Jiang You'er, having closed the door, ran ahead to lead the way and reported in a low voice, "Came back severely injured, didn't say anything."

Upon reaching a tightly shut door, the cloaked person waved him to halt, and entered alone.

After the door closed, he lifted the cloak, revealing that he was none other than Huang Ye, the North Mountain Order Master of Divine Mountain.

He sniffed the bloody scent in the room, walked forward to push aside the curtain leading to the inner room, where there was a bathtub inside. The person in gray clothes sat in it, with both hands resting on the tub, his eyes appeared dim, and he seemed extremely exhausted.

Huang Ye asked, "How did it go, did you capture the person?"

The gray-clothed man weakly replied, "Failed."

Huang Ye was shocked, "How is that possible? You took action personally, it's impossible that you couldn't capture that guy."

The gray-clothed man said, "It was a trap. He lured me to the Chao Yue Hall in Dazhi City, and Sword Saint Fu Que was waiting for me there."

"Sword Saint Fu Que?" Huang Ye, surprised, sniffed the bloody scent and realized something. He immediately walked quickly to the bathtub.

Looking inside, the sight was unbearable; the other party's legs were gone. Judging by the messy condition of the wounds, it didn't look like sword wounds. He immediately asked, "Did you self-detonate?"

The gray-clothed man said, "I had no choice. The name of the Sword Saint is not in vain. He made a killing move, and if I hadn't used Escape Technique, I wouldn't have been able to get away."

Huang Ye frowned and muttered, "How could he have connections with the Sword Saint? There's not a hint of related news. Is it possible they just happened to meet at Chao Yue Hall?"

He had reasons for such suspicions. He had also received Jiang You'er's previous report. Jiang You'er had made it clear that if that guy hadn't been so dilly-dallying and self-righteous, he would have been captured in the first round of hunting, and there would have been no unexpected developments afterward.

If a trap had been really prepared, there wouldn't have been a need to delay until later.

The gray-clothed man angrily cursed, "Nonsense, I'm not blind. His relationship with Fu Que is not ordinary. The two were sitting together, reading a book, practically with their arms around each other's shoulders."

He could still remember Shi Chun's teasing gaze looking at him.

Huang Ye was at a loss for words. Since the person had said this much, it was likely not false. He then pondered and muttered, "This guy actually has such a relationship. In that case, it must have been during the encirclement that he was alarmed, and then he sought Fu Que for help."

The gray-clothed man, looking quite haggard, no longer wanted to analyze this, finding it meaningless. He took out a transparent bead containing a drop of fresh blood, handed it over, and said, "Use this to find someone. I need the blood and essence of three hundred people to heal."

Huang Ye accepted the bead with a slight nod, "That's simple enough, but we failed to capture the person. I don't know how to explain it to the higher-ups. With Fu Que's protection, I'm afraid it's not wise to act rashly."

The gray-clothed man gritted his teeth and said, "I will handle explaining to the higher-ups. No need for you to worry."

This was exactly what he wanted to hear, so Huang Ye immediately agreed, bid farewell, and left.

After seeing him out, Jiang You'er, who was accompanying him on the way, asked in a low voice, "How did it go?"

Huang Ye paused, looked up at the sky, and sighed, "That guy is really hard to catch. Soft doesn't work, hard doesn't either."

Jiang You'er was surprised, "Even he failed?"

Huang Ye didn't say much more, lifted the hood behind him to cover his head, and walked away briskly...

At Chao Yue Hall, after fixing the window on the second floor, night had fallen.

After a brief tidying in the library, it was closed, and dinner in the courtyard was prepared as well.

An extra set of dishes was on the table, and Dong Wenshu hesitated as he spoke to the Red-clothed Woman who sat down with a wine jar, "Mr. Fu has called several times but hasn't come down."

The Red-clothed Woman gestured with her chin, "You all eat. Don't worry about him. You won't offend him. It's the thought that counts. Any extra enthusiasm won't matter to him. Why bother troubling yourself?"

Dong Liangyu silently picked up her chopsticks with the others. She already knew who the blue-robed scholar was. To be precise, her entire family knew now.

