Xu Mu merely glanced at Li Peijun without saying anything.
The two of them returned to the entrance of the ruins, where the guard in charge greeted them once again.
“Hello, Miss Peijun.”
“Hehe, thanks for your hard work, Brother Jie.”
Li Peijun replied with a smile.
Xu Mu checked the guard captain’s filial piety rating toward Li Peijun and found that it was 2.
At that moment, he understood everything.
After leaving the ruins, the two of them returned to the study.
The study door had not been closed, so Xu Mu could hear the conversation in the living room.
When they came out together, Li Chenshuang and Zhou Su were sitting on the sofa, chatting.
The moment Li Chenshuang saw Xu Mu return, she hurriedly stood up and asked, “How did it go?”
“Not bad. I managed to find out a few things.”
Xu Mu smiled as he spoke.
“Sister Shuang.”
Li Peijun, following behind Xu Mu, greeted her with a smile.
“Peijun, you came too?”
When Li Chenshuang saw her, she immediately walked over, took her hand, and led her to the sofa. “Don’t worry. I’ll definitely bring the culprit to justice.”
Xu Mu stood to the side and checked Li Peijun’s filial piety rating toward Li Chenshuang.
It was actually -4.
Just how much did she hate her?
Even when Xu Mu had drawn a little pig on Hathaway Thunder, the other woman’s filial piety rating had never fallen this low.
“Thank you, Sister Shuang.”
Li Peijun gripped Li Chenshuang’s hand tightly, her eyes slightly reddening.
Xu Mu remained expressionless, but he sneered inwardly. What a green tea. She was quite good at pretending.
Perhaps it was precisely because of this personality that Hat Bro had abandoned her.
Xu Mu sat across from the three women.
Looking at the two women seated on either side of Li Chenshuang, both of whom were traitors, he wondered how she would react if she learned the truth right now.
“Tell me quickly. What exactly did you find?”
Li Chenshuang asked anxiously.
Xu Mu first removed the hood of his black robe. Now that he had seen Li Peijun’s filial piety rating toward Li Chenshuang, he had already reached a conclusion about who the traitor was.
There was no need for him to continue concealing his identity.
After all, Zhou Su was on the same side as Li Peijun and would certainly tell her eventually. Rather than that, he might as well reveal his face himself and give Li Peijun the illusion that he trusted her.
“You two are the people Sister Shuang trusts most, so naturally, I have no reason to deceive you. I’ve more or less reached a conclusion.”
Xu Mu folded his arms and leaned back against the sofa.
After seeing Xu Mu’s face, Li Peijun pointed at him with her eyes wide open.
“You… Xu Mu?”
“I didn’t realize my reputation was so impressive.”
Xu Mu chuckled. “Sister Shuang once helped me in a ruin, so I came this time to repay that favor.”
Hearing this, Li Chenshuang felt a little embarrassed. Whenever she was with Xu Mu, he was always the one helping her.
Just as before, when Xu Mu had summoned her to fight, she had not been able to help at all. In the end, she had received two Nether Servant Insects and the corpse of a top-tier expert for nothing.
[Affection +10]
“Brother Xu Mu, you’re my idol! You were so awesome in the Battle of Martial Arts tournament!”
Li Peijun clasped her hands in front of her chest, looking utterly infatuated.
“Keep it low-key. That was just basic operation.”
Xu Mu waved dismissively at Li Peijun. This woman was remarkably good at pretending.
She worked hard to present herself as a naïve, sweet, and harmless girl. An ordinary person might well have been fooled.
But Xu Mu could see her filial piety rating.
“Xu Mu, stop beating around the bush. Tell me—was it Miao Wentian?”
Li Chenshuang asked in a deep voice.
“Most likely, but a few words alone aren’t enough to establish that. Still, he stands to gain the most from the deaths of those two Boundary Breakers. Besides, he has a reason to do it.”
Xu Mu smiled and shrugged.
“What reason?”
“If I were him, and you suspected me, I’d say: ‘I wouldn’t be that stupid. Now that those two Boundary Breakers are dead, anyone with eyes can see that I’m the prime suspect. Why would I expose myself?’”
Xu Mu swept his gaze over the three women before him.
Only Li Chenshuang nodded thoughtfully. The other two showed no reaction whatsoever.
“Then what should we do?”
Li Chenshuang asked.
“I don’t know. I still know too little about your tribe, and I don’t know what your position is.”
Xu Mu suddenly fixed his gaze on Li Chenshuang. “If he really is a traitor, what will you do?”
“I…”
Li Chenshuang clenched her fists, momentarily at a loss.
Miao Wentian had watched her grow up. When she became the chief, he had been one of her strongest supporters.
But if he had now joined forces with Chiting and might even move against her, what should she do?
Was she supposed to kill him?
Li Chenshuang took a deep breath. If she killed him, then apart from herself, there would be no other Boundary Breaker left in the Second Tribe.
Although she now possessed the corpses of two others, they were not real people and could not leave to handle affairs for her. In essence, they were still merely part of Li Chenshuang’s own combat strength.
“You can take your time to think about that.”
After saying this, Xu Mu looked at Li Peijun and Zhou Su. “As Sister Shuang’s close friends, you should both offer some advice as well.”
The two women nodded.
“Oh, right.”
At this point, Xu Mu suddenly stood up. “Sister Shuang, come with me. There’s one more thing I need to tell you—something about myself.”
“All right.”
Li Chenshuang nodded.
“Let’s go to my car.”
Xu Mu smiled at the other two. “You two can discuss things among yourselves.”
With that, he left the residence first, and Li Chenshuang followed behind him.
After leaving the residence, she used an array formation to change the color of her hair and eyes to black.
She knew how to use array formations as well, after all.
Li Peijun and Zhou Su exchanged glances. Then Zhou Su picked up the laptop from the coffee table and opened it.
After a few simple clicks, the surveillance footage from the entire company appeared on the screen.
Li Peijun tilted her head toward the computer and saw that Xu Mu and Li Chenshuang had not hidden themselves nearby. They had indeed walked straight toward the company’s main entrance.
Finally, they got into Xu Mu’s car together and closed the doors.
“I didn’t expect Li Chenshuang and Xu Mu to be so close.”
Li Peijun twirled a lock of her hair around her finger and leaned back against the sofa with a smile.
“She seems to have a great deal of faith in Xu Mu. We need to be careful.”
Zhou Su kept her eyes fixed on the screen.
“Heh! He’s just a big fool. No one can be outstanding in every way. Xu Mu’s cultivation talent is indeed formidable, but he’s not very bright.”
Li Peijun tapped her own forehead, her face filled with mockery. “A few calls of ‘Brother’ were enough to leave him completely dazed.”
“Let’s hope so.”
Zhou Su glanced at Li Peijun. “What do we do now? Not only Li Chenshuang, but Xu Mu suspects Miao Wentian too. Should we move on to the next step?”
“I’ll call Grandpa and ask.”
Li Peijun smiled. “Back when Li Chenshuang’s father died, my grandfather was still only a first-stage expert. Miao Wentian was his absolute confidant, and among the ancient ruins he left behind, Miao Wentian holds the most valuable one. In any case, he definitely cannot die.”
Zhou Su nodded lightly.
“Do you think Xu Mu and Li Chenshuang might be having an affair? If that’s really the case, we can expose them directly and force her to step down as chief.”
Li Peijun pointed at the screen.
“That alone proves nothing. They’re sitting in the front seats, not the back.”
Zhou Su spoke calmly.
“Sister Zhou is still too naive. Even from the front row, there are things you can do.”
Li Peijun chuckled. “There’s a saying: ‘Licking honey off the edge of a knife.’”
……
to panic—he has a system. As long as an investment target dies, he can claim a reward. And since he is immortal, the one thing he has plenty of is time. ... Countless years later. “Immortal Emperor of Longevity? I invested in him.” “Supreme Celestial Venerable? I invested in him.” “Undying Empress? I invested in her.” “...” “Heh. Once they’ve all died, even the Heavenly Dao will have to kneel and call me Dad.”
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
m back to his original world. In the end, he realized he had overthought things. [Hey, why is Shen Manni, the female lead, acting strange? Shouldn't she be fawning over the male lead at this point?] [Zhou Qiaoqiao, are you sick? Weren't you supposed to break off your engagement today?] [Damn it! An Youyi, please do your job as an undercover agent and sell my information to the protagonist, you idiot!] ... At this moment, Xu Mo himself didn't know that these female leads had already heard his inner thoughts. Then they decided not to play by the rules. Xu Mo: Please respect my profession as the big villain!
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
