Chapter 119

"This is all the evidence?" Zhu Xuanji arrived at the Zhou family.

The Zhou family head hosted him personally.

Zhu Xuanji got straight to the point, saying he had rushed over immediately upon hearing of the attack.

"This might be the work of the Black Shadow Demon cultivator! According to our previous speculation, someone secretly released him."

"This is an evil force lurking in the shadows!"

"If we hadn't discovered it in time, I'm afraid both of my Zhou family's Qi Refining geniuses would have perished."

The Zhou family head's expression was grave.

Zhu Xuanji pinched the ant corpse in his hand, his eyes shooting out golden light, activating the Root-Tracing Art.

He remained silent throughout.

The Zhou family head looked hopeful, asking if he had any discoveries.

Zhu Xuanji shook his head.

"The evidence from your family alone is not enough; I will go check the other families." Zhu Xuanji bid farewell to the Zhou family head.

He arrived successively at the City Lord's Mansion, the Zheng family, and Unlike Ning Zhuo's small courtyard.

The results of the investigation were as he expected.

There were clues, and many of them.

The problem lay in the "many"!

The Root-Tracing Art can detect closely related objects, but this close relation can be in many aspects.

For example, from the medicinal residue that poisoned Ning Xiaohui, Zhu Xuanji found related raw materials, the medicine-brewing boy, the servant girl who delivered the medicine, and so on.

Based on this alone, can one judge that the medicine-brewing boy or the servant girl is the murderer?

No.

Because they were brewing and delivering the medicine, they are closely related to the poison.

But can it be determined that they are not the murderers?

Also no.

Because they might have secretly poisoned the medicine while brewing or delivering it.

The Root-Tracing Art can only discover clues.

To truly investigate in depth, one must rely on Zhu Xuanji's various interrogation methods.

But Zhu Xuanji intended to stop.

There were too many clues; if he were to continue investigating, the energy and time involved would be frightening.

Zhu Xuanji highly suspected: this was deliberately arranged by the murderer to delay his investigation progress!

Just like the previous Fire Persimmon Festival, when the mechanical monkeys acted abnormally and attacked Yuan Er.

Afterward, Zhu Xuanji traced many clues from the remains of these mechanical fire-exploding monkeys.

Were these clues useful?

Very little value.

What Zhu Xuanji likes to see is that under the Root-Tracing Art, only a few clues appear. The fewer the clues, the more value there is in investigating!

But now, every piece of evidence had so many clues.

Then, the murderer's intention to target the Root-Tracing Art was very obvious!

However, this was also within Zhu Xuanji's expectations.

The reputation of the Root-Tracing Art was spreading wider and wider, and many powerful individuals or forces would consciously take precautions.

The cultivation techniques of this world are all tools, helping cultivators better realize certain visions.

Since they are tools, they can be targeted.

What is hard to target has always been the strong among people, not excellent tools.

There are no invincible techniques, only invincible cultivators.

"Originally pinning my hopes on the murderer revealing a flaw was me thinking a bit too beautifully."

Zhu Xuanji left the four major forces, deciding to continue according to the previous investigation plan.

"Perhaps, my step-by-step investigation has already brought pressure to the murderer. That's why there were these few attacks, attempting to attract my attention!"

Zhu Xuanji's brows remained furrowed.

After investigating a circle, he always felt that something was not quite right in his heart, something strange.

But as for where exactly it was wrong, he thought about it carefully and found nothing. Not only that, the previous strange feeling had also dissipated.

Zhu Xuanji's subsequent actions made the heads of the three major families feel disappointed.

The three family heads met secretly to discuss a grand plan.

"Divine Catcher Zhu is truly disappointing."

"Perhaps he has already found out which force is responsible. But he is hindered by his own identity and cannot make it public."

"You mean?"

The three family heads fell silent.

Although they didn't say it explicitly, they all knew it referred to the City Lord's Mansion!

Regardless of the last attack or this one, the City Lord's Mansion actually suffered the least loss.

No, to be more precise, it was a blessing in disguise.

Because Meng Chong eliminated the assassins twice, his prestige soared, firmly suppressing the Qi Refining geniuses of the other three families.

"Since Meng Kui took office, he has gotten along well with our three families. This time, it might not necessarily be his doing. After all, Meng Chong has been far ahead in exploring the Xian Gong," said the Zheng family head.

The Ning family head also analyzed: "During the last attack, I indeed suspected the City Lord's Mansion. But this time, the intensity of the assassination was extremely high, with the momentum to kill all the Qi Refining geniuses of our three families. Perhaps there really is a hidden force plotting something?"

The Zhou family head shook his head and sneered: "Didn't our three families' genius juniors all survive?"

"Even if they died, could it be traced to the City Lord's Mansion?"

The Zhou family head sighed deeply: "The Meng family is a major family of our Southern Bean Immortal Kingdom."

"When Meng family cultivators take action, they are generally full of aggression and have a strong temperament."

"Especially the four generals of the Meng family, every one of them has illustrious battle achievements and has slaughtered thousands. Not to mention the other three fierce generals, Meng Kui is also one of the four, seemingly peaceful and approachable, but actually, it's all a facade."

"Everyone think about it, since he took office, have our three families lived well?"

"Is it not much more oppressive than the previous few City Lords?"

"I don't know if you two fellow Daoists have investigated Meng Kui's past battle reports. This person is even better at setting up schemes than our Zhou family, and has a nickname called 'Prime Minister of the Mountain Top'."

"Can such a person be easy to deal with?"

