Cui Yu stared blankly at his retreating back, her wounds throbbing with a tremendous and feverish pain. Finally, she couldn’t hold back anymore and started to cry her lungs out while sitting on the ground.
Someone recognized her as YunXiao City‘s important young Miss and promptly walked over to lend a helping hand, but Cui Yu vengefully pushed them away. After a long time, she managed to restrain her tears and slowly stood up.
This event was reported very quickly back to the large hall. Feng ShuMing creased his brows as he listened to the messenger whisper in his ear, his expression turning a shade awkward. Luckily, the two Shui family members and those from the Shang family had already left to set up the tracking formation and were not currently present.
Cui TianCheng questioned, “Sect Master Feng, could it be that there’s news?”
Feng ShuMing coughed twice, then explained in a light and trivial manner, “Not quite. It’s just, your beloved daughter and my little disciple seems to have had a dispute and quarreled.”
Cui TianCheng stared laughing out loud. ''It's unlikely that Cui'er would lose out. Little kids you know, why bother with their affairs?''
You daughter did lose out though... Feng silently retorted.
Sure enough, Cui Yu soon came back with tears in her eyes, trickles of blood flowing continuously from the ferocious looking cuts on her tender hand, and droplets of crimson splattered across her pink clothes like stars. Not to mention how Cui TianCheng explosed with also noisily hollered in alarm, fussing and helping Cui Yu apply medicine while inquiring about what happened. Cui Yu sobbed brokenly for quite a while before she stammered out an explanation, onlu sayng that she was hurt because Yu ZhiJue scratched her, yet omitting the reason why. As soon as that group of YunXiao City disciples heard this, they erupted with even more fury and indignation.
Without much delay, Yu ZhiJue was summoned as well, and Feng ShuMing commanded him to kneel at once. Yu ZhiJue ground his teeth and stiffly obeyed, his back rigidly straight and his lips pressed stubbornly into a line, glaring with the pride of a young leopard.
Cui Yu’s original intention was to show Yu ZhiJue that she wasn’t someone easily bullied, and to force him to stop looking down on her. But at this moment, she also feared that her father wouldn’t be willing to forgive him, so she hurriedly gave Cui TianCheng’s sleeve a tug. Cui TianCheng didn’t pay any attention to her and simply demanded with a smile, “Brother Feng, how do you think this matter should be handled?”
In his heart, Feng ShuMing naturally took his own disciple’s side, thus he amicably replied, “Let’s do this. I‘ll make ZhiJue give Cui’er an apology, and then penalize him with confinement to the rear mountain’s Self Reflection Pavilion, not to leave for a month. What do you think?”
Hearing this, Cui Yu grew anxious and troubled. She had finally gotten a chance to come here, but if Yu ZhiJue was punished to remain inside Self Reflection Pavilion, then during this period of time, wouldn’t it be hard for her to see him?
Cui TianCheng knew of her desires, but he could tell that that boy did not care about his darling daughter at all. With a mind to separate the two, he agreed, “Yes, that would be excellent.”
Yu ZhiJue stood up expressionlessly, gave a bow, and stated in a dull tone, “Junior sister Cui, truly, my apologies.”
Although he was apologizing, his eyes were fixed on a point off to the side, his gaze technically not even landing on Cui Yu. Furthermore, as soon as he dropped those words, he left for the rear mountains with an escorting disciple.
Cui Yu was half heart-broken, half enraged, and covering up the hand that was bandaged like a rice dumpling, she stormed off towards the the guest quarters. Cui TianCheng let her be. He obviously wouldn’t take such a small incident to heart, and all in all, this wasn’t the crucial matter at hand.
Not long after that, a communication talisman arrived saying that the formation was set up and ready to go.
This artifact that Shui Yue brought was called ‘Soul Chaser’, and it could pinpoint someone’s whereabouts using their clothes or other items they owned. It needed the collaboration of least three people to activate, and the higher their cultivation levels, the wider the range of its search radius.
