Chapter 270: A Shadow Demon Cultivator?!

After reporting to his superiors, Fei Si received Meng Kui's approval and hurried back to Cloud City.

Upon seeing Zhu Xuanji and Song Fuli again, he first transmitted his voice to the former: "Lord Zhu, with Fire Persimmon Xiancheng and the Magma Xian Gong currently under siege, we must unite and cooperate to overcome this crisis together."

"At this moment, we still need the strength of Song Fuli's group to have a better chance of resisting the beast tide and surviving this crisis."

¤C〇

"I have already obtained authorization from Lord Meng Kui to discuss compensation matters with Song Fuli."

"I only fear that this person will make exorbitant demands... Alas, our side's situation is indeed passive."

"In this regard, I hope you, Lord Zhu, will help us out, considering we are both citizens of the Nandou Kingdom!"

Zhu Xuanji nodded and quickly transmitted back: "Meng Kui and I serve in the same court; we are one and the same. Now that we are in the same boat, I should naturally contribute."

"Rest assured, I will also participate in the negotiations. I have the authority to make certain decisions regarding the Royal Family's assets."

Whether due to his own stance or the verbal agreement just made in secret, Zhu Xuanji actively participated in the negotiations.

Having gained Zhu Xuanji's reinforcements, Fei Si secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

He invited Song Fuli to the City Lord's Mansion and asked Zhu Xuanji to accompany them, launching a round of negotiations.

It was clearly impossible to track down the stolen goods and return them to the Cloud Merchants within two days.

The City Lord's Mansion wanted to ally with the Cloud Merchants to resist the beast tide.

To show their sincerity, they simply chose to win Song Fuli over by negotiating compensation.

The negotiations were arduous; the three parties were entangled, and the situation was quite complex.

On the surface, Zhu Xuanji and Fei Si were working together to discuss terms with Song Fuli.

Privately, Zhu Xuanji and Song Fuli had a tacit understanding, both wanting the City Lord's Mansion to bleed more.

Two hours later, the compensation negotiations finally reached a result.

Song Fuli's hearty laughter could be heard from the reception hall.

Fei Si's expression was extremely ugly. The City Lord's Mansion had paid a huge price, and he had almost failed to hold the bottom line Meng Kui had set for him.

Zhu Xuanji wiped the sweat from his forehead; he, too, had paid a significant price on behalf of the Nandou Royal Family.

Song Fuli had made a killing!

Not only could he legitimately participate in the competition for the Magma Xian Gong, but he had also taken advantage of the beast tide to make the City Lord's Mansion and the Nandou Royal Family pay a high price in exchange for their assistance.

After calculating, not only was the hole left by the stolen goods completely filled, but he had also made a huge profit!

The three parties finalized the details and quickly signed the contract.

A knock on the door sounded, and a cultivator from the City Lord's Mansion came to report.

Reporting at this time meant a major incident must have occurred.

Fei Si thought there was a problem with the city defenses and hurriedly let his subordinate in, only to hear about "corruption and dereliction of duty by warehouse guards."

It turned out that with the beasts attacking the city and Fire Persimmon Xiancheng on the defensive, Fei Si had thought of mobilizing fire persimmons to mass-produce explosives as a trump card for a critical moment.

As a result, when his subordinates went to retrieve the fire persimmons from the warehouse, they discovered that a massive quantity had vanished!

Since the fire persimmons were harvested during the festival, the warehouse had been sealed, and only the management personnel could enter or exit.

Thus, the finger was pointed directly at the clerk managing the warehouse.

If it wasn't him who embezzled them, who else could it be?

This immediately infuriated Fei Si.

"Good, good, good! Very good indeed!"

"At a time like this, to engage in corruption—you've really brought glory to my City Lord's Mansion."

Fei Si was so angry his face turned pale.

He deeply regretted calling his subordinate in and exposing this matter to Zhu Xuanji and Song Fuli.

Especially Song Fuli, who cast another look of distrust.

"I must have lost my mind to be so unwise as to handle official business in front of outsiders!"

"Sigh..."

Fei Si lamented; the previous negotiations had truly exhausted his brain and tongue, and his mind was not in the right state.

At this moment, he felt fortunate that they had already agreed on the compensation and alliance plan and signed the contract. Otherwise, Song Fuli might have looked down on the City Lord's Mansion even more because of this incident, leading to even more outrageous demands.

Since things had reached this point, to salvage his reputation, Fei Si simply ordered: "Bring that corrupt clerk here!"

Soon, the clerk was escorted in and knelt before the three Jin Dan cultivators.

"Speak! How did you embezzle them? What method did you use to forge the array records? And who did you sell that batch of fire persimmons to?!" Fei Si shouted.

The Foundation Establishment-level warehouse manager was scared out of his wits and wailed: "My Lord, Lord Fei Si, please see the truth!"

"This lowly one is wronged; I did not embezzle anything at all."

"Those fire persimmons, ever since they were harvested during the festival, were sent directly to the warehouse through the teleportation array."

"This lowly one was only responsible for checking them; I wouldn't dare touch them at all."

Fei Si's gaze was sharp: "You still dare to quibble!"

"Then you checked them many times; why did you only discover the massive shortage today when we went to use them?"

The clerk was in tears: "Although this lowly one checked them every day, I only checked the exterior appearance; I didn't discover that the pile of fire persimmons had been hollowed out from within!"

"This lowly one was negligent in my duties, extremely negligent; this is indeed my fault!"

"But I really didn't embezzle anything; I swear to the heavens, I didn't touch a single fire persimmon."

The clerk cried, his words sounding sincere.

"Good, good, good. You're quite good at avoiding the heavy and dwelling on the light. You must have anticipated this and spent your days studying our kingdom's laws, right?" Fei Si's face was gloomy, leaking killing intent.

