Chapter 237 | My Class Is Ghost Bride, But This Isn’t Romance

While the struggling Cult Leader was distracted, looking for a moment to settle accounts, Bai Ci made her move.

The ropes binding her had been tied with slipknots beforehand; though they appeared tight, they fell away with a gentle tug and a shrug.

Before the heavily injured Cult Leader could react, she lunged forward, wound up her fist, and punched him squarely in his injured chest and abdomen.

Clean and decisive, with no wasted motion.

Already severely battered by the heavenly thunder and with his vital energy in chaos, the Cult Leader had no strength to block the blow. The impact sent his blood churning, and he rolled across the ground.

Seizing this opening, Bai Ci jumped off the ten-foot-tall platform without hesitation. Landing steadily, she made her way toward Xiang Jinsheng and Lin Wenyu.

On the high platform, the Cult Leader, barely pushing himself up, watched the direction Bai Ci was heading. He finally managed to piece everything together.

So that disciple who had joined halfway but had earned the core trust was the biggest wildcard hidden right under his nose from the very start.

Every single flaw, accident, and scheme had come from these two.

He glared at the two—no, three—people below the platform, murderous intent surging in his eyes as he gritted his teeth and let out a dark snort.

“Good, very good!”

“Do you think that by ruining the ritual and spoiling my opportunity, this is all over?”

“Everyone, listen up! Capture them! Dead or alive!”

The Cult Leader raised his hand and barked the order. Hearing this, the scattered members of the Double Snake Cult gathered from all directions, their faces twisted in malice as they swarmed to surround and kill Bai Ci and the other two.

Or rather, they could be counted as four.

Because she couldn't fully comprehend what was happening, Madame Xu's hesitation was spotted by the cultists, who took it as proof that she was an accomplice of Bai Ci and the others.

The cultists closed in layer by layer, and the tension skyrocketed instantly.

As none of the three players possessed combat classes, they would inevitably find themselves outmatched in terms of physical force when facing such a large horde of Double Snake Cultists.

Xiang Jinsheng, however, didn't even blink, looking entirely calm and collected.

He had long anticipated this. Facing the swarming cultists, he merely raised his hand slightly, letting a small black sphere slip from his fingertips.

The black sphere shattered upon hitting the ground, and a plume of smoke billowed upward.

The smoke was thin and light, not dense enough to block anyone's vision, but it permeated the air, silently and rapidly spreading across the entire area surrounding the high platform.

This was no ordinary smoke bomb, but a trigger device.

Ever since Xiang Jinsheng inherited the deceased doctor's resources and privileges, he had secretly used his authority to plant a player with the Deadly Poisoner class into the kitchen, ensuring he snuck into the kitchen for this dharma assembly.

It was easy to imagine what would happen when a Deadly Poisoner was placed in the kitchen.

A special, slow-acting toxin had been slipped into all the food and tea served throughout the entire assembly.

If ingested alone, this poison would merely accumulate in the body, lying dormant and harmless without causing any immediate fatal effects or symptoms, making it highly difficult to detect right away.

But once the special triggering smoke was inhaled, the dormant toxin in the body would erupt, taking a person's life in the blink of an eye.

In an instant, every cultist in the area who had eaten the vegetarian meals or drunk the tea froze mid-motion.

Simultaneously, they clutched their chests, their faces contorted in agony as their bodies convulsed violently before they collapsed straight to the ground.

Screams echoed one after another. The once-dense crowd of attackers collapsed in an instant, leaving only a scattered few who weren't deeply involved with the cult still standing.

It made sense. The preparations for the assembly had started in the morning, and with almost a whole day having passed, who could hold out without eating?

Even if some core members were wealthy enough to skip the free food at the venue, they surely couldn't have avoided eating or drinking at the cult's headquarters over the past few days.

Well, too bad—the meals and tea at the headquarters had also been poisoned.

Just stacking poison after poison until one grew tired of it.

In just a few breaths, the cultists who had been brimming with murderous intent only moments ago were all on the ground, completely breathless.

The grounds were instantly carpeted with corpses, a scene so gruesome and tragic that one could hardly bear to look.

Who wouldn't be terrified witnessing such a sight?

The surviving cultists panicked. Having only recently been recruited, they had little loyalty to the Double Snake Cult to begin with. Faced with this horror, they naturally scattered and fled in all directions.

And Madame Xu, who stood amidst the crowd, naturally could not escape this fate either.

To show her devotion and curry favor with the Double Snake Cult, she had graciously consumed the food and water brought to her by the cultists while she watched over the imprisoned Bai Ci until evening.

Within this smoke-filled zone around the high platform, other than her, an outsider, everyone else who collapsed belonged to the Double Snake Cult—none of them were innocent.

Just then, a series of steady, powerful footsteps broke into the smoke-filled area.

A youth standing tall in green robes and a young lady in a fluttering skirt—Xu Jingan and Xu Zhaoyue entered side-by-side, leading a group of attendants.

To prevent their plans from backfiring and inadvertently aiding Madame Xu, they had borrowed attendants from an influential family friend who had no ties to the Double Snake Cult. Going back and forth to arrange this had naturally cost them a lot of time.

They had broken in intending to rescue their eldest brother, but they never expected to find the enemies already dead on the ground amidst the drifting mist.

“How... did you do this?” Xu Zhaoyue stared blankly at the gruesome scene before her, her eyes filled with disbelief and shock.

Lin Wenyu didn't know how to answer, so she nudged Xiang Jinsheng with her elbow.

Boss, say something!

Before Lin Wenyu's elbow could reach him, Xiang Jinsheng had already taken a step forward, sidestepping her.

He looked at the Xu siblings, his expression calm and candid. “I did it. I poisoned those cultists in advance. They destroyed my family, so they deserved to die.”

Xiang Jinsheng had played a card out of thin air, fabricating a tale of love and hatred to dress up his actions. By framing it as bringing a cult to justice, he saved himself from a lot of unnecessary complications.

As he finished speaking, Xiang Jinsheng's gaze drifted slightly, landing on Madame Xu's lifeless body on the ground nearby.

Unable to muster a look of guilt that fit the situation, he could only lower his head and say, “I am very sorry about your mother.”

“I didn't expect her to be so deeply involved with the cult. She even had the chance to eat the meals specifically prepared for the cultists, ultimately getting caught in the crossfire and suffering this disaster.”

Xu Zhaoyue did not respond.

All her shock and confusion melted into a heavy, deathly silence the moment she saw her mother's corpse not far away.

She walked over to Madame Xu in silence.

The woman who had once been so dignified and overbearing had, in the end, failed to obtain the outcome she so desperately wanted.

Yet, at the moment of her death, her expression was frozen in a look of peaceful relief.

Xu Zhaoyue slowly knelt down. Carefully lifting Madame Xu's cold body, she pulled her into her embrace.

She had lost her mother—the mother who loved her, and whom she loved in return.

All their past estrangement and arguments dissolved into nothingness in the face of life and death. No matter how many terrible mistakes her mother had made, she was still the close relative who had given her life and raised her.