The four words "Shanhe Yongcun" struck Zhang Yuanqing's heart like a heavy hammer. Looking back at Elder Hongying with an appalled expression, he blurted out, "You—"
"Are you certain?" Fu Qingyang cut in ahead of him, as if deliberately stopping Yuanshi Tianzun from speaking further.
Compared to his trusted subordinate, whose expression had drastically shifted, the Money Prince remained calm and composed, resembling an iceberg beauty whom men in novels steered clear of.
Zhang Yuanqing snapped his mouth shut, thoughts surging through his mind like stormy seas.
"Who is Yongcun Shanhe?" Fu Qingxuan asked, frowning.
Naturally, there was no way she could have heard of someone who had returned to the spirit realm over twenty years ago. When Shanhe Yongcun served in the Taiyi Sect, Fu Qingxuan had still been a kindergarten girl with pigtails and a little red backpack.
"It's Shanhe Yongcun," Fu Qingyang corrected.
Elder Gao Feng also looked at Hongying; he had only become a spirit realm walker in the past decade.
Elder Hongying's eyes remained fixed on that distant, elderly face, shock, bewilderment, and disbelief frozen across her features. Only after several seconds did she draw a deep breath and speak:
"He was an elder of the Taiyi Sect. A senior figure, a spirit realm walker from the late Republic era, but he returned to the spirit realm more than twenty years ago."
The Grand Protector of the Dark Night Rose was a former Taiyi Sect elder? Yin Ji and the others wore peculiar expressions.
For them, this piece of information was truly difficult to digest.
"Returned to the spirit realm..." Fu Qingyang said coldly. "A Taiyi Sect elder who supposedly returned to the spirit realm became the Dark Night Rose's Grand Protector? Did he return to the spirit realm, or did he betray the Taiyi Sect?"
At these words, everyone present turned to look at Elder Hongying.
The charming mature woman gave a bitter smile. "That is precisely what shocks me."
Fu Qingyang nodded and said no more.
As a Scout, he could tell whether Elder Hongying was speaking the truth, not to mention there was a demigod-level Scout right beside them.
No one could lie in the Grand Marshal's presence.
"Do you recognize the other two? Are they from the factions too?" Fu Qingxuan looked at her younger brother.
She did not seem to know what the faction elders looked like. That was only natural; the Grand Marshal was busy every day reading manga and munching on chocolates, so how could she have the spare time to familiarize herself with this rabble of faction elders?
Fu Qingyang did not reply. He walked over to the corpses of the middle-aged man and woman, checked them for a moment, and after confirming there were no disguise items, shook his head.
"They aren't faction Dominators, but once their appearances are verified, tracking down their identities won't be difficult."
As they spoke, the pavilions, shops, and streets of Ghost City began to turn translucent, like a fading mirage.
"Ghost City is about to Night Roam away," Fu Qingxuan said. "Prepare to return to reality."
This item was departing; its master was summoning it back.
"Cousin, is there no way to stop it?" Zhang Yuanqing asked hurriedly.
*Cousin?* The iceberg beauty, the Money Prince, showed a look of astonishment.
The others were stunned as well.
What they found even more unbelievable was that the Grand Marshal did not correct Yuanshi Tianzun's form of address. She merely gave a slight shake of her head.
"Scouts don't have that kind of ability."
Fu Qingyang scrutinized his trusted subordinate with a cold face, wondering just how many times the kid had bowed down and kissed up to her.
Fu Qingxuan was hardly a woman of gentle temper.
The fading of Ghost City accelerated, and the outlines of the real world began to emerge, looking like two overlapping paintings.
A few seconds later, the clamor of human voices and the faint hum of motor vehicles driving on the road reached their ears. Ghost City vanished entirely, leaving them standing right in the middle of a street.
The corpses of the three Dark Night Rose protectors departed along with Ghost City.
A white sedan was driving toward the group. Catching sight of a crowd suddenly appearing ahead, the driver was caught unprepared and instinctively yanked the steering wheel.
Yet in the blink of an eye, the crowd vanished again, as if they had never existed.
The driver hurriedly corrected the wheel. The car drifted a few meters to the left before quickly returning to its lane and driving away safely.
By the roadside, veiled by Elder Hongying's Star Illusion, the group watched the white sedan drive into the distance. Fu Qingxuan spoke:
"Disperse. I'm heading back to the Capital City. Fu Qingyang, you investigate this matter. Let me know once you're done."
Fu Qingyang grabbed his sister's arm. "Give me back my cloak."
