Chapter 40 - 41:The Soul Bell

Chapter 40: Chapter 41:The Soul Bell

A/N: Apologies, I mixed the Chapter sequence for Chapter 40 and 41, sadly I can no longer edit it since WN would not allow me TvT

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"Senior Brother, what’s our plan now?" Sui Sui whispered as he leaned closer to Yizhou. "It doesn’t seem like they’re going to let us leave. Should we just climb over the city walls and sneak out?"

Yizhou slowly turned to look at him.

Although his expression remained as calm as ever, there was a faint trace of speechlessness in his eyes, as if he were wondering what exactly was going through Sui Sui’s head.

Feeling that gaze, Sui Sui instinctively scratched the tip of his nose, growing increasingly embarrassed.

"...I was only making a suggestion."

"What Junior Brother says is quite reasonable," Yizhou replied unhurriedly. "However, since the City Lord has ordered a lockdown, escaping won’t be that simple."

His gaze drifted toward the towering city walls.

"Did Junior Brother not learn about this? In the past, when the Human Realm was frequently invaded by demons, every city was required to be protected by a grand formation established by a Dao Fusion cultivator. Depending on how it was activated, the formation could either shield the city’s inhabitants from outside threats or seal the entire city, trapping everyone within."

He paused before continuing.

"The formation’s core is entrusted to the City Lord. Once activated in its sealing state, it prevents anyone from entering or leaving without permission; anyone who attempts to forcefully break its rules will be met with the remnant power of the Dao Fusion cultivator who established it."

A faint smile tugged at the corner of Yizhou’s lips.

"So unless Junior Brother intends to contend with the power left behind by a Dao Fusion cultivator, don’t even think about climbing over those walls."

"So that’s how it is..." Sui Sui muttered, his eyes widening slightly. "I’ve never heard of such a formation before."

Sui Sui fell silent for a moment before another problem came to mind. "Then... what do we do now?" he asked. "Do we just stay here until they catch the culprit? What if it takes them months?"

Yizhou’s expression remained unchanged while saying "Then we’ll simply give the City Lord what he wants."

Sui Sui blinked in confusion. "What does he want?"

"Of course," Yizhou said nonchalantly. "He wants to find the culprit."

For a brief moment, Sui Sui simply stared at him. Then, as the meaning behind those words sank in, his eyes slowly widened in realization.

"Senior Brother..." he said hesitantly. "...you don’t mean we’re going to look for the culprit ourselves right?"

Yizhou nodded without the slightest hesitation.

"I mean exactly that."

—

"Are there still no developments in the investigation?"

"How could this happen? What kind of sick bastard would choose our remote city to do something like this?"

"Could it have been a demon cultivator?"

"I’m not sure, but that’s a good guess. If it really is a demon cultivator, doesn’t that mean this place is no longer safe? After all, we’re at the northern edge of the Human Realm and far from the other cities."

"Aiya! Life is already hard enough as it is, and now we have to deal with this too."

"The only fortunate thing is that the killings stopped after the attack on the young City Lord’s bride-to-be."

"Yeah, apparently the City Lord has already invited many cultivators from other cities. Perhaps that scared the attacker away."

"I just hope this matter ends soon."

The largest hotel in XuanShuang City was usually bustling with activity, although fewer people were on the street, the traffic on the hotel today was no different. However, with the recent string of murders, the conversations inside the restaurant had shifted almost entirely to a different topic.

At one of the tables near the corner, several customers were discussing the case in hushed voices.

Their voices were quiet, but to Sui Sui and Yizhou, who were seated at the table beside them, every word could still be heard clearly.

Since they needed more information about the case, the two had deliberately chosen the restaurant as their first stop. A place where cultivators and ordinary people gathered was often the best place to hear the latest rumors. Unlike official reports from the City Lord’s Mansion, the conversations here were filled with the small details and rumors that might otherwise be overlooked.

