Chapter 667: I'm Sorry

Hearing that familiar voice, I froze in place. Turning around, I met his gaze. "Leng Qingxuan? You haven't gone to bed yet?"

"How could I possibly sleep? Everyone went out looking for you..." Leng Qingxuan stepped out of the room, a look of disbelief lingering on his face. "It doesn't make sense. Why are you here?"

He glanced toward the end of the corridor and muttered uncertainly, "Did Daoist Master Xu Yan catch you and bring you back?"

"Daoist Master Xu Yan?" I raised an eyebrow, deliberately holding back the truth and feigning confusion. "That old Daoist has no grudge against me, so why would he capture me? He even gave me a red fruit before. I felt incredibly refreshed after eating it—that thing was definitely no ordinary item."

"Nonsense. How could a Qingcheng Thousand-Year Vermilion Fruit compare to an ordinary piece of fruit? Wait, don't change the subject." Leng Qingxuan rubbed his temples. "Daoist Master Xu Yan really didn't go looking for you?"

"No," I insisted, my expression entirely sincere.

Seeing my expression, Leng Qingxuan was dumbfounded. The situation wasn't what he had imagined at all. "Daoist Master Xu Yan's disciple, Xu Wugui, told me this himself. How could that be wrong?"

He couldn't figure it out, but he had inadvertently revealed another piece of information to me.

Aside from Leng Qingxuan, there was one other surviving sect cultivator: Xu Wugui, who had come to Jiangcheng with Xu Yan.

The young Daoist didn't look very old, around seventeen or eighteen. He hadn't experienced much of the world and lacked any real cunning.

"What exactly did Xu Wugui tell you? You called me in the middle of the night and scared me into thinking something had happened." I wanted to fish for more information about Xu Wugui. For this young Daoist to follow Xu Yan down the mountain to gain experience, there had to be something extraordinary about him. I was always very careful around potential enemies.

Leng Qingxuan smiled bitterly. "During dinner tonight, I felt the atmosphere was a bit strange. After eating, I went looking for Daoist Master Xu Yan to ask why. It turned out none of them were in their rooms. Only Xu Wugui had been left behind to guard Chen Jiuge's belongings. I immediately suspected that they had gone after you behind my back. To prove my guess, I badgered Xu Wugui for a long time until I finally pried their plan out of him. Then I tried to call you, but it kept saying you were out of the service area."

"You're probably mistaken. They never came looking for me." I slowly approached Leng Qingxuan, my voice turning increasingly steady as I layered in a touch of hypnosis. "Where is Xu Wugui right now?"

"He just ran out in a hurry and handed Chen Jiuge's Daoist scripture over to me," Leng Qingxuan answered casually, not suspecting a thing.

"Chen Jiuge's Daoist scripture is on you?" I looked at the parcel in Leng Qingxuan's hands. My Adam's apple bobbed as I slowly hid a hand behind my back.

"Yeah. Xu Wugui is young and just left his sect, after all. He lacks experience and his Dao heart is restless. He even claimed his master was facing a life-or-death crisis." Leng Qingxuan shook his head. "Xu Yan is the vice sect master of Qingcheng. Who in this little Jiangcheng could harm him? Who would dare?"

"You never know," I said with a smile. "None of you expected anything to happen to Chen Jiuge before it did, right?"

At the mention of Chen Jiuge, Leng Qingxuan's face fell, though he quickly regained his spirit. "Tomorrow, the Celestial Master from Xiao Zhuang Taoist Temple and the reinforcements from the Five Great Upper Sects will arrive. The murderer won't be able to escape."

"There are reinforcements?" My heart skipped a beat, and I played along with his words. "Is Xu Yan's group not enough to resolve this?"

Leng Qingxuan shook his head. "Murdering a direct sect disciple is a slap in the face to every orthodox occult tradition in the world. Even if only to make an example of them and deter other scoundrels, they will definitely punish the murderer severely."

"Killing just Chen Jiuge caused such a massive uproar. If someone were to slaughter everyone sent by the Five Great Upper Sects, wouldn't it trigger a massive earthquake?" I asked quietly, my guilty conscience acting up.

"That's impossible." Leng Qingxuan waved a hand with absolute confidence. "Daoist Master Xu Yan is a contemporary Celestial Master, and that mountain guardian of the Lingbao Sect, Lu Jingxiu, possesses terrifyingly high seniority. Both of them are practically old monsters. Even a fully mature Ghost Mother might not be a match for them."

"They're that strong?" I nodded and checked the time. It was two in the morning. "When will your reinforcements arrive tomorrow?"

As I spoke, I walked toward the surveillance cameras' blind spot.

"They're already on the way. I expect they'll be here by seven or eight in the morning. Lives are at stake; there's no time to delay." After finishing, Leng Qingxuan noticed I had walked away and looked confused. "Where are you going? Oh, right. What are you doing running over to Century New Garden in the middle of the night?"

Standing in the camera's blind spot, I beckoned to Leng Qingxuan. "Your investigation is heading in the wrong direction. The person who killed Chen Jiuge is actually someone else."

"How do you know?" Leng Qingxuan walked over subconsciously.

Only when he entered the blind spot did I relax. "Remember what I'm about to tell you. The murderer who killed everyone is called the Two-Faced Buddha. I don't know his real name, and even the title Two-Faced Buddha was just something I came up with. Their symbol is a Double-Faced Buddha Statue, and their main base should be in Xinhu City."

