"There's no one here!" Having searched the entire house, Gu Yue Bo still couldn't find Fang Yuan. A heavy stone seemed to weigh on his heart. Fang Yuan was missing, and Tie Xue Leng was nowhere to be seen either. It was easy for him to connect these clues.
"Speak, where is Fang Yuan?" Gu Yue Bo's face was as gloomy as stagnant water as he bellowed at the just-arrived Tie Ruo Nan.
"Where is Fang Yuan? How should I know?" Tie Ruo Nan's attitude was tough. Facing a Rank Four expert, she showed no fear at all.
"Hmph, why is Tie Xue Leng nowhere to be found? Girl of the Tie clan, can you give me an explanation?" Gu Yue Bo said as he slowly approached Tie Ruo Nan.
The young girl was slightly stunned. In fact, the matter had been suspicious from the very beginning.
Originally, she and her father were supposed to arrive here next year. At that time, Tie Xue Leng was in the middle of investigating another case when suddenly a white crane descended from the sky one day.
The white crane carried a letter in its beak and handed it to Tie Xue Leng.
After Tie Xue Leng read the letter, he suddenly changed his plans, temporarily put down the case he was handling, and rushed over to Qing Mao Mountain.
If not for this letter, the father and daughter of the Tie family would never have come here so early.
As a daughter, Tie Ruo Nan naturally understood her father. Generally speaking, only major cases would make Tie Xue Leng make such a choice.
However, what puzzled her was that the case here at Qing Mao Mountain was just the death of Jia Jin Sheng.
Jia Jin Sheng's death, although it involved a struggle over the Jia family estate, was only ordinary in severity and far from worthy of receiving such attention from the Divine Enforcer.
Because of this, Tie Ruo Nan had always harbored doubts.
And now, Tie Xue Leng had mysteriously disappeared again, not even informing his own biological daughter.
Where exactly had he gone? And what was he doing?
"Father, you are injured. Please take good care of yourself." Tie Ruo Nan was very worried.
In fact, this kind of situation had happened several times before. Every time, Tie Xue Leng was facing a powerful enemy and couldn't afford to be distracted looking after Tie Ruo Nan, so he would go off to fight alone.
The injuries on his body were from being heavily wounded by a powerful enemy in a similar situation before.
"Father is injured, but he is still a Rank Five expert after all. An ordinary Rank Four Gu Master is no match for him at all. Father, I believe in you! I'll wait for you to come back!" Tie Ruo Nan's eyes sparkled as she encouraged herself in her heart.
Gu Yue Bo approached step by step. The young girl raised her head and looked boldly at Clan Leader Gu Yue. "An explanation? Just because you want an explanation, do you think I'll give you one?"
Gu Yue Bo's face became even grimmer. "Little girl, your mouth is quite tough. It seems I have no choice but to capture you and exchange you for my clan's Fang Yuan!"
"Hehehe." Tie Ruo Nan laughed instead. "Clan Leader Gu Yue, do you really dare to act? My uncle is the current clan leader of the Tie clan. Do you want to go to war with our Tie clan?"
Gu Yue Bo's footsteps came to an abrupt halt.
He was anxious in his heart and had almost forgotten.
The Tie family!
It was a super clan that had been passed down for thousands of years, standing firm. The Demon Suppression Tower that stood in the Tie family stronghold held countless demonic path Gu Masters and was a symbol of the righteous hegemony.
The Gu Yue clan was merely a small to medium-sized clan, inferior to the Jia clan. And the Jia clan was just a newly rising clan, completely incomparable to the Tie clan.
Even in the entire Southern Border, the Tie clan was a first-rate force of great importance, a behemoth with a deep foundation!
Tie Ruo Nan's voice softened again. "Clan Leader Gu Yue, I am not here to be your enemy. Please believe in my sincerity. I do not know where my father went, and I will not leave. I will not sneak away. The Tie clan has ghosts who die in battle, no cowards who run away. Not only will I not run away, but I will also catch the murderer who killed Jia Jin Sheng!"
"Fang Yuan might not be the murderer!" Gu Yue Bo's brows furrowed, revealing a vicious light in his eyes.
"But he might also be one!" Tie Ruo Nan's eyes widened, her heroic spirit blazing. On this point, she would not give an inch.
The two sides glared at each other for a long time.
Tie Ruo Nan said, "Fang Yuan is missing now. He is very likely to have fled, making him even more suspicious. But I will never wrong an innocent person!"
"Hmph, let's hope so." Gu Yue Bo flicked his sleeves and left.
A quarter of an hour earlier...
Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle.
Primeval Spring whirlpools rose and fell one after another. A lotus flower, like an illusion, flickered in and out of visibility within the spring water.
Fang Yuan threw in pieces of Primeval Stones one after another, causing the form of the Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus to become clearer and clearer.
"The ten thousand Primeval Stones offered from the previous classmates' gathering, plus the forty thousand Primeval Stones supplied in installments by Gu Yue Mo Chen, have all been thrown in. Why hasn't this Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus manifested its physical form yet?"
Fang Yuan concentrated, staring through the crystal wall at the center of the Primeval Spring, some doubt in his heart.
The Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus was extremely precious. If it were promoted to Rank Six, its value would be completely on par with the Spring Autumn Cicada.
Even in his previous life, Fang Yuan had only heard of it and never come into contact with it.
Therefore, in this life, it was his first time dealing with it, so it was inevitable that he had some doubts.
But he quickly calmed his mind and chuckled. "Fifty thousand Primeval Stones in total is already more than enough. What am I worrying about gains and losses for? Even if the refinement fails, so what? Hehehe."
Thinking of this, he hesitated no longer. He took a deep breath, leaped forward, and crashed into the crystal wall.
This wall was formed by the Tong Qian Gu.
Fang Yuan collided with it, as if jumping into water.
A ripple spread across the wall, and in an instant, it swallowed him whole.
The spring water immediately enveloped Fang Yuan from all directions.
Fang Yuan opened his eyes in the water, but he could not see the Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus.