Chapter 1553: The Great Emperor of All Living Beings Also Becomes a Slave, Under the Fight Please the Holy Order

"Find!"

"Even if you can't find it, keep looking!"

"I'm giving you only the time it takes to brew a cup of tea. Gather every piece of intelligence on Lei Xiaoxiao, big or small—dig it all up for me!"

In the Yi Bu headquarters, Xi was pacing back and forth like an ant on a hot pan amid the flurry of busy figures. Finally, he slammed his command token down on the table:

"If your authority isn't enough, use this. If you still can't find anything, go ask around!"

"What happened in the Nan Yu back then was seen by so many people; there's no way the information could be completely sealed off!"

"Mobilize all your resources. Take down anyone who's still alive for questioning, and for those who are dead, dig up their graves and use spirit summoning... No matter how serious the situation gets, I want the first-hand intelligence, the truth or falsehood—give me an answer, got it?"

"Yes!" Not a single person in headquarters lifted their head, but their responses were perfectly in sync as they continued their frantic work, reaching out to the hard-to-penetrate Nan Yu.

"Chief, I have a question..." Someone raised their head from a pile of jade slips.

"Speak!"

"Why not just find Nian Shouzuo first? After all, Lord Xu told her to deliver the message, not us..."

"Are you an idiot?" Xi grabbed a handful of jade slips and threw them over, scolding:

"Even Xu Xiaoshou almost couldn't find Nian, so how could you track her down quickly?"

"If she really wanted to deliver the message, why would she vanish right after showing up?"

"She's clearly avoiding this mess and leaving it all to us!"

"Tracking her would still be easier than digging up old history, especially since it involves Lord Ai Cang Sheng..." Someone muttered under their breath.

Xi shot them a cold look, opened his mouth as if to retort, but ended up sighing deeply. His tone softened, just like how Dao Qiong Cang used to explain things to this fool, now explaining to all the fools around him:

"It's not just about delivering the message anymore."

"Lord Ai Cang Sheng is our Holy Mountain's last hope. Whether he has any ties to the Lei family or the Holy Slaves could affect the outcome of the war after Xu Xiaoshou leaves the ruins..."

"Yi Bu must get the first-hand intelligence and prepare in advance. Xu Xiaoshou's words revealed way too much information!"

"Maybe he's just bluffing us, using reverse psychology to pile on our workload!" Someone grumbled through gritted teeth.

"Yes!" Xi glanced at them, his expression stern. "But what if he's not?"

The entire Yi Bu headquarters fell silent.

Xi pointed at the ground and said gravely: "Since you chose to work here, we're here to guard against the worst-case scenarios. Dao Qiong Cang is gone now, so we have to rely on ourselves. If you can't handle it, pack up and leave!"

Dead silence hung in the air.

All that remained were the sounds of hurried hands at work and the constant hum of communication beads linking to the Nan Yu.

"Chief!"

Not long after, from the innermost room, a white-haired old man with a big beard emerged, holding a stack of jade slips. "We have results."

The whole headquarters paused for a moment.

In an instant, everyone went back to their tasks, though their ears were all perked up like a bunch of rabbits.

"Hit the key points. You know what I want to hear." Xi didn't have time to read through each jade slip one by one; he needed to report to Lord Ai Cang Sheng quickly.

"Yes!"

The bearded old man nodded, glanced back to glare at the several gossiping rabbits stretching their necks, and then continued:

"First, Lei Xiaoxiao is confirmed deceased, which happened before the Lei family's downfall, and revival is impossible. The Great Dao Eye did come from her, but it wasn't taken by force—it was a gift."

Xi let out a small sigh of relief.

"Second, from a bloodline perspective, Lei Xiaoxiao was Lei Xier's aunt, but she died before Lei Xier and her sibling were born, so we can rule out any close personal relationships... The chances of Lord Ai Cang Sheng connecting with the Holy Slaves through this are essentially zero."

Xi sighed in relief again.

"Third, Lei Xiaoxiao had a good relationship with the Lei family—in fact, you could say 'very good.' There are no stories of rebellion, running away, or any young lady drama. But she died before the family's downfall... During the period between her death and the Lei family's destruction, Lord Ai Cang Sheng's attitude toward the Lei family was... occasionally protective!"

A screech—

One of the rabbit-like agents behind him slipped off their chair, the wooden legs scraping against the stone floor with a chilling sound that made everyone's skin crawl.

Everyone jumped in fright.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry..." The agent who caused the commotion turned pale, grabbed their head, and buried it in a pile of work jade slips, not daring to look up again.

