Chương 396: Overnight at the Lian clan

"I see… rumors are still rumors after all." Ren Ji nodded. The explanation sounded real, after all, and rumors weren't to be trusted. Several forces usually hid the true number of powerhouses they had, and it might be more or less than the rumors stated. That was extremely normal. Long Feng stared at Lian Bao with a curious expression.

"Mid stage Dao realm… I wonder how powerful senior Lian is." He muttered audibly. Lian Bao glanced at Long Feng and smiled.

"I am an early stage Dao realm master. I'm afraid surpassing the early stage in my lifetime won't be very possible." He sighed. Long Feng nodded and resumed strolling around. He causally drew out several special healing pills meant for the soul and consumed them, hastening the recovery of his soul power. At the same time, he apprached the corpse of the Teng clan chief and was able to sense the remnant of Dao realm aura from the corpse. That confirmed that this should be the mid stage Dao realm master of the clan.

Long Feng nodded before walking towards the door, as though he had no more doubts. Once he reached the doors and waited lazily, he sensed the faint gaze that was on him fade away, causing his tense heart to relax.

"What a good Lian Bao." He smiled faintly. He already figured out that something was wrong, but he couldn't point out what it was. Now, Lian Bao's gaze had caused him to realize that whatever was wrong somehow involved Lian Bao as well. But Long Feng wasn't willing to stir up trouble for himself, so he acted like he was convinced and came to wait out of boredom. He used this opportunity to recover as much of his soul power as he could.

When he had gained about thirty percent of his soul power, his eyes flickered as he activated the Immortal's Sight again. This time, he didn't use his soul power, because he wouldn't be able to withstand it. Even then, his vision and perception was greatly enhanced by ten times and nothing in the room could escape his perception. Lian Bao's movements, Ren Ji's jitters, Zhou Zheng's fear, Hua Zhi's impatience and even Chen Zhaofeng's soul power. Nothing could escape his eyes.

This was the first time he was seeing the effects of the Immortal's Sight in such a situation, and it was beyond stunning. Lian Bao seemed to sense something and glanced in Long Feng's direction for a second before looking away with a frown. This naturally didn't escape Long Feng's attention, so he quickly stopped scrutinizing Lian Bao and instead turned to the eight corpses. With a glance, he could see the energy of six peak deities dispersing in the air.

As for the energy of the Teng clan chief, it dispersed in the form of large fireflies in Long Feng's eyes, showing his superiority to the mere specks of light of the peak deities. Then he turned to the final corpse, the one he couldn't sense any energy from it earlier, and his eyes narrowed instantly.

"Deity realm…" he muttered and instantly deactivated the Immortal's Sight. A faint headache impacted him, but he easily endured it while staring at the corpse.

"There are seven deity realm corpses here, but one of them had it's cultivation forcefully dispersed. It's only with the help of the Immortal's Sight that I could spot a few faint remains. As for the Dao realm, it appears to be only the Teng clan chief… Unfortunately, I can't tell the exact stage of the Chief's cultivation." This means Lian Bao was right. The Teng clan had only one Dao realm master, most likely at the mid stage. But why did Ren Ji say there were two Dao masters?

Long Feng didn't fully believe in coincidences. Ren Ji must have had a reason for replying with two. It could even be that the mission details he received stated that there were two Dao masters. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. Long Feng had a feeling that he was missing a crucial piece to solving this puzzle. Some things weren't adding up, and Lian Bao was likely aware of something.

"We should leave. It will be hard to navigate the surroundings at night." Lian Bao suddenly spoke, and everyone nodded agreement. Without further waste of time, Lian Bao led them out of the room. Long Feng took one last look at the Dao realm corpse and left with a few unanswered questions. This Teng clan mission was more complicated than it appeared, and it was beginning to intrigue him.

"Young friends, where are you headed to from here?" Lian Bao asked as they left the palace and rushed towards the outer perimeter of the clan. Looking up, the moon was already visible in the dark sky. Ren Ji shook his head helplessly.

"We haven't decided. Though we will likely find somewhere to spend the night and leave tomorrow morning. This mission is a dead end already." Lian Bao nodded.

"There isn't any clue that leads to the killer. Looks like my Lian clan must tighten our defenses and hope nothing goes wrong." He paused thoughtfully for a moment before he proposed, "how about you all come over and spend the night in my Lian clan? You can leave in the morning and return to your sect. It is great that you traveled so far for us, so let us at least do this little." Ren Ji was beside himself with relief as he nodded.

"We have no reason to refuse senior's invitation. I will certainly relay the Lian clan's hospitality to the deacons back in the sect." Lian Bao smiled excitedly.

"In that case, I must thank young friend Ren. The Lian clan is a bit far from here." He uttered before taking out a strange boat shaped treasure that could contain up to ten people. It had a sleek design with a shiny surface, and it's lightness was clear at a glance.