Fu Qingxuan pretended not to hear. Looking at Zhang Yuanqing, she said, "If the Ten Elders interrogate you later, just contact me. You are a member of the White Tiger Guards; there is no need for that crude Fire Master to step in."
"Understood, Cousin," Zhang Yuanqing answered.
Fu Qingxuan glanced at him. "You seem to know quite a lot."
She said nothing more, retrieved her phone from her breeches pocket, and opened navigation. Suddenly remembering something, she said indifferently:
"Yuanshi Tianzun, send me the photo you took."
Everyone's expressions changed, including Fu Qingyang's, and they all cast implicitly threatening glares toward Yuanshi Tianzun.
Zhang Yuanqing looked straight ahead without flinching, opened the app, added the user with the white-haired avatar, and sent over the photo of them all sleeping on the big kang.
Fu Qingxuan nodded in satisfaction, then activated navigation. Amid the gentle voice of the electronic female assistant, she shot into the blue sky.
"Preparing for departure. The total distance is 1,268 kilometers, which will take approximately... You are speeding. Please slow down. You are spee—"
***
In the Gobi Desert, at the Soldier Master sect headquarters.
Inside the flat-roofed house storing the Mother Goddess's Womb, Fear Heavenly King suddenly stood up, looked toward the flesh pod, and sighed:
"They've revived... Looks like Fu Qingyang wasn't killed."
Heavenly King Silver Moon turned his head to look. The outline of a palm pushed up against the fleshy membrane on the pod's surface, followed by a figure tearing through the embryonic sac and crawling out.
His hair was white and his skin wrinkled, yet his physique was robust, sun-kissed, and burly.
After this old man crawled out, the flesh pod healed rapidly, the fleshy membrane repairing itself.
Soon, however, a second hand pushed open the membrane—this time a middle-aged man.
After the middle-aged man came an ordinary-looking middle-aged woman.
Fear Heavenly King snapped his fingers with a sharp crack, and three sets of formal suits appeared on the lid of the flesh pod. He smiled:
"Clothes are ready. Speaking in the nude is hardly elegant, you three."
The Grand Protector grabbed the garments and put them on unhurriedly, his voice raspy:
"My identity was exposed. The operation failed."
Heavenly King Silver Moon said furiously, "Before the operation, you said your leader had deduced the outcome multiple times and that success was guaranteed!"
Fear Heavenly King touched the silver stud on his earlobe. "Although failure is common when demigod-level schemes are involved, we still need to discuss where the breakdown occurred."
"Was Demonic Eye rescued?" the Third Protector asked.
"He will return to the Soldier Master sect soon," Fear Heavenly King nodded.
The three protectors of the Dark Night Rose frowned in unison. The Grand Protector said in his raspy voice:
"You delayed the Grand Marshal long enough, so your part was fine, and Demonic Eye was pulled out... It seems the failure lay in how Fu Qingxuan managed to pinpoint Ghost City's location.
"Ghost City was shielded by our leader's secret concealment; it should have been impossible for her to find it."
"If we don't know..." Fear Heavenly King shrugged. "It seems that Sect Master made a move. When faced with any unexplained puzzle, just pin the blame on him."
That matchless chess player, that figure whose primary path was the stars—his plans and moves were always silent and imperceptible like spring rain nourishing the earth.
You couldn't even tell when he had acted, or whether he had acted at all.
He was like a deity standing in a higher dimension, looking down upon the development and evolution of all things under heaven, occasionally nudging a chess piece without anyone perceiving the slightest anomaly.
A scheme that could cause the Dark Night Rose's leader to miscalculate—there was no need to guess; it had to be him pulling strings in the shadows.
"One thing is certain, though: from now on, the Dark Night Rose will have to play openly against the factions," the Grand Protector sighed.
***
In the online conference room.
Grand Elder Dihong from headquarters attended the meeting in person. The participants included Elder Hongying and Elder Zhao from the Taiyi Sect, Fu Qingyang and Elder Dog from the Songhai Branch, as well as Elder Gao Feng from the Hang City branch.
The theme of this meeting was the series of events centered on the rescue of Demonic Eye that had occurred in Songhai the previous night.
"At 11:05 p.m. that night, Elder Huangsha Baizhan of the Songhai Branch received a distress call from the Pingchuan City branch. At 11:14 p.m., the Grand Marshal departed for Pingchuan City's No. 3 Prison. At 11:17 p.m., I received a mysterious call from someone claiming to be an old acquaintance..."
Elder Dog reported the events of the previous night in a low voice, compiling all the details to reconstruct the truth.
"What was the deal with this old acquaintance of yours?" Grand Elder Dihong asked in a deep voice.
