"Baseless speculation. Those people had no reason to deliberately kill your son. If your son could still make them money, wouldn't he be a steady source of income?"
After hearing Qu He's story, Xiao Lin spoke calmly.
Still, the story left him quite displeased, his brows tightly furrowed.
He hadn't expected that this place would also have people selling drugs.
After hearing it, Xiao Lin felt an urge to destroy that drug manufacturing and trafficking den immediately.
But since he wasn't alone, he forcibly suppressed the impulse.
This kind of thing was absolutely something that touched Xiao Lin's reverse scale.
"Soul Sect Lord, you don't know — in our area, many spirit masters like my son have died mysteriously later on.
Sometimes, even visiting spirit masters who came just to obtain spirit rings also ended up the same.
Those spirit masters selling bingliang powder must have deliberately killed my son.
They're just… like some Fallen Ones."
Qu He, agitated by Xiao Lin's words, immediately blurted out his own guess.
"Fallen Ones? Then why didn't you go to the Spirit Hall?" Ye Lingling asked curiously.
"How could we have any Spirit Hall people here?"
Qu He let out a cold laugh at her question.
Although Spirit Hall was spread across the continent, it wasn't everywhere.
Their little town didn't have a Spirit Hall branch — only in Xueling Province was there one.
Qu He had tried to ask the branch hall master in Xueling Province for help, but that hall master was swamped with affairs and had no time for him.
Not just him — even those people from before, like Qu Yao's companions, still ended up dead.
Their families had also gone to the hall master for help, hadn't they?
Qu He even suspected that the branch hall master was in cahoots with those people.
He poured out everything in his heart to Xiao Lin and the others, his eyes bloodshot, gasping heavily, only to be choked by the cold wind and sent into a coughing fit.
"So, what? You want to entrust me with investigating your son's death and even taking revenge?" Xiao Lin asked in return.
Who knew what Qu He was thinking — did he really look that strong?
He was only twelve!
Even the yangge superstar he knew was already fifteen.
If things were as Qu He said, and the mastermind was only at Soul King level, Xiao Lin wouldn't mind taking action — he already disliked drug dealers.
But if the mastermind was Soul Emperor level, he had to think of his teammates' safety and couldn't act recklessly.
Thump!
Suddenly, under the astonished gazes of Xiao Lin and Ye Lingling, Qu He dropped to his knees before them.
His not-so-strong body and frail knees slammed hard into the frozen ground. From beneath his graying hair, his despairing face was streaked with tears.
"I beg you, Soul Sect Lord. I have no other options left.
I know this is sudden, but I can pay you.
I have a map my son drew of the Extreme North.
It's not big, but it's fairly accurate, and it marks a treasure my son once saw.
That place, he said, was guarded by a soul beast over ten thousand years old — surely an ice-attribute spirit master's supreme treasure."
Yet even after hearing this, Xiao Lin's expression didn't change much.
An "ice-attribute supreme treasure"? Could it be more powerful than the two Dragon Kings within him?
Even if he got it, if it threw his inner ice–fire balance into chaos, it'd be a disaster.
"This kind of thing, I—"
Just as Xiao Lin was about to decline politely, Ye Lingling tugged at his sleeve, cutting him off.
"Uncle Qu, we'll do our best, but if we encounter danger, we absolutely won't take risks."
She accepted the commission on his behalf, leaving Xiao Lin with nothing to say.
His concern had been for Ye Lingling and the others' safety — but now, he could only accept the request.
"Thank you, kind and beautiful miss. May all your wishes come true! I'll fetch the map right away."
Excited, Qu He scrambled to his feet and hurried off to get the map.
Xiao Lin and the others could only follow quietly.
By now, Xiao Lin understood — Qu He was desperate, grasping at any straw, no matter if they could help him or not.
Suddenly, Xiao Lin recalled the way those spirit masters in Lai Bing Tavern had looked at Qu He — the same look he'd once seen in Tang San's eyes when he mentioned Yu Xiaogang: the gaze of someone who believed another had already "chosen the road to death."
Could it be that Qu He truly had no way out?
The thought startled him. If that was the case, he could only try to fulfill Qu He's commission.
Why me? Why do I have to run into things like this?
Sometimes, Xiao Lin really wished Tang San were here.
Tang San was far calmer — and colder — in such matters, and sometimes even prevented Xiao Lin from getting dragged into them.
Sometimes Xiao Lin felt he was too kind — shaped by the gentler morals of his past life, far more compassionate than most.
Sometimes, he even envied Tang San's ability to casually say, "You have already chosen the path to death."
Meanwhile…
In another tavern, the Shi brothers' luck was decent.
As two sturdy genius spirit masters (after all, they had absorbed top-tier herbs, so calling them geniuses wasn't wrong), in such a small place, no one dared to cause them trouble.
They had even found news of the Xuanming Snake Turtle — though unfortunately, only of a single one.
On the other hand, Tang Ni's luck was far worse.
No sooner had she stepped into a seedy hotel than she caught the scent of a soul beast — one she found deeply repulsive.
A group of weak but foul-mouthed spirit masters, seeing her beauty, immediately began making lewd remarks.
She got nothing out of them, except anger.
With a flash of her Golden Dragon Spear, she demolished the entire bar.
Those who had made lewd remarks were beaten half to death.
If she'd understood human laws less, she might not have held back at all.
So what if it was "accidental" manslaughter?
They were all Spirit Elders, yet as useless as Blue Silver Grass.
Since she'd wrecked the bar, the owner wanted her to pay compensation.
She refused — and the owner actually tried to use bingliang powder on her.
If not for the wrecked bar letting the cold wind in, plus her quick reaction, she would have been caught.
Because of that, the owner ended up with a spear through his abdomen, dying on the spot.
Everyone present was chilled by the cold indifference in her eyes — eyes that didn't see them as human.
Naturally, Tang Ni didn't care about human lives.
After taking human form, she had trained for a year in Star Dou Forest.
She had shown no mercy to soul beasts — much less to anyone who wasn't the "Child of Destiny."
(End of chapter)