Chapter 2233: Repeated

Lu Yin's eyes flashed at Xiao Can’s response. "You’ve been imprisoned here because of the Root of Intelligence from back then?"

Xiao Can had already become numb to his situation, and he answered in a voice filled with pure exhaustion. "I was stupid, selfish, and too afraid of dying after arriving on the rear battlefield. I traded a Root of Intelligence for an early discharge, and another one for General Wang Xun’s protection. If I hadn’t been such a coward, I would have never been targeted by the Wang family, and I wouldn’t have been trapped here for the rest of my life. Everything’s my own fault."

Lu Yin then understood; Xiao Can had been targeted by Wang Xun.

Lu Yin remembered Xiao Can saying that he had traded a Root of Intelligence for three years of protection from the third array base’s General Wang Xun, and then he had traded another one for an early discharge from the rear battlefield. Xiao Can had successfully survived the rear battlefield, only to expose his wealth to the Wang family.

Wang Xun had not dared to attack Xiao Can on the rear battlefield, but he had immediately targeted the young man after his discharge.

Xiao Can had been desperate to escape the rear battlefield, but Wang Xun had likely been even more desperate for the young man to leave.

This was just how life played out. If Xiao Can had not been so desperate to save himself from the rear battlefield and had not done everything possible to obtain an early discharge, then his life would have gone very differently. While it was indeed quite possible for him to have died on the rear battlefield, he had since come to believe that such a fate would have at least been better than slavery.

Lu Yin was suddenly reminded of the word “karma.” Could such a thing be real?

Lu Yin stared at Xiao Can's departing back. If at all possible, Lu Yin wanted to save the man, not because of the Roots of Intelligence, but rather to learn about Xiao Can’s connection to Progenitor Hui.

How could an independent cultivator possess so many Roots of Intelligence? If Xiao Can were truly a descendant of Progenitor Hui, then regardless of any other details, Lu Yin would want to save him.

***

Far away in the Higher Realm, Wang Zheng arrived at the Celestial Frost Sect.

The Celestial Frost Sect had assigned an acting sect master by the name of Bai Su. He was not a member of the Bai family’s direct line, but was rather from a branch family. Bai Su could not compare to Bai Teng in any way. Regardless of why or how Bai Teng had become the sect master, he was still a five-tribulation powerhouse, while Bai Su was only a three-tribulation Envoy.

Elsewhere, such a person would be considered a powerhouse, but such strength was completely insufficient to hold the position of sect master in the Celestial Frost Sect.

If not for the fact that the Celestial Frost Sect had eligible nominees for quite some time, Bai Xu would have never been given that position.

Bai Su greeted Wang Zheng with a puzzled expression on his face. "Patriarch Wang Zheng, I hear that you’re recanting certain details that you shared about my sect master’s disappearance. Is that correct?"

Bai Su was not alone, as many of the high-ranked members of the sect had gathered, including even Semi-Progenitor Wu Yao.

Wang Zheng had a solemn expression on his face. He suppressed his suspicions concerning the Celestial Frost Sect targeting his son before speaking. "I remember that, when Long Ke returned to the Island of Hope, his eyes were dull. He seemed to not be in control of himself."

Bai Su was taken aback. "Are you certain?"

"Patriarch Wang Zheng, why didn't you say this before?" Wu Yao loudly demanded.

Wang Zheng replied, "I never considered the possibility. Long Ke kept insisting that he could not remember how he had returned to the Island of Hope, but I just assumed that he was trying to deflect questions. However, after I returned home and reflected on the matter, I realized that it is not impossible for someone who’s capable of robbing the Junior Progenitor Planets without disturbing the God of Food to also be capable of controlling Long Ke."

Bai Su and Wu Yao glanced at each other, and the other officials stared at Wang Zheng with clear doubt in their eyes.

The patriarch was suddenly bringing up details that contradicted his original testimony, but the man’s purpose was clear to see: he had come to prove Long Ke's innocence. Why? What could the White Dragon Clan have offered the Wang family in such a brief amount of time to convince them to change their tune?

There were certain things that Bai Su, as the acting sect master, could not openly say, but Wu Yao was under no such reservations. "Patriarch Wang Zheng, you’re changing your testimony. Why? Could the White Dragon Clan have bought off your Wang family?"

𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Wang Zheng grew furious. "Semi-Progenitor Wu Yao, do you realize what you're saying? You are slandering two of the four ruling powers! Do you think that the Celestial Frost Sect’s protection is enough to save you from my Wang family?"