"He was one of the Blazing Sun Twins of the Carefree organization, spirit realm ID Zhang Tianshi, the previous master of the Zoo. I reported this to headquarters back then," Elder Dog stated frankly.
"Isn't he dead?" Grand Elder Dihong said.
"That is precisely why I was lured away," Elder Dog sighed.
Grand Elder Dihong pressed no further and switched topics:
"Elder Zhao, Elder Hongying, what is the story with Shanhe Yongcun? The Taiyi Sect's records state that this person entered an instance in 1999 and went missing thereafter, leading the sect to conclude that he had returned to the spirit realm. Why did he suddenly reappear, and as the Grand Protector of the Dark Night Rose no less?"
The microphone icon on Elder Zhao's avatar lit up. "Shanhe Yongcun indeed returned to the spirit realm. Just as the database records, he entered an instance in the winter of 1999, and there was no further word. In such cases, our default conclusion is that they returned to the spirit realm.
"Before entering the instance, he filed a report with the Red Sun Executioner. This was the instance he entered."
A document was uploaded into the chat window.
Just as the elders were about to click on it, Fu Qingyang coldly interrupted:
"Elder Zhao, the Taiyi Sect certainly did a thorough job with their preparations."
This remark stirred the elders in the conference room. Fu Qingyang seemed to know something.
Elder Zhao said in a grave voice, "What do you mean, Elder Fu?"
The microphone on Fu Qingyang's avatar pulsed. "A week ago, querying Shanhe Yongcun in the Taiyi Sect's database returned 'no such person.' Yet this afternoon, after Elder Hongying reported this matter, Shanhe Yongcun's records were suddenly restored. Shouldn't Elder Zhao provide an explanation?"
At these words, Grand Elder Dihong took on a stern tone: "Fu Qingyang, is this true!"
Fu Qingyang gave an indifferent hum.
"There was another person who returned to the spirit realm in the same year and had their records wiped."
"Who?"
Several voices pressed simultaneously in the conference room.
Fu Qingyang said in a low, resonant tone, "The Taiyi Sect Master's seventeenth son, one of the Carefree organization's Twin Dark Shadows—Ling Tuo!"
A dead silence fell over the conference room.
***
"Is the leader of the Dark Night Rose my Seventeenth Brother, Ling Tuo?"
In the Capital City, beneath a locust tree, Lingjun glared fixedly at Elder Sun in the rocking chair, his teeth clenched.
"Today in Jinshan City, the female Grand Marshal slayed the Dark Night Rose's Grand Protector. It turns out he was Shanhe Yongcun from the Taiyi Sect. In that case, is the leader of the Dark Night Rose Ling Tuo?"
He had learned of this matter from Fu Qingyang and Yuanshi Tianzun.
Yuanshi Tianzun and Fu Qingyang had deduced that Ling Tuo was the leader of the Dark Night Rose. Ling Tuo and Shanhe Yongcun had returned to the spirit realm in the same year, and both had their records erased. Considering the stature of the Dark Night Rose's leader as well, that Seventeenth Brother was the most suspicious.
"No wonder members of the Dark Night Rose are spread across the factions and spirit realm families. It was originally an organization split off from within our own ranks! Why? Why did Seventeenth Brother do this?
"Elder Sun, you can't hide it anymore. Tell me."
Victoria leaned lazily against the tree trunk, a slim woman's cigarette pinched between her fingers, watching her man lose his temper at old Sun.
Upon hearing the terrible news, Lingjun had sat despondently in his room for a long time. This had frightened Victoria, who had pulled him against her chest and asked softly, *Baby, what happened? Tell me what's wrong, baby.*
Yet the baby hadn't spoken, instead bringing her directly to Elder Sun's residence.
Elder Sun kept his eyes closed, swaying with the rocking chair.
After a long time, he opened his eyes, gazed toward the azure sky, and spoke slowly:
"You guessed correctly. The leader of the Dark Night Rose is Ling Tuo, and Shanhe Yongcun was his follower. Shanhe Yongcun and I were close friends, and our ideals aligned very well.
"There was good reason for the Taiyi Sect to strip me of my authority. They worried I was a covert member of the Dark Night Rose."
Lingjun clenched both fists tightly, the skin on his face twitching violently.
The deeds committed by the Dark Night Rose were hardly better than those of evil organizations. Yet in his memory, his Seventeenth Brother had been a gentle, righteous elder brother—someone he had looked up to throughout his childhood.
"Why did he turn out like this?" Victoria frowned. "Even if Ling Tuo didn't seem like a steady, dependable man, how could someone who aspired to save the world turn out to be a villain?"
Chapter 517