Qiguan Cheng Da was fuming. He couldn't believe this! He had attained heavenly spirit veins, become a disciple of the inner sect and it was only a matter of time until one of the elders would make him his disciple and yet a puny outer sect disciple dared to make him wait?!
He once again hit the wall next to him. He'd pay him back for this! He plucked another petal from the flower, prepared to write his honest thoughts down. Before his spiritual energy could even touch the petal, it flew out of his hand though.
Qiguan Cheng Da frowned and looked up. Not far from him stood a man in a black robe and curiously eyed the petal.
"Not bad, not bad."
"Who are you? What do you want?"
The man lifted his brows and slowly smiled. "I'm called Xiao Li. Naturally, I'm a member of the Hei Dian Sect. But don't worry. I won't give away that you're here."
Qiguan Cheng Da tilted his head. "What do you mean?" This guy was obviously a heretic practitioner. Shouldn't he be attacking him already? Why had he even waited until he was noticed?
"I saw quite a few of these petals flying around in our sect grounds. Strangely enough, they all landed on the same window sill."
"Oh? So you want me to rat out our spy?" Qiguan Cheng Da smiled. There was nothing he'd rather do more! But as soon as he told that guy he might really attack and he didn't know how strong he was. He had to observe him for a while and get a feeling for him before he told him anything.
Xiao Li smiled, threw the petal back at Qiguan Cheng Da and sat down. "No need to worry. I don't really care if someone is spying on the sect. Even if they got this one, there'd be another one soon. Maybe there are already a hundred spies in the sect. We'll never get everyone."
"Then what do you want?"
"Well, I'm actually interested in one of the people living in the house where that petal landed. Might that be the person you tried to message?"
"I've never been here before. How would I know where the houses are and who lives in them?"
"Mn, that's true …" Xiao Li narrowed his eyes. "It's a boy, about sixteen or seventeen years of age."
Qiguan Cheng Da slightly lifted his brows. That sounded a lot like Zhong Jing Yi. Maybe this was the chance he had waited for?
"Did you think of something?"
"Maybe. But how could I tell you? You're a heretic practitioner. You might try to kill him."
"Ah, I wouldn't do that. I'm just … tasked with finding out some things."
Qiguan Cheng Da stepped to the side, increasing the distance between them.
Xiao Li just smiled. "It's actually not about him but about the man he came here with. Someone I know is interested in why he would be with such a person. I want nothing more than to find out the reason."
"The man he came here with?" Qiguan Cheng Da looked at the flower in his hand.
Yu Jin hadn't said anything like that. But the only one this Xiao Li could be talking about should be the Grandmaster's disciple. Hadn't he proposed to Zhong Jing Yi? It would make sense for him to accompany him on such a mission.
Tch. So much for rejecting him. He had obviously just acted coyly to make a good impression before pretending to give in reluctantly. Now such a genius practitioner even accompanied him on this mission. Didn't that just mean that the Grandmaster's disciple would do all the work while he profited from it? The only thing he had to do was to lie down!
Don't think I'll let you get away with this!
Qiguan Cheng Da looked at Xiao Li and smiled. What was there to lose? If this guy was much stronger than him, then he wouldn't win anyway. If he told him, he could at least pull that Jing Yi down into hell with him. And if he wasn't … well, even better. He could escape unscathed while that boy would get his just desserts.
"The person you're talking about might be my Junior Martial Brother. He's called Zhong Jing Yi, an outer sect disciple from the Yun Zou Sect. He only has trash spirit veins but he somehow managed to entice that man you mentioned. That's Grandmaster Zhangsun's disciple, by the way."
"Oh?" Xiao Li rubbed his fingers against each other. "So he's from the Yun Zou Sect …" This was valuable information. He could use it to investigate further.
"Is that all you want to know about him?"
Xiao Li lifted his brows. "You know more?"
"Naturally. He was from some small village originally. You can get there if you follow the Long mountain range toward the south. It doesn't even have a name so you'll have to ask around for the Zhong family. The family head was Zhong Lei, he's already dead, though. In fact, nobody from that family lives there anymore. It was just that Zhong Jing Yi and his parents before. Then they moved to the capital. His mother should still be there, living with some relative of her husband. Tch, who knows what's going on there?"
Xiao Li grinned. He never would have thought that there were humans that could rival a demon's dark thoughts. This was actually a first. And this guy even openly admitted these thoughts now that he had started to talk.
"What's his mother's name? And that relative, do you know anything about him?"
"I'm not sure. But it seems that relative had some kind of business in the capital. You'll just have to ask around."
"Thank you very much. You helped me a lot." Xiao Li stood up and nodded. Indeed, this had really been a great help. Who would have thought that after searching for information for this long he'd get it delivered just like this?
Well, it seemed like he'd need to pay a visit to the capital if he wanted to find out more. After that, he could go and report to his king. Then, he might finally be able to return home.