A Lie Rolled Right Off His Tongue

Tang Yuansheng, male, 102 years old, with the cultivation level of the Nascent Soul Realm, currently serves as the Inspector of the Immortal Sect.

He received a message from Chief Chu that he should come earlier, so he decided to advance his schedule. He first went to Qinghuai County, which was separated from Yanjiang County by only one mountain.

"Once we cross this mountain, we'll reach the place Xiao Chu mentioned."

"Hmm?" Suddenly, Tang Yuansheng sensed a peculiar fluctuation of energy. "What is this energy?"

He followed his senses to a stable at a post station. Inside the stable, an old horse with dragon scales on its forehead and a brown mare were snuggling together, looking very affectionate.

The innkeeper brought over a bundle of carefully selected hay and put it in the manger. The old horse glanced at it with disdain and showed no interest in eating it.

Seeing the old horse's behavior, the innkeeper muttered under his breath, "Has the white pony already gotten along with a new horse so quickly after leaving?"

As if it could understand human speech, the old horse glared at the servant, who, not daring to provoke the strange beast, quickly ran away.

The old horse's owner had long since finished the high-quality fodder he had entrusted to this place. After the fodder was gone, the old horse's owner showed no signs of life. The innkeeper guessed that something might have happened to him, or that he might have died, since the old horse's owner was heading to Songshan.

After the best feed was finished, the innkeeper told his servant to feed the horse other hay and fodder. If the master didn't come back for a long time, the old horse would be used to pay for the feed.

As a result, Old Horse ignored the feed at the post station and refused to eat a single bite, and a month passed like this.

The innkeeper was terrified. This old horse was definitely not just a simple beast with scales on its forehead, but a high-level Demon Beast that had already reached the state of Grain Avoidance!

Mythical beasts are a species somewhere between Demon Beasts and wild beasts. They possess the bloodline of Demon Beasts, but it is too thin, and they lack the ability to mobilize it. They exhibit some atavistic behaviors, growing scales, feathers, horns, etc. Their bodies are stronger than those of wild beasts, but only to a limited extent.

When Tang Yuansheng saw the old horse, he was overjoyed. It was actually a dragon horse that was extremely rare in the world, but he didn't know how pure its bloodline was.

"If I hadn't happened to visit the vast East China Sea, I really wouldn't have recognized it." Tang Yuansheng was quite excited; this was a completely unexpected delight.

Dragon horses are extremely rare, yet there is one in the stables of this remote county. It must be that the owner of the dragon horse does not recognize its value, and the dragon horse has not yet awakened its potential, which is why it is being neglected here.

"As Nascent Soul Realm stage expert, I have never had a suitable mount. This must be fortuitous opportunity bestowed upon me by an immortal who saw my piety!"

Tang Yuansheng prayed to the immortal for a moment, then leaped into the stable.

Old Ma glanced back at Tang Yuansheng, ignored him, and continued to cuddle with the brown mare.

"Poor dragon horse, unaware of its noble status, has fallen in love with a mortal horse. Come with me, and I will show you just how powerful you are!"

Tang Yuansheng stretched out his large, golden hand, intending to take the old horse away. The old horse kicked backward, breaking Tang Yuansheng's hand. Tang Yuansheng felt a tightness in his chest, vomited a mouthful of blood, and his breath weakened instantly.

He looked at Old Ma with a terrified expression, all his previous excitement gone, replaced by endless fear, and he turned and ran.

There must be some powerful figure living here, treating the dragon horse like an ordinary horse in the stable!

My actions just now certainly couldn't have escaped the notice of this powerful figure who plays the field. I need to run! I hope he'll spare my life because of my ignorance!

The old horse let out a loud bellow, showing off its power to the mare.

Tang Yuansheng fled for a while, but no powerful figure captured him, so he knew that the other party did not care about his actions.

"Ugh!" He spat out another mouthful of blood, casually found a secluded spot, sat cross-legged, took some pills, and began to recover from his injuries.

Those two kicks he just received have severely damaged his health.

When he opened his eyes again, he heard a rumbling sound coming from the other side of the mountain, as if some enormous thing had fallen.

"It's already night?" Tang Yuansheng was somewhat surprised to see that it was already dark. He hadn't expected that it would take him an entire day to recover from his injuries.

Having recovered somewhat from his injuries and being safe for himself, he crossed Songshan Mountain and arrived at the crash site of the flying boat. There he saw that Chief Chu had been pierced through by Lu Yang's sword and was lifeless.

