Volume 3, Chapter 355

Lin Xiu snapped the reins and drove the carriage at a hard gallop through the streets.

Lu Zhuxin sat inside, lifting the curtain to look out the window.

It was deep into the night, well past the city’s curfew hour. To avoid being tracked, they had taken an out-of-the-way route, and the streets were completely empty.

Chi Xiyan noticed the worry on Lu Zhuxin’s face and asked, “What is it?”

Lu Zhuxin let the curtain fall. “Sister, I am a little worried…”

Chi Xiyan sighed quietly to herself.

She leaned over and pulled Lu Zhuxin into her arms, ruffling her hair with fond indulgence. “There is nothing to worry about. Chi Jingwen has not detected us. We will make it out of the city tonight without any trouble.”

Lu Zhuxin lowered her head. Leaning against Chi Xiyan, she rolled her eyes.

“Sister… I am not worried about that. I am worried about Lan Shuang’er…”

“She has no idea what is happening, and we just left her behind.”

Every word of that was true.

Lu Zhuxin really was thinking about Bu Lianshuang. Specifically, she was thinking about how to go back and get her out.

Chi Xiyan went rigid. “…”

The arm draped around Lu Zhuxin’s shoulder slackened, going limp with something like defeat.

“She… will be fine…”

Her voice was small. There was no conviction in it.

The truth was that she had no way to bring Lan Shuang’er along. She had not had enough talismans to break through the restrictions on the abandoned wing.

And the Chi family’s abandoned wing was the place the family head used to confine and punish those who had done wrong. The restrictions there were unlike anything elsewhere in the compound. Chi Xiyan was not at all certain her talismans would work against that particular array.

“I understand, sister.” Lu Zhuxin’s voice was quiet and even. “I just feel a little unsettled… Give me some time.”

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Chi Xiyan looked at her, words rising and then dying unsaid.

She thought she could hear something distant in Lu Zhuxin’s tone.

Was it because of Lan Shuang’er being left behind?

But things had been fine before. Lan Shuang’er was an outsider. They were the ones who were sisters.

Had all of that been just words?

Chi Xiyan lowered her eyes.

She felt out of sorts.

***

The Chi family carriage raced along the empty nighttime roads. Meanwhile, on the other side of the commandery city, the Demon Suppression Bureau office was anything but quiet.

“My lord!” An officer reported to Wei Qingyu. “There is movement from the Chi family!”

“Word just came in. A Chi family carriage left the Chi residence under cover of night and is heading north through the city.”

“Oh?” Wei Qingyu’s brow lifted. “A carriage? Who would be leaving the Chi residence at this hour?”

“Chi Jingwen knows the situation his family is in. He would not leave at a time like this.”

“If it is not Chi Jingwen, could it be Chi Muxue? Has she learned that we suspect her and decided to run?”

“But was Chi Muxue not already placed under house arrest by Chi Jingwen?”

Wei Qingyu knew Chi Jingwen had a plan. He intended to force whoever was pulling the strings out into the open. That was why he had spent the last several days acting as though he had accepted his fate, taking no action of his own.

If the person behind all of this wanted the Chi family’s assets, they would never allow Lingxiao Sword Sect to seize them.

“Unless the one pulling the strings is Lingxiao Sword Sect itself.”

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Wei Qingyu muttered the thought to herself.

And Chi Jingwen had not told Chi Xiyan any of this. Because it was Chi Xiyan who had brought Chi Muxue home, he suspected Chi Xiyan was also part of the scheme.

But the situation unfolding now did not quite match what Wei Qingyu had been expecting.

“My lord, what are your orders? Shall I take a team and intercept the carriage?”

“Hold for now. Have someone tail it.” Wei Qingyu rose to her feet. “I need to pay the Chi residence a visit.”

Just as Wei Qingyu was preparing to head out with her people, she stopped.

Her head snapped up, eyes turning toward the distance.

“AWOOOO!”

A long, piercing wolf howl split open the night sky. The sound was deafening, jolting countless people awake from their sleep.

Wei Qingyu’s eyes narrowed.

Even from this distance, she could feel the demon energy surging toward the heavens.

The wolf demon that had been hiding in Beihe Commandery had finally shown itself. And by unleashing its demon energy like this, it had laid its position completely bare, as obvious as a bonfire lit in the middle of a dark night.

“My lord!” Her deputy could not help himself. “Are those wolf demons trying to provoke us?”

“A wolf demon that has been hiding in Beihe Commandery for this long must have had help,” Wei Qingyu said. “This is not just a provocation. It is part of their plan.”

“The appearance of that Chi family carriage is not a coincidence!”

“This is a diversion!”

“The Chi family’s situation really is connected to the wolf demons!”

Wei Qingyu’s gaze hardened. Her hand closed around the hilt of her blade and she was out the door.

“I will go and stop that wolf demon!”

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“Send a team to intercept the carriage!”

Her long blade cleared its sheath. The savage arc of blade light blazed against the night sky.

Wei Qingyu herself was like a drawn blade, hurtling toward the source of that surging demon energy.

Within the city protection formation, all escape techniques were suppressed, and she was no exception as the Demon Suppression Bureau’s inspector.

Even so, she could pour herself into her blade light and move with tremendous speed.

Wei Qingyu felt a creeping urgency.

If the wolf demon’s appearance really had been meant to cover for that carriage, it would inevitably cause chaos throughout the city.

What a Sixth Realm wolf demon could do to a populated area, Wei Qingyu did not want to imagine.

As the only Sixth Realm cultivator in the Beihe Commandery Demon Suppression Bureau, she was the only one who could stop it.

In the heart of Beihe Commandery’s main city, the Wolf Clan elder stood suspended in midair.

He held his beast staff in one hand and smoothed his beard with the other, demon energy pouring off him in torrents.

Sensing the fierce blade light surging toward him from the distance, he turned his head slightly, his gaze imperious.

“Here they come. The humans from the Demon Suppression Bureau.”

He gave his beast staff a slow spin. A wolf-shaped phantom erupted upward into the sky.

***

On the other side of the city, within the Chi residence.

Chi Jingwen was roused from his meditation by the wolf howl.

“Wolf demons? Why would they appear now?”

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His brow furrowed.

Lu Guan had been assassinated, and wolf demons had been among those responsible, which was how the Chi family had ended up smeared with the accusation of colluding with wolf demons. Now wolf demons had appeared again.

Chi Jingwen’s guard went up at once.

He pushed open his door and stepped outside.

“Someone go and find out what is happening.”

The words had barely left his mouth when a familiar blade energy entered the edge of his perception.

Wei Qingyu had made her move.

Chi Jingwen’s expression did not change. Catching demons was the Demon Suppression Bureau’s duty. With a wolf demon appearing, it was only natural that Wei Qingyu would act.

“The only question is who is behind that wolf demon.”

***

On the carriage, Chi Xiyan also heard the howl. Her eyes lit up.

“Heaven is on our side!” she said. “That wolf demon’s timing is almost too good.”

“It will draw everyone’s attention away from us.”

“Muxue, our luck is truly something.”

“It really is, sister. Our luck is wonderful. A wolf demon showing up to cover our tracks.”

Lu Zhuxin smiled.

Inwardly, she rolled her eyes.

“Miss!” Lin Xiu’s voice came from the driver’s seat. “Someone is following us!”