"That figure..." Long Haotian watched the dissipating female figure with a bad premonition.
"That's young lady," Cang Ying's slightly sorrowful voice sounded beside them.
Long Haotian and the others stiffened; they were too late.
"Yan'er!"
Lei Bao reached out, trying to grasp the ephemeral figure, but as he moved, the figure dissipated even faster.
He stared at the empty sky, his voice filled with grief.
After an unknown amount of time, he seemed to accept reality and walked towards Xu Yi and the other three. However, as soon as he reached the courtyard entrance, he was blocked by a beam of black light, unable to take another step.
His face darkened as he looked at Xu Yi, saying coldly, "Young friend, what is the meaning of this?"
Long Haotian and the other two also looked at Xu Yi in surprise.
The formation was controlled by the owner. If Xu Yi hadn't instructed it, Lei Bao wouldn't have been blocked by the formation.
The culprit of the disappearance case was found, and they had completed their mission. They could leave now. Why would Xu Yi suddenly attack Lei Bao?
Xu Yi looked directly into Lei Bao's eyes and showed a provocative smile, "City Lord Lei, your cultivation is higher than mine. You can directly break the formation and walk out."
Lei Bao's eyes narrowed. "Are you trying to oppose me?"
"No, I just want to witness City Lord Lei's strength again." The arc of Xu Yi's lips widened. "This formation should be nothing to you."
Cang Ying looked at Xu Yi as if he were crazy, not understanding what Xu Yi was trying to do.
Did she really think she could defy Lei Bao by relying on a powerful backer?
How naive.
Cang Ying understood just how strong Lei Bao was.
His arm wasn't cut off by Lei Bao, but by himself.
Because he dared not let Lei Bao make a move, he feared he wouldn't be able to withstand his power. At that time, it wouldn't be as simple as losing an arm.
Seeing Xu Yi's overestimation of her abilities and her provocation of Lei Bao, he showed mockery in his eyes.
After a moment of surprise, Long Haotian and the other two fell silent.
They believed Xu Yi was not acting without reason. She must have a reason for doing this.
"Young friend, since you helped me find the culprit, I can forgive your rudeness this time."
Lei Bao's pressure suddenly emanated, making it difficult for everyone to breathe. Xu Yi could even hear her heart beating rapidly.
But the more this happened, the happier Xu Yi smiled.
Lei Bao's actions further confirmed her guess.
She withstood the pressure, raised her head, and grinned, "City Lord Lei, you can't break my trapping formation, can you?"
Cang Ying let out a cold laugh and was about to speak when he saw Lei Bao's expression in the courtyard turn incredibly ugly.
His heart sank, and he vaguely sensed something was wrong.
Given Lei Bao's personality, he would have smashed through the formation with a single punch the moment Xu Yi trapped him, without saying so much to Xu Yi.
Could it be that, as Xu Yi said, he couldn't break this formation?
But how was that possible? Lei Bao was a cultivator in the Spirit Transformation stage, a full stage higher than Xu Yi.
Unless...
"You are not Lei Bao. The real Lei Bao is dead."
Xu Yi said slowly.
As soon as her words fell, the entire scene fell into a long silence.
Cang Ying looked at Lei Bao in disbelief. The previously overlooked incongruities now surfaced one by one.
As the person who interacted with Lei Bao the most, he naturally noticed many unusual things about Lei Bao recently.
For instance, Lei Bao hadn't left his mansion for the past six months, and his visits to Lei Yan had also gradually decreased.
Especially this time when he conflicted with Xu Yi and the other three, Lei Bao had unhesitatingly ordered him to sever his own arm, which had made him feel incredibly disheartened at the time.
But he had ignored all these anomalies.
He never imagined that Lei Bao would be replaced by someone else.
Lei Bao's expression changed, and finally, his entire aura suddenly retracted. He chuckled softly, "How did you discover I was wrong? Besides Lei Yan, no one else could see through my disguise."
He originally didn't intend to kill Lei Yan, because Lei Yan's death would bring a lot of trouble.
But who could have known that Lei Yan was so perceptive, seeing through his disguise at a glance and even trying to find others to deal with him.
So Lei Yan died.
Everyone in the City Lord's mansion knew how much Lei Bao doted on Lei Yan, so he staged a scene.
He just didn't expect that sealing the city would attract these people.
He was worried that Cang Ying would conflict with these people, attracting the sects behind them, so he could only summon these people to the City Lord's mansion. Then, he found a less intelligent Hanpo to be a scapegoat, planning to send these people away, but he was seen through by that woman.
It truly was a case of "the more you do, the more mistakes you make."
The woman's observational skills were terrifyingly strong!
Long Haotian and the other two stared at Xu Yi with their mouths agape.
They had been in and out with Xu Yi for the past two days and hadn't noticed anything wrong with Lei Bao.
How exactly did Xu Yi figure it out?
"You were too deliberate," Xu Yi shook her head with a smile.
This fake Lei Bao was flawless in appearance. After all, even Cang Ying, who was with Lei Bao day and night, hadn't noticed anything amiss.
Xu Yi's first suspicion arose when they met Lei Bao. Lei Bao had deliberately shown his deep father-daughter affection for Lei Yan in front of them, which made Xu Yi feel uncomfortable.
However, at that time, she thought Lei Bao was just overly worried and thus behaving abnormally.
When she saw Lei Bao fighting Hanpo today, that uncomfortable feeling surfaced again.
Hanpo was powerful, but Xu Yi was confident she could deal with it, though it might take some extra effort.
But it took Lei Bao half an hour to disperse Hanpo, which did not align with his Spirit Transformation stage cultivation.
What finally made Xu Yi decide was the humanoid ethereal figures that appeared after Hanpo dissipated.
Those figures were not tainted with Hanpo's aura, which was the biggest anomaly.
As expected, when she tested him, he revealed his true colors.
Xu Yi pointed out his flaws one by one, and Long Haotian and the other two looked at her with admiration.
No wonder they were outsmarted by Xu Yi. She was full of schemes and unwilling to suffer any losses.
"Where is Lei Bao!"
Cang Ying took two steps forward, glaring at "Lei Bao" with a ferocious expression.
"Lei Bao" let out a strange laugh, "Hahahaha, of course, he is dead! Otherwise, how could I have his memories!"
"You used Soul Searching!" Cang Ying's eyes widened in disbelief.
Soul Searching was an extremely malicious technique on the Kyushu Continent. When used on cultivators, it could steal their memories.
Cultivators whose souls had been searched by the Soul Searching technique would suffer from damaged souls, becoming foolish and dazed in mild cases, or their souls would scatter and be unable to reincarnate in severe cases.
Because of its extreme malice, the Kyushu Continent had listed it as a forbidden technique.
"That's right, thanks to Soul Searching, I was able to play you all for fools, hahahaha!"
"Lei Bao," perhaps because his identity was exposed, no longer disguised his temperament as Lei Bao, revealing his wicked side.
He looked at Cang Ying, a smile on his lips, "I also didn't expect you to be so obedient. I told you to sever your arm, and you actually chopped off your own arm. What a good dog."
"You! I'll kill you!"
Cang Ying, filled with shame and indignation, lunged at "Lei Bao" with killing intent in his eyes.