Wu Yao's eyes grew cold. "You are clearly here for Long Ke, and there naturally has to be a reason for you to change your testimony in such a short amount of time."

"As I said, I realized that the dullness that I saw in Long Ke's eyes when he returned means that that he might have been under someone’s control. As for what you decide to do to Long Ke, I don't actually care. I’m just here to report what I saw," Wang Zheng snapped back.

Bai Su was facing a dilemma. Wang Zheng had previously been the primary witness in the matter, and his testimony had given the Celestial Frost Sect an excuse to arrest Long Ke. With Wang Zheng changing his story, there was no longer a justifiable reason to hold Long Ke. Bai Su felt like he was being forced into a reactive position by Wang Zheng’s words and that there was no way to keep Long Ke prisoner. Since when had the Celestial Frost Sect become so passive?

Of course, Bai Su was also not terribly concerned. He was nothing more than the acting sect master, and he had no ambitions regarding the position or of standing up to the Bai family’s direct line. Not to mention, Patriarch Bai Wangyuan was still alive, as well as the powerful Bai Xian'er who was also part of the direct line. Bai Su simply wanted to remain a puppet.

Wang Zheng remained a guest of the Celestial Frost Sect for two days, and he ended up leaving at the same time as Long Ke.

The Celestial Frost Sect had no choice in the matter. Wang Zheng had simply needed to recant his testimony to free Long Ke. Given the pressure that the White Dragon Clan and the rest of the four ruling powers was putting on the Celestial Frost Sect, there was no choice but to release Long Ke. As for any clues regarding Bai Teng's disappearance, the sect could only continue to investigate on their own.

Nothing had been done to Long Ke during his incarceration, as the Celestial Frost Sect did not dare to do anything to him without first gathering concrete evidence that he had attacked Bai Teng.

"Thank you, Brother Wang, for restoring my innocence," Long Ke said gratefully. The patriarch looked at Wang Zheng while feeling quite torn about the entire ordeal. After all, Long Ke had been arrested because of Wang Zheng, but he had also been freed because of him. It was all rather confusing.

"Brother Long, don't you find this entire situation a bit strange?" Wang Zheng asked.

Long Ke felt quite puzzled. "What do you mean by that?"

"I was the one who confirmed your connection to Bai Teng's disappearance, and I am now also the one who helped release you," Wang Zheng said.

Long Ke shook his head. "I am very grateful to you for speaking up for me, Brother Wang, but the Celestial Frost Sect will not truly accept that I had nothing to do with Bai Teng's disappearance just because of your words."

"I’m well aware of that. I would like to ask, have you suffered any hardships during your time in the Celestial Frost Sect?" Wang Zheng asked while staring at Long Ke.

Long Ke shook his head. "Aside from the necessary questioning, I was treated no differently from when I was their guest. I was even allowed to move around the sect, within reason."

Wang Zheng was stunned. Had the Celestial Frost Sect not tried to force Long Ke to give them the White Dragon Clan’s portion of the restriction method for Star Alliance?

Wang Zheng proceeded to ask Long Ke many questions, but Long Ke only ever had one answer: absolutely nothing unusual had happened to him during his confinement within the Celestial Frost Sect.

Long Ke intended to return straight to the White Dragon Clan, but that changed after he learned that Long Tian was still a guest of the Wang family. On top of that, Wang Zheng also shared the conjectures that Shenwu's Sky and the White Dragon Clan had come to regarding the Celestial Frost Sect.

Long Ke's expression turned quite ugly when he heard the suspicions. "The only thing that I’ll say is that not even Semi-Progenitor Ni Huang could have kidnapped Bai Teng without the God of Food noticing. It would have taken a Progenitor to pull that off. However, if the Celestial Frost Sect is actually behind their sect master’s disappearance, then that would explain it."

"Brother Long, you just said that the Celestial Frost Sect didn't do anything to you, but I’m not sure if that’s true," Wang Zheng commented.

Long Ke quickly replied, "I was definitely being controlled. I don't remember how I got back to the Island of Hope at all. Are you saying that I may have been controlled while in the Celestial Frost Sect?"

Wang Zheng was unsure whether or not Long Ke had ever actually been controlled by someone. He had said whatever he needed to force the Celestial Frost Sect to get Long Ke released as quickly as possible. However, it seemed that Long Ke had truly been under someone’s control. If that was the case, then the man must have also been controlled while he was in the Celestial Frost Sect. That would explain their treatment of him, and it would also explain why Long Ke himself was ignorant of the matter.

