Brother Xie, he is too popular. What should I do?

Chapter 274 The demonic energy is actually in...

"Let's get back to business. Although we haven't found any clues among the victims of demonic energy, we have found a common point among the victims: none of them have left Feixing Valley recently. This further narrows the scope of the investigation."

"Just then, Hall Master Zhan and the Rat Catcher joined the investigation. The Rat Catcher directly searched for the source of the evil energy using the same method as he would for poison."

"It finally found a place in Feixing Valley..."

Hearing this, Xie Yunhe couldn't help but ask:

"Where did you find it?"

Could it be the room of an elder in Feixing Valley?

Or maybe it’s a place like the treasure house in Feixing Valley?

Xie Yunhe began to think divergently, seriously considering where the evil spirit might appear.

"The Rat Catcher found his way to the kitchen of Feixing Valley and discovered traces of demonic energy there."

Sang Qing told what he knew.

"Huh? The kitchen?"

Xie Yunhe was very surprised. The survey results were beyond his imagination.

He had just considered many places, but he didn't think of the kitchen!

Then he thought of something and asked a soul-searching question.

"Could it be that they ate something collectively?"

It is not surprising that there is a kitchen in the sect, because the monks are still mortals before they enter the Qi Refining Stage, and they will die if they don’t eat.

However, after entering the Qi Refining Stage, food is no longer a necessity for them. In order to save time and reduce impurities in the body, most monks eat fasting pills to fill their stomachs.

Ordinary food is rarely eaten, but animals and plants rich in spiritual energy, such as spiritual grains and monsters, can also be eaten. Food made from these animals and plants with spiritual energy is called spiritual food.

When Xie Yunhe was in Baihua City, Senior Sister Hua treated him to a spiritual meal, which tasted really good.

Now when he heard something related to it, he naturally thought of the phrase "diseases come from the mouth".

If evil energy can appear in the kitchen, is it possible that food is the source of the evil energy?

Hearing the question asked by Xie Yunhe, Sang Qing looked at him approvingly.

"Yes, that's it."

"After carefully checking the purchases in the kitchen, they discovered that the annual Spiritual Food Festival had been held in Feixing Valley not long ago."

Xie Yunhe has a lot to say, what the hell is the Spiritual Food Festival?

He wanted to say something but hesitated, and finally chose to keep silent and continue listening to Sang Qing's story.

Sang Qing was not surprised by Xie Yunhe's surprise, because she was the same when she first learned about this.

"At the Spiritual Food Festival, the disciples of Feixing Valley showcased their unique skills and prepared many delicious spiritual dishes. Among them, the Valley Master, Old Taoist Chen, ate the most spiritual food..."

Speaking of this matter, Sang Qing also felt it was outrageous.

"The Venerable and his men conducted a thorough investigation and discovered that the source of the demonic energy was the food. It just so happened that before the Spiritual Food Festival, the people of Feixing Valley went out to purchase food, and all the food used in the Spiritual Food Festival was newly arrived."

As he spoke, Sang Qing's expression gradually became serious.

"What's most puzzling is why people in Feixing Valley would buy problematic ingredients. This is simply impossible!"

"Because Feixing Valley is constantly moving, the venerables learned from the elders that the walking route in Feixing Valley is not fixed, but random, and it moves wherever it lands."

"That is to say, Feixing Valley doesn't have a fixed source of ingredients. They always purchase them from local sources on an ad hoc basis. So, there are only two possibilities for them purchasing problematic ingredients..."

Sang Qing took a sip of tea and continued:

"One possibility is coincidence. The local ingredients happened to be contaminated by demonic energy. Something might have happened there. Another possibility is that someone planned ahead of time and tampered with the ingredients that Feixing Valley was about to purchase."

"Among them, the first one is possible, as a venerable has gone to check it out. However, the second one is very unlikely, as the route of travel in Feixing Valley is unpredictable. How can we take action in advance?"

"However, considering the black hole that appeared above Feixing Valley and the sudden monster invasion, the venerables are actually more inclined to the second possibility."

Xie Yunhe digested the news he heard.

In other words, the victims of Feixing Valley's evil spirit were all infected because they ate problematic spiritual food.

The whole thing sounds a bit funny, but if you think about it carefully, you will find that it is not simple.

In fact, it is quite difficult to successfully attack Feixing Valley.

In this incident, the mastermind needs to achieve the following:

First, to understand the internal situation of Feixing Valley, starting from the Spiritual Food Festival shows that they have some knowledge of it. This is a plan targeting Feixing Valley.

