"My life is entirely in the senior's hands—life and death at your discretion! Why must you slander me further?"
Meng Li shed her fearful expression and spoke with indignation. "Whether I'm a demon or human, the senior can skin and bone me to see for himself."
Her tone was firm and resentful, as if a wrongly accused person had accepted their death sentence.
Xu Jin's expression remained calm, and the longsword in his hand didn't waver in the slightest due to Meng Li's genuine emotions.
He also didn't believe that Chu Xingchen, who could say "lychees' lives matter too," would take an innocent person's life based on mere suspicion.
Chu Xingchen pressed the mirror against Meng Li's face and sternly questioned:
"Then explain to me—what is that in the mirror?"
"It's the senior's desire to kill me!"
Meng Li answered without hesitation. "The senior has issues with the Buddhist Sect—what's the use of coming after me? I'm just a pitiful person, locked here doing things I don't want to do!"
Meng Li turned her gaze toward Xu Jin, but could only see his unwavering expression.
That useless Jiang Yuan had been so ferocious earlier—now that she was pinned here waiting to die, he didn't sense a thing?!
Were these two's cultivations through the heavens, or was Jiang Yuan also using this opportunity to get rid of her?
Chu Xingchen's expression was grim, but under the protection of his vast spiritual energy, he forcibly extended his divine sense into Meng Li's body.
Meng Li cried out in pain. A tearing sensation like her body being ripped apart struck directly at her sea of consciousness, with every inch of her skin feeding back the most extreme agony.
This kind of nearly despair-inducing pain, however, made Meng Li unable to hide her joy in her heart.
This meant... she could live.
Time seemed to stretch infinitely, as if her body and soul were being forcibly separated.
After an unknown period, that sensation of being pulled apart finally faded.
Like a drowning person finally breaking the surface at the last moment, able to take that most precious breath of air.
Meng Li opened her mouth wide, breathing with all her might.
As the breath entered her lungs, in the next moment her consciousness returned.
Her eyes quickly lifted, and seeing Chu Xingchen's calm and unruffled expression, Meng Li instinctively revealed a look of trepidation.
This person really was ruthless.
Chu Xingchen seemed to hesitate for a moment before slowly speaking, "My apologies... regarding this matter, our Evil Spirit Sect takes full responsibility."
Meng Li froze upon hearing this, momentarily unsure what expression to show.
Isn't that a bit too shameless? Even the excuse is so half-hearted?
Meng Li could be certain that if Chu Xingchen was really from the Evil Spirit Sect, there was no way she would survive.
With the Evil Spirit Sect, whether something was true or not had no conflict with whether someone lived or died.
But whether the excuse was good or not had no conflict with whether Meng Li wanted to live either.
She wore a look of grievance, neither speaking nor making any statement, just looking at the floor with an attitude of "whatever you say goes."
Meng Li waited for quite a while before realizing the room was still silent. Only then did she carefully raise her eyes, only to discover that the room was actually already empty.
All expression faded from her face as she gazed at the teacup still steaming with heat, seemingly deep in thought.
In the brothel's main hall, Xu Jin watched as Chu Xingchen not only didn't leave but had even spent silver notes to settle back into a private room.
While matters were being handled, Xu Jin naturally could ask nothing and simply focus on getting things done.
But now that the matter was concluded, Xu Jin realized he knew far too little.
Xu Jin frowned slightly. "What's the current situation? I re-traced the flow of the power of faith from within the room, and the result isn't within the room."
Chu Xingchen looked toward the stage where a different courtesan had come out to play music. This one was far more tactful than Shang Hua, playing with great charm and allure. He sighed:
"I don't have any evidence I can present, but I'm certain that manager is a demon. However, I don't know how she manages to evade divine sense inspection. Do you believe me or not?"
Xu Jin turned his gaze toward Chu Xingchen, and after a moment, he said with certainty:
"I believe you."
Chu Xingchen turned to look at Xu Jin's unwavering expression, which didn't seem like he was just humoring him, and asked with confusion:
"You believe that too?"
