The Ten Thousand Souls Banner tells you that in those Martial Kings' memories there are only a string of orders, with no concrete scenes at all.
"Like a block of code."
"What the heck is a 'dumb horse'?"
"Even if I told you, you wouldn't understand. Can you tell who those orders came from?"
"There was only one title, 'Blood Moon.' That probably explains where the organization’s name comes from."
While you were dealing with the Martial Kings, Zhen Pin had already cleared the inside and outside of Tang Manor.
Although this place appears to be the Blood Moon headquarters, its resistance was weak; there were no formations or defensive setups.
The most effective fighters were just the five Martial Kings who had been preparing to flee.
The rest were negligible, none a match for Zhen Pin.
Zhen Pin, murmuring "Amitabha" while using his hand like a blade, knocked out all who resisted, then produced a spirit artifact shaped like a Buddhist bell, enlarged it, and trapped them all inside.
"Bang—"
Zhen Pin held a wooden striker and struck the bell. A crisp, ethereal note rang through Fanjia City.
It sounded loud even to you outside; imagine how it sounded to those trapped inside.
"Ah!!! Master, spare us! Don't strike the bell again!!"
Zhen Pin put his palms together in prayer.
"Monastics are compassionate. This humble monk does not wish to harm you. Tell me the truth, and I will not make things difficult."
"We'll tell! We'll tell!"
"Are you people from the Blood Moon organization? Is this the Blood Moon stronghold?"
"Yes! Yes! This is the Blood Moon main headquarters!"
"Who is your leader? Where are they now?"
"Every person in the organization only answers to their direct superior. I only know who my superior is... it's the one beside me, using the alias Tang Hao!"
"Then Tang Hao, who is your superior?"
"Tang Songran!"
"Then Tang Songran, who is your superior?"
"Tang—"
Zhen Pin was remarkably patient, asking one by one.
The names these people gave were actually code names.
They posed as the local Tang family, but they had no blood relations to each other. All the names they used were aliases.
In the end, Zhen Pin discovered the highest-ranking person here was called Tang Wu. He was not inside the bell; he was in a waterside pavilion in the bamboo grove outside the city.
"Saint, we've found everything."
You said with a smile.
"Old monk, you have quite the methods now."
"All for the welfare of the world... Saint, how should we deal with these people?"
"Kill them."
You swept your sleeve and walked away. A sharp bell tone rang behind you.
Moments later, you and Zhen Pin arrived at the bamboo grove outside the city. A sweep of divine sense revealed, deep in the trees, a pleasant waterside pavilion and bamboo hut.
Inside were one man and ten women, engaged in very intimate activities.
Zhen Pin's divine sense saw it too, his expression changing immediately as he withdrew his perception.
"Sin, sin; do not look at improper things, do not listen to improper things."
You teased him.
"Goodness, I didn't hear anything, yet you did; you're more attentive than I am!"
Zhen Pin's monk's face flushed red.
"However, Saint, be careful. This man may well be the mastermind behind the Blood Moon. He appears to be only Golden Body realm, but he must be hiding his true level."
"Don't worry. I'll give it everything I have, so he won't have the slightest chance to retaliate or escape!"
Zhen Pin looked extremely nervous, his attention highly focused.
You did not doubt that if Tang Wu proved ruthless and you couldn't handle him, Zhen Pin would take the blow for you.
You stepped on bamboo leaves and became a streak of starlight, dashing forward like thunder. Before you arrived, your overwhelming aura smashed the bamboo hut where Tang Wu sat into fragments that scattered in all directions.
Tang Wu and his ten concubines were exposed naked to the open air.
"Ah!!!"
The women screamed.
You transformed directly into Three Heads and Six Arms!
One arm wielded the Qilin Arm, delivering a Cloud-Scorching Hand technique. A colossal flaming palm appeared out of thin air and grabbed Tang Wu.
Another pair of arms drew a bow to full. The arrows of the Nine Crows Divine Bow, an Immortal Artifact, were aimed at Tang Wu's vital points.
"Hero, spare me! I surrender, I surrender! I won't resist! Don't kill me! I'm begging you, wahhh..."
Your assault halted.
Because you discovered this guy was not only sniffling and weeping and trembling with fear, he had even wet himself!
"Are you Tang Wu?"
"Y-yes yes, but that's an alias. My real name is Li Erniu! I've never murdered anyone. At most I've slept with many women and eaten exotic delicacies. Great hero! I'm not worthy of death!"
The mastermind behind the human world's foremost assassin organization was such a coward?
You felt a bad premonition.
You smashed Tang Wu to death with a palm, then used the Ten Thousand Souls Banner to capture his soul and immediately reformed it.
Then came the classic rapid-fire questioning.
"Name?"
"Li Erniu."
"Ancestral home?"
"Lan Cao County, Birdsong District, Yongzhou, Great Qian."
"Are you the mastermind of the Blood Moon organization?"
"In a sense, yes, but essentially no."
"Explain."
"The Blood Moon organization exists for real, but no one knows who the top leaders truly are.
In day-to-day operations, I had great authority. Whatever I requested, those lofty Martial Kings would comply.
But in essence, I was just a puppet, bearing the title of Blood Moon leader.
Where assassination tasks originated, who was assigned which mission, who got promoted or demoted—I only followed the script. Someone sent me orders.
But I don't know who that person is. Each time a secret letter was delivered by a large eagle..."
A large eagle?
The same kind of eagle that carried off Elder Brother and Second Sister—could there be a connection?
"Why did Blood Moon choose you as the fake leader?"
"I don't know."
"Since when?"
"About twenty years ago. Back then it wasn't me but my father. Later someone discovered him as the 'leader' and killed him. After that I took over."
You were speechless. They'd even made it hereditary.
From Tang Wu—rather, Li Erniu's—words, you read another layer of meaning.
"Over thirty years ago..."
That time point coincided with when you became Saint, when you had greater authority and resources and began large-scale investigations into the Blood Moon.
"Saint, any findings?"
"The finding is that Blood Moon wanted me to find them."
"What do you mean?"
"Blood Moon knew I was investigating them, so they deliberately set up a leader for me to kill. If I killed one I was unsatisfied with, they'd arrange another.
Their goal...
Either to make me think the leader had been eliminated so I would stop investigating,
or simply to toy with me, to display power—'If you want me to be discovered, you'll discover me; if I don't want you to find me, you'll find nothing.'
The ultimate goal is the same: to force me to stop pursuing them."

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