Chapter 72
Lin Jichen had been living a carefree life these past few days. When Zhou Xuanzhi brought Deng Lan to her door and she learned about the theft of the divine artifact, her expression was quite interesting.
"Such a big deal?" Lin Jichen felt that the theft of the divine artifact was far beyond what he could handle. "Does the sect leader and the others know? What did they say?"
The Chen family has notified all the immortal sects to guard their belongings and asks for everyone's help.
Upon learning the news, Tianyu Mountain immediately sent a notification. Zhou Xuanzhi said, "The sect leader instructed us to await their arrival and assist the Chen family in continuing their investigation into the whereabouts of the Breath Soil."
Lin Jichen had some suspicions before, the worst being that there was a traitor in his family who would kill and run away. Now it turns out that the Breath of Earth has been stolen. Now it seems that it wasn't an internal traitor, but someone who could steal the Breath of Earth silently without alerting any members of the Chen family—what kind of strength would that require? Only the sect leader and elders of Tianyu Mountain could accomplish such a feat.
But the more he thought about it, the more chilling it became. "We came to Suzhou because of those demons, and now something has really happened to Suzhou. So... those demons already knew about the Suzhou artifact?"
Zhou Xuanzhi continued, "We still don't know how the demons suddenly appeared in the capital. If they really have some kind of method, then..."
“Then a great battle is not far off…” Lin Jichen continued what Zhou Xuanzhi hadn’t finished saying.
"How did those demons know that something bad was going to happen in Gusu? Logically speaking, their level shouldn't be able to access such things. The most crucial question is, how did the demons know that the Chen family possessed a divine artifact?" Deng Lan thought about it for a long time but still couldn't figure it out. In fact, he still didn't believe that there would be a traitor within the immortal sect.
"We only realized something must have happened to the Chen family after we arrived, which is why we tried to sneak into Hanshan Academy." But we never imagined it would be something as serious as the theft of a divine artifact. Arriving in Suzhou at this crucial moment, I would also carefully question them if I were in their shoes.
Lin Jichen couldn't understand either. The use of this Breath Soil was tantamount to being useless to the Demon Clan, so why would they steal it? Or did they have some unspeakable secret?
Deng Lan looked at the three people with worried faces and said, "If you can't figure it out, then don't think about it. The leaders and elders of each sect will arrive in a couple of days, and we will follow their instructions."
With such a major incident happening to the Chen family, it must be quite difficult for the people of Hanfeng Valley to bring three people from Tianyu Mountain to the Chen family now!
"Can we go in?" Zhou Xuanzhi asked.
Deng Lan said helplessly, "The Chen family is eager for you all to go!" Some of the Chen family members are currently investigating the whereabouts of Xi Rang, some are guarding Gu Su, and some are guarding the Chen family. There are no more people available.
The group of four arrived at the Chen family's residence. From the moment they entered the mountain gate, they went through countless checks, and all the formations were activated. They encountered patrol teams every few steps.
Deng Lan explained from the side, "The Chen family initially suspected an inside job, and some of their disciples are still investigating their own family members."
That makes sense. How would outsiders know where this Breath of Earth is hidden? If Deng Lan hadn't told them, they wouldn't have known the Chen family possessed such a divine artifact.
"We've been investigating for so long and still haven't found a single clue." Zhou Xuanzhi was also thinking about this question. If it wasn't one of their own people, then who could it be?
It must be said that the Chen family estate is quite large. They had been walking for a long time and still hadn't reached their destination, but they did encounter someone. Unlike the person they had seen on the street that day, Chen Xingyan was wearing the training clothes of a Chen family disciple, and was followed by several disciples.
"Senior Brother Deng," Chen Xingyan greeted, "these people behind you look very familiar."
Of course they looked familiar; everyone had seen them before. Chen Xingyan and the several Chen family members behind him looked extremely haggard. Chen Xingyan, in particular, looked completely different from when they had met him the other day. It seemed that the Chen family was truly short-handed.
Deng Lan introduced, "This is a member of the Chen family, Chen Xingyan." Then he added, "These three are disciples of Tianyu Mountain: Zhou Xuanzhi, Xiao Mu, and Lin Jichen."
"So you are junior brothers and sisters from Tianyu Mountain. My apologies for my rudeness." Chen Xingyan lowered his posture and gave some instructions to the disciples behind him, after which they left.
Then Chen Xingyan led them to the guest rooms, where they sat down. He then voiced his questions: Why were these cultivators concealing their identities to come to Suzhou? And why did they insist on entering Hanshan Academy?
“Our arrival in Suzhou was purely coincidental,” Zhou Xuanzhi explained simply. “At first, we thought something had happened to the Chen family that was related to the demons. We are truly sorry, our actions were also rash.”
"Junior Brother Zhou, please don't say that. In fact, I should apologize to everyone." Several cultivators came to Gusu to eat, drink, and have fun, but something just didn't feel right. If it was for an investigation, then that's why.
Zhou Xuanzhi handled this polite scene all by himself, saying, "It's my duty, Senior Brother Chen."
Lin Jichen and Xiao Mu sat to the side, watching the two boast to each other, and an idea came to them: they really should learn from them, so that they could make their junior brothers and sisters proud when they went out in the future.
"Did you find anything in Suzhou?" Deng Lan asked Chen Xingyan.
Xiao Mu waved his hand, "Don't mention it. Our initial investigation was wrong. From the moment we arrived in Suzhou, we tried every means to sneak into Hanshan Academy and see if we could get into the Chen family." He looked at Chen Xingyan with apology in his eyes.
