Almost the instant Zuo Wuyou shouted that sentence, the dark figure hovering above the manor sensed something. He snapped his head around and looked in their direction.
Then his figure flickered as he swept toward them, landing directly in front of Yang Kai and Zuo Wuyou. His movements were utterly silent, like a specter.
The distance between them was barely thirty feet!
The newcomer stared fixedly at the spot where Yang Kai and Zuo Wuyou stood, his eyes in the shadows studying them carefully, a trace of puzzlement crossing his gaze.
Under the blessing of Lei Ying's innate divine ability, Yang Kai and Zuo Wuyou could see this person too.
Unfortunately, his face was completely impossible to make out. The man wore a black robe with a black hood covering his face, shrouding everything in shadow.
After staring for a while and finding nothing, he flashed away, returning to hover above the manor.
Without the slightest hesitation, he threw punches downward. Wave after wave of fist shadows rained down, accompanied by the release of Shenyou Realm power, and the entire manor was reduced to powder in an instant.
But he quickly noticed something was off, because in his perception, the entire manor was completely dead silent, without a shred of life.
He withdrew his fist and descended to investigate, but found nothing.
A moment later, accompanied by a cold snort, he flashed away.
Half an hour later, in the jungle over a hundred li from the manor, Yang Kai and Zuo Wuyou's figures suddenly appeared. This location should be safe enough.
Maintaining Lei Ying's innate divine ability for so long had drained Yang Kai considerably. His face was slightly pale. Though Zuo Wuyou hadn't expended much energy, he looked like he had lost his soul, his eyes vacant and unfocused.
The situation was developing in exactly the worst direction Yang Kai had feared.
After recovering for a moment, Yang Kai finally spoke. "Did you recognize who it was?"
Zuo Wuyou turned to look at him and slowly shook his head. "I couldn't see his face, so I don't know who it was. But with that level of strength… it has to be one of the Banner Lords!"
"The man was cautious enough. From start to finish, he never activated his Divine Sense." Divine Sense was an extremely unique power, and each person's Divine Sense signature was different. If that man had activated his Divine Sense, Zuo Wuyou would certainly have been able to identify him.
Unfortunately, he had never once used his Divine Sense.
"His face and Divine Sense can be hidden, but his build can't be disguised. You've met all the Banner Lords before—judging by build alone, who does he resemble most?" Yang Kai asked.
Zuo Wuyou thought for a moment. "Of the Eight Banners, the Li and Dui Banner Lords are women. The Gen Banner Lord is stout in build, and the Xun Banner Lord is advanced in years with a hunched posture, so it's unlikely to be those four. As for the remaining four Banner Lords, their builds aren't all that different. If that man was deliberately disguising his appearance, he would certainly have taken steps to alter his build as well."
Yang Kai nodded. "Good. That cuts our suspects in half."
Zuo Wuyou's voice was hoarse. "But it's still difficult to determine which one it actually was."
Yang Kai said, "Everything has a cause. You sent word back saying the Saint Child had emerged, and then we were ambushed through a conspiracy. Think about it from a different angle—what was the other party's goal? What benefit does it bring him?"
"His goal? His benefit?" Zuo Wuyou fell into thought, following Yang Kai's line of reasoning.
Yang Kai asked, "That Chu Anhe didn't seem like someone who had already joined the Ink Sect. Before Xue Ji killed him, he was still shouting about wanting to surrender. If he had truly been an Ink Sect agent all along, he wouldn't have reacted that way. Could it be that one of the Banner Lords has already been tainted by the power of Ink and secretly defected to the Ink Sect?"
"That's impossible!" Zuo Wuyou denied it flatly. "Brother Yang, you may not know this, but the first-generation Holy Maiden not only left behind a prophecy about the Saint Child, she also passed down a secret technique. This technique has no other purpose, but it is remarkably effective at determining whether someone has been contaminated by the power of Ink and at purifying it. Every senior member of the Sect who reaches the Shenyou Realm undergoes screening with that technique by the Holy Maiden upon returning from outside. Over the years, there have indeed been some Ink Sect spies infiltrated into the Sect, but at the level of Shenyou Realm and above, there has never been a single case of compromise."
Yang Kai realized. "You mean that Purifying Heart Refinement Technique you mentioned before?"
When Chu Anhe had accused him of being an Ink Sect spy, Zuo Wuyou had mentioned that he could face the Holy Maiden directly and undergo the Purifying Heart Refinement Technique to prove his innocence.
At the time, Yang Kai hadn't given it much thought. But now it seemed that this secret technique passed down from the first-generation Holy Maiden was quite remarkable. If it could only detect whether someone had been tainted by the power of Ink, that would be one thing—but the fact that it could actually purify the power of Ink was somewhat mind-boggling.
After all, in this era, humanity's only means of countering the power of Ink were the Purifying Light and the Ink-Purging Pills.
"That's exactly the technique," Zuo Wuyou confirmed with a nod. "It is the Sect's highest secret, and only the successive Holy Maidens have the ability to perform it."
"If it wasn't a case of defecting to the Ink Sect, then there must be some other reason," Yang Kai mused. "I don't know the specifics, but my appearance must have threatened someone's interests. But I'm a nobody—how could I possibly threaten the interests of those powerful figures… Only the identity of the Saint Child could explain it."
Zuo Wuyou understood but was puzzled. "But Brother Yang, the Holy Son of the Divine Sect emerged secretly a decade ago. This is well-known among the Sect's leadership. Even if I report your situation back to the Sect, the leadership would only assume someone is impersonating a fraud. At most they'd send someone to bring you back for questioning—why would they intercept the message and attempt to assassinate you in secret?"
Yang Kai looked at him with deep meaning. "What do you think?"
Zuo Wuyou met his gaze, and a terrifying thought suddenly surged from the depths of his mind. Beads of sweat immediately formed on his forehead. "Brother Yang, you mean… that Saint Child is a fake?"
"I never said that."