Xu Xiaoshou almost broke character.
This Shi Lian Guan was simply hilarious. Even a tough, iron-willed man couldn't withstand the adorable charm of the little girl.
Especially in this baseless, impromptu interrogation, he couldn't harm "Mu Xiaogong" in the slightest, had to be extremely careful with his approach, and still needed to extract the desired answers—it was utterly exhausting.
Of course, as someone professionally trained and experienced, Xu Xiaoshou found it hard to actually lose composure.
In this situation, he could still hold back.
"Black-clothed person... problem... uh... problem..." The little girl remained sprawled on the ground, mumbling incoherently, completely clueless.
Xu Xiaoshou, of course, couldn't just give away the answers directly.
Yi Bu was the head of intelligence operations; when interrogating a defenseless little girl like this, he would never leave any memories behind afterward.
Based on the soul memories Xu Xiaoshou had read from Yi, anyone subjected to Yi's interrogation was under his mental control, and even the strongest individuals would have little clear recollection of the process afterward.
And right now, Xu Xiaoshou was pretending to be "Mu Xiaogong."
With "Mu Xiaogong's" level of power, she couldn't possibly remember any details from the interrogation.
So, while feigning a dazed state, Xu Xiaoshou mumbled for a long time, only vaguely mentioning "black-clothed person" and "problem" as rough bits of information.
If he revealed the specifics of the interrogation now, the Shi Lian Guan in front of him would surely start doubting the authenticity.
Sure enough, seeing the little girl unable to provide any key details after all that time, the Shi Lian Guan fell into thought.
He knew that Yi Bu's leader had taken on Rao Yaoyao's task before interrogating Mu Xiaogong.
Putting himself in Yi's shoes,
If he were someone of Yi Bu leader's esteemed status, targeting a little girl like this, he certainly wouldn't allow her to retain any memories of the interrogation.
In other words, asking like this now was pointless; he wouldn't get any real content.
The Shi Lian Guan pondered this.
He knew from the start that he wouldn't get answers, but there were some indirect questions he had to go through as part of the procedure.
"Do you remember me?"
After thinking for a moment, the Shi Lian Guan used mental guidance to alter his image in the little girl's mind to the form Yi typically used—a little girl.
No reaction at all.
The little girl on the ground seemed to see a stranger and gave no response whatsoever.
"That's not the image Yi used..." the Shi Lian Guan realized.
He put himself in Yi's place again, considering what methods Yi would employ to interrogate the little girl in front of him.
First option: Normal interrogation—approach Mu Xiaogong as an ordinary Shi Lian Guan, ask questions straightforwardly without mental guidance, but that could easily lead to deception.
The Shi Lian Guan ruled that out.
Because he had just tried it, and Yi's little girl form was too cute, offering no help in the interrogation process.
So then...
Second option: Gentle interrogation—take on the appearance of someone close to Mu Xiaogong and probe indirectly to get the answers.
Thinking this way, the Shi Lian Guan used mental guidance to change his image in the little girl's mind to that of "Xu Shao."
This time, the little girl reacted.
"Wah... Xu Bang Gangzhu... give it back..." The girl on the ground was extremely aggrieved and started sobbing.
The Shi Lian Guan quickly ended the mental guidance.
If her emotions fluctuated too much, she might break free from the interrogation early or suffer severe mental damage.
"It's not Xu Shao either..." the Shi Lian Guan thought, soon coming to terms with it.
Mu Xiaogong and her guard Xiao Qing had appeared on another mountain peak after Yi's death, and Rao Yaoyao had shown him the Ling Jing footage when assigning the task.
Based on the earlier Yun Jing scenes,
The two of them clearly hadn't encountered "Xu Shao"—Yi's transformed "Xu Shao"—during Yi's interrogation.
Because if they had, given the girl's temperament, she would have caused a huge scene.
Yi's interrogation didn't last long; he left quickly and was then ambushed, leading to his death.
If Yi had transformed into Xu Shao...
He probably spent most of the time under mental guidance, apologizing to the little girl as "Xu Shao."
How humiliating for the Yi Bu leader!
From this, it seemed only one possibility remained...
Third option: Forceful interrogation—use a rough and exaggerated mental image to directly assault the interrogatee's soul, applying immense pressure along with mental guidance to quickly extract the desired answers.
Given the short duration of Yi's interrogation, this was the most likely method.
So, the Shi Lian Guan spoke in a gentle, adorable tone: "What did that person you met while you were out for a stroll look like?"
The little girl on the ground shuddered at once: "Tall... dark... devil..."
Just three adjectives.
The Shi Lian Guan immediately confirmed that Yi had used this method.
Only this approach could swiftly yield the answers he wanted.
And clearly, after getting his questions answered, Yi didn't find the results he suspected—meaning Mu Xiaogong had no issues—so he left directly.
After leaving, he encountered another ambush...
It had to be that way.
"He's not a devil; he's just a master, and not scary at all. See, he didn't even lay a hand on you, right?" The Shi Lian Guan first spoke softly to soothe her.
