Chapter 174: Li Tonghe's True Identity
Chen Yan was extremely vigilant.
At this moment, carrying the two top-tier cultivation arts, the Hidden Immortal Art and the Great Derivation Art, and combined with his current cultivation level at the peak of the Qi Sea Realm, it could be said that below the Passable God Realm, it would be very difficult to find any opponent for him.
Of course, he didn’t dare to boast and claim he was some invincible person within the Qi Sea Realm.
Because the Star Heaven Sect had a Qin Qingyu.
Chen Yan still remembered to this day the sense of oppression Qin Qingyu had brought him back then on Heavenly Summit Mountain.
It was different from being crushed by He Furen with a single slap, or by Qi Yi with a mere snap of his fingers—a pure suppression of cultivation realm.
What Qin Qingyu displayed to the world was true, unparalleled supremacy of their generation.
It even made people feel that even those past great powers who had reached the Immortal Ascension Realm probably wouldn’t have shown much more impressive capability than her at this current realm.
Chen Yan placed his hand on the door of the residence in front of him and gently pushed it open inward.
The old, worn hinges of the door before him let out a rather piercing screech.
Chen Yan’s heart sank another notch.
If there was someone inside this courtyard, they would definitely have been alerted by his presence now.
So, deciding to go all the way, Chen Yan simply stepped directly into the courtyard before him and began scanning the small, narrow space with his eyes. It was only about ten zhang long and six or seven zhang wide.
Unfortunately, the current Chen Yan had not yet stepped into the Passable God Realm and had not cultivated divine sense.
Such a small, narrow courtyard—not even a single fly could escape the detection range of a Passable God Realm cultivator’s divine sense.
The courtyard was eerily quiet.
Chen Yan then shifted his gaze to the well in the center of the courtyard. He walked over and looked at the wooden bucket beside the well.
The bucket bore signs of having been soaked in water, and it looked like it had happened not long ago, roughly half an incense stick’s worth of time.
So, there was indeed someone here.
Right at that moment, a sound of something dropping to the ground came from the side room of the courtyard.
Chen Yan sharply turned his head, looking towards the direction of that side room.
He saw the door of the side room slowly swing open inward. The room inside was pitch black, and nothing could be seen clearly.
Then, a faint, flickering figure slowly emerged from within—
“Immortal Master Yan?”
A young man’s voice, which sounded somewhat familiar to Chen Yan, came from inside the side room.
The familiar figure of the Gambling Den waiter walked out from the doorway, carrying a bucket in his hand with a dripping wet cloth draped over it.
“What are you doing here?” the waiter asked.
“Is this your home?” Chen Yan asked in return instead of directly answering the young Gambling Den waiter’s question.
“Yes,” the Gambling Den waiter before him replied without hesitation.
“The doors and windows are covered in a thick layer of dust. It looks like no one has touched them for a very long time,” Chen Yan continued.
“Yeah, it hasn’t been cleaned in a long time. The Gambling Den is busy every single day,” the waiter said with a smile.
“Your name is Li Tonghe?” Chen Yan asked again.
“How does the Immortal Master know my name?”
“For me, finding out how many waiters surnamed Li worked at the Immortal Gambling Den two years ago is a very easy task,” Chen Yan said slowly.
“The Immortal Gambling Den had exactly three waiters surnamed Li.”
The young waiter didn’t speak, just stared at Chen Yan with a rather puzzled look.
“Not a single one of those three waiters surnamed Li survived that massacre that wiped out the entire establishment. And this residence is the ancestral home of the Gambling Den waiter named Li Tonghe,” Chen Yan stated.
“So, who exactly are you?”
“Who am I?” The young waiter took a couple of steps back, a look of confusion appearing on his face.
“I… I am Li Tonghe. Immortal Master Yan, what do you mean by saying I’m already dead…”
His expression grew increasingly panicked and flustered.
“I’m already dead? But I’m still alive. This is… this is… ah, ahhh… hahahahaha, HAHAHAHAHA!”
Suddenly, the “Li Tonghe” before him burst into loud laughter.
“I can’t do it, I really can’t keep acting anymore. You really are something else, Chief Disciple Chen!”
Chen Yan watched the performance of the “Li Tonghe” before him with an expressionless face.
Then, this “Li Tonghe” raised his hand and lightly swept his sleeve across his face, revealing his true appearance.
And upon clearly seeing this “Li Tonghe’s” face, Chen Yan’s heartbeat couldn’t help but skip a beat.
Because he had already seen this face many times before on Heavenly Summit Mountain—
“Xiao Bo’an?” Chen Yan’s voice trembled slightly.
“Indeed, it is I,” the handsome young man with sharp sword-like eyebrows and starry eyes before him said, bowing slightly in Chen Yan’s direction.
Xiao Bo’an, Chief Disciple of the Weaving Dreams Tower of the Mirage Palace!
How was this possible?
Xiao Bo’an was someone he had personally killed with his own hands. Why was he standing here alive and well now?
“Who exactly are you?” Chen Yan asked again, unable to believe it.
“Didn’t Chief Disciple Chen just say my name?” Xiao Bo’an said with a smile.
“I am Xiao Bo’an.”
“You should have died on Heavenly Summit Mountain.”
“Chief Disciple Chen is correct. The Xiao Bo’an on Heavenly Summit Mountain did indeed die, but the Xiao Bo’an in Taiyun City did not,” Xiao Bo’an stated.
“What do you mean?” Chen Yan didn’t understand.
“Otherwise, Chief Disciple Chen, why do you think that back when Heavenly Summit Mountain stood above all the cultivation sects of the Chenping Continent, the world’s number one illusion arts school was still our Mirage Palace’s Weaving Dreams Tower?”
Damn it.
Chen Yan cursed silently in his heart.
He was extremely annoyed by Xiao Bo’an’s deliberate mystification.
“Alright, then next, please give me the answer, Chief Disciple Chen,” Xiao Bo’an said.
“What answer?” Chen Yan asked.
“Who is the mastermind behind the massacre of the Immortal Gambling Den?”
“I came here to find you precisely to investigate this matter,” Chen Yan said.
“I’ve been waiting here for you, Chief Disciple Chen, precisely to hear your answer,” Xiao Bo’an continued.
Then, Xiao Bo’an seemingly casually raised his hand, revealing the ring worn on the index finger of his right hand.
It was precisely Ye Xiu’s ring.
Chen Yan remembered that fifty-three days later, on the day the Outer Court Cataclysm occurred, this ring was worn on Grand Elder Qi’s hand.
But now…
Right.
Back on Heavenly Summit Mountain, Elder Zhang of the Mirage Palace and Xiao Bo’an were already colluding with He Furen.
Connecting what Xiao Bo’an just said with the clues Chen Yan possessed, it could also be deduced that the reason Xiao Bo’an was waiting here for him definitely had Qi Yi’s shadow behind it.
That the Immortal Gambling Den massacre was ordered by Fu Qian and carried out by his trusted followers was indisputable.
But Qi Yi denied that Fu Qian was the mastermind behind it, which meant…
Suddenly, a flash of insight struck Chen Yan.
He had already realized something.
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