The Criminal

T/N: We don’t translate the honorifics because it’ll be hard to convey the meaning properly, with real siblings or the honorifics that only have one meaning will it be translated into english.

Elder Shi was the first to react. Before others had a chance, he hurriedly spoke out, “‘Lin Xiao’, you came just in time, the Qing Cheng Sect said that we killed their disciples, and now they want to deal with us.”

If you took a good look, you would notice that when Elder Shi looked at ‘Lin Xiao’, there was a hint of guiltiness in his eyes that couldn’t be concealed by his speech.

Ling Xiao acted like nothing had happened walking over and looking at both side’s murderous intent, finally he laid his gaze on the Qing Cheng Sect, laughingly he says, “It’s already the last day, why don’t we take a step back? Paradise Realm is really dangerous, something out of our expectations might happen. Someone might have even set up that trap to frame us, wanting to provoke us against each other while they just sit and receive the fisherman’s benefit (t/n: third party using the conflict between two parties to gain benefit from it). We are all adults, we have to be careful and think of the consequences.”

These words were very clear and logical, seeing Ling Xiao’s earnest attitude, many people’s anger calmed down. Luo ShuHe and Mo Sheng looked at each other, they didn’t expect Ling Xiao,  with only one sentence, to point out their doubts.

The truth is, when he took the magic bag earlier, Luo ShuHe also suspected that somebody might be deliberately trying to put the blame on the Tian Xin Sect, because according to the person who found YeDan’s corpse, there weren’t many traces of fighting on the scene. So you could assume that the opponent’s level was above YeDan, perhaps much higher.

But for such a high level master, how could they leave such an obvious mistake? Even though they suspected it, they couldn’t just announce YeDan’s death like that. So Luo ShuHe instead thought that since the Qing Cheng Sect and the Tian Xin Sect’s relationship had reached the point like water and fire (t/n: completely incompatible), and that sooner or later would be torn anyway, they could use YeDan’s death to blame the Tian Xin Sect and then the Qing Cheng Sect could openly take action. But only they knew the truth, not the other disciples, so Ling Xiao’s words shook them up.

You Xiaomo tries to hold back his laughter. Ling Xiao is really good at acting. As the only one who understands this situation, he stated, seeing his pretentious act that was polar opposite of his true nature, he wanted to vomit. Of course, only in his mind.

Originally the two sects were already at the flaming point, but thanks to Ling Xiao’s “advice”, everyone’s anger had almost died down. The other forces saw that there was nothing to see, got bored, and left.

Luo ShuHe and the others seemed to have other plans, but also didn’t continue.

Even You Xiaomo, who had a two digit IQ, could see their inner thoughts. Even though Luo ShuHe had contracted with a level nine magic beast, he also knew that the level nine magic beast suffered a serious injury. Unless he had the same lake water like he did, there’s no way the injuries of the Six Thunderbird had healed. So he shouldn’t start a conflict now.

Ling Xiao came up to Elder Shi, making it look like it was unintentional, and said, “Elder Shi, you all came here at the same time, don’t tell me you all already promised beforehand?”

This sudden remark made Luo ShuHe who had already prepared to go, stop in his tracks and look over again with a puzzled expression.

Elder Shi, worried that he’d continue to speak, quickly dragged Ling Xiao to another place where others couldn’t hear their conversation.

Making a cough sound, he said, “I accidentally got the information of when Demon Peak would be opened, so I made an appointment with the other Elders to go together to Demon Peak. At that time you were still in the north, so I was too late to inform you.”

Ling Xiao made his *Oh* sound a little long.

Elder Shi didn’t realize his train of thought, and while patting his shoulder, he faked a big laugh. “But fortunately you didn’t come, Lin-shizhi. You might not know, but Demon Peak just collapsed a while ago, and lots of people got injured. Lin-shidi you really are a fortunate person.”

Ling Xiao raised the corner of his mouth, “Just as Elder Shi has said, Ling Xiao’s luck is really good.”

If only this old man were to know that the person standing in front of him was the one who caused Demon Peak to collapse, but he wouldn’t say that.

“That’s right, Elder Shi, how come I don’t see Elder Weng and Huang Jie-shidi?” As if wanting to ease the tension, Ling Xiao ‘considerately’ changed the topic.

