Tumor Sword Immortal

Chapter 66, Part 2

The body was found in the forest behind the sect. By the time the patrolling Xueyan Sect disciples arrived, the body was already lifeless.

"I told you to stay in the guesthouse, why are you wandering around like this?"

The Snow Swallow Sect cultivators who carried the man back spoke without any compassion, but rather with a hint of reproach: "The assassination attempt on the old sect leader, could it be related to you?"

The members of the Well Gang in the courtyard didn't know why their senior brother would secretly leave the inn and head to the back forest alone.

Hearing the words of the Snow Swallow Sect cultivator, his eyes reddened: "What nonsense are you talking about? This morning, all of us from the Well Gang were watching the martial arts competition together by the arena. When did we ever leave?"

The two Snow Swallow Sect disciples exchanged a glance and snorted coldly, "That had to be for the best."

Then they left together.

This revealed Pei Xia and Xu Zhuofeng in the courtyard.

The two men were crouching beside the corpse, their brows furrowed as they carefully examined it.

“These bloodstains look like they were caused by claw techniques,” Xu Zhuofeng said softly. “They look scary, but the skill isn’t deep, and there aren’t many traces of spiritual energy.”

Pei Xia nodded, agreeing with his assessment: "But there are no other external injuries. Could it be that spiritual energy has invaded the lungs and internal organs?"

It is not uncommon for spiritual energy to damage internal organs and cause death.

However, it is very difficult to kill someone on the spot without leaving any other external injuries.

Pei Xia looked up and asked naturally, "What is your senior brother's cultivation level?"

The members of the Well Gang hadn't figured out where these two guys came from yet; they just heard the question and instinctively answered, "Refining Cauldron Realm."

Pei Xia and Xu Zhuofeng exchanged a glance.

The murderer must have been at least at the level of a Xuan (a high-level expert) to have accomplished such a feat.

Perhaps out of distrust of his own sect, Xu Zhuofeng's first thought was of the supposedly seriously injured former sect leader, Xu Chengfeng.

Pei Xia was different; besides Xu Chengfeng, he had another candidate in mind.

Almost simultaneously, apart from Pei Xia and the other two, the other visiting cultivators from the sect also slowly approached the gate of the Well Gang. When they caught a glimpse of the corpses on the ground, they were all taken aback.

Soon, someone came to the most reasonable conclusion: "It was done by the murderer who attacked the old sect leader!!"

Indeed, this most basic possibility exists. If a highly skilled assassin cultivator were trapped in the mountain-protecting formation, then the other party would have sufficient motive to kill.

It's possible they wanted to force the cultivators from the vassal gangs to reveal how to leave Snow Peak, or they wanted to create panic through murder to force Snow Swallow Sect to close its protective mountain formation—both explanations are plausible.

Pei Xia's gaze swept across the doorway, instantly spotting many of the sect cultivators who had made their appearances on the arena that morning: Changhe Sect, Zuoshan Sect, Shiming Mansion, Xiaozhu Valley...

Suddenly, his eyes lit up. Behind Sun Tingfeng, he saw the beautiful woman in the pale yellow dress he had seen when he returned to the inn at noon.

Without lingering, he quickly stood up, offered his condolences to the remaining members of the Well Gang, and then led Xu Zhuofeng toward the door.

Fortunately, I had traveled with him for a short while before, so I was already somewhat familiar with Sun Tingfeng. So I naturally stopped and greeted Brother Sun with clasped hands.

Then, his gaze passed over Sun Tingfeng's shoulder and landed on the beautiful woman behind him: "Brother Sun, who is this...?"

Sun Tingfeng wasn't surprised that Pei Xia would ask the question. After all, his senior sister was beautiful and attracted attention wherever she went. He replied, "She's my senior sister."

Her long dress swayed, and a pair of bright eyes beneath her bangs looked at Pei Xia. Her eyelashes trembled slightly, revealing her polite yet somewhat reserved gaze: "Li Tan, I met with you earlier today, young master."

As she spoke, she held her sword with both hands, and Pei Xia glanced at her very quickly.

The fingertips were clean and tidy, with no abnormalities.

