"Could it be..." The real Liu Er hesitated. "What happened this time wasn't a coincidence, but deliberately arranged? But that makes no sense..."
She could not bring herself to say the rest. It would mean her own sect had been plotting against its disciples.
Qiwu Huaiwen sighed. "The Sword Sect sent the two of you here, where you happened to run into these two. They even had ties to the Sword Sect. They subdued you themselves, then laid a Restriction on you. That way, even if someone tried to divine what had happened, they wouldn't discover you'd been replaced!"
Dugu Xin looked straight at the two captives, his expression turning grave. "Who exactly are you?"
The two Deities beside them exchanged a glance, both on the verge of speaking.
Then Chen Cuo asked, "You aren't from Southern Jambudvipa, are you?"
"Hm?"
Everyone froze again.
"Not from Southern Jambudvipa?" Xi Ran was astonished. "Junior Brother, how did you know?"
"When I obtained the River Lord Talisman, I communicated with you from afar in the River Lord Temple and realized someone was impersonating Sword Sect disciples. So I kept an eye on them. They were careful at every turn and never slipped up, even when alone. But no matter how careful they were, they couldn't hide every detail. There were clues. And once their origins showed through, I could follow the vine to its root and work out where they came from..."
His gaze swept over the two captives.
"Your arrival had something to do with the fall of the monk Tan Duan, didn't it?"
The two captives exchanged a glance, panic showing on their faces.
Their expressions told everyone else all they needed to know.
"So they really came from another continent?" Ling Mei was thrilled. "Which one? Western Ox Continent,