Jun Xie couldn't wrap his mind over the situation.
It was hard for him to judge what had happened.
'Shu Xian was alive and well today, but his corpse was three days old.'
'That's impossible!'
He couldn't think of any way this could have happened.
The only reasoning that he could think of was that the Shu Xian who was with them through the whole journey was not the real Shu Xian!
'How did that guy hide from my Spirit Sense?'
Jun Xie frowned.
He was very confident about his Spirit Sense, but this was the second incident when his Spirit Sense had turned quite useless.
It was Fang Chen a month ago, and now Shu Xian.
'What is going on?'
There was definitely something that he was missing. It was just hard for him to wrap his mind around it.
'This is not Yuan Shuchun's trick… she was genuinely stunned after seeing the dead Shu Xian.'
Unfortunately, she couldn't judge the age of the corpse, neither could anyone else.
It was just too well prepared.
Unfortunately, that person had underestimated Jun Xie's Spirit Sense.
'Still, whoever did that, must be a very powerful assassin.'
Jun Xie let out a long breath and closed his eyes.
Now he was sure that this mission was not going to be as simple and straightforward as they had thought.
'What was that assassin's goal?'
This was another question in his head.
'He wanted to run from the sect?'
This was the most probable answer.
If Shu Xian's corpse was about three days old, then it means he died within the sect.
'His corpse was kept in a spatial ring, so it didn't decay much.'
The only motive behind killing Shu Xian would be to get out of the sect.
Because there was no other way since the whole sect was still being investigated and was under lockdown.
'The assassin was most probably a part of the Devil Sect.'
This was the conclusion that Jun Xie arrived at after considering all the sides of the story.
After another sigh, he closed his eyes and leaned back on the carriage.
'Next few days will be full of surprises.'
….
"Next few days won't be any surprise."
In the carriage behind him, the argument was opposite.
Xiao Ming was talking to Yuan Shuchun, "All the variables are now dead, so you can relax."
"How can I relax?" Yuan Shuchun frowned, "Even if Shu Xian once tried to kill me, he was still an old friend."
Xiao Ming shook his head, "Your vision is not clear. You do not see the bigger picture here."
"What do you mean?" Yuan Shuchun was now feeling a bit irritated from Xiao Ming's indifferent attitude, "The only picture I see right now is you being happy that your rival is now dead."
Xiao Ming rolled his eyes, "Rival? I never considered him to be one. At most, he was a nuisance to me. And you're seeing the wrong picture."
"What is the picture then?" Yuan Shuchun asked with a frown.
Xiao Ming cleared his throat and said, "Did you forget what we saw along the way till we met Shu Xian's corpse?"
"Dead bodies?"
"Yeah," Xiao Ming nodded his head, "Now tell me, dead bodies of who?"
"Bandits." Yuan Shuchun shrugged.
Xiao Ming nodded, "Now, see this, Shu Xian was able to kill all of them easily."
"Yeah." She nodded.
Everyone had seen that the bandits were killed with just one sword slash.
Xiao Ming's expression turned serious, "Now tell me, which disciple in our sect has this much power?"
"Hm?" Yuan Shuchun frowned, and after a thought, she shook her head, "No one."
Xiao Ming smiled, "Exactly."
"Now, do you remember what Shu Xian said in his defense when we accused him of the assassination attempt?"
"He said he wouldn't think about killing you because there was no way he could defeat the other core disciples."
"Yeah." Yuan Shuchun's expression turned grave. She was now seeing what Xiao Ming was talking about.
"Now you get it." Xiao Ming smiled, "If Shu Xian can kill all these bandits, it's clear as day that he can easily defeat any Core disciple within the sect. This means he was lying. And why would he lie? To hide the truth."
"And what was the truth?" Xiao Ming paused for a moment before continuing, "The truth was that he did try to kill you because he was greedy to get the Sect Leader position."
"He wanted to remove you from the way. You were a hindrance to his path."
Xiao Ming leaned back with a smug expression and Yuan Shuchun well in a thought.
After a few minutes, she let out a sigh, and her eyes turned emotionless once again.
This was the first time she felt betrayed by Shu Xian.
Earlier, she wanted to believe that there must have been a reason that forced him to go against her.
But now… she felt as if the truth was as clear as the sky above.
She gulped and tightened her grip on her sword.
'This will be the last time I will blindly trust someone.'
…
About a hundred miles ahead, through the dense forest, Ye Tian Yun was heading straight for the Silver Mist City.
He had unleashed his full cultivation and was passing through the forest like a flash of light.
With the help of his cultivation, he was able to move faster than a Ferghana horse, and it also allowed him to be versatile, thus allowing him to not follow the usual path and direct pass through the forest, thus saving him a lot of time.
'I will at least be one whole day ahead of them by the time I get to Silver Mist City.'
One whole day was enough for him to make enough preparation and make a deal with the Devil Sect people who would be lying in ambush.
'Just a few more days, and I will finally have my hands on the Token Of Fate.'