Punishment

Bai Hua Fairy was already standing next to him, nodded: "It's been hard on you"

The four of them stood side-by-side in the air, looking at the ground below.

"We've won" Xuanyuan Tianzun breathed out in relief.

"Amitabha, it was risky, but we finally won" the Great Monk of Sorrow also exclaimed.

"A win is a win" Xie Dao Ling smiled, "both the Demon Lord and numerous strong demons are not here, so our victory is only due to taking the opportune moment, we definitely cannot let our guard down, especially in the next short time period"

Hearing that, both the other Saints also became serious again.

"Let's go, first we'll have a talk with the Beast Saints, then we return to humanity's camp" Xie Dao Ling started descending after saying so.

About an hour later.

The 100 or so spirit beasts that managed to survive were captured.

They were possessed by Tianma for a few dozen years, now that the Tianma were dead, all the spirit beasts seemed to have lost their consciousness, attacking anyone they see as if they were in a frenzy. After the Great Monk of Sorrow take a look, he concluded, if they didn't volunteer to, the Tianma wouldn't have been able to possess them so easily.

In order words, for this matter, the spirit beasts were convinced by the Tianma into betraying humans. Both they and the demon beasts wanted to defeat humans and make humans their slaves, their cattle, while they become this world's master. Of course they were also victims, as the longer they let the Tianma possess them, the more their own consciousness got affected. But they didn't know that.

Humanity's camp.

All the great cultivators had gathered under one roof, sitting in the commander's hall. Under that, regular cultivators were openly cheerful, congratulating each other for their victory. Wu Xing Wen stood up and began to calculate their Military Merit. He didn't participate in the battle just now, but he looked more exhausted than anyone else here. A Tianma had snuck into his Thought Sea and controlled his thoughts, he felt goose bumps all over his body as he recalled that.

Luckily the Great Monk of Sorrow is an expert in dealing with Tianma, so he only needed one strike to kill it. Otherwise, once the Tianma went into a frenzy, his own life would also have been forfeit.

"Zhen Wei Chaplain Li Cha, you contributed to investigating the enemy's situation, you contributed to killing demons, since your Merits are enough, promoted to Zhao Wu Chaplain"

"Captain Sun Ming, you contributed to killing demons, since your Merits are enough, promoted to Major"

"Soldier Wang Fa, you contributed to rescuing comrades on the battlefield, since your Merits are enough, promoted to Lieutenant"

He continued to read out, not noticing how the gazes of the three Saints looking at him was exceptionally complicated.

"You Ji General Ning Yue Xi" Wu Xing Wen looked at the jade tag in his hand and muttered, "participating in the decisive secret battle plan, contributed to reinforcement on the battlefield, promoted to Ding Yuan General"

Ding Yuan General!

The 4th Ding Yuan General of humanity!

Everyone went silent, pointing their gazes at the beautiful girl donning a set of golden armor. Ning Yue Xi also didn't expect to hear that and glanced at Gu Qing Shan.

Gu Qing Shan was standing behind Bai Hua Fairy, sending his voice to her: "This is the Saint's will"

"But I didn't do anything" Ning Yue Xi sent her voice back.

"What do you mean nothing? Sister-in-law, You saved me. If I had died, who would tell the Saints about the truth?" Gu Qing Shan answered.

Ning Yue Xi was still a bit hesitant.

"However, since you've been promoted, you have to treat me to a meal" he added.

"That's fine" Ning Yue Xi answered.

"A meal you cooked yourself" Wang Li joined in and took it a step further.

"Do you want me to feed you as well?" Ning Yue Xi squints her eyes.

"That would be nice. If possible could you cook at my home." Wang Li shamelessly held his ground.

"Hmph" Ning Yue Xi scoffed.

"Ah senior brother how did you join in." Gu Qing Shan asked.

