As Qin Chengyi approached, he couldn't help but gasp when he saw everything in the courtyard clearly.
"Master Brother, Brother Song was ambushed."
Taoist Gong nodded with a gloomy face. Qin Chengyi quickly spread out his spiritual sense and after taking a quick look around, he showed hesitation on his face, but finally asked.
"Second Brother, do you have any clues?"
"No, it must have been done by someone I know. Junior Brother Song didn't show any signs of resistance at all."
Taoist Gong said gloomily.
Qin Chengyi looked at Li Yan and the other two, then looked at Taoist Gong, who seemed to have something to say, but seemed inconvenient.
When Taoist Gong saw Qin Chengyi like this, he understood and said in a low voice.
"The two men outside the courtyard cannot be ruled out as murderers. If they use some excuse to trick Junior Brother Song into opening the courtyard door, with their cultivation level, they can work together to deal with an early foundation-building cultivator. If they also use some covert means, they may be able to kill Junior Brother Song in one blow."
He did not hold back when he said this, and spoke it directly in front of Li Yan and the other two. Even the murderous intent in his eyes was not concealed at all.
After a while, he withdrew his gaze from the courtyard gate and looked up at the moonlight. It was almost late at night.
For a moment, the courtyard fell silent!
In the dim light of the courtyard, the slanted shadows of several people cast on the ground seemed a little erratic, like ghosts in the dark night. In a pool of thick black blood on the ground, a corpse lay there under the moonlight.
Occasionally, a night breeze blew in the yard, blowing up the hair on the corpse's head, revealing half of a pale and bloodless face. The pair of lifeless eyes seemed to be looking at everyone.
After a long time, Taoist Gong took a deep breath and looked at Li Yan.
“Since this young friend happened to be seen by Junior Brother Qin when the incident happened, and he left the room before the other two Taoists, no matter how fast the murderer is, he would not be able to return to the room in such a short time after the scream.
This proves to each other that the three of you should have nothing to do with Junior Brother Song's death, but Junior Brother Liu's matter is still unclear, so we still need to wait for the ancestor to come back and find out. "
Taoist Gong looked at Li Yan and the other two and said, although he said so, he still had doubts about the hunchbacked old man in his heart. After all, the hunchbacked old man had a high level of cultivation.
If he entered and exited quietly, the Qi Condensation cultivator named Li from the Blood Leaf Sect would not be able to detect him.
However, Junior Brother Song is not familiar with the hunchbacked old man, so he should be on guard against him no matter what.
If one wants to kill a cultivator of the same realm instantly by oneself, even if Junior Brother Song is only in the initial stage of foundation building, even if the other party is on guard, he may not be able to kill him instantly.
After this analysis, he denied his suspicions. Gong Dao Ren couldn't help but feel angry. He had all the magic skills, but the murderer left almost no clues.
Even if there is a Jindan cultivator here who knows how to search souls, he still needs to think carefully. If he searches the right person, he can explain it later.
If the search was made wrong, that person would become an idiot. Even if the other party was just a casual cultivator or a cultivator from a small sect, once the news got out, the reputation of Xuanqing Temple would be ruined, and no one would dare to teleport here anymore.
Therefore, he hoped that his master might have other magical powers to find out the truth.
After Taoist Gong finished speaking to Li Yan and the other two, he looked at Hall Master Ji and Qin Chengyi again.
"Master Ji, in a moment, all the sect's protective formations will be fully activated, and there will be four patrol teams outside. You will lead Junior Sister Ye, Junior Brother Feng, and Junior Brother Zhou to patrol in a cross-patrol. All others, including the outsiders here, will move to the front hall.
As for the two courtyards of Junior Brother Song and Junior Brother Liu, I will personally set up a set of defensive formations outside each courtyard, and I know the blood oath formation, so I will know immediately if anyone gets close.
I have sent a message to Master this afternoon. I think he will be very anxious after receiving the message. He will return to the sect by tomorrow evening."
After listening to what Master Gong said, the few people knew that this was to gather everyone in one place. In this way, even if the murderer wanted to strike again, it would be extremely difficult.
But when Hall Master Ji and Qin Chengyi heard the words "Blood Oath Formation", their bodies couldn't help but tremble. This kind of formation closely connects one's own blood and energy with the formation, allowing the person who drips blood to operate and preside over the formation at all times.
