Suspicion

The next day.

With the sun high overhead, Mo Qi finished his morning cultivation and arrived at the reception hall of the Attendant Hall.

Aside from the Attendants out carrying out missions, everyone else was here.

Including the old Daoist in blue robes, there were six people in total.

A bald-pated monk.

A plump man dressed in splendid embroidery, round as a wealthy landlord.

A taciturn middle-aged man with lowered eyes.

A beautiful woman in a gauzy silk dress, who looked to be only around thirty.

The last man stroked the small mustache at the corner of his mouth. His eyes narrowed slightly as they swept over Mo Qi.

The six had clearly already coordinated with one another and were not surprised by Mo Qi's arrival.

Perhaps as early as yesterday, they had been discussing how to deal with this distinguished disciple of the Five Spirit Sect from the Prefecture City.

With spiritual power gathered in his eyes, Mo Qi observed their reactions, searching for anyone resembling Li Qingfeng.

To his surprise, although these people carried impure auras such as baleful intent, killing intent, ghostly qi, and yin qi, they were all very faint—utterly incomparable to that Demon Cultivator from that day.

"Allow me to introduce everyone. This is Fellow Daoist Mo, a distinguished disciple of the Five Spirit Sect and the immortal master stationed in Eight Directions Prefecture City." Lu Chengyi cupped his hands and introduced him with a genial smile.

The remaining five exchanged glances before cupping their hands and praising, "Fellow Daoist Mo."

"I dare not accept."

Mo Qi returned the gesture as well. He did not act arrogant or spoiled merely because he came from a sect.

After all, his strength was not considered outstanding among this group of Rogue Cultivators, and he still needed to ask them for something. It was best to maintain a good attitude, lest people say the Five Spirit Sect bullied others with its power.

"To speak frankly, Eight Directions Prefecture City..." Mo Qi repeated to the group what he had told Lu Chengyi.

He merely omitted the Soul Banner's formidable effects, focusing instead on the Demon Cultivator's strength.

In any case, after the Demon Cultivator's death, the spiritual light around his body had dispersed, making it impossible for them to judge his true strength.

Thus, Mo Qi only requested to inspect the Demon Cultivator's cultivation method and artifacts, intending to take one item away.

He could not do good deeds without leaving his name behind, letting the Attendants of Liangdu's Attendant Hall take all the spoils despite contributing nothing.

Even if anyone had objections, it should have been the two Attendants who died that day.

The group looked at one another. Then Lu Chengyi spoke on everyone's behalf. "The bodies of the two deceased Attendants and the Demon Cultivator have already been buried. The cultivation methods and artifacts they left behind were placed in the Attendant Hall's treasury, and the records can be checked."

"The Treasure Pavilion's accounts are managed by Fellow Daoist Liu."

Hearing the old Daoist in blue mention him, the round-bodied fat man smiled with narrowed eyes and removed an account book from his Storage Talisman.

As he poured spiritual power into it, a phantom of the account book immediately enlarged, forming floating lines of flickering text.

"Last month's records."

"Fellow Daoist Wen and Fellow Daoist Zhu died. Their Storage Talismans contained two cultivation methods and one spell technique each."

"One lower-grade artifact, a Soul-Snaring Bell, and one damaged lower-grade artifact, a tortoise shell."

Although Tu Shan Jun had shattered the tortoise shell's protective effect, its body had only developed cracks. It could still serve as protective armor.

It had merely fallen from a lower-grade artifact to a pseudo-artifact.

It could no longer be activated with spiritual power, making it seem as though it was of little use.

"One beast bone from a ranked demonic beast, serpent orchid grass, and one bottle of unranked Essence-Gathering Pills."

"A total of three Spirit Stones."

"Various mundane odds and ends, along with several dozen taels of broken silver. As neither had descendants, these were temporarily stored in the Attendant Hall."

"An unidentified Demon Cultivator possessed one Mid-grade Artifact Sword Hairpin, one cultivation method, one ranked talisman, two unranked yin pearls, and one set of unranked tiger bones."

These were the items left behind by the three people.

Mo Qi's expression showed slight surprise. That Sword Hairpin the Demon Cultivator had not used was actually a Mid-grade Artifact, just like his wooden sword.

It seemed that the Demon Cultivator had already lacked the spiritual power to use a flying sword that day.

Otherwise, the outcome would truly have been difficult to predict.

Yet among the recorded items, there was no Soul Banner.

A flicker passed through Mo Qi's expression before he returned to his usual impassive look. His gaze swept across the group, but he saw no surprise on any of their faces.

If only one or two wore such expressions, it would have been understandable. But all six were the same.

A Mid-grade Artifact alone was enough to make Rogue Cultivators smash their heads together over it, much less a Soul Banner that was practically nailed to the board as a High-Grade Artifact.

They could not possibly still be sitting peacefully around the same table.

Could they have failed to discover the Soul Banner? The thought had barely entered Mo Qi's mind before he rejected it. The Soul Banner was an artifact; how could Qi Refiners fail to recognize it?

Either someone had secretly pocketed the Soul Banner, or the Soul Banner had never fallen into their hands.

It might have been lost somewhere along the way, or perhaps taken away by someone else by mistake. Nor could he rule out the possibility that whoever took the Soul Banner knew its value.

While Mo Qi observed the group, they were also observing him.

A month had passed, yet ownership of the Mid-grade Artifact Sword Hairpin had still not been settled.

They all wanted it for themselves.

Yet none of them had enough resources to offer in exchange.

