Chapter 1009 - 94: Bearing the Blame Silently Like Gentle Rain (31 Updates)

Chapter 1009: Chapter 94: Bearing the Blame Silently Like Gentle Rain (31 Updates)

"You’re back?" Sitting at the table, idly playing with a chess piece in her hand, Mu Qingge lifted her eyes to glance at the returning Yin Chen.

Yin Chen dipped his chin lightly and said to her, "I truthfully told the Divine Emperor and the Princess what I saw that day."

"Good." Mu Qingge tossed the chess piece in her hand accurately into the box, clapped the dust from her palms, picked up the untouched tea on the table, and took a light sip.

Yin Chen walked to the opposite side of her and sat down at Mu Qingge’s indication.

Yin Chen smiled and said, "According to what you said, they’ll be able to find clues very soon."

Mu Qingge nodded slightly and said to him, "Just wait. Tomorrow Chu Nian will come to me."

"But I’m worried—if that Mu Tianyin is driven into a corner, he might bite back at you instead." Yin Chen said with a furrowed brow.

Mu Qingge only shook her head with confidence. "They won’t be able to catch Mu Tianyin that easily. The remnant forces of the Mu Clan have been barely surviving in the Four Seas Divine Land for tens of thousands of years. I can’t speak to anything else, but at the very least, when it comes to running for their lives, they must have honed that skill to perfection. Especially considering Mu Tianyin’s status—how could he not have several life-preserving items on him? Otherwise, how would he have the nerve to break into the Divine Emperor Palace?"

"That makes sense." Yin Chen nodded and said.

"As long as their investigation leads to Mu Tianyin, the suspicion on you will be washed away." he added.

Mu Qingge’s lips curved into a faint smile, and she nodded. "We can’t kill him right now, so making him pay some interest first is fine. Anyway, he came here for the Divine Strategy Lower Volume to begin with, so I’m not wronging him."

"Then today..." Yin Chen asked for instructions.

Mu Qingge took a deep breath and said to Yin Chen, "Today we just stay here honestly and behave ourselves, that’s all."

Yin Chen nodded.

"The item..." He reminded Mu Qingge.

Mu Qingge, however, shook her head and said to him, "No rush for the moment. Once we leave this place, we’ll have plenty of time to study it slowly." In any case, since it could resonate with her, the authenticity of the item could be confirmed.

...

Chu Nian accompanied the Wuhua God Emperor back to the Divine Emperor Palace. She looked at her father. "The clues Yin Chen provided are crucial. Father, I’ll track them down as quickly as possible."

The Wuhua God Emperor nodded. Suddenly, he turned his gaze to Chu Nian, a faintly unreadable light flashing in his eyes. He asked, "Nian’er, have you fallen for that Mu Qingge?"

Chu Nian’s expression stalled for a moment, and she hurriedly argued, "No."

"If not, then why are you constantly shielding him?" The Wuhua God Emperor pressed on.

A hint of panic flickered in Chu Nian’s eyes. She forced herself to remain calm and said, "I just feel that he has nothing to do with the Mu Clan remnants."

"Why are you so certain?" the Wuhua God Emperor asked.

Chu Nian drew a deep breath and said to him, "First of all, we have absolutely no evidence pointing to him. Moreover, he is the little Divine Emperor personally appointed by the Huan Yue God Emperor. If his origins were dubious, or if he had anything to do with the Mu Clan, how could the Huan Yue God Emperor have set him up as little Divine Emperor?"

The Wuhua God Emperor’s gaze darkened as he looked at Chu Nian, and suddenly he said, "Nian’er, do you know what crime the Mu Clan was branded with? And why the Mu Clan remnants find it so hard to survive in the Four Seas Divine Land?"

"I know. Colluding with the Demon Clan." Chu Nian answered.

The Wuhua God Emperor nodded. "That is a grave crime, a capital crime. History is written by the victors. The Mu Clan lost back then, so the august War God fell to such a state. Before anything has been fully investigated and before Mu Qingge’s identity has been cleared of suspicion, you’d best not get too close to him."

"Father." Chu Nian said hastily, "He and I just get along rather well. His age is so different from mine, how could we possibly..."

"What does age matter? Among our Divine Clan, what we look at is one’s cultivation realm; we’ve never cared about age. If he truly has nothing to do with the Mu Clan, and you like him, as your father I can make the decision for you and personally go to the Huan Yue Domain to propose marriage." The Wuhua God Emperor cut her off.

Chu Nian lifted her eyes in shock, staring at her father, dumbfounded.

The Wuhua God Emperor went on, "You’ve reached the age for marriage. Don’t be like that Li Yuan of the North Divine Land—she’s tens of thousands of years old and still can’t get married. Besides, the Huan Yue Domain is quite a good match."

"..." Chu Nian was at a loss for words. She wanted to dispute him, to explain, but she couldn’t get a single sentence out.

She could only watch as her father, the Divine Emperor of the Wuhua Domain, entered the Divine Emperor Palace.

...

That night, the Secret Guard of the Divine Emperor Palace knelt before the Wuhua God Emperor to deliver his report.

"He truly showed not the slightest abnormality today?" The Wuhua God Emperor asked in a low, cool voice.

"Yes. This subordinate waited in secret all day. He showed not the least abnormality, nor any sign of panic or troubled thinking. On the contrary, he even had the leisure to play chess with his subordinate and water the flowers." The Secret Guard said, kneeling on one knee.

The Wuhua God Emperor’s eyes grew a shade darker. He nodded almost imperceptibly and said to him, "You may withdraw."

"Yes." The Secret Guard responded, then vanished from where he was.

After he left, the Wuhua God Emperor made no move; only in those eyes, it was unclear what calculations were being made.

The next day, just after Mu Qingge finished breakfast, she saw Chu Nian walking toward this side.

She and Yin Chen exchanged a glance; both of them understood what this meant.

"Qingge." Chu Nian walked in, her attitude toward Mu Qingge as friendly as ever.

She looked at the table that had not yet been cleared and couldn’t help saying, "I didn’t disturb you, did I?"

Mu Qingge said with a smile, "If you’re here, then there’s no such thing as disturbing. You just came a few steps late and missed the chance to share a meal."

Chu Nian smiled softly. "It’s fine."

She went to sit down in front of Mu Qingge. Her phoenix eyes swept over Mu Qingge and Yin Chen, then returned to Mu Qingge. She said to her, "Following your method, and with the clues Yin Chen provided, I really did uncover some leads in Wuhua City yesterday."

"Oh? What did you find?" Mu Qingge asked as she poured a cup of tea and pushed it in front of her.

Chu Nian didn’t think much of it. She picked up the cup and lightly sipped at the rim. Only then did she say, "In Wuhua City, there was a family of five who were slaughtered to the last, their deaths extremely cruel. At Immortal Dew Pavilion, one of the attendants also inexplicably became an idiot, knowing only how to stare blankly and babble. And besides that, I brought back a few people. They seem to have been robbed and then discarded in hidden places. They had no identification on them at all and have remained in a coma."

"Mm, those are indeed very good clues." Mu Qingge nodded.

Chu Nian asked, "Qingge, I came to you to see whether you can discern anything from all this."

"And what have you seen?" Mu Qingge countered.

Chu Nian pressed her lips together, then voiced the conclusions she had been pondering without the slightest hesitation: "I suspect that the people Yin Chen saw that day are exactly the targets I’m tracking. They used some unknown method to infiltrate Wuhua City, then, in order to conceal their movements, wiped out that civilian family and took over their home. As for those comatose people, they should be the ones whose identities were stolen."