"What do you want to ask?"
Chu Xiyao furrowed her brow slightly.
"What exactly was Steward Song's information?"
"I can't disclose that."
"Who killed Steward Song?"
"I can't disclose that."
"Was Steward Song killed because of the information he had?"
"I can't disclose that."
"Did Steward Song divert Spirit Stones from the accounts and go to the Detention Center of his own accord to protect the information?"
"I can't disclose that."
"Could this situation affect the Outer Court? Could it lead to an unprecedented calamity?"
"A calamity?"
"Something like a huge Black Snake Projection..."
At those words, Chu Xiyao's expression changed dramatically.
She quickly realized that Chen Yan might know many things he shouldn't.
If his master was Lin Qifeng...
Then Kongyuan Mountain had likely already gotten involved.
Chen Yan had also keenly noticed the change in Chu Xiyao's expression, and began to speculate further.
"What exactly do you know?"
Chu Xiyao lowered her voice.
"Why don't you start by telling me what you know, Senior Sister Chu?"
Chen Yan said.
Chu Xiyao's beautiful eyes, clear as an autumn pool, seemed to ripple for a moment. But they soon grew still again, as if she had finally calmed herself.
"Three months ago, the Monster Suppressing Stone that sealed the Black Flood Dragon Remnant Soul vanished from Caiyun Tower, where it was enshrined on Qingchan Peak."
The Black Flood Dragon Remnant Soul?
"That remnant soul belonged to a great demon of the Dao Integration Realm, slain by Patriarch Caiyun while he was traveling through the Land of Malignant Miasma.
"Moved by compassion and mindful of how difficult its cultivation had been, the Patriarch spared a wisp of its soul and brought it back to Qingchan Peak to be suppressed.
"After Patriarch Caiyun passed away, that wisp of the Black Flood Dragon Remnant Soul was moved into Caiyun Tower. Ten thousand years have passed since then, yet it still retains combat strength above the Guiyi Realm."
Chu Xiyao explained in an even tone.
The Guiyi Realm was the first of the Upper Three Realms, a level above the Qi Sea Realm, the Spirit Link Realm, and the Wanhua Realm.
Cultivators of the Guiyi Realm were considered indisputably elite fighters even among the Five Great Sects of Chenping Continent, such as Empty Mountain Sect and Xingtian Gate.
The Black Flood Dragon Remnant Soul had been suppressed inside Caiyun Tower for nearly ten thousand years, and its consciousness had long since perished.
Even so, the demonic pressure it released unconsciously could still bring about the Outer Court's calamity within seven breaths.
Cultivators below the Martial Spring Realm would suffer damaged meridians and shattered organs at best when faced with the demonic pressure released by the Black Flood Dragon Remnant Soul.
At worst, their souls would scatter and their bodies turn to dust.
Yet the Black Flood Dragon Remnant Soul, despite retaining the strength of the Guiyi Realm, was still slain by a streak of Clear Colored Rosy Light from Qingchan Peak.
Chen Yan remembered all of it clearly.
"So two months ago, when you were in the Outer Court, Senior Sister Chu, were you searching for the Monster Suppressing Stone that sealed the Black Flood Dragon Remnant Soul?"
Chen Yan asked.
"No."
Chu Xiyao shook her head.
"I'm not capable of handling this yet."
The current Chief Disciple of Qingchan Peak had only reached the Martial Spring Realm.
"How did you find out? This matter was supposed to be..."
Even on Qingchan Peak, only a handful of people knew.
The four Grand Elders, the elder of Caiyun Tower, the officiant responsible for guarding the Monster Suppressing Stone, Qingchan Peak's steward, and herself, as Qingchan Peak's Chief Disciple...
Every person who knew about it was absolutely trustworthy.
In other words, was the man standing before her connected to whoever had stolen the Black Flood Dragon Monster Suppressing Stone?
Chu Xiyao looked at Chen Yan with growing wariness.
"Don't look at me like that, Senior Sister Chu."
Chen Yan said with a smile.
"I only had a dream. I dreamed that one day, two years from now..."
As he spoke, Chen Yan turned to look at the Outer Court's martial training grounds beside the street. Nearly a hundred Outer Court Disciples were gathered around the grounds.
The Outer Court Grand Competition was about to be held there, and the disciples were preparing for it at that very moment.
"One day, two years from now, the Black Snake Projection will appear above the Outer Court's martial training grounds. Seven breaths—just seven breaths—and nearly ten thousand Outer Court Disciples will die."
Chen Yan said.
"..."
Chu Xiyao fell silent.
Because this really could happen—and the odds were high.
The Empty Mountain Sect had an enemy within. The sect's higher-ups never spoke of it openly, but they had long understood the truth between themselves.
The Monster Suppressing Stone containing the Black Flood Dragon Remnant Soul hadn't simply vanished into thin air. Someone had stolen it.
So what would the thief use the Black Flood Dragon Remnant Soul for?
Chu Xiyao knew the answer all too well.
As for Chen Yan's "dream," Chu Xiyao took it entirely as information Kongyuan Mountain had revealed to him.
"What do you want?"
She asked Chen Yan.
At last, they could get to the point.
That was what Chen Yan thought. He shrugged and said:
"My master told me you people from Qingchan Peak could do as you pleased, but he wouldn't lift a finger to help."
"Is that so?"
Chu Xiyao wasn't surprised. She had already known that Elder Lin and Elder Fu didn't get along.
Besides, Qingchan Peak was indeed in the wrong regarding Song Mingde.
"But what I do is still up to me."
Chen Yan continued:
"Even if I owe everything to my esteemed master, I've built up a few connections in the Outer Court over the past two months or so. Maybe I can help you."
"So what are your conditions?"
Chu Xiyao was clever, too.
"Answer my questions."
Chen Yan smiled faintly.
Chu Xiyao gazed at Chen Yan with her autumn-pool eyes. Who knew what was going through her mind at that moment?
"What exactly was Steward Song's information?"
After hesitating for a moment, the White-robed Girl decided to trust Chen Yan, at least for now.
"Two years ago, Elder Fu promised to help Song Mingde break through to the Qi Sea Realm. He also promised him a position as a steward in Shang Gong Hall on Qingchan Peak."
Chu Xiyao said:
"He wanted Song Mingde to use his position to monitor the letters that passed through Shang Gong Hall."
The Qi Sea Realm.
For a steward who had spent his entire life stagnating in the Outer Court at the Martial Spring Realm, with no prospect of making any further progress if things continued as they were, the allure of such a promise was obvious.
And Elder Fu Qian had even secured him a steward's position on Qingchan Peak.
After all, the status of an Inner Court steward was nowhere near comparable to that of an Outer Court steward—not even a tenth of it.
In other words, if Chen Yan had lived through that reincarnation in which he reached a hundred years old, then, with his lifespan nearly spent, even if it weren't a personal promise from Qingchan Peak's Martial Suppression Elder, but merely some Outer Court instructor or messenger telling him that he would help him reach the Martial Spring Realm if he did as asked, Chen Yan would naturally have charged through fire and water without hesitation.
When the end was near, the desire to survive was a human instinct. Even cultivators were no exception.
Otherwise, in the last few months of his life, Chen Yan wouldn't have gone alone to the Falling Sword Mountain Range, searching for that illusory inheritance of a Sword Immortal.
In the end, it had all been like drawing water with a bamboo basket.
Before you continue