Chapter 316: Chapter 76: Investigation_1

At the East Saint’s dwelling, atop the highest peak.

Witnessing the extinguishment of two Spirit Sending Signs within his hands caused Ning Daohuan’s face to twitch uncontrollably.

Just seconds after praising Zhu Ziji for not having died in countless battles, he had been immediately proven wrong.

The weird situation happened to Wang Ba too.

If he hadn’t realized that it was impossible, he would have suspected that someone was intentionally out to embarrass him.

Tang Ji, seeing this, squints his eyes. His gaze flickered with an aura of simmering danger.

“Are you playing me for a fool?”

“This… Please pardon me, Master Tang. I would never dare to entertain such a thought! There’s absolutely no reason for me to do such a thing. Please believe me, Master Tang!”

“As for why those two just died all of a sudden, I’m not sure… Rest assured, Master Tang. I will investigate until the truth comes…”

“Enough!”

Tang Ji sneers coldly, his robes swishing as he dramatically rises to his feet:

“I will come back in a year.”

With that, he flies off without further ado.

“Master Tang! Master Tang!”

Seeing Tang’s figure disappearing over the horizon, Ning Daohuan’s face – previously filled with forced smiles and apologies – suddenly darkens.

Boom!

The pavilion was smashed into pieces with the overflow of powerful mana, with rubble and broken tiles raining down in all directions.

The cultivators all held their breaths.

Ning Daohuan stood in the center of what was once the pavilion, gritting his teeth, his face shadowed with gloom.

“Bastard! This Tang fellow is a complete bastard!”

“He didn’t take me seriously at all!”

“Not at all!”

“I need to kill him!”

“Kill him!”

Just thinking about the groveling and conceding manners he just displayed, Ning Daohuan couldn’t help feeling an overwhelming sense of frustration and anger bubble up within him.

Since he took up the position of Hierarch, he has never been humiliated in such a way. Even when the previous Hierarch was around, he was well-regarded.

The only time he suffered greatly was when he initially joined Tianmen Cult.

However, the arrival of Tang Ji made him experience a kind of powerlessness he hadn’t felt in a long time. In front of Tang Shangzhen, he was like a green hand just stepping onto the path of cultivation.

Insignificant, humble, life and death hanging at the mercy of others…

Before this, he had imagined himself to be at the very top of the world he could reach.

Though he knew this was wishful thinking, never once did he imagine reality would hit him so hard, so fast.

“Nascent Soul at peak… huh…”

Ning Daohuan gazed at the distant figure that had long since disappeared, his eyes filling with a deep yearning.

“Soon.”

“Soon!”

With his back facing everyone, he suddenly spoke: “Where is Elder Lu?”

“Elder Lu is in closed-door cultivation.”

The North junior who was playing chess with Lu Yuansheng promptly spoke.

“There has been such a major event in the sect and he’s still in cultivation?”

“When he exits, have him meet me.”

Ning Daohuan frowned deeply. The people around him could sense the suppressed anger within him.

Quite a few people revealed a sense of schadenfreude, taking joy in his misfortune.

Lu Yuansheng had been greatly favored and many elders have taken offense. Seeing misfortune fall upon him, they were naturally delighted.

“There’s another thing. Does anyone know where Zhu Ziji and Wang Ba went off to?”

Ning Daohuan turned around, scanned the crowd, his eyes frigid.

In the crowd, the North junior hesitated slightly but quickly clasped his hands and spoke:

“That Wang Ba… went to see Junior Brother Lu some time ago and left after a short while. As for Zhu, he is under Junior Brother Lu’s command. He seemed to have something to do, and also left afterward.”

Upon hearing these words, Ning Daohuan immediately raised an eyebrow.

“He went to see Elder Lu… do you know where they went?”

The Junior Brother of the North hurriedly shook his head: “Please forgive me, Sect Hierarch. I don’t know about that.”

“So, it seems we have to ask Elder Lu about this.”

Ning Daohuan’s voice was cold, his eyes flickered with an eerie light.

Just as he was speaking, a sensation caused a Spirit Sending Sign to suddenly appear in his palm.

Along with the dissipation of the soul aura on the Spirit Sending Sign, its glow also dimmed.

Three golden characters on it, spelled out:

Song Buping.

“Song Buping… This man has always been guarding the passage at Jiantao Station… If he suddenly dies, could someone have infiltrated Jiantao Station?”

In the crowd, the Elder Jin of Puppet Dao who has a Golden Core could not help but caution anxiously.

Upon hearing the words, Ning Daohuan narrowed his eyes.

“Investigate it!”

…

Whoosh─

Jiantao Station, outside of The Three Danger Lands.

A gentle wind subtly stirs the broken green leaves weighed down by freshly turned dirt. The chirping of birds in the surroundings quietly died down.

At some unknown time, two cultivators dressed in black and red robes appeared before the leaves.

One has a kind face and benevolent eyes, appearing like a respectable elder.

The other is the North junior.

Both of them gaze at the scene before them in silence.

Their eyes were not on the broken green leaves, but straight ahead.

Not far away, in a corridor, stood a stout ancient tree as thick as a cylinder, only a dozen or so feet away.

The old tree was full of vigor, and its wood appeared to be quite dense.

This could be deduced from the cross-section where the trunk had been cut off.

At this moment, a cultivator clad in a red-black robe was hanging on the trunk of this tree.

A magic sword was stuck through his body, entering from his back and piercing through his chest, embedded into the tree trunk.