Seniority plainly would not work, and in terms of strength, the strongest among them was merely at the sixth level of Qi Refinement.

Qi Refiners in the later stages were unwilling to remain in the mundane world as so-called Attendants.

They received only a few Spirit Stones from the dynasty each year, while it also delayed their cultivation.

Since those people had already reached the later stages, they wished to take another step forward, climb to perfection, and seek an opportunity to attain the Dao.

The moment they saw Mo Qi arrive, the group immediately shared a common enemy. So long as Mo Qi asked about the Sword Hairpin, they would certainly stand on the same front and stop him.

Mo Qi pondered for a long while before deciding to ask first, "Was anything omitted?"

"Esteemed disciple..." One of the Rogue Cultivators had just cupped his hands to refuse when he realized that he seemed to have heard something wrong.

The beautiful woman hurriedly took over. "If the esteemed disciple does not believe us, you may open the treasury for verification."

"The treasury is covered by an array and has three doors. It requires three keys to open. This old Daoist is unworthy, but I keep the gold key for everyone." The old Daoist in blue introduced with a smile.

"Fellow Daoist Liu, who manages the accounts, keeps the silver key."

The round-bodied cultivator who had manifested the account book nodded at Mo Qi.

The hand seal in his hand changed, and the account book flew directly back into his grasp from midair. The light it had manifested also dispersed.

"I keep the bronze key."

The tall, thin cultivator with a goatee spoke.

As he spoke, he reached up to stroke his beard. His expression flickered, his thoughts wandering who knew where.

The only ones who had not spoken throughout were the taciturn middle-aged man.

And the bald-pated monk, who had been silently chanting scriptures all along.

Mo Qi shook his head and did not continue along that line of conversation.

They were merely making a polite offer.

Opening the treasury would only offend people further.

Besides, no one had mentioned the Soul Banner. It was therefore impossible that they had tossed it into the treasury.

One person might have been too blind to recognize an artifact, but how could so many people all have made the same mistake?

This matter still had to be investigated from the source.

Mo Qi felt it was possible that the Rogue Cultivator who had first handled the corpse had concealed the Soul Banner.

The Mid-grade Sword Hairpin was certainly tempting, but it could not compare to the Soul Banner.

"May I ask which senior received the corpses that day?"

Following Mo Qi's words, everyone turned to look at Lu Chengyi. He did not evade the question and instead naturally cupped his hands. "It was indeed this humble Daoist. I took over the matter that day with a servant boy."

With a witness present, it could naturally withstand scrutiny.

Later, accompanied by Lu Chengyi, Mo Qi went to the cemetery and saw the graves of the two Attendants, as well as the Demon Cultivator's nameless grave.

There was clearly nothing to be gained.

Mo Qi had no intention of opening the coffins to verify matters. If the Soul Banner truly remained on the Demon Cultivator's body, it was better buried in the grave than appearing outside.

In the end, the matter simply came to nothing.

Mo Qi obtained the lower-grade artifact Soul-Snaring Bell, along with six Spirit Stones pooled together by the six men. As the sun slanted westward, he boarded a carriage and headed back to Eight Directions Prefecture City.

The Prefecture City could not be left unattended.

Another talisman decree arrived from the sect and fell into Mo Qi's hands.

Mo Qi now felt as though one head had become two. Since he had failed to report the appearance of a Demon Cultivator, he likely could not avoid a reprimand.

And now, he had no leads to investigate.

Since the Soul Banner had already vanished, he would let it go. It seemed they were fated not to obtain it.

Once Mo Qi left, the Rogue Cultivators dispersed as well.

Everyone harbored suspicions, yet felt unable to grasp the thread of the matter. They all departed burdened with heavy thoughts.

The tall, thin cultivator with the goatee who held the bronze key pondered deeply.

Returning to his residence, he considered the strange behavior of that esteemed sect cultivator from earlier that morning.

"Upon hearing of the Mid-grade Sword Hairpin, he was not surprised. And most of his questions concerned the Demon Cultivator, as though the Demon Cultivator should have possessed something, and he was searching for that thing."

"Perhaps it was a scripture."

"Or perhaps a treasure."

Stroking his beard, the cultivator took the scripture from his Storage Talisman.

In truth, he was very nervous. Everyone had read the Blood Fiend Art, but they had kept their distance from it out of respect for its side effects.

The Blood Fiend Art bore some similarities to his own cultivation method, which was why he had spent half a Spirit Stone to purchase the original copy.

He had originally thought that the esteemed disciple would request to inspect it. He had spent the entire morning on tenterhooks, but unexpectedly, that man had arrived in a hurry and departed in just as much haste.

"Blood Fiend Art, the cultivation method of the Blood Fiend Sect."

"It contains two spells: Spirit Light Dharma Eyes and Banner-Control Technique."

"There is nothing strange about it."

The bearded cultivator flipped through the cultivation method.

The three words Blood Fiend Sect suddenly entered his eyes.

"A Demon Cultivator of the Blood Fiend Sect—how could he have been a sword cultivator?"

"Could there have been another artifact?"

"And that dharma sword shone with spiritual light. It did not resemble a demonic-path artifact."

"Could there have been a primary artifact as well?"

The bearded cultivator abruptly sat upright.

If the Demon Cultivator's primary artifact had not been taken away by the Five Spirit Sect cultivator, then it had to still be on the Demon Cultivator's body.

"The first to receive news was Old Daoist Lu."

"Could Old Daoist Lu have secretly pocketed it?"