“What's wrong?”

Min Zhiyan was taken aback. It was the first time he had seen such plain emotion on Lord Shen's face.

For a moment he didn't know what to make of it.

Hadn't everything been fine a moment ago?

“Nothing.”

Shen Yi was silent for a long while. He quickly steadied his breathing, shook his head, and turned and left the Earth God's shrine.

Ziyang might somehow have swallowed the murder of his father. But his father's remnant soul was still sealed inside a spirit-treasure, tormented for all eternity. When Ziyang saw with his own eyes the one carrying that spirit-treasure, could he really keep his head?

And Ziyang hadn't gone alone. A whole group of old friends from Hongze was with him.

On top of that, if Purple-Caltrop saw these beings from Hongze, she would naturally realize that something had happened to Shi Ren. Going down to Hongze to look into it would follow as a matter of course.

Shen Yi had known all along that he didn't have much time left. But now that the day had actually come, he was still shaken.

If the killing of an immortal official came out, it would be as good as treason. No one man could stand against what would follow.

On the Pilgrim's road and the immortal's road alike, he had now reached Perfection of the seventh rank. By any measure, that was strength to be reckoned with.

Faced with this, though, it was nowhere near enough.

“……” Meng Xiuwen sensed something was off. He didn't ask. He only picked up his pace without a word and brought the two of them back into Jianyang Prefecture, to Ye Lan's room, then dragged Ye Jing out and shut the door behind him.

After all, this was the Lord Shen who had dared to cut down White Cloud Cave's cultivators even in front of an immortal official.

If something gave even him a headache, then in all of Jianyang Prefecture the only one who might be able to help was probably Ye Lan.

“What happened?”

Ye Lan glanced at the closed…