Feng Luotian tapped the [Yes] button. Immediately after that, his cultivation could be sensed like any other cultivators. But that was not enough. He burst out his Theríon and activated his Theríon Sonar to stimulate the queen.

Sensing that the queen had already made her move toward him, Feng Luotian activated the [Pinnacle Flash Lightning] and traveled away from her lair.

Once he reached the fork, Feng Luotian took the left path and continued for about 700 meters or so, then released another Theríon Sonar. The moment he sensed the queen that was about to arrive at that fork earlier, Feng Luotian pulled Kronos up again.

Would you like to reactivate the safety measure and conceal your cultivation? [Yes] or [No]

Feng Luotian then tapped the word [Yes] to reactivate the stealth mode and flashed himself to the right path of the previous fork at his lightning speed. Following that, exactly as he planned, the queen was lured into the left path and continued her way to hunt an illusion of his trick, while Feng Luotian himself quietly crept his way back to her lair.

Upon reentering the place, Feng Luotian did not waste any more time as the queen could be back at any moment. He retrieved a high-grade dagger, which was one of the items he took from the Vulture Bandit Troupe when he visited their barrack, then flung it to cut down the corpse of whom he thought to be the city guard captain.

Luckily, the wisp of conscience closely followed the corpse as it was programmed that way. Otherwise, Feng Luotian would have to find a way to climb up and hop on one hanging entity after another until he reached the wisp. If those suspended things happened to be alive and decided to shoot something at him while he was jumping, he would have to do the whole thing again, and that would be extensively consuming his time.

Feng Luotian immediately grabbed the wisp and put it into his glabella. A voice began to reverberate inside his mind.

“To anyone who picked up my wisp of conscience: My name is Huo Zhihao, Divine Bird City’s 193rd city guard captain. My year of death is Year 142 of a Phoenix Constellation Cycle.”

Feng Luotian: “So, it’s three years ago. And the previous city guard captain, Huo Zhihao, I clearly still remember his face. Never would I expect that he would meet his end here, in this manner. The news said he was assassinated by the assassin from the Silver Fox City, causing a little war to break out during that time, but in the end, Vermilion Kingdom interfered and stopped their conflicts. Let’s see if it’s really as the news reported.”

“I don’t know if what I fear already occurred, but I’ll tell the story of my death just in case that the city’s still safe. It began with my return from my duty. That evening I decided to visit my best friend, Wen Jingyi, who was just a couple blocks away from my home, for a drink like always.”

Feng Luotian: “Wen Jingyi, the current city guard captain? So, they’re best friends.”

“When I reached his place, instead of some servant coming to invite me in as usual, the place was strangely quiet. It’s like there’s no one at his house. At that moment, I decided to enter without permission. Well, as the best friend of its owner, surely no one in the house would blame me for it, but I’ve never expected that what I accidentally witnessed would eventually cause my death.”

“…” Feng Luotian focused his mind and intently listened.

“His place is void of people except for three figures discussing something. My best friend, Wen Jingyi, was, of course, present at that time; however, two other identities made me confused until my last breath. One was the elder from Mei Clan and another one … was the elder from Yin Clan.”

“!!” Feng Luotian’s complexion started to get ugly. His brows were as furrowed as they could be: “Silver Fox City’s Yin Clan?!”

The Yin Clan in the Silver Fox City held the same status as the Mei Clan in the Divine Bird. While they were the rulers of their own respective cities, Divine Bird City and Silver Fox City were adversaries. Their citizens hated each other, let alone their leaders. They would bark and try to sink some fangs into the flesh every time they saw someone from the other city. Instead of being killed by monsters or other causes of death, the people from both cities had the highest death rate at getting killed by their archenemies. They hated each other to their guts, and yet … both cities’ ruling clans’ elders were chatting within the Divine Bird City without making known of their purposes.

There was only one conclusion Feng Luotian could think of, and he already guessed who that elder from Mei Clan was.

