Having cultivated myself into an immortal, all I want to do is raise female disciples.

And a young man dressed in a black robe, his face covered by a hood, but with strands of golden hair peeking out.

Jiang Shaoguang.

"Hey, what brings you two together?"

Yunping could tell who the two were without even turning his head. He continued to lazily bask in the sun, finding the sunlight exceptionally calming.

Jiang Shaoguang slowly pulled down his hood, revealing a face that was both sunny and slightly roguish. He smiled, revealing two rows of snow-white teeth.

"It's quite a coincidence. I happened to be working for Princess Chu Xin, and I never expected that you, teacher, would get involved as well."

"I can't just stay out of the affairs of Old Chu's descendants."

Yun Ping slowly moved his chair, turned around, and looked at Chu Xin and Jiang Shaoguang. "I owed that kid a lot of favors back then, and it's time to pay them back now."

“I understand, I understand.” Jiang Shaoguang nodded knowingly. “I do know a little about your relationship with Senior Chu Lantian.”

Yun Ping glanced at him indifferently, then turned his attention back to Chu Xin. "So, what happened that led you to come all this way?"

Normally, Chu Xin wouldn't act on her own after she said she would wait; she shouldn't be that impulsive.

As for Jiang Shaoguang, who is a fairly intelligent guy, he probably wouldn't rashly go to the Yin Sha Alliance.

So there must be another reason why they came here this time.

"We've discovered some clues and managed to pry some information about Yin Sha out of those two Ten Fiends."

Chu Xin slowly walked to the stone table in the courtyard, took out a roll of white paper from her storage ring, and then unfolded it.

Yunping didn't rush to look at the paper, but instead asked, just in case, a question.

"You're not in a rush to make a move, are you?"

"No." Chu Xin paused for a moment, "Originally, I wanted to take action to eliminate the Yin Sha gang, but you said we had to wait, so..."

"It's good that you haven't made a move yet. Making a move now would be like stirring up trouble and alerting the enemy. There's someone behind Yin Sha. If we rush to manipulate Yin Sha now, we won't get any information about the person behind it."

After speaking, Yunping began to examine the paper in front of him, which was covered with a large number of words and patterns.

He glanced at it briefly and quickly realized that it was an overhead view of the capital city, looking almost identical to a map.

However, this map of the capital city is marked with dots of various sizes, in black and white.

Jiang Shaoguang explained, "Teacher, the black dots on these represent the hiding places of Yin Sha. Yin Sha chooses to disperse its members to conduct large-scale searches and intelligence gathering. So far, twenty-one hiding places have been revealed by the Ten Fiends who are willing to speak."

He pointed to the map in front of him, then gently moved his finger to the white dot.

"And the white dots... are where the imperial guards are stationed in the capital."

"Personal bodyguard?"

Noticing Yunping's confusion, Chu Xin, the princess of the empire, explained, "This is a privilege for us brothers and sisters. Even if we don't have military power, we can still have our own private guards. In a sense, it should be considered a type of army in the capital."

"I see."

Yun Ping nodded knowingly, and looked at the map of the capital city in front of him again.

In less than a few seconds, he noticed something amiss.

He pointed to the white dot above, then moved it to the black dot; the distance between the two was even shorter than he had imagined.

His divine sense instantly covered the entire capital city. Yun Ping transformed into a god, looking down upon the earth with absolute supremacy.

The two are very close to each other, as seen on the map, and that is indeed the case!

The personal guard that Chu Xin mentioned was less than one or two streets away from the hiding place where the Yin Sha was entrenched.

And it wasn't just one guard unit that was like this; at least half of the guard units were!

This is very telling.

Yun Ping withdrew his divine sense and returned to the courtyard. He stared thoughtfully at the personal guards on the map and said, "These personal guards, are they all from your Chu family?"

Yes, but to be more precise—

Chu Xin paused, as if what she was about to say would be unbelievable even to herself.

“They all belong to my eldest brother… Chu Aotian.”

The meaning behind Chu Xin's words was already quite clear.

It's Chu Aotian again... huh.

Unexpectedly, Chu Chenxi, that sharp-tongued little girl, actually thought the same thing as her third sister.

They truly are sisters.

Yun Ping tapped his fingers lightly on the table, narrowing his eyes. "You suspect there's something wrong with the Royal Guard?"

“Yes, otherwise there wouldn’t be such a terrible coincidence.” Chu Xin pointed to the black and white dots that were very close together, and then to the black and white dots that were farther apart, and said in a deep voice, “If they were all gathered together, it might arouse suspicion, so only about half of the personal guards were near the Yin Sha hiding place, while the other half were on duty, pretending not to know anything.”

"Intentionally used to confuse judgment...you mean that, right?"

Jiang Shaoguang nodded in agreement. As someone who had once infiltrated the Yin Sha's hiding place, his words clearly carried considerable weight.

