The first day was Shen Jinghai and Shen Feihu.

The second day was Shen Feihong, who had arranged with Shen Feihu to deduce the array together.

The third day was Shan Lan, the wife of Shen Ziqiong, who although had no presence, actually loved her son dearly.

The fourth day was Shen Zicheng, who noticed his sister-in-law’s sudden disappearance, and his wife Li Yu, who noticed Shen Zicheng’s disappearance.

...

On the tenth day, Li Wanqing discovered that Shen Ying seemed to have been missing for a long time.

In Shen City, it was as if a mysterious void had appeared, constantly swallowing people into the void, causing them to disappear without a trace, and anyone who noticed this void would also be swallowed by it. For a time, the people of Shen City were in a state of panic.

Compared to the harmless Fire Dragon Burner, this Divine Concealment Void, which easily swallowed important members of the Shen family hierarchy, was far more terrifying.

In the wake of such a serious crisis, Shen Ziqiong, as the Guardian of the Seventy-Two Arrays, naturally bore the brunt. Ten days ago, he had confidently claimed that the Seventy-Two Arrays were functioning normally and that Shen City people were absolutely safe. Yet, within these ten days, not even the Shen family’s own members could be safeguarded! The thickness of his skin was unbelievable! Everyone worked so hard, paid taxes, and ended up supporting such corrupt elements. As the righteous citizens of Shen City, they could not tolerate such things!

However, when the protesting crowd rushed into his office, they found it empty, with a cup of hot tea still emitting wisps of steam.

——

Elsewhere, in a cold courtyard within Shen City Inner City, Shen Ruoshi put down the unconscious Shen Ziqiong, whom he had been carrying on his shoulder, and let out a sigh of relief.

Then, he looked around at the unconscious Shen Jinghai, Shen Feihong, Shen Feihu, and others lying inside the house. The old man’s brow furrowed tightly, and beads of cold sweat on his forehead grew larger.

To this day, even he, the rash person involved, felt that things were starting to get out of control. The disappearance of so many influential figures in Shen City would inevitably trigger a chain reaction, and no matter how much effort he put in afterward, the secret was bound to be exposed.

By that time, Shen Ruoshi’s century-long reputation would be ruined, Shen City would become a laughingstock to the world, the pen name value of Three Lives Stone would plummet, and his mother, Gu Yueqin, whom he had just lulled back to sleep, would wake up again.

Thinking of this, Shen Ruoshi truly felt a chill down his spine, the heavy sense of crisis weighing down on him like this was even more intense than when he first stepped onto the Chaos Battlefield and encountered the Skeleton Demon Beast.

That time, the worst-case scenario was losing his life, but now, the situation was truly beyond redemption.

Why did things develop this way...

Clearly, he only hoped that the spiritual symbol of Shen City over the past few decades wouldn’t collapse, only wanted the image of the great artist Three Lives Stone to persist, and the soul of art to remain untainted. Why was this noble ideal twisted into what it is now!?

With a tinge of resentment, Shen Ruoshi paced back and forth in the room, pondering countermeasures.

However, no matter how he thought about it, the situation had now become a deadlock. Back then, in a moment of impulse, he caused Shen Jinghai and Shen Feihu, who knew too much, to disappear from this world. Yet, before he even thought of a way to brainwash these two, to make them forget the black history they shouldn’t have known, more people had been drawn in. Now the vortex was so immense that one truly couldn’t figure out how to bring it to an end.

Just as he was feeling anxious, suddenly there came a knock on the door, causing every muscle and tendon in Shen Ruoshi’s body to jump.

"Who is it?"

As he spoke, Shen Ruoshi had already gathered a shard of space-time sand, prepared to strike first.

The person outside the door, to have come so close to knock, yet he hadn’t noticed — what an incredible concealment technique was that?

Even though his mind was momentarily in disarray, and the old injuries he suffered from Gu Yueqin’s training hadn’t fully healed, he remained a Great Cultivator in the Sea Overturning Realm, with strength unmatched in the world by many. For someone to elude his perception, it would likely have to be a top master of the same realm.

Searching throughout Shen City, at this level of mastery, Shen Ruoshi could only think of one or two individuals, among whom the most suspicious one had just been lulled to sleep by him, unlikely to wake up, leaving the rest...

Li Fengyun?!

At the thought of this person, Shen Ruoshi’s Primordial Spirit trembled, his heart a mix of emotions.

Regarding this unscrupulous scoundrel who had taken away his precious daughter, to say he harbored no resentment would be a joke. So when he realized it might be Li Fengyun coming to visit, the old man suddenly had an impulse to fight him to the death.

His entire life had been that of a warrior, to die on the battlefield would be a life well-lived!

However, in the next moment, the voice of the person who knocked came through again.

"Mr. Shen Ruoshi, please open the door."

The voice was entirely different from Li Fengyun’s lewd and vile tone, resembling a clear spring, instantly dissolving the hostility within Shen Ruoshi, smoothing out his furrowed brow.

A moment later, Shen Ruoshi remembered the owner of this voice, and even recalled that bright and innocent face.

"Wang Jiu?"

"It’s me, please open the door."

Shen Ruoshi pondered for a moment and didn’t hurry to open the door—of course, he couldn’t open it but instead asked through the door, "What are you here for?"

Wang Jiu said, "Li Wanqing asked me to find Shen Ying."

