Chapter 1712 - Forcefully Left Behind
After speaking, Liu Wuxie turned and walked out of the main hall. He didn't want to remain in the City Lord Mansion for even another second.
Chen An couldn't see through Liu Wuxie's thoughts, but he still followed him without hesitation. In any case, it was enough that the City Lord Mansion knew the Peace and Stability Merchant Association had saved the city lord.
"Young Master, you have exhausted a great deal of your energy to refine the pills, and it's already late at night. I really insist you stay in the City Lord Mansion for one night, and allow us to express our gratitude," Ye Linghan urged.
Several guards appeared in front of Liu Wuxie's group and blocked their path. Their purpose was simple. Although the treatment had suppressed the city lord's poison, no one knew whether hidden dangers still lurked within his body. They had to confirm that he was completely safe before allowing Liu Wuxie to leave.
"Is this how the City Lord Mansion treats guests?" Liu Wuxie asked, anger flickering across his face.
"Young Master, you've misunderstood. The Young Lady truly bears no ill intention," a guest elder from the City Lord Mansion replied as he stepped forward and politely gestured for Liu Wuxie's group to stay. Naturally, the guest elders all understood Ye Linghan's intention.
"It's fine. Let's make do here for a night," Chen An said, tugging Liu Wuxie lightly and signaling him not to argue further.
After traveling widely for years, Chen An had accumulated plenty of experience. He could naturally tell that keeping them here was no different from placing them under house arrest.
As for Divine Physician Wei, the guards had broken his legs and thrown him out of the City Lord Mansion. After all, his treatment had nearly killed the city lord.
Several guards escorted Liu Wuxie and the others to an independent courtyard, and two guards were stationed outside their gate. This meant Liu Wuxie's group could only move within the courtyard, and the guards would restrict them the moment they tried to step outside.
Everyone had been traveling for the past two days and had long since grown exhausted.
"Go and rest," Chen An said.
The five guards found a large room and went inside to rest, leaving Liu Wuxie alone in the courtyard.
Liu Wuxie entered the main hall and sat down in a chair, showing no intention of resting.
"Brother Wu, why are you so eager to leave?" Chen An asked.
Given how Liu Wuxie had treated the city lord, Ye Guhai would certainly thank them properly. Yet Liu Wuxie's attitude clearly showed that he wanted to distance himself from the City Lord Mansion as much as possible.
"Aren't you curious why a Nine-Tailed Heptabane Serpent would appear in the Dragon Burial Mountain Range?" Liu Wuxie replied. He didn't explain too much and kept his voice restrained in case someone was eavesdropping.
Chen An wasn't foolish, and horror quickly flashed through his eyes. "Are you saying that someone deliberately set up the city lord?"
The thought alone sent chills down Chen An's spine, and beads of sweat rolled down his forehead.
Liu Wuxie gave a slight nod. "This isn't something we can interfere with. That's why I don't want to get dragged into this mess. Leaving is undoubtedly the best option."
He knew the mastermind behind the city lord's poisoning definitely wasn't simple. If that person learned that he had treated Ye Guhai, they would surely come after him, and that was what worried him most. That was why he had originally planned to leave the City Lord Mansion, set off through the night, and depart Fourfold City. But that was no longer possible.
Chen An frowned, his drowsiness vanishing completely. He sat across from Liu Wuxie, and the main hall fell into silence as neither of them spoke. The Peace and Stability Merchant Association was only a small merchant association, and his adoptive father was merely an ordinary profound immortal. If they became involved in this mess, escaping unscathed would be difficult.
Bright lights continued burning inside the main hall. Ye Guhai had already dismissed everyone who was not related to the matter, leaving only his trusted confidants behind.
"Father, how did the Nine-Tailed Heptabane Serpent bite you?" Ye Linghan asked as she stayed beside him, constantly monitoring his condition.
The guest elders seated on both sides all turned toward Ye Guhai. They were equally curious about how the Nine-Tailed Heptabane Serpent had bitten the city lord. The Dragon Burial Mountain Range was not an ancient forbidden land, and many cultivators visited it for training. Logically, it shouldn't have produced a monstrous immortal beast like the Nine-Tailed Heptabane Serpent.
Just yesterday, Ye Guhai had entered the mountain range to harvest a certain spiritual herb. Who could have expected that the Nine-Tailed Heptabane Serpent would ambush him there?
"The Wen Clan ambushed me," Ye Guhai said.
"What?!" Everyone shot to their feet upon hearing this, including Ye Linghan.
An elder seated on the left rose to his feet, his face filled with fury. "City Lord, is that true?"
Aside from the City Lord Mansion, several major clans existed in Fourfold City, and the Wen Clan was one of them. The Wen Clan held a high position in the city and was no weaker than the City Lord Mansion.
"Although they acted with great caution, I still discovered them. I suppose they hadn't expected me to escape back to Fourfold City after being bitten by the Nine-Tailed Heptabane Serpent," Ye Guhai said with a sigh.
By the time he returned to the city, he had already fallen unconscious. The Wen Clan dared to act because they felt certain Ye Guhai would die after the Nine-Tailed Heptabane Serpent bit him. Therefore, even if others discovered their identities, they still had nothing to fear.
"Father, I'll slaughter the Wen Clan!" Ye Linghan said, ready to launch an attack on the Wen Clan immediately.
"Sit down!" Ye Guhai ordered, releasing his aura and forcing his daughter back into her seat.
The Wen Clan possessed formidable strength and also had a ninth-level Divine Immortal expert. Even if the City Lord Mansion mobilized all its forces, their chances of victory remained slim.
"Are we just going to let this go?" Ye Linghan asked frostily.
