Xu Lifen seemed to have wanted to say something, but they suddenly heard the sound of rushing footsteps and a man shouting.
They turned to look at the commotion with a frown on their faces.
"It was them!" A commoner pointed at the disciples from the maple passion pavilion.
"..." Fu Jie knew something like this was going to happen.
"What are you spouting, old man?!" The boy who had called the guards over at the request of Chen Qiao suddenly shouted, "Didn't they already say that it wasn't them?!"
The old man's face seemed to turn black as he glared at the boy, "Why would a thief say that he's the one who stole?! It was definitely them!"
The boy clenched his fist and Fu Jie almost thought that the boy was about to punch the old man but thankfully, the boy was mannered enough to not punch an elder, "It's clear that they were here to help! Since the guards are here, if they are guilty, they'll be punished!"
The old man was about to say something more but one of the guards suddenly stopped him,
"Let us do our duty. Stop arguing among yourselves."
The boy, "Believe me, they are completely innocent!"
"Pei!" The old man wasn't gonna back down this easily, "They were clearly the one who cut the dead man's body, and that man over there even poked holes into the corpse!" The old man pointed at Dai Xiaobo accusingly.
The guard looked over and asked as he noticed the unsheathed sword, "Did you cut the corpse?"
Dai Xiaobo nodded as he confidently replied, "Yes."
The boy and Fu Jie had the same speechless expression, "..."
"Did you poke holes into him?" The guard questioned once again.
Dai Xiaobo once again nodded, "I did."
This time, even the guards were a bit speechless.
"See! See! I told you!" The old man exclaimed proudly, "It was definitely them!"
The guards frowned as they walked over and asked the third question, "Did you kill him?"
This time, Dai Xiaobo shook his head in response, "We didn't. He was already dead when we found him."
"They are lying!" The old man accused them once again.
The boy scoffed as he looked at the old man in disbelief, "Why are you so adamant on this?! The guards are doing their duty, do you have to interrupt them?!"
The old man huffed and puffed but in the end, he still decided to shut his mouth up.
The guards were silent as they glanced in between the corpse and Dai Xiaobo, "Since you're from the maple passion pavilion, we'll believe you."
Fu Jie sighed in relief as he heard this.
"But," The guard continued, "We'll be asking you to assist us."
Dai Xiaobo nodded as he sheathed his sword once again, "Sounds good."
Xu Lifen also walked over and asked, "We are willing to help you, but you must tell us the information you have. Are you guys willing to assist us back?"
The guard they were talking to seemed to ponder over it for a minute before he nodded and agreed, "We won't hide anything."
Chen Qiao suddenly chuckled in a mocking manner, "Are you sure about that?"
The guard frowned as he looked at the man.
Fu Jie suddenly had the urge to stuff hay into Chen Qiao's mouth. Didn't this man not know when to shut up?!
Chen Qiao went and stood beside Xu Lifen as he asked, "How can we trust you?"
The guard didn't respond.
The atmosphere suddenly turned awkward as nobody dared to speak up.
Fu Jie chuckled to lighten up the atmosphere. If he had a fan in his hand, it would have been perfect.
"Let's not get worked up." Fu Jie interrupted in between the tense discussion, "We can talk about trust issues later. Let's just try to work together and catch the murderer!"
Chen Qiao glanced over at Fu Jie and smiled thinly before looking back at the guard, "We are really here to help."
"And your help is much appreciated," The guard responded.
"Is it?" Chen Qiao smirked, "Why do I feel like you're lying?"
"..."
The guard sighed, "Believe whatever you want."
After having said this, the guard gave an order to the others who surrounded the corpse and covered it up with a white-colored cloth.
Fu Jie nudged Chen Qiao as he scolded, "What are you trying to do?"
Chen Qiao didn't even bother looking at Fu Jie as he answered, "Testing the waters."
"Well, test it when I'm not with you! I don't want to be thrown in jail ag-" Fu Jie thankfully stopped himself from saying something that he would later regret saying.
It didn't look like Chen Qiao noticed the latter half of the word Fu Jie was about to say.
Xu Lifen, "We were right."
Fu Jie, "What do you mean?"
Xu Lifen, "They are hiding something from us."
Fu Jie, "Huh?"
Chen Qiao nodded as he agreed with Xu Lifen, "And it seems like they have no plan of cooperating with us."
Fu Jie couldn't understand half of the conversation but he still decided to act as if he understood it.
"So what are we going to do next?" Fu Jie asked.
Chen Qiao turned his head to look at Fu Jie with a mischievous smirk, "Wasn't there a birthday party? Since we are already here, let's go and enjoy ourselves."
"..." Fu Jie had the urge to ask the man if he was being serious.
A demon was after them and the guards weren't ready to cooperate with them. Everyone here seemed to be wary of them and the whole situation was weird. This man really wanted to go and party at such a time?!
Xu Lifen also smiled as she responded, "Let's go!"
Fu Jie snapped his head to look at her with an indecipherable expression. He thought senior martial sister Xu was more responsible than this Chen Qiao. Why was she agreeing with him?!
Dai Xiaobo also nodded and instead of saying anything, he directly started walking away, heading towards the mayor's house.
The guard looked at them and they bowed as if trying to take their leave.
They followed after Dai Xiaobo and the crowd that was covering the entrance suddenly moved away as if trying to make space for them.
The boy who had helped them call the guards and even stood up for them against the old man also moved towards the side and gave them some space, but it was different. The rest of the commoners had moved away because of fear whereas this boy had moved away because he respected them and didn't want to disturb them.
Chen Qiao suddenly chuckled as he stopped in his tracks and patted the boy's head, "What's your name, young brother?"
The boy's cheeks flushed red as he stuttered out, "Y-Yu Pengfei..."
Chen Qiao smiled, "Do you want to become a cultivator?"
The boy gulped and shook his head, "I wouldn't even dare to dream!"
Chen Qiao's smile didn't even falter as he heard this response, "Then I'll wait for you to take the test. Be sure to take the three tests of hell! I'm sure that you won't pass, but you should still give it a shot!"
"..." The boy said nothing and simply nodded as he looked down in embarrassment.
Chen Qiao continued to walk away with Fu Jie and Xu Lifen.
When they had finally managed to put some distance between them and the crowd of people, Fu Jie couldn't help but curiously ask, "Didn't he say that he didn't want to be one? Why did you tell him to take the test?"
Chen Qiao looked at Fu Jie and chuckled, "He was lying."
"Eh?" Fu Jie frowned, "How could you tell?"
Xu Lifen suddenly joined in on the conversation, "Didn't you look at the admiration he had? If he had no interest in the martial world, how would he know that we are from maple passion pavilion?"
Chen Qiao nodded as he added, "It is hard to tell the difference between the sects. The sky sect and maple passion pavilion have similar clothing, only someone who is well versed with the martial world would be able to tell the difference."
Fu Jie had noticed it before. It was hard to distinguish between the sky sect and the maple passion pavilion. One wore white and the other wore light blue colored clothes.
"Then why would he lie?" Fu Jie asked in confusion.
Xu Lifen looked at Fu Jie and answered, "He's poor and too old."
Fu Jie was about to ask 'how the hell is he old?!', but he stopped himself from asking such a stupid question.
He remembered that this wasn't the normal world.
In most Xianxia worlds, cultivators would start meditating and training at a really young age. If someone were to start cultivating after the age of fourteen, they were said to be old and their future in this cultivation path was going to certainly be unsuccessful unless the person was the darling of the heavens.
"Then why did you tell him to take the test?" Fu Jie questioned.
Chen Qiao smiled brightly, "Motivation!"
"..."