“These hiding spots look very real. In fact, I’ve infiltrated two or three of them before. That Ten Fiends probably wasn’t lying to us.”

"In other words..."

Chu Xin continued Jiang Shaoguang's words.

She took a deep breath and said quite seriously.

“I now have reason to suspect that my elder brother might be the mastermind behind the Yin Sha, and that some members of the Yin Sha…”

"It's his personal guard that he deployed in the capital."

------

My condition is getting worse and worse, and I'm considering whether I should take a day off.

What do you say?

114. Too lazy to come up with a title.

Chu Xin had reason to suspect her older brother, Chu Aotian.

Yunping also believed that Chu Aotian had sufficient motive and means to carry out the assassination, and that it would be easy for him to use his influence in the capital to protect and hide Yin Sha.

After all, few people would suspect that the eldest son of the empire would be connected with the largest evil organization in the capital.

That being said—

Faced with Chu Xin and Jiang Shaoguang's series of deductions, Yun Ping simply took a sip of tea and asked, "So, after saying all this, do you have any evidence?"

"As for evidence... we don't have any yet." Chu Xin stared blankly at the map on the table, apologetic. "My brother's methods are more sophisticated than I imagined. So far, we haven't found any substantial clues."

"So what you just said was just pure deduction?"

“It’s at least a highly probable conclusion.” Jiang Shaoguang pointed to several black dots on the map that were relatively far from the palace, his tone low. “I went to these places where the Yin Sha were hiding some time ago, and all the clues there pointed to the palace.”

“There are clues in an area far from the palace that are closely connected to it… There must be something extraordinary about this connection.”

Yunping pondered for a while, not rushing to judge Jiang Shaoguang's words.

He lowered his head, his thoughts converging in his mind like countless fine threads. These silver threads, symbolizing thought, intertwined continuously, attempting to weave a curtain called truth.

He had long suspected that this incident was not as simple as he had imagined, and that the mysteries it contained were probably not limited to the information he had just received.

Imperial capital, royal tombs, Blood Emperor Gu, personal guard, Yin Sha—

And... a battle of all schools of thought.

As fragments flashed through his mind, Yunping raised his head, his eyes gradually revealing a complex expression that defied description.

He looked at Jiang Shaoguang and asked, "Wujing, how long have you been working for Chu Xin?"

"Wujing?" Chu Xin didn't understand the meaning of this word.

Jiang Shaoguang immediately explained to Chu Xin: "This is the code name my teacher gave me. I also have a second senior brother named Bajie—but I don't understand what this code name means."

"The main point is that your master is bald, and being bald can make people stronger."

Yunping casually made a joke and then steered the conversation back on track, "More importantly, what about the question I asked you earlier?"

Jiang Shaoguang said "Oh", recalling the scene of his first encounter with Chu Xin, "It was about two months ago. Not long after I left the courtyard, I met Princess Chu Xin."

"So the Yin Sha started to become active more than two months ago?" Yun Ping tapped the table and threw a few peanuts into his mouth.

"Not really." Chu Xin nodded. "The Yin Sha probably started causing trouble about a month ago. Perhaps it was because the battle of the myriad sects was about to begin, and most of the garrison forces in the capital had rushed to ensure the smooth progress of the battle, so they felt they had an opportunity to take advantage of it."

Having obtained the information he wanted, Yunping then looked at Jiang Shaoguang and suddenly blurted out a sentence.

"Since you've been working under Chu Xin for so long, and the name of the Black-Robed Swordsman has long been renowned throughout Yin Sha, why are you still standing here unharmed?"

Jiang Shaoguang couldn't help but give a wry smile, "Teacher, are you cursing me to die...?"

"Of course not~" Yunping chuckled, then said seriously, "If I were the mastermind behind Yin Sha, I would definitely try to get rid of you immediately. A potential crisis is gradually developing, which is a big problem for Yin Sha no matter how you look at it."

"But you're still standing here perfectly fine, without even a scratch..."

"Or rather, Wujing—have you been the target of any assassination attempts in the past month or so?"

……

Jiang Shaoguang paused, a look of disbelief on his face, and then shook his head.

The answer is zero.

Yeah, why?

Jiang Shaoguang was clearly a huge threat, but Yin Sha did not make a move against him.

why?

Chu Xin didn't understand, and even Jiang Shaoguang himself didn't understand.

Seeing their confusion, Yunping smiled and took a sip of tea. "The answer is simple: because it's impossible, or rather... it would expose my identity."

Chu Xin shook her head, her face still showing confusion. "Exposed...identity?"

But when she tried to ask further, Yunping waved his hand, showing no intention of continuing.

He smiled, a meaningful smile playing on his lips.

"That's all I can tell you. After all, I'm just guessing and I don't have any other evidence. It's not appropriate to use guesses to refute your guesses. Just listen to what I have to say."