The Ning family head was thoughtful: "Since you put it that way, I actually have quite a few similar feelings."

"As for the Lava Xian Gong, it was the City Lord's Mansion that discovered it first."

"Next were the families of you two, Zhou and Zheng."

"According to our clan's intelligence gathering, it was learned that your two families joined forces and secretly bribed Meng Kui heavily, asking him not to report it to the imperial court."

"But think carefully, if Meng Kui had reported it immediately upon discovery, would there be anything for us?"

"On the surface, it was the Zhou and Zheng families who took the initiative to ask him for cooperation, but was this already within his layout?"

The Zheng family head snorted coldly: "Very likely!"

"Meng Kui is actually harder to deal with than others in the Meng family because he is more insidious."

"Relying on the Lava Xian Gong, he made our three families actively cooperate with him, allowing him to govern the Immortal City all these years with smooth administrative orders and harmony from top to bottom."

"Before, he deliberately released news, relaxed surveillance, and attracted countless rogue cultivators and Demon cultivators to explore the Red Flame Demon Lava Cave."

"Over these years, I don't know how many people have died. These people used their lives to fill the gaps, slaughtering countless Red Flame Demon beasts, causing the pressure on the Xian Gong to drop sharply, and allowing the City Lord's Mansion to gradually obtain detailed intelligence regarding the Xian Gong, the Red Flame Demon Lava Cave, and so on."

"If the City Lord's Mansion really had to do it alone, by now, I'm afraid the City Guard Army would have all died out."

The Zhou family head added: "Since the Lava Xian Gong appeared, Meng Kui has personally sat in command, suppressing the Xian Gong with all his might, strictly forbidding anyone from approaching."

"Hmph!"

"His excuse is very clever, extremely high-sounding."

"In reality, his actions completely prevented the cultivators of our three families from entering the Xian Gong to explore the Xian Gong's legacy."

In the past, it was very troublesome for Zhou and Zheng family cultivators to enter the Xian Gong.

They had to climb to the top of the volcano, enter the Red Flame Demon Lava Cave, and choose the correct path to enter the Xian Gong within the mountain.

In this process, they also had to face the Red Flame Demon beasts along the way.

Eventually, cultivators would come into contact with the Xian Gong but could not break through. Only those whose mechanical arts had long been recognized by the Palace Spirit could enter the Xian Gong.

Originally, with the Xian Gong appearing, the cultivators of the three families could conveniently enter and exit frequently.

But Meng Kui's personal suppression made it impossible for the three families to come into contact with the Xian Gong.

Although the City Lord's Mansion also had no cultivators entering the Xian Gong, the three families knew very well that in this regard, the City Lord's Mansion's competitiveness was far inferior to the Qi Refining stage.

In the competition of the Qi Refining stage, Meng Chong had super-grade talent—this advantage was truly too great!

The Zhou family head looked earnest: "At this point, finding the real murderer is not important. What's important is the Lava Xian Gong!"

The other two family heads nodded one after another.

The Zhou family head struck while the iron was hot: "Only by uniting and collaborating more closely can we possibly contend with the City Lord's Mansion."

"To show my sincerity, I am willing to fully open the Gathering and Scattering Wishful Spirit Tide Formation and provide it for the use of your two families."

The Ning and Zheng family heads were a bit surprised.

The opening of this Gathering and Scattering Wishful Spirit Tide Formation was a point the Zhou family head had never loosened up on during their previous negotiations.

Unexpectedly, this assassination, with the two geniuses of the Zhou family suffering the most, instead prompted the Zhou family head to make up his mind and bring out the Gathering and Scattering Wishful Spirit Tide Formation.

"Good." The Zheng family head clapped his hands, "Since that's the case, I will take out my clan's foundation—the Sharp Advance Needle."

The Ning family head nodded: "Then my Ning family will bring out the Ice Light Strong Pulse Talisman."

The Gathering and Scattering Wishful Spirit Tide Formation can help cultivators breathe and accumulate magic power faster.

The Sharp Advance Needle can open up the Qi pulses within a cultivator's body in advance during the Qi Refining stage, saving the cultivator the effort of painstaking chiseling.

The Ice Light Strong Pulse Talisman can cover the inside and outside of the Qi pulses in a cultivator's body with a layer of ice light. With this protection, a cultivator can breathe at a speed three times higher than their limit without worrying about the Qi pulses being unable to support it and collapsing under the impact of magic power.

The genius cultivators of the three families were injured one after another and needed recuperation.

They urgently needed to modify the other members of the team and raise their respective cultivation bases.

These assassinations made the three family heads realize the cruelty of the competition and the strength and dominance of their opponents.

They put down their pride and collaborated more actively.

Ning Ze's residence.

Dining room.

"Mother, how much longer do we have to wait?" Cousin Ning Ji had just stretched out his chopsticks to pick up food when his hand was directly slapped by his mother, Wang Lan, with her chopsticks.

Cousin Ning Ji felt the pain and jerked his hand back.

Wang Lan glared at her beloved son: "What if we wait a while?"

"Your father is still in the private prison, how can you eat?"

Cousin Ning Ji covered the back of his hand: "But we don't need to wait for Unlike Ning Zhuo to come over to eat. We never had this rule before, didn't we always eat first?"

Wang Lan snorted coldly: "How can now be compared to the past?"

"Unlike Ning Zhuo is so highly valued by the Young Clan Leader; as long as he puts in a good word for you with the Young Clan Leader and pleads for your father, your father will be able to come out!"