The joint investigation by the Qi and Jing sides into Jiang Wang’s disappearance from Frost Wind Valley had now spanned a full seven days, involving nine major human cities, including Elder Yan’s and Tie Yan City.

One could say the surrounding thousands of li had been combed through with a fine-toothed comb. Yet, the enigmatic Real Person who had possessed Mei Xue Lin’s body, assassinated Jiang Wang, and repelled Ji Zhao Nan remained elusive.

It was true that a contemporary Real Person, if intent on concealment, was naturally difficult to uncover. Each Real Person carried their own legend, and concealing one’s cultivation was not a particularly arduous feat.

However, in both the current world and the Civilization Basin, Qi and Jing belonged to the ranks of the most formidable powers. When these two nations jointly demarcated a region and conducted a thorough investigation within it, it was almost impossible for even the slightest suspicion to evade detection.

Yet, after seven full days of searching, not a single lead had surfaced. This naturally bred a reasonable suspicion: Did such a strange Real Person truly exist?

Could it be that one of those guarding the demon realm had secretly intervened within the nine cities? On the surface, there were only three known contemporary Real Persons within this area: Jing’s Real Person Slayer of Calamity, Pei Xing He; Chu’s Great General, Han Que; and Mu’s royal family Real Person, He Lian Yu Yi.

Among these Real Persons, Pei Xing He’s reputation was already well-established, requiring no further elaboration.

Han Que was the commander of Chu’s right wing during the River Valley War. It was precisely his command of the collapsing right wing, leading to the rout of soldiers who then overwhelmed the central army, that caused Zuo Guang Lie’s audacious assault on Feng Yang Mountain to lose its strategic value, thus turning the entire war situation towards an irretrievable tragedy. He had miraculously survived the war, and after the defeat, he was stripped of all titles and entered the Myriad Demon Gate, vowing to atone for his sins with his life.

He had a son named Han Li, who was on good terms with Xiang Bei. Jiang Wang had once met him in Chu’s Huang Liang Platform.

He Lian Yu Yi was another contemporary Real Person from the Mu royal family, a pillar of strength for the Great Mu imperial clan. She was the direct paternal cousin of the Great Mu Empress and He Lian Yun Yun’s paternal aunt.

During the sustained conflict in Frost Wind Valley, both Han Que and He Lian Yu Yi had appeared on their respective assigned battlefields, leaving them absolutely no time to stir up trouble in Frost Wind Valley.

Although Pei Xing He wasn’t on the battlefield, he was at that time meeting with Qin envoys. Of course, the Qin people had no obligation to cover for Jing; on the contrary, the fact that this matter was openly discussed was sufficient to demonstrate Jing’s sincerity in clearing suspicions and avoiding strategic misjudgments.

From the Qin side, Real Person Gan Xie, responsible for the Qin demon realm battlefield, also publicly stated that the Qin envoys were sent to the major Jing cities to communicate on matters of jurisdictional border defense.

The strange Real Person remained unfound, while all the prominent Real Persons had evidence clearing their names.

Thus, after this round of investigation, everything remained stagnant, just as Xiu Yuan had anticipated. The mysterious mastermind behind the scenes had either vanished without a trace or escaped to the heavens.

Gao Ling City.

As one of Jing’s major northern cities in the Civilization Basin, Gao Ling City was far more magnificent than Tie Yan City. The straight-line distance between them was roughly eight hundred li, making them mutual strongholds.

“Esteemed sect,” Chu Zi Cheng, a little tipsy, remarked with considerable curiosity in a tavern, “regarding the recent incident concerning Qi’s Marquis of Wu An, I heard he was originally from your Zhuang nation?” Chu Zi Cheng, who hailed from Ji and cultivated in the Inner Mansion realm, still lacked a Divine Ability and in the foreseeable future, had little chance of acquiring one.

He was not outstanding among his peers, yet superior to those below him.

His outward identity was that of a talented individual from an ordinary family in Ji, who had risen through his own efforts, encountered extraordinary opportunities, and step by step cultivated to the Inner Mansion realm. He now served in Gao Ling City, toiling diligently to earn some cultivation resources—a common state for cultivators from many small nations in the Middle Domain, as Ji itself offered him no significant opportunities.

