The young woman in the gauze dress before him didn't speak, merely giving a slight bow in greeting.
Then she turned around and continued walking forward.
Chen Yan followed her.
Just like that, she led Chen Yan through several more private rooms before arriving in front of one particular chamber.
She raised her hand and gently knocked twice on the door before them:
"Manager Ding, there's an immortal master from Kongshan Sect here to see you. He says he's looking for Immortal Master Song who met with you some time ago."
"Please come in."
A few seconds later, a man's voice came from inside.
Whether it was an illusion or not, Chen Yan actually found the voice somewhat familiar, as if he'd heard it somewhere before.
"Senior Brother Sun, please enter."
Then Chen Yan walked through the doorway.
This was an antique-style chamber that, judging by its layout and furnishings, closely resembled a reception room.
All the tables, chairs, and decorations used within clearly weren't cheap, likely worth quite a bit of silver in the secular world.
A long table stood in the middle of the room, upon which sat a rather high-end tea set.
And behind the long table sat a man dressed in luxurious brocade robes.
The man didn't rise, merely sitting there observing Chen Yan as he entered the chamber. His gaze first swept over Chen Yan's face, then his daoist robes, and finally the gilded cloud crane patterns on his sleeves.
"Fellow Daoist, please have a seat quickly."
The man in luxurious robes said with a smile, picking up a teacup from the table. He first rinsed it with hot water, then poured tea into Chen Yan's cup:
"Fellow Daoist came here looking for Steward Song?"
"Yes."
Chen Yan replied.
"But Steward Song says he doesn't want to see anyone right now, not even fellow disciples from Kongshan Sect."
This Manager Ding of the Gambling Den said.
Chen Yan understood clearly that this Manager Ding before him was testing him.
But what concerned Chen Yan more was that, for some reason, the man's voice felt extremely familiar to him.
"Steward Song is already dead."
Chen Yan stated bluntly.
Manager Ding's hand holding the teapot paused slightly, but the micro-expressions on his face showed no change whatsoever.
Clearly, he also knew about Song Mingde's death.
This Gambling Den manager didn't seem simple, because even the vast majority of Kongshan Sect's outer sect disciples didn't know about Song Mingde's death.
"Then why has Fellow Daoist come to my place looking for Steward Song?"
Manager Ding said.
"To retrieve what he left here."
Chen Yan said.
He was trying his luck.
"Things left by Steward Song?"
Manager Ding showed a confused expression, putting on an appearance of knowing nothing:
"Forgive me, but I don't understand what Fellow Daoist is talking about."
He was playing dumb.
Chen Yan knew very well that right now he was feigning ignorance.
It was highly probable that before Song Mingde turned himself in to the Enforcement Hall, he had already guessed he might not survive, and thus left the list at the Gambling Den.
"Elder Fu Qian sent me."
Chen Yan said.
"Fellow Daoist, don't say you're invoking Elder Fu's name—even if you invoked Sect Leader Yun's great name, what doesn't exist simply doesn't exist."
Manager Ding showed a bitter smile:
"You can't expect me to create something from nothing, can you?"
Though he said this, Manager Ding's gaze kept intentionally or unintentionally glancing toward Chen Yan's waist.
That was where the identity token should be worn.
"I understand. Then I've disturbed Manager Ding for today."
Chen Yan clasped his hands and said immediately.
"No trouble at all. Fellow Daoist Sun is welcome to come play anytime."
Manager Ding said with a smile, then casually plucked a blade of grass from a nearby potted plant and stuck it in his mouth.
Seeing this, Chen Yan suddenly felt his hairs stand on end, his pupils constricted, and true energy surged violently from his Martial Spring.
If not for the concealment of the Hidden Immortal Art, his energy fluctuations and abnormality would definitely have been detected by the Gambling Den manager before him.
Chen Yan finally understood why, from the moment they met, he had found this Gambling Den manager's voice familiar.
"You kid, you're really strange."
"Sooner or later, I'll kill you."
...
The appearance of the man before him gradually overlapped with that man wearing brown coarse cloth clothes, carrying a large blade over his shoulder.
Manager Ding was the person who had intercepted and killed Chen Yan and Cheng Ziying in multiple reincarnations!
Chen Yan hadn't recognized him at all initially, because he found it extremely difficult to connect the shrewd, amiable Manager Ding in luxurious robes at this moment with that stubble-faced, gloomy-eyed killer.
But that action and habit of sticking a blade of grass in his mouth just now undoubtedly completely overlapped this Gambling Den manager before him with that figure from over two years later!
"Fellow Daoist, what's wrong?"
Manager Ding looked at Chen Yan with a concerned expression.
His voice was completely identical to that man wearing brown coarse cloth clothes.
"Nothing."
Chen Yan bowed with clasped hands:
"I'll take my leave first."
He concealed his hatred and surging true energy, then departed.
...
Chen Yan quickly walked out of the Gambling Den and headed toward the direction of the Prince's Manor.
What exactly happened during these next two years?
He could now tentatively speculate that True Dharma Elder Bai Qiming of Qingchan Peak and Martial Elder Fu Qian of Qingchan Peak were most likely from two different factions.
This could be seen from how Qingchan Peak's Scripture Hall Elder Lan Wei, who was Fu Qian's subordinate, held an extremely poor impression of Lu Li, who was close to True Dharma Elder Bai Qiming.
And during that calamity in the outer court, the faction that suffered the greatest losses within Qingchan Peak was the one belonging to Sword Master Elder and Martial Elder.
In fact, because such a major incident occurred, Bai Qiming's faction actually benefited from it.
Chen Yan found it difficult not to suspect that the mastermind behind this series of events might be Bai Qiming.
If it really was Bai Qiming, then what about Lu Li?
During this sect mission, Lu Li definitely had the opportunity to kill him, but he hadn't.
Chen Yan speculated there were two possibilities. First, although Lu Li was currently close to Bai Qiming, he hadn't completely gained Bai Qiming's trust.
Lu Li currently didn't know about this matter.
The other possibility was because Bai Qiming knew that Chen Yan himself was currently within Fu Qian's sight, and if they acted rashly, it might alert the enemy.
Therefore, they couldn't move against Chen Yan.
Of course, all of this was based on the premise that Bai Qiming was the mastermind behind all these events.
These were merely Chen Yan's speculations, without any evidence.
Standing before the main gate of the Prince's Manor, Chen Yan took a deep breath, then shook all the messy thoughts from his mind.
He needed to deal with the matters at hand first.
Qian Xun was still being held under guard by Lu Li and Zheng Fei. An urgent report had already been sent from the manager's residence to Kongshan Sect, and they should receive the sect's response soon.
Thinking this, Chen Yan relied on his memory to return to the courtyard that the Prince's Manor steward had arranged for the Kongshan Sect cultivators not long ago.
But when Chen Yan returned to the courtyard, there weren't just Lu Li, Zheng Fei, and the detained Qian Xun inside.
There was also another cultivator wearing Kongshan Sect daoist robes who appeared to be around forty years old.
The spray patterns embroidered on his collar declared his identity.
He was from Yuanhua Mountain.