Chapter 455: A Sister Goes Missing, Changing Course to Search First

Hehehe...

Jiuyun Shangren felt it silently, appearing somewhat greedy and covetous, yet also seemingly revealing mockery and disdain, which finally transformed into a smile—a truly strange one, with the corners of his mouth curling upward on one side and downward on the other, truly eerie and hair-raising.

He did not linger in place; glancing at the direction in which Du En and the others had left, his figure flickered and quietly vanished, no one knowing where he had gone.

At this time, Du En's party, unaware of what had happened behind them, was walking through the street, appearing noisy and ostentatious.

"Move! Everyone move!"

"Show respect! Silence! Welcome the arrival!"

"The City Lord has arrived, idlers stand back!"

The City Lord's Mansion guards held various placards and ceremonial items, shouting all sorts of commands; if not for the fact that their master was walking in such a hurry that they had to follow closely to keep up, they would certainly have enforced the rules properly and made this bunch of low-level cultivators kneel down properly to welcome the inspection!

Hm? Just at this moment, Du En's gaze shifted slightly; his divine sense, scattered in the vicinity, detected the chaos and the discordant scene appearing amidst the crowd dodging on both sides.

Someone was moving against the current!

The key was that this person was only at the Qi Refining perfection stage, truly the absolute bottom of the hierarchy in this Jiuyun City!

After a moment of thought, Du En slowed his pace and then suddenly stopped in his tracks, causing the guards who were maintaining their previous rhythm to rush forward for a distance before realizing their master had stopped, at which point they scrambled back in a hurry, each wishing they could slap themselves, blaming only their own lack of observation today.

Then, the next moment, their attention shifted away again.

Because a young man was pushing through the retreating crowd, breaking into the empty street, appearing exceptionally conspicuous.

"Audacious!"

The guard leader was instantly enraged and was about to strike him dead, leaving not even a speck of ash, so as not to offend the master's eyes.

"Let him come over."

With just a light word from Du En, the guard leader's attitude underwent a 180-degree turn; from leaping out with murderous intent, he flashed before the young man—who had been turned pale and terrified by the shouting—wearing an expression that was scrutinizing yet extremely polite.

"The master wants you to come over and speak; come, follow me!"

As the guard leader, he was the one most familiar with Jiuyun Shangren in the City Lord's Mansion! So, for the master to speak such a sentence without a condescending tone, this person must certainly be someone significant—perhaps a junior from the same sect who had come to seek refuge, or some other close connection.

In short, he was worth such a change of face! The other guards' attitudes also changed quickly, though their acting skills were clearly not yet perfected; while casting polite and eager glances, their faces still retained a trace of cold, murderous intent.

Upon catching this, the young man's liver trembled slightly, but thinking of the purpose of his trip, he gritted his teeth to bolster his courage and followed the guard leader to see Du En.

Not daring to raise his head to look directly, he caught sight of a pair of toes as he approached and immediately prepared to kneel down to speak.

An invisible force blocked his movement.

Just as he was stunned, he heard Du En's calm words: "Judging by your behavior along the way, you must have something you are daring enough to ask of me, right?"

The young man was startled upon hearing this; he gritted his teeth, nodded, and said, "Answering the lord, it is like this: this lowly one is daring to offend, but I wish to implore the lord to show mercy!"

Hm?!

It seems he is not someone close to the master?

Hearing this dialogue, the guards were all stunned for a moment and began to frown.

The leader, in particular, felt a trace of gloom pass through him and glanced at the young man with hidden murderous intent.

Since he had no connection to the master, the fact that he had caused him to act so obsequiously just now made him truly deserving of death! Du En glanced at this fellow, causing him to lower his head in awe and force that malice and murderous intent back into his heart for the time being.

Meanwhile, the young man, unaware that he had been so groundlessly resented, was speaking in a rush, fearing that if he spoke too late, he would be scolded and driven away.

"This lowly one is named Zhu Qing, and I have a younger sister named Zhu Yi; we have relied on each other since childhood, but not long ago, my sister suddenly went missing, so I wish to implore the lord to help me find her!"

Audacious!

The guards immediately widened their eyes, all filled with anger, yet all were rendered mute.

Because, silently and imperceptibly, a restrictive pressure had permeated the air; Du En did not want to waste any time and had chosen to directly confine these idlers.

The guards were instantly terrified, feeling that the master's cultivation had become even more profound and unfathomable, and they all became obedient at once.

"Interesting, someone in your family has gone missing too, huh."

