章 28: Yuexing city

"Recent reports?" Fu Jie was suddenly eager to learn more about this.

He needed to solve this case as soon as possible. If he could clear his name by finding the demonic cultivator, he would be able to focus on beating the crimson dragon and getting out of here with his crimson gear, but so far, no matter what he did, he couldn't help but feel as if everything was stagnant.

He still had no idea where the crimson dragon was, he didn't have a plan on how he was going to beat it and he didn't even know if beating the crimson dragon was enough to go back to his world.

If only he could do something useful, he wouldn't feel this depressing stagnant feeling of doing nothing and watching as his chance to get out of here went by and he slowly got stuck here forever.

Ah Lu nodded as he looked at his sister in a manner that made it look as if he was asking for permission to speak.

Ah Bai huffed in annoyance as she unfolded her hands and sat down straight, looking at Fu Jie before speaking in a rather serious tone that didn't seem to suit her, "Yuexing city has always been peaceful and although there have been a bit ghost troublings before, it was something that the traveling cultivators could control, but recently, the peace in the city has been disrupted."

Ah Lu nodded as he continued his sister's explanation, "We have been receiving reports for over a few weeks now. Almost every evening, there is a new corpse that is found on the empty streets there. All the victims have been killed in the same manner so naturally, they were done by the same person. Reports say that a ferocious ghost is the one to be held responsible but even after sending cultivators over to check the situation out, they were unable to find any such ghosts."

"Why ghosts?" Fu Jie asked.

Ah Bai shook her head as she answered, "Because they were all killed in a rather unsightly manner."

The twins were reluctant to talk more about this unsightly manner in which the victims were all killed, but at this moment, Dai Xiaobo suddenly spoke up, "Bloodless bodies with their eyes gouged out and their tongue hanging out like a hanged ghost's."

Fu Jie felt a shiver go down his spine as he imagined such a scene... It was probably better not to imagine it.

"Only a demon or a ghost would want to kill someone like that." Dai Xiaobo added.

"I see..." Fu Jie nodded as he tried to push the scene away from his brain.

All the talking had distracted Fu Jie so much that his stomach had gone back to normal and he was no longer panicking about the height in which they were traveling.

Ah Lu was glad to see that Fu Jie was able to calm down a bit since this was his goal. He would have never volunteered to say so much in normal conditions but since he wanted to help Fu Jie and make him feel more comfortable, Ah Lu decided to say so much in a single day.

"So the demonic cultivator is the one responsible?" Fu Jie questioned.

Dai Xiaobo shook his head, "We can't be sure."

Ah Bai suddenly contemplated on whether to say something or not but in the end, she couldn't seal her mouth for too long and ended up spouting it out, "Honestly, the chances of it being Ren Mengyao is really low."

"Why?"

Ah Bai, "He's too powerful for it."

"..."

"Think about it," Ah Bai shifted in her seat as she continued, "Why would he go around doing things like that? He's too powerful to personally go and kill innocent people who don't even cultivate."

"Wait... All the victims were commoners?"

Ah Bai nodded her head, "They were! So there's no way Ren Mengyao would bother going after them."

Fu Jei was a bit stunned but he still maintained a calm composure as he nodded and agreed to Ah Bai, "If he really is as powerful as you say, then he's probably not the one who is personally doing all the killings, however, he can't be ruled out either. Maybe he's the one ordering it for some benefit that we don't know about?"

Ah Lu looked at Fu Jie with an indecipherable expression as he asked, "Just because he's a demonic cultivator, does brother Xia think every wrongdoing is to be blamed on him?"

Fu Jie took a whole minute to register what this child had just said and when he opened his mouth to say something, he immediately closed it back only to take another second and try saying again before closing his mouth, seeming to imitate a fish.

Ah Bai also silently waited for Fu Jie to respond.

In the end, Fu Jie smiled as he finally came up with an answer he was satisfied with, "Him being a demonic cultivator has nothing to do with it. Can't a demonic cultivator be good? Just because he's a demonic cultivator, it doesn't mean he's a bad person."

Ah Lu smiled thinly as he heard this.

"But..." Fu Jie continued, "This doesn't mean all demonic cultivators are good either. Just like how a cultivator or a commoner can be good or bad, they can also be good or bad. If he's someone who might be a suspect, why rule him out? It's better to get more evidence and see for yourself if he really is the one to be blamed or not."

Dai Xiaobo looked at Fu Jie and from his expressions alone, one would be able to say that he was happy with Fu Jie's response.

Of course, he should be happy with Fu Jie's response! Fu Jie had spent so much time deciding what to say in order to look super cool and mature!

Ah Lu nodded happily, "I think brother Xia is right. One can't be labeled good or bad according to what path of cultivation they choose."

Fu Jie chuckled lightly as he asked, "And we are still chasing after him just because he's a demonic cultivator?"

Fu Jie really believed that these people were hypocrites. On one hand, they agreed to what he said and on the other hand, they still went against their own beliefs by chasing after a man whose only mistake was that he was a demonic cultivator.

Ah Bai, "We wouldn't be chasing after him if we weren't ordered to. Who knows what all the sect masters are thinking."

Ah Lu sighed in disappointment as he added, "I think we shouldn't chase after him. He never did anything bad to anyone."

Fu Jie also nodded as he agreed to the twins, "Since he ran away, let him run away. Why should we have to run after him?"

In reality, Fu Jie wasn't really sympathizing with the demonic cultivator. Maybe he felt a small sense of pity for that man but the main reason why he was saying all this was because he wanted to see if he could change their thinking and make everyone give up on chasing after the demonic cultivator. If everyone gave up chasing after that man, they would naturally give up on chasing after Fu Jie as well. Fu Jie would no longer need to hide his face and all of this useless mess could be cleared up all at once.

Dai Xiaobo also seemed to agree with them but he didn't dare voice out his opinions.

Ah Lu suddenly waved his hands around as he spoke up, "Forget it! It's not like we can do anything about it. The most we can do is change Sect Master Xiao's mind but this isn't her decision alone. The root of the problem lies on the heads of all four greatest sects and there's no way we will be able to convince them all."

Fu Jie almost thought this method would work but this young boy had directly crushed his ambitions with a hammer called reality check.

It really was an impossible task. To change everyone's mind was not something Fu Jie could do. It wasn't like he had a protagonist halo over his head and everyone listened to him.

"Tch-" Fu Jie looked up and shrugged as he asked, "Let's not talk about that."

"Hmm..."

After another Few minutes, Fu Jie suddenly asked another question that was completely unrelated to the previous topic, "We have been traveling for so long, when are we going to get there?"

Fu Jie's stomach that had calmed down started acting up once again as he glanced at the clouds below them.

His fear of heights wasn't something that would just go away like that.

Ah Lu was able to remedy this problem by distracting him but now that there was nothing more to talk about, Fu Jie could no longer be distracted and the situation was just as bad as it was in the beginning.

"Brother Xia, just hold on!" Ah Lu held onto his hands as he tried to calm the man down, "It takes four hours to get to Yuexing from Dayu mountain.

"Four hours?!" Fu Jie cried out in shock.

At this moment, Fu Jie's face puffed up as if he was about to puke out all the food he had last night.

BAM

It was a palm strike that had directly knocked Fu Jie out.

Ah Bai, "Ah Lu, this is how you deal with such sickness. Solve the problem, don't treat it."

Ah Lu nodded as he thought in his head: Sister, what you did is also labeled under 'treating the problem'.