Zhu Xuanji sighed softly; he could see that Fei Si wanted to cut the Gordian knot to make an example of him and salvage the City Lord's Mansion's reputation.

This was being too rash.

Zhu Xuanji couldn't stand it and stood up: "I just used a method to check; this person is not lying."

"How many fire persimmons were lost?"

Fei Si's face was gloomy, staring at Zhu Xuanji like a hawk.

The two confronted each other with their gazes for a while; in the end, Fei Si did not want Song Fuli to see the internal strife of the Nandou Kingdom, so he had to take a step back and report a compromise number.

Zhu Xuanji's eyes flashed with golden light, immediately identifying that Fei Si was being insincere and lying.

Clearly, in this situation, Fei Si would only report a lower number.

This immediately caused Zhu Xuanji to frown deeply, his expression sinking: "That many?!"

A huge number of fire persimmons were lost, especially many ten-thousand-year and thousand-year fire persimmons.

Fire persimmons are analogous to fire essence; if such a large quantity were utilized by someone with ulterior motives, it could likely cause massive damage to the Magma Xian Gong, especially at a time when the beast tide was constantly attacking.

If the fire persimmons exploded, causing the front line to collapse and allowing the beasts to rush into the city, it would inevitably lead to devastating casualties.

"This matter must be investigated; it cannot be ignored!"

Zhu Xuanji stared at the clerk, the golden light in his eyes intensifying.

This was truly terrible news; compared to the theft of the Cloud Merchants' goods, this was even more important.

Song Fuli spoke: "To be able to easily steal from the City Lord's Mansion's treasury and only be discovered now—could it be the same group of people?"

"The Kong Sect?" A flash of brilliance appeared in Fei Si's eyes, "Extremely likely!"

If not for Zhu Xuanji, he would have confirmed it immediately. Regardless, he could not let this blame fall on him; it would affect his career.

Zhu Xuanji had his bottom line, saying: "We must still conduct an investigation to determine the true culprit!"

He had originally thought that once he settled the Cloud Merchants' matter, he could immediately return to the Magma Xian Gong, never expecting this fire persimmon theft case to emerge.

He didn't stop to rest, immediately heading to the warehouse to conduct an on-site survey.

Under his Golden Eyes, almost nothing could remain hidden.

Soon, Zhu Xuanji made a shocking discovery!

"A Shadow Demon Cultivator?!"

By tracing the roots, Zhu Xuanji "saw" the scene that had once occurred here.

A Shadow Demon Cultivator had hidden in the fire persimmon warehouse, taken a large quantity of fire persimmons, and then, shrouded in black smoke like an ink python, easily drilled out of the warehouse.

There were six layers of arrays in the warehouse, but the ink python moved freely along the gaps between the arrays!

"So, has the Shadow Demon Cultivator been hiding here all along? But is he the original Shadow Demon Cultivator?"

During the Jin Dan melee, several Shadow Demon Cultivators had emerged. Zhu Xuanji could not determine the true origin of this Shadow Demon Cultivator based solely on this past image.

"Is it the Meng family stealing from their own treasury? Or is the City Lord's Mansion simply a victim?"

In an instant, fog shrouded Zhu Xuanji's heart.

Seeing Zhu Xuanji's expression change, Fei Si asked urgently: "Lord Zhu, have you discovered any key clues?"

"I have made a discovery; the one who stole the fire persimmons is a Shadow Demon Cultivator!" Zhu Xuanji thought for a moment and simply told the truth.

Fei Si's eyes widened: "A Shadow Demon Cultivator?!"

He was stunned for a moment, then realized: "Wait, doesn't that mean anyone could be?"

After the Jin Dan melee, the identity of the Shadow Demon Cultivator had become common knowledge; anyone could put on a performance.

Zhu Xuanji nodded slowly.

He said: "Fire Persimmon Mountain often trembles; even with the Magma Xian Gong suppressing the base of the mountain, it is unavoidable."

"The city-protecting array has remained unchanged for years, and repair work due to damage from mountain tremors is a common sight."

"When the six layers of arrays were first laid out, they were tightly knit, with no space for array formation."

"But as time passed, gaps would always appear due to the mountain tremors."

"The Shadow Demon Cultivator used these gaps to enter and exit the warehouse."

Fei Si's eyes widened again: "Can a person drill through such narrow gaps?"

Zhu Xuanji sighed: "It seems some kind of spell or divine ability was used."

Fei Si was speechless.

After a moment of silence, he fully realized the situation.

Immediately, Fei Si bowed deeply to Zhu Xuanji, sincerely stating: The City Lord's Mansion side is absolutely a victim; this is definitely not a self-directed act.

Zhu Xuanji's eyes flashed with golden light, staring fixedly at Fei Si.

"I know you are not lying. However, just because you didn't do it doesn't mean the City Lord's Mansion didn't do it, right?" Zhu Xuanji transmitted.

Fei Si was dumbfounded.

Zhu Xuanji's implication was that Meng Kui had arranged it secretly, keeping Fei Si in the dark.

This was indeed possible.

After all, the righteous path using demonic pawns is a taboo; the fewer people who know, the better.

If such a thing really existed, Fei Si would rather not know!

The more he knew about such secrets, the more dangerous he was.

Fei Si subconsciously looked toward the top of Fire Persimmon Mountain, then immediately realized this action was inappropriate.

He frowned deeply, immediately guaranteeing that he would issue orders for his subordinates to thoroughly investigate the front lines and all vital areas of the Xiancheng.

"But regarding the Magma Xian Gong, I am powerless." Fei Si sighed again, requesting in a helpless tone that Zhu Xuanji must follow this clue to the end!

Zhu Xuanji also sighed: "I need to consider everything comprehensively." ===== CHAPTER 271 =====