"Why wouldn't I?"
"You... you don't happen to have some other preferences, do you?"
Xu Jin spoke with great seriousness:
"You'll understand. When I have time, I'll personally invite you to visit the Xuanqing Tian Sect."
Chu Xingchen nodded, accepting Xu Jin's explanation, then turned to ask:
"In that case, how does the Xuanqing Tian Sect plan to handle relations with the Buddhist Sect?"
Xu Jin looked at Chu Xingchen, then spoke earnestly. "Actually, besides investigating the Buddhist Sect, the Xuanqing Tian Sect is also investigating whether other sects have connections with demons—the Tianyan Sect included."
"Then you dare to handle matters together with me along the way?" Chu Xingchen asked curiously.
Xu Jin smiled lightly. "Naturally, I'm also investigating you, and investigating the Tianyan Sect. When an opportunity presents itself, we handle it together."
Chu Xingchen clicked his tongue twice. "You seem honest, but your heart is quite dark."
Xu Jin then asked, "Since you've determined the manager is a demon, how do you plan to pursue this further?"
Chu Xingchen shook his head slightly:
"I need to return to the Tianyan Sect first. There are some matters I must handle personally."
Xu Jin stood up upon hearing this. "In that case, I'll continue the investigation alone. I'll share any news with you as well."
"In that case, I'll await good news."
Chu Xingchen also stood up, then asked with a smile, "So where does Brother Xu plan to start investigating?"
Xu Jin turned his gaze toward the courtesan on stage. "Didn't Brother Chu already provide a lead?"
Chu Xingchen reached out and patted Xu Jin's shoulder. "Until we meet again."
"Until we meet again."
Wanhua Ridge.
Now the entire sect's construction had been fully completed, and all buildings within the sect had returned to normal use.
Aside from the locations being somewhat different, it was essentially the same as the sect back in Yuzhou City.
With just a bit of adjustment, the sect was still the same sect.
Li Yingling hurried toward the main hall. Although with the sect's construction completely finished, there were fewer matters to attend to.
But that didn't mean there was nothing to do at all.
For instance, the matter of the third junior sister deciding to go on a journey of experience on her own.
Fortunately, Lu Xuan had stated he would be responsible for the third junior sister's safety. Beyond that, Chen Baiqing would also regularly send letters to the sect, informing Li Yingling of her current location and where she planned to go next.
Chen Baiqing was indeed worry-free; traveling for experience was far less concerning than Li Xingtian, who would disappear as soon as she left.
However... saying there was no worry would still be a lie.
She also didn't know what matter their master needed to attend to.
Li Yingling quickly entered the main hall. At this moment, Zhang Miaoyu was already inside, having placed the most important letter on the table for Li Yingling.
She walked toward the table while simultaneously speaking to Zhang Miaoyu at the side:
"Now that matters have lessened, you don't need to come every day. I can handle things myself. You should focus on your cultivation—if you wait any longer, my fourth junior sister's cultivation is going to catch up to yours."
Zhang Miaoyu said quietly, "I just want to do what I can for the team leader."
"Didn't you used to always complain about the poor cultivation environment?"
Li Yingling opened the letter. "Now that the environment has improved, seize the cultivation time. Let me see how you, a great cultivation genius, will shock the cultivation world."
Zhang Miaoyu's expression showed a hint of grievance. "Team leader, please stop teasing me."
Li Yingling finished reading the letter and turned her gaze toward Zhang Miaoyu with a smile:
"Alright, alright, go cultivate..."
Before Li Yingling could finish speaking, a voice suddenly came from outside the hall, interrupting her.
"Alright, alright, then you go cultivate too. If you dally any longer, Xingtian's cultivation will catch up to yours as well."
Li Yingling heard the familiar voice and turned her gaze toward the hall entrance with a look of pleasant surprise.
She saw her master wearing a familiar smile, raising an eyebrow as he looked at her.
Li Yingling spoke with a tone of displeasure:
"If you don't come back soon, your junior brothers and sisters are going to jointly nominate me as sect master and kick you out of the sect."
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