Chapter 287: Chapter 194: Rebuttal
Every time she saw Rhonda Rhodes, Paige Summers felt like she had walked onto the wrong set.
Today was no exception.
She couldn’t help but sigh. "Do you have something against him?"
With a grave expression, Rhonda Rhodes pointed at Sean Raines on the floor. His face was a rare storm of shame and indignation. "Of course," Rhonda said. "He’s an Evil Cultivator. Do you know what those are? They’re..."
Paige Summers cut him off. "I know a little. If you’re talking about those who use evil Cultivation Techniques to hurt people, then he’s clearly not one of them!"
"That’s only because his cultivation is low," Rhonda Rhodes said coldly. "He’s barely even at the first stage... But if he’s allowed to keep cultivating, who knows what will happen. Corpse Weavers are always sinister and cunning. They often kill living people just to get a corpse they like for their Cultivation. They..."
"Hold on!" Paige Summers had to cut him off again. She listened for a moment, and once she was sure no one was outside, she said, "Let’s not discuss this out here. We’ll go inside and talk."
"Alright."
Rhonda Rhodes waved off Paige Summers’s attempt to help Sean Raines up. Instead, he hauled Sean into the house like a sack of flour and unceremoniously dumped him in a corner.
Just watching made Paige Summers wince in sympathy.
Rhonda Rhodes returned to the center of the room and made several strange hand signs. Paige couldn’t help but ask, "What are you doing?"
"Activating the Sound Insulation Array!"
"..." Paige Summers started to wonder if the thing was actually working. But then she glanced over at Sean Raines in the corner. His mouth was opening and closing, yet she couldn’t hear a single sound. She was instantly convinced.
’Incredible.’
’There’s a huge difference between reading about something in a book and experiencing it firsthand. It really is magical!’
"Now we can talk." Rhonda Rhodes turned and sat down, his eyes on her. "How did you get mixed up with an Evil Cultivator like him?"
Paige Summers found the title "Evil Cultivator" strangely comical, but it certainly didn’t fit Sean Raines. "We’ve known each other for a long time. He’s not a Corpse Weaver."
Rhonda Rhodes frowned. "Are you trying to cover for him? My sense of smell is never wrong. There’s a foul stench of death in his very bones. He is, without a doubt, a Corpse Weaver."
"You’ve got one thing wrong. This isn’t the world you’re from." Disliking his misplaced sense of justice, Paige Summers’s voice took on a cold edge. "There’s no grand conflict between good and evil Cultivators here. There’s only the struggle to survive! You can’t just apply your old-world views to this place. So he practices Corpse Refining. So what? Does he need to kill the living? Take a walk outside the base and you’ll find plenty of abandoned corpses for the taking. What’s wrong with him using those? Is commanding the dead to kill Zombies evil? In that case, what are you—someone who has the power to kill Zombies but cowers in the base instead? Isn’t that just a different kind of letting evil run rampant?"
She said all this in one breath, but she wasn’t thinking of Sean Raines. She was thinking of Ben, who was waiting outside for her with Sweetie.
A wave of melancholy washed over her. ’People are always so quick to judge, so eager to cast out anyone different. If they can’t even tolerate Sean Raines, then what hope is there for Ben?’
’Thankfully, we’ll have our own base soon.’
’One day, I’ll make it so Ben can stand before everyone, out in the open!’
Rhonda Rhodes’s face paled at her words. After a long, tense moment, his expression settled into one of deep dejection. "Perhaps... you’re right."
Before she could reply, he sighed. "Come here. Last time, I was... uneasy, so I put something on you. I’ll remove it now."
Paige Summers was surprised by his candor. "No need," she said, seizing the opening. "I’ve already dealt with it."
"Hm?" Now it was Rhonda Rhodes’s turn to be surprised. He had made that powder from the plants available here. How could it have been countered so quickly? "It seems you have some capable people on your side..." He hesitated, not quite having the nerve to ask for an introduction.
Paige Summers naturally feigned ignorance and changed the subject. "You seem much friendlier this time around."
Rhonda Rhodes said hesitantly, "I heard you’re the one Finn likes. I owe him a great debt, so naturally, I have to look out for you."
"A debt?"
"Yes. The other day, I nearly suffered a deviation during my Cultivation. He was the one who woke me in time. If he hadn’t, my future in Cultivation would have been grim. I was unharmed, but he was injured in the process." He quickly added, "But don’t worry, he’s much better now. I owe him a huge favor for that, so I must naturally repay this karmic debt."
Paige Summers hadn’t expected such a strange turn of events. Since he was saying this, it meant Zephyr Mercer was definitely okay, which put her mind at ease. ’But this "person he likes" thing is such a headache. That Zephyr Mercer... he really has no filter, telling him something like that.’
Not bothering to explain, Paige Summers simply took out a few jade ornaments she had prepared and handed them over.
"These are for you. It might not be enough for the wheat seeds, but I’ll find the rest later."
Rhonda Rhodes took them and examined them closely. "These are very good." Only a little of the Spiritual Energy had dissipated; their quality was much higher than the ones he had found himself.
This convinced him even more that what Zephyr Mercer had said was true. Paige Summers really was something special.
He gave a rare smile. "Finn is in the back cultivating. He should be done soon, so you can go on ahead. As for this one..." He gestured to Sean Raines. "While you made some good points, I still need to question him myself to be sure. I hope you don’t mind."
Paige Summers shook her head. "Go ahead and ask. I’ll go see him."
’Rhonda Rhodes probably wouldn’t resort to torturing Sean Raines. And it might even be a good thing for him to ask questions. From the sound of it, he knows a lot about Corpse Refining. Maybe Sean can learn something from him.’
She gave Sean Raines a slight nod and a reassuring glance before heading out the door and around to the back of the house.
The first thing she saw was a newly built hut.
It had probably been built in a hurry, as it was extremely crude—little more than planks of wood nailed together.
Paige Summers studied it for a moment. Hearing only the sound of steady breathing from within, she decided not to barge in. Since Zephyr Mercer was cultivating, it was best not to disturb him. She didn’t mind waiting outside.
The backyard wasn’t large, but it wasn’t empty. Something was planted in the open space between the two buildings. She crouched down for a closer look and saw what looked like several types of mutated medicinal herbs. The urge to gather some immediately struck her. ’Still, I’d better wait and ask Rhonda Rhodes if their properties have changed.’
As she was looking, a thought suddenly struck her. ’I’ve been out for a while. The crops in my space might be ready to harvest!’
After a moment’s hesitation, she couldn’t resist the temptation. She found a rock to sit on and pretended to observe the plants, but in reality, she sent her spiritual power into her space.
But the moment she entered, she was dumbfounded.
The space was a complete mess—not because it was destroyed, but because everything was flourishing far too much!
