Chapter 73: The Disappearance of the Demonic Cultivator

Fire Persimmon Grove.

“Where is the Shadow Devil cultivator? Where did the Shadow Devil cultivator go?!” Chi Dun scoured the area in all directions.

Several Jindan cultivators from the three great families mirrored his actions.

Fei Si’s face was ashen. He had never anticipated this outcome. In a sharp voice, he commanded, “Search! Find him! Dig three feet into the earth if you must—bring me this devil cultivator!”

Under the gaze of the entire city, the Shadow Devil cultivator had vanished without a trace!

Fei Si was furious and humiliated.

He had bungled this affair! Now every citizen knew that the City Lord’s Manor had been made a fool of; after all their meticulous preparation, they had caught nothing but empty air.

“This shouldn't have happened, it shouldn't!” Fei Si ground his teeth, his gaze shifting toward Zhu Xuanji in the distance.

After a moment’s thought, Fei Si flew over to Zhu Xuanji.

Previously, Zhu Xuanji had forcefully ordered him to activate the array and saved Yuan Dasheng, making Fei Si lose face. But now, the disappearance of the Shadow Devil cultivator was a matter far greater than his personal pride.

Fei Si understood the gravity of the situation. He set aside his personal grievances and forced a smile. Humbly, he asked, “Lord Zhu, you observed the entire process. Did your Golden Eyes perceive anything unusual?”

Zhu Xuanji shook his head. “I discovered nothing.”

“If someone had concealed themselves, they would have been revealed beneath my Golden Eyes.”

“Throughout the entire process, there was no suspicious figure. My only conclusion is that the Shadow Devil cultivator had already departed the Fire Persimmon Grove before all this began.”

Fei Si’s brow furrowed deeply at these words, and he instinctively refuted, “No, he must still be here!”

Zhu Xuanji’s conclusion was the worst possible news for him.

He was in charge of the Fire Persimmon Grove, its warden in effect, yet the prisoner had escaped under his nose, and he knew nothing about it.

Fei Si had gone to great lengths for this year’s Fire Persimmon Festival, only to end up empty-handed, making the entire City Lord’s Manor the laughingstock of the city.

At this moment, Chi Dun flew over, harshly reproaching him: “Fei Si, if you hadn’t stopped me before, I would’ve hunted down that devil cultivator myself and finished him off that very night!”

“You insisted on your plan, keeping things calm to minimize losses. Well, now the Shadow Devil cultivator has escaped! How exactly have you been guarding the Fire Persimmon Grove?”

Fei Si snorted coldly, “Let’s leave other matters aside for now. The Fire Persimmon Grove was successfully harvested—tell me, has this immense fortune been preserved or not?”

“Moreover, the array has been active the entire time, with everything recorded—subject to any inspection.”

“If it’s truly found that the Shadow Devil cultivator escaped due to my negligence, I will accept punishment and personally confess to the City Lord!”

The Patriarch of the Zhou family, a Jindan elder, flew over at this point. “Naturally, the records from the array must be examined.”

His expression was also grim.

Though the City Lord’s Manor was now the city’s greatest laughingstock, the Jindan elders of the three great families had also accomplished nothing, and their reputation had suffered.

The Zhou Patriarch continued, “The crucial question now is: did the Shadow Devil cultivator escape the array beforehand, or did he slip away right under our noses today?”

“With my understanding of arrays, the Fire Persimmon Grove’s formation is layered and closely linked to the grand array of Immortal City—exceptionally tight and precise.”

“If I were that devil cultivator, even if I could break the array, it would cause a significant disturbance. To slip away without a sound—could a mere Jindan cultivator truly achieve that?”

For a moment, Fei Si, Zhu Xuanji, and Chi Dun all fell silent.

A terrifying possibility occurred to them all—

If the Shadow Devil cultivator had indeed left early, perhaps someone had secretly opened the array and let him go.

