Exposed

Years of ingrained habits have made Taishi Ran unwilling to believe anything his enemies say, unless it's during interrogation.

But as Lou Ji finished speaking, his bloodied fingertips trembled slightly uncontrollably.

Because of the current situation, he had no choice but to believe it.

In his battle with Lou Ji, he didn't have enough time to investigate the deepest part of the fog where Xu Changtian and Luo Bingli were fighting, but the two beams of light that had almost completely dispelled the fog over the entire city were hard to miss.

Clearly, that was Luo Bingli's killing move against Xu Changtian.

The two consecutive releases already speak volumes.

Taishi Ran stood up from the ground, tilted his head back, chuckled, and asked in return:

"Chief Lou, now that Luo Bingli fled, why don't you go after her?"

The mist dissipated, and sensing what was happening in the deepest part, Lou Ji completely relaxed, her slightly languid voice softly ringing out:

"We can't catch her. If she wants to escape, even a saint-level expert would have a hard time stopping her, given her cultivation Cultivation Method and Dao essence."

After a moment of silence, Taishi Ran looked towards the deepest part of the mist, which was gradually gathering again, and suddenly asked:

"Chief Lou, before I die, I want to ask you a question."

Upon hearing this, Lou Ji's alluring red lips, stained with traces of blood, curled slightly:

"Hmm, I'm in a good mood right now, so I'll allow you to ask one question."

"What are your plans for dealing with Xu Changtian now?"

"I recall that I already provided the answer to this question previously."

"."

silence.

Lou Ji looked down at Taishi Ran, and chuckled softly:

"Alright, let me ask you a question too. Now that things have come to this, do you people from the Heavenly Oversight Pavilion regret it?"

"Regret?"

Taishi Ran's expression turned strange for a moment, then he took a deep breath and said slowly, "I do regret it, but not about the assassination attempt itself, but about not giving it more importance."

Lou Ji narrowed her beautiful eyes slightly:

"You really are someone who won't shed a tear even when you see a coffin."

Taishi Ran shook his head and murmured softly:

"Before this, there were actually two opinions about Xu Changtian within our Heavenly Oversight Pavilion."

"The first possibility is that he is merely a prelude to a great calamity, not the calamity itself; the second possibility is that he is the calamity itself."

"The former's voice drowned out the latter, which severely limited my ability to allocate resources."

Lou Ji raised an eyebrow:

"Isn't your Heavenly Oversight Pavilion a force that exists for the sake of humanity? If so, why does the former surpass the latter?"

Taishi Ran's answer was very straightforward:

"They are wary of your Prime Minister's Estate and are unwilling to take this risk."

Lou Ji asked with great interest:

"But isn't your Heavenly Oversight Pavilion a one-man show run by the Pavilion Master who considers himself 'Heaven'? How can there be dissenting voices?"

Upon hearing this, Taishi Ran gave Lou Ji a deep look and softly asked in return:

"Isn't your Prime Minister's Mansion's residence essentially a one-man show by Lord Xu? But when it comes to the facts, haven't any other voices emerged?"

Lou Ji smiled upon hearing this, but remained silent.

The Prime Minister's Estate was too large, so large that it was almost bloated.

Although those below would obey Chancellor Xu, when it came to actual matters, the situation would inevitably become somewhat distorted due to the struggle for interests.

It's like choosing the heir to the Prime Minister's Mansion.

Before Changtian showed his talent, most people supported Xu Changge. Although the higher-ups disliked this young man, they could not deny his talent, and although his style of doing things was stubborn, he was decisive and ruthless.

However, a significant number of people also support Xu Xinyao, who is her adopted daughter.

The reason is simple: not everyone wants war.

War means the collapse of order, and everything must be torn down and started anew.

Some people cannot bear to see the world descend into chaos.

However, some people, due to the power they have gained from holding high positions for many years, have long forgotten why they followed Xu Yinhe in the first place.

"See? You're all the same."

Taishi Ran's voice carried a sigh with a hint of amusement, "However, it seems now that incompetence has truly led to this disaster. If the Pavilion could provide me with more resources, this trip would most likely have been able to nip this calamity in the bud."

Lou Ji let out a soft breath. Taking advantage of the lingering mist before it could re-coalesce, her Qi swept over Xu Yuan, who was still in a daze after Luo Bingli, and asked in a low voice:

"Have you ever considered that before this, Changtian was just an ordinary person with some fortuitous opportunity and a bit of luck, and it was your assassination Changtian that turned him into the calamity you speak of?"

"Chief Lou is joking."

Taishi Ran did not hesitate at all, his voice calm and firm. "The calamity will not be altered by the actions of certain individuals; at most, it will only accelerate the process."

Lou Ji's eyes flashed with a hint of boredom upon hearing this:

"You really are stubborn."

As he spoke, Taishi Ran softly asked in return:

"Chief Lou, you don't need to deny what I said so quickly. You are often by his side, so you should be very clear that he had already shown some special signs before our assassination attempt, right?"

