According to what the Desert Wolves said, their client was someone they didn’t really know. Since this person was extremely strong, none of the Desert Wolves dared to treat him with anything but respect. And with such a hefty reward, the Desert Wolves was quick to find Qiu Bailu. All they were told to do was to kidnap a certain person and bring them secretly back to the western outskirts where someone would collect them.

But Bai Yunfei saw no one there to receive them when he got there.

“No one’s here....did they find out their plan was a failure?” Bai Yunfei muttered as he waited at the foot of a mountain. “If....they’re being so careful about this, then there must be a spy of some sort. Maybe....it’s because they saw that Xinyun returned home safe and sound and found out it was a failure. That’s why no one’s here.”

If that was the case, then didn’t that mean the clues would end here?!

Bai Yunfei leapt up into the air to stand three hundred meters in the sky to look around the place.

“They said they’d be here, so maybe they might still be around. In that case....I’ll take a good luck around this place!”

Bai Yunfei couldn’t give up now that he was so close. Even if he had his doubts now, Bai Yunfei wanted to make sure of everything. If that didn’t work, then he’d try something else.

In his perch high above the skies, Bai Yunfei could see a good part of the surrounding area. The properties of the richer people in the Capital were all brightly lit with lanterns and such, and just five kilometers away from where Bai Yunfei was, he could see a several villas having their inhabitants celebrate from one place to another with feasts.

Carefully, Bai Yunfei stared at the celebrating villas, staring from left to right to see who was who.

Though he was being very observant on what each group of people were doing, Bai Yunfei wasn’t trying to eavesdrop on them, he was trying to feel if their auras were familiar or not.

He wanted to find...Cheng Xin, Li Chen, and the others!

They were the main suspects. In Bai Yunfei’s mind, finding them within the vicinity would almost prove their guilt in this matter. He just needed to investigate and see if his suspicions were true.

......

Bai Yunfei’s current strength was enough to allow him to scan the area without anyone really noticing him. There weren’t many soul cultivators here, and especially not Soul Kings, meaning Bai Yunfei wouldn’t have a very high chance of being found out.

Either way, Bai Yunfei made sure to be as careful as he could just in case. As low as the chances are, Bai Yunfei didn’t want to anger and cause trouble with a Soul King.

Bai Yunfei didn’t notice anything after he scanned half the villas in the area. As luxurious as the events going on in several villas, nothing suspicious was to be had.

From the positioning of the bright white moon, Bai Yunfei guessed it to be around ten at night now. Flying through the forest, Bai Yunfei soon found himself approaching yet another villa.

This one villa was a lot more quiet than the other ones, as if no one was inside.

Bringing Qiu Bailu with him as he investigated each villa was a bit of a hassle, so Bai Yunfei had Qiu Bailu wait in a far away area for him while he and Xiao Qi sped off towards this villa.

As he approached the corner of the villa, Bai Yunfei extinguished his soulsense and hid himself from sight.

A few seconds later, Bai Yunfei was close enough to look into one of the rooms, where his eyes immediately lit up afterwards!

“Cheng Xin, Li Chen, and three others....they’re all here!!”

The fact that he found them here was far too unlikely to be coincidental....

Cold fury flashed across Bai Yunfei’s eyes. Stepping over the villa walls to land on top of the rooftop, Bai Yunfei headed for where Cheng Xin and the others were.

There were a few experts in the villa, but the strongest was only a late-stage Soul Exalt and wasn’t strong enough to sense Bai Yunfei.

In no time at all, Bai Yunfei was hidden in the top of a nearby tree and away from sight near where Cheng Xin and the others were.

Hidden in the foliage, Bai Yunfei had his soulsense spread slightly outwards to peer into the room.

“Lord Xin, do you....do you think Qiu Bailu and the others are already killed?”

The moment Bai Yunfei started to eavesdrop into the room, what he heard immediately caused him to narrow his eyes!

......

In the room, Cheng Xin, Li Chen, Zeng Fei, Zhu Yizhi, and Peng Huaguang sat together around a large table just like a few days ago. They were looking better than before, though Zeng Fei and Zhu Yizhi still had one of their arms in a sling. Everyone else was looking much better, though it was still clear to see that their arms were to some degree limited in movement.

When everyone decided on how to deal with Bai Yunfei, they each went back home to prepare a few things like pooling together their primal stones and selling their earth-tier soul armaments. While they did that, Cheng Xin had one of his trusted aides go find an unremarkable gang hire a group of mercenaries to go kidnap ‘Bai Yunfei’s girl’.