The ultimate authority over the Immortal City’s grand array rested with the City Lord, but Fei Si, as the warden of Fire Persimmon Grove, also controlled this sector’s arrays.

Beyond that, the pillars of the grand array were located within the ancestral lands of the three great families. Thus, any of them could potentially manipulate the array to secretly free the devil cultivator.

If that was the case, the situation was grave.

A solitary Jindan devil cultivator was one thing; a colluding cultivation clan was quite another!

Zhu Xuanji looked at the Zhou Patriarch, thinking to himself, “It’s almost impossible for the City Lord’s Manor—they have no motive.”

“As for the three great families, each and every one has reason for suspicion.”

“On one hand, the City Lord’s Manor has always held the upper hand in the competition for the Lava Immortal Palace. On the other, the three families certainly do not wish to see the City Lord win and bring the Meng family into Fire Persimmon Immortal City.”

“If the culprit truly lies among the three families, the Zhou family is the likeliest suspect.”

“The Zhou are masters of arrays, the Zheng of weaponry, and the Ning of talismans. Of the three, the Zhou are the most proficient in array arts.”

The Zhou Patriarch, for his part, appeared utterly forthright. He went on, “Let’s set aside the possibility that the Shadow Devil cultivator escaped earlier.”

“There are indeed suspicious circumstances during today’s harvesting.”

“Exactly!” Chi Dun immediately nodded, knowing what the Zhou Patriarch meant.

Earlier, a dozen mechanical monkeys had suddenly gone berserk, breaking free from the Foundation Establishment cultivators’ control and attacking Yuan Er, the current leader of the Monkey Head Gang.

All the Jindan cultivators had witnessed this strange turn of events.

They had bided their time, but Fei Si responded promptly, activating the array and destroying all the mechanical monkeys.

The Zhou Patriarch pressed on. “Why did those mechanical monkeys revolt? Whose control were they under?”

“After the mechanical monkeys were destroyed, the old ape of the Monkey Head Gang made a mistake, triggering a chain explosion in a millennium-old section of the Fire Persimmon Grove.”

“Was it truly a mistake? Or was it influenced by some spell or magical treasure?”

“Did the Shadow Devil cultivator use the explosion to draw our attention and escape amidst the chaos?”

Fei Si immediately waved his hand, activating the array to replay the scene.

The Jindan cultivators scrutinized the footage repeatedly, but found nothing amiss.

Fei Si said, “I’ll conduct a thorough investigation into what caused the mechanical monkeys to run amok.”

Zhu Xuanji added, “I monitored everything with my Golden Eyes and can confirm that the old ape’s slip was indeed a mistake.”

Chi Dun frowned. “It’s strange. That old ape is the Monkey Head Gang’s foundation, and has harvested fire persimmons for many years. There were mishaps at the very beginning, but in recent years, it’s always performed flawlessly. Why would it make a mistake this time?”

Fei Si considered for a moment before replying, “It is a living creature—mistakes are inevitable. The Monkey Head Gang has experienced a lot of trouble lately; Yuan Er was ambushed earlier as well. The old ape may have been unsettled, so its mistake is quite possible.”

At this, Fei Si thought of Ning Zhuo.

Then he remembered his forty percent share.

He began to feel that this share was becoming a little too hot to handle.

The Zhou Patriarch then said, “Do you think the Shadow Devil cultivator might have hidden inside the old ape?”

“Whether it was the mechanical monkeys’ sudden revolt or the old ape’s error, both led to a chain of explosions.”

“The flames obstructed our view. In that instant, the Shadow Devil cultivator could have killed the old ape and concealed himself within its body.”

With that, the Zhou Patriarch fixed his gaze on Zhu Xuanji.

“There’s something I do not understand. May I boldly ask, Lord Zhu, why did you save the old ape?”

For a moment, the others all turned their eyes to Zhu Xuanji.

A glint of schadenfreude flickered in Fei Si’s eyes.