When the two sect masters showed up, Shui Yue explained the method for operating this artifact in detail, and the ones stepping up to the plate were of course, Feng ShuMing, Shang Kai, and Cui TianCheng.
One of Shang Yan’s personal belongings was placed in the middle of the artifact, and the three of them poured in their psychical energy. The scenery of the nearby 50 kilometers spun and flashed before their eyes in blurs of light and shadow, fluctuating until it ultimately stopped on an empty plot of land. Not a single person was there.
''Yan'er!'' Shang Kai Wailed with grief, his eyes wide as he took the lead in reatracting his energy, then dashed towards that location like the wind.
Feng ShuMing and Cui TianCheng looked at each other, and also understood. It was quite evident that Shang Yan was no longer in this world.
By the time their whole group arrived, Shang Kai had already dug out Shang Yan with trembling hands. After so many days, the corpse had long started to decay, radiating waves and waves of stench. The people on the scene were split into two categories: those who couldn't bear to look and adverted their eyes, and those who held their breaths while slightly wrinkling their brows.
''Who was is that killed my Yan'er? Who?'' Shang Kai eyes almost popped out from their sockets, hugging Shang Yan's remains and gnashing his teeth as he snarled, ''Who was so malicious? I want them torn into a thousand pieces!''
The cultivators of this world didn’t really value biological relationships, and the affections held by father for his child wasn’t as deep as what‘s between an ordinary family either. However, in seeing the son he personally raised from a baby transform a pile of rotting flesh, Shang Yan was still distressed to the point of almost fainting.
As if he didn’t smelling the odor, Cui TianCheng walked closer and implored with sorrow, “Brother Shang, please hold your grief. Right now, what‘s important is to thoroughly investigate who struck down Yan’er. There’s some other articles in this pit as well, and I recognize the storage bag as Yan’er‘s, but that knife… …It’s design looks somewhat familiar.”
Hearing this, Feng ShuMing approached as well and knit his brows. “Indeed… …Perhaps this is something from Holy Maiden Peak?“
As soon as these words left his mouth, everyone became shocked. After all, those from Holy Maiden Peak had long gone into hiding, content to stay in their corner of the world. What’s more, there was an entire ocean between them and Holy Maiden Peak, separated by almost a thousand kilometers. How could Shang Yan have provoked someone from Holy Maiden Peak?
Feng ShuMing added, “On that day, this area was part of our sect’s disciple selection exam. Guests weren’t allowed to enter, so how did Martial nephew Shang appear here?”
Afraid that he would be wrongly implicated, Cui TianCheng sighed in agreement, “Looks like everything can only be solved after finding the murderer.”
Shui Yue looked at Shang Kai’s mournful expression and couldn’t resist stepping forward to say with a salute, “Senior Shang, please don’t be depressed. Though this artifact is called ‘Soul Chaser’, its abilities certainly aren’t limited to solely that. This disciple can find out the identity of the one who last came in contact with Shang Yan. As long as that person isn’t more than 50 kilometers away, this artifact will respond.”
Actually, this kind of heaven defying function already deviated from the orthodox path, but seeing Shang Kai so broken-hearted, he couldn’t help but offer this suggestion. Of course, another factor came from his own ego. This artifact that he spent two years refining, he also wanted to know just how far its powers extended!
When they activated the artifact again and three streams of psychical energy entered Shang Yan’s body, the cadaver that was lying flat on the ground unexpectedly began to move on its own!
The corpse’s half-rotten eyes suddenly opened and stared straight at a female disciple, making her lose all color in her face. Terribly frightened, she almost started shrieking as she involuntarily took a few steps back, and the other disciples felt the same horror strangle their hearts. On the other hand, Shui Ling didn’t show the slightest hint of fear and simple looked towards her older brother with a face full of worship.
Shui Yue closed his eyes and began to utter an incantation: ''Thou who hast died unjustly here, the last to touch the physical self, please seek them out... ...''
He appeared dignified, solemn, and respectful as his lashes veiled his eyes. The technique he utilized didn't resemble that of a forbidden taboo spurned by all the orthodox sects, but rather of a radiant and divine medical art for healing.
