Fang Xuan then stepped forward unhurriedly, bending over to pick up Shen Qingqing's storage ring from beside the stiff fingers of the one-eyed leader.
Then, he carefully extracted the spirit bone, roughly a foot long, from the back of Shen Qingqing’s desiccated corpse.
He examined it closely, and once he confirmed it was correct, he stored it in his own storage ring.
Almost the very moment he tucked the spirit bone away, a series of sounds whistled through the air.
"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"
Several sounds of breaking wind approached rapidly from the distance.
"Martial Nephew Fang! Martial Niece Shen! Are you here?!"
A slightly aged voice rang out, accompanied by several figures riding flying artifacts. They pierced through the curtain of rain and landed on the edge of the burial mound.
It was the support team from the Qingyun Sect that had arrived after receiving the distress signal.
The leader was an old man in the Void Core Realm with a white beard and a stern face; he was a deacon elder from the Enforcement Hall.
Following behind him were four or five enforcement disciples with strong auras in the Foundation Establishment Realm.
As soon as they landed, they were stunned by the scene before them.
The ground was a mess of corpses, traces of broken arrays lingered, and the air was thick with the scent of blood.
And then there was that particularly eye-catching, shriveled, and hideous female corpse.
"This... this is?!" The old man’s pupils constricted. He immediately recognized Shen Qingqing’s clothing and her faintly discernable features, causing his face to change drastically.
Fang Xuan timely revealed a grief-stricken expression.
He took a few steps forward and bowed to the old man, his voice raspy. "Elder... Senior Sister Ning, Senior Sister Shen, and I were ordered to come and eliminate the evil cultivators. we tracked them to this burial mound, but we didn't expect to fall into an ambush!"
"They laid out a wicked array here and used deceptive artifacts to launch a sneak attack... Senior Sister Shen, she... to save us, she was unfortunately killed by the leader of the evil cultivators... Those beasts even used a vile technique to suck Senior Sister Shen dry into this state!"
He pointed to Shen Qingqing’s desiccated corpse on the ground and then to the mass of hearts at the feet of the one-eyed leader’s corpse.
"Senior Sister Ning and I fought back with everything we had, but the array's suppression was too strong, and there were too many evil cultivators... Fortunately, Senior Sister Shen fought with her life to disrupt them. I finally found an opening and exhausted all my strength to exterminate every last one of these evil cultivators..."
"Unfortunately, in the end, I couldn't save Senior Sister Shen..."
His narrative basically matched the scene, and his emotions were full. Combined with Ning Xian silently nodding at his side—her body also bearing the marks of battle—there was no reason for anyone to disbelieve him.
The Enforcement Hall elder carefully inspected the scene. He could only let out a long sigh, his face filled with regret and fury.
"Martial Niece Shen... she had such outstanding talent. I never expected her to fall here! These damned evil cultivators are truly insane! Martial Nephew Fang, you... please restrain your grief."
"The sect will definitely investigate this matter thoroughly to give Peak Lord Shen an explanation!"
He took out a recording stone and carefully documented the situation on the scene.
Fang Xuan kept his head lowered; this still wasn't stable enough.
Shen Chen was no fool. If the spirit bone was missing, he would never let the matter rest.
Even if the evidence at the scene pointed to the evil cultivators, he might still suspect Fang Xuan. He might even recklessly investigate the whereabouts of the spirit bone regardless of the consequences.
He had to nail down the fact that the 'evil cultivators might have stolen the bone'.
He had to make it so that even if Shen Chen suspected him, he wouldn't find any grounds to overturn the narrative, nor would he dare to investigate openly. Otherwise, it would be a slap to the faces of Lu Qingsong and the Enforcement Hall.
Thus, after the elder finished recording the scene and was directing the enforcement disciples to collect the bodies, Fang Xuan suddenly took a step forward.
A look of extreme grief and indignation appeared on his face as he spoke loudly.
"Elder! Senior Sister Shen died a tragic death, her remains are not yet cold, and she was even desecrated by evil cultivators! This enmity is irreconcilable! I was incompetent and failed to protect her, but I absolutely cannot allow the corpses of these beasts to defile the territory of our Qingyun Sect!"
Without waiting for the elder to react, he suddenly raised his right hand. With his fingers held together like a sword, he made a sweeping motion toward the corpses of the evil cultivators!
"Buzz—!"
A burst of spiritual energy erupted, sweeping over all the evil cultivators' corpses.
Wherever the spiritual energy passed, those corpses—along with their clothing, storage pouches, and weapons—were annihilated in the rain.
The scene suddenly looked much cleaner, fitting the narrative of evil cultivators destroying evidence after a murder, followed by a righteous disciple wiping them out in a rage and destroying their remains to vent his anger.
The Enforcement Hall elder and the enforcement disciples behind him were all stunned. They hadn't expected Fang Xuan's emotions to be so volatile or his actions to be so decisive.
But on second thought, a fellow disciple had died tragically in such a manner. A young man full of vigor performing some extreme actions... seemed somewhat understandable.
The elder said nothing more and simply waved his hand. "Forget it... gather Martial Niece Shen’s remains and return to the sect!"
Fang Xuan watched as the enforcement disciples carefully wrapped Shen Qingqing's desiccated corpse in white cloth, his eyes calm and devoid of emotion.
Now, if Shen Chen still wanted to shamelessly investigate the spirit bone's whereabouts, the only result he would face was that 'the evil cultivators stole the bone, and then their bodies and the bone were entirely annihilated by an enraged Fang Xuan', leaving no evidence behind.
No matter how much he suspected, he could only swallow his bitterness. At least on the surface, he wouldn't dare to act lightly.
...
Fang Xuan held up the paper umbrella and reached out to take Ning Xian's small hand, preparing to return to the inn.
Under the umbrella, Ning Xian looked up and spoke softly.
"Shen Chen won't simply believe it was a falling out among evil cultivators. He will certainly suspect you."
"So what if he knows I killed her? With Lu Qingsong around and today's record from the Enforcement Hall, on the surface, Shen Qingqing can only have been killed by evil cultivators."
Ning Xian was silent for a moment, looking out at the rain that was still drizzling outside the umbrella.
"That spine... if you don't like it, I'll brew a soup for you to drink. Don't let it go to waste."
Fang Xuan: "...!!!"
The hand he used to hold the umbrella handle shook, nearly dropping the umbrella.
Brew... brew soup? For him to drink?!
Senior Sister... you must be joking...
Rate on N.U.
