Chapter 154: Join the association?

The team moved as fast as they could to get all of the people out of there without causing any further injuries to their bodies. And in turns took the badly injured people back out to the main road on stretchers where they could then be airlifted to safety.

Haru, Lian and Meiling all stuck together as multiple groups of emergency responders took over until a police officer walked over and greeted Lian.

"Thank you for letting us take over. We will now be able to keep the media away. The lest thing that anyone wants is this to blow out of proportion and then take a tool on your cultivator association." He sighed and then looked at Haru for a moment.

"And you must be the young man who cleared this place out? You have my thanks, We knew people were going missing in the area but we assumed it was down to animal attacks. I never even suspected they were being kidnapped. I will make sure to write up a good report for your superiors to read." He smiled as he spoke and then looked at the young girl he was holding with sympathy.

"Superiors?" Haru asked.

"Yeah, I am on good terms with the president of the association. I will make sure to mention what you have done to him." The police officer said and then looked over to Lian who had giggled a little as he spoke.

The police officer looked at her with questioning eyes before feeling self-conscious that he had said something wrong.

"There's no need to write anything. I'm not a member of their association so you will just be wasting your time." Haru informed him of his mistake and then looked back at Lian who had a grin on her face.

The police officer looked surprised for a moment before looking at Lian to confirm if what Haru had said was true. She simply nodded her head in confirmation and then began to think about something while the officer responded.

"I'm sorry, I thought since you were so young and the one to overpower so many cultivators that you must have been a member of the association… Then… you aren't from the Hong family are you?" He asked with a look of surprise on his face.

"The Hong family? No, I'm not. Why?" Haru asked with confusion. That was the second time he had heard of the Hong family since he had arrived. From what Lian had told him they were a family from the capital with a daughter who slaughtered a whole sect on her own.

"You are the second person to wipe out a whole sect on your own this year, I thought the Hong family might have been trying to take over shanghai but I guess not. I was worried for a moment.

Anyway, I would love to stay and chat but I had better go and call for more people. I didn't expect there to be so many bodies, I think we are going to need a truck to transport them all." The police officer said with another sigh and then walked away to join the other officers.

Lian suddenly looked at Haru with an intense stare for a few seconds that caught his attention. He turned his head to see her still staring.

"What is it?" He asked while thinking that she had seen something that he hadn't.

"I was going to ask you later. But that just reminded me. I was wondering if you wanted to join our association?" She looked at Haru as she spoke but his expression didn't change at all, giving her a good idea that he already made up his mind before she asked him.

"I'll pass." He responded bluntly without even taking time to think it over.

"I suspected as much, but can I ask why not?" She inquired into why he had made his decision so quickly. He didn't even know the benefits that would come with being a member yet he was quick to decide against it.

"Well… Let me ask you this. If I was to join your sect and I pissed someone off to the point that they wanted to kill me. Would your association stand by me no matter who it was that was looking for me?" He asked.

Lian looked down to the ground before answering.

"Well, there are some people that we can't afford to go against… But as long as you didn't offend any of those people then we would stand by you." She quickly added to make it seem like it was a benefit to him.

"And what about the crimson spider people? You seemed like they were a big enemy for your association. What would happen if they demanded that you hand them over to them?" He asked another question.

"That is why I was thinking of getting you to join us. If you were a high ranking member of our organisation we could probably settle things without a fight. We are on a level with them where it is mutually assured destruction for us if one of us decided to attack the other so it would ward off any sneak attacks against you." She said and then thought about it.

"But if you were a member then it would be a decision from the elders. It would be voted on whether or not to hand you over to them so I can't say with certainty that it wouldn't happen." She added and then seemed to start to understand why he refused her offer. But Haru wasn't quite done with his questions.

"Then what if I decided to kill the president of your organisation?" He asked her with seriousness. But it took a minute for the question to sink in.

"Wait… What? Why would you want to kill… Are you planning to kill the president!?" She shouted out with a look of rage forming on her face.

"Did I misjudge his intentions?!? She thought as she looked at him with suspicion.

"No. I don't plan on killing anyone from your association but if for some reason I made an enemy with one of the people you can't afford to offend it would make me an enemy of your association. Or if it was ordered for me to be handed over to the crimson spiders.

I can't say for certain how I would react to the betrayal. If I joined your association it would be out of trust, I wouldn't join just for benefits. And quite frankly I don't trust your association." Haru went on to say, causing even more confusion for Lian.

"You don't trust me?" She asked with a hint of sadness to her voice.

"I trust you personally. But I'm guessing there are many members since you can pull out so many people to help me as you did. And the problem with having many people is the fact that they have different beliefs. Can you say for certain that you can trust every single person in your association? Without even the slightest doubt." He asked her.

"I would like to think that…" She began to say.

"That's not what I asked. I asked you if you trust every single member of your association without a doubt." He asked her again but this time making his question even clearer.

"Well, there are hundreds of members all across the country. I haven't even met most of the people so I can't trust them completely…" She said now gaining a better understanding of Haru as a person.

"And that is the issue I have. Unless I knew without a doubt that I wouldn't be betrayed by any of your members I wouldn't join." He sighed.

"Then what about your sect? Why did you join that? I doubt it has few members do you trust all of them?" She asked.

"Well, I know without a doubt that they wouldn't betray me. If I decided to declare war with another country they would follow me into war and fight until their last breath…" He said mindlessly and then realised what he had just done. He had almost exposed himself as a first-generation disciple of the original black star sect…

"What? Just who are you? How can you make a sect follow you like that unless… Are you the leader of THAT sect!?" She jumped to a conclusion based on what he had just said.

"No no no… The sect just values trust… We have a set of rules that say "If a fellow disciple is close to death you must do anything in your power to give him life." So we all share a common understanding of trust…" He saved himself from suspicion by making up a lie on the spot.

"Calm down. It was just a joke. We have analysts that have done research on your sect and they came to the conclusion that they are very protective of their members. It was written in a book a few hundred years ago that a member of you sect was slain by an emperor.

But out of retaliation, his whole empire was slain to the last person. They were massacred without mercy. And when the person who found that book read the name of the sect out loud he was squashed like a bug by a giant palm. That's how we know about the evil god." She said and then looked at the girl he was still holding.

"If you don't intend to join us… Then what about the girl? She has seen and heard too much to be let back into civilisation. Will she join your sect? Or will you hand her to us? We have a school for young kids to learn how to cultivate…" Lian asked.