Second, knowing the exact location of Feixing Valley makes it easier to tamper with local ingredients.

Third, hide the evil spirit in the food so that the people in Feixing Valley cannot detect it.

Fourth, the above series of actions require bypassing the divination and prediction of many fortune tellers in Feixing Valley.

While Xie Yunhe was still thinking, Sang Qing continued:

"Anyway, this is the situation. After learning the results of the investigation, the venerables first interrogated the elders and disciples responsible for purchasing food ingredients for Feixing Valley. The person in charge of the interrogation was Hall Master Zhan, who has extensive experience in investigating cases..."

"After interrogation, we discovered that everyone in Feixing Valley was innocent. The clues ended there. All we can do is see if we can find any clues from the problematic ingredients and their sources... Oh, and I also heard that the elders of Feixing Valley beat up the elder in charge of purchasing the ingredients..."

This is what Sang Qing knew about the whole story of the Feixing Valley incident.

Seeing that Xie Yunhe was still in deep thought, she advised:

"Fortunately, this incident did not cause any major losses, which is a blessing in disguise."

"Junior brother, we can't interfere too much in these matters. It will only give you a headache if you think too much."

Hearing this, Xie Yunhe smiled but said nothing.

He just wanted to know how this dead end in the original book came about.

But what Sang Qing said was right. The situation is very good now. The source of the evil energy, which had been completely destroyed due to the extermination of the sect, has also been investigated.

Xie Yunhe thought about it and felt relieved since there was indeed nothing he could do to help.

"Oh, by the way, Master said it's best not to mention your formation plate to others."

Sang Qing suddenly remembered this and told Xie Yunhe about it.

Xie Yunhe nodded. He knew it without Sang Qing telling him.

Although this Qiankun Breaking the Sky Formation Disk requires an enormous amount of spiritual energy, it is really useful.

When Xie Yunhe was in the training room, he once studied the formation plate during his breaks.

He remembered that Jin Zi had once said that this formation plate also had a heritage, but he looked left and right, and used his spiritual sense to look at it, but he couldn't make out anything special.

He also discussed it with the system and concluded that the reason might be that his current cultivation level was not enough.

After all, Xie Yunhe was only a Jindan-stage cultivator, and the last time this formation was used, it absorbed all the spiritual power of eight Jindan-stage masters.

The higher his cultivation level, the more Xie Yunhe could feel the gap between himself and high-level cultivators.

Sometimes it is not necessarily a good thing to know about the inheritance of a higher level in advance, as you will not be able to digest too much at once.

Since it could not be used, Xie Yunhe temporarily put away the formation plate.

Sang Qing took another sip of tea.

The two of them sat in the room quietly sipping tea. The door was open and they could see the scenery outside.

It was sunny outside, the weather was nice and pleasant.

Sang Qing gave Xie Yunhe some time. She guessed that her junior brother had already digested the news about Feixing Valley.

Now it’s time to get down to business!

Sang Qing slowly took out two things from the storage bag.

"Junior Brother, the weather is perfect now, why don't we read the Qianli Newspaper?"

Sang Qing said with a smile.

A report from a thousand miles away?

Xie Yunhe suddenly felt that the tea in his hand was no longer fragrant.

It was indeed the experience of reading Qianli Newspaper for the first time that left him with a bit of a psychological trauma.

However, he really wanted to see what was said in the latest Qianli News.

Xie Yunhe noticed that Sang Qing took out two copies of the Qianli News.

Why two copies?

Sang Qing saw Xie Yunhe's eyes on the two Qianli newspapers in her hands, and she consciously explained them to her junior brother.

"These two are recent Thousand Miles Newspapers. I used to buy the Southern Thousand Miles Newspaper, but now that I'm in the East, I bought a copy of the Eastern Thousand Miles Newspaper as well."

She pointed to two copies of the Qianli Newspaper.

"How about we each have one and then switch around?"

Sang Qing asked.

Xie Yunhe certainly had no objection. The Qianli Newspaper was not his own. It was equivalent to borrowing someone else's newspaper. What else could he have an objection to?

Sang Qing casually handed a copy to Xie Yunhe.

Xie Yunhe took it and looked at it. The word "Nan" was printed in the upper right corner.

This is the Thousand Mile News from the South.

There are a few large words printed on the homepage.

"Shock! The exit of the Gulan Secret Realm is deserted! Tens of thousands of cultivators are missing!"

Xie Yunhe: ...

Qianli News still uses the same narrative style as always.

Xie Yunhe continued reading.

