Curse The Mainframe! 461 Brainwashing

They were technically a group of four since they had Klyse with them.

The three of them made their way to what Qingxuan spotted as the person giving the orders.

This entire time, Klyse kept silent as he took in the changes that his disciple had gone through, a.s.sessing him on his growth.

The leader was dressed like the rest of the death soldiers, and the only difference was that their expression wasn't as dead as the real soldiers' eyes. But his acting was on point, and he obviously had a lot of experience acting like the rest of the group.

However, Qingxuan picked him out without a problem.

Qingxuan's eyes glinted, and he snuck up behind the man, slitting his throat quietly while he was unaware. This man was the one who had been in charge of his 'orders' previously, ordering him to kill himself after the deed was done.

Of course, his brainwas.h.i.+ng had been so thorough that the sect had no illusions he would be able to keep his thought process, but Qingxuan had been more resilient than they could ever imagine.

Not only that, the thought about his master's death had infuriated him so deeply that he was unable to rid himself of his emotions fully.

This in turn allowed him to keep most of his logical reasoning… now that he had a chance, why would he not take revenge?

More importantly, it seemed important to his master that they were trusted by the group, so of course Qingxuan would take the chance to demonstrate that he was no longer loyal to the Evans Sect. 

The deaths soldiers didn't even care about their supposed leader's death at all, continuing to close in on the encirclement. They already had their orders, and they were just mindlessly following it.

They had no individuality, and no other thoughts about anything else.

Without a leader, they were effectively crippled.

There was more than one leader, and Alec could hear the sounds of fighting in another part of the forest. A gurgle came from the other leader, and they were dead.

Alec raised a brow and whistled, but they didn't look back at all. He nodded. This was indeed the problem with death soldiers. They had already been long since devoid of their ability to think, having been brainwashed to only follow orders.

This was the main reason why none of the death soldiers ever made it back, yet people still insisted on cultivating death soldiers to use as disposable tools.

Alec's lips curled.

There was the sound of bloodshed and metal clanging in the forest, but there weren't any shouts or yells at all.

No doubt that the slaughter had already begun.

They dragged the bodies to the centre, where they piled the bodies together and burned them after making sure that there was nothing else on them.

The death soldiers only had simple weapons and plain clothing, nothing that could allow themselves to be traced back to where they came from.

The death soldiers' minds could not be recovered since they were already broken beyond repair, but they still deserved a proper send off.

The choking scent of burning human flesh filled their nose, and Alec felt as if he was choking on ash.

Deep down, he felt the anger inside him ignite strongly – something that had not happened for a while. The last time he felt this deeply apoplectic was when he saw the injustice that was happening due to the company's seals.

Now, it felt like déjà vu.

Except it was literal brainwas.h.i.+ng and breaking them beyond repair.

While his 'mind controlled' people were technically under him, they had just switched loyalties.

Even Loeri could not bring their minds back.

Alec felt stifled. He didn't kill the three death soldiers that had survived the confrontation with the rest of the death soldiers. Instead, he sent them to town with daily missions. He ordered them to interact with at least three people a day, and to make their own decisions.

It might not help, but it was better than not trying at all.

The group was sombre in the face of the death of so many death soldiers.

They had all seen how the death soldiers looked.

Even in the face of death, there was no flicker of emotion, not last desperate attempt at survival. Most of them had gone down without a fight, and they didn't retaliate at all.

It felt sickening, like mowing down gra.s.s.

They were no better than puppets following orders blindly.

Le Xuan leaned to the side and vomited, heaving. She felt terrible having done that to a bunch of people who had their minds forcefully broken. She felt as if she had killed an innocent, though most of them probably weren't.

Brian broke away from the rest of the group and comforted her awkwardly, handing her a bottle of water.

"Thanks," Le Xuan said, her voice hoa.r.s.e. She was different from how she normally portrayed herself, but Brian felt as if the girl that was Katherine's best friend appeared much more delicate like this.

Her eyes were red-rimmed, but behind the show of vulnerability, there was a strong core of determination that spoke about how she was going to kill whoever had made these death soldiers.

Brian nodded at her, then returned to watch the cremation with the rest of the group to give their proper respects.

Death soldiers were never a glorious thing, and even if people had them, they never boasted about them.

How much brutality and inhumanity had gone into creating a single death soldier, let alone so many of them like they saw before them now?

No, the cancer that was the Evans Sect had to go.

Klyse knew what Le Xuan was thinking. "My disciple and I are no longer part of the Evans Sect. Do as you wish. Should you want it, we would be willing to fight as well."

"Really?" Le Xuan asked, surprised. "Isn't your last name Evans as well?"

"It is. But I have already died once. Any sense of responsibility has also been pa.s.sed along with my body."

Le Xuan hummed, straightening herself as she returned to the rest of her team.

"How about Qingxuan?"

"I have no loyalty to a bunch of ungrateful dogs that have betrayed my master."

Le Xuan raised an eyebrow. "But surely not all of them have betrayed Klyse? Are you just going to let all the innocents perish as well?"

Qingxuan looked at her quietly. "To prevent similar occurrences from happening in the future, you must eliminate it from the roots."

Le Xuan fell silent. She knew intellectually that what he was saying was the truth, but she couldn't accept it without any struggle on her part. The Evans Sect was a giant sect, and their reach and connections spread out far and wide.

To truly eliminate it from the roots was too hard.

Even if the core part of the sect was rotten, but other parts were still pure.

She closed her eyes, then opened them again, and they were filled with determination. "Then, I will do it. No matter what people call me in the future, this is my responsibility."

For the first time, Klyse felt a stirring of admiration for this young girl in front of him that had become his master by chance. She was strong-willed and was willing to take actions that could be seen as 'evil' in the eyes of others in order to prove her ideals.

Not everyone could do that.

Whether she could accomplish it, on the other hand…

They would have to wait and see.