"Huff."

Xi took a long, deep breath, though his heart was still racing.

The thing he feared most had finally come to light!

The relationship between Lord Ai Cang Sheng and the Lei family...

Was it positive?

So, when he angrily drew his bow in the Sheng Huan Hall back then, was there even a hint of personal emotion in those arrows?

Xi felt numb.

He really didn't want to know or deal with the reasons behind it.

But he was the Yi Bu chief!

If that worst-case "what if" turned out to be true...

What if Lord Ai Cang Sheng really had secret dealings with the Holy Slaves, and Yi Bu lost the intelligence advantage...

"The Holy Emperor ambushed and betrayed?"

"Lord Xu ascending the mountain with Evil Sin's help?"

"Sword and arrow uniting to slay the Ten Elders?"

None of that even needed to happen. Just a sign of it, with Yi Bu completely unprepared...

Then he, as chief, would be guilty of negligence!

At that moment, Xi appeared calm on the outside, but inside, he was already crying his eyes out.

Oh, Dao Qiong Cang, save me...

My brain must be fried...

I want a new one...

A Tian Ji brain...

"But!"

The bearded man shifted his tone.

Xi's eyes lit up in an instant, like rising from hell to heaven, and he swung a slap backhanded. "Can't you just say it all at once?"

Wait, something felt off about this?

Why does this scene seem familiar?

With a smack, the old man's head snapped to the side, and he grumbled a bit aggrieved: "Chief, don't get too excited yet. This 'but' is pretty weak... But, while Lord Ai Cang Sheng did offer some protection to the Lei family, it was all within normal, reasonable, and completely appropriate bounds."

"He didn't abuse his position to give the Lei family special favors; he didn't skew resource allocations..."

"He just met with the Lei family head of that time on three occasions on the Holy Mountain, which was more than his total indifference to other factions..."

Three occasions?

Xi's heart sank deeper.

"But!"

The bearded man quickly added: "Those three meetings all had outsiders present; they weren't private, and nothing was plotted."

The Lei family didn't plot anything anyway—they were the ones who got wiped out.

Xi fell silent for a long while before asking: "Did we find any misconduct from Lord Ai Cang Sheng?"

"Absolutely none!"

The bearded man shook his head firmly this time:

"Everyone has something you can dig up—even Dao Qiong Cang pulled strings to make Number Two a divine envoy, so he has his flaws."

"Lord Ai Cang Sheng's Evil Sin Bow has saved countless red and white robes from peril in the past decades; he only has merits, no faults. He's as clean as can be, with no blemishes."

No one is perfect?

No! Lord Ai Cang Sheng is perfect!

In the bearded man's eyes, in the eyes of all Yi Bu intelligence workers, and even in Xi's eyes...

Everyone knew you couldn't find anything on Lord Ai Cang Sheng.

If there were even a hint of misconduct, he never could have held the position of one of the Three Emperors for so long, as an outsider with a foreign surname!

The heavens of Gui Zhe Holy Mountain could collapse, but Lord Ai Cang Sheng would never fall.

Dao Qiong Cang could defect from the Holy Mountain, but Lord Ai Cang Sheng was forever worthy of faith.

Yet Xi recalled a question he once asked while pushing Lord Ai Cang Sheng's wheelchair: the one he was loyal to wasn't really the Holy Divine Hall, was it?

"Setting aside logic..."

Xi turned to the bearded man. "What do you personally think? Would Lord Ai Cang Sheng betray the Holy Mountain?"

The old man raised his hand to his ear, his face flushing red:

"If Lord Ai Cang Sheng had any ties to the Holy Slaves, even just a little, I'd stand on my head and eat dung!"

"He said, 'Seven represents separation...'

"He said, 'The moon has no seventh night to gather, but people have the seventh night of tears in parting.'

"He also told us to relay to you that, considering this 'tears' character, it's not too late to abandon the darkness and seek the light."

Xi swallowed hard and lowered his head. "Those are his exact words."

Ai Cang Sheng gazed quietly at the sky.

Xi waited for a while in silence, then looked up, and for the first time, he saw such a clear look of "distraction" on Lord Ai Cang Sheng's face.

Those eyes, which only saw the Great Dao and no human emotions, were no longer cold or icy; they held incredibly complex feelings.

What kind of feelings were those...

Xi couldn't understand.

After all, he had never been in love.

The Emotion Sword Technique was already the hardest ancient sword art to master, and love was the most complicated of human emotions.

Tragedy made it even more so.

