So It Was Him!

The young woman in the gauze dress before him didn't speak, merely gave a slight bow.

Then she turned and continued walking forward.

Chen Yan followed her.

Just like that, after she led Chen Yan through several more private rooms, they arrived at a door.

She raised her hand and gently knocked twice on the door:

"Steward Ding, there's an Immortal Master from the Empty Mountain Sect who wishes to see you. They said it's about the Immortal Master Song you met some time ago."

"Please come in."

A few seconds later, a man's voice came from inside.

Chen Yan wondered if it was his imagination, but the voice sounded somewhat familiar, as if he'd heard it somewhere before.

The young woman beside him shifted to the side and pushed the door open for Chen Yan:

"Senior Brother Sun, please come in."

Chen Yan then walked through the door.

It was an antique-style private room. Judging by its layout and furnishings, it looked much like a reception room.

The various tables, chairs, and decorations used were clearly expensive, likely worth a considerable sum in the mortal world.

In the center of the room stood a long table, upon which was set a very high-quality tea set.

And behind the long table sat a man dressed in fine, colorful robes.

The man didn't stand up, merely sat there appraising Chen Yan as he entered the room. His gaze swept over Chen Yan's face, then his Daoist Robe, and finally the gilded crane patterns on his cuffs.

"Fellow Daoist, please have a seat," the man in fine robes said with a smile. He picked up a teacup from the table, first rinsing it with hot water, then pouring tea into Chen Yan's cup.

"Fellow Daoist, are you here to see Steward Song?"

"Yes," Chen Yan replied.

"However, Steward Song said he doesn't wish to see anyone right now, not even fellow disciples from the Empty Mountain Sect."

The gambling house steward, surnamed Ding, said this.

Chen Yan knew very well that the man surnamed Ding was testing him.

But what concerned Chen Yan even more was that, for some reason, the man's voice still felt very familiar.

"Steward Song is dead."

Chen Yan stated directly.

Steward Ding's hand, holding the teapot, paused slightly, but his facial expression remained unchanged.

It was clear he also knew about Song Mingde's death.

This gambling house steward didn't seem simple, as even most Outer Court Disciples of the Empty Mountain Sect didn't know about Song Mingde's death.

"Then why are you here looking for Steward Song, Fellow Daoist?" Steward Ding asked.

"To retrieve something he left here."

Chen Yan said.

He was trying his luck.

"Something Steward Song left behind?"

Steward Ding put on a confused expression, looking as if he knew nothing.

"I'm afraid I don't understand what you're saying, Fellow Daoist."

He was playing dumb.

Chen Yan knew clearly that he was indeed playing dumb.

He figured that before Song Mingde turned himself in to the Law Enforcement Hall, he likely guessed his own fate would be grim and had left the list at the gambling house.

"Elder Fu Qian sent me."

Chen Yan said.

"Fellow Daoist, don't bother mentioning Elder Fu's name. Even if you invoked the name of Sect Master Yun, if there's nothing, there's nothing," Steward Ding said with a wry smile.

"You can't expect me to conjure something out of thin air, can you?"

Despite his words, Steward Ding's gaze kept drifting, intentionally or unintentionally, towards Chen Yan's waist.

That was where a token should be worn.

"I understand. Thank you for your time today, Steward Ding."

Chen Yan cupped his fists and then said.

"No worries, no worries, Fellow Daoist Sun is welcome to visit anytime."

Steward Ding said with a smile, then casually plucked a grass needle from a nearby potted plant and stuck it in his mouth.

Seeing this, Chen Yan's hair stood on end, his pupils contracted, and True Qi surged from his Martial Spring.

If not for the concealment of the Hidden Immortal Art, his aura and anomalies would have been discovered by the Steward of this gambling den.

Chen Yan finally understood why the Steward of the gambling den looked familiar from the moment they met.

"You brat, you're really strange."

"One day, I will kill you."

The man's appearance gradually overlapped with that of the man in the coarse brown cloth, carrying a large saber on his shoulder.

Steward Ding was the one who had intercepted Chen Yan and Cheng Ziying in multiple reincarnations!

Chen Yan didn't recognize him at first because it was difficult to connect the current Steward Ding, dressed in fine clothes, shrewd, and with a kind smile, with the unshaven, sinister-eyed killing star.

But the habit of holding a grass needle in his mouth just now undoubtedly made the Steward of this gambling den completely overlap with the figure from more than two years later!

"Fellow Daoist, what's wrong?"

Steward Ding looked at Chen Yan with concern.

His voice was exactly the same as that of the man in the coarse brown cloth.

"It's nothing."

Chen Yan bowed:

"I'll take my leave now."

He concealed his hatred and surging True Qi and left.

Chen Yan quickly walked out of the gambling den and headed in the direction of the Prince's mansion.

What had happened in the next two years?

He could now assume and speculate that Elder Zhengfa Bai Qiming of Qingchan Peak and Martial Suppression Elder Fu Qian of Qingchan Peak were likely from two different factions.

This could be seen from the fact that Lan Wei, an Elder of the Sutra Hall of Qingchan Peak and a subordinate of Fu Qian, had a very bad impression of Lu Li, who was close to Elder Zhengfa.

And in the catastrophe in the Outer Court, the faction that suffered the greatest losses in Qingchan Peak was the one belonging to the Sword-wielding Elder and Martial Suppression Elder.

Even because of such a major incident, Bai Qiming's faction actually benefited from it.

Chen Yan couldn't help but suspect that Bai Qiming might be the mastermind behind this series of events.

If it really was Bai Qiming, then what about Lu Li?

Lu Li definitely had the opportunity to kill him during this Sect mission, but he didn't.

Chen Yan speculated two possibilities: first, although Lu Li was now close to Bai Qiming, he had not yet gained Bai Qiming's complete trust.

Lu Li was currently unaware of this.

The second possibility was that Bai Qiming knew that Chen Yan was being watched by Fu Qian, and any rash action might alert the enemy.

Therefore, he could not make a move against Chen Yan.

Of course, all of this was based on the premise that Bai Qiming was the mastermind behind all these events.

These were all just Chen Yan's speculations, with no evidence.

Standing before the gate of the Prince's mansion, Chen Yan took a deep breath and temporarily threw all the jumbled thoughts in his mind out of his head.

He had to deal with the immediate matter first.

Qian Xun was still being guarded by Lu Li and Zheng Fei, and an urgent report had been sent from the Consulate to Empty Mountain Sect. A response from the Sect should be received soon.

Thinking this, Chen Yan, relying on his memory, walked back to the courtyard that the Prince's mansion's steward had arranged for the cultivators of Empty Mountain Sect not long ago.

But when Chen Yan returned to the courtyard, it wasn't just Lu Li, Zheng Fei, and the guarded Qian Xun inside.

There was also a cultivator wearing an Empty Mountain Sect Daoist Robe, who looked about forty years old.

The collar of his robe was embroidered with a wave pattern, announcing his identity.

He was from Yuanhua Mountain.