Lou Ji's eyes narrowed slightly, and many thoughts flashed through her mind in an instant.

After the trip to the Northern Border, Changtian's unknown investigative methods, Luo Xiran's strange fungal carpet, and the Cultivation Method devoured the Yantian Divine Soul and the Yin Source of the Saint Rank.

"Indeed, there is."

A moment of silence was followed by a soft laugh from Taishi Ran: "If he had continued down that path of cultivation, even if we hadn't come today, it would have been only a matter of time before Xu Changtian became what he is today."

Lou Ji let out a soft breath and chuckled softly:

Have you finished speaking?

A hint of a smile flashed in Taishi Ran's eyes:

"That's all."

"Then die!"

Lou Ji finished speaking,

Countless red buds suddenly sprouted from the ground around Taishi Ran, and the bewitching aura emanating from them almost instantly caused Taishi Ran to lose his mind.

The reason I spoke so much with the Mortal Shedding of the Heavenly Oversight Pavilion was to secretly prepare this spell.

Lou Ji wanted to capture the other party alive.

Just as her spell was about to be completed, a regretful smile crossed Taishi Ran's increasingly blank face. He opened his mouth and uttered his last words:

"Chief Lou, if you don't work, you'll be in hell."

After saying that,

His body began to swell suddenly, and the Sumeru Ring on his fingertips emitted a dazzling light.

At the same time,

The bodies of the withered old man and the middle-aged beauty also underwent similar changes at the same time.

Three booming sounds echoed across the sky.

A violent shockwave rushed towards us, and rising flames exploded into three mushroom-shaped black clouds within the black mist.

Seeing Taishi Ran choose suicide without hesitation, Lou Ji, standing in the void, felt a pang of regret.

It seems that while she was preparing her mind-controlling spell, her opponent was also making arrangements to clean up the mess.

When the smoke and dust cleared,

Lou Ji immediately extended her Will Soul and Source Qi downwards to investigate, but everything below had already vanished into nothingness.

Just as Taishi Ran had promised, he erased all traces of himself from this world.

The Qi mechanism, the corpse, and all traces of magic were completely cleared away.

After realizing this, Lou Ji glanced once more at the deep crater created by Taishi Ran, then immediately looked away without lingering for even a second.

This person is indeed a remarkable individual for upholding his own convictions, but that's about it.

Taishi Ran was not the first person of this kind to die at her hands, nor would she be the last.

Lou Ji's gaze fell into the depths of the mist. In her perception, the mist was gradually closing in, and Changtian had once again disappeared from her senses.

After a moment's hesitation, Lou Ji did not rush over immediately. She glanced around, found a relatively clean spot, sat down cross-legged, and took out several high-level healing and qi-replenishing pills from her Sumeru Ring.

After Luo Bingli used her magic to dispel the fog, the entire battle process over there was captured by her Qi.

Just as Taishi Ran said, Changtian has indeed become a monster.

After several fierce battles, she was not entirely confident that she could subdue Changtian without harming him, given her current condition.

"That kid is a real headache."

After a languid murmur, Lou Ji slowly closed her eyes and began to meditate and regulate her breathing.

In an instant, Huizhou County, now Ghost City, fell into complete silence.

Lou Ji's Qi gradually receded, and the injuries she had sustained in the battle were healing rapidly, bit by bit, at a speed visible to the naked eye.

However, this silence did not last long.

"Clatter"

"Clatter"

"Clatter"

Suddenly, a soft sound of footsteps rang out in the silent black mist.

Upon hearing the soft sound, Lou Ji slowly opened her tightly closed eyes and looked towards a spot a hundred feet to her side, as if she had sensed it beforehand.

There appeared a woman, a woman dressed in a lake-blue palace dress.

Luo Xiran slowly emerged from the black mist and arrived at a distance of about ten feet in front of Lou Ji in a few breaths. She silently straightened her tangled skirt and sat down opposite her.

The two women locked eyes for a moment.

Lou Ji's beautiful eyes held a hint of teasing as she broke the silence first:

"I thought you, the senior of the Heavenly Oversight Pavilion who has lived for ten thousand years, were already dead."

Luo Xiran's expression remained calm and composed as she softly replied:

"After that brat's transformation, we're essentially from the same origin now, so he didn't attack me."

"Is that so?"

Lou Ji murmured noncommittally, then narrowed her beautiful eyes, which shimmered with a bewitching purple light. "But from what you've said, can I take that you know why Changtian is in its current state? Or that you played a part in it?"

Seeing the unfriendly glint in the other person's eyes, Luo Xiran remained calm and said in a low voice:

"Chief Lou, being too suspicious is not a good thing. I am not your enemy."

While healing her injuries, Lou Ji replied softly:

"Being suspicious is a necessary quality for me in my position; as for whether you are an enemy or not..."

