Chapter 362 - Old Agreements and an Unexpected Invitation

Chapter 362: Chapter 362 - Old Agreements and an Unexpected Invitation

Su Bai looked away from the map and returned his attention to Ning Shuang.

"There is something I could not ask you properly before. Which righteous factions have been cooperating with your sect?"

Ning Shuang’s expression changed.

The surveys had left her with suspicions she could not confirm, but this was a matter she understood considerably better. She checked the sleeping Gu within her chest before answering.

"My master has attended several meetings with them. Sometimes elders from other demonic factions go as well."

She began with the people she knew had taken part, carefully distinguishing those her master had met from those she had only heard discussed.

Su Bai listened without interrupting.

Before long, he retrieved a jade slip and began recording the names, along with what Ning Shuang could actually confirm about each one.

Several matched the information Li Xuanzong and the others had gathered.

Some belonged to factions that had gained little from Fallen-Star Sanctuary and watched the discoveries enrich people they already regarded as rivals. Others were individual elders whose disciples had died inside.

Their resentment had made them receptive to people offering information, assistance, or an opportunity to recover what they believed they had lost.

Su Bai’s expression grew grave.

Resentment alone did not explain every agreement, and Ning Shuang did not pretend that it did.

She described what she knew of the meetings and the people attending them.

In some cases, an elder’s involvement was clear while the position of his entire sect remained uncertain.

He marked those distinctions carefully.

Accusing a whole faction on the strength of one elder’s dealings could create another enemy while leaving the actual arrangement untouched.

Li Xuanzong would want more than a collection of names. The details Ning Shuang provided could give the investigators somewhere specific to look.

"Do you know if someone like the formation master attends those gatherings?" he asked. "Or any other unfamiliar visitors?"

Ning Shuang fell silent.

For a moment, her gaze remained on the jade slip in his hand. Then she shook her head.

"I do not know. I asked my master about the formation master before, but she would not answer. I never learned whether he was involved in those meetings."

Su Bai remembered that her master had also kept her away from that visitor.

That decision had protected her, whether the woman understood the full purpose of the appointments or merely suspected danger. Her refusal to discuss him gave Su Bai little room to decide between those possibilities.

He recorded what Ning Shuang had said without adding a conclusion.

"The formation master," Su Bai continued. "Were your companions the only disciples sent to him?"

Ning Shuang’s face darkened.

"No. Most of the disciples sent on these missions went to him."

Su Bai’s brush stopped.

Most of the disciples sent outside had visited the formation master. If they had received the same treatment as Ning Shuang’s companions, many more might carry those arrays.

Ning Shuang’s expression grew tense as she considered the possibility.

"Has anyone else changed the way your companion did?" Su Bai asked.

"No one I noticed."

She answered firmly, then considered the people she had encountered again.

"I cannot account for everyone. Some groups only pass us on the road. Among the people I know well enough to judge, he was the only one."

Su Bai nodded and continued recording.

The existence of other marked disciples did not mean every one of them had already received a foreign soul.

His examination of the unconscious men had found dormant arrangements, and Ning Shuang’s account gave him no reason to claim otherwise.

It did mean that the bodies prepared for the method extended beyond the small group in the forest.

He disliked how easily that possibility fit the prisoner’s confidence.

Their conversation continued.

Su Bai returned to places and events she had mentioned during their earlier meeting, this time asking the questions the active Gu had prevented her from answering.

Ning Shuang spoke willingly, occasionally pausing to separate something she had witnessed from an explanation she had reached afterward.

Whenever a subject approached her sect’s more closely guarded affairs, her hand would drift toward her chest.

She checked the insect, reassured herself that it remained asleep, and continued. The habit had survived even when the immediate restraint was absent.

Su Bai gave her time.

Between questions, he checked the room’s formation and the quiet corridor beyond it. The restriction remained undisturbed.

Ning Shuang’s voice stayed low, and he kept the jade slip close enough that its contents remained beneath his own spiritual sense.

The tea gradually cooled.

Ning Shuang finished her serving while he asked about the timing of particular meetings.

Su Bai drank from his own cup between entries, although his attention had become too occupied to study how the longer steep affected it.

By the time he finished recording the last useful detail, little remained in either cup.

He lowered the jade slip.

Ning Shuang could not explain the entire arrangement.

She had never been admitted to the meetings where its purpose might have been discussed, and her assignments had supplied only the instructions needed to carry them out.

Even so, he had learned a great deal.

The righteous collaborators were especially important. Some names strengthened existing suspicions, while others required investigation before they could be treated as enemies.

He already possessed some of those factions’ cultivation methods, gained from the souls within the Soul-Bloom Seeds.

He would have to compare those records carefully.

If conflict became unavoidable, understanding an opponent’s circulation and techniques could prevent unnecessary losses.

Su Bai put the jade slip away.

The mysterious figures remained beyond his reach. He still suspected a connection to beings from outside the Human Realm, but suspicion could not supply a face, a motive, or the means by which they had arrived.

Whatever they intended, they had already found people willing to help them prepare.

His thoughts returned briefly to his previous life.

Waiting until a problem became an emergency had usually meant working longer to repair damage that could have been avoided.

He had disliked that arrangement when the consequences amounted to lost sleep and an unreasonable workload. He had even less enthusiasm for experiencing its cultivation equivalent.

He would need to act before the preparations became something nobody could easily stop.

Across the table, Ning Shuang watched him store the jade slip.

"Was that useful?"

"Very."

Su Bai answered without hesitation. Her smile returned, and something about how relieved she seemed made him look at her more closely.

She had spent this entire conversation giving him information that could place her in danger if anyone learned of it.

He had come seeking answers and found her willing to provide whatever she could. Yet she still seemed uncertain whether it had been enough.

He felt increasingly uncomfortable accepting that willingness as though it cost her nothing.

"Sister Ning," he said, "would you like to come with me?"

Her fingers stilled beside the empty cup.

Su Bai met her eyes.

"I can speak to my master about bringing you into Radiant Sky Sect. We would need to address the Gu and the danger to your master carefully, but if you want to leave, I would like to help you."

Ning Shuang stared at him.

For several breaths, she seemed to have forgotten how to answer.