So he returned the greeting in kind and took Xu Zhuofeng back to the courtyard of the Tiger Crane Sword Pavilion.

Old Xu was also a sharp-eyed person. When he saw Pei Xia specifically greeting Sun Tingfeng at the door, he knew that Pei Xia had ulterior motives: "What's the problem?"

"That woman, Li Tan."

He had wanted to say it earlier, but at the time only Xu Chengfeng was attacked, and Li Tan's cultivation level clearly couldn't have injured the old sect leader at the Open Mansion Realm, so he thought he was overthinking it. "Do you remember, when Sun Tingfeng and Xing Fengcai were arguing yesterday, he mentioned his senior sister?" Pei Xia asked.

Xu Zhuofeng frowned, still thinking back.

Xu Shangxin, who had stayed in the courtyard earlier, quickly remembered: "It was mentioned that Xing Fengcai used foul language, and Sun Tingfeng said that his senior sister was distributing porridge in the town at the foot of the mountain."

Pei Xia then asked, "When did she come up the mountain?"

This morning, the protective formation of Xueyan Sect was activated, making it impossible to enter or leave.

Xu Shangxin hesitated and said, "Yesterday, after we separated from the Zuoshan Sect?"

"Why didn't she attend the birthday celebration this morning?"

This was something Pei Xia noticed when she went to the viewing platform that morning.

Sun Tingfeng kept saying he had a senior sister, but when it came to leading the birthday celebration, he, who was of slightly lower seniority, was the one in charge, while his senior sister was not present. Wasn't he afraid that Xu Chengfeng would blame the Zuoshan Sect for being impolite?

Look, last year the young people from the well gang stole the limelight, and this morning they even deliberately lost a round to save face for the host. In this atmosphere, is it appropriate to be so rude?

"Could you be overthinking it?" Xu Shangxin had no intention of exonerating anyone, but the "etiquette" was simply too flimsy to stand up to scrutiny.

Xu Zhuofeng nodded and added, "That woman's cultivation level is not low; she should be at the Tongxuan realm."

Tongxuan, we need to assassinate the old sect leader this morning, that's not enough.

But if there's an opportunity in the afternoon, killing that Well Gang cultivator would be just right.

Was she in the Zuoshan Sect's courtyard this afternoon?

"How do I know?"

Pei Xia was just asking casually; in fact, it would be illogical for her to be thinking about Li Tan at this moment.

Knowing that a highly skilled and ruthless assassin was roaming within the protective mountain formation, anyone would immediately connect the deaths of the Well Gang cultivators with this assassin.

As for Li Tan, let alone an alibi, Pei Xia has no motive either. It's a bit unfair to accuse her based solely on the suspicion that she didn't attend Shoubi's event.

Old Xu wanted to smoke again, but unfortunately there was no tobacco left in the bag, so he could only tap the pipe repeatedly with his fingers.

“One thing is certain,” he said.

Pei Xia nodded: "The matter is not over yet."

The reason is simple: the mountain-protecting formation was not turned off.

Ultimately, the activation of the mountain-protecting formation inherently conceals a hidden secret. If there is an assassin, he will not stop until he leaves the formation.

If Xu Chengfeng orchestrated this whole thing, he would naturally shut down the formation once he achieved his goal. The fact that the formation is still open means he has more to do.

It doesn't matter who killed the Well Gang cultivators.

Xu Zhuofeng sighed, "If only I were still at the Heavenly Consciousness Realm."

With the aid of "divine consciousness," the Heavenly Consciousness Realm is like observing the heavens and the earth, making it easy to perceive the entire snow-capped peak.

From this perspective, Xueyanmen's strict prohibition against outsiders leaving the guesthouse is actually a protective measure.

Even the monks from the Well Gang were killed because they disobeyed orders to go out.

As long as everyone sticks together, there shouldn't be any unexpected incidents.

With this thought in mind, the sun sank in the west and night fell.

The bad news arrived at 9 PM that night.

Sun Tingfeng of the Zuoshan Sect died near the Xueyan Sect's mountain gate.

(End of this chapter)