Elder Shi suddenly felt relieved, “YunQi has disappeared, so they are looking for her. After five hours, they should be back.”

There’s a proverb that says, when you speak of Cao Cao, Cao Cao will come (t/n: someone appears right after you have said their name). Right after Elder Shi said it, somebody arrived at the teleportation point. It was none other than Elder Wang’s group, but their expressions looked very gloomy.

Elder Shi looked over, his sight falling to the stretcher carried by two disciples at the back of the group. When he sees the person on the stretcher, he takes a breath, and his eyes darken.

“Wha… what’s the matter?” Elder Weng’s face also becomes pale. Both of his eyes darkened as he stared at the hole in the chest of the person on top of the stretcher. Tang YunQi’s body is covered in blood; her lifeless appearance indicates that she had been dead for a few hours.

Of course, their gloomy expressions were not because of Tang YunQi’s death, but because of the Grand Master’s anger once he found out that his daughter had died in Paradise Realm where they had taken responsibility.

“Elder Wang, what happened? How come my niece YunQi is dead?” Elder Shi hurriedly went to Wang An’s side, who had the gloomiest expression.

Wang An was the one who was given the responsibility to ensure Tang YunQi’s safety when they were inside Paradise Realm. Now that Tang YunQi had met this accident, he was the one to hold the biggest responsibility.

The moment he found Tang YunQi’s body up until now, you could say that Wang An’s facial expression had not gotten any better. In fact, it had only  gotten worse. His icy-cold gaze looked as if he wanted to devour a person. After he heard Elder Shi’s words, he coldly says,  “I don’t know what happened either. By the time we found her, she was already dead.”

He also wanted to know who had killed Tang YunQi. Although he couldn’t protect Tang YunQi, if he could have brought back the murderer at least the punishment would have become lighter. However, the murderer’s work was too clean, he couldn’t find any clues about while he was at the crime scene.

When Elder Weng saw that they were getting nowhere, he couldn’t help but wonder, “Elder Wang, where is Niece YunQi’s contract beast?”

Upon hearing this sentence, Wang An’s facial expression became gloomier, “It’s gone. I suspect the murderer might have been after Tang YunQi’s contract beast, that’s why she was killed.”

It is not uncommon to kill people just to rob them of their treasure, that’s why everyone didn’t doubt this reason. But–

Tang YunQi’s contract beast was a level Seven One Star. The Star rank Seventh Star beasts are really powerful, despite even being in the Paradise Realm. When compared to the level seven demon beast, the strength gap was still very big. No matter how they thought about it, there was no way that a practitioner would just kill her to rob her of a treasure in just a few hours. Unless it was planned, like for example if more than one Star rank Seventh Star joined forces, then it might be possible.

However, this theory didn’t have any evidence.

The collapse of Demon Peak wasn’t something that everyone expected, Tang YunQi getting separated from them was also accidental, so they could rule out the possibility of a planned murder. If they thought about it like this, there was only one possibility.

The killer might be a person who owns a contract beast, and his contract beast’s strength is likely above Tang YunQi’s contract beast’s. Only this way, could they explain Tang YunQi’s death.

“Stronger than a level Seven demon beast.” Wang An said this to himself, his fierce eyes instantly looking towards all of the practitioners and mages who owned contracted demon beasts. With this as the key, the scope for the potential murderer had narrowed down a lot, because not everyone had the chance to get a contract with a level Seven Demon Beast and above. They could even say that this kind of person was absolutely like a phoenix feather and a unicorn horn (t/n: extremely rare).

Besides, if the murderer really had snatched Tang YunQi’s contract beast, then that person was most likely a mage, because only mages could get a contract with more than one demon beast. With this, the scope had narrowed down even more. But they still could not rule out the possibility that the murderer might be two or more people.

Having said that, Wang An still couldn’t risk to offend the other parties by confronting them. No one would like to be suspected as Tang YunQi’s murderer. Besides, not everybody was like Tang YunQi, who flaunted her demon beast for everyone to see. The stronger the demon beast, the more they’ll hide it; otherwise they might be the one who gets killed and robbed of their treasures.

So in the end, Tang YunQi ending up like this was completely because of her own actions. Nevertheless, Tang YunQi’s death still caused an uproar among the crowd.