"... Is this the surprise Xiao Chu was talking about?"

Whether he was happy or not is hard to say, but Tang Yuansheng was definitely shocked.

Before he came, the higher-ups of the Immortal Cult told him to keep an eye on Lu Yang, Meng Jingzhou, and Man Gu, and they also gave him portraits.

Now you have to be careful even if you don't want to.

"Who are you!" Lu Yang drew his sword and looked at Tang Yuansheng warily.

Tang Yuansheng looked at Lu Yang with a half-smile, "Lu Yang, how dare you point your sword at me? I am Tang Yuansheng, the Inspector of the Immortal Sect."

Upon learning Tang Yuansheng's identity, Lu Yang gestured behind his back, signaling Lan Ting to leave quickly, as Lan Ting's presence was not something that could be explained to Tang Yuansheng.

"So it's Inspector Tang." Lu Yang was a bit more polite, but he still looked at Tang Yuansheng with suspicion, clearly not completely trusting the other party's identity.

Tang Yuansheng, disdainful of explaining to Lu Yang, asked, "Why did you kill Li Shouyi?"

Li Shouyi, the prefect of Yanjiang County, was the real name of the leader of the Chu faction. Tang Yuansheng habitually referred to him as Little Chu.

Lu Yang said in a deep voice, "Because he almost exposed his identity as a member of the Immortal Cult!"

"Oh?" Tang Yuansheng looked at Lu Yang with great interest, wondering what kind of explanation the other party could give.

Suddenly, a commotion arose at the foot of the mountain. It was Fang Qingyun leading a large group of people to check on the crash of the flying boat. Among the group were doctors who were in charge of the rescue.

"Let's leave first!" Tang Yuansheng was still seriously injured and unwilling to meet with the government. With a flick of his sleeve, he wrapped Lu Yang and the other two up and fled.

Tang Yuansheng, familiar with the place, led the three into Yanjiang Town, the safest place in Yanjiang County.

"Now tell me, Li Shouyi is meticulous in his work, so how did he manage to expose his identity?"

Lu Yang recounted the entire story of the Reverse Lifespan Formation, adding, "Chief Chu... oh no, Prefect Li's plan was incredibly meticulous. First, he made Yi Zhang Hong a scapegoat, then he secretly set up the Reverse Lifespan Formation. As long as the Squad Commander were destroyed afterward, there would be no trace left."

Tang Yuansheng nodded. Li Shouyi was always cautious in his actions, and he used the extremely uncommon Reverse Lifespan Formation. This plan was impeccable.

"But an accident still happened. The three of us ran a barbecue restaurant here, and this kind of place is perfect for gathering local intelligence. We noticed a disciple from the Moon Laurel Palace passing by by chance. She seemed to be proficient in formations and saw through the life-reversing talisman on the Squad Commander!"

"We can't touch the disciples of the Five Great Immortal Sects. We're worried that if Prefect Li's affair is exposed, it will implicate the entire Immortal Sect. We advised him to go into hiding, but he said that this is a critical time, and he needs to use the Reverse Lifespan Array to advance to the Nascent Soul Realm. He absolutely cannot hide. We have no choice but to kill Prefect Li before the Great Xia captures him, to eliminate any future trouble!"

"You noticed the government officials just now, didn't you? The leader was Chief Constable Fang Qingyun. What was he doing with so many people? He must be trying to stop the Reverse Lifespan Formation from activating and arrest Prefect Li!"

Tang Yuansheng nodded, agreeing that Lu Yang and the other two were right. The fact that the disciples of the Moon Laurel Immortal Palace were in Yanjiang County could be investigated and couldn't be lied about. Li Shouyi did indeed value advancing to the Nascent Soul Realm.

Normally, a leader of the Nascent Soul Realm. Yanjiang County is a small county, so only leaders there are at the Golden Core stage. If Li Shouyi wants to be promoted to a branch leader in a region with advanced cultivation, he must now advance to the Nascent Soul Realm.

The same applies to those with official positions; if their qualifications are insufficient, promotion will be extremely difficult.

Man Gu looked at Lu Yang in surprise. His plan didn't include killing Chief Chu and then encountering Tang Yuansheng. He hadn't even considered the reason for killing him. How could Brother Lu just casually mention it?

Meng Jingzhou secretly gave Lu Yang a thumbs up; the reason Lu Yang came up with was almost identical to the one he had made up on the spot.