Chapter 371: Senior brother, retreat behind the scenes
The next day, the sky was bright and the wind and snow had subsided. In the cedar forest behind the Tourist Pavilion in Baiyue Town, a green-eyed girl wearing a cotton robe held a long branch in her hand and slowly practiced a set of sword techniques.
The branches were like whips, creating whirlpools around them, sweeping the ground and scattering snow in all directions.
Xu Xiyue got up early today. After washing up quickly, she wrapped herself in a winter coat and came to the place where she had practiced swordplay since she was a child. She fumbled for the jade slips that the senior named Ye gave her yesterday.
The heart art was called “Heart Questioning Art” and the sword art was called “Jade Crystal Sword Art”.
When she was a child, she was often taken to the Commander’s Mansion in Tianfeng Immortal City by her elder sister. She also read many martial arts books in the mansion’s library, but she had never heard of these two techniques.
Moreover, when Senior Ye gave it to her yesterday, he seemed to take it out very casually. Therefore, Xu Xiyue’s expectations for these two techniques were very low, and she felt that they were probably similar to or slightly better than the techniques her sister had given her.
However, after only practicing for about half an hour, she discovered that these two techniques were much smoother to practice than the Heart Technique and Sword Technique given by her sister.
This was not a psychological effect but it made her feel better. She used to practice swordplay, and after half an hour, she was so tired that she could hardly lift her hand. As she had practiced for half an hour, she didn’t feel tired at all. Instead, she felt that her ears and eyes were clearer as if she was cutting away hair and washing away marrow.
Xu Xiyue picked up the two jade slips and looked at them with some doubt. She tilted her head slightly and pursed her lips. She suddenly wanted to go to the library of the Commander’s Mansion and ask the gentleman there about these two techniques.
And at this time, the sound of stepping on the snow interrupted her thoughts.
Turning around, she saw Xu Mulan walking along the forest path wearing a python robe. Xu Xiyue was a little confused for a moment. Her sister was busy with official duties and rarely came over. Why…
“Sister, aren’t you very busy with work? Why do you have time to come and see me?”
Xu Mulan suddenly felt embarrassed and said with a smile, “Ah… I just came to see you, and by the way, I brought some specialties from Tianfeng Immortal City to Young Master Ye and Master Li. They have come all the way here, so I have to fulfill my duty as a landlord.”
As the saying goes, you know your sister better than her.
When Xu Xiyue heard this sentence, she roughly guessed that her sister probably wanted to chat with Senior Ye, but she didn’t know the reason.
“Sister, look at this…” Xu Xiyue handed over the two jade slips in her hand, “These are the two skills that Senior Ye asked me to exchange for my hairpin for him yesterday.”
“Your hairpin… Was exchanged for two jade slips of martial arts?” Xu Mulan was stunned for a moment, and she didn’t come back to her senses for a long time. Her sister’s hairpin was just something from a street stall. Let alone exchange it for a jade slip, it couldn’t even be exchanged for a jade slip used to write letters…
After hesitating for a while, she took the jade slip in Xu Xiyue’s hand and glanced up with her consciousness.
“Heart Questioning Art and Jade Crystal Sword Art…”
Xu Mulan had never heard of the names of these two techniques, but after all, she was also the leader of the Royal Guards, and she could tell the quality of a technique at a glance. These two techniques were not the Heart Technique and Sword Technique inherited from the Noliu Sect…
When she saw the four words recorded on the jade slip, Xu Mulan suddenly understood the origin of these two techniques.
Below the jade slip were written the four characters “Xumen Sword Immortal”.
That was a sword cultivator who was once as famous as Emperor Nangong Cheng of the Central Domain. To compete with him for the Nine Dragons Heavenly Seal, he made a life-and-death oath under the witness of the Immortal Yunjian and fought fiercely with Nangong Cheng for hundreds of days at Huang Qiong Mountain in the Central Domain. But the sword missed a move, and he was defeated and fell.
According to rumors, after the Xumen Sword Immortal was defeated by Nangong Cheng, he gave his heart technique to Nangong Cheng, hoping that he would help him find his descendants. However, Nangong Cheng only superficially agreed and gave his spirit sword to Nangong Cheng. Treated the Heart Questioning technique as a trophy and stored it in his own treasure house.
Xu Mulan didn’t believe it and confirmed it again, “Hiss—Master Ye wants you to trade your hairpin with him for these two skills?”
“Hmm…” Xu Xiyue nodded faintly, hesitated for a while, and said, “Looking at your expression, sister, these two techniques seem to have extraordinary origins?”
“…” Xu Mulan felt worried. If it was a small favor, she would let her sister accept it, but this thing was too valuable.
What was Mr. Ye’s intention?
To give her sister such a great opportunity…
Was it possible that he wanted to accept her sister as his apprentice?
However, how could a genius who had acquired the Golden Core of Heavenly Dao at the age of twenty-two fall in love with an ordinary girl with two spiritual roots?