Du En's tone seemed to have some fluctuations.

Zhu Qing, having already staked everything, immediately began to recount the specific details upon hearing this.

In truth, there was not much to say; the elder brother traveled about, while the sister had low cultivation but good looks, so she usually did not draw attention to herself to avoid inviting trouble, full of the caution and ordinariness of a low-level rogue cultivator.

However, not long ago, on a certain day, when Zhu Qing returned home after his usual hard day of toil, he discovered that his sister Zhu Yi was not at home, nor had she left any message.

At first, he thought she was busy with some important matter; after all, although she did not usually draw attention to herself, she did not truly hide at home all the time. Thus, it was only after two days had passed without her returning or sending word that he realized something was wrong, and after searching and verifying, he learned she had gone missing.

After searching alone for several more days with no results, Zhu Qing could only wander about, filled with anxiety, his eyes bloodshot, hoping to strike it lucky; and then, he happened to hear the commotion of the procession passing by.

Even though Jiuyun Shangren's reputation was not very good, and the reputation of the City Lord's Mansion was even worse—often bullying others and killing—he had no leads in his search for his sister, so he simply gritted his teeth, stomped his foot, and ran over to seek help.

Now that he had finished speaking, he just lowered his head, clutching his sweaty hands, waiting for the person opposite to pronounce the fate of his sister and himself.

Du En's focus, however, was elsewhere at this moment.

"Did you discover something, Fellow Daoist Du?"

"This person looks like he should be quite normal; at least to my eyes, there is nothing unusual. However, if you, Junior Brother, can see something, I, as your Senior Brother, would not be surprised."

An Shen and Sheng Zhaoshui spoke one after another, noticing Du En's shift in attention.

They both knew that his eyesight was extraordinary now; even without using Daoist arts or channeling mana, he could easily see into the depths of an individual, as if touching upon the various circumstances of their very origin.

"Mm, something is indeed not right. On his body, there is a faint trace of something different. If I am not mistaken, it should be the aura of his sister, attached to him after living under the same roof for a long time?" By the end, Du En was also somewhat uncertain.

The main point was that the suspicious aspect of Zhu Qing lay in his life source, but what kind of aura could, through daily interaction, contaminate the other person's life source—a place deeper than the physical origin, which could be called the root of an individual's existence?

The key was that this aura was also very strange; for a moment, he could not even find a specific way to describe it.

"Oh? Is that really the case?"

"And just like that young master of the Po family, they both went missing at this time... It seems I was careless; I didn't even notice the situation hidden here before."

"Perhaps it really couldn't be found before?"

Du En's rhetorical question caused the two to pause slightly.

Because it pointed to a situation that could not be ignored, one that could be called the worst-case scenario.

—The Supreme's layout actually still lacked these three small ingredients, so as soon as they were all gathered, the changes began to occur! "In any case, let's go and take a look over there first; besides, the direction of his home is, strictly speaking, on the way."

Du En, having followed the trail to find the other party's residence, concluded as much, and neither of the two had any objections.

Thus, he withdrew from this internal discussion and directed the conversation toward Zhu Qing.

From the perspective of Zhu Qing and his group, there was merely a slight pause for deliberation, and then an immediate reply was given: "Lead the way, let's go to your place first to see the situation."

"Exalted One..."

What about the Young Master? Before the guards could even ask this question, Zhu Qing was already overjoyed; he bowed and offered thanks before turning to lead the way, fearing that if he were any later, the other party might change their mind, and Du En followed along quite readily.

Thus, they left behind a group of guards still staring in astonishment, having not reacted at all.

"Move, move, move! What are you standing there like idiots for?!"

The guard captain was the first to react; a trace of suspicion flickered in his eyes as he stared at the familiar back ahead, yet he could discern no issues at all, though he still couldn't help but let various thoughts churn in his mind.

In the end, he just sighed inwardly and chose to step forward to follow.

"My Lord, the alley is too narrow; the ceremonial carriages and horses cannot enter."

"Put them away, put them all away!"

"This... very well."

The guards followed closely, filing in one after another.

"Heh, this guard captain is actually quite sensible about the situation."

Sheng Zhaoshui was still the one with the most leisure; at this moment, he was walking backward, watching the guards' performance with a roguish expression, stroking the stubble on his chin as if he were hatching some wicked scheme to tease the guard captain later.