"I sensed the frequency at which your inner sight vibrated and used the same vibration for my inner sight to but into this conversation. It took me 10 whole years to complete and even then I still can't sense if someone is talking telepathically or not." Wang Li told

"Then how did you know we were." Gu Qing Shan asked with curiosity.

"I didn't. I just guessed." Wang Li replied

Another Ding Yuan General, Ming Hui monk asked: "What secret mission and who did she save that she got so much Merit?"

Wu Xing Wen replied: "The mission that found out the truth about the spirit beasts' betrayal"

Ming Hui monk showed an expression of understanding and didn't ask anymore. The sudden attack of this battle devastated the number of demons and even got their generals to surrender. You could even say this was the battle to end all battles, going above anything that anyone expected. If Ning Yue Xi really did participate in the mission that found out the truth about the spirit beast, then her being promoted a rank isn't something to be surprised about.

Wu Xing Wen continued: "Zhao Wu Chaplain Leng Tian Xing, participated in the secret decisive battle mission, contributed to finding out the truth. Because your original Merit was high to begin with, you have enough to be promoted to You Ji General"

Another General!

The crowd was in an uproar. It must be because of the spirit beasts' betrayal, only this mission that decided the entire outcome of the decisive battle is enough to let Leng Tian Xing immediately become a General! Leng Tian Xing nodded at Gu Qing Shan, and Gu Qing Shan also nodded back.

Wu Xing Wen voice became smaller and smaller, but still had to say it: "Investigation of Bai Hua Sect's Gu Qing Shan's case has finished. The spirit beasts spoke ill of him on purpose while he has not framed to kill a comrade, his original rank is kept"

All the cultivators listened and nodded. Who would've thought, the spirit beasts that have always been known for being loyal and truthful would lie, and would even betray them? This matter was too much outside of everyone's expectation and Gu Qing Shan himself was simply unlucky. However, after this battle, his reputation has been restored to what it was before.

Wu Xing Wen as also silently regretting.

After spending so much effort, Gu Qing Shan is still unharmed, not to mention he has personally offended Bai Hua Fairy and Shadow Sword Saint, so this was a very unprofitable venture. Even though he was being influenced by a Tianma, he wasn't completely clean either. From now on, he has to be more careful.

Suddenly, someone yelled out: "I don't believe it! He must have lied!"

Everyone looked towards the voice to see it was a Spirit Beast sect's adolescence disciple. The boy was Li Chu Chen's little brother, Li De Wen. Li Chi Chen was the man who Gu Qing Shan was accused to have killed as a comrade.

Li De Wen angrily pointed at Gu Qing Shan and asked: "Do you dare to accept a Soul Reading?"

The crowd was noisy. The spirit beasts have been proven to be the traitors of humanity, Gu Qing Shan himself was a Saint's direct disciple, and Bai Hua Fairy did not look the least bit happy right now. Under such circumstances, Li De Wen still dared to jump out like that, is he tired of living?

Wu Xing Wen was silently cursing him.

This type of hot-headed youngster is easy to provoke and take advantage of, but when the situation changes, they're also the most troublesome type to clean up after. Sure enough, Bai Hua Fairy asked him

"Why do you want to have him go through Soul Reading?" Xie Dao Ling asked.

"He killed my brother!"

Under the scrutinizing eyes of the Saint, Li De Wen's body shook, but still declared very confidently. Both Spirit Beast sect's master and Elder had to go to bring him back. But Bai Hua Fairy had already raised her hand then slowly lowered it, signaling them to stop.

"No need, let him stand there, this Saint was already about to ask about this" Xie Dao Ling spoke.

'Oh no?' everyone in Spirit Beast sect felt a shiver down their spine at the same time.

"It's you! You spouted false words wanting to fool this General, according to military law, you should be executed!" Wu Xing Wen took out a talisman and was about to do it.

"I said. To let him stand there" Xie Dao Ling coldly spoke.

