Chapter 1157: Chapter 637: Thank You, Father (Double Length)_3
It was a fragment about the size of an infant’s palm, irregularly shaped, seemingly neither gold nor stone, neither wood nor metal, with an overall dark golden hue that was deep and restrained. Its edges were rugged and sharp, as if violently torn apart by great force.
Curiously, its surface was smooth as a mirror, and the bloodstains and dust seemed unable to truly adhere to it. Under the dim hall lights, it faintly emitted a gentle glow.
The surface of the metal piece was etched with extremely intricate and complex patterns.
On one side was a distorted intertwining pattern of the sun and moon, exuding an indescribable majesty. The other side bore mysterious, densely packed small symbols resembling tadpole scripts, profound and intricate.
Previously, Chen Yi had been too busy returning to the Prince Mansion to examine it closely. Now, he was intent on using it to interrogate Wu Meng.
"The Holy Fire Order?!"
The Old Saintess, who had been silent for a long time, spoke, her voice echoing from the depths of Chen Yi’s heart, carrying a hint of suppressed astonishment.
Chen Yi’s pupils contracted slightly. Since leaving Gaoliang Mountain, the Old Saintess had often been silent. Her speaking now indicated that this object was extraordinary.
"What is it? The Holy Fire Order? What is its function?" Chen Yi asked hurriedly in his heart.
"It’s just a fragment..." The Old Saintess’s voice became unusually deep, "Our sect... has long ceased using this thing... It is a heretical object."
There seemed to be a kind of... dread that Chen Yi had never felt before?
"Heresy?" Chen Yi pressed on.
The Old Saintess fell silent, like a stone sinking into a deep pool, with no echo for a long time.
After a while, a very faint thought came through: "...It happened a long time ago. Within the sect... there were disagreements, and someone once proclaimed... that the Holy Fire was light, flickering and uncertain, light and dark had no boundaries, man could substitute God, and many other heretical words... Those people and their followers were all purged by the Sect Hierarch... along with this object which was seen as the root of disaster, hidden and destroyed in large numbers over decades, never to reappear..."
Her words were filled with endless melancholy, yet distant.
"So you just annihilated them, ground them to dust?" Chen Yi couldn’t stop questioning.
"Confucius said, ’Attacking heresy harms it,’ Zhu Xi also clearly stated heresy is not the way of the Saint." The Old Saintess assumed he was mocking and said, "In Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism, there are sectarian disputes. Even Confucius executed Shao Zhengmao. Our Divine Sect purging heresy in defense of the Righteous Path, why not?"
"No, I’m asking who was proclaiming these things."
"It was a Saintess..."
Just as the words came out, the Old Saintess’s voice abruptly stopped. No matter how Chen Yi asked, there was no response, as if it were a deeply guarded secret.
Chen Yi’s heart sank.
The Old Saintess’s reaction made him feel more eerie than Wu Meng’s confession.
He thought it was a trivial matter, a mundane case for a new official, but as he unraveled it bit by bit, it was exceedingly complex.
Purge? Gongsun Guan? What the Holy Fire Order Fragment involved was not merely simple rebellion or treasure but rather a long-hidden secret history deliberately erased by the Ming’an Divine Sect...
He suddenly raised his head, his gaze like a knife striking towards Wu Meng on the ground:
"Wu Meng, let me ask again, why precisely her for the Gaoliang Mountain divination and summoning?"
"Note that I was the one who sent her body to Gaoliang Mountain."
"Are you sure it was her soul you summoned after the divination?"
Wu Meng shivered in fear from Chen Yi’s sudden barrage of questions, hurriedly replied: "I... I really don’t know! Divination and summoning spirit techniques... were carried out as usual. With these, I’ve escaped so many tribulations; how would I know whose spirit was summoned, much less that it was sent by you, Lord. This... this is really..."
He explained urgently, speaking incoherently.
However, as he was halfway through his defense, when his gaze inadvertently swept over the fragment of the Holy Fire Order emitting a faint glowing light on the case table, his voice, filled with panic and tremor, suddenly choked.
The eyes of this Demon Sect elder contracted violently, as if suddenly awakened, recalling something. His emaciated body trembled violently; his expression shifted from confusion and fear to an extreme shock, finally morphing into near-frantic ecstasy!
"Ho... hohoho..." Wu Meng let out a strange laugh from his throat, first low, then growing louder, turning into hysterical laughter, tears and snot flowing from the laughter.
"Wrong! All wrong! Hahahaha!"
He abruptly stopped laughing, fixing Chen Yi with an incredibly fervent gaze, which sent a chill through everyone in the hall.
"It’s not a coincidence! It’s not a coincidence! The Ming Venerable descends! The Ming Venerable descends!"
Suddenly, he scrambled up from the ground with both hands and feet, ignoring the excruciating pain of his broken arm. For a moment, the jailers on both sides couldn’t hold him down, shouting and cursing in panic, afraid he would attack Chen Yi.
But unexpectedly, he made a move, deeply bowing in reverence,
"...May all the saints dwell in peace, free from all worries and troubles..."
"Ming Venerable above!"
Throughout the night, Wu Meng kept chanting in his mouth.
Leaving Chen Yi with his brow tightly furrowed, his expression growing increasingly serious.