His true identity, however, was a member of Jing’s Mirror World Platform. He had been recruited at a very young age, secretly carrying out intelligence work under the guise of a Ji cultivator.

Sitting opposite him at this moment, drinking with him, was Qiao Jing Zong, an Inner Mansion cultivator from Zhuang, who ranked seventh among the rather interesting Eight Heroes of Xin An. At the beginning of the year, through the relations of their affiliated nations, he had come to the Myriad Demon Gate and joined the service in Gao Ling City. Naturally, Zhuang was now much stronger than Ji. However, merely relying on oneself to make a living after entering the Myriad Demon Gate was far from sufficient; one still had to depend on the mighty banner of Jing.

The two had intersected on the battlefield before and were acquainted, though not close friends. However, after several drinking and chatting sessions, they had become friends.

Friends from the beginning of the year were not particularly reliable. Often, the closer the friends, the more they knew how to hurt you.

After the end of a major war, still being intact and sound, his invitation to Qiao Jing Zong for a drink was perfectly logical. With the wine warming their ears and minds, chatting about recent hot topics was also natural.

Qiao Jing Zong was originally from Qiao. Seeing no prospects in his own nation, he had traveled far and wide to seek a new enlightened lord. He had indeed been highly regarded in Zhuang, even furthering his cultivation, opening his Inner Mansion, and being listed among the Eight Heroes of Xin An, ranking even higher than Zhuang native Jiang Liu Yue.

At this moment, he held his wine cup, his eyes hazy with drink, looking at Chu Zi Cheng: “What’s there to say about that person?”

Chu Zi Cheng raised his cup and clinked it against his: “In the Heavenly Prison World, life and death are commonplace. For people like us, how many don’t die on the battlefield each day? Who cares? Traditionally, there’s no shortage of prodigies who met unfortunate ends in the Heavenly Prison. It’s just that this Marquis of Wu An, this time, actually caused such a stir in Frost Wind Valley. It’s hard for me to suppress my curiosity. Let’s just chat casually.”

Qiao Jing Zong took a small sip, then also laughed: “I haven’t been in Zhuang for long, damn it! When I went, he was already gone. What the hell do I know?”

“Just chatting casually, you don’t necessarily have to have seen it or understood it,” Chu Zi Cheng said with a smile, “It’s fine to talk about what others have said. For example, how do the people of Zhuang view him?”

“How else could they view him?” Qiao Jing Zong said, “Dare to be angry but not dare to speak, right?”

“Oh?” Chu Zi Cheng asked, “What do you mean?”

Qiao Jing Zong hesitated, then shrank his neck somewhat cautiously: “I shouldn’t speak carelessly. The people of Qi are fierce now! Let’s not talk about this.”

“Brother, you’re like this, instead piquing my curiosity,” Chu Zi Cheng looked left and right, lowering his voice, “Quickly tell me! Where in this world would one be punished for idle chatter? Relax, Brother Qiao, the words you speak today will enter my ear and come out your mouth, absolutely no third person will know.” Qiao Jing Zong refused again.

Chu Zi Cheng persuaded him again.

Probably having drunk too much, Qiao Jing Zong finally grunted: “Actually, there’s nothing to say. You should have heard about the matters in Zhuang’s Feng Lin City domain? His proclamation was very famous. Many people in Zhuang feel that in the Feng Lin City domain incident, he was originally the biggest beneficiary. The previous mass killing of Zhang Lin Chuan and the uprooting of the Unborn Teach were precisely to silence them. Zhang Lin Chuan was from the same Feng Lin City in Qing He County as him, and even came from one of the local three major families. What was the Unborn Teach originally? Might not have been the White Bone Dao!”

“So that’s how it is!”

Chu Zi Cheng, of course, knew about these old topics among Zhuang’s high-ranking officials. But he still put on a shocked expression.

Then he said: “Then you should all be very happy about his recent incident, right?”

“Sigh, how should I say this?” Qiao Jing Zong said, “I haven’t been in Zhuang for two years. Seriously speaking, I don’t have any feelings for that big figure. I’m also not sure if the culprit in the Feng Lin City domain is not him. So I won’t talk about being happy or unhappy. But perhaps my colleagues are very happy?”

