The Side Character Who Wins by Doing Nothing

The more she thought about it, the more alarming the whole affair seemed.

At the same time, a boundless rage ignited in Lu Sangjiu’s heart. ’The Western Demon Realm is already in decline. Who in the world is still running such a depraved business?’

’Before Ah Ming, how many others from the Western Demon Realm have lost their lives here?’

Taking a deep breath, Lu Sangjiu looked at Ah Ming again. ”Before you... had you heard of anyone else disappearing for no reason?”

Ah Ming nodded. ”At first, I didn’t think much of it, but then I gradually started to put things together... Before I was captured, a lot of people had gone missing, mostly Loose Cultivators.”

”The Sect Master of the Divine Tomb Sect was investigating it, but I was abducted before he found any leads.”

’So that’s it,’ she thought. ’This definitely isn’t a random incident.’

But even filled with rage, she knew it would be impossible to find the mastermind easily.

Lu Sangjiu calmed herself and questioned Ah Ming again. ”What about after you escaped? Did anyone come after you? And why have you been lingering here instead of trying to get back to the Western Demon Realm?”

At the mention of this, Ah Ming’s expression turned pained. ”Of course I want to go back to the Western Demon Realm. I’ve tried, but I just can’t find a safe route.”

”You should know... it’s mainly the monks from the Ten Thousand Buddha Sect, plus some other Cultivators. They’ve sealed the border of the Western Demon Realm airtight. With my meager skills, there’s no way I could sneak in.”

”As for anyone coming after us... I haven’t seen anyone myself, but I know that most of the people who escaped with me have since disappeared.”

He had his reclusive and timid nature to thank for not liking to get too close to others.

That’s why when he escaped, he didn’t team up with anyone. He just hid on his own. Otherwise, he probably would have met a grim fate.

Lu Sangjiu was slightly disappointed to hear this, as it meant it would be impossible to follow this lead to the mastermind.

For now, she could only put the matter aside and turn her attention to the situation at hand.

”Alright, I’ve heard your story for now. Let’s talk about you running around with corpses.”

After a pause, her voice turned stern. ”Tell me, did you kill all these women?”

”What? I’ve been framed!”

Ah Ming immediately grew agitated and defended himself, ”How could I have killed them? I’m already scared out of my wits just hiding in Yuelin City. Why would I go looking for trouble and draw attention to myself?”

”You have to believe me, Miss! I really didn’t kill them! I just secretly dumped some bodies here!”

Lu Sangjiu didn’t speak. But after talking with Ah Ming for so long, she had already formed an opinion of his character.

He had decent talent, but he was incredibly timid, like a child who had never grown up.

Lu Sangjiu didn’t believe for a second that he would dare to kill so many people, one after another, all alone in Cultivator territory.

But even though she had a feeling she knew the answer, she had to be cautious, so she decided to bluff him.

Seeing how anxious he was, Lu Sangjiu finally said in a slow, measured tone, ”Oh? So you didn’t kill them. Then why were you dumping the bodies?”

”You also said you wouldn’t dare cause trouble, but I just saw you risk coming here to dump a body. Wouldn’t you call that causing trouble?”

Ah Ming was speechless. Finally, he grit his teeth. ”...Fine! I’ll tell you the truth.”

”I really didn’t kill anyone. I just happened to stumble upon them in the act... and stole the corpses.”

Lu Sangjiu found this even stranger. ”If you didn’t kill anyone, why steal the bodies?”

”To protect myself, of course.”

Ah Ming listlessly recounted the whole story to Lu Sangjiu.

To put it bluntly, it all started because of his bad luck.

Ever since he escaped, he hadn’t been able to return to the Western Demon Realm, but he was also unwilling to go any farther from it, so he had been hiding in Yuelin City.

One unlucky day, while witnessing an abduction, he panicked and revealed his presence.

Although he managed to escape, the close call left him shaken. He worried that if they found out there was a Demon Cultivator in Yuelin City, they would launch a massive manhunt, making his already difficult life even harder.

Driven by worry, he couldn’t resist investigating on his own. He ended up sneaking into the back courtyard of the City Lord Mansion, where he overheard a conversation.

”How could you all be so careless? You just had to provoke that major clan. Now look at us, we can’t shake them off!”

”Yeah, I’m worried that if this keeps up, we’ll alert the Joyful Union Sect. I’m afraid we won’t be able to cover this up then.”

”A bunch of cowards. What’s there to be afraid of?”

”Have you all forgotten about that Demon Cultivator we ran into the other day? There’s clearly a Demon Cultivator hiding in Yuelin City now. If the Joyful Union Sect really sends someone, can’t we just pin it on them?”

”Besides, we destroyed all the evidence. They won’t find anything. They’ll have no choice but to follow our lead, right?”

”That makes sense! With a ready-made scapegoat, what do we have to be afraid of?”

The men cheerfully plotted what to do if they were discovered, completely unaware that Ah Ming was eavesdropping on their entire conversation.

Ah Ming’s heart went cold as he listened. He knew that if they got their way, it was only a matter of time before he was found and exposed.

He thought hard about their conversation. ’If I hide the bodies they were supposed to destroy,’ he reasoned, ’someone will eventually find them and investigate. Won’t that make the murder case more straightforward? And then I won’t be framed, right?’

With that thought, Ah Ming immediately began stealing the bodies.

According to him, he was useless in a fight, but his specialties were stealth and escape.

So, he managed to stealthily steal several bodies in a row and hide them in this pit.

He originally planned to find a way to get someone to discover them later, but he hadn’t expected the major clan to raise such a ruckus that they ended up finding the bodies themselves so quickly.

But to his disappointment, even after those people came and investigated, they still couldn’t identify the real killers.

Instead, it only angered the City Lord, who was now dead set on catching him.

So, while he started doing it for self-preservation, the more involved he got, the more he found the City Lord detestable, and the more he pitied the dead women.

He didn’t have the power to save anyone, so all he could do was try his best to steal their bodies and dump them in the pit.

That way, if their families and friends found the remains, they could at least give them a proper burial. It was better than being burned to ash.

After hearing his story, Lu Sangjiu finally understood why the case was so full of contradictions and oddities.

’So it wasn’t just that two different parties were involved,’ she thought. ’It was also because one of them clearly isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed...’

Lu Sangjiu was stunned by Ah Ming’s shenanigans. She asked, finding it hard to comprehend, ”If you were so afraid of being framed from the start, why didn’t you just hide and keep your head down?”

”But no, they wanted to frame you, so you decided to get even more involved? Aren’t you just begging to be the scapegoat?”

Ah Ming let out an ”Ah?” his eyes looking a little dazed. ”That... actually makes a lot of sense, huh.”

Then he stared at Lu Sangjiu with wide, innocent eyes. ”Um... did I do something stupid again?”