Fast, Fast

"Let go of me! Let go!"

Xiao Feng struggled with all her might, but could not break free at all.

Then she was thrown onto the ground.

"Shut up!"

Seeing that Xiao Feng was still about to shout, Xiao Mei spoke coldly.

Xiao Feng finally recovered somewhat from the chaos and realized that this was Chen Mu's bedroom, with Chen Mu and Ren Yan standing nearby. Her expression changed several times.

When she raised her head,

she saw Chen Mu gazing at her impassively.

Ever since she had been transferred to Chen Mu's courtyard to serve as his maid, she had seen his eyes countless times over the years, but never once had they been as terrifying as they were now!

It was clearly only an utterly calm gaze, yet in an instant, it made her feel as though she had fallen into an icy pit. A powerful pressure bore down on her, making it difficult to breathe.

Xiao Feng drew a deep breath and barely managed to steady herself. She glanced at Xiao Mei and Ren Yan beside her and said, "Second Master, Xiao Mei secretly practiced Martial Arts. She must be plotting something treacherous. You mustn't let her deceive you."

Xiao Mei looked at her coldly without saying anything.

Ren Yan beside them also seemed to be Soul Roaming, as though he had not heard a thing.

Chen Mu said nothing either. He merely lifted the teacup from the table and took a light sip. The entire room fell utterly silent, leaving only the breathing of the people present and the sound of him drinking tea.

After a moment.

Chen Mu set down his teacup and spoke his first words.

"Xiao Mei practiced Martial Arts with my permission."

At these words, Xiao Feng's expression remained unchanged, but Xiao Mei could not help glancing at Chen Mu, biting her lip slightly.

There was no need for him to say this, but Chen Mu had said it anyway, establishing the nature of her practicing Martial Arts. From now on, no matter who asked about it, her practice would no longer be considered a crime.

Then came his second question.

"When did you get mixed up with the Heavenly Born Cult? After entering the Xuanguo Estate, or before?"

When these words fell, Xiao Feng still kept her head lowered, but Xiao Mei and Ren Yan both abruptly turned their heads and looked at her, shock showing in their eyes.

The Heavenly Born Cult!

Under Great Yuan law, anyone involved in an incident concerning the Heavenly Born Cult or the Paradise Cult who knew about it but failed to report it would be treated as having plotted rebellion. Anyone daring to join the Heavenly Born Cult would be directly deemed to have rebelled, making it the foremost of the ten great crimes!

Ren Yan had already suspected that Xiao Feng might be a spy from some outside faction, but he had never imagined that she would be from the Heavenly Born Cult!

Since Chen Mu had said so, there could surely be no mistake.

Xiao Mei's eyes widened slightly.

"Was my encounter with a ghost also connected to you?"

Seeing Xiao Feng keep her head lowered, Chen Mu continued calmly with his third question.

However.

Ever since Chen Mu had spoken the words "Heavenly Born Cult," Xiao Feng seemed to have become a different person. She simply sat motionless on the ground without raising her head.

Xiao Mei and Ren Yan both stared at Xiao Feng. Before long, they noticed her lips moving, as though she were muttering something.

Leaning closer, they heard a faint, numb voice.

"Heavenly Born Protection..."

"Rebirth Extremely Blissful..."

The voice was extremely faint and low, repeating itself without pause like the buzzing of flies, making anyone who heard it feel inexplicably irritated.

Chen Mu waved his hand and said indifferently, "Drag her away and interrogate her."

"Yes!"

Ren Yan and Xiao Mei immediately acknowledged the order.

Ren Yan in particular felt a lingering fear at this moment. He had never expected Xiao Feng to be a member of the Heavenly Born Cult. If this went wrong, it could implicate a whole swath of people!

The two of them immediately dragged Xiao Feng out of Chen Mu's bedroom.

Throughout the process, Xiao Feng did not struggle in the slightest. She merely kept her eyes tightly shut, an eerie expression on her face, and continued murmuring, "It's almost time, it's almost time..."

Chen Mu watched Xiao Feng being dragged away and shook his head slightly.

They probably would not be able to interrogate anything out of her.

Someone like Xiao Feng was, at most, an extremely peripheral member of the Heavenly Born Cult. She might not even have come into contact with the slightest bit of the Heavenly Born Cult's internal information, let alone in this state.

When he had examined Xiao Feng's Soulmind earlier, he had not noticed anything wrong. But at that time, he had been paying more attention to whether Xiao Feng possessed Mind-Soul Power and whether she had reached the realm of a sorcerer.