Wu Xing Wen gritted his teeth, but didn't dare to do anything reckless. He held the talisman in his hand tight, then finally pulled back. The talisman was already scrunched up very badly.

"He killed your brother because your brother disobeyed orders" Xie Dao Ling stared at Li De Wen and spoke.

"But who can prove that? If he has wicked thoughts while doing it, how would anyone know?" Li De Wen insisted.

"He has gone through Heart Appraisal, the cultivators of Yao Guang sect and Heaven's Limit sect has also went through Heart Appraisal. As far as the regulations of our humanity's military goes, he has been proven innocent" Xie Dao Ling continued.

"That can't be true, it just can't! General Wu told me, he definitely lied!" Li De Wen still insisted without letting go.

As soon as he said so, the whole crowd went into an uproar.

"YOU DARE TO INVOLVE ME IN THIS!" Wu Xing Went instantly went mad and threw out a talisman.

"Stop!"

"General, please be calm!" the guard cultivators all shouted.

"General Wu!?" the boy opened his eyes wide, looking at Wu Xing Wen in disbelief.

"Stop your hand!" Spirit Beast sect's master instantly jumped out, blocking in front of the boy.

In that moment, the entire scene became chaos.

Yet Bai Hua Fairy sat still and didn't move one bit, only silently watched what ensued.

However, Xuanyuan Tianzun who was sitting next to her couldn't sit still and grabbed the air. The talisman that was flying towards the boy instantly stopped and flew into his hand instead.

"Hopeless disciple, what are you doing!" He shouted.

Wu Xing Wen tried to stay strong-headed, and yelled back in anger: "Shifu, he's only a mere soldier, yet he dared to badmouth me in front of everyone"

"He's only a mere soldier, yet he dares to badmouth you?" Xuanyuan Tianzun repeated his words one by one.

The look in his eyes as he looked at this disciple contained nothing but disappointment.

Xuanyuan Tianzun sighed, then order: "Men, come. Heart Appraisal"

Bai Hua Fairy stayed silent. Two cultivators went and stood opposite of Wu Xing Wen.

They both clasped their fists: "The Saint has ordered, please pardon us General"

Wu Xing Wen half-opened his mouth, but couldn't say a thing. He can't disobey Shifu's orders, but if the truth gets out.

The two cultivators waited for a bit, exchanged looks, then one of them spoke: "General, please tell us everything you know of this matter from start to finish, so that we can get this over with"

"I" Wu Xing Wen started to speak, "felt that Li Chu Chen's death was a bit strange"

Both cultivators nodded.

Wu Xing Wen continued: "So I had some people go call people from Spirit Beast sect, to ask about Li Chu Chen's spirit beast bags, and trusted the words of the spirit beasts"

They nodded again.

Wu Xing Wen: "Then I called Gu Qing Shan and the people of Spirit Beast sect over to have them cross-check each other's stories"

Both cultivators shook their heads. The look in their eyes when looking at Wu Xing Wen changed.

One of them turned to the three Saints and reported: "The general is lying"

Xuanyuan Tianzun's face was heavy as water.

He sighed, then asked: "Disciple of mine, do you know why Tianma was able to get into your Thought Sea, yet Gong Sun Zhi and Ming Hui was fine without any problems?"

"I don't know" Wu Xing Wen answered.

"Because you had malice, you wanted to harm another person for unjust reasons. When this malice became an obsession, you gave the Tianma an opening into your mind"

"Despite being one of three Ding Yuan Generals of humanity, you showed an opening for the Tianma, if you weren't discovered so fast, you would've caused the death not just yourself, but many more of your fellow cultivators"

Xuanyuan Tianzun shook his head as he spoke. Xuanyuan Tianzun was extremely unpleased. From the way things went, if it weren't for Gu Qing Shan discovering the truth of the matter and forming such a brilliant tactic, he would've very easily been caught off-guard, possibly even sent to the Tianma's world and lose his life. He already owes Gu Qing Shan a great favor, yet his disciple had tried to frame him.

