Chapter 448 - 448: Leaked?

"Silence! Don't let your assumptions cloud your judgment. Grand Elder Chu has always been loyal to the sect, and we all know that. Let the investigation proceed. We need to find out what actually happened before we come to a conclusion. Don't act like mindless sheep," The Sect Master said.

Prime Elder didn't like her words in the least.

"Is that what you call the members of our sect? We all know that he is more loyal to you than to the sect, and he did many things that proved it to me. Still, I didn't care as these matters didn't adversely affect the sect too much, but you blindly supporting him is clearly because of that and not because of justice as you claim," the Prime Elder finally said something.

"But I do agree with one thing. We can't come to a conclusion yet without investigating things clearly. I agree that we need to see every aspect of the story. Whatever happens, we need to get the answers. Although I don't insist on putting him in prison, I do suggest keeping 3 Grand Elders with him every time to keep an eye on him," The Prime Elder said.

He wanted to get the answers, and blaming Grand Elder Chu without looking through things properly was counterproductive. The only thing that he was sure of was that Mi Yao escaped and killed Long Chen. As for who helped her and why Lang Jing was missing, there wasn't anything concrete about that.

The other elders also calmed down after listening to the Prime Elder. The Prime Elder was the neutral party in this case, and his opinion influenced everyone. None of them would have believed the Sect Master because Grand Elder Chu was close to her, but they believed the Prime Elder as he didn't need to be afraid of the sect master. He could support justice without getting influenced.

Chu Miao was still in her house. No one informed her about what happened, but she knew what it was as she watched the Elders running in the same direction.

*****

Long Chen was still flying towards the Blazing Sun Empire.

After traveling for over a day, he decided to take a rest and give some rest to the Sun Destroying Condor as well.

He was just about to order the Sun Destroying Condor to go down when he noticed a flying beast coming in his direction.

It was a Dark Winged Swan. A person was sitting on the Dark Winged Swan.

As the person got near, Long Chen noticed their clothes.

It was an Old man who was wearing the clothes of the Beast Hall.

That person was coming from the direction of the Blazing Sun Empire.

'The Elder from the Beast Hall? I guess those guys came to see why their teams didn't return. This guy is already going back, which means that he already searched the place. He must be going back to inform them about their missing. It's a good thing that I kept the bodies in my storage ring. They can only think that they are missing," Long Chen muttered.

'Still, they were pretty fast. It hadn't been long since I killed them. I wonder how they did it,' Long Chen thought.

The Elder of the Beast Hall glanced at Long Chen. He was shocked as he stopped his beast. Without wasting a single moment, he brought his sword out of his storage ring.

Before he could attack, Long Chen teleported behind the man.

Long Chen's King's sword was touching the man's back while his spirit sword was resting on his neck.

"You reacted so violently. There could only be three reasons for that. One is that you are a bastard who kills everyone that comes across him. I don't think that should be the case even though you look like a bastard.  That leaves only two options. You either know that I'm from the Dark Soul Sect or you know about what happened," Long Chen muttered.

"Which one is it?" Long Chen asked.

The Elder didn't reply; instead, a dagger appeared in his other hand. He wanted to stab the dagger in Long Chen's chest as he had guessed Long Chen's location from his voice.

He was about to attack, but Long Chen reacted fast and stabbed his Sword in the Elder's chest. 

Surprisingly, Xia had also jumped over to the Dark Winged Swan. While Long Chen stabbed his sword in a non-vital area of the Elder, Xia sliced his neck clean off.

Long Chen was surprised how fast Xia was. She was a Peak Earth Realm cultivator equivalent, but her speed was much faster. Even quicker than him.

The Elder's body fell down as Long Chen pulled his sword out.

"You didn't have cut his head off, Xia. I wanted to keep him alive to get some answers from him," Long Chen sighed.

"He tried to harm, Master. Everyone who tries to harm Master deserves to die," Xia said, without any regret.

Long Chen didn't know how to react. This was a good thing for Xia to do generally, and he didn't want to tell her not to do it; otherwise, things might backfire if she misunderstood his orders. He needed her to follow this same resolve as she protected him. 

"Whatever happened has already happened. I can't change it," Long Chen muttered as he sat down and took the storage ring of the man.

He threw the man's body down to the ground and went back to his Sun Destroying Condor. Xia also jumped back.

"I wonder if that Elder recognized me as the Head Disciple of the Dark Soul Sect? It's possible that someone leaked how I look to them. The chances are low, though. But nothing else makes sense either. He shouldn't know that I killed his team. I left no proof behind. Whatever he's already dead. Whatever information he discovered about me is dead with him," Long Chen muttered as he sat on his Sun Destroying Condor.

He started looking inside the ring that he took from the man.

There were some decent treasures inside the ring, but nothing major that could attract his attention. There was nothing in that ring, which was more precious than the artifacts that he had.

"What the heck?" Long Chen exclaimed in shock as he noticed something.

There was a portrait of him inside the man's storage ring.

"How did he get that? Did someone really leak my portrait? Someone from the Dark Soul Sect?" Long Chen thought as his frown deepened.

He couldn't understand what was happening. Now he was genuinely starting to regret that the Elder was killed before he could get his answers, but there was nothing he could do now. All he had were suspicions.

He put the portrait back in the storage ring and put the thought to the back of his mind. He realized that no matter how much he thought about it, he would never come to a conclusion about the truth. The only person who had the answers was dead now.

Long Chen continued on his journey towards the Blazing Sun Empire. 

He was excited that he would get to meet her woman. He could finally be with them.

He had already planned the next part of their journey after he met them. He had many things to do. He needed to go to the Ghost Temple, leave the continent, and many more. He also had to go back to his family home to give them the treasures.

Long Chen was about to go down to give rest to the Sun Destroying Condor, but after what happened, he decided to continue on his journey, even though it would be tiring for the Sun Destroying Condor.  He wanted to be with his girls before anything unexpected happened.

Another day passed away, and Long Chen finally reached the blazing sun empire.

He went straight to the Royal Palace.

He stopped before the palace.