Zheng Shuang Gou spoke, “If the Immortal Palace had not manifested, the three families would have secretly explored it. Furthermore, we were prepared to accept the Ning family.”

“The City Lord’s Manor actively sabotaged this advantageous situation; it makes absolutely no sense.”

Zhou Nongying’s gaze was profound, “No, it isn’t as simple as that.”

“Previously, when we explored the Immortal Palace, the City Lord’s Manor was at a distinct disadvantage. Meng Kui himself couldn’t enter the Immortal Palace, nor could his trusted aides, Chi Dun and Fei Si.”

“They were not superior at the Golden Core level.”

“Their only advantage was the somewhat greater number of Foundation Establishment stage mechanist cultivators.”

“In truth, it was your Zheng family who had the upper hand before!”

“The Immortal Palace was weakened by the explosion, and the criteria for recruiting cultivators were lowered, all the way down to the Qi Refining stage.”

“And within the Qi Refining stage, the City Lord’s Manor possesses an individual with immortal talent!”

“With the Lava Immortal Palace damaged, Meng Kui personally mobilized, stationed himself in the depths of the volcanic clouds, and sealed off the volcano’s peak. From then on, we were isolated, unable to enter the Immortal Palace to explore.”

Upon hearing this, the Golden Core cultivators fell silent.

Zhou Nongying was speaking the truth. From this perspective, the explosion of the Immortal Palace was entirely beneficial to the City Lord’s Manor.

Zhou Nongying continued, “The appearance of the Transmission Bell and the Trial Gauntlets after the explosion may have been beyond the City Lord’s Manor’s expectations.”

“But the reality is: currently, on the path of Spiritual Entry into the Immortal Palace, Meng Chong and the City Lord’s Manor’s Cultivation Improvement Squad firmly occupy the top ten spots on the leaderboards!”

“Perhaps, the path of Spiritual Entry was part of the City Lord’s Manor’s plan all along.”

“After all, the City Lord’s Manor discovered the Lava Immortal Palace many years before us.”

“If they obtain the Demonic Scripture, it will further prove that they know many secrets we are unaware of!”

Zheng Shuang Gou clenched his fists, indignantly saying, “That old fox is treacherous!”

“The Shadow Devil Cultivator is actually from the City Lord’s Manor! I even proactively pleaded guilty to the City Lord’s Manor for failing to guard properly.”

“Meng Kui didn’t blame me much at the time, and I even admired his magnanimity. Looking back now, it’s truly ironic!”

Zhou Nongying sighed, “Have our three families fared well since Meng Kui took office?”

“He is one of the Four Generals of the Meng family, renowned as a strategist. When it comes to playing tricks and scheming, we are no match for him.”

Zheng Dan Lian slammed his palm on the table, “That makes sense!”

“The City Lord’s Manor had long planned to destroy the Immortal Palace and had been plotting this for a long time.”

“They had long investigated and prepared for the aftermath. At this time, Ning Zhuo conveniently produced the mechanoid ape.”

“Chen Cha reported this to Fei Si. Perhaps Fei Si had a flash of inspiration and decided to utilize Ning Zhuo, to utilize the Mechanoid Fireburst Ape.”

“He secretly instructed Chen Cha to sell the mechanoid apes widely in the market. This way, when the Divine Enforcer investigates the true culprit using Root Tracing, he will face countless clues, wasting infinite time and effort.”

“If Lord Zhu ultimately discovers Ning Zhuo, then Ning Zhuo is also a member of the Ning family. In this way, the blame can also be shifted to the Ning family.”

Hearing this, Ning Jiu Fan coldly snorted, “That is Fei Si’s style; he has always been so cunning and vicious!”

Zheng Dan Lian continued to analyze, “Using Fire Essence to destroy the Immortal Palace also has its advantages.”

“With the City Lord’s Manor’s resources, secretly and extensively purchasing Fire Essence from the market, and then erasing the records of the purchases, is an easy task.”

“In fact, they don’t need to do that at all. Because they harvest Fire Persimmons every year, and Fire Persimmons are another form of Fire Essence.”

“They only need to manipulate the storage loss of Fire Persimmons each year to obtain a batch of Fire Persimmons. With slight processing, they become a large amount of Fire Essence. If they operate in this way, we have no way to investigate!”

Zheng Shuang Gou had been pondering and now revealed a puzzled expression, “Wait. There’s one thing I don’t understand.”