Furthermore, this possibility explained why the Celestial Frost Sect had been willing to release Long Ke at all: the White Dragon Clan’s patriarch had already exhausted his usefulness.

One conjecture had essentially been verified, and this suggested that the rest of the guesses were true as well.

This was something that Lu Yin understood quite well, as Wei Rong had explained this concept to him before. At the time, Lu Yin had not really considered the comment, but he had come to take it quite seriously.

When Wang Zheng returned to his family’s home, chatting away with Long Ke, Lu Yin could see that the men already believed that the Celestial Frost Sect was the culprit behind everything. There was no need for Lu Yin to say another word.

"If we are right and the Celestial Frost Sect is only missing my Wang family’s portion of the restrictions, then they will definitely do their best to come after me. What do the White Dragon Clan and Shenwu’s Sky intend to do now?" Wang Zheng asked.

Long Ke looked over at “Xia Yuan.”

Lu Yin coughed. "This is something for those higher than me to decide. In this matter, I’m simply the messenger."

Long Ke said, "There are many Envoys in Star Alliance. There are at least twenty more than the ones that have been sent to the rear battlefield. We need to first find a way to move those twenty people beyond the Celestial Frost Sect’s reach. That way, even if they obtain the full restriction method, it will still be useless for them."

Wang Zheng agreed, "That’s true. The right to order Star Alliance is something shared by the four ruling powers as a whole. If the Celestial Frost Sect can move the members of Star Alliance wherever they want, then so can my Wang family. We need to find a way to hide as many members of Star Alliance as we can. That way, the Celestial Frost Sect will not gain much even if they obtain the complete restriction method. As soon as we are able to gather evidence showing that the Celestial Frost Sect attacked Xia Xing, we can leave the rest to our Progenitors."

Upon hearing this conversation, Lu Yin realized he also faced a serious issue. Even if he was able to free the members of Star Alliance, it would be impossible to do so if they were hidden from him.

This was a major problem.

These people had already guessed that the Celestial Frost Sect wanted to gain complete control of Star Alliance, so they were coming up with a plan to counter that, but they were actually countering Lu Yin.

Lu Yin started thinking. He was lucky that he was currently posing as Xia Yuan, as it allowed him to learn quite a bit of vital information.

He hoped to use Xia Yuan's identity to learn about where Wang Zheng and Long Ke intended to hide the members of Star Alliance, but the two patriarchs never mentioned anything. They intended to simply speak with Xia Xing himself.

Lu Yin's eyes flickered. Xia Xing's main body?

Long Ke did not want to remain at the Wang family’s headquarters for long, as he wanted to avoid tipping off the Celestial Frost Sect. However, just as he was about to leave, he received news that left Long Ke absolutely furious: the powerhouse from one of the White Dragon Clan’s branch families in the city beneath the floating hand had been attacked and severely injured.

Long Ke was enraged, and he immediately led Long Tian down to the city, and Wang Zheng followed close behind. He could not ignore something like this happening in the Wang family’s own home.

Lu Yin tagged along.

A small group quickly arrived in the courtyard of the Lei family’s mansion, and they found the man from the White Dragon Clan lying on the ground. The Envoy had been seriously injured, but he had been conscious long enough to send a message to Long Tian.

Long Tian helped the man up. "Who did this?"

Long Ke, Wang Zheng, and Lu Yin all watched.

The White Dragon Clan Envoy coughed up blood, but he still tried to bow as soon as he saw Long Ke.

Long Ke raised a hand to stop the man from forcing himself. "Who hurt you?"

The Envoy shook his head. "I don't know. I was waiting here in the courtyard when I was suddenly badly wounded. I never even saw who attacked me."

Everyone listening instantly understood that the attacker had simply been much stronger than the wounded man.

At this moment, Lu Yin was standing six meters away from Long Ke, while Long Ke was only one meter away from Wang Zheng. A little further away, Long Tian was watching. However, they were clearly not the only ones watching. Lu Yin looked up and glanced around. Sure enough, there were other experts from the Wang family watching this courtyard. This was a rare opportunity, and whether or not Lu Yin could successfully capture Wang Zheng all depended on these next few moments.

His eyes turned cold, and he took a step forward. The moment Lu Yin was within five meters of Long Ke, he Possessed the man again. However, Long Ke’s body did not immediately move, as Lu Yin was searching the man’s memories for information regarding the Wang family’s headquarters.