And that was just one part of the Emotion Sword Technique...

Xi's thoughts drifted to the horizon; his world was only swords. He couldn't enter Ai Cang Sheng's inner world.

"Do you know?"

Ai Cang Sheng suddenly spoke, his voice incredibly gentle and slow. "She once told me, if..."

He turned back and saw the wide-eyed, curious, eager face in front of him—one that was so young.

Ai Cang Sheng's gaze turned cold, almost murderous, before he finally spoke calmly:

"Have we found Dao Qiong Cang?"

Xi froze.

Wait, no! Go on! Keep going!

I was listening! Why, just like Dao Qiong Cang, do you stop mid-sentence?

This is torture!

"Not yet."

Xi had to get back to business, saying earnestly: "The Nan Yu has been unstable lately. We've looked into the surge of Tian Ji sorcerers you mentioned; it's mainly due to the rise of a 'Tian Ji Divine Cult.'"

Tian Ji Divine Cult?

Ai Cang Sheng's eyes flickered slightly.

Dao Qiong Cang had mentioned this group to him before, and they even discussed the future of Tian Ji arts because of it.

Dao Qiong Cang said this Tian Ji Divine Cult wasn't his.

He also said that because the Five Holy Emperor families suspected him, he secretly supported it to muddy the waters.

He mentioned that he'd been watching the development of Tian Ji arts in the Nan Yu for a long time and believed the cult's rise was inevitable, so he planted pieces in it early on.

And he claimed that the Tian Ji Divine Cult was his creation; when the time came, he would sink beneath the surface and rise again.

Ai Cang Sheng had no idea which of Dao Qiong Cang's flashy words were true, which were false, which were jokes, and which were serious.

But back then, he hadn't paid much attention because Dao Qiong Cang was handling it.

Now that Xi brought it up, all those memories flooded back like a tide...

Ai Cang Sheng instantly confirmed that Dao Qiong Cang was definitely connected to this cult—if something wasn't related, he wouldn't set up so much groundwork!

But...

Someone as clever as him, who had already submerged, would he dive into something as blatant as the Tian Ji Divine Cult, with a name that screamed for attention?

Ai Cang Sheng frowned, pondering without resolution, then casually asked: "Who's the leader of this Tian Ji Divine Cult?"

Xi replied seriously: "The latest intelligence says their cult leader is named Nangong Youshu."

Nangong Youshu...

A light of Great Dao patterns flashed in Ai Cang Sheng's eyes as he gazed toward the Nan Yu, searching for something.

Xi waited quietly; he had no idea what Ai Cang Sheng was thinking.

After a long while, Ai Cang Sheng withdrew his gaze, looked back at the sky, and said slowly:

"You said Dao Bu only has Yu Zhiwen as a true person?"

"...Yes."

"The others are all Dao Qiong Cang?"

"Yes, at least that's what Xuanji Dianzhu judged."

Ai Cang Sheng fell silent for a long time before saying: "Then, do you think the Tian Bang first-ranked Situ Yongren who fell in the Void Island battle for Dao Bu was a real person or a fake one?"

Xi's mind buzzed, and he froze in place, his pupils dilating repeatedly.

Wait...

This...

This?!

With so much going on lately—changing one hall master after another—Xi hadn't thought deeply about this.

But now, with that pointed out, it was terrifying to consider. Xi's hair stood on end.

He grew up alongside Situ Yongren...

They'd crossed paths many times on the Holy Mountain...

As one of the few outstanding peers, Xi and Situ Yongren even had their own little circle...

But!

Xi shuddered.

If even he was just a fake Situ Yongren, that was shocking enough—then what about that "one-man Dao Bu"...

"Your meaning is..." As Xi spoke, he made a decision: he had to go check on Yu Zhiwen at Dao Bu; hearts can be wounded, even killed.

Ai Cang Sheng said: "Nangong Youshu, Situ Yongren—don't you think these names are very Dao Qiong Cang-like?"

"They’re all Dao Qiong Cang?" Xi finally snapped back, his eyes full of disbelief. That Tian Ji Divine Cult too...

Wait!

The sudden surge of Tian Ji sorcerers in the Nan Yu...

"Pfft... Cough cough!" Xi choked on his own saliva. "Sorry!"

No way, right? One-man Dao Bu was bad enough, but a one-man Nan Yu too?

Xi felt a chill at the back of his head.

Dao Qiong Cang was gone.

Yet Dao Qiong Cang was everywhere.

Dao Qiong Cang was more terrifying than a nightmare!