Even if an ant crawls through the formation, the person in charge of the formation will see it clearly, and the power of this formation is two or three times stronger than before.
However, this requires the monk who presides over the formation to have extremely high magical powers, which consumes a lot of his own energy. Now, even if it is midnight, even with the head monk at the level of fake elixir, it will be extremely difficult for him to preside over the formation until dawn.
This battle consumed not only his mana but also his spiritual power. Without more than half a year of hard training, it would be impossible to recover the physical loss. It seemed that Master Gong was really willing to sacrifice himself in order to wait for his master to return.
"Junior Brother Qin, take these three fellow Taoists to the main hall ahead first, and notify the junior brothers outside to invite the two black-robed guests in. Go!"
After Master Gong finished speaking, he gave direct orders.
Qin Chengyi quickly agreed, turned around and spoke to Li Yan and the other two.
"My three fellow Taoists, I have no choice but to inconvenience you tonight. Please follow me!"
Li Yan and the other two had been watching all this quietly from the side. Now that things had come to this, as long as it didn't disadvantage them, they would just follow the host's wishes. Then the three of them followed Qin Chengyi and walked out of the yard together.
After the group arrived outside the courtyard, Qin Chengyi quickly walked to Kong Nantai and whispered a few words to him.
After a while, Kong Nantai stared coldly at the two men in black robes and said bluntly.
"My two fellow Taoists, the head brother wants to see you, please come in!"
The two men in black robes looked at each other without saying a word, and walked towards the courtyard. Kong Nantai and his three fellow apprentice brothers and sisters followed closely, obviously fearing that the other party would suddenly attack them.
Li Yan and the other two stood on one side waiting for Qin Chengyi to finish speaking. The young man in purple lowered his head, as if he was thinking about something, but in fact he was sighing in his heart.
When he saw that Xuanqing Temple did not immediately capture the two men in black robes, disappointment appeared in his eyes, but he lowered his head so that others could not see it.
Qin Chengyi said when he saw Kong Nantai and his group had left.
"Three fellow Taoists, please come this way!"
As he spoke, he stretched out his right hand and walked forward on his own.
Li Yan walked at the end. What others didn't notice was that he quietly turned around to look at Kong Nantai's back as he walked into the door, and then looked at Qin Chengyi's back in front of him, and his eyes narrowed.
… … In the courtyard, Taoist Gong frowned, and the two men in black robes were like meat on a rolling pin. They just said they were feeling stuffy and came out for a walk to get some fresh air, but they had not walked far when something happened here. They knew nothing else.
If he had not been concerned about the reputation of Xuanqing Sect, he would have really wanted to capture the two men in black robes and interrogate them. At the same time, he was basically certain that the death of Junior Brother Song was caused by an acquaintance.
For a moment, Taoist Gong was in a dilemma as he had many concerns as the head of the sect. Finally, he waved to Kong Nantai.
"Junior Brother Kong, please ask the two Taoist friends to go to the hall in front. It's not safe here."
Kong Nantai and the others all looked unwilling and looked at the two men in black robes with hatred, but since the head brother had spoken, they had no choice but to obey.
The two men in black robes also breathed a sigh of relief. They had thought that there was no way this matter could be explained clearly and that they might have to fight to the death. Seeing that Xuanqing Temple was like this and did not propose to seal their cultivation, the two men looked at each other and agreed.
Hall Master Ji was also arranging patrols for his three junior brothers and sisters, and asked them to go on patrol first. He knew that the head brother had something to say to him.
Watching everyone leave the courtyard, Taoist Gong looked down at the corpse on the ground again, without looking up, as if talking to himself, but Hall Master Ji heard it clearly.
"what have you found?"
Master Ji spoke with a serious expression, as if he had known this question would come.
“Junior Brother Kong has been out on patrol today, so his time is relatively free. The information I got is that he has time to go away alone;
Junior Brother Luo later waited outside Junior Brother Liu's courtyard. There were disciples who proved that he had never left there. Even what Junior Brother Qin said just now, that he was stopped by Junior Brother Luo and asked about the situation here, was true.
However, they didn't know that I was eavesdropping nearby. After Junior Brother Qin arranged for the outside monks, he returned to the courtyard. He seemed to be in a bad mood and kept drinking. Other disciples also saw this through the window.
