Chapter 2: Aum Truth

Carrying the Tiger Zen Saber on his back, Shen Ye strode into the central office building of the Youquan Mountain Villa.

After directly asking at the front desk, he headed straight for the sixth floor.

The conference room was on the sixth floor.

He pushed the door open and took a look.

Ah, a group of familiar faces.

Because of gambling, Xuanyuan Du, who had lost one eye, was holding a deck of cards and playing with them.

The other four people were also acquaintances he had met before.

For instance, Captain Nangong Zhu stood at over one meter seven tall, with legs that were easily one meter two, rivaling those of any professional leg model.

Tong Chuchu stood at just over one meter four, with a face as naive as a child's and a completely flat chest. She genuinely looked like a middle school girl in her early teens.

Then there was Monk Jierou, who always loved eating meat yet constantly proclaimed, "This poor monk must vow to abstain from meat."

And finally, the lecherous Taoist priest who always liked to stroke girls' hands, saying, "This poor Taoist is most skilled in palmistry. Come, let me read your palm. My fees are low, but my standards are exceptionally high."

Back then, after he posted the death notice and slaughtered the merciless Du Sha and Qin Zhengtian, he had been cornered by these very four individuals.

One-on-one, he could comfortably defeat any of them. One-on-four, however, he would not have had much confidence.

At that time, he had even had to rely on spider silk to escape across the towering skyscrapers.

Naturally, Shen Ye now had to put on the appearance of a newcomer, a hint of slight confusion in his eyes as he sized up the four of them.

Captain Shen sat there smoking a cigarette. "Let me introduce you. These are the five squad leaders of our Second Squadron, excluding yourself. You've already met Xuanyuan Du. This is Nangong Zhu, captain of the First Squad. Tong Chuchu, captain of the Third Squad. Monk Jierou, captain of the Fifth Squad. And the lecherous Taoist priest, captain of the Seventh Squad. They are all your seniors, so to speak."

Shen Ye had no choice but to put on the persona of a greenhorn and exchange greetings with each of them one by one.

Nangong Zhu looked at Shen Ye with mild curiosity. "The youngest squad leader? Still, since you were able to defeat Sun Hongshan, you must have some strength."

Her tone was not entirely certain.

Clearly, she did not believe Shen Ye was on the same tier of strength as her.

Shen Ye naturally felt the unspoken attitude. *Hah, this long-legged woman is showing off again. Speaking of real strength, if I use my Gigantic Strength Strike, I could beat her to a pulp in a one-on-one fight.*

Tong Chuchu also looked at Shen Ye with curiosity, but immediately put on a proud and spoiled air. "Don't let my size fool you; I'm already twenty-six years old! You should call me Sister Tong or Sister Chuchu. Go on, call me Sister Chuchu and let me hear it."

Tong Chuchu was slender and youthful, resembling a junior high school student, and her biggest fear was being mistaken for a child. Yet, every single part of her was diminutive.

Shen Ye shrugged without saying a word. Truly, calling someone who looked like a middle schooler "Elder Sister" was simply beyond him.

Seeing Shen Ye's shrug, Tong Chuchu flew into a rage. "What is that supposed to mean? Are you looking down on me? I'm twenty-six years old, you know! I checked your file—you're only twenty-three, right?"

She tried her best to leap up.

However, even when she jumped, she barely reached Shen Ye's waist.

Consequently, Shen Ye's expression grew even more disdainful.

Tong Chuchu became even angrier at this. "Unbelievable! I'm going to tear you apart!"

Nangong Zhu, long familiar with Tong Chuchu's temperament, immediately stepped in to hold her back. Nangong Zhu stood at over one meter seven, while Tong Chuchu was barely over one meter four.

The result was that as Nangong Zhu held her suspended, Tong Chuchu's little legs kicked furiously in mid-air, looking thoroughly aggrieved and furious.

"Chuchu is always like this. She hates it most when people think she's young," Nangong Zhu explained on her behalf.

Shen Ye shrugged. "It's fine."

Monk Jierou looked at Shen Ye and asked, "Do you eat dog meat?"

"I do."

"Good, then we can be friends. The only people I can't stand are those who don't eat dog meat. Let the dog meat simmer away, and even immortals will sway thrice." Monk Jierou shook his head, looking as if he had just caught the aroma of dog meat. "Beef and mutton are also quite good, and donkey meat is fine too. But none of them compare to dog meat. Someday when we have the chance, we'll go eat dog meat together."