Awe inevitably bloomed inside the hearts of the two sect masters present, they had never heard of this kind of summoning technique before. Needless to say, the Shi family's legend and reputation was well deserverd!
After a huge amount of psychical energy entered it, the corpe stiffly started to raise its right hand, and one stroke at a time, wrote out two words in midair: Ling Xia.
He stared at the words he inscribed, retracted his hand, and gnashed his teeth as if hating he couldn’t devour that person whole!
When he stopped moving, the artifact instantly cease its operations, and Shang Yan’s dead body fell to the ground like a block of wood.
Shui Yue revoked the supply of energy, opened his eyes, and clarified, “That’s not necessarily the one responsible. This artifact can only detect the remnant psychical energy left on a departed soul’s cadaver to identify the last person that touched them. But that person might not be the culprit.”
In this world, spells all had their advantages and disadvantages, and even forbidden arts that defied the heavens had their limitations.
When all was said and done, using a taboo spell to summon the souls of the dead was damaging to one’s own lifeline. Moreover, those spirits were hindered by the pain and heart-rending fear they experienced at the time of their death, hence unable to directly reveal who killed them. One could only indirectly exploit loopholes to deduce the perpetrator through talismans and amulets, and even that wouldn’t work unless the victim knew their assailant’s name.
At the time Ling Xia buried him, Shang Yan had already stopped breathing, but the leftover psychical particles in his body still existed and had resolutely memorized the essence of the one who dug its grave.
Feng ShuMing frowned, “This name doesn’t sound familiar, but Brother Shang, don’t be disheartened. I’ll immediately assign someone to check the entire roster list of disciples in my sect. For now, we should send off Martial nephew Shang’s soul posthaste.”
On this continent, cultivators that died an unnatural death needed to relinquish all of their hate, jealousy, and any other negative emotions if they wanted to reincarnate. Otherwise, their body must be incinerated, and thus forcing them onto the path of rebirth.
Shang Kai took off his long outer robe and set it on top of Shang Yan, wrapped the body up, and gathered the bundle to his chest. His mood kept fluctuating up and down, and he had exhausted large amounts of his psychical energy, but without a trace of weariness, he swore through gritted teeth, “My heart will not rest until I find that cur! I want my Yan‘er to see his nemesis die in front of him!“
Everyone returned to the large hall and waited. A short period later, a disciple in charge of the storeroom came in carrying a register of names and nervously reported, “Immortal Welcoming Pavilion has a disciple whose name is Ling Xia.”
Shang Kai stood up at once and slapped the chair beneath him, splitting it into pieces. A disciple attending below hastily brought another one over.
Feng ShuMing slightly creased his brows, then raised his voice and ordered, “MingXu, ride my Ice Cloudburst and bring that person here forthwith!”
At this moment, Ling Xia was currently reading inside his room at Immortal Welcoming Pavilion, but he couldn’t digest the contents no matter what. His eyelids kept madly twitching, and he had the nagging feeling that something wasn’t quite right. After consecutive days of working to finish all the preparations, Guang XuZi had granted them two days of rest.
Just as he was distracted and agitated to no end, a person came to summon him to Immortal Welcoming Pavilion’s main hall. Ling Xia blinked, put down his book, and took in a deep breath, resuming his usual serene complexion.
When he arrived at the hall, an unfamiliar disciple wearing black robes impassively regarded him as if looking at a dead man, and Ling Xia’s heartbeat wildly jumped. Before he could walk forward and give his greetings, a rope shot out from that disciple’s hand and securely tied him up in a flash.
The others who witnessed this scene all froze for a beat, and then Guang XuZi nervously inquired, “Senior brother, Ling Xia is normally prudent and careful. Could it be that he made a mistake with the venue’s arrangements?”
“How could his mistake be comparable to merely that?” Flipping onto and straddling the Ice Cloudburst beast, that disciple in black sneered as he hauled Ling Xia up with a tug, “This one sure has a lot of guts!”
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