Phoenix's Requiem

Chapter 274: Murderer

Chapter 274: Murderer

“Why would Yi Qianying want to attract beasts over to attack her? What could she be trying to hide?”

Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo began to think along these lines for a motive behind Yi Qianying’s strange behavior. Suddenly, Yun Ruoyan’s eyes lit up. “What if she was trying to hide Guan Tianyu’s cause of death?”

Li Mo had arrived at the same conclusion. “If it truly is to cover up Guan Tianyu’s death, then that’s what we have to investigate.”

“Right—we can’t let Yi Qianying get away scot-free!”

Back in the northern college, in Rong Tianhai’s courtyard, Rong Yueshan, Yi Qianying, and Pei Ziao stood quietly around Rong Tianhai in silence, their heads lowered and their gazes downcast.

“If you’ve obtained the spirit descendant, then where is it now?” Rong Tianhai’s face was dark with anger.

“Third Uncle, we did manage to capture the spirit descendant according to your plan,” Rong Yueshan began. “However, we handed it to Guan Tianyu for safekeeping. In the night, when we were attacked by a large batch of wild and low-ranked beasts, we didn’t pay attention to Guan Tianyu—and he died to one of the beasts!”

“Master Rong, that spirit descendant likely escaped while the beasts were attacking Guan Tianyu,” Yi Qianying added quietly, as if afraid of angering Rong Tianhai further.

Rong Tianhai was indeed furious. He had spent an immense amount of effort trying to cook up a plan to obtain the spirit descendant, and he had only discovered it in the first place because of a stroke of luck. But when he finally had an opportunity to carry out his plan, something unexpected had happened and the spirit descendant had vanished!

If he didn’t catch this spirit descendant now, he might never have a chance to get one ever again.

However, this was only part of the reason he was angry: what made him more furious was that Rong Yueshan and the others had tried to pin the blame for Guan Tianyu’s death on Yun Ruoyan, and they had only revealed the truth when he pressed them!

“In that case, Guan Tianyu really died from a beast onslaught?” Rong Tianhai asked, his tone harsh.

Rong Yueshan and the others nodded their heads without speaking a word.

“You dare trick me and even the second elder?!” Rong Yuehai thundered.

“Third Uncle, Yun Ruoyan’s getting more and more arrogant. With Master Mo protecting her, if we don’t make use of this opportunity to incite the second elder’s wrath against her, we really can’t hurt her,” Rong Yueshan explained.

Rong Tianhai turned toward her. “Whatever method you use against Yun Ruoyan doesn’t matter, but did you really think you could fool the second elder?” Frowning, he continued. “The only reason the second elder hasn’t realized the deception is because he’s currently mired in sorrow at the loss of his grandson. When he thinks back to the situation more logically, when he investigates Guan Tianyu’s cause of death, he’ll surely discover something amiss!”

Rong Tianhai folded his arms across his chest. “What’s more, now that Li Mo’s gotten involved in the affair, do you think you can really fool them both? The second elder loathes being tricked by others—once he finds out about your lie, he’ll be the first to go after all of you!”

When Rong Yueshan found Guan Tianyu’s corpse, the first thing that had come to mind was trying to pin the blame on Yun Ruoyan. She hadn’t considered anything beyond that, and Rong Tianhai’s words were making her worry quite considerably.

“Third Uncle, what should we do?!”

“Master Rong, please help us,” Pei Ziao added. Although Yi Qianying didn’t speak, she was the most anxious of the three. Would the second elder really discover their lies? In that case, would he find out about her lies, too?

“Go back to your cottages first, and let me think about what to do.” Rong Yianhai sighed. “If need be, I’ll confess to the second elder on your behalf. In that case, you’d all better pray for his leniency.”

As soon as Yi Qianying returned to her cottage, she closed every door and window, then took out a pendant she hung around her neck. It shone brightly, as though it were merely an expensive ornament, but it was actually a very precious extradimensional storage space.

This pendant was part of the dowry provided by the Yi family when she became the crown prince’s concubine, and could be considered a family heirloom. Most such storage devices, just like the storage rings that both Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo possessed, could only store dead creatures. There were some that could also contain living creatures, like Yun Ruoyan’s silver bracelet, but these were far rarer. This gold pendant was one such treasure.

Yi Qianying placed the pendant in her palm. She closed her eyes and, barely moving her lips, caused a red pouch to appear seemingly out of nowhere. She opened the pouch to reveal a glowing, jade-green human-shaped plant—the spirit descendant that had allegedly gone missing!

Its eyes were tightly shut, as though it was sound asleep. Yi Qianying took out a pouch of powder. Using a little stick, she scooped out some powder and placed it directly under the spirit treasure’s nose.

Achoo!