“That’s true, he doesn’t have any connection with you.” Chu Zi Cheng, in a drunken haze, added a sentence and conveniently poured him wine, suddenly thinking of something else: “Right, I went to find you for a drink at the end of last month, why weren’t you there? Made me go for nothing!”

Although Gao Ling City was a major city in the demon realm, there were still plenty of wine houses and gambling dens, allowing warriors who fought life and death battles a place to relieve their emotions. Soldiers during the war period were naturally in the military camps, their every action governed by military orders. During rotation, the city also provided dormitories. With Qiao Jing Zong’s cultivation, he could already live in a single room in Gao Ling City and was extremely free during non-war periods.

Qiao Jing Zong’s brows furrowed heavily with alcohol fumes: “End of last month? Which day?” Chu Zi Cheng, half-drunk, half-sober, vaguely said: “Can’t remember clearly. Twenty-eighth of the winter month? Twenty-ninth?”

“Are you too drunk?” Qiao Jing Zong pointed at him and mocked: “We were still in the military camp those days! Although we weren’t going to battle anymore, daily morning exercises couldn’t be skipped, and the curfew hadn’t been lifted. Where were you going to find me for a drink?”

The twenty-eighth of this year’s winter month was a relatively sensitive day; Qi’s Marquis of Wu An had disappeared from Frost Wind Valley precisely on this day. The current widespread investigation in various cities stemmed from this.

“Look at my memory!” Chu Zi Cheng patted his forehead: “I forgot about this! Maybe I went to find you a few days later. But I definitely went, and you definitely weren’t home!”

Qiao Jing Zong, drinking wine, smiled and said: “Brother Chu also knows I like to go everywhere to play money, and I’m not often at my lodging. Next time you look for me, you might want to say something in advance at the military camp. Otherwise, you’ll come back empty-handed and complain to me again.” Chu Zi Cheng was a senior intelligence officer of the Mirror World Platform and naturally wouldn’t keep staring at one topic, causing his target to become vigilant. Hence, he laughed drunkenly: “Then we’ll set a date. After the next round of war ends, if we can both survive, we’ll still come here for a drink!”

“Good!” Qiao Jing Zong nodded first, then shook his head: “No, not good!”

He narrowed his eyes, a bit slyly laughing: “Heh heh, I almost forgot, the court sent a letter summoning me back! I’ve had enough experience this year, I shouldn’t participate in the next round of war.”

Chu Zi Cheng was slightly stunned, then said: “That’s true! One’s head is tied to their waistband, and it can’t be tied for too long. A talent like Brother Qiao should be well cultivated by the Zhuang court. Come, Brother Qiao, I’ll toast you a cup as a farewell!”

“Brother Chu,” Qiao Jing Zong also raised his cup, sincerely saying, “When you return to the current world, come to Zhuang to find me. I’ll treat you to genuine Qing He fine wine and Dai Mountain venison!”

For those who often fought in the demon realm, this was undoubtedly a very sincere blessing.

Chu Zi Cheng was momentarily a little sentimental: “Unknowingly, I’ve been in the demon realm for three years. These three years have all been spent in Gao Ling City, looking through the tall and low buildings of the city. I’ve almost forgotten what my hometown looks like!”

His childhood in Ji, the secret training and assessment by the Mirror World Platform, and these years in the bright and dark lines of the demon realm—sometimes he couldn’t even distinguish who he was.

He tidied up his mood and clinked cups with Qiao Jing Zong: “Borrowing your auspicious words, I’ll struggle for another two years and then return to the current world. Brother Qiao will definitely be a high-ranking official in Zhuang by then, don’t forget me.”

“What are you saying? We’ve been on the battlefield together, that’s a life and death friendship. Who could forget whom?” Qiao Jing Zong raised his voice and said, “Come! This time, we won’t go back until we’re drunk!”

The two chatted and laughed, then bickered for a while. They spoke some nonsensical words, envisioned a bit of the future, and drank for a while longer. Then they patted each other’s shoulders and, with hazy wine intent, staggered away.