Zheng Kai didn’t come with Bai Yunfei when he had his lessons today. As it so happened today, Zheng Kai was busy so he didn’t accompany Tang Xinyun and the other two when they went to play today. Grabbing onto this opportunity, Cheng Xin gave the command to have Qiu Bailu and his group do the kidnapping today and bring them back.

That afternoon, Cheng Xin and the others waited for the group to come back and bring Tang Xinyun back to them.

The only problem was when they waited until the sun was already setting down the mountains without anyone coming. That was when they received the message: Bai Yunfei’s woman had already returned to the Capital!

That astounded Cheng Xin and the others. Qiu Bailu and his men had actually failed in their task?

Afterwards, Cheng Xin had someone head over to the Desert Wolves, but their men came back saying the Desert Wolves were nowhere to be found!

That was because the Desert Wolves was already completely wiped out.

Feeling slightly panicked at that, everyone began to discuss wildly amongst themselves on what to do.

“Why didn’t we succeed? Wasn’t that Qiu Bailu a late-stage Soul Exalt? He had plenty of early-stage and mid-stage Soul Exalts with him, how could their combined strengths not be enough to deal with those few women? How’d they let them get away?”

“Can’t have. Didn’t you hear what our men just told us? Those women came back to the Capital without a scratch. That means they didn’t even fight. Did Qiu Bailu and their men not even do anything?”

“How couldn’t they? We gave them their orders, and our men saw them exiting the Capital.”

“That’s right. Even if they didn’t move, we would’ve got a report from them. But not even one of them came back!”

“And the Desert Wolves being gone is a problem too. They were here when we gave them their orders this afternoon, so why can’t we find any one of them?”

“Something must have happened! Damnit, what happened to them?!”

“......”

Li Chen looked to the silent Cheng Xin in hesitation. “Lord Xin, do you think....Qiu Bailu and his men were all killed?”

“What a useless group! ‘One-eyed Mara’? He couldn’t even kidnap a few women! He might as well be dead!” Cheng Xin snapped in anger.

“Lord Xin thinks something has happened to them too?” Li Chen frowned, “But....our informants said both Bai Yunfei and Zheng Kai were in the Capital when the kidnapping attempt was made. There shouldn’t have been anyone strong enough to protect them women. How in the world did Qiu Bailu fail to kidnap the three then?”

“How should I know what happened?” Cheng Xin groused, “Maybe we’re wrong, or maybe something really did happen. All I know is that our plan most likely failed. We’ll have to come up with a new one.”

But Zhu Yizhi looked worried. “But, lord Xin, won’t we get found out if our plan failed? If Bai Yunfei were to come....”

“Pah!” Cheng Xin sneered, “Even if Qiu Bailu and the others were kidnapped, they’d only lead Bai Yunfei back to the Desert Wolves. There wouldn’t be any clues that’d link them back to us, how would we be found out?”

“Lord Xin is right. Zhu Yizhi, you shouldn’t worry. Do you think Bai Yunfei is from the Fate School and will find us by divining it? Even if he’s suspicious, there’s no proof. What can he do without that?”

Cheng Xin waved his hand, “Let’s get talking about our next plan then....”

......

The group continued to talk, but what they never imagined was that Bai Yunfei was listening in on their conversation from their side!

On the tree outside, there was a series of rustling sounds from where Bai Yunfei was. His right hand was grabbing onto a tree branch, and the pressure he was exerting was enough to break it off. The look on his face was especially dangerous, and his killing intent was nearly leaking out from his hiding place.

Since he had his proof now, Bai Yunfei had nothing to hesitate about. These people would die today!!

It was the last straw. Bai Yunfei’s soulforce was already circulating in his body as he prepared himself to attack and kill these people.

“Eh?”

Just at that moment when he was about to strike, Bai Yunfei suddenly ceased in his movements and hid himself. His right leg snuck back into the tree and in no time at all, Bai Yunfei had taken out the Walk-on Strawhat and dropped it onto his head to hide his presence.

He drew himself deeper in in the tree and remained motionless to further hide his aura.

On his shoulder, Xiao Qi hid his aura as well and began to distribute a small amount of elemental wood to envelop him and Bai Yunfei inside. This way, the two of them would be mistaken for the tree rather than people.

No sooner did they finish this did Bai Yunfei slowly turn his head to the right to look at a rooftop just twenty meters away from where Cheng Xin and his group was.....