The murderer suspects were not only Wang An and his people, everyone here was sharp. Although some may not show it, but secretly, they must have told their own contract beasts to hide.

However, there was one person whose contract beast was very eye-catching. That person is Fang ChenLe.

At that time, in order to save people, Fang ChenLe was forced to bring out the Poisonous Flood Dragon. The consequences were that some people ended up seeing it. Some people were the disciples from martial arts, and their friendships were not deep enough; even if Fang ChenLe had asked them to not tell, there ought to have been some disciples who spilled it out.

Elder Shi,  who You XiaoMo guessed had abandoned Fang ChenLe before, was showing an utterly unhappy expression, because he found out that the Poisonous Flood Dragon was the demon beast that was from the lake before.

Apparently, not only had Fang ChenLe survived, his luck was also large. He didn’t  know how he had managed to get a contract with the Poisonous Flood Dragon, but after that, Fang ChenLe also didn’t tell them about the Poisonous Flood Dragon. He clearly must be cautious of them.

After they met, Fang ChenLe was surrounded by a group of disciples asking him this and that. Fortunately, there was Fu ZiLin. His expressionless yet as cold as an iceberg face,scared people off.

When You XiaoMo walked out, his cold face melted a little.

“Da Shi Xiong, congratulations!” You XiaoMo, ignoring Ling Xiao who was busy playing innocent in front of Elder Shi and the others,  immediately ran towards Fang ChenLe who was surrounded by a crowd before, sincerely congratulating him.

Upon seeing him, Fang ChenLe’s face finally revealed a sincere smile. He pulled XiaoMo to his side, checking over his body. After he was sure that he didn’t have any scratches, he finally sighed in relief.

Fang ChenLe says, “Da Shi Xiong wants to congratulate you too, I heard you managed to get a contract with a Blue-blooded wolf. Not bad, oh?”

You XiaoMo immediately laughed cheerfully. *he he* “Da Shi Xiong’s luck is better than mine, I heard that the Poisonous Flood Dragon has dragon’s blood inside its veins, and someday will get to breakthrough into level eight.”

Fang ChenLe pointed his finger towards his forehead, “Poisonous Flood Dragon is only level seven right now, it’ll be a long time before he can breakthrough into level eight, and besides, do you think a level nine shape-shifting beast could breakthrough that easy?”

Speaking of shape-shifting, You Xiaomo’s eyes sparkled, “Da Shi Xiong, can I see your contracted demon beast?”

“Of course!” Fang ChenLe couldn’t help but agree. The Poisonous Flood Dragon didn’t like being watched by humans, so it changed into mini size and hid inside his clothes. If other people asked him, he wouldn’t let it, but You XiaoMo was different.

You XiaoMo took the Poisonous Flood Dragon from inside Fang ChenLe’s sleeves, and touched its mini body, whispering, “Poisonous Flood Dragon ah, Poisonous Flood Dragon ah, I’ll leave Da Shi Xiong’s safety to you, you can never let me down oh, or else I will ask Ling-shixiong to beat you.”

Poisonous Flood Dragon “……..”

After he talked in a manner that looked like he was talking to himself, You XiaoMo gave the Poisonous Flood Dragon back to Fang ChenLe, and then casually mentioned, “Second-Shixiong, you didn’t contract a demon beast?”

In fact, he only wanted to know whether the Dead Soul beast looked for Second-shixiong to form a contract. When they heard this sentence, both of them went silent; although he was silent before, Fang ChenLe finally opened his mouth, “Xiao-shidi, we will tell you after we get back.”

It seemed like he had formed a contract, so You XiaoMo nodded immediately.

“Xiao Shi Di, look at Lin Xiao over there.” Fu Zilin don’t always open his mouth, but when he did, he only said such a shocking thing.

You XiaoMo turned back to look and found out someone very familiar was walking toward Ling Xiao.

T/N: 

Demon beast: formerly translated as magical beast. Considering that it’ll affect the impact for the next arc, not to mention that its literal translation is demon beast (and they don’t have any magical abilities), we decided to change it into demon beast.

Practitioner: formerly translated as cultivator

Da Shi Xiong: the eldest senior brother / the first to become the disciple

Xiao Shi Di: The youngest junior brother / the last to become a disciple —

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