Gong Wensheng examined the signature on the letter very carefully. It did indeed bear the Xie Clan's secret seal. There was no faking it.
He drew a deep breath, set down the letter, and tapped his fingertips lightly on the desk. The study was frighteningly quiet, with only those repeated taps, like the footsteps of the god of death.
"Marquis, what's wrong?" Granny Ying, the white-haired old woman, sensed something was amiss.
Gong Wensheng did not answer, merely handing her the letter.
Granny Ying took it and glanced over it. Her expression changed too. "Xie Ciyuan is dead? Then who is that man outside?"
"I don't know," Gong Wensheng said. "Someone capable of impersonating Xie Ciyuan without my noticing... could it be Thousand Faces?"
"Thousand Faces?" Granny Ying frowned. "Isn't Thousand Faces in Jiangzhou? Besides, he's a Great Grandmaster. Why would he impersonate Xie Ciyuan? I've never heard of any conflict between the Xie Clan and the Demon Cult. Marquis, could this letter be a fake?"
Gong Wensheng shook his head. "The Xie Clan's secret seal has a distinctive resonance, created by the Xie Family Ancestor himself. Even an immortal couldn't forge it."
At this point, Gong Wensheng rose and paced around the study. "If Xie Ciyuan is a fake, has Yuyi been kept in the dark? Or is she a fake too?"
Granny Ying hurriedly tried to persuade him otherwise. "Marquis, surely that's going too far. Even if Thousand Faces could impersonate Xie Ciyuan without your noticing, one Thousand Faces couldn't impersonate two people, could he? Besides, the eldest young lady has her memories."
Clearly, Granny Ying did not understand the power of Thousand Faces' Myriad Forms True Scripture
at all.
The Miao Frontier was rather remote, after all, and she had never truly met Thousand Faces face-to-face.
Gong