As it turned out, no one responded to him, so he could only shrug and sigh somewhat: "Sigh, this time is really something, why didn't anyone with a bit of wit come along? If that doesn't work, having Junior Sister Jiang Ying come along to join us would have been fine too. Now that she no longer hides herself, she should be able to chat with me a bit more. If that fails, at least she's a junior sister, even if she hasn't fully grown up yet..."

Such incessant chatter caused An Shen to frown secretly.

As for Du En, he had long known about this guy's tendency to act unreliably while actually being quite calculating, so he didn't find it surprising at all; as long as he didn't pay him any mind, it would be fine, as this guy wouldn't ruin anything, he just liked to run his mouth.

Still a greenhorn! The group hurried along, quickly ducking from the main street into a small path, and then into an even narrower alley.

Gradually, Du En's pace was even slightly faster than Zhu Qing's, which left him feeling secretly astonished, as the former was actually so familiar with the path, even more so than he was! Truly worthy of being a powerful City Lord, a dignified Superior Person and great cultivator! Zhu Qing felt secret admiration and awe, and at the same time, he suddenly gained great confidence in finding his sister, and his previously anxious heart settled down a little.

Very soon, they arrived at a dark corner of the city.

Qi Condensation cultivators are at the bottom of the hierarchy everywhere, especially in a great city like Nine Clouds City, which has Nascent Soul experts sitting in town, where Nascent Soul stages are not rare, and Golden Core and Foundation Establishment stages are everywhere; it is even more so the case here.

Therefore, the place where Zhu Qing and his sister lived was precisely this slum for poor cultivators—dirty, chaotic, poor, dark, and narrow, with all sorts of filth visible from time to time and all sorts of stenches drifting everywhere.

Because Qi Condensation cultivators have not yet reached Inedia, there is intake and there is output, and with so many bottom-tier poor cultivators crowded together, daily survival is very hard, so hygiene naturally falls by the wayside, and as time accumulates, it becomes a habit.

The high and mighty guards of the Nascent Soul stage felt as if they had arrived in a cesspit, and they began to complain incessantly.

Because the Exalted One in front had an indifferent back, they dared not use any techniques casually, so they could only endure the disgust and hatred, pinching their noses as they walked, thinking that they would definitely find an opportunity later to let this bunch of dung maggots know how powerful they were!

Right, and that bunch of guys responsible for managing this area—they would all be skinned and hung up!

Amidst such complaints, someone stepped on some indescribable dung, and their face twitched even more violently! Truth be told, the minor officials and clerks who had already heard the news, as well as the local bullies of this slum, and even the other residents lingering at home, were not in a much better mood at this moment.

After all, Nine Clouds Superior Person had never graced this place with his presence before, and given the great magic power and great majesty of a great cultivator, plus the notorious reputation of the City Lord's Mansion, if it weren't for the fact that Du En walked so fast and didn't give them room to react, they would likely already be kneeling all over the ground, wailing and begging for mercy.

Zhu Qing also realized at this moment that he seemed to have brought a massive disaster to his residence, and his mood became very ashamed and uneasy, but when he carefully glanced at the Exalted One beside him, he was surprised to find that the other party seemed even more experienced than he was, completely avoiding the filth, and walking without the slightest discomfort.

"I am truly experienced."

Facing An Shen's slightly strange gaze, Du En only said this, and Sheng Zhaoshui nodded as well; at this moment, he was quite straightforward, directly stepping through the air and moving while floating, just like An Shen.

"Won't this be too flashy and affect the lives of others?"

"The fact that Nine Clouds Superior Person was killed has already had a deep impact. In the end, wanting to have no impact or turmoil at all is a naive thought; it is better to start actively fueling the flames now. In this way, the clever ones will likely perceive a thing or two, and subsequently, they will naturally be able to adapt to the intense changes in the situation more quickly."

Du En said casually, explaining the reason why he was making such a big scene and not caring about the impact his actions had on the people.

Then, he glanced at An Shen with some confusion, seemingly feeling that he shouldn't have asked these questions, as such a situation should have been easy to think of and self-evident.

An Shen's eyes flickered slightly at this, but he didn't explain anything, seemingly having some additional thoughts of his own.

Glancing again at Sheng Zhaoshui, who had already started mingling, Du En couldn't help but shake his head slightly in secret.

This team is not easy to lead.

"We're here! My home is right over there!"

Zhu Qing's voice made the guards perk up, and when they looked over and saw that the inside and outside of the house were kept very clean, their eyes lit up, and the gazes they cast at Zhu Qing couldn't help but soften slightly; of course, this was just a fleeting emotion, and there was still more annoyance and hatred.

(End of chapter)