True Person Changfeng’s mission had left everyone an obvious trail of clues from the very beginning.
The students had no need to blindly search the sea of people like headless flies. All they needed to do was calm down and find out how the Basking Moon Sect had found Lin Lang, upon which they would immediately realize that something was amiss.
In the record pavilion, Tang Jie had found information relating to Lin Lang. Those records had been placed in the most obvious spot and had even been brightly marked so that the students would find them.
The person the records mentioned most frequently was the most important one: Xu Mujun.
The records also stated that Xu Mujun had gone to Fengyin.
Together with the location of Yan Province, Tang Jie was almost certain that Lin Lang was with Xu Mujun.
As for the records he had taken, they belonged to other students and had nothing to do with Xu Mujun, and he had taken them simply to fool Ye Tianshang. If Ye Tianshang had managed to catch up to him, he would have used those records to deceive Ye Tianshang.
But he hadn’t expected Ye Tianshang to not chase after him, instead going back to question Sun Baoran.
He just didn’t know if the Basking Moon Sect had said anything to Headmaster Sun. Was he to remain tight-lipped? Closely cooperate? Or perhaps only give limited cooperation?
But Tang Jie wasn’t worried about any of this.
The other two laughed when they heard about how Tang Jie had fooled Ye Tianshang.
“Alright, our first order of business is to buy some horses and then make our way to Fengyin. Once we get Lin Lang’s head, the mission will be done!” Tang Jie loudly said.
“Go! Go! Go!” With hopes of success right before their eyes, Shi Meng and Wei Tianchong were brimming with energy and confident in their success.
Yan Province.
Zhongbing Prefecture.
In a teahouse within the city, Liu Hongyan sipped on a cup of fragrant tea as she sat next to a window on the second floor. She looked out the window, lost in thought.
Thumping came from the stairs as several young students came up.
It was none other than Cai Junyang, Shu Mingyang, and Ping Jingyue.
Liu Hongyan glanced at them and pursed her lips. “Still not right?”
Cai Junyang sighed. Seating himself across from Liu Hongyan, he poured himself a big bowl of wine and drained it. Only then did he say, “Don’t even talk about it. We asked the government to put up posters and look around, but it was still no good. We found two people who looked similar, but neither one was him.”
“He might not be in the city at all. The information only said he went in this direction. If I were him, I would have left ages ago. Why would I wait here to be found for all this time?” Ping Jingyue as she sat down.
Shu Mingyang chuckled. “It would be far stranger if he were that easy to find. Perhaps he might not even look the same as the portrait. Don’t forget that he knows the Illusiform spell.”
“Illusiform can change the appearance, but only for a moment. He can’t maintain that state forever,” Liu Hongyan replied. “In the end, our method of finding him just isn’t right. We haven’t even gotten close to him. This portrait alone is no good.”
“We’re not hunting dogs like Gu Changqing, and this isn’t our field of expertise. I really don’t know what the True Person is thinking, giving such a mission,” Cai Junyang sighed.
They had followed the trail to Zhongbing Prefecture, but after searching for a long while, they hadn’t found a single hair of their target’s head. It was hard to blame them for venting a little.
“In truth, it’s fine to solve a problem by changing your way of thinking. Since you can’t find him yourself, why not see if someone else can find him?” Liu Hongyan casually said. “A senior of mine once said that if you don’t know what you should do, you should just follow someone that knows what to do.”
“Mm?” Everyone’s interest was piqued by her words.
Shu Mingyang asked, “Hongyan, you mean…?”
“The rules of Basking Moon Academy stick to their word! Anyone who comes back with the head will be considered to have done the deed. If we can’t find Lin Lang, we just forget about finding him. When someone else finds the head, we just take it from them,” Liu Hongyan casually said.
“Then who do you think will find it?” Cai Junyang asked.
Liu Hongyan giggled and looked at Cai Junyang.
Cai Junyang’s heart thumped. “Are you going to say ‘Tang Jie’?”
Liu Hongyan answered, “If there were only one person in Basking Moon Academy that can find Lin Lang, I would not be able to say for certain that it was Tang Jie. But Tang Jie is among the people with the highest chance of finding Lin Lang.”
“How can you be so certain?” Ping Jingyue asked.
Liu Hongyan softly chuckled in reply.
Everyone was rendered helpless by her air of mystery. After some time, Liu Hongyan finally said, “Not too long ago, Qi Shaoming went looking for him.”
“Oh?” They didn’t get what she meant.
“Qi Shaoming challenged him and lost,” Liu Hongyan indifferently said.
Everyone was aghast at this news, blurting out in unison, “That really happened?”
As Qi Shaoming and Tang Jie had fought in the middle of the night, not many people knew about it, especially because neither of them had announced it. But unexpectedly, Liu Hongyan knew of the battle.
Cai Junyang paled.
He had fought Qi Shaoming before, and Qi Shaoming had used only one Chill Phantom Clone Slash to defeat him. The power of that attack had left a deep impression on his mind.
He could have never imagined Qi Shaoming losing to Tang Jie.
Didn’t that mean that Tang Jie stood at the undisputed peak of his class? That even An Rumeng might not be able to beat him?
