“Cough, okay, here comes the roster. I’ll take you there now.”
The man stepped forward to take back the roster, glancing at Li Tan’s expression. In the blink of an eye, the icy coldness in Li Tan’s eyes vanished, replaced by a faint smile.
“Here.”
Li Tan handed the roster back to him, saying politely, “Thank you for leading the way.”
The man muttered to himself in puzzlement. Why had his heart suddenly felt so painfully constricted just now? He even had the strange urge to turn around and run away immediately. Shaking his head, he composed himself and placed the roster back in its original spot, then walked out first.
Li Tan glanced at the decent-looking buildings around and asked, “What is this place?”
“The Outer Sect,” the man replied as he walked.
Li Tan, dressed entirely in black, quickly became the focus of whispers and curiosity among passing disciples.
After a while, the man led Li Tan out of this area and walked down the mountain for a while, then turned into a narrow, inconspicuous trail.
The trail was simply cleared of weeds and thorns, with no additional embellishments. There were no blue bricks or stone steps at all. One might think it was a path for treasure hunting deep in the wilderness.
Li Tan followed emotionlessly. About the time it would take to burn an incense stick, the surroundings gradually became more open. In the distance, a thin column of smoke rose straight like a line of ink.
Going deeper, they could see a mountain spring trickling down. Continuing onward, they finally spotted some earthen houses resembling a rural village.
Li Tan pointed ahead and asked, “Are the servant disciples all here?”
The man nodded. “That’s right.”
“One might mistake it for an unknown village deep in the mountains.”
Li Tan’s words carried an undertone of sarcasm.
The man, either pretending not to notice or genuinely oblivious, replied matter-of-factly, “They’re here to cultivate, not to enjoy comfort.”
“I see. Then I have a question, if you don’t mind explaining, Senior.”
“Go ahead.”
“If your sect believes cultivation should be extremely austere, then why is the Outer Sect so luxurious?”
Although the Outer Sect was far from extravagant, compared to where the servant disciples lived, it could indeed be described as luxurious.
The man sensed Li Tan’s disapproval but remained unfazed, responding with a standard explanation, “Different people require different methods of education. These servant disciples are all lazy and complacent. If we don’t enforce strict discipline, how can they ever become accomplished cultivators?”
“Hmph. Then, Senior, what exactly do you consider being ambitious?”
“Slaying beasts in the Fallen Immortal Realm at the age of thirteen and emerging unscathed by dawn—does that qualify?”
The man looked slightly embarrassed. “Well, of course it does. But this isn’t a fairy tale. How could such a person possibly exist?”
Li Tan nearly blurted out the words ‘how ignorant,’ but he held himself back and urged the man to hurry and lead him to Li Jiaying.
The man quickened his pace slightly and soon arrived in front of a house, pointing at it and saying, “This is the place.”
Looking at the shabby house, Li Tan clenched his fists slightly. He gently knocked on the door, but there was no response. He called out once more, but still no reply.
“Nobody home?”
As Li Tan was pondering, a sudden clatter came from his side. He turned his head and saw an eighteen- or nineteen-year-old youth staring at him in shock, a basin fallen to the ground at his feet with fruits rolling everywhere.
“Are you Xiu?”
After a moment of thought, Li Tan recognized the youth.
“Li Xiu immediately nodded excitedly, saying, “Yes, yes! Brother, you’ve finally arrived!”
Li Tan asked with concern, “Where is Jiaying? Where is he?”
Li Xiu’s smile faded slightly, hesitating before replying, “He was called away by Zhou Ni. They said they wanted to spar.”
“Who is Zhou Ni?”
“An Outer Sect disciple. He seems to have a thing for Jiaying’s younger sister.”
Before Li Tan could ask further about Zhou Ni, he suddenly noticed a bruise on Li Xiu’s wrist. Frowning, he quickly grabbed Li Xiu’s hand and rolled up his sleeve.
“What happened?”
“It was from sparring.”
Li Xiu avoided eye contact.
Li Tan stared at him intently. “Tell me the truth.”
“It really was from sparring.”
“Could sparring really leave injuries like this? You don’t have a single patch of undamaged skin on your body!”
Li Xiu was silent for a while before gritting his teeth and whispering, “I was beaten up yesterday.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t offend anyone, and I don’t even know those people.”
Li Tan turned to the man behind him and said sarcastically, “So this sect really does advocate violence—people get beaten up for no reason.”
The man looked away uncomfortably.
Turning back to Li Xiu, Li Tan took out a grade-one healing pill he had left from the Desolate Tower and handed it to him, then continued asking, “Think carefully. Are you absolutely sure you didn’t offend anyone by accident?”
Li Xiu thought hard but finally shook his head. “Definitely not. Where would I dare offend anyone? Even if I did, I wouldn’t have the strength.”
“There must have been a reason they beat you. Think again. Have you noticed anything unusual in the past few days?”
“Nothing unusual at all… Wait, there was something. Last night, Jiaying’s younger sister specially came to take care of me. She cried a lot, and no matter how I tried to comfort her, she wouldn’t stop. Then the next morning, she suddenly said she wanted to spar with Zhou Ni.”
“Do you know where they went to spar?”
“It’s usually at the arena, but I just checked there and they weren’t around. I don’t know where else they might be.”
Li Tan’s eyes flashed with a hint of murderous intent as he slowly turned around and smiled while asking, “Senior, could you help me locate Zhou Ni?”
The man hesitated, clearly reluctant, but ultimately nodded, knowing well that he had to respect Li Tan’s authority. He quickly found the responsible person among the servant disciples and soon obtained the information from some disciples.
About half a quarter of an hour ago, Zhou Ni, along with several of his hooligan friends, had taken Li Jiaying toward the Star and Moon Cave, a remote location rarely visited by people.
Li Jiaying was following behind, seemingly very frightened, and had been crying continuously.
“Senior, please take me to the Star and Moon Cave.”
Li Tan’s voice was icy cold.
The man wasn’t stupid. With all the information he had gathered, he could already guess the most likely scenario. His face darkened as he led Li Tan toward the cave.
The Star and Moon Cave had once been a cultivation site, but in recent years, due to severe depletion of spiritual energy and its remote location, it had become rarely visited. If someone wanted to commit a crime and destroy evidence, this place was perfectly suitable. That Zhou Ni indeed knew how to pick a spot.
Soon, they arrived at the Star and Moon Cave.
Li Tan’s gaze swept through the area and immediately caught sight of Li Jiaying.
She was softly sobbing, her whole body trembling. A man stood beside her with a lewd grin, his hands roaming her body without restraint.
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