Even though part of it is due to the Tianma's influence, but if Wu Xing Wen himself doesn't already want to do so, the Tianma wouldn't be able to influence him in that direction. It's because his mind is muddled and borne malice that the Tianma was able to sneak into his Thought Sea. All the events that happened after was from the Tianma's manipulation, but Wu Xing Wen cannot escape the blame.

'If this isn't done right, even my own Dao heart will be affected.'

Thinking so, Xuanyuan Tianzun took out a black talisman and threw it.

"Put that on your forehead" he spoke with a heavy voice.

Wu Xing Wen accepted the talisman, noticed the look on his Shifu's face, gritted his teeth, but had no choice except to do as ordered.

Xuanyuan Tianzun tapped the talisman from afar, then spoke: "Go"

The talisman turned into black smoke and entered Wu Xing Wen's ears. Instantly, Wu Xing Wen's eyes became blank and stood dead still on the high platform.

"Soul Reading Talisman?" Wang Li asked.

"Hm, my Blue Clouds Pass has always condoned justice and fairness, if there's ever a fault, then it shall be judged in front of everyone. He will get what he deserves" Xuanyuan Tianzun spoke.

Bai Hua Fairy nodded in satisfaction.

"Ask again" Xuanyuan Tianzun ordered the two cultivators responsible for Heart Appraisal.

"Yes sir" the two cultivators don't dare to disobey, quickly came up and asked again: "What exactly did you do in Gu Qing Shan's matter"

Wu Xing Wen spoke in monotone: "Spirit Beast sect's Li De Wen is young, his thoughts are simple, he felt his brother's death was underserved and was angry, so I manipulated him with words to help ruin Gu Qing Shan's reputation"

Li De Wen was stunned to know that matters was not as he had initially thought.

"To me, this matter was nothing but a small passing action, but once I did it, my consciousness seems to be blurred, unable to judge things properly anymore"

Wu Xing Wen kept on going in a monotone voice.

"During my blurriness, thought after thought kept coming up in my mind, directing me towards a certain direction and finally it became unstoppable. I had forgotten everything about the decisive battle and started to concoct a plan to kill him"

All the cultivators gasped as they heard it. Wu Xing Wen wanted to ruin Gu Qing Shan's reputation, but got taken advantage of by the Tianma, provoking the entire army to isolate Gu Qing Shan. Luckily the four Saints had appeared when they did, otherwise he would've been able to execute his plan to kill him.

And now, not only did he got possessed by a Tianma, he was also being Soul Read by his own Shifu, dropping his reputation to rock bottom.. This was karma that couldn't be blamed on anyone else but himself.

Li De Wen watched this scene in shock, muttering: "Why… why did you have to fool me…"

He finally understood that he was just being taken advantage of. In other words, his brother really did disobey military orders and was killed by Gu Qing Shan. Li De Wen whimpered, then slowly fell to his knees, crying loudly.

The two questioning cultivators exchanged looks and reported: "The Soul Reading results is true"

Xuanyuan Tianzun shook his head and released his hand seal. Wu Xing Wen's consciousness finally returned. He was actually awake during the entire process, but unable to do anything or control what he spoke.

'I'm really done for.'

He stood alone on the platform. The looks that cultivators gave him was no longer of admiration, respect and closeness. They all turned into coldness and condemnation. Before the decisive battle, he was still thinking about how to badmouth someone else. How could someone so petty and weak-minded like that ever control an army properly? Wu Xing Wen could feel his own heart sinking into the abyss without any way back up.

Xuanyuan Tianzun didn't even bother to look at him again, only turned to ask Bai Hua Fairy: "How do you want to deal with him?"

