The Traitor

“Did the Green Cloud Pavilion’s elder bring anyone with him?” Elder Wang asked in earnest.

“He did,” Yao Tang replied.

Her tone was full of meaning when she added, “But he won’t able to bring them back.”

There were a lot of men back there. They could have been transported by the sheer number of vehicles they had come in, but it was too troublesome to even bring them into the cars.

Yao Tang might have had a better shot at doing that compared to her companions, but she figured it would only be a waste of her time. She had no use for those people, anyway.

And so, they were left lying there, like rocks in the field.

The Cabinet Elders’ minds raced after hearing yet another revelation.

Impatient, Elder Wang couldn’t help but be blunt. “You mean to say that you defeated their elder and used him as a hostage to threaten the Green Cloud Pavilion? And that you hijacked their weaponized vehicle to escape?”

Yao Tang pondered for a moment.

She had beaten those thugs to near insanity that they weren’t able to stop her even if they wanted to. So, Elder Wang was more or less correct, right?

“Yes, that’s what happened,” she nodded emphatically.

“But I only borrowed the car, okay? I didn’t steal it. They made no objections, so I drove it back here.”

There truly had been no objection whatsoever.

But to say that she had hijacked the vehicle…

Technically, that wasn’t true at all.

A few other disciples had taken it upon themselves to bring Yao Tang’s captive over.

Just like that, Elder Nie appeared before them.

He looked like a wilted eggplant—his head was lowered, and he barely had any presence.

His chest and arms were covered in bruises, and his cheeks were swollen. He looked nothing like his usual self.

For the first few seconds, the Cabinet Elders didn’t even recognize him.

They had a sense of familiarity with him, they just couldn’t put their finger on where they had seen him before.

How peculiar…

“Raise your head!”

Elder Wang suddenly barked, his face cold and ruthless.

Elder Nie trembled. He had been dragged here as a traitor, and he knew that his guilt was all but set in stone.

He lowered his head even further as a chill ran down his spine.

He was an elder, for goodness’ sake! Never had he experienced being gawked upon as though he were some monkey in the zoo.

Worst of all, it was his fellow elders who were peering at him. He was mortified.

Elder Nie considered it his good fortune that his face had been beaten beyond recognition. This way, it was likely that no one would be able to tell it was him.

“Wait… Isn’t this Elder Nie?”

Elder Li pointed in shock, his face a mask of utter disbelief. “Am I seeing things? Is it really Elder Nie?”

How could he betray the Cabinet?

Hearing his words, the other elders took a closer look at the kneeling captive. Sure enough, it was Elder Nie.

“It’s you?”

Elder Wang sprang to his feet. His gaze was sharp and piercing, and if it had a physical manifestation, it would have skewered Elder Nie on the spot.

They knew that they had a traitor in the inner sect, but Cai Cheng was a mere disciple.

To think there was another one among the Cabinet Elders!

This was beyond anything they could have imagined.

Elder Xu took a little longer to recover from the shock. When he did, he could only look at Elder Nie with a pained expression.

“As an elder, you have the duty to put the interests of the Cabinet above everything else. Tell me, why did you betray us? The Cabinet has treated you well all these years, so why did you do it?”

He couldn’t think of a single reason why Elder Nie would go behind their backs.

Elder Nie was usually quiet and kept to himself. Everyone thought that he simply had a shy disposition and didn’t force him out of his comfort zone.

Little did they know that he was already plotting his treachery.

One of the disciples pulled the gag out of Elder Nie’s mouth with a vicious tug.

The old man immediately spat out a mouthful of blood. He finally looked up and sneered at his peers. “Ha! Treated me well? Aren’t you ashamed of saying that?

“We are all Cabinet Elders, but you never saw me as your equal! I constantly had to abide by your wishes. You take all the good resources and pick the most promising pupils, then gloat that they rank higher than mine. Is this how you treat a fellow elder well?”

His eyes were filled with hatred, and his voice dripped with grievance.

To him, these old bastards were only putting on an act. They speak self-righteously, as if they had always looked out for him, but in reality, he was always left for last when it came to the distribution of resources.

Anyone with common sense would see that this wasn’t fair at all.