The Northern Zhou Imperial Court had clearly misjudged where the kidnappers came from. But Chu Xing and the others really were members of the Immortal Transformation Sect, stirring up trouble in Yanjing under the name of the "Red Witch Cult," with quite a few people hidden in the shadows. If the court launched such an indiscriminate crackdown on criminal elements, whether it could catch the kidnappers was unclear, but they themselves would certainly be caught in the crossfire and swept up in one net.
Everyone looked worried. After some thought, Chu Xing said:
"If we'd kidnapped Lü Yan, we could hand him over to settle things. But we weren't the ones who took him. We can't exactly jump out and explain that to the Imperial Court. If the court really goes mad and uses the Yin Lun Drum, preferring to kill the innocent rather than let anyone escape, won't we have to pull out of the Capital City first?"
The other branch leaders and incense masters all shook their heads at this:
"The Young Emperor's birthday is only a few days away. If we withdraw everyone now, all those years of infiltration will have been wasted. At this point, all we can do is help look."
"Speaking of which, if neither the orthodox factions nor we did this, who else could it have been?"
"Could it have been Xie Jinhuan? Only yesterday at noon, he identified Lü Yan as one of ours, and that very night Lü Yan disappeared. Given his usual thunder-and-lightning approach, it wouldn't be strange for him to do something like this. As for strength, he managed to get the better of Lü Yan twice. It's not impossible that he turned the tables and plotted against Lü Yan..."
Everyone talked over one another, feeling this was quite