How Dare You

Therefore, Liu Yunan temporarily set aside the less urgent sect affairs at hand and came out with Lin Xiao.

There was no helping it. Currently, the entire sect, aside from Lin Xiao, only had four Foundation Establishment cultivators and the soul-form Senior Liao.

Jiang Youfu needed to cook; it wouldn't do for the Lingxian Eatery to suddenly run out of food.

Sun Yigao had to teach; it wasn't good to suddenly suspend classes for the students.

Liu Chun needed to make talismans for the sect, preparing stock for trading at the Treasure Pavilion.

Senior Liao's soul form was inconvenient to bring out, as it could easily frighten mortals.

Thus, Liu Yunan was the only one with relatively flexible personal time, making it convenient for him to step out.

After the three arrived at the Liaoju Prefecture's government office, Tong Shuzheng hastily made a brief introduction among Lin Xiao, Liu Yunan, and Han Weishu, and then they hurriedly rushed to the place where those people were initially tied up and loaded onto the ships.

However, because Liu Yunan had to bring Han Weishu along this time, their speed was slightly slower.

But Liu Yunan was quite gentlemanly towards ladies; he took out his peach wood sword and flew on it, carrying Han Weishu along.

Although Han Weishu was disguised very well, facing cultivators whose cultivation levels were much higher than hers, it was still very easy to tell at a glance whether she was male or female.

Meanwhile, Tong Shuzheng, who was still being carried through the air by the scruff of his neck by Lin Xiao, silently glanced back at Han Weishu, who was comfortably standing on Liu Yunan's flying sword, and felt a tiny bit envious.

Because they flew quite high and at a fast speed, the ordinary commoners in the prefectural city didn't notice them.

Only occasionally, when passing over some rural fields, would a farmer wiping his sweat and looking up at the sky inadvertently catch a glimpse of the figures flashing past overhead.

As a result, during that time, the hottest topics in those villages were things like "Immortals passed by our village" or "Immortals flew right over my head."

Since Han Weishu was the only guide, the four of them had to travel together.

Along the way, Lin Xiao flew quite leisurely while carrying Tong Shuzheng. Riding behind Liu Yunan on his flying sword, Han Weishu kept an eye on Qiuqiu's situation.

However, to prevent Qiuqiu from being discovered if it stayed in the mine for too long, she had already ordered Qiuqiu to temporarily withdraw from the mine, only going back in every once in a while to check the specific situation inside.

Because of this, she felt a bit bored.

Han Weishu suddenly remembered the style of the sect uniforms worn by those people she had seen, so she told Lin Xiao and Tong Shuzheng about it.

Hearing this, Lin Xiao immediately took out a voice transmission talisman and relayed this information to Mo Yuanjiao.

As for the dangling Tong Shuzheng, upon hearing this new clue, he could only nod in sheer boredom and then continued to hang his head, staring blankly at the rapidly passing scenery below.

Seeing this, Han Weishu inexplicably felt a slight twinge of guilt. Her mind turned, and remembering what Lord Tong had told her earlier about refugees lacking household registrations to hold neighboring countries accountable, she asked him:

"Lord Tong, that friend of mine who was kidnapped with me is not a refugee. He has an agricultural registration; he is a commoner in good standing. Can this be counted as evidence?"

But Tong Shuzheng just sighed and shook his head, saying:

"The household registration of an individual isn't exactly ironclad evidence. If we really get into it, it depends on the exact circumstances of the situation. If it was the action of an individual sect or an individual immortal in the Huanyou Kingdom, and their imperial court was completely unaware and justly opposed to such phenomena, then it might be negotiable.

But if... sigh—"

Tong Shuzheng found these matters too vexing. The mere thought of all the messy complications involved made him mentally exhausted, so he let out a long sigh, not wanting to talk about it anymore.

Even though he didn't say it, Lin Xiao and the other two knew what he meant.

If the Huanyou Kingdom was aware of this matter, or if it was simply a collaboration between their domestic sects and their imperial court, then presenting those pieces of evidence would definitely be useless. The other party would certainly deny it.

If they stubbornly insisted that Han Weishu's friend had illegally crossed into their country as a vagrant, there would be nothing they could do.

Unless that large group of missing mountain villagers all had household registrations, only then could it be considered conclusive evidence.

Mentioning the imperial court, Lin Xiao suddenly remembered that an ancestor of the royal family seemed to be living in their village.

How could they not notify this genuine royal head honcho about such a matter?

So, while effortlessly carrying Tong Shuzheng and flying towards their destination, Lin Xiao pulled out a location-based voice transmission talisman.

Calculating the time, Yigao should be on his lunch break right now.

Not long after, in Xiushui Village, Sun Yigao, who was resting at the private school, received Lin Xiao's voice transmission.

"Yigao, if you are free right now, help me find that Ancestor Li living in our village. Tell him about this matter and ask if he wants to come over."

Before Lin Xiao and Liu Yunan left, they had already explained the situation to everyone in the sect, so Sun Yigao was also aware of this matter.

Upon receiving Lin Xiao's message, Sun Yigao went to find Li Zhanying. He modified Lin Xiao's phrasing a bit and asked him if he wished to go.

Since it involved the national prestige of their Pusi Kingdom, Li Zhanying naturally did not refuse and agreed immediately.

After asking Sun Yigao for the general direction, he left the house and hurried over there.

Leaving only Wang Goudan and Niu Xiaoxue still diligently cultivating in Xiushui Village.

On the other end, not long after receiving Sun Yigao's reply, Lin Xiao received another reply from Mo Yuanjiao.

Far away in the capital, the moment Mo Yuanjiao received Lin Xiao's message, he immediately entered the palace to find his cousin.

Whether out of laziness or some other reason, Mo Yuanjiao actually used the location-based voice transmission talisman to record his live conversation with Li Zhouxuan.

It opened with a loud crash of shattering porcelain; who knew what Li Zhouxuan had smashed.

Then, he was heard saying furiously:

"Preposterous! Do those dogs from Huanyou have no regard for our kingdom?! To actually dare to sneak directly into our country and abduct people!"

Hearing this, one could tell that Mo Yuanjiao had already told him about the matter, though it was unknown exactly how Mo Yuanjiao had phrased it.

"Exactly, exactly, Cousin Emperor! This is a slap to the face of our Pusi Kingdom! Can we tolerate this? Absolutely not!"

This voice fanning the flames clearly belonged to Mo Yuanjiao.

Fanned by him in this way, Li Zhouxuan's voice sounded like it had calmed down a bit.

"Even though these mountain villagers don't have household registrations, since they have lived and grown on our land for generations, they are citizens of our kingdom! These people from Huanyou are truly audacious!"

"Pass down my orders! The southeastern border army is to assemble and drill immediately to properly deter them at the border! If necessary, it's acceptable for some skirmishes to occur."

As soon as Li Zhouxuan heard this news, he knew it must be the result of a collaboration between the Huanyou Kingdom's sects and its imperial court.

Having been old neighbors for many years, they knew each other inside out.

Slightly different from the mutual checks and balances between the Pusi Kingdom's royal family and its three major sects, the Huanyou Kingdom and its domestic sects were not as balanced.

The royal family was slightly stronger than the sects.

The strength of the sects in the Huanyou Kingdom was not as formidable as the three major sects of the Pusi Kingdom, but they made up for it with sheer numbers.