Of course, the rest of the family believed that there was just one blue-robed scholar on the second floor after closing, but in fact, she had allowed another person to stay on the library floor without expelling them.

She was torn, unsure if it was right or wrong.

She had wanted to ask Wang Ping a question, whether the despicable scheme behind cousin Fan Wuzhe, who appeared to want to marry her, was exposed because of Wang Ping's involvement?

Her family had heard some things afterward, about Huang Yingying witnessing Fan Wuzhe's arrest and knowing the secret of his visit.

Coincidentally, Huang Yingying was good friends with Gao He, who was also close to Wang Ping.

So she wondered why Wang Ping and the others exposed Fan Wuzhe's scheme.

Dong Wenshu continued, "Zeer's talk about Mr. Fu accepting disciples…"

Wants to ask, is it true?

The Red-clothed Woman responded, "He's a bit picky. Whether he takes a liking to any of you depends on your fate. The most he'd accept is one of you. You siblings should discuss among yourselves if there's a master in the Cultivation World you'd like to apprentive to. Let me hear it, and if my uncle can help, I'm sure he won't refuse."

The siblings looked at each other, somewhat unaccustomed to the idea of freely choosing a master in the Cultivation World.

Dong Liangyi, quietly serving her father rice, glanced over at the Red-clothed Woman several times. She had knocked on the Red-clothed Woman's door at night to deliver late-night snacks, only to find the room was empty.

This didn't happen just once, so she had observed secretly. She clearly saw people entering the room without coming out, and when she knocked again, there was no one, as if they had disappeared into thin air.

She had noticed this strange disappearance during the day as well.

She wasn't sure what the trick was, but with the Red-clothed Woman having an all-powerful uncle, no one could really question anything.

While she was lost in thought, the Red-clothed Woman suddenly pointed directly at her, "You all have been hesitating, let's clear this up today. How about you, eldest young lady?"

"Ah?" Dong Liangyi was stunned. Seeing the others all looking her way, she hesitated for a moment and asked, "Jun, would Situ Gu of the Refining Heaven Sect still accept disciples?"

Upon hearing this, everyone present was stunned, obviously not expecting her to have interest in this field.

Dong Wenshu hesitated, "Yier, while artifact refining does involve playing with fire, it's completely different from cooking. That's a blacksmith's work, and few women engage in artifact refining."

Dong Liangyi bit her lip. It wasn't that she liked artifact refining, but the recent family troubles had shown her the power of the Extreme Fire Sect, which even the Phoenix Clan respected. This was the fourth-ranked sect in the Artifact Refining World. What about the number one-ranked Refining Heaven Sect?

And she heard that Situ Gu was the number one in the Artifact Refining World!

If she had a choice, of course, she wanted to apprentice with Situ Gu.

After a series of family troubles, she, as the eldest in the family, had also developed the intention to shelter the family from winds and rains.

The Red-clothed Woman, with the wine jar already at her lips, showed a rare moment of pause as if genuinely stumped. Her words were not as fluent as before, "Situ Gu's personality, how should I put it, is hard to say, a bit unapproachable... I'll have my uncle ask around for you, see if it can be done. If not, we'll look for another..."

Her gaze suddenly shifted as if recalling something, she looked towards the Octagonal Tower Book Collection Pavilion, and her words turned a corner right there, "In any case, we'll do our best."

She turned her attention back to the others and asked, "How about you all?"

Raising the wine jar, she drank.

Seeing the eldest sister take the lead, the third young lady, Dongliang Ying, suddenly raised her hand spiritedly, "Have you all heard of Li Hongjiu from the Yanbao Sect? I want to apprentice with him."

"Hm? Pfft..." The Red-clothed Woman was suddenly choked, and a small mist escaped from her pursed lips, spraying over the table.

A group looked unanimously at Dongliang Ying in surprise, and still not over their shock, they all turned to stare at the choked person, all looking bewildered. It was the first time they had seen her so flustered.

The Red-clothed Woman swallowed the wine, raised her hand to cover her mouth and nose, and gently coughed before calming down and asked curiously, "Third Miss, my uncle knows many experts. With so many famous masters out there, why would you choose such a minor figure?"

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