Clan Head Lu sighed again before withdrawing a few documents from the bangle.

"This is why the clan has been losing business in the past few months… she has been leaking our trade invoices. Even the prices that we set competitively were revealed beforehand which let out competitors get an advantage and price it just below ours." Clan head Lu said.

The other elders heard it clearly, and their faces fell. They knew that while the clan was fine despite the losses as it had only been a few months, this situation could have gotten quite bad had this not been found out quickly.

Clan Head Lu looked at Shirong for a bit before speaking.

"I couldn't see anything that showed her backer though. Does young master have any idea?" Clan Head Lu asked.

Shirong had seen the contents of the ring and knew that there were only a few things that incriminated Elder Pei for betraying the Lu Clan, but there wasn't anything specific that could point to her backer.

His gaze went to the cracked teleportation talisman that was lying beside her, and he picked it up. He probed the talisman, but couldn't figure out much from it. Most of the formations had been destroyed after its use, and the rest of them were now fading away as well.

It wouldn't be long before the talisman would only become an unless piece of metal.

"I can't tell which formation master made this talisman. The main formations are already destroyed and the runes cannot be deciphered now." Shirong said.

"Is that so… that's a shame. But fear not! The Lu clan will get to the bottom of this, I promise you." Clan Head Lu stated.

Shirong nodded his head in acknowledgment and was about to turn to leave when he suddenly felt something coming from the Immortal Crystal armament. It was some information, and it was coming through the connection he had with the immortal weapon.

His vision went blank for a bit before some unknown memories played in front of his eyes. For him, it was as if an hour had passed, but only a couple of seconds had passed in the real life.

Shirong's vision returned, and he looked at the Immortal Crystal Armament with a complex expression.

"So you are willing to help me like this too… almost as if you can read my mind…" Shirong muttered to himself.

"I know who's behind Elder Pei." Shirong suddenly said.

"You do?" Clan Head asked for confirmation.

He didn't know how Shirong suddenly knew more about it but he didn't show his doubt here.

"Yes… I was able to recall certain clues that link them." Shirong made up an excuse.

"Alright, we shall discuss this in some place more private." Clan Head Lu suggested.

Shirong nodded, and the two of them went to the mansion. The elders were instructed to take care of the situation for now and also to make changes to their trade practices imminently since they had found out about them being leaked.

Shirong and Clan Head Lu sat at a table and the old man asked him to speak.

"I used a soul searching technique on her," Shirong spoke.

"WHAT!" Clan head Lu shouted in shock.

"Young master, that is a forbidden technique!" Clan head Lu warned.

"I know… but the one who makes the rules can also bend them. Don't be so naïve clan head Lu, you know it does not matter to us." Shirong said.

Clan Head Lu went silent and nodded his head as he realized that it was fine as long as no one else found out. There were far too many factors that played into this and they needed to be careful.

"Young master, what kind of a soul searching skill did you use? I didn't see you using it." Clan Head Lu asked feeling a bit confused.

"At first I wasn't sure that the skill would work, and I didn't get the information straightaway. Seems like using it on dead people is not effective and thus I didn't get it properly." Shirong lied.

"I see… that does make sense. Well, what did you find out?" Clan Head Lu replied.

"The one behind Elder Pei is minister Du Yang." Shirong revealed.

"Minister Du Yang? Of the Royal Court?" Clan Head Lu asked for confirmation.

"Yes him. It seems like he has a particular interest in your clan's workings. I could not find out why as there were no memories related to that in Elder Pei's memories." Shirong answered.

"This complicates it now… why would a minister of the royal court take interest in our workings? And why would he dare to slight you, Young master?" Clan Head Lu questioned.

"That's where the intriguing part is. They were not intending to particularly harm me, you see. They were spying on me to find out more about me so that the Minister could take advantage of it later on.

They have been informed that I will be visiting the capital soon and they will need to host me. Of course, they wouldn't let go of this chance to curry favor with my clan." Shirong said with a chuckle.

"So the only reason why Elder Pei was running away was because of my clan?" Clan Head Lu wondered.

"No, I doubt that. Even minister Du Yang would not give a teleportation formation like that to anyone willy nilly. Like I said the soul searching method is not fully accurate and the information is likely to be incomplete.

I suggest you do an investigation of your own and verify it. I'll inform my clan of this too and we'll see what happens." Shirong replied.

"I understand." Clan Head Lu said.

"I'll wait till the tribulation platform is completed then," Shirong said and left the hall.

After Shirong left the hall, a pissed-off expression appeared on his face.

"So even my brothers wish to battle for the position of the Heir, huh? Well… since you all want to do it this way, I'll gladly oblige." Shirong said, recalling the information that he had not told to clan head Lu.