Daily life of a cultivation judge
Chapter 1186 - 1186: Why was that?

Yang Qing shook his head, snapping free of his musings as new considerations began to form thanks to this recent revelation.

Earlier, he had placed the three clans lower on the list of suspects potentially involved in the disappearance of Bai Chen, Jiang Cheng, and the flying ferry. However, with the new revelation about the Lai Clan's involvement with the other three clans, he was forced to reevaluate his earlier assumptions.

Lai Hu could have made the ferry vanish to cover his tracks and mislead Xia Fang into thinking he'd been taken. Alternatively, one of the other three clans could have orchestrated the disappearance, with Lai Hu as their target for the information he possessed.

Yang Qing wasn't sure what the relationship between the four retainer clans was like. Still, assuming it wasn't exactly harmonious, especially with so much at stake, it was easy to imagine them sabotaging and outmaneuvering one another in the hunt for their ancestors' legacy artifacts, especially if it proved to be true that said artifacts held more than just the cultivation arts the Xia clan founder had taught to their ancestors.

If that was the case, the four clans could be locked in fierce competition… and Bai Chen and the others were simply collateral damage.

Of course, all of this was just speculation for now, built on the assumption that the clans were indeed rivals.

Yang Qing would need more information to confirm it, but given how short he was on time, he didn't have the luxury of waiting for another updated information from the Flying Shadow Hawks. To save on time, he would have to do the dirty work and uncover it from the source himself.

The source in this case would be the sect grounds of the Violet Feather Sword Sect. Yang Qing, though, felt a bit reluctant to go there for said information, since the four clans were more than likely to give him the runaround and pretend they were one harmonious group for show—similar to how the noble families of the Deer Mountain Kingdom were when he met them.

No one liked to air their dirty laundry in front of outsiders. Most would keep it well hidden, which was something he would expect the wily old foxes of those four clans to do.

As such, he needed to have another source if he wanted to get a clear picture of the internal situation of these four clans. That source, in this case, would be the ancient rank two sect—the Silver Crane Sect.

Whatever questions he had, whatever answers he sought, there was no better place to seek it from than the Silver Crane Sect.

They may have drawn a clear line between themselves and the Xia clan for quite some time now, but Yang Qing was willing to bet that they likely knew everything surrounding the clan, including even the affairs of the four clans and the sect they founded together.

That line they had drawn, and the attitude they showed toward the Xia clan, was the thing that convinced Yang Qing that they likely knew a lot about the Xia clan—especially what they had done to the three retainer clans by taking away their legacy artifacts.

Otherwise, why then didn't they act when they saw the three clans attack the Xia clan when they were at their weakest?

It was one thing for them to remain uninvolved when the rogue cultivator's son attacked, given the backing he had with the Cyan Crescent Kingdom, but it is another for them to adopt the same stance against some rank three clans, even if one of them had the backing of a newly promoted rank two kingdom.

The Song Kingdom, despite sharing the same rank, wasn't even fit to be mentioned in the same breath as the Silver Crane Sect. Whether it be fame, power, or foundation, the latter had dwarfed the former several times over.

So, the Silver Crane Sect would have cared little if the Ning clan had the backing of the Song Kingdom. As a matter of fact, it would have been the Song Kingdom who should have been—or would have been—wary of involving themselves in affairs tied to the sect, even in an indirect capacity.

Yet they involved themselves anyway. Why was that?

If it was to repay a debt, they had a million other ways to do so that didn't involve taking the risk of drawing the ire of a powerful sect like the Silver Crane Sect.

Not unless...

Not unless they somehow knew that helping the Ning clan wouldn't anger the Silver Crane Sect.

An organization like the Song Kingdom doesn't survive as long as it has, or reach the level it has, by being run by fools. It is where it is because it had capable and incisive people to chart its steps.

Helping the Ning clan suggested that clearly, they knew something. And that something was what guided their actions thereafter.

It was the same with the retainer clans.

Despite how much anger and hatred they had toward the Xia clan, history had shown them to be cautious, well-planned, and far-sighted individuals who would carefully consider every step before acting, and who were willing to endure rather than act carelessly.

Then why did such cautious people openly target the Xia clan, despite knowing of their relationship with the Silver Crane Sect?

The Silver Crane Sect showing a cold shoulder to the Xia clan would not have given them sufficient confidence to act without worry, especially given the manner in which they went about destroying the Xia clan.

They had slowly tormented and tortured the Xia clan to their death over a long period of time.

Their actions clearly showed a people who didn't seem all too worried that the Silver Crane Sect would intervene any time soon.

Why was that?

Yang Qing had already made up his mind that he would be paying the Silver Crane Sect a visit to get the complete picture.

Only after gathering that information would he tell Xia Fang of his findings.

And more importantly, only after getting that full picture would he have enough to either remove or keep the four clans as suspects in Bai Chen's, his disciple's, and the ferry's disappearance.

The only question that now remained was how would he get an appointment with the Silver Crane Sect?

He could use his identity as a judge of the Order to maybe get audience, and he was sure it would be sufficient to get him through the doors, but this was an ancient sect, and it deserved its respect. He didn't want to bully his way in by using his background—he would much rather use a softer approach, which, given how short on time he was, didn't leave him much to work with.

The only means he could think of that could maybe work with a short time frame was using someone from the Order who had some relationship or acquaintance with the sect to make the introduction, along with a brief overview of what Yang Qing needed.

Yang Qing felt things would be smoother that way and more cordial and respectful, especially on his part.

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