Chapter 322

From noon to evening, the sky gradually darkened.

Ji You flipped through the case files copied by the county magistrate's private secretary until the end, then took out a massive cloth scroll from his storage gourd.

The cloth scroll was covered in dense script, with circles, lines, and connections, appearing impossibly complex.

Ji You picked up a brush and wrote the relocation date of Fengxian Shanzhuang on it, then filled in keywords such as "biting" and "bloodstain."

With a flick of his finger to light the lamp, the study was bathed in dim yellow light; a wisp of spiritual energy, carried by the wind, lifted the entire scroll into the air.

Ji You stepped back a few paces and studied the scroll intently.

"Immortal Master gifted medicine."

"Fewer and fewer people."

"Summoned to another place for secret cultivation techniques."

"Their senses seem to be growing duller."

These phrases and terms were copied from messages left behind by other vanished Immortal Villages or from rumors among the surrounding villagers.

The earlier ink had long dried, yet it seemed to announce a fraud from which there was no return.

Ji You leaned against the window, silently watching; with his palm facing downward, over a dozen brushes in the brush holder spun continuously in midair, forming various shapes.

Sometimes arranged like a six-pointed star, sometimes like a star chart of the night sky, until Fang Zhongzheng's lacquered red desk gradually sank into a deep depression, its surface lacquer peeling away in fragments.

After observing for a long while, Ji You's gaze settled on the lower right corner of the scroll.

That area had been reserved specifically for organizing clues, and on it were written the names of the Du, Bai, Liu, Li, Zheng, Tian Shu Academy, Chen Clan, Chu Clan, and other aristocratic families.

Nearly all Immortal Villages in Fengzhou were offshoots of these aristocratic families, and these families were the true controllers behind the vanished Immortal Villages.

Ji You had written them down because Tan Hui's grandson had mentioned the phrase "Immortal Master gifted medicine" before his disappearance.

When he was in Fengzhou Prefecture, he had asked the Immortal Village disciples who could be called an Immortal Master.

According to those disciples, "Immortal Master" referred to the managing Elders dispatched by the aristocratic families to which the Immortal Villages belonged.

In other words, if the Immortal Villages had encountered problems due to the so-called "Immortal Master gifted medicine," the cause must lie within these aristocratic families.

At this moment, Ji You picked up his brush and wrote the four large characters "Xuan Yuan Immortal Mansion" after those family names.

Fengxian Shanzhuang was backed by the Xuan Yuan Immortal Mansion—a fact nearly everyone in Yuyang County knew.

Moreover, Ji You had a memory: in the year he first arrived in Qingyun Tianxia, the mountain had echoed with the sounds of gongs, drums, and firecrackers.

At the time, Master Chen had told him it was because a great saintly sect had sent an Immortal Master to visit.

Ji You stared for a long while, his eyes flickering uncertainly between these aristocratic families and the immortal sects.

Night had fallen; the moon was bright, the stars sparse, and the courtyard behind the county office was filled with guests.

Jia Sicong, Dong Wei, and the other former disciples of Master Chen had gathered specifically to pay respects to Fang Ruoyao, who had returned from the Immortal Sect.

Fang Zhongzheng had arranged a banquet for them, but after the dishes were served, no one picked up their chopsticks; instead, they gazed across the vast courtyard at the front window of the southern study.

Because the study was lit by candles, the shadows inside were clearly projected onto the doors and windows.

They knew Ji You had returned—he was inside Master Fang's study.

And the reason they didn't eat was whether they should invite Ji You to join them.

"Since our parting in Yuyang all those years ago, we classmates haven't seen each other in years. Miss Fang, why not invite Ji You to join us for a drink?"

"Yes, the broken engagement was long ago; with Ji You's character, I doubt he still holds any grudge."

"I once teased the village widow Wang with him—we shouldn't be so distant. If Miss Fang doesn't want to go alone, we'll accompany you."

Fang Ruoyao hesitated for a long time, then slowly rose; the others followed suit, but just as they were about to head toward the study, the shadow cast by the candlelight on the door suddenly stood up.

Then, a scorching aura slammed down; in their eyes appeared a blade of sword qi soaring through the air, its heavy force surging toward the heavens, shattering the sky into rippling waves of light.

Beneath the moonlight, thick layers of clouds were torn apart for a hundred li.

