Chapter 226

Hearing Wei Hongqing ask this, Liu Xiaolou basically understood: it really had happened. He just didn't know where the problem lay.

"Brother Wei, how were you suspected?"

Wei Hongqing sighed long and fell into a daze again. After a long while, he said: "What a ruthless woman!"

Liu Xiaolou asked: "Lu Yanshi?"

Wei Hongqing nodded: "Calculating back and forth, I fell into her trap. Xiaolou, do you still remember Lu Zian from back then?"

Satisfied, he examined the space within the bag, and a thought slowly formed in his mind. After withdrawing his spiritual sense, he went into the forest to cut several bundles of bamboo, spending half a day weaving a bamboo rack that was almost equal in size to the Universe Bag's space.

Wei Hongqing said: "Back then, the sect was preparing to recruit an inner sect disciple, and they were selecting from the outer sect. Lu Yanshi and Lu Zian were both outstanding talents in the outer sect. By everyone's consensus, they were more inclined toward Lu Zian. But half a year later, various signs made Lu Zian think he had no hope. In his resentment, he stole the Foundation Establishment Pill that had just been refined. The result, you know: Lu Zian died, and Lu Yanshi entered the inner sect. Do you know why Lu Zian suddenly took such a risk? Hehe."

Liu Xiaolou recalled the letters he later found in the abandoned house in Yang Liu Bay and was stunned: "Was it all that woman's doing?"

Wei Hongqing said: "Yes, creating various false impressions to make Lu Zian think he had been abandoned by the elders, and even some minor mistakes were deliberately exaggerated, making him think the elders would punish him. Also, releasing news that there was an ancient immortal's cave dwelling in Ba-Shu—hehe, that news was deliberately released by me. In the end, the person on duty for the Foundation Establishment Pill was originally Lu Yanshi. She thought of a way, claiming she was unwell, and had it changed to Lu Zian."

Liu Xiaolou asked: "And so?"

Wei Hongqing coughed twice and suddenly laughed loudly: "So, all that talk about marrying Lu Zhongqiu was a lie! She deceived me, and she deceived Lu Zhongqiu. She never intended to marry Lu Zhongqiu at all! She told me these things only because that fellow had been pestering her. I even suspect that fellow knew some handle on her! She was just using a knife to kill, using me as the knife to kill Lu Zhongqiu!"

Liu Xiaolou realized: "So, no matter how we covered it up, it was actually useless? She had made up her mind from the beginning to let you make the move? So Lu Zhongqiu's whereabouts were revealed to you by her?"

Wei Hongqing said blankly: "Even the weakness of the Seven-Treasure Lotus Beads was told to me by her."

Liu Xiaolou could not help but be horrified: "No way, Brother Wei. I remember you said that the method to counter the Seven-Treasure Lotus Beads was something she mentioned unintentionally two years ago. At that time, you and she were still quite close. It was told to you in bed, right?"

Wei Hongqing covered his head with both hands, tearing at his own hair: "I can't explain it clearly either, Xiaolou. Two years ago! Did she think of today two years ago? At that time, how good I was to her! Good as a dog! A dog!"

The secret cave suddenly fell silent. Liu Xiaolou couldn't help but feel a chill run up his back, so cold that the hairs all over his body stood on end. He turned his head with difficulty, looking at the exit of the secret cave, as if a woman's figure was there, ready to poke her head out of the pool water at any moment.

As he turned his head, Wei Hongqing also stopped his hands, no longer pulling his hair, his two eyeballs staring in terror at the exit of the secret cave.

The two of them stared like this for a long time, not daring to breathe a big breath, until Liu Xiaolou couldn't help but turn his head back. When their eyes met, they were startled by each other again.

"Brother Wei, what's wrong with you?"

"What are you looking at, Xiaolou?"

"I'm looking to see if anyone has come in."

"What did you see? What did you sense?"

"It seems like nothing, Brother Wei. What about you?"

"I didn't see anything. I saw you staring at the exit, and I thought you had seen something!"

"Alright, Brother Wei, let's not scare ourselves."

"It's you who are scaring me!"

After accusing each other a few times, letting their voices echo in the secret cave again, their courage finally grew. Encouraging each other, they followed the exit back to the outside of the pool, checked the way they came with trepidation, and only then breathed a sigh of relief and returned inside.

