Chapter 451

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Chapter 451: I Have High Hopes for You

The Ninth Seat, who was watching the scene unfold, showed a look of helplessness in his eyes. He waved his hand at the women, and they dispersed, turning back to glare at Shen Qingzhu as they left.

Shen Qingzhu shot them a glance and glared back fiercely.

“… You can’t go on like this,” the Ninth Seat said, lifting his wine glass and sitting down next to Shen Qingzhu.

“What can’t I do?”

“What we do is a life lived on the edge, requiring a prolonged state of high tension. If we can’t find suitable outlets for our emotions, it’s easy to develop psychological issues.” The Ninth Seat shook his wine glass as he spoke.

Shen Qingzhu calmly replied, “I don’t need to vent.”

The Ninth Seat shook his head. “No, everyone needs to vent. No one can keep their tension wound up forever. We need to do things we enjoy to relax our minds. For ordinary people, their outlets might be vacations, watching movies, sleeping, dating, or playing games…

But we are different. In our line of work, we are under constant high pressure, and no one knows when they might die. We are accustomed to the darker sides of human nature, so our outlets tend to be quite bloody—killing, looting, tormenting… By comparison, using women to vent is already a relatively mild way.

I know you are different from others and won’t choose those perverse methods, but I didn’t expect you to avoid women altogether. That doesn’t seem fitting for someone your age, full of vigor.”

“What about the Night Watchers? They are also under high mental strain, not knowing when they might die. Why don’t they need to vent?” Shen Qingzhu countered.

“That’s different,” the Ninth Seat shook his head. “Do you know why the Night Watchers operate in teams?”

“Because they need teamwork?”

“That’s part of it. Another reason is that when they are under pressure, they have teammates to rely on to share that burden. They can relax through mutual banter and camaraderie. That’s why in those outstanding Night Watcher teams, there are always some jokers. Do you really think they are foolish?

From a certain perspective, they are the smartest ones and the ones most emotionally invested in their team.

And you? You are just one person.

Being one person is different from being part of a group.”

Shen Qingzhu stared blankly at the Ninth Seat, as if he understood something.

“And you? What’s your way of venting?” Shen Qingzhu couldn’t help but ask.

The Ninth Seat smiled slightly and pointed to the voluptuous women who had just left. “Beautiful women, fine wine—who doesn’t like that? Although I’m older now, I’m still a man, and I still have my desires.

When it’s time for cold-blooded killing, we kill; when it’s time to enjoy, we enjoy; when it’s time to be carefree, we are carefree. No unnecessary violence, no intrusive disturbances. I believe this is the best way for us who walk in darkness to live.”

Shen Qingzhu looked into the Ninth Seat’s eyes, and after a long while, he slowly spoke, “You don’t feel like a ‘Believer’ to me; you feel more like…”

“Like what?”

Shen Qingzhu pondered for a moment and uttered four words, “A Robin Hood.”

The Ninth Seat was taken aback, then he laughed, but slowly, his smile faded.

“When I was young, I loved to read ‘Water Margin.’ A group of disillusioned people, manipulated by fate, gathered together, disregarding societal views and the constraints of rules. They engaged in robbery and theft, yet they did good deeds to protect the common people…

Back then, when Lord Murmurs found me, he detailed what kind of equal and just perfect society would emerge after the evil god descended. I was young, filled with passion, but reality left me battered and bruised. I felt this disgusting society needed correction, and the ‘Believers’ were like the Liangshan heroes bearing the mission of salvation.

Lord Murmurs was, of course, the Song Jiang in my heart.

In the early days of joining the ‘Believers,’ I did meet a few like-minded friends. We regarded the name ‘Believers’ as an honor… But gradually, I realized things were not as I imagined.”

He stared at the wine glass in his hand, his voice somewhat heavy.

“Some of Lord Murmurs’ orders were beyond my understanding, but perhaps out of trust in him, I still complied… Yet I found that such orders became increasingly frequent. As time passed, the members of the ‘Believers’ changed several times, and this organization became more and more unfamiliar to me.

I simply closed my eyes, refraining from judging what was right or wrong, relying solely on my trust in Lord Murmurs to kill, kill, kill…

I don’t know when it started, but I could no longer feel ‘myself.’”

The Ninth Seat raised the wine glass to his lips, lifted his head, and drank it all in one go.

Shen Qingzhu silently watched his figure, a hint of sorrow appearing in his eyes.

The Ninth Seat was unaware, but Shen Qingzhu understood very well what was happening.

What perfect society, what Liangshan heroes, were merely means by which Murmurs lured him into the ‘Believers,’ and that so-called “trust in Lord Murmurs” was also due to the soul contract planted deep within his soul.

He wasn’t unwilling to face reality; rather, under Murmurs’ soul manipulation, he subconsciously rejected accepting reality, offering his loyalty unconditionally…

His thoughts had essentially been controlled.

If it weren’t for the ‘Heavenly Return Jade’ counteracting that soul contract for him, he might have ended up like the Ninth Seat, completely losing himself and mindlessly serving Murmurs.

In the entire ‘Believers,’ there were many like the Ninth Seat who had been deceived, but the vast majority, over time, lost themselves in the darkness, becoming true evil ‘Believers.’

Yet, despite having his soul manipulated for so many years, the Ninth Seat still subconsciously held onto his bottom line, which surprised Shen Qingzhu.

“I can feel that you are different from others,” the Ninth Seat turned to look at Shen Qingzhu, his gaze somewhat vacant, as if he were drunk. “Your eyes have something that other ‘Believers’ lack… When I first joined the ‘Believers,’ I was like that too.

I am old now, but you are still young, and your potential is greater than mine. If it were you… perhaps you could really change the current ‘Believers,’ leading the entire group to glory as Lord Murmurs said.”

He patted Shen Qingzhu’s shoulder, a slight smile on his lips. “I have high hopes for you.”

Shen Qingzhu met his gaze, silently shifting his eyes elsewhere.