397 What is there to fear

"The previous-generation heir of the Hidden Way Lineage. So that's how it is."

He Ping's gaze shifted subtly at his words.

"Indeed, your speculation makes a great deal of sense. If someone could deceive Duke Qing and the imperial court, secretly raising an imperial prince into the heir of the Immortal Puppet Sect, then the previous-generation heir of the Hidden Way Lineage is truly rather suspicious."

Another question occurred to him. Both he and Chixinzi had been cultivated by Wu Yousheng—could the Fourteenth Prince also have been cultivated by Wu Yousheng? An even more terrifying possibility was that Wu Yousheng had already infiltrated the Hidden Way Lineage, concealing his identity with puppet secret arts and mingling among them.

"The inability of the Formless Secret Treasury to be cultivated alongside other Dao-entry methods was originally one of Wu Yousheng's contingencies. I believe he must have a way to avoid being affected by Dao-entry methods.

"Furthermore, schemes of seizing the magpie's nest and swapping the heavens for the sun are this man's specialty. So this possibility cannot be ruled out..."

The more He Ping analyzed it, the more he felt that this possibility truly existed. Besides, the method by which the Hemp-Robe Dao Palace of the Hidden Way Lineage selected its true heir bore some resemblance to the Immortal Puppet Sect's method of raising puppets: both chose several candidates before determining the final one. Their underlying line of thought was plainly the same.

"The more one thinks along this line, the more suspicious the Hidden Way Lineage appears."

"There are other suspicious points as well."

The Fourth Prince continued, "Among all the imperial princes and grandsons, my Fourteenth Brother possessed the highest potential for cultivation. His gifts and talent surpassed both mine and Eldest Brother's... Yet he had no interest in the