“Since the City Lord’s Manor destroyed the Lava Immortal Palace, then why did the Shadow Devil Cultivator reappear in Fire Persimmon Immortal City, pursued by Chi Dun? He could have simply retreated successfully; isn’t that superfluous?”

Zheng Dan Lian fell silent; he also couldn’t understand this point.

At this moment, Zhou Nongying laughed and said, “I understand! This is precisely the brilliance of the City Lord’s Manor’s plan!”

“Under Meng Kui’s rule, a Shadow Devil Cultivator appeared in Fire Persimmon Immortal City and even destroyed the Immortal Palace. This is detrimental to Meng Kui; it is a stain on his achievements.”

“At the same time, the Shadow Devil Cultivator is also the most obvious clue that will inevitably be investigated by the Divine Enforcer Bureau.”

“Therefore, the City Lord’s Manor arranged for the Shadow Devil Cultivator to reappear after destroying the Immortal Palace and confront Chi Dun in public.”

“Chi Dun chased him into the Fire Persimmon Forest, on the one hand, demonstrating the City Lord’s Manor’s ability and highlighting the incompetence of Fellow Daoist Zheng Shuang Gou; on the other hand, it created the impression in the public’s mind that the Shadow Devil Cultivator was opposing the City Lord’s Manor.”

“We didn’t know that this was actually just a play arranged by the City Lord’s Manor!”

“Chi Dun wanted to chase into the Fire Persimmon Forest and fight the Shadow Devil Cultivator but was stopped by Fei Si.”

“Afterward, Fei Si secretly released the Shadow Devil Cultivator. He is in charge of all the formations in the Fire Persimmon Forest, so this is extremely easy for him to do.”

“As for whether Chi Dun knew… I am familiar with his personality and tend to think that he did not know.”

“If he knew this secret, it would be difficult to hide, and his expression and tone would reveal flaws. Therefore, I boldly guess that this conspiracy should be led by Fei Si.”

Ning Jiu Fan also understood and continued, “It is precisely because the Shadow Devil Cultivator was released by Fei Si in advance that we couldn’t find this person in the Fire Persimmon Forest at all.”

“Even digging three feet into the ground, we didn’t find the slightest trace of him.”

“Throughout the entire process, Lord Zhu Xuanji has been using his Heavenly Gold Eyes to investigate. There is no reason why such methods wouldn’t be able to find a Shadow Devil Cultivator.”

“After this incident, the entire high-level leadership of Fire Persimmon Immortal City lost face. No one knows how the Shadow Devil Cultivator disappeared or where he went.”

“But it is precisely because of this that the City Lord’s Manor cleared itself of suspicion.”

Analyzing to this point, Ning Jiu Fan frowned again and murmured, “But why would the City Lord’s Manor kill Yuan Dasheng in broad daylight?”
Zhou Nongying smiled faintly, “Who would have thought that the death of Yuan Dasheng was orchestrated by the City Lord’s Manor?”

“I believe their assault on Yuan Dasheng was intended to create the illusion that the Shadow Demon cultivator was still present. This way, they could evenly distribute the blame amongst all of us.”

“After all, those present weren’t just the Golden Core cultivators from the City Lord’s Manor, but also the three of us, and even Senior Zhu Xuanji! None of us detected the Shadow Demon cultivator.”

“Besides that, the attack on Yuan Dasheng was undoubtedly for the demonic art scriptures he possessed.”

Ning Jiufan frowned. “Why rush to kill Yuan Dasheng in plain sight? If I were Fei Si, I would have been more cautious and chosen to act secretly after the Fire Persimmon Festival.”

Zhou Nongying replied, “Perhaps they only discovered the demonic art scriptures at that time. To avoid any complications, they seized the opportunity to act immediately!”

“Or perhaps, they had already discovered the scriptures on Yuan Dasheng and obtained them beforehand. The attempt to kill Yuan Dasheng at the Fire Persimmon Festival was to eliminate all traces and pull up the weeds by the roots.”

“However, what they didn’t anticipate was that this premeditated murder would encounter an unforeseen accident.”

“And that accident was none other than our Senior Zhu Xuanji.”

At this point, the gazes of Zhou Nongying and the others all turned towards Zhu Xuanji.

Zhu Xuanji nodded slightly. “At the time, I was moved by Yuan Dasheng’s loyalty and chose to reveal myself, personally intervening to save his life.”

“I remember clearly that when I demanded Fei Si open the defensive array, he was reluctant and unwilling to comply with my order.”

“I did manage to salvage a sliver of life for Yuan Dasheng. But in the end, Fei Si still succeeded in his plot.”

