Investigation 2

The dying man's voice still alerted some people, and before long, someone came over to investigate.

When those people saw so many of them, and the leader's cultivation was beyond their sight, they did not dare fight at all. Even with weapons in hand, they retreated in fear.

Seeing them like this, Hua Yichen looked down on them. With a flick of his whip, he wrapped it around one of them and yanked him over.

"A bunch of cowards, too scared even to fight."

Seeing that there were quite a few of them and that their cultivation was roughly on par with their own, Feng Wuhen, Shen Ziheng, and Bing Ling gripped their weapons tightly and stepped forward to fight them.

Meng Hongying and Qin Leyan watched from the side, itching to join in, but neither of them could fight in a place like this because of what they cultivated.

One was a beast tamer. In such a narrow passage, there was no way for her contracted beasts to fight; releasing them would only create trouble.

The other was a sound cultivator. Once she took out her weapon to fight, the sound from her instrument would openly reveal their location, drawing more people over to capture them and alerting the enemy.

So, in order not to cause trouble or be discovered, the two of them could only stand to the side and watch.

When Feng Wuhen began fighting, he was somewhat restrained at first, but he quickly grew accustomed to it, his strikes becoming ever sharper and more decisive.

The Jade Bone Sword in Feng Wuhen's hand danced into afterimages, his sword moves growing increasingly fierce. His opponent could barely cope at first, but the longer it went on, the more powerless he became, his body covered in cuts.

It was Feng Wuhen's first time fighting someone other than Bing Ling. His months of effort had not gone to waste. Thrusting, stabbing, slicing, twisting, lifting—before his mind could react, his body had already made the corresponding move.

But in order to make his mind keep up with his body, he slowed his attacks at the beginning. Once his mind and body had grown accustomed to it, he knew the time had come.

With a change in his hand movements, his upward lift turned into a thrust, and his sword pierced straight through the man's heart.

Before he could dwell on the feeling of killing someone for the first time, enemies still remained nearby. Feng Wuhen raised his sword and charged forward again.

Xia Jingcheng withdrew at just the right moment, giving them a chance to temper themselves. He stood beside Qin Xiaoran, watching Feng Wuhen and the other two fight.

"The disciples Mount Grand Mystery recruited this time are quite impressive. Every one of them is a first-rate talent. Those two in particular should be outstanding among people their age.

"The most remarkable is Junior Brother Feng. He improves in battle, and the improvement is obvious.

"I think it will not be long before he becomes the leading figure of his generation. Perhaps in a few years, he may even surpass you and me."

Hearing Xia Jingcheng praise his junior brothers so highly, Qin Xiaoran said with great pride, "Of course. Which disciple of Mount Grand Mystery does not possess exceptional talent? This time, we really did find many promising seedlings. Besides those who came with me this time, several other junior brothers and sisters are also outstanding.

"But among all these junior brothers and sisters, Junior Brother Feng is still the best.

"Whether it is his spiritual roots, his innate bone structure, or his comprehension, he is at the very pinnacle, no less than my youngest martial uncle.

"Besides all that, his character is also very good. For cultivators, aside from cultivation, the most important thing is cultivating the heart, and cultivating the heart is even more important than cultivation itself.

"In order to help them grow faster, I accepted the task of taking my junior brothers and sisters out for experience, and chose this mission for them."

When Qin Xiaoran had selected missions at Merit Hall, he had already noticed that something was amiss with Radiant Moon City.

There were too few clues, and this mission had not been posted by the Radiant Moon City Lord. Instead, it had been posted by an outer sect elder of Mount Grand Mystery at the request of one of his relatives.

That alone showed that there was a problem with the Radiant Moon City Lord. So, besides finding and rescuing those children, their task this time was—

—to find out why the Radiant Moon City Lord had not reported the children's disappearances to Mount Grand Mystery.

But speaking of which, why had Dao One Sect come here?

"Senior Brother Xia, the mission we accepted was posted by a relative of an outer sect elder. What about Dao One Sect? Why did you appear here?"

Xia Jingcheng felt that this really was quite a coincidence. "What a coincidence. We learned about what happened here because a relative of one of our inner sect senior brothers lost a child. They remembered that he was in Dao One Sect, so they told him about it. That senior brother posted a mission, and then we came."

Qin Xiaoran thought it was indeed quite a coincidence. Also, everyone seemed to have quite a lot of relatives.

While the two of them spoke, Feng Wuhen and the others had already dealt with the enemies. All three of them had blood on their hands.

It was not that they were unused to it, but the sticky blood clinging to them still felt uncomfortable.

Seeing the blood splattered across his clothes and shoes, Feng Wuhen frowned impatiently. He formed a Dust-Cleansing Art with his fingers, and his clothes immediately looked brand-new.

After taking care of this small squad, they continued onward. The passage was simply too long, and they guessed that it must lead somewhere.

So they quickened their pace and reached the end. Before them was solid earth, with the only exit directly above their heads.

"There must be a mechanism to open the door above us. Everyone spread out and look."

Qin Xiaoran began searching first, then told Feng Wuhen and the others to search as well.

Girls were naturally meticulous, and Qin Leyan was especially so. She noticed an area whose color differed from the surrounding earth. "Brother, come look! This patch is a different color from the rest. It's darker. It should be the mechanism we're looking for."

Seeing that she had found the mechanism, Qin Xiaoran told her to step back. "I'm going to press it. You all be careful."

Feng Wuhen stood behind him, staring at Qin Xiaoran nervously. Qin Xiaoran raised his hand and pressed down. The instant he did, a rumbling sound rang out, and loose dirt fell from above.

Bing Ling quickly darted aside, afraid the thing would fall onto his head.

The passage overhead opened. Xia Jingcheng climbed up first, looked around, and saw that there was no one in the room. He quickly called down into the passage, "There's no one here. Everyone, come up."

Feng Wuhen and the others climbed up one after another. Once Qin Xiaoran had climbed out, the door to the passage closed.

They examined the room. There was a writing desk, with a chair behind it. On either side of the desk stood vases as tall as an adult's waist.

A landscape painting hung on the wall behind the chair, giving the room an elegant air.

The study was not large, with only a single bookshelf. Once they had all come out, the room was filled with people.

"Is this the legendary cunning rabbit with three burrows? The passage beneath that residence actually leads to this one. I wonder whether there's another passage here leading to some other residence?"

Bing Ling felt over every item in the study, hoping to find another mechanism and perhaps a secret passage.

But aside from the hidden passage they had just emerged from, there was no second one in the room.

Bing Ling, however, felt that there had to be another hidden passage; it just was not in this room. He wanted to look outside, but Feng Wuhen grabbed him the moment he lifted his foot.

"Senior Brother, be careful. Who knows what it's like outside? Let's observe through the window first. We can go out after we make sure there's no danger."

Bing Ling thought he made a great deal of sense. He ran to the window and gently pushed it open a crack, peering outside through it.

There was nothing outside. Apart from a few trees and some flowers and grass, there was not a single person.

Still uneasy, he swept the area with spiritual energy once more. There was no one hiding even underground, though it seemed that something else was buried beneath the earth.

He planned to bring Feng Wuhen back to dig it up after everything was over and see what good thing had been buried down there.