Sui Sui and Yizhou remained silent as they listened.

After a while, they had gathered enough information to piece together what had happened. There was nothing particularly useful in the remaining conversations, so the two eventually got up and returned to the rooms they had rented upstairs.

Once they entered Sui Sui’s room, the door closed behind them, only then did they begin discussing what they had learned.

Back in Sui Sui’s room, the two sat across from each other and began sorting through the information they had gathered.

Sui Sui rested his chin on his hand, thinking carefully about the case.

"Senior Brother, don’t you think the timeline of the murders is a little strange?"

Yizhou raised his eyes to him. "What do you mean?"

"The killings happened one after another, but they suddenly stopped after the attack on the City Lord’s bride-to-be." Sui Sui frowned slightly. "If the culprit only wanted to kill people, there shouldn’t be any reason for them to stop after failing to kill her."

Yizhou remained silent, waiting for him to continue.

Sui Sui’s eyes brightened as he pieced together his thoughts.

"So I think there must be a reason behind it. Maybe whatever they’re trying to accomplish requires the young miss to die first. Or..." He paused, then looked at Yizhou. "What if she’s actually the last person they need?"

A faint trace of interest flickered through Yizhou’s eyes.

"Not bad."

Sui Sui blinked, clearly not expecting the small compliment. His lips curved upward slightly, but before he could say anything, Yizhou continued.

"Your reasoning isn’t wrong. If the culprit simply wanted to kill people for pleasure, then killing everyone in the same family would suffice. There would be no need to go through the trouble of selecting different victims."

As he spoke, Yizhou’s fingers rested loosely against the table, tapping against its surface at an unhurried pace.

"But they didn’t."

His voice remained calm, as though he were merely stating an obvious fact.

Sui Sui’s brows furrowed as he followed Yizhou’s reasoning. "Yeah, they chose their victims separately."

"Exactly."

Yizhou’s finger stopped tapping.

"Which means they have a specific criterion for choosing them."

Sui Sui lowered his gaze, his mind immediately turning over everything they had learned about the victims. Different families, different backgrounds, yet somehow each person had been singled out by the culprit.

The more he thought about it, the more serious his expression became.

"Then the most important thing now is figuring out what all the victims have in common."

"Mm."

Yizhou gave a quiet hum, his gaze settling on Sui Sui for a moment.

Seeing how seriously the little fool was thinking, a faint smile almost surfaced in his eyes before disappearing just as quickly.

"Additionally, there’s another thing about this case that I find suspicious," Yizhou said.

Sui Sui immediately looked toward him. "What?"

"Don’t you remember what the guard told us earlier?"

Sui Sui frowned and tried to recall their conversation with the guard. There had been quite a few details, and for a moment, he couldn’t remember which part Yizhou was referring to.

"Which part?"

"He said that before the young miss felt dizzy, she mentioned hearing the sound of a bell, don’t you think this is too familiar?"

Sui Sui suddenly fell into a deep thought. A moment later, his eyes slowly widened as he understood what Yizhou was implying.

"The bell..." He lowered his voice. "Do you mean this could be related to the Soul Bell?"

"It should be."

Yizhou’s expression remained calm, but his gaze grew slightly more thoughtful.

"There are very few bell-type artifacts in the cultivation world. It would be too much of a coincidence for one to disappear near this area a few months ago, only for another bell artifact to suddenly appear a few months later."

Sui Sui nodded slowly.

The more he thought about it, the more suspicious it seemed. In fact, In the novel, after the Soul Bell went missing, it never resurfaced again, and there was very little information about it in circulation, seeing that it might be connected to this case surprised Sui Sui a lot.

"Then, if that’s true..." Sui Sui hesitated before looking at Yizhou. "Should we send a message back to the Wenjian Sect and ask for reinforcements? After all, the Soul Bell is extremely important to the sect."

"No need for now," Yizhou said nonchalantly.

