Investigation at Peak Valley Ridge

"Fifth Sister, Thirteenth Brother, have you found out who did it?"

Yang Tianyou asked as soon as he entered.

"Greetings, Steward!"

Li Yunhao hurriedly bowed. Seeing his disheveled clothes, feeble condition, and pale face, Yang Tianyou's expression softened. "Thank you for your efforts!"

"It was nothing, nothing. This was all part of my duty. It's just a pity about Old Liang and the others. The Zhao Household caught them in a sudden ambush, and just like that, they fell!"

Li Yunhao looked grief-stricken, hatred swirling in his eyes. The men he had mentioned were close friends who had faced life and death alongside him for years. Now that they had all perished in a single day, he naturally hated the ones responsible to the bone.

"Are you certain they were Zhao Household cultivators? Why would they suddenly ambush you?"

Yang Tianyou sounded puzzled. He found Li Yunhao's account hard to believe; the whole affair was simply too suspicious.

Even if the Zhao Household and the Yang Household were sworn enemies, there had been no dispute between them, nor were their interests entangled. What reason did the Zhao Household have to ambush Li Yunhao and the others?

Could it have been for those few First-Tier supplies? That was impossible. The Zhao Household was far more powerful than the Yang Household, so why would they give the Yang Household grounds for complaint over so little?

Yang Tianyun and Yang Tianjiu felt the same way and nodded at his words.

Seeing that the Yang Household disciples did not believe him, Li Yunhao hurriedly explained, "The Zhao Household cultivators who attacked us had all concealed their identities. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't have recognized them."

"But as luck would have it, one of the people who ambushed us this time was a Qi Refining cultivator named Qian Kang. He's an Affiliated Cultivator of the Zhao Household. I once had a conflict with him in a tavern, and I recognized a white jade pendant he wore at his waist. That's how I could be certain our attackers were Zhao Household cultivators!"

After explaining, Li Yunhao looked at Yang Tianyou and the other two anxiously. His expression did not look as though he were lying.

"A white jade pendant? Are you sure you saw it correctly?"

Yang Tianjiu frowned slightly. His tone suddenly turned stern, and his gaze was as sharp as a blade.

Li Yunhao jumped in fright, but met Yang Tianjiu's gaze and hurriedly said, "I couldn't have mistaken it. His pendant had an eagle with two pairs of wings carved on it. I thought it looked quite nice at the time, so I took a few extra looks."

"Thirteenth Brother, can he be trusted?"

Although Yang Tianyou had served as purchasing steward for three years, he was still far less familiar with the people than Yang Tianjiu.

"He should be trustworthy. His son still lives in our Yang Household's Purple Moon Town, and the Yang Household has raised and trained him since he was young. His loyalty is quite reliable. I was only trying to scare him just now, and it looks like he really wasn't lying!"

"In that case, those Zhao Household people probably don't realize they've been exposed..."

Yang Tianyou's eyes brightened slightly. In an enigmatic tone, he said, "Fifth Sister, Thirteenth Brother, why do you think the Zhao Household ambushed Li Yunhao and the others?"

"It couldn't have been for wealth. And according to Li Yunhao, they appeared out of nowhere and ambushed them. If he hadn't had an ancestral Escape Technique Talisman and acted decisively, he wouldn't have escaped!"

Yang Tianjiu knitted his brows and pondered the matter carefully, but he could not figure out why the Zhao Household cultivators had ambushed Li Yunhao and the others for no apparent reason.

At that moment, Yang Tianyun spoke softly, turning to Li Yunhao. "Li Yunhao, where were you ambushed?"

"At Peak Valley Ridge, over a thousand li from Yellowstone Market. We were resting in a canyon when the Zhao Household cultivators suddenly ambushed us!"

Li Yunhao answered honestly and described in detail the exact location where they had been ambushed.

"Peak Valley Ridge..."

Yang Tianjiu pondered briefly, then told Li Yunhao to withdraw and tend to his wounds. He also took out a bottle of First-Tier Middle-Grade Wound-Healing Pills and gave it to him.

After Li Yunhao left, Yang Tianyou and the other two began discussing what to do next.

First, they had to report to the Lineage. That way, if anything happened, the Lineage would understand the whole sequence of events and respond in time.

Second, they had to send someone to Peak Valley Ridge to get to the bottom of things. After all, the incident had happened there, and an investigation might turn up some clues.

"Fifth Sister, Thirteenth Brother, let me investigate. I haven't done much work these past three years, and as the purchasing steward, it's only right that I make the trip!"

Yang Tianyou volunteered for the task.

"No. You're an elite disciple of the Yang Household, and you've only just broken through to the Qi Refining seventh layer. You can't take that risk!"

As Fifth Sister, Yang Tianyun refused outright. What Yang Tianyou did not know was that Old Ancestor Yang Haoyu had privately instructed Yang Tianyun to look after Nineteenth Younger Brother.

Besides, Yang Tianyou had often worked to strengthen his bonds with his elder brother and sister over the past three years. After spending so much time together, their relationship had naturally grown much closer, and Yang Tianyun truly did not want her younger brother to take the risk. After all, what had happened to Li Yunhao and the others was a warning.

Yang Tianjiu said nothing. It was not that he did not care about Yang Tianyou, but that he understood him better. The boy seemed mild-mannered, but once he made up his mind, it was difficult for anyone else to change it.

Sure enough, Yang Tianyou insisted on going. After some persuasion, Yang Tianyun finally agreed, but before he left, she pressed a bottle of First-Tier Superior-Grade Restoration Pills into his hands. They were highly effective Wound-Healing Pills.

Tightening his grip on the pills, Yang Tianyou nodded to his brother and sister. Then, with Fengling, he rode the Twin Blades into the sky and flew toward Peak Valley Ridge.

Meanwhile, just twenty li north of Peak Valley Ridge stood a small hill covered in dense, low shrubs. Brownish-black bears huffed as they gnawed on purplish-red berries.

At the foot of the hill was a small pool. Ripples spread across its azure water, which shimmered beautifully in the light.

At the edge of the pool, three men and one woman sat on the ground. A faint curtain of light enveloped the area within three zhang of them, making their presence difficult to detect. It was a Concealment Array.

"Could we have exposed our whereabouts by ambushing those Yang Household cultivators?"

The female cultivator was uneasy. The Zhao Household had repeatedly warned them not to cause complications, yet they had taken the initiative to ambush the Yang Household's purchasing team, and worst of all, they had let one of them escape.

If the Zhao Household found out about this, none of them would have a good end.

At her words, the other cultivators grew flustered as well. Their eyes flickered, and they were at a loss.

"What are you panicking for? We all concealed our faces, and we rarely show ourselves at Yellowstone Market. Who would recognize us?"

The cultivator who spoke had rugged features and a thick black beard that grew in tangled curls. With his imposing, muscular build, he looked every bit a fierce general rather than a Cultivator above worldly concerns.

This was none other than Qian Kang. He toyed with his ancestral jade pendant, his expression calm, and said coldly, "What? The things in your hands have barely warmed up, and you're already having second thoughts? You weren't like this when we divided the spoils."