“Instructor Bai!!”
Mo Chen’s face light up in relief when he saw Bai Yunfei. “Instructor Bai, something bad has happened!”
“What did?” Bai Yunfei asked grimly.
Besides Mo Chen, Fang Yong cried out tearfully, “Instructor Bai, Tiangmeng….Tianmeng’s gone!! What do we do…”
“What?!” Bai Yunfei exclaimed, “Tianmeng’s gone? Where to? Calm down and talk to me clearly. What happened?”
“Yunfei, what’s wrong?”
Suddenly, a concern voiced called out to him behind. Bai Yunfei turned around. It was Zheng Kai.
Without giving him a greeting, Bai Yunfei only nodded before turning back to Fang Yong.
“Tianmeng went out yesterday. But she never returned. I don’t even know where she might be....”
“She never returned?” Bai Yunfei asked, “What was she doing?”
“She said she was going walking with a male from the fifth year fire section for a walk. I think...I think his name was Ye….Ye something…”
“Ye Yu?”
“Yes! His name was Ye Yu!” Fang Yong nodded.
“Did you go look for Ye Yu?”
Zhang Zhifeng nodded, “Fang Yong came to find us earlier today, so we went out looking for Ye Yu. But his roommate said he hadn’t returned since last night.”
From aside, Zheng Kai decided to speak up with a theory of his own. He remembered Ye Yu and Fang Tianmeng just faintly, “If...If I may be blunt, perhaps the two of them are currently engaging in something a couple might be doing? That might be why miss Fang hasn’t returned last night…”
“No way!” Fang Yong refused, “Tianmeng isn’t that type of person! She might have a good opinion of Ye Yu, but there’s no way she wouldn’t spend the entire night without coming back!”
Zhang Zhifeng interjected after that, “Also, I went to speak with his instructor. He said that Ye Yu was supposed to have a task done this morning, so he should’ve been back by now.”
Fang Yong looked distress as she spoke to Bai Yunfei, “Instructor Bai….do you think….do you think Tianmeng is in danger right now?”
“Let’s not blindly guess, that’ll accomplish nothing.” Bai Yunfei consoled her, though he himself was starting to feel worried. This wasn’t a common scenario; if two people haven’t returned since last night, that might’ve really meant something bad was happening….
But they were two ordinary soul cultivators. What kind of people would want to do anything against them?
“Do the two of them have any enemies?” Zheng Kai offered again. “Would anyone wish to do harm to them? Yunfei, do you remember that young master Cao from Baishan City? Do you….think he wanted revenge on them?”
The wrinkles on Bai Yunfei’s forehead deepened for a moment to ruminate on that thought. “That shouldn’t be so? It hasn’t been that long since we last met them, that Cao Jun probably hasn’t even recovered from his wounds yet, let alone want to come back to seek revenge. And if it’s revenge, he would’ve come after me, why would he go after Tianmeng and Ye Yu?”
“I can’t be sure, but there’s always a few hedonists whose minds work in ways you’ll never understand, Yunfei….”
“I don’t think it’s a too possible of a probability, let’s think about other likely scenarios. If we are to assume someone kidnapped or ambushed them, who would it be?” Bai Yunfei muttered.
“Would it perhaps be the same people from yesterday?” Zhang Zhifeng offered coldly.
“Are you talking about the Xue?” Bai Yunfei asked.
“Yeah!!” Mo Chen lit up, “It has to be them! They definitely wouldn’t let what happened yesterday lying down, so they must’ve gone after Tianmeng in revenge! I heard it before that there was a student commoner that once angered Xue Gui, so he had people torture that student so much that he had to leave the academy!”
“Did that really happen before?” Bai Yunfei’s eyes flashed dangerously. Though he didn’t think it was likely, if this was true, then….
“The Xue? Which Xue?” Zheng Kai inquired, “Yunfei, what happened yesterday?”
Bai Yunfei quickly retold the story of what happened yesterday.
“The Minister of Finance from the house of Xue? You went against a family like that?”
“Why? Are they an influential family or something?”
“Ah, no. That’s not it, they’re a relatively ‘minor’ one.” Zheng Kai replied, “But the Chancellor of Finance is in charge to a certain degree of the Tianhun Empire’s financial system, so he’s not quite an ordinary person either. Xue Chunhou is his name. While rather ordinary, he does have some skill in finance and has a bit of a relationship with His Majesty’s wife’s family, that’s why he has the key position he does now. That key position means he has several experts to his house, but he’s still not really a major player in the Capital. And I know that half-wit of a person Xue Gui. He’s just a hedonistic second generational.”
“Then?” Bai Yunfei began, “Do you think the disappearance of Fang Tianmeng has anything to do with Xue Gui?”
“Is this Fang Tianmeng….a commoner?”
Bai Yunfei nodded.
“Then it’s hard to say. A student commoner without any background are easy targets for second generationals like Xue Gui. He likes to bully said people, and with brains like his, it’s hard to say if he’s really involved in this or not….”
“Zheng Kai, do you know where the Xue live?”
“What are planning to do?”
“Find out if it was Xue Gui that did it, let’s go!”
……
East Fifth Street of the Capital where the Chancellor of Finance lived.
Standing by the gates stood several guards completely bored out of their minds. Suddenly, a wave of energy rolled over them, causing them to immediately clutch at the blades at their waist, “Halt! Who goes there?!”
Bai Yunfei gave them each a glance before looking to the gates in front of him, “Call Xue Gui to see me.”
“The young master?” The guard captain repeated, “The young master is currently in the middle of recuperating. Who are you and what do you want?”
Bai Yunfei dipped his head. Unwilling to mince any more words with the guards, he stepped forward to walk in.
“How dare you!!”
The guards immediately moved forward to intercept him.
But how could guards as weak as Soul Sprites stop Bai Yunfei? With several blows, Bai Yunfei knocked them aside and led the students behind him in.
“Who dares trespass into Xue manor!!”
Straight away, a voice boomed out to stop Bai Yunfei and the others. All around them, over a dozen figures landed in place to surround them.
Bai Yunfei looked at them all, the strongest of them had only been a late-stage Soul Exalt. “I came here for Xue Gui. I’ve several questions for him, call him out to see me.”
“Watch your tone!! Who are you to intrude and demand things within Xue manor?!”
Another voice called out to Bai Yunfei before a stoutly figure came rushing forward. He was dressed in a richly robe and was rather quite fat. There was a bulge on the left side of his face, making him look rather comically.
This was the very same person Bai Yunfei had slapped and taught a lesson yesterday.
He walked over to the courtyards, and when he saw Bai Yunfei standing there, he came to a stop for a moment.
“It’s you!!”
Bai Yunfei spared him a cold glance, “You’ve good timing. Let me ask you, were you the ones that took my student?!”