Chapter 340

Chapter 340: Did I Beg You to Save Me?

Yu Zhi Yi wasn’t surprised. Although the man had used a secret art to hide the Heavenly Mechanism Device, she could clearly see a bright thread of cause and effect tying him to her.

She was certain she had never met him before, but considering his connection to Chen Ruo Lan, she could basically confirm that this causal thread began the year he carried her away. She was also a little surprised by how sharp her birth father’s instincts were.

Jiang Yu Wei, shocked again, demanded: “What? He’s the one who took Jin’er back then?”

Ji Guang Dai walked toward them with his hands behind his back, strolling as if through his own back garden, giving off an oddly relaxed air as he smiled: “That’s right. I really did steal the Second Miss from the side of the second madam who had just given birth.”

He shook his head and said with a sigh: “Back then I was clueless. I didn’t notice the deep fortune and merit the Second Miss carried. Otherwise, I would never have handed her to that heartless couple, Vice Minister Yu and his wife.”

Jiang Yu Wei’s temper flared as he snapped: “You did something so cruel, and you still dare to judge that year with such ease?”

He grew angrier: “Seventeen years ago, Juxian Manor was just a small mountain manor, not what it is today. Yet my father never treated you harshly. When the Demonic Cult schemed against us, he even saved you and your father.”

He stepped forward and barked: “How can you be so ungrateful?”

Ji Guang Dai’s eyes swept the area, amusement thick in his gaze as he said lightly: “Did I need your rescue?”

“What?” Jiang Yu Wei stared, stunned.

Seventeen years ago, the Demonic Cult launched wide attacks against Martial World forces. Any group they targeted almost never survived. The Demonic Cult was nothing like righteous sects; once they set their sights on a place, they left no one alive.

In a single month, three small forces vanished from the Martial World. Each was wiped out in one strike-eighty-year-old elders, newborn babies, even stray dogs passing by were cut down.

Elder Alliance Leader Jiang sensed their plot, followed the clues, and learned they were about to strike the then-unknown Juxian Manor. He placed people in ambush ahead of time and saved ninety percent of the manor’s folk.

Sadly, Ji Guang Dai’s brother refused to obey orders after quarreling with their father and insisted on leaving Juxian Manor. Ji Guang Dai’s father and mother tried desperately to drag the boy back.

Right then, people from the Demonic Cult dropped from the sky. Madam Ji used the last of her strength to shove her son back inside the manor, but she herself could not retreat in time and was captured alive by the Demonic Cult’s Left Guardian.

That Left Guardian loved pleasure, and Madam Ji was very beautiful.

Half a month later, when people finally found her, there wasn’t a patch of whole skin left on her body. Her most private places were hurt the worst.

After that, Elder Alliance Leader Jiang swiftly destroyed several Demonic Cult strongholds and drove them back to their base. Peace returned to the Martial World for a time.

Jiang Yu Wei frowned and asked, confused: “We saved you, and somehow that became a mistake?”

Ji Guang Dai let out a cold, mocking laugh. His bookish middle-aged face twisted with scorn as he said: “Martial Alliance-you call yourselves righteous. One day you stand up for a sect, the next you fight for someone’s justice. Do you think you’re so great?”

Jiang Yu Wei kept silent, but the set of his brows showed he did think that way.

Ji Guang Dai’s contempt deepened as he spat: “You’re just a bunch of hypocrites wearing righteous masks.”

Jiang Yu Wei flared: “Don’t talk nonsense! The Martial Alliance has always taken punishing evil and helping the good as our duty. We never bully the weak, and we never do vicious things. How are we hypocrites?”

“Punish evil?” Ji Guang Dai sneered: “If you’re so great, why haven’t you wiped out all the evil in the world?”

Jiang Yu Wei blinked: “?”

He thought, [I’m only a person, not a god. I can’t predict where crimes will happen. How could I catch them all? Even an Immortal couldn’t drive out all darkness.]

He opened his mouth to answer, but Yu Zhi Yi spoke first to clear things up for her eldest uncle: “He means this-when his father abused his mother and him, where was the Martial Alliance to wipe out that evil?”

Ji Guang Dai could no longer keep his “deep and mysterious” look. His face turned dark.

“Ah?” Jiang Yu Wei blurted.

Jiang Yu Chuan stared and asked in surprise: “His father is Old Manor Lord Ji?”

Yu Zhi Yi nodded and said: “To outsiders, Old Manor Lord Ji looked like a very kind gentleman. He seemed good to everyone. Even when passing a beggar, he would toss the person some silver.”

“Anyone who knew him would give a thumbs-up and praise him as a great, kind man.”

Ji Guang Dai’s expression grew even gloomier.

Yu Zhi Yi went on as if she didn’t notice: “But as the saying goes, you can know a face and not a heart. Some people act human outside and turn into demons at home.”

“That kindly ‘good man,’ Old Manor Lord Ji, was exactly that kind of person.”

The Jiang brothers wore the same shocked look.

Ji Guang Dai only stared coldly at Yu Zhi Yi and didn’t interrupt.

Yu Zhi Yi continued: “Old Manor Lord Ji’s talent was low. Near forty, he was still only a third-rate expert in the Martial World. Back then, Juxian Manor was an unranked minor force, easy to forget whenever banquets were held.”

“Some people bow and scrape outside, then take their pent-up anger out on their families at home.”

“Like Old Manor Lord Ji.”

“He was great at appearances. He only bullied his wife and sons. He even treated the manor’s servants with gentle smiles.”

“So whenever Madam Ji resisted him or talked back, even the servants-kept completely in the dark-decided she was the troublemaker and thought she didn’t know what was good for her.”

“Many lovestruck young girls whispered behind her back, saying they wanted to marry a ‘faithful good man’ like Old Manor Lord Ji when they grew up.”

“Even Madam Ji’s own family didn’t believe he was cruel or that he abused her. They told her to stop being willful and to live a good life with him, saying she’d never find a better man.”

As men, the Jiang brothers felt suffocated. That woman must have been truly desperate.

She was trapped in a cage dressed up in gold and jewels. Outsiders saw the bright, fancy outside but not the cramped, dark inside, not her despair. Everyone told her to sit quietly in the cage and stop making trouble. Even wanting to escape was called “wrong.”

Yu Zhi Yi looked calmly at Ji Guang Dai and said: “Living in that kind of home twisted his heart. He hated Old Manor Lord Ji, hated his brother, hated the servants, and even hated his own mother.”

“But a mother is the only person who stood up to protect him when he was abused. So after she was killed, his hatred burned even hotter, because no one was left to block Old Manor Lord Ji’s wild, storm-like beatings.”