Chapter 270: A Shadow Demon Cultivator?!

After Fei Si reported back and received Meng Kui's approval, he hurried back to the Cloud Market.

Upon seeing Zhu Xuanji and Song Fuli again, he first sent a voice transmission to the former: "Lord Zhu, with the Fire Persimmon Immortal City and the Molten Lava Immortal Palace currently under siege, we must unite and cooperate to overcome this crisis together."

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

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"I have obtained authorization from Lord Meng Kui and can now discuss compensation matters with Song Fuli."

"I only fear this man will make exorbitant demands... Sigh, our side is indeed in a passive position."

"In this regard, I hope you, Lord Zhu, will help out for the sake of us both being citizens of the Southern Bean Kingdom!"

Zhu Xuanji nodded and quickly replied via voice transmission: "Meng Kui and I serve in the same imperial court; we are of one body. Now that we are in the same boat, I should certainly 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 secret verbal contract just made, Zhu Xuanji actively participated in the negotiations.

Having gained Zhu Xuanji's reinforcement, 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, initiating the 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 unite with the Cloud Merchants to resist the beast tide.

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

The negotiations were difficult; with three parties entangled, the situation was quite complex.

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

In secret, 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 echoed from the reception hall.

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

Zhu Xuanji wiped the sweat from his brow; he, too, had paid a significant price on behalf of the Southern Bean royal family.

Song Fuli had made a killing!

Not only could he legitimately participate in the competition for the Molten Lava Immortal Palace, but he had also taken advantage of the beast tide to make the City Lord's Mansion and the Southern Bean royal family pay high fees in exchange for their aid.

After calculating, not only was the hole from the stolen goods completely filled, but he had also made a huge profit on top of it!

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

A knock sounded at the door; a cultivator from the City Lord's Mansion came to report.

Reporting at this time meant something major must have happened.

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 the warehouse guards."

It turned out that as the beasts attacked the city and Fire Persimmon Immortal City was forced into passive defense, Fei Si had planned to mobilize fire persimmons to mass-produce explosive items as a trump card for critical moments.

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

Since the harvest during the Fire Persimmon Festival, the warehouse had been sealed, with only the management personnel able to enter.

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

If it wasn't him embezzling, 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 honor 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 drained his wits and tongue, leaving his mind in a poor state.

At this moment, he felt fortunate that they had already agreed on the compensation and alliance plans 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 come to this, 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? What method did you use to forge the formation records? To whom did you sell that batch of fire persimmons?!" Fei Si shouted.

The Foundation Establishment-level warehouse manager was scared out of his wits, wailing: "My lord, Lord Fei Si, please be discerning!"

"This lowly one is wronged; I have not embezzled at all."

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

"This lowly one only oversaw them; I dared not touch them at all."

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

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

The clerk was tearful: "Although I, I inspected them daily, I only checked the exterior; I did not discover that the pile of fire persimmons had been hollowed out from within!"

"I was negligent in my inspection, extremely negligent; this is indeed my fault!"

"But I truly did not embezzle; I swear to the heavens, I haven't touched a single fire persimmon."

The clerk cried, his words sounding sincere.

"Good, good, good. You're quite good at avoiding the main issue. I suppose you've long anticipated this and spent your days studying our laws?" 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 too hasty.

Zhu Xuanji couldn't watch any longer 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 locked gazes for a while; in the end, Fei Si, not wanting Song Fuli to see the infighting of the Southern Bean Kingdom, had to take a step back and report a compromise number.

Golden light flashed in Zhu Xuanji's eyes; he immediately identified that Fei Si was being insincere and lying.

Clearly, in this situation, Fei Si could only report a smaller number.

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

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

Fire persimmons are analogous to fire essence; if such a large quantity were utilized by someone with malicious intent, it could cause massive damage to the Molten Lava Immortal Palace, 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 heavy casualties.

"This matter must be investigated clearly; 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 up: "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 Voidless Gate?" A sharp glint flashed in Fei Si's eyes, "Highly likely!"

If not for Zhu Xuanji, he would have confirmed it on the spot. Regardless, he could not take the blame for this; it would affect his career.

Zhu Xuanji, however, 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 Molten Lava Immortal Palace; he hadn't expected the fire persimmon theft case to emerge.

Without stopping, he immediately headed 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 source, 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 a black python, easily slipped out of the warehouse.

There were six layers of formations in the warehouse, but the black python moved freely through the gaps between the formations!

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

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

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

In an instant, a 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 decided to be frank.

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

He paused, 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; anyone could play the part.

Zhu Xuanji nodded slowly.

He said: "The Fire Persimmon Mountain often trembles, even with the Molten Lava Immortal Palace suppressing the base of the mountain, it is unavoidable."

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

"When the six layers of formations were first laid out, they were tight and seamless, leaving no space for formation placement."

"But as time passed, gaps inevitably appeared 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 squeeze 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 that the City Lord's Mansion was absolutely a victim and this was definitely not a self-directed act.

Zhu Xuanji's eyes glowed 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, does it?" Zhu Xuanji sent a voice transmission.

Fei Si was dumbfounded.

Zhu Xuanji's implication was that Meng Kui had arranged it in secret, 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 of 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 promising that he would issue orders for his subordinates to thoroughly investigate the front lines and all key locations throughout the Immortal City.

"But as for the Molten Lava Immortal Palace side, I am powerless." Fei Si then sighed deeply, requesting in a helpless tone that Zhu Xuanji must follow this clue to the end!

Zhu Xuanji sighed as well: "I need to consider the situation comprehensively."