Chapter 361: The thousand dao city 30.

"That sounds like her."

"And then she acted as if she had not done anything."

Su Yubing laughed.

"Mo Yuxin does similar things."

Qinghe looked amused.

"I knew I liked you for a reason."

Su Yubing smiled.

"I think our wives would get along."

"They already do."

"They are talking about swords right now."

Qinghe sighed dramatically.

"That means we have lost them for at least an hour."

Su Yubing laughed.

For a little while, the crisis felt distant.

Then they heard footsteps.

A young disciple entered carrying a broken communication talisman.

"Senior Sister Qinghe, another message from the southern route."

Qinghe took the talisman.

Her face changed as she read it.

Su Yubing noticed.

"What happened?"

Qinghe handed over the message.

The report said two more outer disciples had disappeared while traveling between the city’s western district and a small affiliated village.

The last trace of them had been found near an Azure Cloud transport station.

Qinghe whispered, "Seven this month."

Su Yubing looked at her.

"Seven?"

"Seven missing disciples."

The room became quiet.

The crisis was spreading much farther than the supply routes.

When Mo Yuxin returned, Su Yubing was waiting for her in the courtyard.

Mo Yuxin walked over immediately and took her hand.

"Did you miss me?"

Su Yubing raised an eyebrow. "It has been thirty minutes."

"Yes."

"You are hopeless."

"I know."

Su Yubing squeezed her hand.

"We have another problem."

Mo Yuxin’s expression changed.

"Missing disciples."

Su Yubing nodded.

They went to find Ye Qinglan.

The sect master was already in a strategy room with Mu Qingru and several elders.

A large map of Thousand Dao City and the surrounding territory covered the table.

There were red markings across it.

Each marked a place where a supply shipment had failed, a disciple had disappeared, a merchant agreement had been canceled, or a spiritual formation had stopped working.

The pattern was obvious.

Mo Yuxin leaned over the map.

"You are being cut apart."

Ye Qinglan looked at her.

"That is what it feels like."

Mu Qingru pointed at the eastern route.

"This merchant stopped working with us five months ago."

She pointed north.

"This sect suddenly increased the price of spirit medicine."

Then west.

"This town stopped accepting our spirit stones."

Then south.

"Our affiliated village says their local formation has been refusing our disciples entry."

Su Yubing looked at the map.

"And every one of those decisions happened before the public arguments at the assembly."

Ye Qinglan nodded.

"That is why I believe the problem started long before anyone accused us openly."

Mo Yuxin said, "Someone planned this."

Mu Qingru crossed her arms.

"We know. The question is who."

Mo Yuxin tapped the map.

"Not one person."

Everyone looked at her.

"Why?"

"Because the attacks require different kinds of control. Whoever is doing this has access to combat cultivators, merchants, formations, and medicine. One sect can influence two of those. Four together can influence all of them."

Mu Qingru’s eyes narrowed.

"You think four sects are cooperating."

"I think someone wants the Battle Maiden Sect isolated from every support system it has."

Ye Qinglan was silent.

Then she said quietly, "We have suspected this. We just could not prove it."

Su Yubing looked at her.

"Why not ask the City Lord for help?"

Mu Qingru answered before Ye Qinglan could.

"Because the City Lord is trapped between them. The major sects have enough influence in Thousand Dao City that openly accusing them without evidence could turn this into a citywide conflict."

Su Yubing nodded.

That made sense.

It was not that nobody cared.

It was that the political cost of acting without proof was enormous.

Mo Yuxin looked at Ye Qinglan.

"What do you need right now?"

Ye Qinglan hesitated.

"Medicine. Spirit stones. Reliable information."

Su Yubing asked, "And protection?"

Ye Qinglan smiled tiredly.

"We can protect ourselves."

Mo Yuxin liked that answer.

She nodded.

"Good."

Mu Qingru looked suspicious again.

"Why are you asking?"

Mo Yuxin answered, "Because we are staying in the city for a while."

Su Yubing looked at her.

"Are we?"

"Yes."

"Since when?"

"Since you made friends with everyone."

Su Yubing smiled.

"I did not realize that was enough to extend our trip."

"It is."

Ye Qinglan looked between them.

"You do not have to involve yourselves."

Su Yubing answered gently, "We know."

Mo Yuxin added, "We are choosing to."

That evening, the Battle Maiden Sect opened its remaining supplies to the wounded disciples.

The atmosphere inside the branch remained tense, but something had changed.

A repaired formation now protected the eastern hall.

The injured had proper care.

And for the first time in weeks, the sect had two outsiders standing beside them without asking for payment, political influence, or a favor in return.

The next morning, Mo Yuxin and Su Yubing went into the western district with Ye Qinglan’s permission to investigate the medicine shortage.

Luo Qinghe joined them.

Ning Shuyue came because she refused to let Qinghe travel alone.

Ji Ruyan and Su Lian joined too because they wanted to investigate the missing disciples.

The group moved through the crowded streets.

Mo Yuxin walked beside Su Yubing with their hands linked.

She had no intention of hiding their relationship.

At one point, Su Lian looked at their joined hands and laughed.

"Senior Mo, have you ever let go of Senior Su?"

Mo Yuxin thought about it.

"Sometimes."

"When?"

"When we are sleeping."

Su Yubing nearly stumbled.

Qinghe laughed so loudly that several pedestrians looked over.

Ning Shuyue covered her mouth.

Ji Ruyan stared straight ahead as if the conversation had nothing to do with her.

Su Lian whispered, "I like them."

Ji Ruyan replied quietly, "I noticed."

The first stop was a medicine market.

The shelves were full.

That immediately told Su Yubing something was wrong.

Purple Heaven Valley medicines were available in enormous quantities, but the price had doubled in the last two weeks.

Qinghe frowned at the seller.

"You were selling these at half this price last month."

.

.

.

TO BE CONTINUED.