This was how peaceful a day in Gao Ling City was.

These were also how ordinary two human warriors were.

In front of the wine shop banner, two good men who had fought head-on with demon race on the battlefield walked their separate ways, dispersing at the two ends of the long street. One step was slow, the other staggered.

But as they turned their backs, Qiao Jing Zong’s eyes became very cold, and Chu Zi Cheng’s eyes were frighteningly bright.

Today was the seventh day of his foray into the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains. Jiang Wang gradually felt that the situation inside the mountains was becoming increasingly peculiar.

Starting from the previous few days, among the demon race who had entered the mountains, many had already formed demon soldiers. They swept through in teams, cutting down trees in swathes, strangling evil beasts, and clearing miasma.

What had happened on the Frost Wind Valley side? Jiang Wang only thought about this in hindsight.

It must be mentioned that the demon race language was truly too difficult to learn; its difficulty was no less than the Daoist Scripture of the Vast Sea. The demon race had too many groups and types, simply countless different kinds.

Although it was said that they very obviously had a unified language, the innate influence brought by their respective kinds could not be fundamentally eliminated. For example, the voices of small demons from the Feathered Race were generally very sharp, and the Pig Demons always spoke with a thousand strange and varied grunts, causing their language to always have more or less distortion.

These small demons could communicate with each other without problems, but for a good scholar who was learning the demon language from scratch, it was too much of a torment. He had met so many small demons these days, yet not a single one had the same accent! This led to the keen and diligent Jiang, who had studied diligently for so many days, still not being able to enter the door. He could only barely understand a few simple phrases.

“Waste,” “Go die,” “Kill you,” “Get lost.”

To learn any language, one must start by mastering its vulgarities—Jiang Jue Ye thought, this could also be considered a major discovery in linguistics. But the temporary inability to fully grasp the language did not affect Jiang Wang’s judgment of the current situation.

If the small demons who had entered the mountains earlier were more like free individuals carrying out some task—he was already ninety percent certain that the targets of these small demons were all those strange and bizarre insects within the mountains.

And these newly arrived demon soldiers were very obviously clearing the environment, eliminating hidden dangers, driving away idle and miscellaneous demon types, and collecting war materials—this smooth set of war preparations, any battlefield-experienced Marquis of Military Merit would be more than familiar with.

His war intuition had already sounded the alarm.

Those small demons who were not soldiers had been driven to more distant mountains and forests. This precisely explained that within this region, including Frost Wind Valley, a war was clearly about to erupt!

And it was definitely not the kind of small-scale elite mutual killing mode like before in Frost Wind Valley.

Near these Hundred Thousand Great Mountains, with whom could the demon race engage in a major war? The answer was self-evident.

In other words, the silent period of Frost Wind Valley had perhaps ended prematurely due to some accident!

Just as it had started prematurely under the influence of that mysterious person…

When making this judgment, a sense of indescribable emotion surged in Jiang Wang’s heart.

He knew that if a racial war truly erupted in this region, it would certainly have some connection to him.

Was the Qi army coming to save him?

Was it the will of that Great Qi Emperor?

Or even a major action by the entire Civilization Basin?

At this moment, he couldn’t know the specific situation, nor could he capture and kill several demon race soldiers to interrogate for intelligence, because the disappearance of army soldiers was easiest to detect. Which army, which department, which team was missing which soldier would be discovered at the latest that evening. Afterwards, with a slight trace back to the source, it would be very difficult for him to remain hidden.

His injuries were also far from healed at this moment. The treatment in the past few days had only resolved some surface wounds—for a Divine Arrival cultivator who was very difficult to injure, any single wound required consuming many precious medicines to heal. The injury medicines he carried were just enough for this. And with the injuries he had suffered now, to heal quickly, he needed to lie in the imperial hospital, use specialized methods and professional medical dao techniques to handle them, and even have a contemporary Real Person like the Imperial Physician order acupuncture.

At this moment, he lacked so many necessary conditions.

But he still made a bold decision…

He decided to sneak back to the vicinity of Frost Wind Valley, personally observe the situation there, and seek an opportunity to steal his way back to the Civilization Basin!