Chapter 3847 — Ill Intent
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 3
If the killer was a disciple from within the Tri-Stack Pavilion, then a bit of investigation would make flushing out the true culprit far from difficult. But if it was a rootless rogue cultivator, then dragging them into the light would be considerably harder!
Yet what was surprising was this: for a key figure in such a vital position as Nan Tianyong to be killed on the Tri-Stack Pavilion's own turf, the crowd did no more than idle away their time gossiping about it. No strong outcry arose, and no one made a point of manufacturing public pressure to force the Pavilion's higher-ups into quickly rooting out the true killer and bringing them to justice.
Just how poor Nan Tianyong's standing was—this illustrious inspection deacon of the Soaring Sky Pavilion—was plain for all to see.
Because the matter had drawn such widespread attention, someone among the Soaring Sky Pavilion's higher-ups had already stepped forward to declare that it would be investigated rigorously. The nature of this affair could hardly be called anything but vile; if even a man of Nan Tianyong's not-inconsiderable status could be murdered on his own home ground and no one so much as raised a question, where would the Soaring Sky Pavilion's dignity be? How could it command the allegiance of the masses hereafter?
Yet although the Law Enforcement Hall had entered the case into its records, it took no major targeted action. The implication was plain enough: keep it cool for a while, and once the crowd had put it out of their minds, shelve it indefinitely.
In a cultivation world of ceaseless bloodshed, a single death was a common trifle—unless it was a massacre on the scale of the Qiu Waters Manor, where a thousand souls perished at once and certain people's interests were touched, that anyone would stir up such a fuss.
This time, had it not been for the slight sensitivity attached to Nan Tianyong's identity as an inspection deacon of the Soaring Sky Pavilion, the affair likely would never have caught the higher-ups' eyes at all. Dead was dead; nothing worth making a fuss over.
But absent any particular word from on high, the Law Enforcement Hall merely went through the motions. In the words of Gongyang Jun, its current hall master, the Hall had not sunk so low as to go championing justice for the weak. Only the great powers and the great personages—those were the targets truly worth keeping a close eye on.
In the eyes of the vast majority of ordinary cultivators, Nan Tianyong was already a lofty personage. But to Gongyang Jun he was no different from the common rabble at the bottom—a mere lowly ant, not worth expending a shred of energy upon.
"Just as I thought. To give the leader a satisfactory account, it seems I'll have to go in person after all." Nan Tianguan had long foreseen this turn of events. Having mixed in the Soaring Sky Pavilion for so long, if he could not even see through the true nature of those higher-ups and the Law Enforcement Hall, then all his years there would have been wasted.
Still, these three days had not been spent in vain. Beyond observing the situation, if he meant to pay the Hong Clan Trading Company a personal visit, he had to prepare a few trump cards—and now, he had waited until that trump card was in his hand.
Summoning Yu Jiang, Nan Tianguan set off at once for the market. Today was not an open day for the inner street, but unlike Nan Tianyong, he possessed a Spirit Jade Card of his own, so bringing Yu Jiang in was no trouble at all.
Arriving before the gates of the Hong Clan Trading Company, Nan Tianguan wasted no words. With a cold face he strode straight in, Yu Jiang following close behind.
Ill intent preceded them, and the servant boy at the Company's entrance sensed something amiss at once. Then he glanced at Yu Jiang, and understanding dawned immediately.