Once the little girl had calmed down, he asked again: "So, about how long did he question you? Do you remember?"
"Uh..." A wave of confused murmurs.
The Shi Lian Guan sighed.
This girl was nothing but a complete airhead; she was utterly useless except for being frustrating.
Yi probably vented a lot of his emotions on her, which is why his image in her mind went from nothing to these three adjectives: "tall," "dark," and "devil."
At this point, even the Shi Lian Guan was getting tired of his own hesitant demeanor. He could hardly imagine how the esteemed Yi Bu leader had been tormented by this little girl in his final interrogation before death.
"Is there anything else you remember from that encounter that you can add?" The Shi Lian Guan thought for a moment and followed up.
But all he got was more mumbling and humming from the little girl...
"Sigh."
After a long while, a helpless sigh.
The Shi Lian Guan ended the mental guidance, watching as the little girl fell into a true sleep, soon starting to snore.
"What a carefree mind!" he thought to himself.
He quietly dispelled the boundary domain, his body swaying as he vanished in a flash.
The interrogation seemed to end there.
"Mu Xiaogong" continued snoring on the ground, as if trying to recover from the exhaustion of the daytime battle and the mental trauma from encountering that "tall, dark devil" at night.
In the quiet little wooden hut,
This scene lasted for over half a quarter of an hour...
Until the information panel no longer showed "Under surveillance, passive value: 1."
Only then did Xu Xiaoshou, pretending to be Mu Xiaogong, open her bleary eyes.
"Huh?"
"Why am I asleep on the ground?"
"Wasn't I watering the flowers..."
Mu Xiaogong frowned, rubbing her swollen temples, seemingly suffering from a headache due to sleeping on the ground.
But with her simple mind, she didn't dwell on it.
She turned her hand into a vine and pulled herself along, too lazy to walk, and crawled straight onto the big bed, wrapping herself in the covers.
"No issues!"
Outside the Xu Bang camp tent, the Shi Lian Guan, hidden in the Heavenly Dao, silently observed everything and finally chose to leave.
Mu Xiaogong was completely normal.
Playful, mischievous, carefree, fond of throwing little tantrums... all traits perfectly matched the intelligence reports from Tian Shang Di Yi Lou.
Just as Yu Zhi Wen had thought,
After interacting with Mu Xiaogong, the Shi Lian Guan's conclusion was the same.
Tai Xu wouldn't go to such lengths, pretending to be an innocent and cute little girl, investing massive time in disguise before the Wang Cheng Shi Lian began: fighting in the Tian Luo Field, submitting to Xu Shao, shouting those embarrassing Xu Bang slogans...
All just to set up a deadly trap for Yi in the Yun Lun Mountains.
Not to mention that Yi had taken the initiative to seek out Mu Xiaogong for the task.
Even those embarrassing Xu Bang slogans and her desperate fight to reclaim the Xu Bang leader position made the Shi Lian Guan feel that no Tai Xu could come up with or shout such things.
Mu Xiaogong had her own unique characteristics in this world; people like her, with such a distinctive personality, were nearly impossible to imitate.
If one dared to guess boldly: "Mu Xiaogong is actually a gold-tier hunter from San Zhu Xiang, a Tai Xu level assassin!"
Then, it's possible the assassin went to great lengths to prepare everything, creating a perfect closed loop for the trap.
But there are still three unexplained points.
First, how did she gain Xu Shao's trust? Was it all plotted from their first meeting in the Northern Region?
Second, if not, was Xu Shao also part of the kill-Yi operation? But as a successor of a Ban Sheng force, he had no reason to attack someone from Sheng Shen Dian Tang. Others might not know the consequences, but a Ban Sheng would.
Third, how did Mu Xiaogong know that Yi would be attracted to her constitution? Assassins have specific targets; acting against outsiders requires extra fees and weighing the pros and cons. She couldn't have been pretending for so long just to kill whoever showed up, right?
That would be too reckless!
What if it hadn't been Yi who went, but Yi Bu leader Wang Da Chui? Would she have tried to kill Wang Da Chui?
She couldn't!
The trap that killed Yi must have involved special abilities targeted specifically at him.
There were too many elements in Yi's death plot that required advance planning: special people, special treasures, special abilities...
Only by targeting him relentlessly could there be even a slim chance of killing a Tai Xu in just a quarter of an hour!
It couldn't be that Yi coincidentally encountered a group of Tai Xu illegal immigrants wandering together, that their abilities coincidentally countered his, restraining his physical body, soul, mental power, and will so completely that he couldn't even send a distress signal, and it all just... ended?
Impossible!
Absolutely impossible!
This was way too coincidental!
Even a god couldn't guide a story to unfold like that!
Sheng Shen Dian Tang operated on evidence, and such a coincidental closed loop had no chance of happening.
The Shi Lian Guan never believed that a girl with Mu Xiaogong's personality could kill someone as hard to eliminate as the Yi Bu leader.
