Chapter 461 - 467: Huo Family’s Pursuit

Just as she reached the gate, she happened to run into the Fourth Elder.

Seeing how rushed she looked, a flicker of confusion crossed the Fourth Elder’s eyes.

"Jin Chuan, where are you off to?"

he asked, a hint of suspicion already in his eyes.

But Song Wanning showed no signs of panic. After all, this was far from her first time pulling something like this.

So she simply shot him a look and said flatly, "I’m going to get revenge on those two. Don’t want people saying I’m heartless!"

With that, she flew off in a huff.

Watching her go, the Fourth Elder’s heart sank. After asking around, he finally learned the reason why.

’Huo Jinchuan has been proud since he was a child. Of course he can’t stand being criticized like that.’

’If he wants revenge, then so be it.’

’After all, he really does owe the Great Elder and the others.’

Soon, he put the matter out of his mind.

...

In the dead of night, an enraged roar suddenly thundered across the entire Huo Clan Territory.

Countless disciples were startled awake, and all eyes turned toward the source of the sound: the Treasure Pavilion.

A chill went down their spines. ’Could something have happened at the Treasure Pavilion?’

Several elders were so alarmed they instantly appeared outside the Treasure Pavilion.

"Seventeen, what’s going on?"

The Fourth Elder’s face was grim as he strode into the Treasure Pavilion.

Seeing that the Treasure Pavilion looked the same as always, the weight in his heart finally lifted.

The other elders, also scowling, began to look around. ’The Treasure Pavilion is layered with restrictive seals,’ they thought. ’It’s impossible for anything to go wrong.’

"Fourth Brother, more than forty treasures are missing from the Treasure Pavilion!"

The Seventeenth Elder’s face was pale with anxiety. He had just been performing a routine count of the treasures when he was horrified to discover that more than forty of them were gone.

Even the names of those treasures had vanished from the recording Jade Scroll.

’But I’ve been sitting right here! I didn’t see anyone suspicious. How could the treasures have been stolen?’

"What? Are you sure you counted correctly?"

The Fourth Elder and the others were shaken. They immediately took out their jade tokens, rushed past the seals, and began to take inventory of the treasures.

In the next moment, it felt as if their world was collapsing.

There really were more than forty treasures missing!

"How is this possible?!"

’There were no fluctuations from the seals being broken by force, otherwise we would have detected it long ago.’

"Could the treasures have hidden themselves somewhere? Let’s search again, carefully!"

Everyone felt the situation was utterly absurd.

With the restrictive seals and an elder on guard duty, a double layer of security, the treasures had still been stolen.

And it happened without a single trace, no less. It was completely preposterous.

Yet no matter how hard they searched, they couldn’t find the forty-odd missing treasures.

Their hearts sank completely.

"What in the world happened? Seventeen, did you abandon your post today?"

"Or did anyone unusual stop by?"

The Fourth Elder clenched his fists so hard his knuckles cracked. The priority now was to retrieve the treasures immediately.

The Seventeenth Elder shook his head. "I’ve been here all day. I never left, nor did I notice anything out of the ordinary."

"Besides, that brat Huo Jinchuan was the only one who came by today. But when he left, I scanned him carefully. He didn’t have a single treasure on him."

"He said he didn’t have enough points for an exchange and would wait until the Clan Leader returned."

In truth, he had suspected Huo Jinchuan at first, but he had checked him thoroughly and found no trace of any treasure’s aura.

"Jin Chuan told us about that this morning. He wouldn’t do something like this."

The elders had watched Huo Jinchuan grow up and had a decent understanding of his character.

Besides, Huo Jinchuan had no reason to steal from his own family’s treasury. What would be the point?

But the Fourth Elder’s eye suddenly twitched. He slapped his thigh. "Damn it!"

"I ran into that brat Huo Jinchuan on my way back today. He’d been goaded by the other disciples and said he was going to hunt down those two for revenge. He’s already left the Huo Family..."

He didn’t say the rest.

But everyone understood.

’He stole the treasures and made a run for it?’

"Damn it all, has Huo Jinchuan lost his mind?"

The Seventeenth Elder’s face flushed red. Huo Jinchuan had left right under his nose... This was a slap in the face!

"Where did Huo Jinchuan go? Do you know?"

"Go! We have to find him, now! If he really is the one who stole them... Heh, then Huo Yang can forget about keeping his position as Clan Leader!"

The elders were utterly enraged. They immediately decided on different directions and began searching for the departed "Huo Jinchuan."

Meanwhile, Song Wanning had already left the city, changed her appearance, and returned completely incognito.

She was now disguised as an ordinary, middle-aged female cultivator, bearing no resemblance whatsoever to Huo Jinchuan.

Standing by the window of her inn, she watched as several figures flew out from the Huo Family estate, hurriedly beginning a grid search of the area.

Song Wanning’s lips curled into a smile. ’Now that the treasures are in my hands, they belong to me.’

The thought had barely crossed her mind when a powerful Divine Sense locked onto her. It belonged to one of the Huo Family elders.

She immediately feigned a startled expression, her eyes wide with a mixture of fear and confusion.

The Divine Sense swept over her twice, found nothing out of the ordinary, and quickly moved on.

That night, countless cultivators in the city were targeted by the sweeping Divine Sense, startling so many that they were unable to fall back asleep.

By the next morning, the entire city was abuzz. All sorts of rumors were spreading like wildfire, most of them related to the wanted fugitives, Song Wanning and her companion.

After all, the affair had been causing quite a stir lately.

Song Wanning watched for a while. Once she was sure no one was paying her any mind, she joined the crowd leaving the city.

Now, she needed to hurry and find her main body and Baili Shang. Facing several Integration Stage Cultivators was an extremely dangerous affair.

She had to get there to help as quickly as possible.

...

"Clan Leader, are you sure they came here?"

The Ninth Elder had searched the area again and again but still hadn’t found the Light Gate the Clan Leader had mentioned.

The Fifth Elder, standing to the side, looked equally skeptical. They both suspected the pair were hiding somewhere in the dense forest.

Yet the Clan Leader had brought them directly to this cave and told them to search for a so-called Light Gate.

"I’m not one hundred percent certain, but it’s very close."

A flicker of malice crossed Huo Yang’s eyes. ’Those two will definitely try to find Huo Jinchuan.’

’After all, the map shows that Huo Jinchuan has been here this whole time.’

"Keep looking. Perhaps there’s some kind of switch we haven’t found yet."

’I saw Huo Jinchuan disappear into that Light Gate with my own eyes. This place must hold some kind of secret—perhaps even a great fortuitous encounter.’

But he couldn’t share these thoughts with the other two elders.

"Alright, we’ll look again,"

the Ninth Elder said with a shrug, getting busy once more.

Just then, the Communication Talismans of all three men activated at once.

Huo Yang looked down to see his Communication Talisman vibrating frantically. For some reason, the space between his brows twitched. He had a feeling this wasn’t going to be simple.

With a grim expression, he activated the Communication Talisman, only to be met with the furious, questioning voices of the Fourth Elder and the others.