But now.

With his cultivation as a First Grade Sorcerer, he had carefully examined her at close range and detected some other abnormalities. It was obvious that someone had tampered with Xiao Feng's divine soul, leaving traces of erosion.

To tamper with someone else's divine soul without affecting their normal state, to the point that it was not even easy to notice, required methods at least at the level of a Fifth Rank Daoist Arts practitioner.

That strange wooden tablet engraved with "Heavenly Born Protection, Rebirth Extremely Blissful" had clearly been made by the same person.

In other words.

The Heavenly Born Cult had at least one Fifth Rank Sorcerer.

Chen Mu was not surprised by this. After all, it was an Evil Cult that even the Eight Great Sects and the Great Yuan Dynasty had been unable to eradicate completely. If it lacked such methods, that would be what was strange.

It was just that the Heavenly Born Cult and the Paradise Cult had clearly both begun making moves recently. First, Chen Yao had encountered a member of the Paradise Cult, and then there was Xiao Feng, who had no idea what she had come into contact with.

He alone had encountered two of them in succession.

When one could see a cockroach in a room, there was at least already a nest of cockroaches inside. In Great Yuan's Capital, it was likely that the estates of all the great dukes and marquises had been infiltrated.

"'Troubled times'... That saying isn't wrong."

Chen Mu shook his head.

With the Great Yuan Dynasty's methods, the many sorcerers of the Directorate of Celestial Observation, and those Pillars of the Nation, searching the Capital from top to bottom would be absurdly easy.

If this were an age of prosperity, the Paradise Cult and Heavenly Born Cult would have no chance to catch their breath.

But the current emperor of Great Yuan neglected state affairs and indulged only in debauchery and pleasure. Meanwhile, the Imperial Court had become a battlefield where numerous factions schemed against and oppressed one another. Thus, the Heavenly Born Cult and Paradise Cult had found an opportunity, and no one knew what they had secretly developed into over the years.

Chen Mu did not like troubled times.

At the very least, when the day came in the future that he cultivated into a Second Rank or even First Grade Sorcerer and stood above all under Heaven, he would not want to see a world in utter chaos.

This was already a world plagued by demons and rampaging evil ghosts. It only appeared so peaceful because this was the Capital, the very heart of Great Yuan. Yet under such circumstances, these Evil Cults were unwilling to deal with the demons and evil ghosts outside, and instead wanted to heap chaos upon chaos.

If he had the opportunity to purge them in the future, he would not mind thoroughly sweeping these Evil Cults away.

Just as Chen Mu was pondering,

Ning Qiang's voice suddenly came from outside the courtyard, sounding as though she had been startled.

"What happened here?"

Chen Mu gathered his thoughts and rose to greet her. In the courtyard outside, he saw Xiao Mei and Ren Yan trying to interrogate Xiao Feng, and they had already produced quite a lot of blood.

But Xiao Feng's face was merely pale. She showed no expression of pain or struggle, did not even scream, and only kept her eyes shut while murmuring, "Heavenly Born Protection, Rebirth Extremely Blissful."

It did not look as though they could interrogate anything out of her.

Chen Mu had anticipated this situation, so he was not surprised. Unfortunately, a Fifth Rank Daoist Arts realm still lacked an ability like Soul Searching that could forcibly read memories. Otherwise, things would have been much simpler.

"Why has Sister-in-law come over at this hour?"

Chen Mu ignored Xiao Feng and merely smiled at Ning Qiang.

Ning Qiang had recovered somewhat from her initial alarm. Looking at Chen Mu, she said, "Old Madam gave me some Osmanthus Porridge today. I thought it tasted good, so I decided to bring some over for you. But what is going on here..."

Chen Mu did not hide anything from her. "This Xiao Feng seems to have some connection with the Heavenly Born Cult. Ren Yan followed her and discovered it today, so I had people interrogate her. But it doesn't look like they'll get anything out of her."

"The Heavenly Born Cult?"

Ning Qiang was immediately startled.

Although she was a young madam who rarely left the house, she still knew what the Heavenly Born Cult represented. Her gaze toward Xiao Feng turned cold as well. After taking a breath, she said, "Colluding with an Evil Cult is tantamount to rebellion. Uncle, you must be careful not to get implicated. Have you reported this to Second Master?"

Chen Mu shook his head. "For now, let them continue the interrogation and see whether they can get anything out of her. Sister-in-law, come inside and talk. Don't let this spoil your eyes."