CHAPTER 239: CHAPTER 239 INTELLIGENCE ANALYSIS

Hu Jiu slipped the silver notes into the storage bag and strolled back with her pipe, thinking she should delay a bit before returning to make it seem more realistic.

Unexpectedly, while humming a tune and walking merrily on the cobblestone path, she was met with a faintly familiar scent. The next moment, she felt a fiery pain on her furry large ears at the top of her head, "Ouch, ouch, Third Sister, please let go. My ears really hurt!"

"You still know pain?"

The anger in Hu Zhile’s heart rose with no place to vent; she twisted her sister’s ear and turned towards the cloth shop, "I told you to focus on cultivation, but you just keep running around playing outside!

I just came out of the grocery store and immediately smelled your scent. Bought new incense, didn’t you? You barely earn anything all day, yet spend lavishly without knowing thrift..."

Jiang Yuan, having closed the door after they came out of the grocery store, watched as Hu Zhile took a pinch at a distorted shadow and started scolding. He couldn’t interfere in the conversation between the two sisters, so he could only follow them towards the cloth shop.

"Third Sister, don’t be angry." Hu Jiu sniffled, making sure no one was following them, and softly spoke only after entering the room, "I wasn’t just running around playing; didn’t you tell me to spread the news? I just poked around Liu Wanhai’s place and even earned a penny from him!"

She proudly pulled the silver notes from the storage bag and shook them, rubbed her sore ears, and pouted with grievance, "I also found out some other news."

Sweeping a glance around the shop nonchalantly, Hu Jiu cleared her throat and said loudly, "Boy, bring my Third Sister and Mr. Jiang the finest tea."

The brown little fox dressed as a shop assistant replied then turned back to the storeroom to fetch the finest tea leaves for brewing.

She led the two upstairs, Hu Zhile softly asked while passing the embroidered curtain, "Little Eight, do you have time now? I have something I want to ask you."

Little Eight, with scissors, tape measure, needle, and thread in his eight hands, was busy. Upon hearing this, he quickly replied, "Please wait a moment; I can’t stop the needle on this embroidery we’re working on, once I finish, I’ll come up and find you!"

The group of three clicked-clacked up the wooden stairs, Hu Jiu, seeing the young lad reveal his true self by removing the black cloak, slightly blushed and pulled out a chair for him inviting him to sit.

"How is the news spreading going? Is everything going smoothly?"

"Who do you think I am? Could this thing not go smoothly?" As she mentioned her specialty, a trace of pride appeared on her cute little face, "Let’s just say, now in the Cyan Fish Mountain market, whether it’s shopkeepers or regulars, most of them should more or less know the essentials of what’s going on.

Yet none of them could figure out the source of the news. Anyway, it’s the mysterious person from the black market spreading it out. But..."

Hu Jiu paused and lowered her voice further, "From my years of probing and analyzing gossip, it’s certain that the Demon Realm invasion matter is going to be downplayed."

"Why?" Jiang Yuan was puzzled, this was a matter concerning the survival of the Demon Realm, could the Demon Realm really smooth everything over? Are the leaders of the Demon Realm Alliance all shortsighted fools?

Hu Jiu saw the young master’s attention was fully on her, both joyful and excited yet slightly nervous, she tucked her small feet under her luxurious gown, and sat more elegantly, speaking softly: "Because, just the day I spread the news, all those familiar faces at the Money Shop were replaced. Until now, the Money Shop’s business hasn’t been affected one bit.

If the Alliance really cared, they wouldn’t be ignoring the Money Shop for so long. Yesterday, I quietly spread two copied Memory Stones, specifically to cultivators searching for missing friends and relatives. They took the Memory Stones to the market, you know what happened?"

Hu Zhile slightly frowned and said, "Stop beating around the bush! The Venerable Family’s time is precious, speak quickly."

"Oh, oh, although the Memory Stones can be copied, they can’t be faked. With such evidence laid out, the market chief took the stones under the pretext of ’checking whether the images within the Memory Stone are fake information’ and there’s been no movement since.

Absolutely no one investigated!

Even until I went to Liu Wanhai to drop hints about it, he was still unaware of this matter! What does that indicate? It indicates neither the market chief nor the Alliance even tried to verify the truth about Qing Wu; they simply don’t want to verify the truth within the Memory Stones" content."

She pouted and lowered her voice even further, "That can only mean—those in the Alliance responsible for dealing with this matter don’t need to verify because they already know it is true!"

Jiang Yuan was quite surprised.

In his impression, this girl didn’t resemble a fox spirit at all, being cute and innocent, always fond of smoking and gossiping. Who knew her gossiping skills evolved to intelligence analysis?

Though not necessarily accurate, it sounded logical enough.

The Hall Master of Bloodthirst Hall and the Great Elder had been bundled up and sent to the Alliance for quite some time; if they truly mattered, there would’ve been some action by now. Perhaps as she guessed, it was suppressed by a traitor.

"Anyway, Demonic Energy invasion isn’t good, Alliance traitors must be Demon Cultivators. What can they gain from this?" Jiang Yuan, puzzled, asked.

Hu Jiu replied upon hearing this, "That can be too much! The gentleman should know the world is not the only one right? I heard the Mortal Realm has the most small independent worlds among the Three Realms. It’s often described as the ’Three Thousand Worlds’ due to the numerous small worlds; the world we were born and grew up in collapsed, forcing us into this world.

Many cultivators are able to traverse different worlds using various methods.

Thus, Demon Realm Alliance leaders naturally would have more channels and opportunities to visit other worlds. Making deals with the Demon Realm secretly selling certain worlds for their own profit and relocating their loved ones and sect disciples to safer worlds shouldn’t be difficult."

Jiang Yuan’s eye twitched, thinking indeed there is nothing new under the sun—even demon realm cultivators know how to retreat!

"Little sister’s analysis has some merit." Hu Zhile pondered, "I heard the Alliance isn’t as unified as one might think; various sects and clans split into different interest groups. Seeking their own interests and selling off a small world could indeed be something they’d do. It’s even possible... the entire Alliance allowed the Demon Realm invasion!"

She felt more chilled the longer she thought about it, her voice trembled slightly as she said: "The world we currently reside in is very peculiar, actually composed of two intertwined worlds. The Human World originally had no Spiritual Energy. If it weren’t for the Wilderness descent bringing about Spiritual Energy Revival, human cultivators couldn’t possibly exist again.

While Demon Cultivators come from the subsiding Wilderness World.

Rumors say several hundred years ago when Immortals ascended, they absorbed all the available energy, cutting off many cultivation heritages; the reason behind Wilderness descent is unknown, but surely due to some reason unable to sustain floating above, it descended and temporarily merged with the Human World yet failed to formally fuse.

A world needing shared spiritual energy and headed for decline and abandonment for more resources, seems not difficult to forsake."

Jiang Yuan listened, slightly stunned, thinking, "No way!"

This time, did I not just break up a company, but rather invest in another world and directly break it down?

Of course, it’s likely not my sole accomplishment; Bai Yunqi’s three avatars had two meet their demise in the collapsing world; if it did collapse, he should have contributed a part.