Moreover, when the incident happened, even the disciple of the Blood Leaf Sect also saw Junior Brother Qin, but he didn't have time to kill him. I led the other junior brothers and sisters to look for clues in the afternoon, and they were always in my sight. "
After hearing this, Taoist Gong narrowed his eyes.
"Junior Brother Kong... Master Kong... did he happen to be patrolling here at night?"
Then he seemed to be talking to himself in a low voice again.
After a while, he suddenly stared at the ground with burning eyes again.
"The expression on Junior Brother Song's face..."
As he spoke, he flicked his sleeves and Song Bo's body turned over. In the moonlight, it was a pale face full of surprise and disbelief, without the slightest trace of pain.
There was a cold light in Hall Master Ji's eyes, and then he narrowed his eyes.
"Also, how are the investigations on those foreign cultivators going? Especially the three foundation-building cultivators. Junior Brother Song was directly attacked and killed, which narrows the scope of investigation a lot compared to the clues of Junior Brother Liu's death.
The murderer is still inside the Taoist temple. It seems that the murderer was not among the monks who were released at noon. Our judgment was not wrong in general."
Taoist Gong said coldly.
"Reporting to the headmaster, I sent out a thousand-mile sound transmission note at noon, asking the disciples and secret agents within a thousand miles to check the information recorded when these foreign cultivators entered the mountain gate. I think there will be news sent back by tomorrow morning at the latest."
Master Ji said in a deep voice.
… …
The main hall of Xuanqing Temple is very magnificent. On a moonlit night, it stretches into the night sky like a piece of copper or iron.
When Li Yan and others arrived, the lights inside and outside the hall were brightly lit, and the square in front of the hall was already crowded with as many as five or six hundred people.
They were all sitting cross-legged on the spot, meditating with their eyes closed, in an orderly manner. They must be the disciples in the temple who had received the message long ago and gathered here.
Three large gilded characters "Yuqing Hall" hang high above the main hall, shining brightly under the light.
With the arrival of Li Yan and his group, many people in the square opened their eyes. Some of them looked indifferent, some were curious, and some had unfriendly expressions.
When Li Yan and his companions walked past the crowd and stepped onto the highest steps leading to the main hall, they discovered that there was still some distance between the door of the Yuqing Main Hall and the steps. A wide platform was formed here, surrounded by a circle of white jade railings.
The platform is divided into three areas: left, middle and right. Many cushions have been placed on the giant white marble floor. Li Yan and his party were led to the right side of the platform and did not enter the main hall at the back.
"My fellow Taoists, please sit here and meditate to rest. We are all cultivators, so we can just close our eyes for a few hours, so we won't feel too tired."
Qin Chengyi said to Li Yan and the other four.
Li Yan looked around. They were sitting cross-legged here. Even from the square below, their figures could be seen from many angles. In this way, their every move was under the watchful eyes of others.
Not long after, Kong Nantai and several disciples came over with two men in black robes. Then he, Qin Chengyi and several disciples surrounded Li Yan and others.
The two men in black robes also gave a bitter smile, then found a cushion and sat down cross-legged. Although there were many cushions here, they couldn't choose them at will, so everyone could only squeeze into one area.
Then, another monk arrived. It was Luo Sanpang who walked to the square with a group of disciples.
After he left those disciples in the square, Luo Sanpang went up to the platform alone, walked to a place not far from Li Yan and the others, and sat down.
But anyone could see that there was bloodshot in Luo Sanpang's eyes, and a murderous intent was shot towards this side without any concealment, and it was the two men in black robes.
Before he came, he also went to where Song Bo lived. Song Bo's death made him heartbroken.
If we were to ask who in Xuanqing Temple had the best relationship with him, it would naturally be Song Bo, who shared the same interests and hobbies as him and liked gambling.
Seeing Song Bo's tragic death, and hearing that the two men in black robes happened to be outside Song Bo's courtyard, he had already regarded them as the murderer. It was only after receiving the advice of the head brother that he resisted the urge and did not take action.
However, the two men in black robes ignored Luo Sanpang's murderous intent, as if they had already entered a state of meditation. This forced Luo Sanpang to close his eyes in annoyance.