"Speaking of which, how well have they checked outside the city?" If I were a thief, I would have run away as soon as I succeeded. Why would I continue to wait in Suzhou?
This question is for Chen Xingyan to answer. "After we discovered that the Xirang had been stolen, we searched the entire city of Suzhou, but we couldn't find a single trace."
"It's as if they vanished into thin air." These past few days, he'd been searching everywhere for clues. The brothers guarding the city said three unusual cultivators had arrived, so he'd investigated them himself but found nothing unusual. Just when he was about to investigate further, the three of them showed up on their own. Who would have thought they were from Tianyu Mountain?
Vanished into thin air?
Zhou Xuanzhi seemed to have thought of something, and he hurriedly asked, "We didn't even detect the presence of the thieves?"
Chen Xingyan nodded. "What's wrong, Senior Brother Zhou? Has something come to mind?"
"Do you remember the Immortal Alliance Conference held in the capital before?"
Upon hearing this, Lin Jichen also realized something. "You mean... it's related to the demons that suddenly appeared in the capital?"
The Chen family, who hadn't attended the Immortal Alliance Conference, had heard about the sudden appearance of demons in the capital. A group of demons had suddenly appeared in the heavily guarded capital, and so far, no clues had been found. Now, with something similar happening to the Chen family, it was hard not to suspect something.
"Brother Zhou, do you mean they have mastered some method that allows them to come and go as they please?"
It must be said that Chen Xingyan's idea was indeed quite bold. If that were really the case, then the Ten Directions Barrier at sea would be rendered useless.
What exactly are the demons' goals? Since they already know the method, why not just attack directly? Why steal the Breath of Earth? Many questions remain unanswered, and this doesn't seem like the demons' style. The human world holds immense appeal for them; it's unlikely they would know the method but choose not to use it. This situation simply doesn't make sense.
Zhou Xuanzhi also held a pessimistic view on this, saying, "It is unlikely that they can disappear without a trace right under the noses of the Immortal Sect. Perhaps there really is a traitor among us."
Speaking of this, Lin Jichen suddenly remembered that they said the elders of various sects already knew about what happened in Gusu. She asked, "The elders of the various sects of the immortal sects should know, what did they say?"
In their eyes, their generation is still a group of children who haven't grown up yet, and there are some things they would rather not say, such as what is happening now.
Everyone's expressions changed; they must know something inside, but they wouldn't say. Clearly, they weren't treated as adults and didn't want them to face the truth. Thinking about it this way, the reason why each sect sent disciples down the mountain became clear: to keep their disciples away from danger.
"We didn't seem to be very obedient." Xiao Mu recalled how he and a group of fellow disciples got into trouble and broke the rules of Tianyu Mountain when they were young. Even Lin Jichen and Zhou Xuanzhi, who were well-behaved in front of their elders, had their moments of transgression, and the trouble he caused was much bigger.
Hearing Xiao Mu say this, Zhou Xuanzhi recalled how the musicians practiced their instruments day and night, disturbing everyone around them. It seemed that he and his junior brother had broken all the strings of their instruments while they were resting.
Lin Jichen recalled that he had once gone to the herb garden of a herb cultivator with a sword cultivator to secretly pick herbs, unintentionally ruining a whole garden of herbs.
They both looked at Xiao Mu simultaneously. He was even more ruthless. Back then, they, as sword cultivators, stole medicine from medicine cultivators and talisman cultivators' paper to maintain their swords. After being discovered, they were chased for over half a year. Later, they went to the back mountain to spy on the female cultivators of the neighboring Nanyu Peak practicing and bathing. Fortunately, the back mountain was guarded by their Martial Aunt Wanqing, who chased them all away. Otherwise, they, the group of sword cultivators, might have all died at the hands of the Nanyu Peak female cultivators.
Feeling the disdain in their eyes, Xiao Mu felt a little uncomfortable. He quickly said, "Everyone has their moments of naivety. Are you two so great?"
The two looked away, but Zhou Xuanzhi coughed and said, "Indeed, since the elders won't say, we can investigate ourselves."
Whether they were fellow disciples from the same school or simply had some unspoken understanding, Chen Xingyan and Deng Lan, though unaware of what was causing their discomfort, remained silent. "In that case," they said, "let's split up."
The various sects should already know what happened in Gusu. Sure enough, just as these people stepped outside, they saw the Exorcist Bureau personnel arrive at the Chen family's residence. Leading them was the sect leader's disciple, Su Liyue, and several of the people following behind her were people they recognized from the capital.
The exorcist disciples in the capital, due to their privileged backgrounds, were mostly arrogant. One person who left a deep impression on Xiao Mu was the man behind Su Liyue, named Du Song. His background was similar to Zhou Xuanzhi's; many members of his family held high-ranking positions, and some were even related to the royal family. Such a background made him even more disdainful of others. The easiest to get along with among them were Su Liyue and Murong Jing, who was at the back of the group.
Zhou Xuanzhi looked at the solemn expressions of the Exorcist Division members. He hadn't been able to contact Shi Yunzhou for a long time, something that had never happened before. Furthermore, the Exorcist Division of the capital usually only operated around the capital; now that they had come to Suzhou, things must be serious. He was now quite worried about Shi Yunzhou.
"The fact that the Exorcism Bureau has been mobilized must mean they are demons." Xiao Mu had some doubts before, but the Exorcism Bureau's recent operations have all taken place outside the capital, which must be related to demons. Otherwise, why would they travel all the way to Suzhou? The fact that the leaders and elders of various sects are so nervous must be related to demons.
Zhou Xuanzhi is also a little worried. "It should be." But what about Shi Yunzhou?
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