However, the cultivator’s face was against the tree, making it impossible to see his countenance.

However, the kindly old man could no longer hide the ferocious and angry look on his face:

“It’s Song Buping!”

“Who dare lay a hand on our Sect’s Foundation Establishment Competitor!”

The young cultivator with the surname Bei didn’t speak, but quickly stepped forward and gently pulled out the magic sword.

With this action, the cultivator’s body instantly fell.

And the stout ancient tree in front of them instantly shattered, turning into a pile of debris that was swept away by the wind.

Seeing this, the young Daoist with the surname Bei couldn’t help but show a hint of surprise in his eyes.

“Impressive mana control.”

The old man also came over, looking at the magic sword in the young Daoist’s hand, he couldn’t help but exclaim:

“This is the magic sword that Song Buping exchanged from the Sect’s treasury. I personally gave it to him.”

Hearing this, the young Daoist seemed to be deep in thought:

“Killed by his own magic sword … It seems that the person who killed Song Buping is much stronger than Song Buping.”

“However, why did they leave the Class II magic sword? Is it because they disdain it, or because they had to leave in a hurry?”

“Additionally, Song Buping died outside, with his body facing the direction of the corridor. It’s evident that he left the corridor for some reason, but quickly perceived the danger and tried to escape back to the station. However, he was unable to get away in time…”

“Junior Brother Bei, did you discover something?”

The old man couldn’t help but ask.

The young Daoist shook his head and didn’t say a word, but squatted down again, carefully examining Song Buping’s wounds and body.

However, he soon shook his head again:

“They have already been entirely destroyed. It’s impossible to discern anything from them. But there seems to be a faint aura of Blood Method… ”

“Blood Method?”

The old man was stunned, then as if he had thought of something, he exclaimed:

“Is it Zhu Ziji ?”

“No.”

The young Daoist immediately dismissed the old man’s guess: “The timeline doesn’t match. Zhu Ziji died before, while Song Buping died after.”

Upon hearing this, the old man considered for a moment, then showed a look of unwillingness: “If it’s not him, then who could it be? The Butcher Dao is famously known for its Blood Method. Given his level of power, he could certainly easily take Song Buping’s magic sword and use it to kill Song Buping.”

“Besides, Song Buping knew Zhu Ziji. He was caught off guard, so it is possible that he left the corridor with him. Then he realized the danger and wanted to escape. This aligns perfectly with your previous speculation.”

The young Daoist slightly furrowed his eyebrows, having to admit that the old man’s reasoning also made sense.

“Moreover … Who said that Zhu Ziji had to be dead for sure? As far as I know, there’s another possibility when the Spirit Sending Sign goes out…”

There was a twinkle in the old man’s eyes, he hinted.

Upon hearing this, the young Daoist was struck, spreading his Spiritual Sense around him in panic, and quickly reproached:

“Senior Brother Gu, have you gone mad! What nonsense are you talking about!”

Seeing this, the old man curled the corner of his mouth and chuckled, saying no more.

However, the old man’s words made the young Daoist begin to guess that perhaps the old man’s speculation was indeed correct.

It is very possible that Song Buping was indeed killed by Zhu Ziji himself.

After all, the two died one after another, and there was Wang Ba before them. The three were all Foundation Establishment Competitors, and now that the battle had subsided, such frequent deaths were extremely rare.

It was just too much of a coincidence.

If one said there was no connection, the young Daoist simply didn’t believe it.

Thinking back to Zhu Ziji’s hasty departure beforehand, it was probably to follow Wang Ba and seize an opportunity to act.

Meanwhile, Song Buping probably didn’t know the situation and followed out as well. Eventually, he discovered Zhu Ziji’s murder of Wang Ba, realized something was off and tried to escape.

Unfortunately, Song Buping was weak and nowhere near a match for Zhu Ziji.

As he quickly thought about it, the young Daoist surprisingly found that this line of thought was flowing quite smoothly.

The only thing that confused the young Daoist was why Zhu Ziji wanted to kill Wang Ba.

Thinking about Zhu Ziji leaving quickly after leaving Lu Yuansheng’s palace, and then Wang Ba being killed, the timeline was very tight.

The young Daoist didn’t have to think too much to guess one possibility.

“Junior Brother Lu…”

The young Daoist sighed softly.

He had high expectations for this particular junior brother.

He was talented, had many methods, was proficient in hiding, and was ruthless enough.

Such a demeanour, it was simply the spitting image of the Sect Hierarch of old days.

No wonder the Sect Hierarch had chosen him to groom as his successor.

However, if this incident was indeed Junior Brother Lu’s doing, even the Sect Hierarch’s great tolerance would likely be strained.

After all, the Spirit Sending Sign was related to the rule of the Tianmen Cult, the Sect Hierarch would never allow anyone to exist independently of the Spirit Sending Sign.

After some thought, the young Daoist immediately expelled these thoughts from his mind.

“In that case, the place where Zhu Ziji killed Wang Ba shouldn’t be too far away!”

A glint flashed in the young Daoist’s eyes.

He immediately took off with the old man, flying towards the opposite direction from where Song Buping had escaped.

It wasn’t long before both of them couldn’t help but change their expressions.

“Over there!”

Their Spiritual Sense swept across and they both sensed something in the distance interfering with their perception.

The two of them soon landed on a protruding stone pillar, standing high and overlooking the area below.

When they saw the scene below where a large area was devastated, with mountains overturned.

They both fell silent immediately.