“As it’s my best friend’s house, I didn’t bother entering there stealthily, as I would do on the covert mission. The moment I spotted them; they also spotted me. Although the existence of Yin Clan’s elder raised my caution to an extreme, I know the other two too well, so I greeted them as I would normally do. Never would I believe that the first words from the Mei Clan’s elder would be … ‘kill him!’, an immediate order to kill me. Even more than that, who I regarded as ‘best friend’ accepted that order as if it was natural for him to do.”

“My mind was in an absurd shock and confusion, but before I ever got a chance to ask anything, the suppressive force from that elder befell upon me. Fortunately, I had a treasure that could dispel the suppressive force to some extent, and that elder’s not that strong as he’s just a Peak Talon Warrior, so I ran. Wen Jingyi and that elder from Mei Clan, of course, chased after me and cornered me to take the path to this Nefarious Valley. You must be thinking why I didn’t just shout out and call for help, right? I wished I could do that but I couldn’t, because Wen Jingyi said to me before I escaped from his house that he would kill any contact I made along the way, regardless of whether they were cultivators or innocent commoners.”

Feng Luotian: “And we have this bastard as our city guard captain? And to think that I consider him to be a forthright and reliable person.” Just thinking about it made him furious beyond recovery. The thing he hated the most was harming an innocent, and this guy said it without restrain.

Despite the anger that was boiling inside him, Feng Luotian still did not forget to pay attention to every information from the wisp of conscience. Huo Zhihao mentioned “a treasure that could dispel the suppressive force to some extent,” with how chaotic and unexpected the situation went, his enemies would not have the time to think about retrieving it, so the treasure must still be on him at the time of his death.

Luckily, that treasure was obvious and easy to notice. Feng Luotian did not need to search for it because he had already sensed the aura emitting from the golden headband on the captain’s head ever since he dropped it down.

Feng Luotian thought as he took it off the corpse: “While it’s useless to me, it’s still valuable. I better give this to Brother Sun. Its golden radiance will match his yellow eyes perfectly.” After he put it away into his spatial ring, he continued to listen to Huo Zhihao’s story.

“When I entered the valley and sensed that no one was following me anymore, I stopped and thought that they must give up their intention of killing me. At that moment, an elder from Yin Clan appeared in front of me and shot a skill at me. It blasted me away deep into the valley. He must have guessed that I died from that attack, but well, the answer was almost yes. I dragged my ragged body back from where I dropped to go back and reported what I’ve witnessed until then to the Peacock Lord. But unfortunately, I fell into this hole and met with the queen right away. After I was knocked unconscious with her poison, I thought that would be the end of me, not even having a chance to leave some dying message; however, amongst the bad, there’s something good. The queen did not eat me right away, just hung me down waiting to eat me later. Finally, fate permits me to tell some tales before I die.”

“Let me guess. First guess, as the Nefarious Valley does not connect to any city except Divine Bird City, so you must be from there. The second guess, you must have some strength to deal with the queen and retrieve my wisp of conscience, so I want to entrust this information to you and hope that you will make sure to deliver my memory back to the Peacock Lord. If you happen to be one of the people who wanted me dead, then fine, consider it as my loss. But if not, please protect the city from those people.”

“Actually, what I heard when I intruded Wen Jingyi’s house was not much and could not warrant my death in any way. But from their reaction, connecting with what I heard, their plan might spell doom for the city. What I heard was just two words: Monster army.”

Feng Luotian: “Monster army?”

If the previous city guard captain could deduce something from the situation, then no need to mention a 500-year-old reincarnator like Feng Luotian, he connected the dots and concluded the story within a few seconds.

“And the elder from Mei Clan who was discussing with Yin Clan’s elder was none other than …”

Feng Luotian outrightly concluded: “This wretched plan could only be from someone colluding with the Sikong, so no need to tell me as he’s definitely Second Elder: Mei Hongyi!!”

“… First Elder: Mei Changkong. That’s all. I leave the rest to you.”

No one knew how long it was, Feng Luotian stood there blankly.