She didn't know if it was even possible, but she had nothing to lose. If she failed, at worst she would disappoint one person.

  “I need to talk to this Kai guy. Where can I find him?” she asked. She decided she needed to hear his side of the story too.

  “Ma'am, why do you want to see him? He only lies and twists things around.” He frowned with reluctance.

  “That's why I want to talk to him and see what he has to say,” she said.

  In truth, she didn't trust him. Although his theory about the murder was possible, May noticed bruises on the body of the woman in a coma. She didn't know where they came from, but she had her suspicions.

  The man finally had no choice but to tell her where she could find him. He wanted to go with her, but she firmly refused. She didn't need him to explode in anger again. She could do more on her own.

  She left the building and crossed the street.

  Of course, for some reason, he had to live on the other side of town. She was tired of walking, but having no choice, she had to waste more of her time walking across the entire city.

  Finally, she was almost at the building where he lived. Suddenly, she heard a noise coming from one of the side streets. For a second, she thought it was a homeless person, but she quickly realized she was wrong.

  “I thought you'd be resting, not running around town for no apparent reason.”

  She looked towards the alley. Although it was relatively dark, she had no problem recognizing the speaker by his silhouette. She immediately guessed that it was High Elder Ze Yun.

  What was he doing here? Was he spying on her?

  It wouldn't be that strange. After all, she was theoretically under his care. In addition, he probably had many ways to watch her from hiding. The question was, however, what did he want from her?

  “I'm really starting to regret making you that offer. You love asking for trouble, don't you?” he said, stepping out of the shadows of the street. “However, I do admire your nosiness and curiosity. Many people lack the fire to act.”

  “Elder, did you know about my actions?” she asked, hoping to find out what it was all about.

  “Of course I do. You left the inn and wandered who knows where. I didn't trust you enough to think you knew what you were doing. You're only eight or nine years old. How could I not watch you when you're wandering around a city like this on your own?”

  “Elder, I am still a cultivator, and a fairly strong one at that,” she replied. “There isn't much that can threaten me here.”

  Ze Yun just shook his head.

  “Although you have talent and strength, common sense is not your strong suit. You may be stronger than an ordinary person, but don't delude yourself into thinking you could survive an attack by a group of knife-wielding men.”

  He was right. She might be able to defeat one or two adults in a fistfight. But three people with knives? That would be difficult, because strength alone didn't mean much.

  “Elder, what should I do then? I thought it was parasites, but...” She wasn't so sure anymore.

  “You should finish what you started,” he replied briefly. After a moment, he added, “It's probably not parasites. At least, there's no evidence of that at the moment.”

  “I should finish what I started?” May was surprised. She hadn't expected such a reaction; she thought he would tell her to stop everything.

  “Of course you should. After all, you are a member of the sect. Currently an Outer Member, but it is still our duty to administer justice,” he explained. “As a cultivator, you have the right to carry out sentences on behalf of the sect.”

  May was surprised. She was just a child, but in the eyes of the law, she could be a judge? And pass judgment on ordinary people? It seemed incredibly absurd and out of place to her. No wonder the sect was on the verge of collapse if children could pass judgment on mortals.

  “It may seem strange to you, but the existence of these people means nothing to the sect. Is it a flawed system? Yes. But most people in the Inner Court don't care about the fate of these people. It just has to appear fair and give the appearance of fairness. Whether it works or not is of secondary importance.”

  “But isn't the very fact that belonging to the sect means absolute power over mortals contrary to the rule of law? Such a law certainly does more harm than good.”

  "And that's exactly the point. You care about the rule of law when, in reality, cultivators hunt mortals in the woods like wild boars for fun, and some women have killed just for looking at their faces. And all of this is a reality in our and other ‘law-abiding’ sects. Laws only exist for cultivators, everything else is irrelevant."

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  In short, cultivators had absolute power here. May felt lucky to have been born into a family of cultivators. If she had been a mortal, would she have had any chance of cultivation? It was hard to say. There were no mortals at the academy.

  Mortals were born mortal and died mortal. They had no realistic chance of becoming cultivators.

  “Is that really okay?”

  The man shrugged.

  “Even if you killed one or two people, no one would react. So what's the problem with bringing justice?” he asked her.

  “The problem is that I don't know if I can determine if anyone is guilty in the first place.”

  “Well, you have until tomorrow. If you don't want to, you don't have to do anything, just forget about it.” he said. “However, I think it would be a good lesson for you.”

  May felt awful. Was he treating this as a lesson? These people's lives could have been at stake, and he was treating it as a learning opportunity? Did he really have no respect for these people's lives? She was simply going to convict someone of murder, even though she wasn't sure what the reality was?