His personal theory was only one: Sheng Nu!
Or perhaps other dark forces with strength equal to Sheng Nu, who secretly orchestrated the plot, eliminated Yi, and then shifted the blame to Tian Shang Di Yi Lou to make a clean escape.
—That was the only explanation!
The Shi Lian Guan knew that Rao Yaoyao held the same view.
She had called him to verify, but it was just to ease her mind and hold onto a sliver of hope.
Now, that hope was shattered.
Mu Xiaogong's motives, strength, and presence at the scene... everything was severely lacking.
The Shi Lian Guan abandoned his original plan to continue.
His task originally included verifying Mu Xiaogong's wood attribute abilities and overall strength to check for any imitators.
But during the interrogation, the little girl's instinctive use of wood attributes and her habits like watering flowers and weeding had already resolved the issue perfectly.
No one could handle a Mu attribute imitator with such natural proficiency.
Even Yi had to study the person he was imitating for a long time— their habits, abilities, and details.
In the entire Xu Bang camp, perhaps only one person could perfectly mimic Mu Xiaogong's habits and wood abilities without extra effort: Xu Shao!
But he'd have to know in advance that he'd get an imitator years later, then spend a ton of time secretly observing his subordinate's daily habits, speech patterns, micro-expressions, and more, right?
If this were a young man's scheme...
How deep would his scheming have to be?
Using years as the unit of time to set up such a convoluted plot with nine turns and eighteen bends, ultimately targeting just one kill—and succeeding?
Terrifying to even think about!
Most crucially, Xu Shao had the most straightforward alibi—he stayed in the Xu Bang camp the whole time, never stepping out.
How to explain that?
"I suspect you, so you have to come with me?"
Such statements could be said to anyone under the heavens by Sheng Shen Dian Tang, but never to the successor of a Ban Sheng force!
How unyielding was Xu Shao? That was clear from how he forced Yu Ling Di to back down.
If such words worked on a Ban Sheng successor, Yi wouldn't have had to wait so long for a chance to interrogate Mu Xiaogong privately, wouldn't have secretly taken her away, and none of the subsequent disasters would have happened!
"There's one more target..."
The Shi Lian Guan had no intention of interrogating Xu Shao.
Xu Shao was not to be trifled with, and even Rao Yaoyao agreed on that.
What he still needed to confirm was the guard Xiao Qing.
A minor master with a bit of Tian Ji Shu was quite unusual, but as Xu Shao's protector in a Ban Sheng force, it made sense.
The interrogation began...
The interrogation ended...
Nothing out of the ordinary!
Wu Ji Laozu, whose full name was Xuan Wu Ji, wasn't some unfathomable figure like Dao Qiong Cang, but he wasn't someone a mere Dao Zhan realm intelligence operative could pry information from.
He ended up with his body destroyed and only his soul left because he was under a ban on fighting back.
Now, with his abilities intact and preparations in place, what could be extracted from him?
If anything could be gotten out of him, Xuan Wu Ji might as well slit his own throat!
"No abnormalities."
In the void, the Dao Zhan Shi Lian Guan, hidden in the Heavenly Dao, ended his two actions fruitlessly and sank into deep thought.
Summing up all the circumstances, his conclusion matched Yu Zhi Wen's.
Yi's death in just a quarter of an hour must have been due to a trap, and for the illegal immigrants in Yun Lun Mountains to pinpoint Yi's location so accurately, there had to be an insider in Sheng Shen Dian Tang!
He extended his spiritual sense toward the Xu Bang leader's tent; Xu Shao was resting his chin on his hand, dozing off carelessly, which fit his character perfectly.
"Should I give it a try?"
Whether mental guidance would work on a Ban Sheng successor or attract attention from his clan's Ban Sheng, the Shi Lian Guan wasn't sure; he only knew Xu Shao was not to be trifled with.
But for the mission, sometimes you had to risk your life to put out the fire.
Rao Yaoyao's task instructions didn't require him to interrogate Xu Shao, but as a subordinate, being activated by Rao Yaoyao at this moment, the Shi Lian Guan knew he had to show dedication.
He wasn't afraid of death.
What he feared was that the truth might lie in that one-in-a-hundred-thousand chance of coincidence!
"Buzz."
Just as he was about to risk it, the communication bead vibrated.
The Shi Lian Guan picked it up; it was Rao Yaoyao's communication bead, and he took it very seriously, answering immediately.
"Come back."
From the communication bead came a voice heavy with exhaustion.
"Qian Qian, I still have one last step unfinished. Give me another half a quarter of an hour..."
"No need to waste effort anymore." Rao Yaoyao interrupted.
"Why?"
The communication bead fell silent for a long time, filled only with static.
Finally, a voice suppressing anger emerged, weighed down with gravity.
"Wang Da Chui found remnants of Sheng Nu storyteller's Yin Yang Sheng Si power at the scene of Yi's death!"
[13 minutes ago] Chapter 1000: Xuanwu Gate
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