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  "A Black Swift?"

  Everyone started looking at each other. Why had they never heard of this sort of bird?

  Tang Doudou didn't explain and didn't allow Bai Feiyun to continue talking either. Instead, she swept her gaze slowly across everyone present. Her deep, jade-like black eyes seemed to contain an oppressive pressure that made everyone hold their breaths in anticipation of the shocking words that she seemed about to say.

  The atmosphere became extremely tense.

  With the one exception of Bai Feiyun, even Elder Yu was holding his breath along with everyone else and looking at Tang Doudou nervously.

  As she looked at them, she continued knocking on the table softly. That sound was soft, but everyone seemed to feel that reverberation in their hearts.

  "This bird……" As the atmosphere became so tense it felt about to snap, Tang Doudou finally spoke.

  Everyone's gaze shot towards the bird.

  Perhaps because their gazes were too sharp and curious, the Black Swift in the cage started jumping around uneasily and tried to get out of the cage.

  Tang Doudou put Little Gray down.

  Little Gray went over and screeched at the bird and the bird immediately shank back like a shriveled balloon and sat back down without daring to move anymore.

  It was a curious scene.

  "Wind Cloud Island." Tang Doudou threw out another three words.

  It immediately pulled everyone's attention back. This time, Bai Feiyun looked over as well.

  Tang Doudou then continued, "I suspect that this matter is related to Wind Cloud Island."

  Originally, she hadn't planned to reveal this, but now that she thought about it, there was no way that Baili Feng could be unaware of her identity. In that case, he knew that she was investigating this matter and had told that mysterious person to lead her to the lake despite this so that he could use the trick of injuring himself to get her to go to Flowing Clouds Manor.

  Although she still didn't know what his motive was in doing this, it was clear that he wasn't worried about her investigating him.

  "Wind Cloud Island?"

  "Wind Cloud Island has already left the central plains and the Jianghu for a long time. Why would it suddenly……"

  "Left the Jianghu? What a joke! These past years, when has Wind Cloud Island left the Jianghu? If it really left, why would there be so many disciples coming to the central plain to train? In addition, they're still going around and collecting orphans with talent. From what I see, they're just trying to gather up power silently before attacking the Jianghu!"

  "This makes sense!"

  These words seemed to spark flames and everyone started revealing details about Wind Cloud Island.

  Much of this information were things that Tang Doudou hadn't heard about before, so she immediately perked up her ears to listen.

  After listening for a while, she extended a hand and lowered it slowly, indicating for everyone to quiet down.

  "However, this is only my guess. There's no definite evidence yet, so please don't spread this matter lest Wind Cloud Island comes to raise a disturbance after hearing about it. We also don't want to beat the grass and alert the snake. That would only be detrimental towards our cause."

  Tang Doudou had made her words plain and everyone present was also well aware that it wasn't good to provoke Wind Cloud Island. If they wanted to punish that murderer and figure out who was behind it, they had to do it while keeping it secret from Wind Cloud Island.

  These people were all experienced veterans of the Jianghu, so Tang Doudou only hinted at things a little before moving on. "This Black Swift was something Little Gray discovered nearby after I fought with that person."

  This way, she could explain where the bird came from without bringing up Baili Feng. She had plans to deal with him, so she kept this information to herself for now.

  "But what point is there in capturing this bird?" It's only possible usage was proving that the mysterious person was linked to Wind Cloud Island, but it still wasn't concrete evidence! What if someone had purposefully placed this bird nearby? What if this bird had just happened to pass by? All of this was very possible.

  Tang Doudou said, "We're currently completely without leads and can only hope to gain some clues from what little information we have. If we try to investigate without any leads at all, that'd be like bumbling around in the dark. By the time we ever figure anything out, it'd already be decades later."

  "Does Alliance Head have a plan?" Elder Yu, who had been listening with a worried expression this entire time, finally spoke.

  Tang Doudou glanced at him. When she saw that he looked the same as always, she said, "So far, I haven't come up with any plans."

  "Then what do we do next. Does Alliance Head have any instructions?"

  "Deal with the corpses outside for now, then invite the four clan masters over. Let's see what they have to say." Tang Doudou started arranging things according to what Jun Xin had told her earlier.

  However, she was still conflicted. Should she try to erase suspicions towards Baili Yu while they were dealing with the corpses? However, from the looks of it right now, they still hadn't linked the flower petals to Baili Yu.

  After she calmed down, she came to realize why this was the case. Baili Yu rarely exhibited his martial arts. Although he had appeared at the last martial arts convention with countless flower petals, a lot of people had probably thought that same thing as her—that these flower petals were something Baili Yu used to make his entrance more lavish.

  "The four clans have already sent people here to ask about information, but you hadn't returned yet so we had delayed in replying. Since you've returned now, we'll immediately send people to notify the clan masters. Once they come here tomorrow, we can discuss how to capture that person," said Elder Yu as he stroked his beard."

  Tang Doudou glanced at him as something flashed through her eyes. "En, then I'll have to trouble you to personally make a trip."

  __________

  Credits: Translated by Chiyomira

  [Chiyomira's Corner]

  Enjoy~

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