“The legendary entrance to the Little Cloud Realm is right here?”
Hearing this suddenly, the three party leaders were shocked.
Xiang Lanxuan and Tian Yu were relatively composed. Both sides knew that Yu Qing had appeared at Jianyuan Mountain before, and combining this with the Guan Fengyang ancient tomb, they had already suspected that Yu Qing had clues about the Little Cloud Realm.
The Sinan Office side had no idea Yu Qing had ever been to Jianyuan Mountain. Their presence here was purely due to being alerted by the other two families.
The process was both complicated and simple.
The three families’ intelligence networks were all extraordinary. News of the Flower Seeker appearing at the Wen Mansion in Ning Province naturally reached their ears.
But at first, only the Grand Enterprise Office of Yin Kingdom truly suspected Yu Qing was searching for the Little Cloud Realm. Because of Blue Ocean Shipping, the Grand Enterprise Office knew Yu Qing had entered the ancient tomb. Combined with A Shiheng’s family background, they naturally understood Yu Qing’s purpose in entering the tomb. They had thought Yu Qing was dead, but he had unexpectedly survived.
Yet none of these three forces failed to watch the other two. Just as the Sinan Office had schemed over Jianyuan Mountain, going through all sorts of twists and turns to arrange a Provincial Governor’s daughter’s marriage, they were still watched by the other two families.
The Flower Seeker appeared at the Wen Clan in Ning Province, and the Wen Clan suddenly suffered such a great upheaval. Blue Ocean Shipping became involved, which already attracted the other two families’ attention. If the relationship between Blue Ocean Shipping and the Wen Clan had merely been ordinary commercial dealings, it would have been fine. Or if Yu Qing could have been secretly found by Blue Ocean Shipping, that would also have been acceptable. But the problem was that Yu Qing was not so easy to find. The three martial brothers were not foolish, and they hid themselves all along the way.
Blue Ocean Shipping had limited manpower in Ning Province. There was truly no other way, so the Grand Enterprise Office had to secretly deploy large numbers of people to intervene covertly.
Although it was a secret operation, once large numbers of people were mobilised, it became very difficult to hide from the eyes of the Sinan Office and Qianliu Mountain.
Searching for the Flower Seeker could be explained as being for the Yin Kingdom Princess, but what exactly was the Grand Enterprise Office? Why would it alarm the Grand Enterprise Office to get involved?
For many years, these three great powers had been constantly infiltrating each other and planting informants. If any family lacked undercover agents from the others, that would have been abnormal. The other two families naturally mobilised their planted informants within the Grand Enterprise Office to investigate.
Even without this reason, the Sinan Office and Qianliu Mountain subsequently also intervened covertly in the Wen Clan one after another, all seeking to understand the situation from the Wen Clan.
This truly made the Wen Clan feel somewhat “flattered and alarmed”. They felt that the matter behind the scenes seemed far beyond the Wen Clan’s imagination. The Wen Clan’s new head, Wen Xin, had a rather simple and direct strategy. The current stormy waves were not something the Wen Clan could endure. As she said, they needed to extract the Wen Clan from this.
The Wen Clan continued pretending they knew nothing. If you came to ask, they would honestly tell the true situation.
Learning that Yu Qing had come to the Wen Clan to inquire about an ancient place name called “Shiji Bay”, and that the Grand Enterprise Office had also made its move, the Sinan Office and Qianliu Mountain immediately had their hairs standing on end. It would have been strange if they could have resisted baring their claws.
The eyes of all three families fixed upon Shiji Bay in unison.
Right at this time, an inside agent of Qianliu Mountain within the Grand Enterprise Office transmitted intelligence they had gathered, saying that Yu Qing and two others had disguised themselves as labourers and followed Blue Ocean Shipping personnel into the Jianyuan Mountain ancient tomb. Upon hearing this news, Qianliu Mountain immediately sent people to Jianyuan Mountain to verify the matter.
The only survivor in the ancient tomb was Liu Piaopiao. She was the first person they found, and they asked her whether she had seen those three labourers in the tomb.