He looked at Ai Cang Sheng, and even in Ai Cang Sheng's eyes, there was a trace of confusion, as he muttered to himself:

"But if it's that easy for you and me to figure out, is he still Dao Qiong Cang?"

Click—

Xi turned to stone on the spot, completely disoriented.

Yeah, if even I can see through Dao Qiong Cang...

Wait, what am I thinking? Who am I to...

"This must be a facade." Xi said confidently.

Ai Cang Sheng didn't speak; he just turned his head and gave him a faint glance.

"I take that back!" Xi broke down!

It was over!

Tonight's dreams wouldn't just have Xu Xiaoshou—they'd add Dao Qiong Cang too!

Situ Yongren? Nangong Youshu? Tian Ji Divine Cult? Dao Bu, Nan Yu, Dao Qiong Cang... Wait, is Lord Ai Cang Sheng staying here to guard the Holy Mountain also...

"Stop overthinking."

Ai Cang Sheng looked at the young man whose eyes were suddenly bloodshot: "Investigate the Tian Ji Divine Cult. No matter the outcome... no, you don't need to give me the outcome. Just hand over all the processes you find to me."

"Yes..."

Xi hadn't done anything yet and already felt mentally exhausted.

If it was that one laying the groundwork, did it even matter what Yi Bu uncovered?

All you'd get is what he wants you to see...

Xi scratched his head frantically.

Damn it!

More hair loss!

He looked up in panic: "So, we're not only fighting Xu Xiaoshou but also going head-to-head with Dao Qiong Cang?" Ah! Just kill me now!

It's not entirely impossible... Ai Cang Sheng pondered for a moment, a mysterious smile tugging at his lips: "As if fighting."

Xi nearly collapsed to the ground.

Don't joke! You can't possibly be Dao Qiong Cang too!

"How about we don't investigate?" Xi suggested sincerely. "Dao Qiong Cang once told me that if there's a sealed box and you don't know if it's dangerous inside, not opening it means it's fifty-fifty. But if you do..."

"It has to be opened eventually."

"But not touching it at least keeps us safe for now... We can't deal with Xu Xiaoshou and worry about fighting Dao Qiong Cang at the same time. We don't have the energy, Lord Ai Cang Sheng!"

"But we are the Holy Divine Hall."

These words left Xi stunned, with his response stuck in his throat; he could only stare blankly at Ai Cang Sheng.

Ai Cang Sheng gazed at the sky, at the Five Domains, and continued calmly:

"You're a Holy Slave; you can choose not to open Xu Yue Gray Palace's box, not to open Yan Wang's box, not to touch the ones you don't want to face."

"You can only do what's certain; you only open Void Island, only open Ran Ming ruins, gain benefits without risks."

"But as the Holy Divine Hall, you must prepare for every ripple."

"You shouldn't avoid the black boxes you don't want to open; you have to actively touch them all, even if opening one bites off your hand."

Ai Cang Sheng turned his gaze to the young man before him:

"You say that not opening the box keeps it fifty-fifty."

"But you're unwilling to consider whether, when Xu Xiaoshou steps out of the ruins and onto the Holy Mountain, Dao Qiong Cang might just seize the moment to lead the Tian Ji Divine Cult and lend a helping hand."

"Choosing self-deception over opening the box isn't avoiding a box in front of you; it's trapping yourself in a cage."

Xi's body shook, covered in cold sweat.

Ai Cang Sheng paused, glanced sideways into the distance, and said softly:

"True, the name 'Dao Qiong Cang' carries weight; if possible, no one wants to face it, especially not someone like us who's experienced his prowess."

"But even if I don't practice sword arts, I know..."

"The Heart Sword Technique isn't about seeing gods and Buddhas in the moment; it's about seeing no gods and Buddhas in the moment."

Xi's body trembled, his palms clenched tight with sweat.

Ai Cang Sheng didn't continue.

He realized that, after following Dao Qiong Cang, he had unknowingly planted a seed of doubt in his own heart!

"Thank you for the guidance, Lord Ai Cang Sheng." Xi was genuinely grateful, but then he thought about Yi Bu facing both the Holy Slaves and Dao Qiong Cang, and his spirits darkened again.

"We'll investigate the Tian Ji Divine Cult thoroughly!" Xi reported. "But what about the Zhan Shen Guan ruins?"

"Issue the 'Summon Holy Order'!"

Ai Cang Sheng waved his hand. "Throw all the available Semi-Saints into the Ran Ming ruins. We can't just sit and wait. Whoever kicks him out of the Ran Ming ruins is a hero."