"Sounds good," Shen Ye said with a smile, accepting Monk Jierou's goodwill.

The lecherous Taoist priest, seeing that Shen Ye was not a woman, lost interest entirely. He only ever came alive in the presence of young maidens.

Seeing that Shen Ye had finished greeting the other squad leaders, Captain Shen clapped his hands with a sharp smack. "Now that you've all met each other, let me brief you on this mission."

"Ordinarily, I could go straight into the details, but since we have a newcomer in Shen Ye, I'll elaborate a bit."

"Back in the day, when the senior martial arts grandmaster Liang Zijin founded the Red-Clothed Guard, he stated that the organization had two main missions: internally, to suppress the martial arts world; externally, to resist various foreign hostile forces—for instance, the ninjas of Fusang, or the vampires and werewolves of Europe."

"However, Senior Liang Zijin suffered a deviation in his cultivation and died. Our Red-Clothed Guard subsequently adapted to the times and changed its name to the Special Operations Group."

"The mission to internally suppress the martial arts world has practically vanished. After all, in the martial arts community, everyone is connected to everyone else through complex ties of relations and favors. Suppression is hardly a pleasant affair. Furthermore, our Special Operations Group no longer possesses the strength to suppress the Ten Great Sects. Therefore, as long as martial arts practitioners—especially those from the Ten Great Sects—don't cross the line, we turn a blind eye and pretend not to see."

"However, the mission to resist foreign hostile forces has never ceased."

"This, too, is a matter of protecting our homes and defending our country."

"Who is the opponent this time? Just spell it out," Nangong Zhu asked directly, as her working style was always straightforward.

"Aum Shinri," Captain Shen casually tossed out five booklets. "Everything you need to know about Aum Shinri is in here."

Shen Ye carefully examined the documents in his hands.

Aum Shinrikyo was an organization originating from Fusang.

The leader of this cult was named Asahara Shouichi.

This Asahara Shouichi was born into an ordinary family, suffered from congenital partial blindness, and spent his childhood studying in a school for the blind. Later on, through unknown means, his vision suddenly recovered, and he acquired extraordinary martial arts skills. According to his own claims, he had received instructions from a divine entity, which was the source of his various supernatural phenomena.

Having acquired martial arts prowess, he was unwilling to remain an ordinary person, nor was he content merely to be a conventional martial artist.

He began founding a cult.

Thus, Aum Shinri was born into being.

Aum Shinrikyo possessed a rigorous internal organizational structure modeled after the government agencies of Japan. Asahara himself served as the "Holy Pope," governing twenty-one provincial ministries and departments. These included the Imperial Pope's Office, the Inner Pope's Court, the Eastern Believers Bureau, the Western Believers Bureau, the Intelligence Ministry, the Ministry of Autonomy, the Defense Agency, the Ministry of Construction, the Ministry of Healing, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Vehicles, the Ministry of Labour, the Ministry of Finance, the Distribution Monitoring Ministry, the Ministry of Commerce, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Each institution was headed by a director.

Members of Aum Shinrikyo adhered to a strict hierarchy of titles: Cult Leader Asahara → Senior Master → Enlightened Master → Master → Great Master → Monk Leader → Ascetic → Lay Believer.

Aum Shinrikyo demanded absolute obedience to Asahara, and its rules for followers were extremely harsh. According to a female believer who defected in 1990: "During intensive spiritual training, diet and sleep were strictly controlled. Meals were reduced from three to two a day, and sleep was shortened to three hours. The training generally lasted for two months."

Once a person joined Aum Shinrikyo, it was like falling into a cage. Many who entered this cult organization went "missing," and quite a few of them were actually silenced by Asahara and his criminal syndicate. Any believers who attempted to escape or quit, if caught, were subjected to brutal torture, after which they were thrown into dark, damp little rooms and deprived of food and water until they starved to death.

This cult was exceptionally evil.

"Recently, a senior master subordinate to Aum Shinri, along with some of his master-level underlings, has reportedly sneaked into our territory in secret, intending to expand their influence here."

"To prevent our citizens from being harmed by this cult,"

"The higher-ups have assigned us the mission to track down that senior master and either arrest him or eliminate him on the spot."