"What in the world do you want to find?!" Duanmu Sen had a gloomy expression as he asked, unable to suppress the rage in his voice. If the other party didn't have his daughter, he would've already punched Gu Nan.
Void Cutter existences seldom valued familial ties, but this daughter of his was different… Anyone who raised a Void Cutter Realm daughter would absolutely treat her like a precious treasure!
"Ying Ge, do you know this name? It should be an item," Gu Nan answered while studying the Duanmu family's father and daughter with great interest.
One was beside him, and the other was slung over his shoulder.
Now that he'd seen their true bodies, it seemed these two weren't actually much different from normal people. Perhaps the ones they sent out to complete missions were all clones.
"I don't know!" Duanmu Sen suppressed his anger. "I can take you to the ancestral tomb and you can search it slowly, but can you let me take a look at my daughter first?"
He didn't forget that Gu Nan had critically wounded Duanmu Nianlan using the soul-cutting sword. He didn't even know if she was still alive right now, and even if she was, she might die any second.
However, Gu Nan just shook his head lightly. "If you want your daughter back safe and sound, then find what I want as soon as possible."
Gu Nan certainly wasn't stupid enough to hand over his bargaining chip. Furthermore, he wouldn't even let Duanmu Nianlan out of his reach.
The law of shadows wasn't enough of a guarantee, since it was possible for enemies to forcibly cut off his connection with it. Only the Evil God physique could put Gu Nan completely at ease and ensure that he could kill Duanmu Nianlan at any time.
Veins bulged out on Duanmu Sen's forehead, and he shouted furiously, "I don't know any Ying Ge at all. If you want to find something, just take it!"
Like hell he cared about some ancestral tomb. No one from the Duanmu family had been buried here for hundreds of years now, and normally, there wasn't even anyone to sweep its floors clean. The ancestral tomb was purely decoration.
What era was it now? People had long since stopped believing in earthen burials. Moreover, Shinto cultivator families had their own burial method.
Even if the "Ying Ge" the other party mentioned might be a treasure, so what? Can it be more valuable than a Void Cutter Realm daughter?
So Duanmu Sen's words were completely genuine. He dearly wished Gu Nan could find whatever item he wanted and leave quickly.
"Oh," Gu Nan responded, still taking his time searching through the cemetery—in fact, he wasn't deliberately being slow. Rather, it was just his customary meticulousness.
A top player's habit ensured that he must comb through every single detail when completing missions.
But unfortunately, Gu Nan still didn't find any clues even after completing a full circle around the cemetery while carrying Duanmu Nianlan. There was nothing that resembled "Ying Ge" here.
Even though Gu Nan held one item after another in his hand, the Evil God Temple didn't give any event completion notice at all, which meant that none of them were Ying Ge.
"What can it be? Right…" Gu Nan suddenly remembered that he seemed to have forgotten a rather useful person.
The power of shadows flashed in front of his eyes, and a figure was quickly formed—this was a pretty young girl, although her skin looked a little dark because she was a shadow servant.
"So it really was you!" Duanmu Sen's eyes seemed like they'd spit out flames again. This was his other daughter, Duanmu Yin.
Although he already expected this somewhat, it still felt terrible to see his daughter's killer summon his dead daughter after refining her into a puppet.
'Fortunately, she's not the most important daughter…' Duanmu Sen could only comfort himself this way. As long as Duanmu Nianlan still had any hope of being saved, he wouldn't turn on Gu Nan easily.
"This is the Duanmu family's ancestral tomb. Do you have any memory of Ying Ge?" Gu Nan asked.
Duanmu Yin was refined into a shadow servant through extremely delicate technique, so quite a few of her memories from before death were preserved, many of which came from Zi Yi.
A wisp of Zi Yi's soul possessed Duanmu Yin in order to lure Gu Nan to the Duanmu family's ancestral tomb, so perhaps she would know something about Ying Ge?
"I don't know of any Ying Ge…" Duanmu Yin shook her head decisively, which meant that she didn't even have an impression of these two words.
But then she added, "But I seem to know where to go from here."
...
The Duanmu family's residence really did look a little miserable.
Gu Nan's first sword was still alright, but he later fought Duanmu Nianlan. Both sides used the power of laws, and the collateral damage alone was enough to demolish everything around them.
Neither Zi He nor Jin Yi's expressions looked good. The Duanmu family's buildings were reduced to ruins, which felt like a heavy slap to their faces.
Actually, arriving too late wasn't the only problem. The fact that the Duanmu family's residence could be reduced to this sorry mess hinted at another possibility.
His injuries might not be as serious as they thought, and he might still have enough fighting power. Otherwise, how could he attack the Duanmu family?
And how could the Duanmu family's two Shinto cultivators just sit back and watch their family headquarters be flattened like this?
"It might not necessarily be Gu Nan." Jin Yi was silent for a long time, then finally found a reason, "Perhaps the Duanmu family just happened to encounter some other enemies…"
Not even she herself believed what she was saying, but Zi He agreed, "That's right. Let's search first."
It didn't matter what the reason was. What mattered was that the two of them were already here. If they were scared back without even being able to see the enemy's face after making such a fuss about coming here, then how would these two still have any face left?
It was impossible for Starry Ocean Pavilion to be unaware of the fact that they mobilized so much manpower and resources to surround Floral Jasper Star.
The fact that Starry Ocean Pavilion turned a blind eye to their willfulness here was actually a form of compensation in and of itself. If they went back with their tails between their legs, then they'd never be able to bring up revenge again.
"Um… May I ask, is this the Duanmu family's residence?" A voice came from behind the two and made them turn their heads back in astonishment.
It was a girl who looked very normal. They couldn't see anything unusual about her, be it her cultivation or anything else.
But the fact that she appeared here and asked such a question was abnormal in itself.
"Who are you? Why are you looking for the Duanmu family?" Jin Yi exchanged a glance with her companion and asked coldly.
"My name is Zhou Jingwen…" When Jin Yi fixed her stare on Zhou Jingwen, she felt like her heart was suddenly crushed by a heavy stone, and even her breathing became a little difficult.
Her rationally told her that she must never reveal Senior's existence, but the inexplicable pressure made her involuntarily tell the truth.
"It's a senior—"
"What kind of senior?" Jin Yi didn't even wait for her to finish and interrupted directly.
"A senior with only half a head."
...
Right as Zhou Jingwen reached the Duanmu family's gates and just happened to run into Jin Yi and Zi He, Gu Nan had also arrived at a strange place with three "people"—the Duanmu family's father and two daughters.
Shadow servant Duanmu Yin didn't lead Gu Nan to any place inside the ancestral tomb. Instead, she stopped at the door.
To be precise, she led them to the space underneath the door.
Boom!
Accompanied by Gu Nan's punch, a large hole was smashed into the ground in an instant, and the space underneath was indeed hollow.
The bleak moonlight shone inside. Gu Nan sent Duanmu Yin down first to scout ahead and soon confirmed that there was no danger inside. However, there was a little girl of twelve or thirteen years old.
Gu Nan's pupils couldn't help contracting when he saw this girl.
This face, he'd seen it before.
"Who… are you?" The little girl had big beautiful eyes, and her common language was a bit shaky. It seemed that she hadn't spoken in a long time.
"What's your name?" Gu Nan sidestepped the question.
"My name is Ying Ge."