Speaking of this,

Lou Ji's soft, alluring words suddenly paused for a moment, then she smiled and said:

"I don't think so, but Changtian told me something to gain my trust. Do you want to know what it is?"

"What?"

"He is the culmination of your life's work."

"."

After a brief moment of eye contact, Luo Xiran gently nodded:

"That's true."

"What results?"

Lou Ji frowned slightly and asked subconsciously, but then stopped herself and said instead, "Never mind, I'm not curious about the results. What I'm curious about is whether these results are related to Changtian's current state?"

Luo Xiran did not deny it:

"Related."

Lou Ji frowned even more deeply and said, word by word:

"He once said that when he was in the Northern Border, he and that girl Li Qingyan killed the barbarian Barbarian King had become a saint. You must have been with him at that time?"

Luo Xiran sighed:

"This kid really tells you everything."

Lou Ji chuckled upon hearing this, her smile radiant.

"This is a rekindling of passion, because I'm his older sister~"

The moment she finished speaking, Lou Ji's smile vanished as if she had changed her expression, and she asked coldly:

"So what exactly happened during our journey to the Northern Border?"

Luo Xiran considered for a moment and said:

"He was the main force in slaying the Barbarian King."

"."

A moment of silence followed, Lou Ji subconsciously glanced into the depths of the mist, her eyes filled with a hint of suspicion:

Are you kidding me?

Luo Xiran softly uttered two words:

"The Strange Ghost"

"Strange Ghost?"

Lou Ji was silent for a moment. "Did Li Zhaoyuan's teleportation artifact allow you to enter the Strange Ghost lair?"

Luo Xiran shook her head and said softly:

"No, only that brat and Li Qingyan. Bai Muxi and I were already in that Strange Ghost lair."

Lou Ji's eyes flashed with understanding upon hearing this:

"No wonder that girl surnamed Bai is so out of place with everything outside."

Luo Xiran chuckled and continued:

"That lair was built by the Heavenly Oversight Pavilion ten thousand years ago during the Strange Ghost cataclysm. It Underground Palace used to research drugs to reverse Strange Ghost transformation, but it later went out of control due to internal strife, and the original Strange Ghost were found inside."

"."

Upon hearing this, Lou Ji instantly understood what might have happened.

Strange Ghost beings are almost extinct in the Great Yan Dynasty, but occasionally some remnants are still found in secret realms.

There were even some madmen who deliberately released the Strange Ghost to cause trouble for the court.

However, these Strange Ghost are the lowest rank, and the people and Demon Beast they transform will only become mindless beasts driven by instinct.

The Prime Minister's Mansion developed more than a dozen secret realms where Strange Ghost existed, but not a single original Strange Ghost being was found among them.

"You mean, Changtian was transformed into one of their own kind by that original Strange Ghost being?"

Luo Xiran nodded gently:

"It seems that you, Chief Lou, are also aware of the special nature of the original Strange Ghost. That little devil was indeed transformed into one of their own kind, and even used the Demon Crystal of a high-level Strange Ghost to gain the power of Mortal Shedding, or even a Half-Saint, in a short period of time. He also rescued me and restored my human form through the Reverse Fate Liquid that I researched back then."

"."

Hearing these words, Lou Ji felt her heart couldn't take it anymore. Her tone became somewhat resentful, and she chuckled in a sinister low voice:

"Hehehe. It seems that Changtian sister."

Luo Xiran seemed slightly surprised upon hearing this, and glancing at the anger on Lou Ji's face, she asked in confusion:

"You didn't know about this?"

"Know what?"

"." Luo Xiran.

"." Lou Ji.

The air suddenly fell silent, and their gazes seemed to freeze.

Luo Xiran realized she might have said something inappropriate.

Lou Ji's smile widened even more.

Good, good, this kid's really gotten too big for his britches; he even dares to hide something this important.

A moment of silence,

Luo Xiran gently prepared to salvage the situation:

"Chief Lou, this matter was actually quite fortuitous opportunity."

"Senior Luo."

"Um?"

"Do you think I, the Black Scale Chief, am a three-year-old child?"

"." Luo Xiran.

"To be honest," Lou Ji said, her eyes gleaming with a murderous intent.

Luo Xiran quieted down for a moment and looked away.

"That kid said my brother told him that."

"Luo Daofan?"

"Hmm." Luo Xiran sold it off readily.

"Good."

Lou Ji readily agreed, a sinister smile flashing in her beautiful eyes.

Upon returning to the capital, he would go to settle accounts with the Saint's Remnant Soul. She wanted to see just how much that brat Changtian was hiding.

If it doesn't match, she'll see what solution Changtian can give her.

At this point, Lou Ji's thoughts suddenly stopped, her pupils contracted sharply, and she even stopped breathing.

Forcibly suppressing the thoughts rising in her heart, Lou Ji slightly tightened her grip on her robe and asked in a low voice:

"So, Changtian's current state is related to his transformation into Strange Ghost?"