  The man looked at her expression and laughed. May felt a twinge in her stomach.

  “That's exactly where your problem lies. You can't treat them the same as us. Cultivators shouldn't care about their fate.”

  “Elder, you yourself said that this whole system is wrong. So why do I feel like what you're saying now completely contradicts that? Why shouldn't I treat them like human beings?”

  “That's not what I said. The system is rotten, but it will never change, and you have to get used to it. The very fact that you try to behave fairly puts you at the very top of the benevolence scale in the whole sect,” he said, explaining the whole situation to her. “Does their life not matter to the cultivators? Why? Because even if you kill an entire city, in just a few decades everything will return to normal. The death of even one cultivator can be harmful, because in order to reach his level, the sect had to spend a lot of money on him.”

  It sounded horrible, and it was most certainly gruesome. May knew that the situation of ordinary people in this world was not good, but what she had just heard was beyond her wildest imagination. She had never experienced anything like this herself; in her hometown, cultivators generally did not interfere with mortals at all.

  However, she mistakenly assumed that this was the case everywhere. Did no one in the world really care about their deaths?

  “Is that true...?” She couldn't believe it herself. The weakness of this system was hopeless to her.

  “May, listen carefully. At a certain stage, cultivators must choose one of two paths. Either not interfere with mortal affairs at all, or be cruel. There is no third way.” He said with seriousness in his eyes.

  May wanted to say something, but Ze Yun didn't let her get a word in.

  “There are no exceptions. Some cultivators throughout history have attempted to change the world and its rules. However, no one has succeeded, either here or elsewhere. The world is ruled by force. Some may have been able to maintain peace for a time, but within a few years of their death, mortals once again become victims,“ he said. ”Attempts at change always lead to ruin. That is why you should not interfere in these matters at all."

  His voice echoed in her head. She still remembered the Earth, which was also far from being perfect, but even the weak had a right to speak. But was this world really so different? She looked around. The whole city was in widespread poverty. No one from the sect was trying to improve the city's nightmarish situation.

  Then she looked at the man and for some reason thought he looked desperate. Was he speaking from his own experience? She wasn't sure why she thought that, but she had a feeling she wasn't far from the truth.

  “So I'm just supposed to bring ‘justice,’ even though I don't know if it's a reality? That's not justice, Elder.” She muttered uncertainly. She had no intention of contributing to a tragedy.

  “Then find out the truth.” He replied. “I'll accompany you, but you have to come to your own conclusions. I'm not going to help you.”

  May was surprised once again. Confused, she looked at him, trying to figure him out. What was his goal in all this? Did he really want to teach her something, or was he just bored?

  However, she had no intention of arguing about it. If he wanted to accompany her, she wasn't going to stop him. May continued her journey, and the man silently followed her at a distance. With each passing moment, May stood out more and more. She sighed helplessly.

  Finally, she arrived at the address she had been given. This house looked a little better. It wasn't in such terrible condition, but it still seemed neglected. She knocked on the door. Another person opened it, a short but quite pretty woman with an unusually delicate beauty. She was chewing with her mouth open, probably having just finished a meal.

  Seeing the people who appeared to be cultivators, she immediately bowed respectfully, but also fearfully. She tried to stammer something, but the words wouldn't come out of her mouth. A nighttime visit from two cultivators was not something anyone would want to experience.

  Seeing that Ze Yun had no intention of actually doing anything, as he had said, May decided to speak up.

  “We're looking for a man named Kai Sheng. We have a few questions for him,” she said. The woman nodded.

  “He's my husband... I'll call him right away,” she said, then quickly disappeared behind the door.

  Meanwhile, Ze Yun commented that a normal cultivator would kill her for leaving them outside without inviting them in. May just rolled her eyes and said nothing.

  After a moment, the same man she had seen in the tavern appeared.

  “Dear cultivators... To what do I owe your visit?” He said, also terrified, but at least less so than his wife.

  “Can we talk inside?” May asked, feeling Ze Yun's gaze on her back.

  “Oh! Yes! Of course,” he said, nervously inviting them inside.

  The interior was nothing special, it was just cluttered with various objects. At least the smell wasn't too bad, unlike the previous mortal's house she had been in.

  The man invited them to the table. Ze Yun sat next to May. The man sat on the opposite side. May noticed that the man's wife was trying to eavesdrop on the conversation from the hallway, but May decided not to comment on it.

  Not wanting to prolong the situation, May began the conversation.

  “We came because a case that may be a murder has come to our attention... Your ‘'friend’ told us a little about it, but we would like to hear your version of events,” May said.

  At the very word “murder,” the man's face turned pale. He swallowed loudly and began to speak slowly.