Grand Elder Xiao took a deep breath and finally sent out a sound transmission talisman to Xiao Chen.
“You little brat, where are you right now?”
He waited for a while, but there was no reply from Xiao Chen.
Feeling increasingly agitated, Grand Elder Xiao left his residence.
If he didn’t show up soon, people might start suspecting him!
By the time he arrived at the Immortal Pool’s teleportation array, the upper echelons of the Tiansheng Sect had already gone inside.
Grand Elder Xiao didn’t dare delay and hurried onto the array.
When he was teleported inside, he saw that even the Tiansheng Sect Ancestor had arrived.
His heart skipped a beat. If his dear grandson was caught this time, his position as Grand Elder wouldn’t be the only thing he’d lose!
However, the moment he laid eyes on the Immortal Pool, he couldn’t help but curse inwardly.
‘You little brat, if you were going to steal, why didn’t you take more? It doesn’t even look like much is missing!’
‘Wait... something’s not right!’
As his divine sense swept over the Immortal Pool, he froze in place.
His hands, hidden within his sleeves, began to tremble.
‘Holy mother of... has that brat grown a pair of iron balls?’
‘He actually stole every single drop of immortal spirit water in the entire pool!’
‘If he gets caught, his life is as good as over!’
‘No, I have to find a scapegoat!’
‘I absolutely cannot let my grandson be exposed.’
Just then, the Tiansheng Sect Ancestor’s sharp voice rang out.
“Who exactly swapped out the immortal spirit water?”
It was no wonder he was so furious; the importance of the immortal spirit water to the Tiansheng Sect was self-evident.
The reason their sect had the most Unity-stage cultivators was precisely because of this water.
Furthermore, when they were so broke they couldn’t even keep the lights on, they could sell a little bit of it in exchange for a massive amount of spirit stones.
Now, while it wasn’t quite the end of the world, the loss was catastrophic.
Once the pool was restored to its original state, it would likely take thousands of years for the water to form again.
The more the Tiansheng Sect Ancestor thought about it, the more enraged he became.
But for now, the most important thing was to recover the stolen water!
Hearing the Ancestor’s thunderous roar, the Soul Transformation cultivators guarding the array and Liu Xingyu’s group were nearly reduced to tears.
This was just too much bad luck!
One of the guards reported with a trembling body, “Only Xiao Chen, Liu Xingyu, and Luo Xiyan have entered the Immortal Pool today...”
At this point, the cultivator paused and glanced toward Grand Elder Xiao.
Following the guard’s gaze, the Tiansheng Sect Ancestor also looked at the Grand Elder.
Grand Elder Xiao feigned surprise. “Why are you looking at me? Keep talking!”
He had to stay calm; he couldn’t let anyone see that anything was wrong.
The Soul Transformation guard swallowed hard and continued, “After Senior Brother Xiao entered... we never saw him leave...”
The guard then recounted the details of Liu Xingyu and Luo Xiyan’s arrival and departure.
After hearing their account, the Tiansheng Sect Ancestor turned a dark gaze toward Liu Xingyu and Luo Xiyan.
“You two, speak!”
The two didn’t dare hesitate and quickly explained everything that had happened after they entered.
Naturally, they omitted their own private thoughts and schemes.
As soon as they finished speaking, everyone’s eyes turned back to Grand Elder Xiao.
It was glaringly obvious: Xiao Chen had stolen the immortal spirit water and fled.
At the same time, everyone felt a bit puzzled. In the past, Xiao Chen had been a hopeless romantic and often did brainless things for love.
But Ye Qingcheng was already dead, so why was he still doing such mindless things?
Had he fallen in love with someone else?
“Where is Xiao Chen?” the Tiansheng Sect Ancestor asked coldly.
Grand Elder Xiao immediately grew anxious and shouted with a look of grief and indignation, “Ancestor, I suspect Xiao Chen was kidnapped! Someone is trying to make him the scapegoat for the theft of the immortal spirit water! Please, you have to save him!”
Internally, he was cursing Xiao Chen up and down once again.
‘If you don’t have the skill, don’t try to pull off a heist!’
