Inner Disciples, Deacons, even the other Hall Masters—were visibly shaking with fury.

Internal strife was common; disciples fought, Elders schemed. That was accepted. But colluding with an external enemy to destroy your own? That was the one line that could not be crossed. In the cultivation world, betrayal was the ultimate sin.

“Could it be… Hall Master Black Sha?”

In the spectator seating for the Law Enforcement Hall, Zhuo Hongyi narrowed her eyes.

“It has to be,” Qin Lan whispered back, her face grim. “I thought the Sun Moon Sect attacked simply for revenge. I didn’t realize their target was Han Lie all along.”

Zhuo Hongyi let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding. “No wonder our intelligence said the Sun Moon Sect was targeting Saint Ghost City, yet they never showed up there. It was a diversion…”

She glanced at the figure standing tall on the platform. “Thank the heavens Han Lie is safe.”

“Don’t worry, Junior Sister Zhuo,” Qin Lan teased gently, though her eyes remained serious. “With his current strength, if he were truly in danger, neither you nor I could help him anyway.”

Zhuo Hongyi bit her lip. Logic didn’t stop fear. If Han Lie had fallen, she didn’t know if she would have the will to continue her path.

Over at the Spirit Treasure Hall’s section.

“Heehee! As expected of my Big Brother!” Xiao Qingge clasped her hands together in prayer, gazing up at Han Lie with starry eyes. “Even a conspiracy from the inside couldn’t touch him!”

Her clear eyes held nothing but fanatical adoration. To her, Han Lie was invincible.

Meanwhile, at the Myriad Pill Hall.

Han Feng stood surrounded by a crowd of sycophantic disciples. They were clamoring loudly, demanding the traitor be drawn and quartered, eager to show their loyalty to Han Feng—and by extension, to Han Lie.

Since Han Lie’s ascension to the Elder Council, Han Feng’s status had skyrocketed. He was treated like royalty. But Han Feng remembered Zhuo Hongyi’s warning after the Spiritual Power Heavenly River baptism. He remained humble, never using his cousin’s name to bully others. He knew his place; he was riding Han Lie’s coattails, and he wouldn’t dare stain them with arrogance.

On the platform, Chi Lian raised a hand.

The gesture was slight, but the pressure it exerted was immense. The roaring crowd quieted instantly.

“Who is this person? I imagine the clever ones among you have already guessed.”

Chi Lian smiled, a cold, predatory expression.

“You are correct. It is the Master of the Overlord Hall… Old Ghost Black Sha.”

BOOM!

The confirmation hit the crowd like a thunderclap.

The disciples of the Overlord Hall turned ashen. Their knees buckled. Shock and disbelief washed over them—their patriarch, their protector, was a traitor?

Chi Lian snapped her fingers.

Crack.

Space warped, and a broken figure was dumped unceremoniously onto the execution platform.

Old Ghost Black Sha.

The once-mighty Hall Master was now a withered husk, his cultivation drained, his body frail and trembling. He looked less like a cultivator and more like a dying beggar.

A collective gasp went through the crowd, followed by a murmur of disbelief.

The seven other Hall Masters, seated in the VIP section, looked on with complicated expressions. Su Meiyu sighed, shaking her head. They had known Black Sha for centuries; they were colleagues, rivals, and peers. Seeing him reduced to this state was jarring.

But there was no pity in their eyes.

To collude with the Sun Moon Sect? To try and assassinate a Sect Elder? He deserved worse than death. The Heavenly Void Sect had no tolerance for rats.

“Kill him!”

A single voice cried out from the crowd.

“KILL HIM!”

Another joined in. Then ten. Then a hundred.

“KILL HIM! KILL HIM! KILL HIM!”

The chant swelled into a deafening roar, a tidal wave of bloodlust that shook the very clouds. It was the sound of a sect united in hatred, demanding the ultimate price.

………..