Chapter 445: Chasing after a demon lead

In that moment, the entire Xue residence and even the soldiers surrounding it were in awe. Of course, Cao Yun's strength was nowhere close to the Spirit Warriors present around him. However, he had the full backing of Sect Leader Xuan. Right now, it truly was as if he was in front of them. Even Patriarch Xue didn't casually dismiss him. Acting like he had now would be insulting the entire Wubei Sect.

Considering the bodies of the two women who were both showing signs that someone had forcefully extracted their souls, it was obvious that some demonic arts had been used. Although there were holes in Cao Yun's story, it seemed true that his own residence had been infiltrated. And as much as he wanted to deny it, even the prestigious Wubei Sect and the Golden Flowery Fragrance Institute had been infiltrated. Claiming that his household was impervious to such a threat would be a slap to their faces.

Patriarch Xue was confident when it came to dealing with the families within the Subei Province thanks to his few friends in the Imperial City. But against the influence of such behemoths, the strongest martial sect and the greatest alchemy institute, he was next to nothing. In fact, he wasn't even the most powerful military might in the Subei Province, the Tun family had surpassed them. However, he couldn't just say nothing when his name was in danger. His only moves now were to try to discredit Cao Yun's allegations by attacking him and putting as much blame as possible on the dead.

Xue Liu had a problem though. Despite Xue Rui's death, his brother, Xue Gulin was attending the Golden Flowery Fragrance Institute. Although he was only in his twenties, he had already become a 6th-grade Mortal Warrior and was very close to attempting the Lesser Tribulation. Of course, he had almost no chance of succeeding before at least two decades. Indeed, he had advanced his cultivation through alchemy pills so it was very shaky. However, he was a 5-star Human alchemist and would certainly be chosen for the Alchemy Conference. That was why Xue Liu had given so many liberties to his younger brother who seemed to also follow in his footsteps. At the very least, he had to protect Xue Gulin and for that he would need to try and salvage Xue Rui's reputation as much as he could.

"There is no proof that Xue Rui did any of that."

As soon as he spoke, Xue Liu felt two piercing bloody eyes stab his soul. Cao Yun had the 'Bleeding Eyes' fully activated right now. Even if it couldn't hurt such a powerful Spirit Warrior, what Cao Yun represented right now could frighten him. Maybe if they had been alone, he could have silenced him. But even then, he wouldn't have dared. After all, he had had a Spirit Condensation Barrier to protect him against a 4th-grade Spirit Warrior and he could have other life saving artifacts.

"Young Sect Master, when I found you in Gu Song's laboratory, I jumped to conclusions. I was wrong back there. Can't you at least allow our family to try and figure out what happened to our junior? Maybe those victims were caused by another demonic cultivator... Didn't you talk about a young woman who brought you to Gu Song? She might have something to do with this."

Everyone could see what Xue Liu was trying to do. Even though Cao Yun was enraged, he could see in his eyes that he had absolutely no idea what Xue Rui truly was. But now he knew and wanted to protect his family name. Honestly, Cao Yun didn't give a damn about them. Whether they wanted to save their reputation or not, he had no care in the world. Right now, he wanted to know why Zhong Ling had been here and who was responsible for this.

"Patriarch, in the name of my Wubei Sect, we demand an explanation as to how our disciple became a servant in your household. Even the Myriad Cherry Blossom Hall had no record of her whereabouts. Not only was she a friend of mine, she was also under Chief Elder Meng Jia's protection, and a 1-star Human alchemist at that. She was meant to be an inner disciple and a great talent of our Wubei Sect. And now here I found her, battered, beaten, abused by some feral beast, and left to die on the floor without anyone picking up her corpse, as though she was just trash. How would you react if that had happened to your own flesh and blood?!"

Before Patriarch Xue could respond, Minister Yong took over.

"Young Sect Master, I understand your anger. And the way Miss Zhong's body was handled was clearly lacking. But please, at least, allow us to investigate. Since there is so much tension between you and the Xue family already, I think it would be better to have the Governor handle this situation. I swear that I will take care of the investigation myself. I hope that this is agreeable to all parties. However, we should keep things as secret as possible until we know for sure what happened. People are already on edge after the recent crises and the prospect of a war with the demons is driving everyone paranoid and afraid. They don't need that right now."

With great restraint, Cao Yun retracted most of his aura as well as the aura of Sect Leader Xuan. However, he kept the seal in hand. As long as he was using it, Cao Yun was legally the representative of the Wubei Sect as though he literally was Sect Leader Xuan in person. That way, even late Spirit Warriors had to show him respect.

Despite his failure to escape before being discovered, Cao Yun had obtained almost everything he wanted, and even a bit more. Right now, he had a few things to deal with about his several cultivation methods. However, Patriarch Xue Liu had indeed made sense about something.

"Patriarch, I am sure you can understand my outburst when I saw my fellow cultivator's body as surely as I can understand yours when you learned of Xue Rui's fate. I accept to wait a few days to get the answers and I will of course respond to everything Minister Yong has to ask of me. But I will first begin with the point you so rightly raised. The woman who brought me here was a young servant of your residence."

At that moment, Cao Yun began to speak using his technique to send his voice in a very specific direction. Sensing that there was some secrecy in his words, all three of the Spirit Warriors decided to use their spiritual senses to isolate themselves as much as possible.

"This is just a wild guess, but I felt something strange in her. I suspect that she might be related to a demon. Even though I never met a demon in my life, there was something really powerful in her veins, much more than in any other human I've met in the Subei Province. Of course, I don't think she's a demon, but one of her parents might be..."