‘There are holes in this plan everywhere! I can’t even patch them all up!’
“Grand Elder, it’s clear as day that your grandson Xiao Chen stole the water. Stop trying to frame others!” the Second Elder interjected.
What did this man mean? Was he trying to pin this on his own disciple?
“Exactly. It’s so obvious. Grand Elder, stop trying to cover it up and just hand Xiao Chen over!” the Third Elder added, his eyes flickering as he chimed in.
His disciples, Luo Xiyan and Liu Xingyu, had already proven each other’s innocence.
He didn’t want his disciples to be recklessly framed by the Grand Elder.
“One person can steal the immortal spirit water, but so can two, or even four! I strongly suspect that the four of them conspired to harm my grandson and make him take the fall!”
The Grand Elder thought to himself that he had to muddy the waters no matter what.
He couldn't let everyone’s attention stay solely on his grandson.
Hearing his words, Liu Xingyu, Luo Xiyan, and the two guards all stared at the Grand Elder in disbelief.
When it comes to framing people, you really have to hand it to the old-timers!
“It was clearly Xiao Chen! You’re just protecting him!”
“Exactly! Tell him to come out and face us!”
“Grand Elder, you’re framing us...”
The four of them spoke up one after another to refute him.
“Enough!”
The Tiansheng Sect Ancestor let out a thunderous shout, then looked at the Grand Elder.
“Where is Xiao Chen?”
“I... I don’t know. He hasn’t been seen since he came here to cultivate...”
“Ancestor, Xiao Chen was definitely kidnapped!”
Grand Elder Xiao acted with extreme caution in front of the Ancestor.
The Tiansheng Sect Ancestor swept the entire Tiansheng Sect with his divine sense and found that Xiao Chen was indeed nowhere to be found.
Grand Elder Xiao looked at the Second Elder and the others, who were glaring at him.
‘This isn’t enough! The water isn’t muddy enough; it needs to be even worse!’
With that in mind, he continued, “Ancestor, perhaps it wasn’t anyone from our Tiansheng Sect. Maybe it was an outsider!”
The Tiansheng Sect Ancestor looked at the Sect Leader.
“Where is the Qingshan Sect’s Saint?”
“In the guest courtyard! As soon as I knew there was a problem with the Immortal Pool, I locked down the sect.”
“Let’s go. We’ll go see for ourselves,” the Tiansheng Sect Ancestor said.
In truth, he was leaning more toward the possibility that Lu Ming and his group had done it.
Shortly after, the group arrived at Lu Ming’s residence.
Before they even entered the courtyard, they heard a commotion and smelled a rich, savory aroma wafting through the air.
When the group entered the yard, they were instantly stunned.
Well, then!
Big Yellow, Wang Defa, and the others were holding golden-brown roast chickens, their mouths dripping with grease as they ate.
Meanwhile, Lu Ming was pinning down a spirit crane and plucking its feathers.
The spirit crane was struggling frantically.
Looking at the struggling bird, the Tiansheng Sect Leader felt that it looked a bit familiar.
Suddenly, his eyes narrowed, and he barked, “Let go of that spirit crane!”
He remembered that two days ago, the Danji Sect Leader had sent someone to deliver a 5th-rank spirit crane to him.
He had been asked to help look after it for their Saint, who had been injured in an alchemy explosion.
He had accepted the bird, but because he had been busy lately, he hadn't dealt with it yet.
He recalled that he had temporarily placed the spirit crane in the Spirit Beast Garden.
Lu Ming paused, stopping his movements to look at the Tiansheng Sect Leader in confusion.
Did the Sect Leader have some kind of love-hate history with this spirit crane?
“Where did you get that spirit crane?”
Lu Ming looked at the crane he was pinning down, then back at the Sect Leader.
“I found it!”
In reality, he didn't know where the crane had come from either!
After returning from the Immortal Pool, he had used a teleportation array to send the unconscious Xiao Chen to a random point they had previously marked.
Because the teleportation was within the Tiansheng Sect, he had been afraid of being discovered.
Lu Ming had put in quite a bit of effort to make the teleportation successful.
He was, after after all, just getting the hang of this sort of work!
Rate on N.U.
