The Side Character Who Wins by Doing Nothing

As Lu Sangjiu pondered, she arrived at Ji Heng’s courtyard.

When Xie Ningyuan came before, the Array here was active, but now it was destroyed.

Her gaze paused on the destroyed Array for a moment, then she tilted her head to look at Xie Ningyuan.

Xie Ningyuan immediately explained, "I used a Magic Treasure. It didn’t hurt me at all. You can see for yourself if you don’t believe me!"

Seeing that he was still full of life, Lu Sangjiu just hummed in acknowledgment without saying more and walked in first.

The courtyard was deathly still. Ji Heng’s Evil Cultivator underlings had all been killed by Xie Ningyuan, so their path was now clear.

Lu Sangjiu’s eyes scanned the area. Then, her nose twitched, and she closed her eyes as if trying to identify something.

A moment later, she opened her eyes and looked toward the rockery in the courtyard. "This way."

Ever since they had broken through the City Lord Mansion’s Great Array, she had been able to smell the Demon-Attracting Incense. It had been faint from a distance, but it grew clear as she got closer.

Through the layers of concealment, Lu Sangjiu precisely located the source of the Demon-Attracting Incense and walked straight toward the rockery.

With the master now dead, they didn’t have to worry about making a commotion. Lu Sangjiu didn’t even bother looking for a mechanism; she simply raised her hand and struck the rockery with her palm.

The rockery crumbled with a BOOM. As rubble scattered across the ground, the entrance to a secret chamber hidden within was revealed.

Previously, Xie Ningyuan had found the Moon Stones in a private secret room in Ji Heng’s chambers. This place, however, was where the City Lord refined Human Pills. Xie Ningyuan had never been here before, and what lay inside was still unknown.

So now, he waved the dust from in front of his face and volunteered, "I’ll go first."

Lu Sangjiu started to speak but was cut off. "Don’t argue with me over something so small. I’m not so weak that I can’t take care of myself."

Lu Sangjiu: "..."

’Fine,’ she thought, swallowing the words on the tip of her tongue and letting Xie Ningyuan take the lead.

As she expected, since the door had been forced open, they were immediately attacked by traps upon entering.

But Xie Ningyuan was prepared. He shielded her completely from the front, giving her no chance to make a move.

A moment later, the two of them arrived inside the secret chamber.

There were no living people here, only the unprocessed corpses of two young women. Their flesh and blood had been completely drained, a horrific sight to behold.

In the middle of the chamber was an Alchemy Furnace, filled with a nefarious aura. It had clearly been tainted by too much flesh and blood, having become a Magic Treasure that radiated its own evil energy.

If it were to fall into the hands of an ordinary person, it would influence them over the years, gradually leading them down a path of no return. It certainly needed to be destroyed.

Xie Ningyuan placed the Alchemy Furnace directly into his storage bag. "I’ll deal with it once we’re outside."

Lu Sangjiu hummed in agreement. After a moment’s thought, she also put the two Female Cultivators’ bodies into her storage bag, intending to take them outside for their families to identify.

After looking around, she also found the Magic Technique for refining Human Pills and destroyed it as well.

However, besides these things, Lu Sangjiu also discovered some books.

She casually pulled one out and opened it, only to find that they were the City Lord Mansion’s account books. They detailed his expenses for cultivating his own forces, as well as some unsavory sources of income.

Lu Sangjiu frowned slightly. She began to carefully look through the books, her expression growing darker the more she read.

’I knew it,’ she thought. ’Someone is trafficking Demon Cultivators. Yuelin City is a necessary stop for anyone traveling to or from the Western Demon Realm. How could the City Lord possibly know nothing about it?’

’So he was taking a cut of the profits, which is why he helped the other party cover their tracks!’

’And he was so diligent about finding Ah Ming. Before, I just thought he wanted to use Ah Ming as a scapegoat.’

’But in reality, he must have known Ah Ming was one of the escaped Demon Cultivators. He was afraid Ah Ming would leak the secret, so he wanted to catch him as soon as possible to silence him, right?’

Unfortunately, the account books only recorded income and expenses; they didn’t say who the other party was.

And although the City Lord’s confidants who knew about these dirty dealings were all recorded in the books, they had clearly all been placed under a Divine Soul Restriction by him and had died at the same time he did.

Tsk. ’Letting the City Lord off too easy was definitely a mistake. I shouldn’t have been moved in that moment and allowed him to commit suicide with Ji Heng.’

Everything had also happened too suddenly. Lu Sangjiu simply hadn’t had time to properly sort through her thoughts, causing her to overlook many things.

Otherwise, if she had known earlier that the City Lord was also involved in the trafficking of Demon Cultivators, she definitely wouldn’t have let him die so easily.

As if sensing her regret and self-blame, Xie Ningyuan said, "You don’t have to blame yourself. Even if you had kept him alive, you wouldn’t have been able to get anything out of him."

Lu Sangjiu paused. "What do you mean?"

Xie Ningyuan handed her an ancient book. "Because he was likely under a restriction as well."

Lu Sangjiu took the book and saw that it was a tome describing how to undo a type of Divine Soul Restriction called Soul Tugging. Many sections were circled, clear evidence that someone had studied it carefully.

"Soul Tugging..." Lu Sangjiu frowned. "This kind of restriction is extremely domineering. If the victim tries to say something they shouldn’t, they die on the spot."

This was different from the one on the City Lord’s guards, so... it was very likely the City Lord himself had been afflicted with Soul Tugging.

Lu Sangjiu sighed. "The person behind all this is incredibly cautious."

Xie Ningyuan’s lips twitched. "Because this person also knows that even if the victims are Demon Cultivators, he’d still be criticized and questioned if such a scandal were exposed."

"To know your actions are evil and yet persist... I wonder which sanctimonious bastard is behind it."

He clearly suspected the culprit came from a major sect. After all, without power and influence, it would be nearly impossible to capture people from the heavily guarded Western Demon Realm and then transport them out through Yuelin City.

Lu Sangjiu was silent for a moment before looking at Xie Ningyuan. "If it turns out the mastermind is from one of the Four Small Sects, or even one of the Four Great Sects, what do you think the final outcome would be?"

Xie Ningyuan also fell silent.

If a top-tier power was involved, then... it would indeed be difficult to achieve a satisfactory outcome for this matter.

The most likely scenario is that the matter would be twisted into an act of justice.

’Demon Cultivators deserve to die anyway, so what’s wrong with trafficking them in secret?’

It might even reach a point where trafficking Demon Cultivators is brought into the open and becomes a perfectly normal affair.

The Western Demon Realm would surely be enraged by this, leading to another war and immense suffering.

After a long time, Xie Ningyuan asked her, "If you can’t get a satisfactory result, will you stop investigating?"

"Of course not."

The moment the words left her lips, Lu Sangjiu suddenly felt a sense of relief.

’Since I’m going to investigate this to the end regardless of the outcome... why worry about it now?’

In that instant, Lu Sangjiu’s heart cleared. She looked at Xie Ningyuan, a bright smile involuntarily appearing on her face.

She spoke each word, clear and powerful.

"As long as our intentions remain true, what is there to fear in the future?"

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