"She—she—she—she…"
Pointing at Zeng Ningbing, who had died with her eyes wide open, Zhuo Biyu sprang to her feet on instinct.
Qi Shiyun immediately shoved her back down and clamped a hand firmly over her mouth.
Even after Zhuo Biyu calmed herself, her scalp still tingled with numbness.
"I—I—I—I…"
Zhuo Biyu desperately wanted to explain something.
Yet looking at the three equally stunned people present, she ultimately turned her sights on Tian Ji to vent. "Zeng Ningbing doesn't have the internal charm physique, does she?"
"No," Tian Ji answered with utter certainty.
"Then she can't be that person."
Zhuo Biyu fought to steady her emotions, keeping her voice down.
Tian Ji gave a wry smile, pointing first at Qi Shiyun, then at Lianshan Xin. "Don't deceive yourself."
Zhuo Biyu's delicate fists clenched tight.
"Just what is going on here?"
"You'd have to ask His Majesty, and ask just how many confidantes he left behind in the jianghu," Tian Ji said frankly. "It's impossible to calculate. Even my master couldn't divine it."
If Heavenly Divination could divine every single thing clearly, his mortality rate would certainly be higher than Heaven's Chosen's.
"Brother, you've really dug us a massive pit," Tian Ji said, turning to Lianshan Xin.
The shock had not yet faded from Lianshan Xin's face, though it was now laced with an air of innocence. He spread his hands. "Brother Tian, I had no knowledge of this beforehand either. Otherwise, even if you lent me double the courage, I wouldn't have dared lay a finger on her."
"True enough."
Tian Ji let out a long sigh.
He believed those words.
"Did you divine her identity?" Zhuo Biyu clung to a final shred of hope.
Tian Ji shook his head. "Of course not. With my current cultivation, I can't divine the True Dragon bloodline. I merely divined whether Qi Shiyun could break through to the Domain realm within three days, and the hexagram was exceptionally auspicious. Madwoman Qi is stronger than I am. For me to divine that, there's only one explanation—it was about to happen right away."
Divining something three months in advance and divining it three days in advance were difficulties of completely different magnitudes.
In truth, this wasn't irrefutable proof of Zeng Ningbing's identity.
Yet both Tian Ji and Zhuo Biyu completely abandoned any wishful thinking.
Some matters did not require ironclad evidence; mere suspicion was enough to get people killed.
"What do we do?" Zhuo Biyu was completely numb.
Qi Shiyun was immersed in the overwhelming empowerment of providence, taking no part in the discussion.
Tian Ji hesitated, wanting to speak but holding back.
Seeing this, Lianshan Xin stepped forward to lay bare what no one wanted to say outright: "As long as the four of us don't speak of it, no one will ever know this secret. Now that our lives are bound together, none of us could possibly leak it to the outside. So, we act as if nothing ever happened."
"I'm not worried about the three of you," Zhuo Biyu said directly. "I'm worried about Elder Zeng of the Golden Scale Alliance."
Tian Ji said in a heavy voice, "Elder Zeng cannot be allowed to live. In fact, we must find a way to eliminate the entire Golden Scale Alliance."
Pausing for a moment, Tian Ji added, "We have to eliminate them reasonably and lawfully. We must secure ironclad proof that Elder Zeng of the Golden Scale Alliance colluded with the Demon Cult."
Lianshan Xin volunteered, "I'll push that forward."
"I'll also speak to Master. As long as we can obtain evidence of collusion between the Golden Scale Alliance and the Demon Cult, I can guarantee Master will mobilize his forces," Zhuo Biyu said fiercely.
She had no choice but to be ruthless; the specter of nine-clan extermination filled her with dread.
"I need to return to Shenjing to review the files on the Golden Scale Alliance kept at headquarters, especially on Elder Zeng."
Tian Ji also threw himself completely into the task. "I need to confirm whether His Majesty knows about Elder Zeng's identity, and about the one lying on the ground… He probably doesn't know about the one on the ground. If His Majesty knew, the Second Prince wouldn't have had designs on Zeng Ningbing."
