She Left on Her Own

Sang Ying and her group did not expect that the flamingo would take a whole day to fly back after it flew away.

When the flamingo, which was noticeably smaller than before, struggled to fly over the courtyard wall and landed unsteadily in Duan Hanyi's hand, a glimmer of anticipation flashed in everyone's eyes.

"How is it? Have you found Red Lotus's location?" Dong Fuzhu asked anxiously.

Duan Hanyi didn't answer her, but his expression gradually darkened as he touched the flamingo. Seeing his appearance, everyone felt a surge of worry.

Dong Fuzhu said anxiously, "Say something! Surely Red Lotus isn't already gone?!"

"No, that's not it." Duan Hanyi frowned and shook his head, but his attitude only made Dong Fuzhu more anxious.

Finally, Sang Ying spoke up, "Tell me, what's the matter?"

Duan Hanyi sighed and placed the flamingo in front of everyone, "You can see it for yourselves."

As it spoke, the little flamingo instantly transformed into a wall of fire, within which the scene in the dark room appeared.

They watched as the firecracker disappeared into the small, dark room, saw dozens of cages containing cultivators hanging high, saw the arrogant male cultivator beaten until he dared not utter a sound, even his cries of pain were silenced, and saw the figure in the next cage stepping forward when Red Lotus was about to be beaten.

"Isn't that the person who used to live in the courtyard across from ours?" Bai Kejin recognized the man who looked like a body cultivator at a glance. He was clearly the cultivator next door who had been on their minds for a long time!

Reminded by this, Sang Ying also turned her gaze to the male cultivator's face.

Upon closer inspection, she immediately recognized the man as the cultivator she and Bai Kejin had met a few times before.

"So, he's already been taken into custody by the Listening Tide Sect. But I'm still curious, he's Nascent Soul Cultivator, why was there no sound when he was taken away? And looking at the person who was beaten first, he clearly couldn't use any Spiritual Power." Jiang Zhuoxue added.

Those present, who were initially furious about the Listening Tide Sect's evil deeds, calmed down upon hearing this and began to ponder the reasons with Sang Ying.

Lan Fusheng said, "Green Lotus and Red Lotus both stayed at the Listening Tide Sect for a period of time, but Red Lotus was arrested while she wasn't. There must be something unusual about this. Why don't we ask her and tell her about her sister?"

But soon, Duan Hanyi shook her head and replied, "No need, because someone has already told us the reason."

Following the direction Duan Hanyi pointed, Sang Ying and the others saw that after the wall of fire gradually disappeared, a line of words was left behind!

The text clearly stated: Do not eat anything from the Listening Tide Sect!

Even though Sang Ying and the others couldn't see Red Lotus's expression as she wrote those words, they could still tell from her anxious and earnest demeanor in the strokes.

"So she was arrested because she ate something from the Listening Tide Sect? What was it from the Listening Tide Sect? Has the Listening Tide Sect been sending us anything these days?" Dong Fuzhu asked, tapping her chin.

She turned her head to see Sang Ying's expression, but Sang Ying and Jiang Zhuoxue's expressions had already turned completely cold when they saw those words.

"Senior sister?" Dong Fuzhu called out to her cautiously.

Jiang Zhuoxue answered Dong Fuzhu's question, "You don't know, these days the Listening Tide Sect has been sending us so-called local delicacies from the Cloud Mulberry Realm all the time, saying that these foods are full of Spiritual Qi and won't harm cultivators' bodies. It's just that your senior sister thinks there's something wrong with the Listening Tide Sect, so although she accepted the things, she's kept them in her Storage Bag and hasn't dared to give them to you."

"I wouldn't dare let them eat these things, I wouldn't even let you drink the water here. The spiritual tea you've been drinking these past few days was brewed with spiritual spring water that I put in the Realm Pearl a hundred years ago. Back then, after Junior Brother Lan told me that the one shouting and cursing in front of the mountain gate was Green Lotus, I became suspicious. I didn't expect that Listening Tide Sect really didn't disappoint my suspicions." Sang Ying became angrier as she spoke. If they hadn't discovered that something was wrong with the Listening Tide Sect early on, they probably wouldn't have been able to save anyone, and her junior brothers and sisters would have been locked in cages like Red Lotus and the others!

And what about sacrificial offerings and rituals? Human sacrifice! How could these people even come up with such a thing!

Lan Fusheng suddenly realized something after hearing this. "No wonder I found the spiritual tea brewed by Senior Sister to be so fragrant and mellow; it turns out it was made with spiritual spring water. This time, we are so grateful for Senior Sister and Fellow Daoist Jiang's thoughtfulness; otherwise, we might have been tricked without even realizing it."

Sang Ying waved her hand. "How can you blame yourself? Who would have thought that someone who was so friendly and hospitable would actually tamper with the food?"

Sang Ying was furious this time. She knew that Listening Tide Sect had been plotting against them from the beginning, but she didn't expect their intentions to be so deep.

Thinking it over, Sang Ying continued, "Since they tampered with the food, is there any way to find out what's hidden in it, and what effect it would have on cultivators besides preventing them from using their Spiritual Qi? I have a feeling that the Listening Tide Sect's efforts in feeding us these precious foods are not simply to make us lose our Spiritual Power."

Duan Hanyi disagreed after hearing this. "Being able to make us completely unable to use Spiritual Power is already quite remarkable!"

"That's not what I meant. I just think that even if Red Lotus lost her Spiritual Power, she was with Green Lotus at the time. The two sisters were sleeping in the wilderness. Wouldn't they have taken some precautions? The defenses set up by Nascent Soul Cultivator shouldn't be so easily broken. So how was Red Lotus taken away so quietly?" Under everyone's gaze, Sang Ying continued, "I suspect that Red Lotus returned to the Listening Tide Sect on her own."

Upon hearing this, not only Dong Fuzhu and Duan Hanyi, but even Bai Kejin's eyes widened.

Dong Fuzhu was the first to express her confusion. "Senior Sister, what are you talking about? How could Red Lotus be willing to return to the Listening Tide Sect alone? She definitely wants to be with her older sister. Besides, even if she left something behind at the Listening Tide Sect, she would definitely tell Green Lotus, and the two sisters would come back together."

"Perhaps, Sang Ying means that the contents of those foods not only caused her to lose her Spiritual Power, but also controlled her, causing her to return to the Listening Tide Sect unconsciously." In the end, Jiang Zhuoxue stepped forward to explain.

Sang Ying nodded in agreement. "That's exactly what I mean. Only this way can we explain why Red Lotus was imprisoned in the Listening Tide Sect without alerting Green Lotus, because she returned on her own. As sisters, Green Lotus wouldn't be on guard against Red Lotus, so when Red Lotus got up and walked out of the defenses they had set up together, Green Lotus was completely unaware. The same goes for that cultivator on the other side; only when he was controlled and left while we were resting could he suddenly disappear without us noticing..."