Chapter 3102 — The Eastern Family's Reaction

And there was another who lay sleepless that night—Dongfang Buruo!

Dongfang Cha had been scouting female students for him, and had called to say he had found some—yet he never came back. When Dongfang Buruo called again, Dongfang Cha's phone only gave the recorded tone of a switched-off device.

At first Dongfang Buruo had not thought much of it, but by midnight Dongfang Cha still had not appeared, and each call he made still met with a dead line. Only then did he grow anxious, and he hurriedly dialed his father, Dongfang Jinxing!

"Buruo? It's so late—has something happened?" Dongfang Jinxing spent his nights in cultivation. As head of the Eastern Family he had countless matters to handle by day, and only at night could he find time to cultivate—which was also why his progress lagged behind that of Dongfang Yinxing.

"Father, Dongfang Cha has vanished!" Dongfang Buruo said in urgent alarm.

"Dongfang Cha? Vanished? What do you mean?" Dongfang Jinxing did not quite follow. "Isn't he with you? How could he vanish?"

"He... he went out on an errand and never came back..." Dongfang Buruo said after a moment's hesitation. He did not yet know that his father had already learned of his scheme to have Dongfang Cha procure beauties for him, and so he stammered, not daring to speak the plain truth.

"Finding female students for you, wasn't he?" Dongfang Jinxing said bluntly. "He went off, and then never came back?"

"Ah? Father, you knew..." Dongfang Buruo was startled. Could his father have stopped Dongfang Cha, and that was why he had not returned? No—that did not fit either; from his father's tone, he too had known nothing of Dongfang Cha's failure to return. So he hurried on: "Yes, he called me earlier and said he had found two exceptional ones and would be back at once, but... after that there was no word at all."

"He mentioned the matter to me before. I knew of it. But he had already found two female students, and then, just as he was about to return, he vanished?" Dongfang Jinxing's heart tightened, though he was also puzzled. In the secular world, what trouble could possibly befall Dongfang Cha?

"Yes, his phone is off as well. There has been no news whatsoever!" Dongfang Buruo said.

"All right, I understand. Don't go to sleep yet. I will look into it on my end and contact you at once!" Though Dongfang Jinxing thought a man of Dongfang Cha's strength should not have run into trouble, he rose to his feet all the same, resolved to retrieve the surveillance data transmitted from Dongfang Cha's vehicle.

Upon hearing Dongfang Buruo's words, Dongfang Jinxing ended his cultivation at once, tidied himself briefly, and strode quickly toward the Eastern Family's surveillance room. The Eastern Family was a rather modern clan—at the very least, whatever people used nowadays, they used too, and in some respects even more advanced.

As for dress and appearance, they had long since become indistinguishable from modern people.

Dongfang Jinxing walked briskly into the surveillance room, and the disciple on duty there hurried to greet him: "Young Patriarch, what brings you here?"

"Mm. Pull up the footage of Dongfang Cha after he went to Donghai City—let me see it," Dongfang Jinxing told the disciple. Without authorization from Dongfang Jinxing or Dongfang Badao, even the disciple guarding the surveillance room could not access the recordings at will.

"Done, Young Patriarch. Please authorize with your fingerprint!" The disciple brought up the footage, but it would not play; only the fingerprint authorization of Dongfang Jinxing or Dongfang Badao could unlock it.

Dongfang Jinxing nodded, then swept his hand across the fingerprint scanner. The computer gave a single beep—verification successful—and the monitor began to play back Dongfang Cha's every move.

At first all was unremarkable: the scene of Dongfang Cha and Dongfang Buruo just arriving in Donghai City. Then came footage of Dongfang Cha driving to Donghai City Engineering University, where he waited beneath the teaching building for a time.

Dongfang Jinxing fast-forwarded through all of that, until he reached the moment Dongfang Cha struck and knocked the two girls unconscious. Now came the important part!

"The Dark Night Elder of the Dark Night Palace, of all people?" Dongfang Jinxing was startled at the sight of the newcomer on screen. The Dark Night Palace's Grand Elder was honored as the Dark Night Elder—not because that was her name, but because every generation's Grand Elder bore that title.

Yet that was not even the most shocking part. What happened next turned Dongfang Jinxing's expression unspeakably grim—for the Dark Night Elder had actually struck Dongfang Cha dead. After that the footage cut out; evidently the Dark Night Elder had had the surveillance device found and destroyed.

"Dark Night Palace, you and I have no quarrel, yet you kill a elder of my Eastern Family—are the elders of the Eastern Family so easy to bully?" From the footage, Dongfang Jinxing had no way of knowing that Gu Mengyao was the inheritor the Dark Night Palace sought. In his eyes they were merely two pretty little girls. Was the Dark Night Elder not simply meddling? We were seizing our own people—what business was it of yours? Did you fancy yourself a hero who draws his blade at the sight of injustice?

Dongfang Jinxing was furious. This was the third of their own to die in succession—first Dongfang Bushu, then Dongfang Jian, and now Dongfang Cha! Every one of them a fighter of the first rank, and all dead, just like that?

However powerful the Eastern Family might be, the loss of three Heaven-rank experts in a row was a grievous blow. Dongfang Jinxing did not dare act on his own authority. He copied the video to his phone, then hurried toward the place where Dongfang Badao cultivated.

"Who goes there?" Dongfang Jinxing had barely reached the door of Dongfang Badao's chamber when Dongfang Yinxing's sharp challenge rang out from within. After all, who in the Eastern Family would come here in the middle of the night? His tone was therefore none too courteous.

"Come in. It's Jinxing," Dongfang Badao spoke up then. His cultivation surpassed Dongfang Yinxing's, and so he had recognized the footsteps as Dongfang Jinxing's.

"Yes, Father!" Dongfang Jinxing pushed the door open and entered, then said in urgent haste: "Father, Second Brother, something terrible has happened—Dongfang Cha is dead too!"

"What?!" Dongfang Badao rose abruptly to his feet, disbelief filling his eyes. "Jinxing, what did you say? Dongfang Cha is dead too? How did he die? Was he silenced while investigating the cause of Dongfang Jian's death?"

"No, it has nothing to do with that. Dongfang Cha never went to the Cultivator's Guild at all—he went to find women for that boy Buruo..." Dongfang Jinxing sighed and recounted the whole affair, exactly as it had happened, to Dongfang Badao and Dongfang Yinxing. (To be continued.