"This is..."

Jiang Qiulan's expression shifted slightly as she looked at the dark sword and the storage treasure, a vague guess forming in her mind. She looked up at Shen Yi.

Shen Yi gave a slight nod.

Then he laid out for her, briefly, what had happened with Xuanguang Cave's Zheng Zisheng, and how the Zheng family had raised an age-tree only to be devoured by its backlash.

Clearly, that registered disciple of the Mysterious Sword Perfected Master had simply stumbled onto the Zheng family's secret by accident, and in the end hadn't made it out alive.

But the Zheng family alone could never have pinned the blame for that on a Nineteenth Den demon emperor.

There had to have been a Spirit-Transformation Perfected Master from Xuanguang Cave behind it.

"I understand."

Jiang Qiulan quickly grasped what Shen Yi meant.

The Divine-Empyrean True-Thunder Sword Art was one of Wutong Mountain's most closely guarded secrets, and it had gone missing out in the world. If she could recover it, that alone would count as a great service rendered to Wutong Mountain.

She might even earn a debt of gratitude from Nie Jun himself.

Provided, of course, she could make clear that the disciple's death had nothing to do with her.

Beyond that, there was another use for it — keep her identity hidden and find some way to use it to pressure Xuanguang Cave.

Handled carefully, there was no telling how much could be extracted from that.

But either way, the risk was enormous.

The slightest misstep, and either Wutong Mountain or Xuanguang Cave could kill her without the least difficulty.

After a moment's thought, Jiang Qiulan slowly put the items away into her storage treasure.

She'd said just now that she didn't want to be some cub waiting for its parents to bring back the kill and feed it — serve up a fresh fish, and she'd still need someone to pick out every bone first, leaving only the tender, fatty meat.

Which was exactly why Shen Yi had set down a live fish instead.

If she couldn't even manage…