They were fortunate Liu Wuxie had been present to save her father. Otherwise, the consequences would have been disastrous. Without Ye Guhai, the City Lord Mansion would soon become a disorganized mob at the mercy of the Wen Clan.
"Let it go?" Ye Guhai smiled, and a sharp glint flashed deep in his eyes. "We need to plan this carefully. Tell me more about that young man. How did he know how to treat the Nine-Tailed Heptabane Serpent's poison?"
Ye Guhai naturally wasn't an ordinary figure, since he could occupy the position of the city lord. His injuries had not fully recovered yet, so this was not the time to clash with the Wen Clan. If they wanted to deal with the Wen Clan, they had to plan everything thoroughly.
Before long, someone handed a document to Ye Guhai. The steward had already organized the information on Chen An and the others.
"The Peace and Stability Merchant Association?" Ye Guhai murmured, a strange look appearing on his face.
He knew a little about the Peace and Stability Merchant Association, since it transported many of the City Lord Mansion's immortal beasts.
"Father, I have a feeling that this young man called Wu Xie isn't ordinary," Ye Linghan said as she rose to her feet, her delicate brows furrowing. For some reason, after only two short hours of interaction, she could tell that Liu Wuxie was far from ordinary.
"What makes you say that?" Ye Guhai asked.
He had only met Liu Wuxie once, so he naturally knew little about him. However, his daughter had traveled extensively over the years and also served as a mentor in the Azure Flame Dao Hall. She had seen countless people, and very few could catch her attention.
"I can't quite put it into words, but he feels unfathomable. He can remain composed even in the face of a life-and-death situation, and he's also skilled in alchemy. He doesn't seem like someone who has just come into contact with alchemy. Even some mentors in the Azure Flame Dao Hall cannot compare to him," Ye Linghan explained. She couldn't fully describe her feelings, but she sensed that Liu Wuxie's actions and bearing didn't match his age at all.
Ye Guhai frowned. "That is strange. Why is his background unknown? He only joined the Peace and Stability Merchant Association yesterday afternoon. Could someone have deliberately planted him in the City Lord Mansion to infiltrate us?"
The guards had investigated everything about Chen An and the others, but Liu Wuxie's information remained completely elusive. The only record stated that his clan had declined and that he had drifted here.
"That's impossible. If he wanted to infiltrate the City Lord Mansion with ulterior motives, he wouldn't have treated the city lord. This should be a coincidence," one guest elder said as he rose to his feet and shared his opinion.
If Liu Wuxie had been a spy planted by the Wen Clan, he could have watched Ye Guhai die instead of going through all the trouble to save him.
"Don't alert him for now. Treat them well. Give them some resources tomorrow morning and send someone to keep an eye on them," Ye Guhai said. He had always acted cautiously and would not let any possible clue slip by.
Half of the night had already passed. Liu Wuxie went into a room, sat cross-legged, and began cultivating with the Desolate Devouring Art. Without immortal stones or pills, he could only take one step at a time. At this pace, who knew when he would reach the High Immortal Realm?
Although the desolate world had become compressed, the amount of immortal energy it required had grown even more terrifying than before. When dawn arrived, Liu Wuxie ended his cultivation.
"Young Master Chen, Young Master Wu, the young lady has prepared breakfast. Please do us the honor of attending it," a guard invited them as he walked in from outside.
Chen An had already risen from bed and was cultivating in the courtyard. Liu Wuxie happened to walk out of the room at that moment, and Chen An turned to look at him, seeking his opinion.
After what had happened last night, Chen An had unconsciously begun following Liu Wuxie's lead.
"Lead the way," Liu Wuxie said, as though he had already expected this.
The group of seven followed the guard through a long passage until they reached a hall ahead, where servants had already prepared a banquet for them.
"Greetings, Young Master Wu and Young Master Chen. I apologize for last night, and I prepared this banquet early this morning as a gesture of apology. Please do not take offense to what happened last night," Ye Linghan said, rising to her feet and cupping her fists.
"Young Lady Ye, you're being too polite. We're only doing what we should," Chen An replied, trying to smooth things over as he took his seat.
The other guards were already starving and quickly began devouring the food.
Liu Wuxie merely picked up the wine cup and gently toyed with it in his palm. He noticed that Ye Linghan had looked at him at least five times, as though probing and examining him.
"Young Master Wu, thank you for treating my father's poison. I offer this cup of wine to express my gratitude," Ye Linghan said, emptying the cup in one gulp.
Liu Wuxie had no way to refuse. He could only rise to his feet and drink the wine in his cup. After both sides sat down again, the entire meal became somewhat dull. Once the guards had finished eating, they tactfully left, clearing space for a private conversation.
"Wu Xie, I'm full. I'll wait for you outside," Chen An said. He had only taken a few simple bites before greeting Liu Wuxie, nodding to Ye Linghan, and leaving.
Anyone could see that Ye Linghan had arranged this banquet specifically for Liu Wuxie, while the other guards had merely accompanied him along the way.
With a wave of her hand, Ye Linghan dismissed the guards stationed on both sides. They gently withdrew and shut the doors behind them.
Liu Wuxie looked at Ye Linghan with a playful smile. "Young Lady Ye, ask anything you want."
"You were in a hurry to leave last night because you guessed that my father's poisoning was a scheme from someone, right?" Ye Linghan asked. This was not their first meeting, and both had already engraved each other's appearance into memory.
"That's right," Liu Wuxie replied. Since Ye Linghan had already guessed it, there was no point in hiding the truth.
If someone else had saved the city lord, their first reaction would have been to obtain benefits. Liu Wuxie, however, had done the opposite, appearing eager to leave, which naturally drew Ye Linghan's attention. That was why she had forcefully kept him in the mansion last night.