"... Who is Shen Ying?" Shen Ruoshi frowned, then in the corner of his eye caught a glimpse of the girl in a deep sleep in the corner of the room and finally realized it was the Void Clarity Body girl.

A few days ago, during the ambush on Shen Zicheng, he found this eavesdropping little girl with the unfolded Power of Mountains and Seas and knocked her out and brought her back, completely forgetting her identity...

"Why are you looking for her, and why come to me? There’s no such person named Shen Ying here!"

Wang Jiu said outside the door, "Oh, maybe her Void Clarity Body caused you to overlook her existence. She’s about three meters to your right, yes, the one you’re looking at now!"

Shen Ruoshi almost cursed, "You can see through the door!?"

Wang Jiu said, "Shen Ying has my ’little droplet,’ which allows me to share a vision to some extent."

Shen Ruoshi again felt the urge to curse. What on earth is this little droplet? If it were a Magical Treasure that could share vision, how has he, who once served as the head Artifact Refining Master of the high-tech development zone, never heard of it? Moreover, this room has now been transformed by him into a small cave, with all internal space laws under his control, so how could any Magical Treasure connect with the outside without his permission?

"That uses a remote control terminal crafted from the Hidden String of the third Celestial String, which the Power of Mountains and Seas and the Power of Time Sand cannot touch."

Shen Ruoshi was utterly confused. Celestial String? Hidden String? Aren’t these meaningless terms Wang Jiu is casually tossing around to confuse him?

Wang Jiu said, "The Celestial String Theory was proposed by frontier scholars during the Jiuzhou Era as a brand new worldview, suggesting that the essence of Dao Laws resembles strings of a zither. Although the concept is still rough, using that worldview can effectively bypass some conventional Immortal Dao principles..."

"Alright, no need to explain, who exactly are you?"

Wang Jiu said, "Qingming told me not to casually tell others."

"Oh, then forget it." Upon hearing the name Qingming, Shen Ruoshi almost effortlessly gave up his demand and asked, "You’re... just here to find Shen Ying?"

Wang Jiu said, "Yes, she’s been missing for a few days, and Wanqing and the others are very worried, so they suggested asking the Celestial Divine Dog to help find her."

Shen Ruoshi opened his mouth, ignoring the Celestial Divine Dog issue, and said, "So if I toss Shen Ying out, you’ll be done?"

Wang Jiu replied, "I’m just here to find Shen Ying. As for Shen Ziqiong, Shen Zicheng, and others, I haven’t received any relevant commissions yet; I’ll come to you once I do." 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Upon hearing this, Shen Ruoshi couldn’t wait for him to return later, so he quickly opened the door, pointed behind him, and said, "Come in and talk."

Once inside, Wang Jiu didn’t look around much and went straight to Shen Ying, reaching out to break the Sleep Spell attached to her.

"Hold on a moment," Shen Ruoshi interrupted, "There’s something I would like to ask Mr. Wang Jiu."

Wang Jiu asked, "What is it?"

Shen Ruoshi hesitated for a moment, then looked at Wang Jiu, recalling the legends about him.

The exploits in Cyan Cloud City don’t need much elaboration. Previously, because of his close connection with Qingming, Shen Ruoshi was quite displeased... And now, the most pressing matter for Shen Ruoshi is that, in the Southern City Mountains, when Zhao Jincheng summoned Zhao Chenlu, she displayed extreme intimacy with Wang Jiu.

There’s a saying in the Xiangzhou Immortal Cultivation circle: Being favored by City Lord Golden Jade is a blessing unmatched even by ten terms as the Sect Leader of the Saint Sect. For someone as blessed as Wang Jiu to not have any secrets is absolutely impossible. Yet, such a person willingly stays by Qingming’s side, letting a group of kids order him around, so... if we exclude the possibility of him having a peculiar hobby.

Perhaps this person is exceptionally approachable?

If that’s the case, could Qingming and others command, and he, as the grandfather, perhaps also seek some assistance?

Shen Ruoshi was truly in a pickle, having created bigger secrets to cover another secret, and now he found himself unable to resolve the situation. Before him stood a kind young man who might have a solution?

"It’s like this, hypothetically speaking." Shen Ruoshi began, "If you have a secret you don’t want anyone to know about, of course, unrelated to trivialities like pride, vanity, or macho ego, but purely for the public interest, a secret best kept from being widely known."

Before he could finish, Wang Jiu interrupted, "Is it about your pen name being Three Lives Stone?"

"..." Three Lives Stone stared at Wang Jiu for a long, long time and eventually suppressed the urge under those clear eyes and continued, "It’s unrelated to me; it’s just a theoretical discussion."

"Theoretical discussion? Got it, please continue."

"By some chance, someone discovered this secret. To prevent it from spreading, you involuntarily knocked out and abducted this person, planning to use a refined Forgetfulness Spell to erase the related memories. But in the process, it triggered a chain reaction, forcing you to repeatedly take action and eliminate more witnesses, until it became unmanageable. What would you do in that situation?"

Wang Jiu thought for a moment, "According to common sense in human society, once a chain reaction occurs, you can only erase evidence with more powerful external impact. For instance, when books can’t be balanced, you could burn all the ledgers at once. Applied to your hypothetical situation, the ideal scenario would be to entice foreign enemies to invade, then take the opportunity to kill and silence, completely eliminating all informed parties."