Bai Hua Fairy then turned to look at the Great Monk of Sorrow, asking: "I don't know the military very well, so let just do as the monk judge best"

"Amitabha, he's clearly no longer fit to be a General" the Great Monk of Sorrow spoke with a solemn expression: "From regulations, he shall be stripped of his General rank and have to climb once again from the position of soldier"

Seeing Bai Hua Fairy about to frown, the Great Monk of Sorrow quickly added: "Also, for sullying a Saint's disciple's name, he will go through the same humiliation and receive the 300 strikes punishment"

Hearing that, Bai Hua Fairy's expression loosened.

All 300 strikes of the punishment are infused with spirit energy, the person being punished must receive them while topless, and they're not allowed to use any sort of scripture to resist the pain, each time they do, they'll receive an extra 10 strikes. Not only does the person being punished lose any semblance of respect and admiration they had before, they also have to endure the pain. This punishment is light, not enough to take Wu Xing Wen's life, but his dignity as a cultivator will be completely lost.

Bai Hua Fairy was very pleased with Xuanyuan Tianzun's attitude, so she left the punishment entirely for the Great monk of Sorrow to decide. That way, this matter is being dealt with completely by the book, the two Saints doesn't have to face off each other, and they don't infringe on each other's dignity. And since this punishment doesn't kill Wu Xing Wen, it doesn't only relieve Bai Hua Fairy's anger, it also respects Xuanyuan Tianzun's feelings.

Sure enough, Xuanyuan Tianzun's expression loosened a bit when he heard that.

Xie Dao Ling turned around and asked Gu Qing Shan: "What do you think?"

Gu Qing Shan thought about it and replied: "I want to say something to him"

"Then do so" Xie Dao Ling told him.

In front of the four Saints, in front of all the cultivators there, Gu Qing Shan went in front of Wu Xing Wen and stopped. Wu Xing Wen scoffed, then turned to face Gu Qing Shan.

'Fucker, it's all your fault.'

"Are you here to humiliate me?" He held his anger back, staring a hold into Gu Qing Shan.

Gu Qing Shan answered: "No, I'm only here to ask you one thing"

"It's already come to this, what else do you need to ask?"

Gu Qing Shan looked Wu Xing Wen straight in the eyes and asked: "As a Ding Yuan General, before the decisive battle between the demons and us, yet you wanted to take your grudge out on me alone, what were you thinking?"

Wu Xing Wen stared at him, gritted his teeth and answered: "I am the eldest brother of Blue Clouds Pass, and my youngest brother was killed in the semester examination by you"

Gu Qing Shan doesn't dodge his stare, instead returned it very seriously: "During the entire semester examination, our Bai Hua sect was only there as spectators. But Lee Chang An provoked over 20 people, not only to attack me, but also tried to slander our sect, whose fault is that?"

Wu Xing Wen didn't reply.

"If you truly care about your junior brother, you should've cared for him when he was still alive. Educate and teach him yourself about how he should act around other people and not slander other people's sect's reputation"

Gu Qing Shan received his looked, very solemnly continued: "You are the eldest brother of your sect, yet you didn't teach your juniors well. You let him act arrogant as he pleased, ridiculing another person's sect only to get killed. You think this isn't your responsibility?"

Gu Qing Shan slowly: "Before your junior brother died, you didn't even bother to teach him correctly. Yet after he died, you wanted to frame another person and ruin their reputation, justifying this as avenging your junior brother"

"As the eldest direct disciple of a sect. Do you really think this was actually my fault, and not yours?"

Wu Xing Wen was stunned, unable to say anything back at all. Gu Qing Shan shook his head and returned.

Xie Dao Ling slightly smirked, but felt that it wasn't quite the right time to do so, so she quickly regained a blank expression. Wang Li just smiled at the way his junior brother handled this situation.

Then she ordered: "Carry out the punishment"

With her swift order, Wu Xing Wen's General armor was taken off by two enforcer cultivators and shoved onto the punishment rack. Wu Xing Wen began to receive his punishment, whipped in front of everyone there. His screams of pain echoed around the camp.