"Good flight treasure, senior!" Ren Ji praised. This was a treasure meant specifically for extremely fast flight. This one looked like a low earth grade treasure, which meant at full speed, it could compare to a Dao realm master.

"Hahahaha! Young friend flatters me." Lian Bao laughed and boarded the boat.

"Please…" he gestured for them to climb in. Once they were all onboard, he channeled his energy into the boat through several equisite formations, causing it to hum faintly and rise into the sky before shooting off in a certain direction. A transparent shield appeared around the boat, blocking them from the powerful wind as the boat turned into a streak of light that vanished into the darkness.

"How fast!" Zhou Zheng gasped.

"Indeed. It's moving at the speed of a peak deity, and at full speed, it is as fast as I am." Lian Bao nodded.

"Young friends should all relax. We'll arrive in half an hour." He assured. Time passed and the boat cut through the air, speeding towards the Lian clan while everyone stayed silent. Over ten minutes later, Long Feng suddenly spoke.

"Senior Lian, I'm curious, how many clans are around here?" Lian Bao thought for a minute before he replied.

"The Lian clan is the closest to the Teng clan, and there are about four more clans farther away."

"Did senior sensed anything odd the day the Teng clan was destroyed?" Lian Bao shook his head.

"Unfortunately, I was in seclusion until recently. It happened suddenly, catching me off guard. After everything settles, I plan to return to my deep seclusion." Long Feng revealed slight interest in his eyes.

"Hm? Seclusion? How long as that been?" Lian Bao frowned slightly while Ren Ji barked, "Long Feng! Don't you know better than to ask such private things? Besides, why so much questions?" Lian Bao quickly interrupted.

"It's fine. There's nothing to hide. I've been in secluded training for over a year now." Long Feng nodded and said nothing else. The remainder of the journey was uneventful and they soon arrived at the Lian clan. Unlike the Teng clan, it wasn't located in a city but in a rather concealed valley that was conveniently hidden behind several towering mountain. The valley itself was extremely large.

Lian Bao stopped the boat over the center of the clan and several powerful figures at the deity realm approached and bowed before him respectfully.

"These honored guests are inner disciples of the supreme heaven sect. They'll be staying here overnight, so arrange the best room for them." Lian Bao stated.

"Yes, Clan Chief!" The elders nodded and immediately left. Lian Bao led them down towards the central palace, inviting them to a meal before the room was prepared. As they descended from the sky, Long Feng discreetly activated the Immortal's Sight again and swept his gaze across the valley, taking note of several paths to escape. He instantly deactivated it without checking anything else to avoid the detection of Lian Bao and also because his soul power was still weak.

A frown appeared on his face as he caught sight of a large mound of freshly upturned earth, as well as signs of dried blood around. But this was still nothing out of place. It was just that he couldn't suppress the feeling that something was wrong in his heart. And that feeling intensified after they entered the clan and whenever he glanced at Lian Bao. They were led into a large hall where they sat down.

As Ren Ji and Lian Bao spoke and laughed together, several disciples began to stream in, bringing along a variety of meals and wine. They arranged the food before the six people in the hall and began to leave. More of them came in, bringing in more food until it resembled a feats for a few dozen people.

"Hahaha! Senior Lian! This is all too much. You're really too hospitable!" Ren Ji laughed and even the others felt their big of remaining caution rapidly melting away. Long Feng swept his gaze over the food causally and glanced at the final line of disciples as they walked in. Their cultivations were merely at the spirit realm. It was nothing worth mentioning. He lowered his gaze out of boredom, but his pupils suddenly trembled as he seemed to have caught sight of something.

His lips trembled as he glanced up at the disciples again, more precisely, at their robes, where a symbol of a mountain with clouds at it's peak was engraved faintly on the chest. Long Feng instantly lowered his head and acted like nothing happened, but his heart was literally galloping several times faster. Wasn't that the exact same symbol he found on the corpses in the Teng clan? All the dead disciples he saw had that exact same symbol etched on their robes!

He was currently extremely alarmed as well as confused. Everything was becoming clearer, but the final piece was still eluding him.

"Please, let's eat." Lian Bao gestured and began to eat. Ren Ji and the others didn't hesitate much before joining him in the meal. Long Feng watched them quietly without any expression, before he suddenly asked, "Senior Lian, how many members does the Lian clan have?" Lian Bao lifted his head from his meal in surprise, having not expected such a question. He thought briefly before replying, "I'm not exactly sure.

The pure blood lineage shouldn't surpass a thousand, but the other lineages could surpass ten thousand in total." He replied and continued with his meal.

"Mm." Long Feng nodded and buried his head, deep in thought. Several thoughts whirled in his mind as he formed a ridiculous guess. It sounded extremely crazy even to him, and he had no proof to actually believe the guess.

"There's only one method to confirm if my guess is real or if I'm just overthinking everything." He casually leaned in and began to eat as well so he wouldn't appear out of place. Besides, he was rather sure that there was no poison in the meal, so he had no issues with eating.