Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Jiang Yi used his Divine Perception to scan the Evil Thearch City again and again, but he did not find Qian Gui or Zhan Yiming. His heart thudded as he retrieved a letter and sent it outside the restrictions, straight toward the Evil Thearch. “Look at this letter! My people have also found out that one of your elders had a hand in this matter. Whose was the resident’s wing that I attacked earlier? Hand this person over, and we’ll ask him what he knows. Evil Thearch, if you don’t deliver these two people today and give me an explanation, I will destroy your entire She Clan.”
“If you want to rescue them, come to the Evil Thearch City at once. If you don’t come in two weeks, their heads will roll.”
On reading the letter, the Evil Thearch’s expression turned ugly. He called out in an indignant tone, “A false accusation! It’s a false accusation! Jiang Yi, think about it. If I really did have the hostages, would I still use the Evil Slaughtering Elixir? Would I still fight to the death with you? Somebody has made me their scapegoat. I swear on the name of my ancestors that this has nothing to do with us! Most of the people in my clan have no idea what is going on either! As for what you said about killing billions of civilians, it was definitely not done by one of my people.”
Jiang Yi’s Divine Perception scanned the surviving Demigods’ and elders’ expressions. He discovered that each one of them looked equally confused. This made him slightly more convinced about what the Evil Thearch was saying. If the Evil Thearch really had them hostage, he would have aimed for Jiang Yi at once. He would not have had to watch so many people die and remained so helpless.
Jiang Yi congealed a phantom and pointed toward the resident’s wing which Qian Gui and Zhan Yiming were in. “Whose resident’s wing is this? My people were brought to that resident’s wing three days ago! Ask the owner of that wing to step out!”
“Uh?”
The Evil Thearch looked toward all the elders of his clan and shouted, “Whose is that?”
“Reporting to Clan Head—it looks like Elder Hu’s.”
One of the elders called out in a low voice. The Evil Thearch waved his hand and asked, “Where is Elder Hu? Find him!”
The people in the city immediately got moving, looking around the entire city to find this Elder Hu. Many of them activated their divine senses to seek him out. Within a short time, someone cried out, “She Hu is there, but it seems like… he’s dead!”
Swish!
The elder who shouted flew over to one of the castle buildings. A while later, he flew back, carrying a corpse. The person had obviously been dead for a while; the corpse had already hardened. His face was black as well. It looked like he had been poisoned.
“He ingested the lethal poison, the Life-Claiming Lotus!” A few elders said after inspecting his body for a while. One of them said in a low voice, “She Hu has been dead for at least half a day. He died before Jiang Yi even arrived.”
Jiang Yi waved his hand in the Mystic Thearch Pavilion, causing a screen to appear. He pointed at She Hu and turned to Li Feiyu and the others. “Gentlemen, please clarify this for me. Was it this elder you saw?”
Li Feiyu and the others had already reverted to their true form by then. He looked nothing like an old man now. Instead, he looked like a fierce middle-aged hero. He had a squarish face and big ears, and his gaze was as aggressive as that of a tiger’s. He turned to one of the Demigods and said, “Old Yi, you take a look.”
One of the elders of the Li Clan looked at the screen and confirmed, “That’s right. That’s him. The resident’s wing was his! My people saw Qian Gui and Zhan Yiming in his wing three days ago. Since then, they had not emerged. I don’t know why they disappeared when we entered…”
Yi Chan sighed all of a sudden. “Somebody set this up! It’s obvious what the person wanted to achieve; they wanted Jiang Yi to destroy the She Clan so that the continent would be in an even bigger mess than before!”
“Goddammit!”
Jiang Yi cursed under his breath. He closed his eyes to think deeply for several seconds. Then, he immediately sent out a voice transmission: “Evil Thearch, I don’t care if you knew this beforehand. It was one of your elders who kidnapped my people. If you don’t find those two people for me, I will cause more trouble for you…”
“…”
The Evil Thearch and the people of the She Clan rolled their eyes. Jiang Yi could tell that this was a set-up. He killed so many of their people, and yet instead of apologizing, he was making demands out of them? This was too much. Yet, was this not what the She Clan had always done to others? Now that the tides had turned, they were the ones being bullied by others.