“He handed the identity token to Ning Zhuo, exploiting Ning Zhuo’s personal ambitions to send him forward. The latter went to the Monkey Gang’s headquarters, convincing Yuan Er to stand by and do nothing, which ultimately led to Yuan Dasheng succumbing to his injuries and dying.”

“Looking back now, this must be a minor flaw left behind by Fei Si.”

After a pause, Zhu Xuanji continued, “Yuan Er and Ning Zhuo were both present when Yuan Dasheng died. If the scriptures were exposed at that time, Yuan Er should have known.”

“Ning Zhuo immediately rushed to Chen Cha’s mechanical workshop with Yuan Dasheng’s corpse. By the time we arrived, they had already dealt with the essence blood.”

“In hindsight, we were just a step too late. Had we been slightly faster, perhaps we could have discovered something amiss.”

Zhu Xuanji sighed deeply, feeling a deep sense of regret.

If he had been just a sliver faster then, he wouldn’t have been kept in the dark for so long.

The three Golden Core cultivators fell into silence.

Because of the Shadow Demon cultivator incident, they had lost a great deal of face.

Now, looking at it, the truth was completely unexpected! It was the City Lord’s Manor pulling the strings, crying wolf while being the thief themselves.

Although the events at the Fire Persimmon Festival had caused the City Lord’s Manor to lose face, they had gained even more.

On one hand, they had cleared their own suspicions. On the other hand, they had also eliminated Yuan Dasheng.

“So, the City Lord’s Manor obtained the demonic art scriptures?” Zheng Danlian asked.

“This is a Golden Core level demonic art. We don’t know the contents, but as it was created by the venerable predecessors of the Three Sects, it must be an exceptionally excellent technique.”

When discussing the demonic art scriptures, all the Golden Core cultivators couldn’t help but reveal a hint of desire and curiosity.

“When exactly were the scriptures taken away?” they continued to discuss.

“Perhaps they were secretly stolen beforehand. Yuan Dasheng was, after all, a Fire Fusion Demon Ape. How would he dare to publicly announce the theft of his demonic art scriptures in a human Immortal City?”

“I lean towards it happening at the Fire Persimmon Festival. After all, Yuan Dasheng’s mistake now seems very suspicious.”

“Fei Si of the City Lord’s Manor has always controlled the array formation of the Fire Persimmon Forest. He was fully capable of disguising things, making us all believe that it was Yuan Dasheng’s mistake.”

“The explosion triggered by the mistake also momentarily obscured our vision.”

Zhu Xuanji suddenly said, “Do you know that Yuan Er also died not long after?”

“And after that, the entire Monkey Gang was forcefully subdued by Ning Zhuo, and now they are all his subordinates, helping him manage the Black Market.”

In an instant, similar thoughts surfaced in the minds of the three Golden Core ancestors – silencing the witnesses! Destroying all evidence!

“The City Lord’s Manor is trying to extinguish all traces.”

“Then why is Ning Zhuo still alive?”

“That’s right, if I were Fei Si, after devising so many plots, even if Ning Zhuo was just a pawn, even if Ning Zhuo was unaware of the details, he still participated in so much. For the sake of caution, I would still kill Ning Zhuo.”

Zhu Xuanji smiled slightly. “You all seem to have forgotten that not long after the Fire Persimmon Festival, the genius cultivators of your three families were all simultaneously assassinated.”

“Meng Chong was assassinated, but he perfectly dealt with his assassin.”

“Your three families suffered greater losses.”

“Ning Zhuo was also assassinated. His entire residence was blown up, barely escaping with his life.”

“At the time, I participated in the investigation, and a strange feeling lingered in my heart.”

“Now that I think back, I finally understand where that strange feeling came from.”

“The other genius cultivators were assassinated with刺殺 or poison, all of which are controllable methods.”

“Only Ning Zhuo encountered an explosion, a completely different method of attack from the others.”

“If the City Lord’s Manor was merely trying to delay the exploration progress of the other genius cultivators, then the killing intent towards Ning Zhuo was quite obvious. Clearly, they wanted to put Ning Zhuo to death.”

At this point, Zhu Xuanji scanned the room with his gaze and said, “I have now explained everything that needs to be explained to you all.”

“Now you should understand why I so ostentatiously went to find Ning Zhuo, right?”

The hall fell silent.

“Startling the grass to scare the snake.”

“Luring the snake out of its hole!”

Zhou Nongying and Zheng Danlian each spoke a sentence, simultaneously.