Investigate to the Very End!

"Leng Qingze, are you looking to die?!" The moment Ye Xuan's voice, thick with murderous intent, rang out, the temperature within the great hall plummeted drastically. The man jumped in fright, and a terrifying pressure crashed down upon him like a colossal mountain. Crack! In that instant, the chair beneath the man shattered into pieces, and he tumbled wretchedly to the floor, sprawling face-down in a splayed eagle across the broken splinters of wood. Spurt!! Under the crushing weight, the man's face flushed a deep purplish liver color, and he spat out a mouthful of fresh blood onto the ground before him. A large patch of the blue flagstones was stained crimson. A flicker of panicked dread finally crept into Leng Qingze's eyes. "What... what are you doing?!" The man's pitch rose sharply, his frantic eyes darting toward the old woman to the side. Fear spread through his heart. Leng Qingze's gaze shifted evasively, clearly trying to avoid eye contact. This did not escape Ye Xuan's notice. Ye Xuan trusted that Li Guanqi would not speak without cause. Since Li Guanqi had named him, it was practically a death sentence for Leng Qingze. Trembling with rage, Ye Xuan shook from head to toe. He could not fathom how a flesh-and-blood uncle could do such a thing to his own niece. Suppressing the murderous intent in his chest, Ye Xuan raised a hand and excavated the spiritual vein from behind Ye Bingxin's residence. Tearing through the void, he hurled the massive spiritual vein—over a hundred feet long—down onto the hall floor. Thud! The bloodstains and array inscriptions upon the spiritual vein remained clearly visible. Ye Xuan slowly rose, unleashing his chilling murderous intent without the slightest restraint. Stepping down from the raised platform one pace at a time, Ye Xuan glared at Leng Qingze and demanded coldly, "Do you have anything left to say?" Even now, Leng Qingze still tried to play dumb. He scrambled on hands and knees to the old woman's side. "I don't know what this is!" "Sister! Look at what Xuan'er is doing!" "He only went to the Seventh Domain for a while, so why has he come back like this?!" "I'm worried sick that Bingxin was kidnapped too, but... what does this thing have to do with me?!" As he spoke, the man feigned an immense sense of grievance. Li Guanqi watched the scene unfold in silence. Looking troubled, the old woman glanced up at Ye Xuan and spoke in a gentle tone, "Indeed, Xuan'er. Regardless of... what others say, you must at least have proof before making such accusations, wouldn't you say?" Ye Xuan closed his eyes in agony and drew a deep breath. "Proof, is it...?" Boom!!! A terrifying force instantly condensed into countless chains, wrapping around and binding Leng Qingze tightly. Whoosh! Hoisted into midair and unable to move, Leng Qingze could only watch in horror as Ye Xuan reached out, snapped his finger with a clean break, and forcibly yanked off his storage ring. Crack! "Aaaagh! Sister!! Sister, save me!!" Ye Xuan's eyes turned arctic as he stared fixedly into the man's eyes. In that instant, though Ye Xuan did nothing overt, it felt as if an invisible hand had clamped around the man's throat. His agonized screams cut off abruptly. He wants to kill me!! It's fine... He won't find a single thing!! He was thoroughly confident in how meticulously he had covered his tracks. With his overbearing divine sense, Ye Xuan forcefully erased the man's mark from the ring. The storage ring opened, but Ye Xuan's brow furrowed immediately. "Nothing?" Indeed, he found no fragments of any array plates inside the man's storage ring. In fact, there was not a single item related to arrays at all. With an inquiring look in his eyes, he turned to Li Guanqi. Li Guanqi sighed inwardly. The man was indeed clever; he had not kept the remaining array plate fragments on his person. Moreover, the array plate used this time was rather peculiar. It was only natural that Ye Xuan couldn't find anything... Li Guanqi rose slowly. The formidable aura of oppression radiating from him left Leng Qingze barely able to breathe. He was clearly just a young man, yet the presence he gave off was countless times more terrifying than Ye Xuan's! If Ye Xuan's power was something he could still look up to, then Li Guanqi's presence was like the boundless Ninth Heaven, an expanse so vast he could not even glimpse its edge! Li Guanqi slowly opened his palm, and eerie crimson threads crept out from his fingertips. Just then, a sharp gleam of sword light shot out from the side! Li Guanqi's eyes narrowed, and a bolt of lightning blasted out in an instant! The old woman's face flushed red, and she was blasted back dozens of yards! Ye Xuan's expression shifted slightly. "Mother! What are you doing?!" Her face turning cold, the old woman said in a deep voice, "Why do you distrust your own family, yet place your faith in an outsider's judgment?!" "I believe Qingze wouldn't do such a thing." "No matter how foolishly he acts on normal days, he is still Bingxin's blood uncle! She is his niece!!" The reason the old woman said this was also because she felt an unprecedented sense of dread from Li Guanqi's Spirit Absolution blood threads! That power was definitely sinister. Furthermore, once that power entered Leng Qingze's body, who knew what would happen? What if it could rewrite certain memories or truths? As if clutching at a lifesaving straw, Leng Qingze looked imploringly at Ye Xuan. "Nephew, I am your blood uncle!" "How could I possibly do such a thing? There's nothing in it for me!" "Yes, I, Leng Qingze, am a profligate, and usually you have to clean up my messes, but I could never lay a hand on Bingxin!" The man began playing the emotional card, while the old woman urged moderation beside him as well. Li Guanqi looked over at Ye Xuan. Yet, Ye Xuan's eyes had remained entirely devoid of emotional wavering from start to finish. He looked at his mother with a trace of sorrow, then spoke in a low, resolute voice. "I know what kind of person Li Guanqi is better than any of you." "We bathed in blood fighting side by side on the battlefield against foreign foes..." "We are comrades who trust each other unconditionally, comrades to whom we can entrust our backs without hesitation." At this point, Ye Xuan's gaze turned razor-sharp as he looked toward Leng Qingze. "Rather than trusting so-called family..." "I place my faith in the comrade who fought alongside me on the battlefield!!" "Guanqi, investigate him! Investigate to the very end!! If anyone is compromised, I will not let them off!!" A peculiar smile touched the corner of Li Guanqi's lips. With a wave of his hand, endless blood threads instantly enveloped the man!! The crimson threads burrowed into the man's seven orifices. Seeing this, the old woman cried out in alarm, "Don't!!" Boom!!! Ye Xuan unleashed several beams of sword qi and the power of a spatial barrier with a crash, barring the old woman from intervening!! Ye Xuan's eyes were resolute and unyielding. Even if it was his own mother, nothing would sway his resolve to uncover the truth. The blood threads spread through the man's body, quickly detecting the lingering aura of the array plate that had passed through his hands!! The blood threads twisted, stretching out toward the bloodstains on the spiritual vein. Not only that, the deepest memories the man had sealed away within himself were instantly unearthed. Spiritual light surged, and the blood threads condensed into a misty haze, projecting the scene of Leng Qingze holding the array plate and casting it toward the spiritual vein... At the sight of this scene, the old woman's heart turned to cold ashes. Drained of all color, she collapsed limply to the floor. Fury overwhelmed Ye Xuan. With a swift movement of his hand and a sickening crack, he snapped the man's arm. "Leng Qingze!!! You truly deserve to die!!!!"