Matters having reached this point, Liu Piaopiao had to admit she had seen them. She said those three were the ones who had revealed that Qin Jue was from the Jianyuan Studio. She just had not expected that after such a shocking transformation underground, those three could still be alive.
Even at this point, she still did not reveal that Yu Qing was the Flower Seeker, nor did she dare to say it, otherwise she would certainly have been held accountable for why she had concealed this.
It was also because of this, because she had confronted Yu Qing’s group of three and interacted with them, and could recognise the three, that she was directly taken away by Qianliu Mountain. The purpose was to be able to verify them when they were seen.
Jianyuan Mountain naturally had to ask how long this departure would take. After all, Liu Piaopiao was Jianyuan Mountain’s Great Chief Guard, in charge of Jianyuan Mountain’s defences, so they also needed to make proper arrangements there.
Qianliu Mountain could not say clearly about such matters. It could take a few months at minimum, or several years at most.
Qianliu Mountain could not be bothered with lengthy talk. They told Jianyuan Mountain not to weigh matters up, but to select another worthy person instead. As for Liu Piaopiao, Qianliu Mountain directly requisitioned her.
For such a vast Qianliu Mountain, arranging a replacement for Liu Piaopiao was too easy, and the replacement would only be better. So Liu Piaopiao could rest assured, she only needed to handle matters well.
Liu Piaopiao herself could never have dreamed of this. She had thought she would spend her whole life cooped up in Jianyuan Mountain, but she had unexpectedly been able to enter the demon realm’s holy land.
She was both alarmed and delighted. The delight naturally came from being able to enter Qianliu Mountain. The alarm came from not knowing what Yu Qing and his group were up to, and not knowing whether it would implicate her.
This was also the reason why Liu Piaopiao appeared here.
The Grand Enterprise Office searched for the Flower Seeker, so the other two families naturally also mobilised their strength to search. By the time their tentacles of power reached Shiji Bay, Yu Qing’s group of three had already passed by light boat and steadily hidden themselves in this mountain, letting the outside world search until the heavens were overturned.
However, the three martial brothers had still underestimated the terror of these three forces, or rather they had not yet gained a deep understanding of the three forces’ power. Their little tricks had targeted the wrong opponents.
Did they think that by hiding without leaving clues, they could not be found?
When strength reached a certain level, clues were not needed in certain situations.
Once the target area was locked down, their overt and covert forces were like a sieve, like a fine net, completely capable of passing through the entire area, at most spending a bit more time.
The immortal’s cave dwelling they had searched for over so many years was about to appear. The power the three families mobilised was truly terrifying.
If they could not find them at Shiji Bay, they would expand the scope, sieve repeatedly, pass through repeatedly, and refuse to believe they could not dig out the three of them.
To take a step back, unless the three of them never showed their faces in this world again, they would be pursued until death. Even what had been swallowed could be forced back out.
Just a few days ago, the tentacles of related forces began to reach this area.
People from the Sinan Office found Youma Town in the mountains, found the town’s residents to understand the situation in detail, and asked whether any suspicious persons had been discovered.
The mountain folk’s discovery of people riding wooden rafts from upstream attracted the Sinan Office’s attention, causing them to immediately gather a batch of manpower to come and investigate this area covertly.
This also counted as the Sinan Office relying on the advantage of favourable terrain. After all, this place was on Jin Kingdom territory, and even the local government offices had to cooperate with them.
At the same time, the demon realm’s deployed “mountain roaming beasts” and “sky patrolling birds” had also secretly searched this area.
The first to search for and discover the three martial brothers were precisely the demon realm’s forces.
The three martial brothers wandered on the mountain, cultivating there, thinking they could rest easy. Little did they know they had all been seen, and even been approached and investigated by birds and beasts.
With such forceful pursuit, even if they hid in caves without showing their faces, they could not escape it.
Wealth that did not match their understanding did not belong to them.
Even if they obtained it now, they might not be able to keep it.