Hearing those words, they were all incredulous. How could a Mortal Warrior sense something like that if no one else had?! But then again, he seemed to have sensed the presence of demonic cultivator. In fact, they began to suspect that he was using some secret technique taught to him either by Sect Leader Xuan or more likely by Spirit Master Xiao. After all, that woman had refined a 1-star Spirit pill, a miracle never produced before since the beginning of the Forsaken Dao Era. Thinking that, they wouldn't dare question him too much, especially not with Sect Leader Xuan's personal seal in hand.

"Thankfully, she can't escape us! I am absolutely confident I can track her with my compass. Using the art of poison, I marked her."

"The art of poison?!"

"Wait...! Chief Elder Meng Jia? Are you talking about the Meng Jia who... Never mind. If Tree of Death was your teacher, I can understand many things indeed..."

At that moment, Cao Yun realized that Tree of Death was Meng Jia. To be fair, he had never really tried to figure out who the author was. Xiao Xuefeng had given him the book and it was enough for him. Now that he knew, he had a hard time associating the teacher who was always wasting his time away by sleeping all day and the cultivator who only thought about destroying and killing. Clearly, Meng Jia had changed a lot since his younger days. Apparently, he was well known in the Subei Province at least.

Later on, Cao Yun would learn that for seventeen years, Meng Jia went on a crusade to kill dozens of demons. Since he was still only a Mortal Warrior back then, he had been forced to rely heavily on poison. He was never discovered but he assassinated many high-ranking demons. In fact, he had probably and inadvertently helped speed up the rise of the Empyrean Asura Theocracy. Even through the Myriad Cherry Blossom Hall, Cao Yun was unable to learn much more. Indeed, Xiao Xuefeng had made sure that his past was buried. Maybe there was some deeper connection between the two because of that period. Anyway, Cao Yun wasn't too curious about this as he sincerely trusted them both.

What he told about using a poison was absolutely wrong though. In fact, he had used a seal taught to him by Dian Mo. Even if she were to change her appearance, he would be able to find her again. The first time he had chased her by using the spatial ring she had stolen. But this time, he could track her using her very blood. Unless she was way too far, protected by some powerful defense, or if she bled herself dry, he could find her with his compass.

"I can lead you to her if you wish. But you should be ready. She might have some seal to destroy her memories if she gets caught."

"Indeed, this is a problem... But we can deal with it later. First of all, we'll capture her, there are dungeons in which even such a seal couldn't be activated at a distance."

Soul seals could be either activated by someone else away from the victim, or they could get activated by the victim's thoughts. For example, a seal could be triggered by the fact of speaking about a certain subject. As soon as the victim thought about doing that action, the seal would be triggered immediately without any external action. Thus, by putting her in a place where not even a seal cold be triggered from outside could give them enough time to find a way around. It was possible that there was no seal in the first place as well, or lesser ones. After all, she may not be important enough. But if what Cao Yun suspected was true, she was a spy. Maybe it meant that demonic cultivators and demons were working together. Even Cao Yun was wondering about that.

"I'll warn the Governor and prepare a few men to accompany you."

"No need for that!"

The two generals spoke with one voice. Suddenly, they looked at each other.

"Old man, your family is in disarray, you should stay there and take care of them."

"Brute, I don't trust you to catch someone alive. This requires a bit of finesse."

"And this requires to work with Young Sect Master Chen Guo whom you were ready to flay alive a few minutes ago."

"Ahem! This was a sincere mistake. This demon girl invaded my residence, it is natural that I am involved to teach her a lesson, isn't that right?"

"Please, you two. Young Sect Master, would you agree to guide those two generals toward the woman you mentioned? I understand that everything is going pretty fast, but you should understand that time is of the essence. If she does have ties with demons, she might go straight for the barrier. Going after her in demon territory will be much more difficult."

"I understand, Minister Yong. To be honest, just like Patriarch Xue, I have some anger to vent. It's a good thing that General Yun will be with us to keep her alive. But I would ask that you let me try to extract some information out of her first. Spirit Master Xiao taught me some techniques that might be useful. I swear that I will be careful so as not to let her take her secret to the grave. And the two generals could listen in on everything. Like that, I might be able to prove to Patriarch Xue that my recollection of the facts was true and sincere."

"Fine, I'll warn the Governor."

Thus, this unexpected trio went toward the direction of Cang Yin. Obviously, she had escaped as soon as she had brought Cao Yun in. At first, the young man had thought he might use her in the future. Thanks to her ability to alter her appearance, she might be a huge help. However, he had been in doubt regarding her allegiance. By now, he was almost convinced that she was indeed working for the demons.

A demon couldn't cross the array formations protecting the Wubei Sect without revealing it. Immediately, the Governor and the major families would be warned of the strength and number of any demon invader. But there was a weakness in that system, it only worked on demons. So if they had kids with humans, they might produce an offspring that was human enough but still loyal to the demons. Most likely, Cang Yin was such a case.

This was further proved by what she had been trying to learn from Cao Yun. She had been looking for who her human dad had been.

Still, for now, all those were just assumptions on Cao Yun's part. Maybe she was helping the demonic cultivators or just going after money. At the end of the day, she might only be a thief who had been paid enough by Gu Song to betray her first employer, Guai Mo. No matter what, Cao Yun had to deal with her right now. Her ability to change her appearance was a real problem for later. Besides, he had the assistance of two 6th-grade Spirit Warriors. As long as he could find her, she was dead for sure.

Last time she had escaped because she had thrown everything she had on her as she didn't know for sure what allowed Cao Yun to track her. Now, it was her very blood.