Xu Xiyue saw her sister’s expression and realized that these two jade slips were probably far more valuable than she imagined.
She frowned and thought for a while, then nodded solemnly and said,
“Sister, I think Senior Ye is interested in you and probably wants you to be his Daoist companion.”
?
“…Huh!” Xu Mulan was stunned and knocked her on the head, “What are you talking about!!”
Xu Xiyue shook her head, raised her index finger, and analyzed,
“Otherwise, why would Senior Ye give me such a great opportunity? He must be coveting something from the two of us. I am just a Qi Refining Stage cultivator with dual spiritual roots. Senior Ye will not covet anything from me. So, the only thing I can imagine picturing is you, sister.”
Xu Mulan suddenly became a little nervous. Indeed, apart from her pretty good looks, there was nothing special about her sister.
“So, Master Ye, is he coveting my status as the commander of the Royal Guards?”
Xu Xiyue held her chin and thought for a while and said, “It’s not like that… the head of the Chilong Mansion is Mr. Ye’s wife. Your status as the commander of the Royal Guard should be nothing special to him.”
“That is…”
“He should be after you, sister.”
“Ah… Are you trying to figure me out?” Xu Mulan was suddenly startled, her cheeks turned red, and her shoulders pushed her big watermelon out by three points.
However, seeing this scene, Xu Xiyue immediately frowned, raised her hand, and grabbed her face, and scolded, “Sister, why are you blushing? Sister, are you falling for it just because Senior Ye made a good first impression on you, and because he is handsome?”
Xu Mulan was speechless for a moment, pursed her lips, and said,
“Didn’t you say that?”
“This matter needs to be considered in the long term. Sister, you are just one-minded. Your mind is all on the case, and you don’t care about people at all. Leave this matter to me. I will observe it. If Senior Ye is really what he says, then if you agree, it’s not too late for him.”
“…” Xu Mulan always felt that she was her younger sister now. She felt helpless for a moment, grabbed her cheek, and asked, “You little girl, what do you know…”
“The so-called authorities are confused, but bystanders are clear.” Xu Xiyue raised her index finger like a little adult and said, “Sister, you are the one who is involved in the game, and I am the bystander. I can see Senior Ye’s life more clearly than you as a person.”
Xu Mulan was a little helpless, rubbed her head, and said, “Anyway, follow me first to say thank you to Mr. Ye. He has given you such a great opportunity.”
“…Um.”
…
There was no sound in the guest room of the Tourist Pavilion. Li Longling was lying on the bed, not yet awake from her drowsiness. The fire phoenix was spread on the pillow, and she looked warily at Ye Anping, who was meditating on the tuft next to her.
Feeling that it was already dawn, Ye Anping also retracted the spiritual energy scattered throughout his body into the sea of energy, ending the night of condensation.
He took a long breath of spiritual mist, looked back at Li Longling, smiled helplessly, then stood up, walked to the window, opened the window, and let the cold wind from outside blow in and take away the turbid air in the house.
Although he had decided to leave all the time in Han Tian Kingdom to his junior sisters and the others yesterday, he naturally would not do anything and raise Xi Yue leisurely there.
After all, it was the first time for the junior sisters and the others to face the enemy on their own without him.
As a senior brother, he naturally had to watch from the sidelines. If the junior sisters and the others were one step short of a move and did something wrong, he would also help wipe their butts.
After thinking for a while, Ye Anping took out a dossier from his storage bag, sat by the window, unfolded it, and looked up.
This file was given to him last night when Xu Mulan asked him to help take care of Xi Yue. It contained the confession of the missing child.
Royal Guards questioned the residents of the town where the crime occurred and found some scattered suspicious traces. It was like a puzzle.
For Xu Mulan, since she didn’t know what it would look like after finishing it, she couldn’t get started with this dossier. However, for him, Ye Anping, the situation was different.
Although the person who committed the crime was not Wu You in the game, after all, it was still a child kidnapping incident, so the details of the case might be different from the game, but the general direction should not be much different.
In other words, he had a rough completed picture in his mind, and he could slowly piece it together with the help of the file in his hand, but it was much easier than Xu Mulan.
Ye Anping read the contents of the dossier carefully and sighed in his heart that many places were inconsistent with the task in his mind.
And the most obvious thing was…
The demon cultivator who was kidnapping boys and girls had much rougher methods than Wu You. He felt like a person who was parodying Wu You’s behavior, and what he did was too reckless.
Suddenly there were two soft sounds outside the door.
Bang bang——
Because Li Longling was still sleeping, Ye Anping raised the gauze curtain next to the bed with his sword finger and then said, “Please come in.”
Xu Mulan and Xu Xiyue walked into the house. Ye Anping quickly stood up and saluted, “Why is Commander Xu here?”
