What Zhao Min didn't know, however, was that this crisis had nearly exposed both her and Li Yan.
Although her plan with Li Yan was thorough, the gap in cultivation and strength between them and Dongli Qing was too vast. So, some things could only be planned, not controlled.
Even when Li Yan knew the other party was poisoned, he himself did not dare to get close. In the end, he still chose to flee early.
This gave the dying Dongli Qing a chance to leave a message. And it was this little bit of information that nearly dragged Zhao Min directly into the vortex.
So, although Li Yan was meticulous, in the face of absolute power, he was simply unable to make a foolproof plan.
It could only be said that heaven's will favored the two of them.
Otherwise, once Zhao Min was exposed, after the death of a Nascent Soul cultivator, even with her current status, she might have to have her memory searched by the Supreme Elders using a secret art.
It was just that they would not forcefully search her soul, but would use a more brilliant and gentle method to find clues, without harming a single bit of Zhao Min's Divine Soul.
At that time, the matter she had discussed with Li Yan would surely be exposed. She might not die, but a heavy punishment would be certain.
Li Yan would have no place to stand on this continent. Was he going to run to the territory of the Black Demon Clan?
Of course, if Dongli Qing had not had an accident this time while tracking Li Yan, then he would not have widely publicized this matter, but would have only intensified his investigation in secret.
In order to better obtain evidence to restrain Zhao Min and hold her firmly in his hands.
But there is a destiny in the dark. Cultivation is also about opportunity and luck. On this point, Zhao Min and Li Yan were worthy of celebration.
When Dongli Qing realized that he was about to die, how could he still consider much? He just wanted to leave all the doubts in his heart behind. He had actually achieved this.
And the one who directly separated Zhao Min from this disaster was precisely Shanggong Changge. Among the four Nascent Soul cultivators who had gone to investigate, Shanggong Changge knew what Dongli Qing had been trying to do in recent years.
When she saw the intermittent words, her heart skipped a beat.
She immediately felt a faint sense of foreboding, but she was a person of deep city cunning, and her ice-cold jade face remained completely expressionless.
Soon, she thought of a possibility, a possibility she was unwilling to see.
She quickly forced herself to calm down in her heart.
In a flash of thought, Shanggong Changge came up with a very reasonable speculation, and conveniently diverted some of the leads to other places.
What she said was indeed reasonable, and as expected, the other three agreed. Shanggong Changge immediately suggested that they split up to handle the matter.
This suggestion of hers was also extremely reasonable and received the unanimous approval of the other three.
At this time, Shanggong Changge volunteered to go back and deliver the message to the Dongli clan. After the other three heard this, their hearts were overjoyed.
They had all regretted coming here. Now that a Nascent Soul had died, they were also involved.
At this juncture, for someone to voluntarily offer to deliver the message and inform the Spirit Transformation elder of the Dongli branch of Dongli Qing's death, they could not ask for more.
This was a matter of bad luck. A single misstep, and if the Spirit Transformation elder of the Dongli branch was in a state of emotional turmoil, it was not impossible for him to kick you away and injure you.
That would truly be an undeserved disaster.
But given that Shanggong Changge was a female cultivator, the other party still had to restrain some of his emotions.
So, for Shanggong Changge's move, the handsome young man and the other three also owed her a favor in their hearts.
With Shanggong Changge's long years of experience guarding the border, she had long since considered the stakes involved clearly.
Shanggong Changge quickly returned to the "Sacred Demon Palace," but she did not go directly to see the Spirit Transformation elder of the Dongli branch. Instead, she first made a round in the palace, and then went straight to Dongli Qing's cave residence.
In the main hall, her jade face was frosty as she summoned several of Dongli Qing's direct disciples. Then she began to sternly question them about Dongli Qing's whereabouts in the past few days.
Dongli Qing had a total of five disciples. Although they were respectful to Shanggong Changge, when she asked about Dongli Qing's recent situation, their eyes flickered, and they beat around the bush.
Shanggong Changge was unwilling to get entangled with them. Finally, she glanced at them faintly and snorted coldly.
"Then I'll be direct with you. Something has happened to Dongli Qing. I am now verifying some things and will report some results to your martial grandfather shortly. If you are unwilling to speak, then so be it. But later, if your martial grandfather comes to ask you directly, don't say I didn't come..."
With that, she had already stood up. Although she said something had happened to Dongli Qing, she did not say that he had died, for fear that these disciples would immediately explode upon hearing the news, and it would take more time to pacify and question them.
'A bunch of dogs, as expected, they are unwilling to speak. They must know some of Dongli Qing's secrets!'
Just as Shanggong Changge's face was expressionless and she seemed about to leave with a flick of her sleeve.
Dongli Qing's five disciples heard the content of this martial aunt's words clearly, and their faces changed drastically. So something had happened to their master, and this matter would even alert the Spirit Transformation old ancestor.
Those old monsters' tempers were even harder to grasp than Dongli Qing's. At least they had served Dongli Qing for at least a few hundred years.
The Spirit Transformation old ancestor was hard to say. One moment he was fine, the next he might turn hostile and kill someone.
Although the few of them were his direct descendants, Martial Aunt Shanggong had spoken so seriously, and their master Dongli Qing had not returned yet. If things were delayed, the old ancestor would really kill people.
They of course already felt that the situation was serious. Otherwise, Martial Aunt Shanggong would not dare to come to their door and speak nonsense on such a major matter.
Dongli Qing's eldest disciple immediately bowed and saluted, and then quickly recounted Dongli Qing's recent situation. Finally, with some hesitation, he still told her about their master chasing after Zhao Min out of the palace today.
The reason he dared to say this was because they knew that their own master had once personally asked this Martial Aunt Shanggong to propose a dual cultivation matter to Zhao Min.