Ignoring Leng Qingxuan's astonished gaze, I continued, "You remember that ancient Fate Cultivation tome found on Chen Jiuge, right? Chen Jiuge was actually a member of that organization."

"What are you talking about? I don't understand at all. Chen Jiuge was clearly a disciple of Xiao Zhuang Taoist Temple..."

"Don't interrupt me. You just need to remember everything I've said." I told Leng Qingxuan all this simply to repay his favor. "Those people are incredibly dangerous. They are neither Buddhist nor Daoist, nor are they evil cultivators in the ordinary sense. They are a group of Fate Usurpers seeking to defy the heavens and rewrite destiny."

"Fate Usurpers?!" Those three simple words made Leng Qingxuan's entire face stiffen. He stood in a daze for two or three seconds. He was just about to say something, but I waved my hand to cut him off.

"Your phone call an hour ago really surprised me, so I'm not going to lie to you. I actually know who killed Chen Jiuge..." I pointed at a certain room behind him. "The murderer is staying right in that room."

Leng Qingxuan instinctively looked back, only to suddenly realize that I was pointing at the very room he had stayed in last night.

"It's... you?"

A knife-hand strike chopped down on Leng Qingxuan's brainstem. The instantaneous, heavy blow robbed him of all ability to resist. His brain spun, and his ears roared.

I had held back a fraction of my strength; otherwise, that strike would have killed a man outright.

Picking up the parcel from Leng Qingxuan's arms, I walked past him. In the brief moment we crossed paths, I saw his complicated expression.

"I'm sorry."

I walked away quickly. I didn't have any more time to spend apologizing.

Leaving Century New Garden with the parcel in hand, I didn't deliberately avoid the cameras this time. The moment I chose to confess to Leng Qingxuan, I had already exposed everything.

Jiang Chen was still standing guard in the lobby. As the heir to Jiangjin Real Estate, all he could do in front of sect cultivators was bow and scrape.

Noticing me walk out, he picked up his phone and muttered a few words to someone before retreating to the side. He didn't even have the courage to look me in the eye.

'He's finally wised up.' I ignored him. Taking out my phone, I called Onitsuka Ayaka. Upon learning that they were still staying at the Blues Bar, I flagged down a taxi and rushed straight there.

In late autumn, Nightless Street had grown far more desolate. I walked to the end of the block. The usually bustling Blues Bar now had a sign hung up declaring it closed for rectification. The night wind blew past, sending fliers and plastic trash fluttering across the steps.

"Is anyone here?"

A moment later, the door opened. A visibly haggard Onitsuka Ayaka waved to me.

"Why didn't you take Sakurako to a hospital?" I stepped inside. The chairs were all flipped upside down on the tables; the place had been closed for a long time.

"I took her to several hospitals, but every single one gave a different diagnosis. When I asked them for a concrete treatment plan, they said they needed to keep her hospitalized for observation for a while first." Onitsuka Ayaka leaned against the bar counter. Stripped of her alluring charm, she was just an ordinary woman.

I glanced around. All the alcohol behind the bar had been sealed away and was already covered in a layer of dust. "Did you quit drinking?"

"It suddenly feels very bitter. I don't want to drink."

"Can I go see Sakurako?"

"Mhm."

Led by Onitsuka Ayaka, I entered the bedroom at the very back of the bar and saw Sakurako. Her eyes were squeezed shut, and her expression was filled with unbearable pain.

The little girl lay flat on the bed, covered in a thick quilt. She still seemed to feel a bit cold, her body trembling slightly from time to time.

I crouched by the bed and gently held her small hand.

"I promise I'll wake you up."

"Her mind was severely traumatized. It's almost like she's trapped in a nightmare of endless reincarnation." Onitsuka Ayaka knelt beside me. Without makeup, she possessed a different kind of beauty—elegant and sorrowful.

I took out all the medicine bottles I'd stripped from Chen Jiuge's Daoist robes. "These pills soothe the mind and nourish the soul. They should be helpful for Sakurako."

Onitsuka Ayaka nodded and carefully put the bottles away.

"As for how specifically to administer them, ask this person. He'll tell you." I handed Blind Liu's contact information to Onitsuka Ayaka, gave her a few more instructions, and then stood up.

"Is there something weighing on your mind?" Onitsuka Ayaka looked up at me. It was the first time I had ever seen that kind of expression on her face.

"It's nothing, but I might have to leave Jiangcheng for a while. I guess tonight is my way of saying goodbye to you both." I forced a smile, waved to her, and turned to leave the Blues Bar.

I took a taxi back to Ting Tang Road. It was now three in the morning, and there were barely any cars on the road.

"The door's unlocked? Bai Qi?" When I left the food stall, I had Bai Qi return home first while I took a massive detour to shake off the plainclothes officers before heading to Jianghu Cancer Research Hospital alone.

I shouted into the house twice, but there was no response. Pausing at the door, I subconsciously glanced at the newly opened small restaurant next door.

At three in the morning, it was the only shop on all of Ting Tang Road that still had its lights on.

"Did you run into their restaurant again?"

I pushed the door open. Beneath the warm, dim lighting sat a few modest dining tables, and resting beneath one of them was a large yellow dog, lazily wagging its tail.