Realizing this, Tian Ji breathed a sigh of relief.
Zhuo Biyu added, "Find a way to make Elder Zeng die at the hands of Thousand Faces."
Lianshan Xin nodded quietly. "Good. This Zeng Ningbing was also an imposter sent by Thousand Faces."
"Hm?"
Zhuo Biyu and Tian Ji both looked at Lianshan Xin.
Lianshan Xin spoke thoughtfully: "The one we killed was merely one of Thousand Faces' operatives. Just like Jiang Haoran, she was a body double meticulously arranged by Thousand Faces. Miss Zhuo, our Nine Heavens should be able to craft human-skin masks, right?"
"Of course."
"We discovered a human-skin mask on the corpse bearing an uncanny resemblance to Zeng Ningbing, and through her, proved that the Golden Scale Alliance has been infiltrated by Thousand Faces and must submit to Nine Heavens' investigation."
Zhuo Biyu was quickly persuaded by Lianshan Xin. "I'll arrange this."
The four looked at one another and quickly reached a consensus.
Afterward, they all began to relax slightly.
Tian Ji cracked a joke: "From now on, the four of us truly are grasshoppers tied to the same rope—closer than blood brothers."
Zhuo Biyu said helplessly, "Natural allies indeed; the bond runs far too deep. Mind what you say in your sleep from now on. The Zhuo family has over a hundred kin; we can't withstand such turmoil."
Lianshan Xin said softly, "The nine clans of the four of us combined are still too few. If we could get more people to shoulder this alongside us, then even if today's matter comes to light, His Majesty would surely think twice."
Zhuo Biyu and Tian Ji instantly turned their heads toward him.
Lianshan Xin stopped holding back.
Things had come to this; it was time to show a bit of his edge.
"Brother Tian, when you return to Shenjing to review the files, try your best to look into His Majesty's romantic escapades from his days wandering the jianghu. Relying solely on the four of us being united feels far from enough. If we can pull a few more people into our boat, our safety will increase drastically."
"That… makes sense." Tian Ji gritted his teeth.
After all, one only had one set of nine clans. Once you committed one crime punishable by clan extermination, a second or third hardly mattered.
"In truth, things aren't quite so dire; there are ways to resolve this," Lianshan Xin said, doing his best to enlighten his three co-conspirators. "If push comes to shove, we can simply strive to marry into the imperial clan. With the talents the four of us possess, intermarrying with the imperial family is more than viable. As long as everyone is kin, how could His Majesty execute our nine clans?"
Tian Ji and Zhuo Biyu were left speechless.
Having brought her aura under control, Qi Shiyun finally spoke: "Things have reached this point; further talk is useless. Since we share this bond, we must help each other and unite as one from now on. I propose the four of us establish an organization."
Lianshan Xin immediately agreed. "I suggest we call it the 'One Heart Society.' One heart for our friends, one heart for the imperial court. We shall not vie with one another over rank or promotion; we shall dedicate ourselves to the state and the common people, honoring righteousness and keeping faith, never to betray."
Tian Ji and Zhuo Biyu were astounded by how smoothly Lianshan Xin and Qi Shiyun had made the transition.
Yet recalling that both hailed from the Heaven's Chosen lineage, they immediately understood.
After all, the Heaven's Chosen lineage thrived on chaos to begin with.
And now, they truly had to cross the river in the same boat.
"Good."
"United in one heart, weathering the storm together."
The four placed their hands together.
At that exact moment, Lianshan Xin met the eyes of Zhuo Biyu, the one he was least familiar with.
*Crack!*
A clap of thunder exploded out of thin air.
Dark clouds pressed upon the city, threatening to crush it.
Amid the flashes of lightning and rumbling thunder, Lianshan Xin saw Zhuo Biyu kneeling devoutly before a Maitreya Buddha statue, chanting:
"Maitreya descends to earth; the Bright King appears in the world!"
Chapter 76