When one side’s forces pounced, the other two families were immediately alerted, and so the scene before their eyes appeared. They were one step away from directly starting to snatch.
For Yu Qing, this was already the second time he had been surrounded and captured on a large scale. The first time he had failed to escape outside the capital city. This time he had fallen into the net again. He could only look up to the heavens, completely speechless.
“How can you be certain it is right here?”
Meng Po asked in puzzlement.
In fact, until Yu Qing spoke, the Sinan Office did not know Yu Qing was searching for the Little Cloud Realm, because they still did not know Yu Qing had entered the Guan Fengyang ancient tomb. A Jiezhang had been involved in many similar matters during his lifetime, so it was difficult to be certain.
It was purely sharks smelling blood and charging over on instinct.
Yu Qing could not think of any other explanation for the moment, and could only confess, “I saw Yun Xi in the Guan Fengyang ancient tomb. She was the one who told me. She said the entrance and exit of the Little Cloud Realm was on the highest peak among the mountain ranges. She did not know the exact location. She said that was her first time truly descending to the mortal realm.
She only remembered there were rapids below the mountain. After riding a wooden raft for about an hour, she saw a small town full of camellias. After drifting for another half day, she finally went ashore at a small town called Shiji Bay. She could not remember anything more specific. Too much time had passed. She only remembered it was within Ning Province territory. I searched according to this clue. At first I thought it was in Ning Province, but I searched and searched without finding it. Later I discovered that Shiji Bay had, in the long river of time, been shifted into Ao Province territory.”
He had to reveal this, otherwise he would have no way to make a coherent story for the series of questions.
That they could find Shiji Bay, he could already be certain the Wen Clan had betrayed him. This made his mood very complicated.
The three party leaders listened very attentively, looking as if they feared missing every single word.
After hearing this, Meng Po was shocked and doubtful. “You entered the Guan Fengyang ancient tomb? When did you enter?”
“Just last time. He disguised himself as a labourer for Blue Ocean Shipping and slipped in.” Xiang Lanxuan interjected lightly.
Meng Po grew even more astonished. “Then how did you escape?”
Yu Qing: “You did not experience the situation underground at that time. The heavens collapsed and the earth caved in. No one could have had an escape plan. We were scared out of our wits. In short, we drilled into any hole we saw. We ourselves did not know how we drilled out. Anyway, after we ran out, we left together with a group of guests who were being driven away.”
This explanation had been agreed upon with Liu Piaopiao at the time. Once discovered to be still alive, they would certainly need an explanation. Mixing among the driven away guests to leave was the best excuse.
Xiang Lanxuan: “Why did Yun Xi tell you where the Little Cloud Realm is?”
Yu Qing spread his hands. “How would I know? I met her but did not recognise her. She said she was Yun Xi, so I asked her where the Little Cloud Realm was, and then she told me. To be honest, I did not quite believe it myself. I felt it came too lightly. After coming out, I purely went with a try and see attitude. I rode a wooden raft drifting at the foot of the mountain to test it. Sure enough, after about an hour I saw a small town, and only then did I feel it might be true.”
Tian Yu swept a glance around. “This place, let alone my demon clan, the ancestors of your Grand Enterprise Office and Sinan Office who searched mountains and tread waves must certainly have come here too. Where would an immortal’s cave dwelling come from?” His gaze fell upon Yu Qing’s face. “If there really is an entrance, why do you not enter?”
Yu Qing sighed. “Yun Xi said the cave dwelling entrance would not open easily. Only at the midnight hour of the first new moon day each year, standing on this mountain peak, could one see the opened cave dwelling entrance. That is what she said anyway. I do not know whether it is true or false.”
The three party leaders now roughly understood why these three fellows were hiding here. It looked like they were waiting for next year’s new moon day to arrive.
Nan Zhu and Mu Aotie exchanged a brief sidelong glance. The two knew Old Fifteen had slightly held something back. There was one circumstance he had not spoken of. The two remembered Yun Xi had said that moonlight was needed to see the cave dwelling entrance.