Seeing this, everyone immediately sat back down.

Before the dishes were served, they had asked Fang Ruoyao to demonstrate her immortal arts, and they had marveled at the spiritual energy swirling into a ball in her palm—just lifting a teapot through the air had been astonishing enough.

But in that instant, they felt as if the five years Fang Ruoyao had cultivated and the five years Ji You had cultivated were not the same thing at all.

Had they known this, they should have let him eat more steamed dumplings back then.

Jia Sicong trembled slightly, remembering the chance he had once had to walk a path leading straight to the heavens.

Three days later, at dusk, Ji You arrived in Zhongzhou.

Most of the aristocratic families on his scroll were concentrated in Zhongzhou: the Liu, Du, and even the Zheng family's ancestral home lay in the neighboring prefecture.

He believed that if these families truly had problems, there must be some trace left behind; their absence of discovery might be due to mutual isolation among the families, with many matters going unnoticed, so he came to investigate.

Moreover, from a spatial perspective, he felt the closer a family was to the Zheng family, the more likely it was to be involved.

But to his surprise, all these families had their gates tightly shut, with roaring cultivation arrays surrounding them, their interiors silent and chilling.

In addition, rotating cultivators guarded every entrance to their grounds, changing shifts every two hours.

Yet after several visits, he learned of another lead: a water shop in Lingbi City.

"We've always supplied water to the Liu family; we've served the Immortals for decades."

"Old Master Liu always drank tea using water from the stream on Yùquán Mountain."

The shopkeeper was an old man in his fifties, who chattered incessantly at the sight of Ji You's silver.

Ji You tapped the table lightly with his fingertip: "Have you delivered recently?"

"No, not lately. A while back, the Liu family sent word they wouldn't need water for now."

"So Old Master Liu doesn't drink tea anymore?"

The water shopkeeper waved his hand: "They just told us not to deliver—they fetch the water themselves now."

Ji You pondered for a while: "Did you do something to upset them, making them refuse your water?"

"What kind of talk is that? Our Runquan Water Shop has been around for a hundred years, specializing in this trade—we've never been criticized. Frankly, those Immortal Lords have profound magic, capable of flying and teleporting, but fetching water? They're not as skilled as we are."

Hearing Ji You's suspicion, the shopkeeper clearly grew displeased, defending himself for a while: "If you don't believe me, ask Old Xu at the vegetable stall—they stopped deliveries too, at the same time as us."

Ji You fell silent for a while: "When did this start?"

"Around mid-last month."

"Before they stopped the water deliveries, did anything unusual happen at the Liu family?"

"A group of people left in carriages for half a month, then returned, and right after that, they stopped taking water and vegetables, locking their gates every day."

After speaking, the water shopkeeper looked at Ji You: "Are you even here to order water? Why do you keep asking about the Liu family?"

Ji You smiled, left the silver on the counter, and rose to leave the shop.

The Liu family sent people to the Immortal Pilgrimage Festival; after returning, the entire family went on lockdown…

High in the sky, Ji You hid among the clouds, looking down at the vast Liu estate, struggling to discern the connection.

Then he stepped into the air and flew for two full days to the Li family in the northwest of Zhongzhou.

Aside from the families neighboring the Zheng ancestral patriarch, Ji You believed the Li family was the most suspicious, precisely because of Li Ruilin.

In his view, even if Li Ruilin was a branch-line disciple, he should have had siblings or parents.

Yet after his long disappearance, only Huang Yueniang had searched for him—this was highly unreasonable.

What made him suspect further was that the Li family had become just as tightly sealed as the Liu family, and the timing was nearly identical—both around the Immortal Pilgrimage Festival.

The Li family was a thousand-year aristocracy, far larger than the Liu family.

Their ancestral grounds were an entire city, nearly matching the scale of Shengjing; yet after their ancestral protection array activated, he couldn't even enter the city gates.

He observed the Li family for a long time, then went to the Wu Lü Trading House in a nearby city.

He had promised the haughty ghost he'd visit her after returning to Fengzhou, but since he hadn't uncovered the truth behind this deep mystery in Fengzhou, he felt uneasy, so he wrote her a letter to delay his visit.

After sending the letter, Ji You checked into an inn.

He had been traveling constantly between these major provinces for days, exhausting his energy—he needed a brief period of meditation to restore himself.