"As everyone knows, the once-a-decade Gulan Secret Realm near the Myriad Beasts Mountain Range is about to open. The young cultivators from the five major immortal sects, as well as aristocratic families and independent cultivators, are eager to showcase their talents in the secret realm..."

"According to the information sent back by the spies ahead, a total of more than 4,000 cultivators from the five major immortal sects have entered the Gulan Secret Realm. Including the remaining quota, a total of 5,000 cultivators have entered the Gulan Secret Realm."

"The five major immortal sects have sent several venerables in the Spiritualization Stage to escort their disciples. They are Venerable Yunyin and Venerable Langyu from the Purple Sky Sect, and Venerable Youyue from the Heavenly Sword Sect..."

"After the Gulan Secret Realm opened, numerous cultivators arrived to observe the secret realm's light curtain. There were a total of six or seven thousand people! This is a common scene every time the Gulan Secret Realm opens. Most people just want to catch a glimpse of the talented disciples and watch the excitement. It's human nature. But what they don't know is that this is the beginning of their misfortune!"

Xie Yunhe: ...

It is worthy of being a report on the front page, it whets people's appetite.

However, what does the light curtain mentioned in Qianli News refer to?

Xie Yunhe was a little confused.

"At first, it was just the spies near the Gulan Secret Realm who didn't send back messages. This happens occasionally, and not all spies can reply on time. The Qianli Pavilion spies responsible for receiving the messages didn't take it seriously. Then, things started to go wrong... Finally, someone realized that the spies had lost contact. And it wasn't just one spy, but all of them!"

Here is a detailed description of the situation from the time the author discovered the spy's disappearance to the time he discovered the Gulan Secret Realm.

"I arrived at the Gulan Secret Realm and was shocked to find that the secret realm, which should have been bustling with people, was actually deserted! Cold sweat crawled down my back. At that moment, I even suspected that I had entered some kind of illusion..."

The Qianli News also included a color picture taken from the photo stone.

In front of the steep mountain wall, there was a wide plain and there was no one, not even an animal!

It was as if some giant beast had swallowed up everyone at the scene in one gulp. Xie Yunhe saw a very lonely and empty feeling in the photo.

The light screen on the mountain wall was still playing clips of monks entering the secret realm, but there were no bystanders.

Wait, it seems that there are people there.

Xie Yunhe took a closer look and saw that there seemed to be a red and gold figure in the corner of the photo.

It looks a little familiar.

Xie Yunhe pondered for a moment and quickly found it from his memory. It was the figure of Ji Shengzi from the Fentian Sect.

He always wears red clothes and exotic gold jewelry, so it's easy to recognize him once you get an impression of him.

Of course, this figure is too small compared to the empty plain, and it is easy to be overlooked.

Xie Yunhe still felt a little guilty about the fact that the Qiankun Breaking Sky Formation Plate took away all the cultivators present.

Now we can see the situation in front of the Gulan Secret Realm after the teleportation array is activated.

Xie Yunhe: ...What should I do? It seems like I have accidentally caused trouble.

But soon, he turned his attention back to the Qianli News and continued reading.

"According to the last message from the missing monk, there were at least tens of thousands of monks at the scene, including monks who were expelled from the Gulan Secret Realm after their failure, as well as monks who came to watch the excitement. Why did all these tens of thousands of monks lose contact and are nowhere to be found?"

"Was it a demonic beast attack? A mysterious realm undergoing a sudden change? Or perhaps an illusionary invasion... I speculated on various scenarios, and finally found a living person at the scene. Unfortunately, this cultivator surnamed Ji refused to be interviewed by this newspaper..."

Sure enough, that person was Ji Shengzi!

Xie Yunhe thought.

"The loss of contact with tens of thousands of cultivators has touched the hearts of countless people. Qianli Pavilion has successively dispatched personnel to the scene to investigate the situation..."

"It's clear that the accident must have happened in an instant. Something took everyone away. There were no signs of a struggle at the scene. Furthermore, the venerables disappeared along with them..."

This is about the process of Qianli Pavilion's investigation into the case of multiple missing persons.

"Qianli Pavilion has been receiving messages from the families of the missing individuals. Time has passed, but those searching near the Myriad Beasts Mountains have yet to find any trace of the missing cultivators..."

"It wasn't until noon the next day that Qianli Pavilion received news from the east. The missing monks were actually in the east!"

"To know what happened next? Please see the Qianli Pavilion Eastern Report for details!"

Xie Yunhe: ...

As expected of Qianli Pavilion, it is determined to make money from your two newspapers.