The sovereign of Li’er Kingdom was very pleased.
After Tan Tianxin and his group captured the Bixi spirit, they rushed to claim credit from the sovereign upon their first return to the royal palace. In the great hall, several cultivators from Chihua Gate took fragments of the Bixi stone carving out of a box. They were said to have also brought back several corpses discovered in the cave. However, the condition of the bodies was so ghastly that, fearing it would frighten the sovereign, they had the guards examine them first.
“Your cultivation is exquisite, esteemed immortals. When Li’er Kingdom faced this crisis, you were willing to step forward and capture the harmful demon. I thank you on behalf of the people of Li’er Kingdom. It’s already late today, so please rest well first. Tomorrow night, I shall hold a grand banquet in the palace to thank you, immortals, for your assistance. It can also serve as an early celebration for the opportunities you’ll find before entering the secret realm,” the sovereign said with a smile.
“Starting the victory celebration already?” Tian Fangfang couldn’t help but speak up. “You’ve just caught one Bixi, and it’s still uncertain whether the matter is truly resolved. Why the rush?”
“What do you mean by that, Brother Fangfang?” Nie Xinghong of Yinfeng Sect waved his fan and asked.
Tian Fangfang despised others, calling them “Fangfang.” Upon hearing this, his expression soured. “What evidence do you have to prove this demon is the one causing chaos and killing people in the city? Li’er Kingdom is so vast, there’s surely more than one demon race hiding within it. You casually catch a demon and claim it’s the culprit. Now the demon is dead, with no way to testify, so naturally you can say whatever you want.”
“Nonsense!” Putao from Xiangling Sect’s willow eyebrows shot up in anger. “Our entire group followed the Thousand-Mile Demon Toad and tracked the demon aura to find the Bixi spirit. Moreover, there were other blood-drained corpses in that cave. If not for this, how could we be certain the Bixi spirit was the evil culprit?” She then sneered coldly, “You cowards who didn’t dare come with us to catch the demon stayed in the royal palace to enjoy leisure instead. Now that the demon has been caught, you come to find fault. How difficult to please!”
Tian Fangfang looked at her. “You’re such a pretty young lady, so why do you speak so unpleasantly? Did we go to enjoy leisure? We went to investigate the details of the merman case! Do you think running around in this hot weather isn’t tiring?”
“Then what did you discover?” Putao pressed aggressively.
“I…” Tian Fangfang wanted to mention the matter of Emperor Shengning, but this was ultimately a royal family scandal. With the current sovereign right before them and people from various major sects in the hall, it wasn’t appropriate to speak of it directly.
“At a loss for words, aren’t you?” Putao said disdainfully. “If you wanted to enjoy leisure, just say so. Why make so many excuses that only make people look down on you?”
“My senior brother’s suspicion that the Bixi spirit isn’t the real culprit isn’t random speculation,” Zanxing couldn’t stand it any longer and spoke up. “We examined those previous corpses. The female corpses only had very faint demon aura on them, but the fragments of the Bixi stone carving you brought back have very dense demon aura. It’s truly suspicious.”
“Making a mountain out of a molehill,” Huang Fan from Chihua Gate, who had fought with Zanxing before, glanced at her sideways. “Demon races are cunning. They probably used some spell to hide their demon aura. At that time in the cave, we had strength in numbers. When that demon race saw us disciples with profound cultivation, it was scared out of its wits, and its demon aura leaked out. Is this hard to guess?”
Someone in the hall suddenly laughed.
Everyone turned to look. Gu Baiying raised his eyelids and glanced at Huang Fan with a half-smile. “Saw you and was scared out of its wits?” He sat up straight and picked up a fruit from the fruit basket to toy with in his hand, his tone quite disdainful. “The people of Chihua Gate are indeed enviably confident.”
When Gu Baiying mocked people, he never showed mercy. Unfortunately, others couldn’t defeat him, so they could only watch as Tan Tianxin’s face gradually turned livid.
Seeing the atmosphere becoming awkward, the sovereign smiled. “All you immortals have the people of Li’er Kingdom’s welfare at heart, which deeply moves me. However, the merman case was complex to begin with, so naturally, you immortals have differing opinions. There’s no need to rush to a consensus. Being able to eliminate the Bixi spirit is already good. After tomorrow night’s banquet, you immortals will enter the secret realm. You’ll need dozens of days in the secret realm. If nothing else happens in Li’er Kingdom during this time, it will prove the real culprit has been eliminated and the people have no more worries. If people are still harmed, when you immortals emerge from the secret realm, I’ll make plans with you again.”
This sovereign probably didn’t want to offend either side, but Zanxing found his words distasteful. During the dozens of days in the secret realm, innocent young women might very well be harmed again, yet the sovereign didn’t take these women’s lives to heart. This was partly due to the coldness required of those in power. Perhaps it was also because the Li’er Kingdom sovereign believed that with the palace covered in talismans, the harmful demon couldn’t hurt him no matter what, which was why he cared so little.
But who knew that the demon creature could already infiltrate the royal palace as if it were uninhabited territory, leaving not the slightest trace of demon aura, and even Gu Baiying couldn’t catch up to it?
However, at present, the “talents” from various major sects all believe this matter has been concluded. They felt they had punished evil and promoted good, playing the role of saviors once, so naturally they wouldn’t undermine themselves. The sovereign also ordered his servants to deliver many gifts of gratitude, distributing them to the courtyards of disciples from various major sects.
Zanxing and her group returned to their courtyard. Once inside the room, Mendong closed the door and asked, “Master-Uncle, what should we do now?”
They knew that Tan Tianxin and his group had most likely caught the wrong culprit, but people from other sects only wanted to avoid trouble and quickly conclude this matter. After all, once they left the secret realm, everyone would return to their respective sects. For the next several years, decades, or even centuries, they wouldn’t return to Li’er Kingdom, so who would want to get involved in these troublesome affairs?
“I think we should still reveal what happened forty years ago first,” Tian Fangfang said, stroking his chin. “After all, Emperor Shengning killed people for longevity back then. Now, this demon’s killing methods are identical to the merman case from that time, so it’s most likely connected to past events. We need to approach it from this angle.”
Meng Ying and Mu Cengxiao already knew about Emperor Shengning’s affair. Meng Ying said quietly, “This matter involves a royal scandal. Even if you reveal the entire truth, Li’er Kingdom’s royal family won’t acknowledge it.”
“Exactly,” Mu Cengxiao also agreed. “They might even insist that Bixi was the real culprit to cover up this matter.”
Zanxing hesitated. “But should we just let them continue being wrong like this? It’s too unjust for that merman from back then.”
“Those who do wrong must pay the price,” Gu Baiying tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Whether sovereign or demon race, it’s all the same. But there’s one thing I don’t quite understand.”
Zanxing: “What thing?”
“I’ve examined the female corpses that were killed over these past months. Some have already been buried, but there’s still residual demon aura at their grave sites, showing the demon aura was quite strong initially. But later, the demon aura gradually became less obvious, until the woman killed on the day we arrived in Li’er Kingdom had a very weak demon aura on her body. The ‘thing’ that infiltrated your room last night had no demon aura on it at all.”