Sui Sui stared at him for a moment, a strange suspicion slowly creeping into his mind.

Could it be that his Senior Brother didn’t want to call for reinforcements because he had already taken a liking to the Soul Bell?

The thought seemed ridiculous at first, but the more Sui Sui considered it, the more plausible it became. In fact, the more he thought about Yizhou’s personality, the less surprising it seemed.

If anything, it would have been far stranger if Yizhou had agreed to involve the Wenjian Sect so readily.

And Sui Sui’s suspicion was not wrong.

Yizhou really did have his eyes on the Soul Bell.

If the artifact was truly the same Soul Bell that had disappeared near XuanShuang City several months ago, then naturally, Yizhou had no intention of handing it over to Wenjian Sect so obediently.

After all, he had never had much goodwill toward the sect. His attitude toward them had always been rather simple: If Wenjian Sect was pleased, then he was not pleased; and when they were unhappy, he was happy.

However, his reason for wanting the Soul Bell was not limited to that.

The Soul Bell was a high-level soul-type artifact, which made it particularly valuable to Yizhou for another reason.

Recently, Yizhou had become increasingly interested in the study of the soul.

The first reason was his own rebirth.

Even now, Yizhou had no explanation for how he had returned to life. He refused to believe that it had simply been luck, nor did he think that the heavens had taken pity on him. There had to be a reason behind it, and if the answer existed somewhere, Yizhou intended to find it.

The second reason was Sui Sui.

It had been quite some time since Yizhou first began to suspect that the person beside him was not the same Sui Sui one, or even if they were the same, there was definitely something about him thay made him different.

Yet despite observing him for so long, there were still many things about Sui Sui that Yizhou could not understand.

He wanted to know more.

He wanted to understand exactly what had happened to this person and, more importantly, what kind of soul was actually residing within that body.

However, Yizhou knew that Sui Sui would probably not tell him the truth willingly, even if this person was bound to him via the Heart Gu, it would only make the persom unable to betray him, but it wouldn’t stop the other from keeping secrets.

Although on a second thought, he could indeed just torture Sui Sui to make him reveal his secrets, but Yizhou was a bit reluctant, such an interesting person shouldn’t be broken so early on, he still has a lot of use for him anyway.

Plus, it was nice to have someone he can show his real face to once in a while, he quite liked the feeling.

So if he wanted answers, he could not simply rely on asking questions. He would have to find them himself.

That was why Yizhou had begun researching more deeply into soul-related techniques.

Of course, this was not the only reason.

The soul was the foundation of a person. It was also one of their greatest weaknesses.

The body could be protected by defensive artifacts, cultivation techniques, and spiritual energy, but the soul was far more difficult to defend against.

It is the strongest part of the person and similarly their most vulnerable part.

If one could learn how to control and manipulate another person’s soul, then no matter how strong that person was, it could provide a considerable advantage in a confrontation.

At the moment, Yizhou was studying a new spell known as Soul Thread Manipulation. This was a lost ancient technique from thousands of years ago that he had taken an interest in during his time in the mysterious space before his rebirth.

The spell allowed him to target another person’s soul through soul threads, much like manipulating a puppet. Although it came with strict limitations, its power was undeniable.

The Soul Bell, as a high-level soul-type artifact, could greatly assist him in controlling and refining the soul-related energy required by the spell. With its assistance, Yizhou could understand and practice the technique more efficiently, saving him a considerable amount of time and effort.

For that reason alone, Yizhou had no intention of casually letting such an artifact slip through his hands.

Fortunately, if the Soul Bell really was connected to the culprit behind the kidnappings, then investigating the case would give Yizhou the perfect opportunity to find it.

It was practically a heaven-sent opportunity. He could investigate the culprit while searching for the Soul Bell, without having to deal with Wenjian Sect beforehand.

With their plans decided, the two continued discussing what they would do the following day and where they should begin their investigation.

By the time they finished, the night had already grown deeper.