Lu Changfeng turned his gaze toward Xiao Zhu, his tone even yet carrying an invisible pressure. "Young Master Xiao, your earlier words in Cold Crow Valley still ring in my ears: 'No one in Swordforging City has any intention of opposing the court or the soldiers and civilians of Youzhou.' Yet Protector Pei has now confessed that Daxi, the 'Ghost Wolf' of the Göktürk Golden Tent Flying Cavalry, along with Yang Kaitian and other remnants of the Great Vehicle Sect, is hiding in your city's forbidden grounds-the Xiao Family Ancestral Tombs."
He paused briefly, his gaze sweeping over Xiao Jueyan's and Xiao Juelan's suddenly altered expressions, then asked slowly, "I wonder whether the three city lords could lend me a hand in... rooting out these bandits and eradicating these traitors?"
At these words, the expressions of Xiao Zhu, Xiao Jueyan, and Xiao Juelan changed dramatically at once!
Xiao Juelan was the first to blurt out, his voice filled with incredulous fury, "Impossible! The forbidden ancestral grounds are heavily guarded and protected by formations. No outsider could possibly sneak in, much less hide there!"
Xiao Jueyan, however, was clearly far more calculating. He first beckoned a trusted Sword Guard forward. The guard was no stranger to such matters and swiftly examined Pei Zhennan's injuries, the lingering traces of his cultivation method, and the Mountain-Splitting Saber embedded in the wall, then whispered a rapid report into Xiao Jueyan's ear.
As his confidant reported, Xiao Jueyan's expression darkened little by little, until his face was livid.
He stared fixedly at the debilitated Pei Zhennan on the ground, then looked toward the terrifying destruction the arrow had wrought in the distance-especially the lingering, frigid arrow intent, so unlike the martial arts of the Central Plains. Taken together with Lu Changfeng's identity, the characteristics of