Nobody in the She Clan dared to speak up against Jiang Yi. Reason was on the side of the strong. Jiang Yi had the Mystic Divine Palace; he had what it took to destroy the entire She Clan!
What’s more, it was obvious that one of the She Clan’s elders had indeed been a part of this entire scheme. There was no point in arguing any further. The Evil Thearch could only grit his teeth and said, “I don’t even know who they are. How do you want me to look for them? My elder was used. The Evil Thearch City is in such a mess. How am I supposed to find—?”
Swish! Swish!
Jiang Yi transported images of Qian Gui and Zhan Yiming out of the Mystic Divine Palace and into the Evil Thearch’s hands. In a cold voice, he said, “I’ll give you three days. Even if you cannot find the people, you should at least be able to find some clues. People from your own clan were made use of; you have to give some sort of explanation for that. Otherwise… hoho!”
Tsk! Tsk!
The Mystic Divine Palace used Heaven Evasion once again and headed north. Jiang Yi was no idiot. Now that he knew he had been made use of to kill the people of the She Clan, there was no way he would continue being a tool.
He had killed a significant number of formidable martial artists in the She Clan. Among these were more than ten Demigods. This was considered a huge blow to the She Clan already. Their reputation had already fallen to the lowest it had ever been in history. It would be hard for the She Clan to recover from this. Jiang Yi could finally say that the feud he had with She Fei and the Evil Thearch had finally been settled.
The Mystic Divine Palace flew away slowly. Jiang Yi used his divine senses to scan the surroundings. She Hu had been dead for more than half a day. The mastermind must only have been gone from the Evil Thearch City for that time as well. Qian Gui and Zhan Yiming must be with the true mastermind. He was hoping to gather some clues about their whereabouts using his divine senses.
However, even after flying around for half a day in the Mystic Divine Palace and checking every square inch of the surroundings thoroughly, Jiang Yi did not find anything suspicious. He found no trace of Qian Gui and Zhan Yiming or any suspicious character.
“Thank you, Lord Li and everyone!”
Jiang Yi opened his eyes and turned to face Li Feiyu, obviously exhausted. He cupped his hands and said, “I hope that you would continue to gather news on those two people and track them down for me. I, Jiang Yi, would owe you a huge favor. If there’s anything I can help you with in the future, all you would have to do is ask.”
“Hahaha!”
Li Feiyu burst into laughter. “Little Brother Jiang, you’re too polite. The Buddha Thearch did me a huge favor in the past. Now that Lady Chan has stepped out, I will surely do my best to help you. Don’t worry about returning the favor, but I will take you as a friend from now on. If you get the chance, come to Feiyu City. We can have some drinks. We will take our leave now.”
Jiang Yi cupped his hands gratefully once again. He could tell that Li Feiyu was a principled man as well. The moment Yi Chan requested for help, he offered himself. It was very loyal of him. Jiang Yi did not give them any ancient artifacts because he felt it would be overdoing it. Being friends was all about the heart.
He walked Li Feiyu and the others out before sitting down at the host’s seat to ponder everything that had happened thus far. He stopped the Mystic Divine Palace in a valley right in the middle of a mountain range.
“Jiang Yi, what should we do now?” Yin Ruobing was at her wit’s end, but Yi Chan thought of something else. She mumbled to herself, confused, “I told someone to send a message to Grandfather before we came. Why didn’t he come?”
Jiang Yi did not want to think about the Buddha Thearch. He had no headspace either to think about the calamities the continent was faced with as well. All he wanted to do was to rescue Qian Gui and Zhan Yiming. All the other things could be left to the elders. He was not a savior; neither did he have the energy to save the world now.
“Wait!”
After pondering for a couple of seconds, he suddenly cried out. “We wait for the Evil Thearch to find clues, and we wait for the mastermind to act once again. Since they are using me to annihilate the She Clan, they will definitely want to use me to destroy the other clans as well. The next time the mastermind acts, we will investigate more before making our move.”
