Azure Cloud Sect's Main Peak. Inside an exceedingly remote and secluded meditation chamber.
Sandalwood smoke curled through the air, yet it couldn't dispel the suffocating stagnation that filled the room.
Lord Li stood at the lower position, back slightly bent, hands hanging at his sides, the picture of deference.
Across from him, seated cross-legged on the cushion at the center, was an old man with gaunt features and eyes like torches.
The old man merely sat there, not deliberately releasing a shred of pressure...
Yet the surrounding air seemed to have congealed, making even breathing abnormally difficult.
"So you're telling me..."
Elder Sun slowly opened his eyes, his tone so flat it didn't carry a single ripple.
"That thing still hasn't been found?"
Though it was only a weightless question, a layer of cold sweat instantly beaded on Lord Li's forehead.
"Re— Replying to Elder."
Lord Li swallowed with great difficulty and forced himself to answer.
"This subordinate has pressed them repeatedly and has also stationed additional men covertly around the outskirts of Hundred Forging Peak."
"But the terrain in that abandoned mine pit is far too complex, and anomalies occur from time to time."
"At present... we have indeed not located any definite trace of the Nether River Bone Lotus."
Hearing that answer, Elder Sun didn't erupt immediately. His deep old eyes merely narrowed slightly.
What truly displeased him wasn't just that the item still hadn't been found—it was that this affair had dragged on far too long!
The longer it dragged, the more people below got entangled in it, and the more traces were left behind.
Especially at a juncture like this one.
"Do you truly believe that on this Main Peak, there are only the two of us?"
Elder Sun snorted coldly. His voice wasn't loud, yet it struck Lord Li's heart like a heavy hammer.
"That old fox Qing Feng just took in that disciple called Li Hansong with great fanfare not long ago."
"Right now, across the entire Main Peak, who knows how many pairs of eyes are fixed on every single move the Dao Asking Palace makes!"
"And Vice Sect Master Mingxuan's faction is searching for a flaw in Qing Feng every waking moment, looking for any pretext to exploit."
Elder Sun tapped lightly on his knee, his tone carrying a deep wariness.
"At this critical period, with every faction's undercurrents surging—this matter we've been plotting in secret absolutely cannot afford a single mistake!"
"You must understand. That item... it concerns a much larger game this seat intends to play."
"The instant delays cause any trace to surface and someone follows the vine back to us..."
Elder Sun's gaze snapped onto Lord Li, a heart-stopping chill flashing through his eyes.
"When that happens, forget keeping your seat on this Main Peak—your very life may not be preserved!"
Lord Li listened with his heart pounding and his scalp crawling.
He didn't dare ask further, and he certainly didn't dare pry into what Elder Sun's so-called "larger game" actually was.
In the power struggles among the Sect's upper echelons, the more you knew, the faster you usually died.
"This subordinate understands! This subordinate will spare no effort and investigate this matter with all haste!" Lord Li hurriedly pledged.
"Not with haste. You must wrap it up immediately!"
Elder Sun delivered his final ultimatum coldly.
"Whether or not that item can still be found in the end, you must clean this up as fast as possible!"
"Withdraw."
"Yes..."
After leaving that suffocating chamber, Lord Li walked the Main Peak's long corridor, and the composure on his face instantly curdled into something ugly.
Agitation, irritation, and even a trace of panic he couldn't quite mask.
His current position could only be described as being roasted over an open fire—no way forward, no way back!
Above him, Elder Sun's pressure just now had been made exceedingly clear.
Below him, that useless Xiao Hai still couldn't produce any substantive progress.
And the thing was, the information about the Nether River Bone Lotus had come from Xiao Hai in the first place—offered up as a pledge of loyalty in exchange for a return to the Main Peak!
Xiao Hai had sworn up and down at the time that the exceedingly unusual frigid dead zone in the middle and lower layers of Hundred Forging Peak's mine pit absolutely must be gestating this legendary treasure of heaven and earth.
Only then had Lord Li dared to gamble and pass the information up the chain to Elder Sun as a bargaining chip.
And now?
It wasn't a case of "still haven't found it"!
According to Xiao Hai's report two days ago, the thing had clearly existed—the traces of its gestation were even still there—but it had, in the most bizarre fashion... vanished into thin air!
That was an entirely different matter.
What Lord Li feared most now was no longer simply failing to complete the task.
What truly terrified him was this: if this dragged on any longer and Elder Sun ran out of patience...
Then he'd be genuinely walking a dead-end road!
Damn it! Which bastard beat me to it?!
Lord Li cursed furiously in his heart.
But if he openly dispatched people to investigate Hundred Forging Peak now, it would draw attention far too easily.
So at this moment, Lord Li was like a gambler dancing on a tightrope.
What he urgently needed was a breakthrough that could perfectly explain the Nether River Bone Lotus's disappearance while extracting himself from the whole affair in the most natural way possible.
And just as Lord Li was pacing back and forth in his study like a headless fly, at his wits' end—
Hummm——
An exceedingly discreet Voice Transmission Jade Slip in his robes suddenly lit up.
A message from Xiao Hai.
Lord Li was already somewhat impatient, assuming that useless fool was about to report more nonsense about "still investigating."
However.
When his divine sense entered the slip and he read the few extremely brief lines inside—
His agitated gaze turned exceedingly grave.
Xiao Hai had submitted a report dense with insinuation.
"This subordinate, while investigating the mine pit in recent days, discovered a person whose movements are exceedingly suspicious."
"This person is named Lu Xiaoqi, an ordinary body cultivator of Hundred Forging Peak, with no spiritual power fluctuation in his body whatsoever."