Liu Hongyan slowly said, “That senior also told me that if you find it impossible to judge a person, then use the simplest method to appraise him… Look at his achievements. It’s not a precise method, but it’s enough to answer many problems. That someone with a five-cycle Jade Gate and no family has reached this level already says a lot about him. He was able to deceive Basking Moon Academy and kill Gu Changqing. As someone who has experienced that process of pursuit and counter-pursuit, he should have more experience than us when it comes to finding Lin Lang.”
Everyone nodded.
“But didn’t he say that he had already given up on the mission?” Cai Junyang asked.
Liu Hongyan shook her head. “He gave up on being True Inheritor, not the mission.”
Cai Junyang was taken aback. “You’re saying he’s helping someone else try for the True Inheritor position? Who?”
Ping Jingyue replied, “Who else could it be? Tang Jie once swore a Heart Demon Aspiration that he wouldn’t leave the Wei Clan until Wei Tianchong reached Celestial Heart.”
Cai Junyang scratched his head. “Ooooh… Why does it sound like the two of you pay a lot of attention to him? So you’re saying that Tang Jie is definitely going to try and help Wei Tianchong get the head?”
“Correct,” Shu Mingyang replied. “So as long as we keep an eye on Tang Jie, we’ll actually be able to find Lin Lang.”
“But how do we do that?” Cai Junyang spread apart his hands. “We don’t even know where he is.”
Liu Hongyan smiled. “Do you know about spell marks?”
“Spell marks?” Cai Junyang froze for a moment, and then he shouted, “You used a spell mark on Tang Jie?”
Liu Hongyan chuckled. “Not Tang Jie. He’s too cautious and meticulous. He would have probably noticed if it had been used on him. Fortunately, he has a weakness next to him…”
The other three glanced at each other and shouted, “Wei Tianchong!”
It was no wonder Liu Hongyan was so composed. She had already made a back-up plan.
Fengyin.
This was a small county city of Yan Province, under the administration of Twin River Mouth.
Twin River Mouth was a city located at the confluence of the Sangshui River and the Sanli River.
If one went west from here and followed the course of the Sangshui south, one would reach High Maple Pass in just one day. Past High Maple Pass was the Wasteland of No Return. These lands were no longer under the domain of the Sageheart Kingdom.
Tang Jie’s group arrived at dusk.
Wei Tianchong asked Tang Jie, “Should we find an inn to rest for the night and then go to find Xu Mujun?”
“That’s not necessary. Speed is of utmost importance in war. Let’s go looking now, as there’s no telling what will happen if we’re a step too slow,” Tang Jie replied.
“That’s true.” Shi Meng nodded.
At some point, Tang Jie had come to lead the discussion in this group of three.
The Xu Clan was a large clan in Fengyin, so it wasn’t hard to find.
Tang Jie’s group quickly found that large estate on Shuangfu Street, at the northern edge of the county city.
The estate walls were high and covered in fragile glazed tiles. At every ten meters along the wall was a hole through which one could look outside.
As they walked along the wall, they soon saw a cinnabar gate guarded by two stone Qilins and decorated by two bronze beast-head knockers.
The three of them dismounted, and Tang Jie went up the steps and knocked on the gate.
A few moments later, the door opened, and a white-haired old man peeked out. “Who are you looking for?” he asked Tang Jie.
“Xu Mujun. Is she in right now?” Tang Jie politely asked.
“And who are you lot?”
“Basking Moon students.”
These words caused the old man to tremble, and he instinctively shut the gate.
Tang Jie stuck his foot in to hold the gate. “What? Are we not welcome?”
His attitude was very refined, and his tone was gentle, but to the old man, they were like the whispers of a devil. He shuddered, but in the end, he opened the gate. “Esteemed masters, welcome!”
Tang Jie strode in. “Where is your clan’s young lady?”
Wei Tianchong and Shi Meng followed him in. Tang Jie gave them a furtive gesture, and Shi Meng nodded and used a detection spell.
The old man stood at Tang Jie’s side and said, “The young lady is inside. Gentlemen, please follow me.”
Tang Jie followed the elder, looking around as they walked and taking in every detail. He casually asked, “From the look of it, can I assume that you knew that we Basking Moon students would come?”
The elder sighed. “The Xu Clan already knows what happened with Lin Lang, and another esteemed master came asking questions a few days ago. It’s just that our young lady and that scoundrel are no longer together, so we have no idea where he went.”
“I see.” Tang Jie smiled.
As they followed the elder, a page boy had already tactfully informed the patriarch. Before they had even entered the room, the servants had lined up in the courtyard to greet them.
Leading this assembly was an elder, who bowed upon seeing Tang Jie’s group. “Xu Xi’an, accompanied by the sixty-seven members of the Xu Clan, greets the high Immortal. For what reason has this high Immortal come? And please forgive us for not going out to greet the high Immortal.”
“Elder Xu, you are too polite. We are simply Basking Moon students, not yet deserving to be called esteemed masters. Young Lady Xu of your noble clan is still studying at Cloudflow Academy, so she is on par with us in terms of status,” Tang Jie casually replied, but he still accepted the welcome of this clan.
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