Thinking of the relationship between Martial Aunt Shanggong and Zhao Min, he felt that it was okay to say it.
Anyway, the other party was very clear about his master's thoughts. His master had no ill intentions towards Zhao Min, and could only be considered particularly infatuated. Chasing after her was not a big deal.
"Martial Aunt, may I ask what happened to Master?" the eldest disciple finally asked anxiously, and the other four also looked over eagerly.
"Oh? So that's how it is. Apart from you few, does anyone else know about this matter? If so, gather the others together now. The old ancestor may ask you in detail later."
Shanggong Changge did not answer this martial nephew's question, but asked with a frosty face.
This time, it was still this eldest disciple of Dongli Qing who answered respectfully.
"Reporting to Martial Aunt, this... how could this matter be known to others? It's just that a few of us martial brothers know about it."
"Really?"
"How would we dare to deceive you on such a matter, Martial Aunt!"
"That's good!"
Shanggong Changge's voice suddenly became a little ethereal. Then the five of them only felt their heads spin, and they immediately stood there in a daze.
A cold light flashed in Shanggong Changge's eyes. With a wave of her jade arm, an invisible restriction immediately covered the area...
A quarter of an hour later, Shanggong Changge removed her palm from the last disciple's forehead and then let out a long breath.
Even with her cultivation, after a round of casting spells, her whole body was dripping with fragrant sweat, and a rare look of fatigue appeared in her crystal-bright eyes.
After learning that only these five people knew about this matter, and also knowing the time when Dongli Qing had chased after her, it was much easier for her to make a move. She didn't have to search through everyone's vast memories bit by bit to distinguish them.
But even so, Shanggong Changge was not lightly tired.
The reason she spent more than a quarter of an hour was that she did not delete the memories of the five people. Doing so would have saved her a lot of trouble, but it would be easily discovered by other high-level cultivators.
So she used her divine abilities to tamper with all the memories of these five people regarding the surveillance of Zhao Min.
Zhao Min was changed into a strange cultivator in "Sacred Demon City." Dongli Qing had discovered the existence of this cultivator who was similar to a Black Demon Clan spy, and then had them secretly monitor the other party.
Finally, after that person left the city today, Dongli Qing had received the news and followed the other party alone.
In order to do this, Shanggong Changge's spell casting this time had reached the extreme of meticulousness, as much as possible to not leave any sequelae for the other party.
Calculating the time, Shanggong Changge knew that she needed to leave here immediately. Her Spirit Power surged, and the sweat on her body was completely gone, and she returned to an extremely cold and indifferent expression.
Then she flicked her finger, and six rays of light shot out.
Five rays of light shot into the still dazed bodies of the five people, and the other one had quietly shattered the restriction she had set up.
Dongli Qing's five disciples only felt a blur before their eyes, and for a moment, their expressions were a little dazed. Then came Martial Aunt Shanggong's cold and clear voice.
"Alright, you stay here. You may be summoned at any time in a while!"
With that, the five of them saw Martial Aunt Shanggong's figure had already disappeared from the entrance of the main hall. And for the quarter of an hour just now, they had not felt the passage of time at all.
It was as if it was just a blur before their eyes.
"Master went out to chase... chase... chase that Black Demon Clan spy and had an accident?" one of the disciples said, seeing Shanggong Changge disappear. He thought for a moment and then asked the others for confirmation.
It was just that he himself did not notice that when he said that his master was chasing after the "spy," there was a slight dizziness in his head. He himself thought that he was just scared by hearing that his master had an accident.
"It should be so. But we'll know when Master comes back!" Dongli Qing's eldest disciple nodded. He remembered very clearly that after the junior sister discovered the Black Demon Clan spy meeting with someone, he had followed that person to the city gate, and in the end, it was he who personally reported the situation to his master.
That person was only at the Mid-stage Golden Core cultivation. In his opinion, Dongli Qing's so-called accident was probably that he had fallen into the other party's trap.
But the life-saving means of a Nascent Soul cultivator was not something they could imagine. He thought that his master was at most just injured.
His proposal was approved by the other four. They immediately began to discuss in low voices and did not dare to leave the main hall casually.
Shanggong Changge soon entered the back mountain forbidden area of the Dongli branch. Not long after, a towering anger shot up into the sky.
After that, Shanggong Changge also flew out of the Dongli branch with a calm face, and once again followed that towering momentum and flew out of "Sacred Demon City."
It was just that when she flew out of the "Sacred Demon Palace," her beautiful eyes glanced cryptically at a certain place in the palace.
"Whether this matter is related to you or not, I have already done my best as your master!"
Zhao Min could not have an accident, nor could anything happen to her. Otherwise, she was the one who had brought her into the palace. If something happened to Zhao Min, she, Shanggong Changge, could not escape the blame.
Not only would she be punished, but she would also have no future benefits.
She was planning to use Zhao Min's rising status to obtain more resources to advance to the Late-stage Nascent Soul in the future.
At that time, she would immediately go to an unstable ascension passage she controlled and try to ascend.
After reaching the Nascent Soul level, the suppressive power of the laws of heaven and earth had already appeared. She could no longer make rapid progress as she did in the Golden Core stage. She had been stuck at the Mid-stage Nascent Soul for more than seven hundred years.
Even if the lifespan of the Demon Clan was long, no cultivator would be willing to be like this.
And Zhao Min was definitely not a spy. She was very clear on this point. Even if the Black Demon Clan were generous, they would not be willing to send out a disciple with this kind of aptitude.
This kind of constitution was too important. Even for the Black Demon Clan's modified "Heavenly Demon White Jade Plate," it was still a successor that was hard to find in ten thousand years.
No one would be willing to pay such a price just to be a spy.