Liu Xiaolou asked: "The matter from two years ago is hard to say, but what is she thinking now? You were so good to her, how could she bear to discard you like worn-out shoes? Using you as a knife is a huge loss. What benefit is there for her?"

Wei Hongqing fell into depression again: "I don't know, I can't figure it out either."

Liu Xiaolou sighed, soothed him a few times, stopped him from pulling his hair, and asked: "Since that's the case, what about me? Have we been exposed? Will she know?"

Wei Hongqing said: "Rest assured, Xiaolou. She doesn't know who the accomplice in killing Lu Zhongqiu was. After the Lu fellow died, the Xie family found Mount Tianmu, saying their family head and the Lu fellow went out early and didn't return, having been missing for many days. Mount Tianmu sent people to the Xie family at Jia Mountain to investigate, only mentioning that three masked thieves from Southern Xiang had come to rob a few hundred taels of silver. As for what happened later, the Xie family members didn't know."

Liu Xiaolou asked: "Then how did she point the finger at you?"

Wei Hongqing said with a dark face: "Wasn't I in seclusion healing? During those few days I went down the mountain, she happened to check on my injuries, but I wasn't there. So she complained to a few inner sect stewards, saying that since I was clearly injured, why was I still arranged to go out and do things? No one cared at the time... But later, after the Lu Zhongqiu case was investigated, a certain inner sect steward suddenly remembered her complaint... And then the Sect Master sent people to question me..."

Liu Xiaolou asked: "So you ran away?"

Wei Hongqing nodded: "Yes. If it had been someone else saying it, I could have denied it, but it was her who said it. I suddenly remembered Lu Zian... And then I understood. Just like Lu Zian, I had been played by her. Even though I had the Lu Zian affair before me, I had no precautions at all. I was truly stupid to the core!"

Liu Xiaolou said: "No one could have expected it... Back when we ambushed Lu Zian, did she know about me, Bazhang, and the Valley Master Zuo?"

Wei Hongqing said: "She didn't know. She never asked, and I never told her who you were. You can rest assured on this point."

Liu Xiaolou asked again: "How did you escape?"

Wei Hongqing said: "Those two stewards who questioned me probably never expected that I would make a move without explaining a single word. I caught them off guard, but after all, Zuo and Yuan were both at Qi Perfection. Escaping Mount Tianmu was truly not easy... I'll leave once my injuries are healed, lest I be targeted by them. If they search the mountain on a large scale, it won't be a long-term solution."

Liu Xiaolou said: "There's no need to worry about that. You might not understand the current situation at Mount Tianmu. Wulong Mountain is now a boundary mountain. Major sects cannot openly come up the mountain; otherwise, the other side won't agree either. Previously, some Ba-Dong thieves snuck up the mountain with ill intent, and we expelled two and killed one. If they really want to do that, brother, I will directly gather people to finish them off!"

Wei Hongqing frowned and asked: "What if a high-cultivation one comes, and you can't finish them off?"

Liu Xiaolou laughed: "If it's a master we can't finish off, don't blame us for turning around and reporting them to the Ba-Dong thieves!"

Wei Hongqing blinked: "Is our Wulong Mountain like that now?"

Liu Xiaolou said: "You just focus on healing your injuries. I'll keep an eye on things outside for you."

As he spoke, he pointed to the food he had brought back last time: "There's rice and meat. You fill your stomach first. You haven't eaten much these past few days. I'll go out and look around, and if there's any situation, I'll come back and tell you."

Wei Hongqing agreed, took the spirit stone Liu Xiaolou gave him, and continued to sit cross-legged to heal. Liu Xiaolou left the secret cave, first went around Ghost Dream Cliff, found nothing unusual, then went down Wulong Mountain to inquire for news at the village households at the foot of the mountain.

Upon inquiring, he indeed discovered something wrong.

Uncle Tian told Liu Xiaolou that in the past few days, there were more cultivating immortals outside the mountain, just circling around Wulong Mountain but not coming up. The villagers suspected that another major sect was coming to suppress them and had already sent word to various hilltops.

"I went to Dry Bamboo Ridge twice these past few days, and you weren't there. Today, you've come instead. Leave if you should, hide if you can't leave. In any case, be prepared. Don't get suppressed by a major sect."

"Understood, Uncle Tian. Rest assured."

"Don't be careless. I heard there's a rule not to let major sects suppress, but rules are made by people. This matter is really hard to say."

"Understood, then I'm going back. Many thanks, Uncle Tian!"