The Psychopathic Beast Emperor

Chapter 252: Dangerous Secrets

Every action has a reaction... With Derek’s secret out, there were bound to be consequences. Very severe consequences. The secrets that were spilling out from the detained disciples’ mouths, plus the ones found in Derek and Caron’s residences, were... horrible to say the least, especially one secret.

There was once a blind boy who walked the sect. He was brought in by Elder Hakar; it wasn’t a secret. He was known to be very talented, so he was given to the elder with the most potential to train a talent at that time, Derek. Well, the boy was dead, at least from what the disciples said. The boy killed Friel in cold blood and escaped into the forest, where they hadn’t heard of him again. That also brought up the reason why no one was seeing Friel in the sect anymore. He was never on a mission. He was dead through the machinations of Elders Derek and Caron. And they’d swept it under the rug so well, it was commendable.

The deeper they dug, the uglier it became. What had started as an investigation into Elder Derek’s obsession with Bahamut was rapidly turning into one of the largest scandals in the history of the Shadow Fang Sect. The council hall had become a prison. Dozens of disciples sat bound by suppression chains, their faces pale and exhausted. Some were genuinely confused. Others looked terrified. A few had already broken mentally and were spilling everything they knew.

Sekhem sat at the head of the hall, silent and listening. That silence was far more terrifying than shouting. Every disciple knew it, every elder knew it. The Chief Elder only became silent when he was truly angry.

"Speak," he finally said.

The disciple kneeling before him flinched. It was one of Derek’s former inner disciples.

"E-Elder Derek regularly selected male disciples personally..." The young man swallowed. Several elders exchanged glances. They already knew that much.

"What else?" The disciple trembled.

"He preferred those with talent."

Silence followed.

"He always chose the most promising ones."

Sekhem’s expression darkened slightly. The disciple continued.

"Some of them stopped progressing after becoming his personal disciples."

"What do you mean?" Anutach frowned.

The disciple lowered his head. "They became weaker."

"Weaker?"

"Y-Yes."

The young man nodded.

"Their cultivation would stagnate. Some lost motivation, some became depressed, while others suddenly requested transfers that they never got."

The hall grew colder as Sekhem slowly turned toward several records gathered from previous years. The pattern became obvious: Promising disciples, rapid growth, transfer to Derek, then decline. It happened every single time. The realization made several elders clench their fists. The damage had lasted years, maybe decades, and nobody noticed because the decline was gradual. It was carefully planned.

...

Elsewhere inside the council archives, Tankhut personally smashed open another hidden compartment discovered beneath Derek’s residence.

CRACK!

A stone wall collapsed inward, and several enforcers immediately entered, only to freeze.

"E-Elder..."

Tankhut stepped inside, and his face immediately darkened. Shelves, hundreds of them. Each shelf was filled with records: names, profiles, observations, personal habits, family backgrounds, elemental affinities, weaknesses, and strengths of hundreds of disciples. The oldest records dated back almost fifty years. Tankhut picked one up, and his expression became uglier the longer he read. It wasn’t a disciple record, but a selection list of potential candidates. They were being scouted like livestock.

The old elder crushed the parchment accidentally.

"Monster..."

...

Another team searched Caron’s residence, and what they found frightened them even more. Unlike Derek’s records, Caron’s were organized. They were precise and methodical. Every scroll was labeled, every operation documented, and every cover-up recorded. For what reason? They didn’t know. People were weird.

Merit slowly unrolled a document, and his face immediately turned pale.

"Found something?"

The elder handed it over silently. The document contained names, lots of names: dead disciples, missing disciples, former servants, travelers, wanderers, and even merchants. They were the names of people who had disappeared over the years. The margins contained notes of those who had been investigated, removed, silenced, and disposed. Anutach, reading the scroll, felt sick.

Caron hadn’t merely assisted Derek. He had cleaned up every trace. It had been like this for years, perhaps decades.

...

Back in the council hall, a terrified outer disciple suddenly burst into tears.

"I didn’t know!" The young man collapsed forward. "I swear I didn’t know!"

Sekhem looked down at him. "What didn’t you know?"

The disciple shook violently.

"The forest!"

Several elders immediately focused on him.

"What forest?"

The disciple nearly hyperventilated.

"The blind boy!"

Silence engulfed the place as the entire hall froze while every elder stared at him. The young man squeezed his eyes shut.

"I heard them talking once!"

"Who?"

"E-Elder Derek and Elder Caron." His voice broke. "They said the blind boy escaped."

Several elders leaned forward. The disciple continued.

"They said Friel was dead. They said the blind boy killed him."

The hall became deathly silent. Sekhem narrowed his eyes.

"And?"

The disciple hesitated and whispered.

"They were afraid." Several elders looked shocked.

Afraid? Derek? Of a child?

The disciple nodded frantically. "They thought the boy should’ve died, but he didn’t. They couldn’t find him, so they sealed the area. They later sent people searching, but never found a body."

The hall fell silent again. Sekhem’s fingers tapped his armrest once. The sound echoed loudly.

"What was the boy’s name?"

"I don’t know." The disciple lowered his head.

Nobody spoke, because they all knew exactly who the boy was. Ren, who was now the rabbit currently following Bahamut. The same Ren who had somehow survived. The same Ren who had appeared during the evaluation. The same Ren who was powerful enough to wrestle a Solar Wyrm into submission. The same Ren who had been recruited personally by Elder Hakar. Well, they didn’t know that, but...

The implications became horrifying. If Ren truly was missing, then Derek and Caron hadn’t merely committed crimes against disciples. They had hidden the attempted murder of a disciple personally recruited by the Pharaoh’s representative. Several elders felt cold sweat form, because that wasn’t merely corruption anymore. That was suicide, a political suicide.

...

Meanwhile, in another archive chamber, Anutach slowly finished reading a newly discovered letter. His face remained calm, but the wooden desk underneath his hand cracked. The letter had been written by Derek years ago. It was a private correspondence. One sentence had been underlined several times. The Elder reread it again and again.

"The blind one possesses unusual traits. If properly conditioned, he may become the perfect vessel."

CRACK.

The desk finally shattered, and the room went silent. Anutach slowly folded the letter. The entire archive trembled.

"Elder Hakar must be informed immediately."

Nobody argued because at that moment, everyone understood one thing. This investigation had grown beyond Derek, beyond Caron, and beyond the Elder Council itself. Whatever truth lay behind Ren, it was connected to something much bigger and something much older. Something that had remained hidden for years.