"Some time ago his cultivation was still unremarkable, but for reasons unknown, his physical combat strength has recently surged to the point where he can easily suppress a Foundation Establishment cultivator in a direct spar."
"What is even more baffling is that this body cultivator, who normally only operates on the mine pit's outskirts, chose precisely the period after that spirit treasure's disappearance to venture deep into the abandoned mine pit again, for no reason at all."
"This subordinate probed him verbally, and his reaction was exceedingly aggressive and abnormal."
"As to whether this person is actually connected to the spirit treasure's disappearance, this subordinate dares not presume a conclusion."
"I merely feel there is much here that doesn't sit right, and thus dare not conceal it from my lord. Reported herewith."
After reading the message—
Lord Li's first reaction was not to immediately believe Xiao Hai's speculation.
It was to knit his brows tightly.
"Lu Xiaoqi..."
He chewed on the name again and again, finding it exceedingly familiar.
Then suddenly, a scene from the Dao Asking Palace some days back flashed through his mind.
That ordinary Azure Cloud Sect disciple whom Li Hansong had shielded behind himself...
Calling him "Brother Xiaoqi" over and over with such intimate warmth.
In other words.
This body cultivator Xiao Hai had singled out, loaded with all manner of anomalies and suspicion—
Just happened to be the closest "older brother" of Li Hansong, the very disciple Sect Master Qing Feng treasured like his own heart and had only just taken as a personal disciple.
Lord Li drew in a sharp breath.
Matters had suddenly become exceedingly thorny—a scalding hot potato, even.
If he followed Xiao Hai's lead and investigated this Lu Xiaoqi directly, or secretly sent men to seize and interrogate him—
Qing Feng would absolutely notice at once, and then there'd be no cleaning it up.
Lord Li sat at his desk, staring fixedly at the slowly dimming Voice Transmission Jade Slip in his hand, sinking into a long silence.
His fingers tapped unconsciously against the desktop.
How much time passed, he didn't know.
Then the corner of Lord Li's mouth suddenly curled upward into a cold smile.
He'd just realized something exceedingly beautiful.
He indeed couldn't investigate this himself.
But that didn't mean there was nobody else in the Azure Cloud Sect who could!
Since this Lu Xiaoqi was so closely connected to Sect Master Qing Feng's faction—
Then to certain other people on the Main Peak... the various abnormalities this person displayed would, in themselves, be more than enough to arouse enormous "interest."
At that thought, Lord Li's mind came fully alive.
An exceedingly perfect "kill with a borrowed knife" plan rapidly took shape in his head.
Of course, he wasn't stupid enough to go running to the Vice Sect Master directly, and he certainly wouldn't let slip a single syllable about the Nether River Bone Lotus.
That would be digging his own grave.
All he needed was a little—an utterly negligible little—rumor.
Something like—
"Have you heard? That bottom-rung disciple on Hundred Forging Peak called Lu Xiaoqi—a piece of trash with only a Five-Element Waste Spirit Root—has suddenly surged in physical strength lately, like he swallowed an immortal pill. He can pin a Foundation Establishment cultivator to the ground and beat him."
"Oh, and by the way, I hear... he's apparently the closest thing to an older brother that precious new disciple the Sect Master just took in has."
On the surface, all of this was an open secret on Hundred Forging Peak, touching on no core confidences whatsoever.
But!
So long as these words fell naturally into the ears of Mingxuan's faction... that would be entirely enough!
After all, Mingxuan's faction was already tearing its hair out over Qing Feng taking a disciple.
Now, out of nowhere, a Lu Xiaoqi appears—ordinary background, abnormally surging strength, and a life-and-death bond with Li Hansong.
Mingxuan's people would absolutely dig into this Lu Xiaoqi's background until there was nothing left to find!
That way, whether or not Lu Xiaoqi was actually hiding the secret of the Nether River Bone Lotus—
The one investigating him, the one moving against him, absolutely would not be himself!
If Mingxuan's faction turned up nothing in the end, then they'd simply wasted their effort. What did it have to do with him?
But if Mingxuan's people genuinely did trace the Nether River Bone Lotus's whereabouts back through Lu Xiaoqi...
Then he could step out in the open under the perfectly righteous banner of working for the Main Peak and snatch it right out from under them.
And in the absolute worst case, if the whole thing blew up—
Then the Sect Master's thunderous fury would land first and land precisely on Mingxuan's head!
"Exquisite..."
At that thought, Lord Li finally exhaled a long, murky breath in the dim study.
That face, clouded over for so long, finally broke into a relaxed smile he hadn't worn in ages.
He didn't hesitate at all.
From an exceedingly well-hidden compartment in his desk, he withdrew a specially made Voice Transmission Jade Slip.
After carefully weighing his words in his mind for a moment—
A faint, faint thread of spiritual power flowed silently into it.
"Hundred Forging Peak. There's a body cultivator named Lu Xiaoqi."
"This person's strength has advanced by leaps and bounds recently. It seems... he's come into some rather unusual fortune."
"And I hear..."
"He's the older brother of Sect Master Qing Feng's new disciple."
The formation patterns on the jade slip flickered with the utmost subtlety.
Then the message, like a stone dropped into a deep pool, was sent off without a sound.
The jade slip went completely dark.
Lord Li sat quietly in the dim room.
He picked up the spirit tea on the desk, long gone cold, and took a light sip.
His gaze passed through the window lattice to the endlessly churning sea of clouds outside the Main Peak.
And his eyes, bit by bit, returned to that original lofty calm.