After the previous exchange with her sister, Xu Mulan always felt strange when she saw Ye Anping, her eyes were a little wandering, and she said, “Young Master Ye and Master Li are distinguished guests, so I came to take a look, so as not to make their stay uncomfortable.”
“No need to worry, Commander.”
Ye Anping noticed that Xu Xiyue was staring at him. He was stunned for a moment, narrowed his eyes, and smiled back at her, then picked up the file he had just read, preparing to give Xu Mulan some tips, “Commander Xu, I took a brief look at this file last night. I wonder if I could give you a few words?”
When she heard that they were going to talk about the case, Xu Mulan immediately became energetic. She quickly raised her hands to invite him, and then followed him to the round table in the room and sat down.
“Have Mr. Ye made any achievements? I have been looking at this case for several days and I haven’t found anything at all.”
Ye Anping smiled politely, “I can only tell you a guess. After all, the clues recorded in this file are too fragmentary.”
“Speaking.”
Ye Anping paused and said, “I feel that the person who kidnapped boys and girls may be a demon sect insect cultivator.”
“…” Xu Mulan frowned slightly, “You said it was a demon cultivator!”
“Most of these missing children are not orphans. Without exception, they all live with their parents or relatives.”
Ye Anping pointed to a line of words on the dossier and said, “Look at this, all the people who reported the case said the same thing. They all said that their children suddenly disappeared overnight for no reason, and the neighbors saw the children before they disappeared with their relatives.”
“Yes, that’s exactly what I was wondering about.” Xu Mulan nodded, “No one knows when those children disappeared. They all disappeared overnight… There are no suspicious people in the town.”
“So, I was wondering if it was the relatives of these children who took the initiative to send the children out of the town and handed them over to the gangster.”
Xu Mulan felt that this thought was a bit off-topic, and she twisted her eyebrows and shook her head, “You also…”
“Yes, I have no evidence.” Ye Anping shrugged slightly and said with a wry smile, “So, I can only give you a possibility.”
“Charge the children’s relatives, and then let them take their children to the forest outside the town, hand the children over to him, and then let the insect send the children’s relatives back to their homes, so that no one will become suspicious, and royal guards will not find out.”
Xu Mulan listened, and although there were no flaws in what Ye Anping said, she felt that it didn’t sound like it, and said, “But if, as you put it, it might just be a cultivator with superb escape skills who took the children away without anyone noticing. And why did the demon cultivators have to go to such trouble? Those children are basically in the Qi refining stage…”
“I can’t answer you.” Ye Anping spread his hands and replied, “Because I have no evidence, I can only tell you this guess. If you believe me, you can follow my idea and try to investigate…”
“Demon insect…” Xu Mulan raised her chin and thought for a while, then nodded and said, “Then I’ll write it down first, but I don’t think it’s a demon cultivator. This is the hinterland of the Northern Domain.”
At this time, suddenly a snow-clad guard in a white robe ran in from outside, looking as if he was in a hurry, “Commander Xu! Guests are coming to the Commander’s Mansion, please hurry up…”
Xu Mulan looked irritated when she heard this, thinking that someone was here to propose marriage to Xi Yue again, and glanced, “Who is it?”
“Young Master Xiao of Xuanxing Sect.”
Xu Mulan paused slightly, “Huh! Who?”
“Young Master Xiao from the Xuanxing Sect said that she met a demonic cultivator in Yulu Town before, and it was related to the disappearance of children around him in recent days… She also brought two cultivators from Yulu Town.”
“Hiss—” Xu Mulan took a deep breath, looked at Ye Anping, and quickly stood up and cupped her hands, “I’m sorry, Mr. Ye.”
Ye Anping smiled helplessly and said, “It’s okay, after all, she is the young master of Xuanxing Sect.”
“Then I’ll leave first. Xiyue, you have to listen to Mr. Ye, do you understand?”
After admonishing Xu Xiyue, Xu Mulan stood up and left the Tourist Pavilion with her sword in haste, following the royal guards who came to deliver the message.
After watching them leave, Xu Xiyue turned around and asked, “Senior Ye…”
“Um!”
“You said yesterday… Young Master Xiao of Xuanxing Sect is your wife. Why don’t you come with her?”
“…Well, I won’t get involved.” Ye Anping shrugged slightly, thought for a while, and said, “Xi Yue, please help me check out these two rooms. Master Li and I will move to the one across the street later.”
Were they trying to avoid Madam?
Xu Xiyue was a little confused, but she didn’t say anything and nodded, “Yes, Senior Ye.”
“By the way, there is more. If they come here soon, don’t tell them that I live across the street with Master Li.”
“…Um.” Xu Xiyue hesitated for a while and frowned slightly. Could it be that Senior Ye eloped away secretly with Master Li?
It was a bit suspicious, I’ll make a note of him later…
Thinking like this, Xu Xiyue nodded and went downstairs to help the two of them check out.
…
This girl has rich imagination