The spirit treasure immediately sneezed loudly and woke up. As it opened its eyes, it tried to bite at Yi Qianying’s fingers, but she quickly snatched them back.

“You little brat!” Yi Qianying tugged on the pouch. “In order to steal you, I even killed Guan Tianyu! You’d better take me as your mistress, or I won’t go easy on you!”

Yi Qianying had plotted to claim the spirit descendant for herself almost immediately upon learning about it. Her cultivation was the lowest among her peers; even now, she was only an early fifth-rank blademaster. Neither did she have the requisite talent to proceed much further, and becoming strong through her cultivation alone was likely an impossibility. Although she was quite gifted at concocting all sorts of poisons, her inadequate cultivation prevented her from becoming a pillmaster or even a poisoner.

As a result, she felt an immense desire to obtain the spirit descendant. As its mistress, she would obtain the skills of a wild vine demon and the qualifications to become strong—and then she would be able to exact revenge on Yun Ruoyan!

Although Yi Qianying looked weak and innocent, she was cold-hearted and vicious. The moment that thought passed through her mind, she started plotting a plan that would leave her the owner of the spirit descendant.

When Yun Ruoyan blinded Guan Tianyu, Yi Qianying treated it as a sign that even the heavens were favoring her. That night, when the four of them returned to the treehouse to rest, Yi Qianying used one of her poisons to daze Rong Yueshan and the others.

However, Yi Qianying was unable to find the spirit descendant on Guan Tianyu’s body. She had to wake him up, then fake her voice while trying to force him to reveal the whereabouts of the spirit descendant.

Guan Tianyu was very tight-lipped, so Yi Qianying had no choice but to torture him. Guan Tianyu had been so coddled by his grandfather that he quickly gave in and handed the spirit descendant over. The moment he did so, however, he attacked Yi Qianying, who accidentally killed him in defense.

In order to hide what she had done, she sprinkled a beast-attracting powder over her unconscious group, and particularly over Guan Tianyu’s body, so as to give off the impression that he had been killed by wild beasts.

Neither Rong Yueshan nor Pei Ziao knew about this affair. When Rong Yueshan saw Guan Tianyu’s corpse, she naturally believed that beasts had somehow gotten ahold of him, and she had then come up with the idea of blaming Yun Ruoyan for his death.

Yet unable to tame the spirit descendant, Yi Qianying could only give up struggling after hours of fruitless effort. She stored its pouch back in her pendant, blew out the candle on her desk, and went to bed. The moment she did so, two shadows flitted from her rooftop.

Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo looked at each other, then flew off on Li Mo’s sword in the direction of the southern tower.

“Well? Have you found sufficient evidence to clear your name?” The first elder had been waiting on the roof of the southern tower.

“Not only did we find the evidence, we even found the true culprit,” Li Mo replied.

“Who is it?”

“It’s Yi Qianying!” Yun Ruoyan jumped in, explained what they had found during the expedition in the giant forest, then described what they had overheard on Yi Qianying’s rooftop. “We heard Yi Qianying herself say that she had killed Guan Tianyu for the spirit descendant!”

“What’s this about a spirit descendant?” The first elder sounded somewhat confused.

“Within the forest, I killed a wild vine demon,” Li Mo explained. “That spirit descendant seemed to belong to that demon.”

“We killed the wild vine demon, but they were the ones who found the spirit descendant…” Yun Ruoyan shot Li Mo a knowing glance.

“Yes, I suspect they’ve taken advantage of us.” Li Mo crossed his arms over his chest. “This is the first time someone’s ever tried to do so to my face—and even to try to frame my disciple. Quite interesting, isn’t it?”

Yun Ruoyan understood Li Mo well: his expression and tone might seem relaxed, but he was surely quite incensed. None of the students who thought themselves so clever at hoodwinking him would get away easily.

“I don’t think Yi Qianying was the mastermind behind this entire affair,” Yun Ruoyan said, thinking for a moment. “Based on my understanding of her, she doesn’t have the skill or foresight to craft such a delicate plan.”

“In that case, based on your deductions, there’s likely someone else involved behind this entire affair,” the first elder began.

“Right, or Yi Qianying wouldn’t have been able to claim the spirit descendant for herself,” Yun Ruoyan added.

“No matter who the ultimate culprit is, we’ll drag them out at the great hall tomorrow!” Li Mo exclaimed.

The next morning, as Yun Ruoyan walked out of her cottage in search of Li Mo, she met Zhuo Yifeng along the way. Zhuo Yifeng had been coming to find her; the students selected to participate in the expedition to the alternate dimension were exempt from classes and could spend their time as they wished.

“Zhuo Yifeng!” Yun Ruoyan saw his strapping figure from a distance. “Are you doing well?”