After leaving the City Lord’s Mansion.

Ye Lingyue, Di Shen, and the others all seemed deep in thought.

"It infuriates me; that person just kidnapped Senior Brother Xiao Chuan, and hardly an hour has passed, and now he’s flipping the script and denying everything. Do you think something has happened to Senior Brother Xiao Chuan?"

Huang Jun had a tense expression.

"Fifty thousand Spirit Stones is no small sum. The man was indeed taken by the City Lord’s Mansion, yet now they fully deny it. There are only two possibilities," Senior Sister Wan Yun, with her vast experience, began analyzing.

"Exactly, that Manager seemed quite greedy. For him to abandon such a large profit means there’s a greater benefit at play, or someone behind the scenes is commanding him, forcing him to forgo the Spirit Stones. At present, there are only a few people in Gold City who could compel the Manager to yield," Di Shen questioned Huang Jun.

"Don’t keep me in the dark like this; you know I’m not the brightest, yet you’re all trying to confuse me," Huang Jun said anxiously.

"Only two people could be responsible. One is the City Lord of Gold City, but he hardly manages affairs now, leaving only one other person, the staff at the City Lord’s Mansion," Ye Lingyue began to explain, seeing Huang Jun’s distress.

"So what should we do? Should we sneak into the City Lord’s Mansion tonight? If we delay any longer, Senior Brother Xiao Chuan’s life could really be at risk. He got involved in this mess because of me, so I can’t just watch him die," Huang Jun said urgently.

"It’s not that simple. The City Lord’s Mansion is heavily guarded."

Outside the City Lord’s Mansion, Di Shen had carefully observed the surroundings.

He discovered that beyond the City Lord’s Mansion, heavy weapons were stationed all around.

Di Shen was certain that if they hadn’t left promptly, a confrontation with the Mansion’s people would have likely led to failure.

After all, they’re on Gold City’s turf; a strong dragon cannot overpower a local snake.

What Di Shen was most cautious about was the unknown reason why those ambushers, despite emitting strong energy waves and possessing remarkable skills, showed no signs of breathing. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

It was unclear whether those people had concealed their aura or if the ambushers in hiding were not humans at all.

Ye Lingyue, with her heightened spiritual power, also detected similar phenomena.

"This won’t work, that won’t work; are we just going to wait here for something to happen?" Huang Jun muttered dejectedly.

All four remained silent as they returned to the inn.

The innkeeper looked timid and worried, fearing that Ye Lingyue and the others might take out their frustrations about Qin Xiaochuan’s situation on him.

"Shopkeeper."

Ye Lingyue called out.

The shopkeeper was so frightened he whimpered, wanting to hide behind the counter.

Unexpectedly, Di Shen was quicker. With a long arm stretch, he lifted the shopkeeper like a chick.

In front of the towering Di Shen, the shopkeeper seemed like a child, suspended in midair.

"My wife is asking you a question here."

"Spare me, sirs! I’ve got young ones and elders; I’m forced to act as I did, or the City Lord’s Mansion people would harm my family."

The shopkeeper trembled all over with fear.

"I’m not holding you accountable for that; I want to ask you about Gold City. Has anything strange happened here in the past six months?"

Ye Lingyue glanced at the shopkeeper.

"No, no such thing."

The shopkeeper thought hard but couldn’t come up with anything significant.

"You’d better think again, or you’ll end up like this object."

Senior Sister Wan Yun held the Sky Wolf Stick in her hand, tapped it on the counter, then unexpectedly smashed the stone countertop to bits with a loud crack.

The shopkeeper was too terrified to speak.

He glanced at Senior Sister Wan Yun’s stick, suddenly recalling something.

"Dear guests, I don’t know of anything unusual in the city, but I do remember seeing this stick somewhere."

Upon hearing this, Di Shen relaxed his grip to allow the shopkeeper to catch his breath and speak.

"You saw this stick? Where, and whose hands was it in? And make sure you didn’t see wrong."

The group suddenly realized that they’ve been searching the city for clues about Zhao Tianlang’s visit half a year ago but somehow neglected to ask the innkeeper.

"I did see it, roughly six months ago, around the lighting up of lamps. A few people came to stay here. One male guest had this stick on his back. Its size and pattern, I couldn’t have mistaken it." To save his life, the shopkeeper spilled everything he knew and didn’t know.

"Do you recognize the people accompanying that man?" Senior Sister Wan Yun pressed further.

"There were three people back then. One had the stick, and another seemed like a scholar carrying a violin or something, but neither of those two were from Gold City. However, the last person I recognize. He’s Situ Nan from the City Lord’s Mansion. But back then, Master Situ wasn’t the staff at the City Lord’s Mansion yet." The shopkeeper thought about it, hesitated, but in the end, yielded to Di Shen’s deadly gaze and reluctantly explained.

Situ Nan, the City Lord’s Mansion’s renowned Alchemist skilled in alchemy and artifact creation?

Upon hearing this, all four sank in thought; Zhao Tianlang’s death indeed had ties to the City Lord’s Mansion.

Unexpectedly, the third person linked with Zhao Tianlang was him.

Seeing the four stop talking, the shopkeeper quietly snuck away.

"This inn is no longer safe; we should leave first. Tomorrow morning, we’ll separately investigate the City Lord’s Mansion’s Situ Nan," Senior Sister Wan Yun, being the oldest among them, suggested, and they all agreed to follow her guidance for now.

The next day, the four split up to gather information around the city.

By midday, Ye Lingyue, Di Shen, and Senior Sister Wan Yun returned one after another.

Unfortunately, they were disappointed to find little information on Situ Nan—his background and cultivation were unknown, and few had even seen him aside from knowing his name.

What they could ascertain was that he was in his thirties, arrived in Gold City over six months ago, and entered claiming he was there to heal the City Lord.

After another hour passed, Huang Jun returned.

"I’ve uncovered something that might be useful, though I’m not sure if it counts. Here’s how it happened: This morning, while gathering intel around the city, I happened to pass the training ground, near the Vajra Formation, and overheard some novices complaining. Their complaints were mainly about how since Situ Nan redesigned the Vajra Formation for the City Lord’s Mansion, not many novices have been able to pass. Only thirteen people, including Senior Brother Xiao Chuan, have succeeded over the past six months."

"Hold on, Huang Jun. Can you find out the names of the other twelve novices who passed the test, besides Senior Brother Xiao Chuan?"

Though unintentionally mentioned, Ye Lingyue caught onto something significant upon hearing this, feeling she might have discovered an important clue.