Chapter 90: Liars Among Us (2)
"What did you take from Xie Tian?"
Xu Miao chuckled, "I'm not a thief. I don't steal items from other people."
"Bullshit! Jiang Lan is your yin slave! You've ordered her to do something in the mountain goose sect, and she stole Xie Tian's ring. If it wasn't you and Jiang Lan, then who stole them!?"
Xie Tian was flabbergast when he realized that the short-haired man was Xu Miao. However, the true shock came from the revelation from Xu Xiuying.
Jiang Lan was a yin slave, and her master was Xu Miao!
His hypothesis was true. Jiang Lan was working for Xu Miao, and they tricked him.
Xie Tian's killing intent soared. Because of Xu Miao, he lost almost everything, "BASTARD! IT WAS YOU!!"
Xu Miao was taken aback by Xie Tian's outburst. He wanted to defend himself, but Xu Xiuying had already revealed the truth.
Since speaking too much would only escalate the problem, Xu Miao ignored Xie Tian, "The ring on the plate is indeed my ring, and everything inside is my possession. You've seen everything."
Xu Xiuying sneered, "If you lie one more time, I'll cut off your limbs and throw you in a prison. You've bought a lot of refined stones from my contribution hall, and you've looted many things in the underground mine. Where are they?"
Xu Miao rolled his eyes, feigning ignorance, "I should be the one asking you. Did you steal my items and blame it on me?"
"What?"
"Indeed, I have many things inside my ring. In fact, I have over ten thousand low-grade items, five thousand medium-grade items, a hundred high-grade items, 180,000 pieces of raw demon ores, 7,000 refined yin stones, 9,000 refined yang stones, two thousand refined demon stones, a thousand of duplicated manuals, a hundred earth-grade items, twenty sky-grade items, and one heaven-grade sword. I remember that I stored all of them in MY ring, but you're telling me that I have nothing. I can't help but suspect that you, a senior, is bullying a junior because you're jealous of my fortuitous encounter."
Xu Miao didn't lie. He told Xu Xiuying what he really had in his OTHER ring.
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[Ring of Yin Slave Master]
[Description] - Only Mao Miaomiao (Xu Miao) can wear this ring. This ring gives the following effects;
(1) You can sense the location of your yin slaves with [Ring of Yin Slave].
(2) You can learn all skills of your yin slaves with [Ring of Yin Slave].
(3) Dual cultivating with the girls with [Ring of Yin Slave] will have a double effect.
(4) You can use telepathic communication with your slaves with [Ring of Yin Slave].
(5) Can be used as a spatial ring. The space size is 1,000 cubic meters.
(6) Can merge with common spatial rings to increase its space size.
(7) The ring is bound to the user. No one but the wearer can see the ring.
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Currently, Xu Miao was wearing the Ring of Yin Slave Master. He had merged several spatial rings to increase its capacity. All of his items were also inside, including the glutton katana, Killer Queen.
Nobody, including Yao Lan or Xu Xiuying, could see the ring on his left ring finger. Thus, they couldn't find valuable items.
In reality, Xie Tian's items were in Xu Miao's invisible ring. Xu Miao hid them there, so he could study every manual that the protagonist had.
Xu Miao crafted his words. He didn't lie, but he chose not to tell everything. He, indeed, stored everything in HIS ring, but he didn't tell Xu Xiuying WHICH ring.
"..."
Xu Xiuying squinted her eyes. Her eye treasures could detect lie when she stared at the speaker, but all indication told her that Xu Miao told the truth.
"Yao Lan."
"Yes, Vice Master?"
"Does Xu Miao have only one ring?"
Yao Lan sensed killing intent from Xu Xiuying. The latter suspected that Yao Lan might have stolen Xu Miao's items when she was taking him here.
Yet, Yao Lan wasn't panicked. She knew that Xu Xiuying could detect lies. Thus, she told her everything she knew.
"Xu Miao only has one ring when I found him."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
Yao Lan hid the fact that Kang Yan was also in Xu Miao's room, cultivating on the exterior balcony. The amazon elder guessed that Xu Miao might have hidden his belongings with Kang Yan, but Yao Lan didn't want to implicate her disciple. As a result, she didn't tell Xu Xiuying everything, just like what Xu Miao did.
Xu Xiuying's furrows deepened. She couldn't detect lies from Yao Lan's words.
That meant, no one here had stolen Xu Miao's items. Someone else might have done it without them realizing it.
Everything didn't make sense. Xu Xiuying was baffled of what had happened during the time when she was at the mountain goose sect. However, she recalled that another elder stayed behind to protect the brothel.
"Son."
"Yes, mom?"
"While I wasn't here, have you contacted or traded with Long Meifang?"
Xu Miao tilted his head, pretending to be confused. He figured why Xi Xiuying asked him this question, so he continued to act, throwing dirt on everyone, "Yes. So?"
"Hmm."
Xu Xiuying had three theories behind the missing items of Xie Tian and Xu Miao.
One - Xie Tian, who had a dragon bloodline, might be capable of blocking her eye treasure's effect, so Xu Xiuying couldn't detect his lies. Xie Tian might not have his manuals from the very beginning, and he learned all skills from a mural somewhere. Still, this theory couldn't explain how Xu Miao's items disappeared.
Two - Long Meifang might have stolen everything when everyone wasn't looking. Xu Xiuying leaned toward this theory since it would explain how Xu Miao's items got missing, too. Yet, Xu Xiuying excluded this theory since Long Meifang wasn't that greedy. She was a perverted sloth that only cared about ravishing under-aged men.
And lastly - One of these people didn't tell her everything. Xu Xiuying was aware of her eye treasure's weaknesses as they couldn't detect if the speaker was hiding information. It was likely that Xu Miao, Xie Tian, or Yao Lan knew something, but they refused to reveal.
Xu Xiuying grinned as she found this mystery amusing.
"Alright. I believe in all of you. Yao Lan, return these rings to the owners."
Yao Lan heaved a sigh of relief that this matter didn't implicate Kang Yan. She walked to the plate to take the rings, but Xu Xiuying suddenly grabbed her wrist.
Xu Xiuying stared into Yao Lan's eyes, "Are you hiding something regarding this matter?"
Yao Lan's eyes wavered for a moment, but it was enough for Xu Xiuying to catch the clues.
*BOOM*
A palm hit Yao Lan's chest. She was flung away and slammed on the protective barrier on the wall. She collapsed and vomited a mouthful of blood.
Xu Xiuying walked toward Jiang Lan and glared into her eyes, "Your turn. Are you hiding something from me?"
Jiang Lan gulped. Again, Xu Xiuying could tell that this girl also had secrets. Yet, the succubus queen didn't attack her or kill her.
The queen walked toward Xu Miao and asked the same question, "It's your turn, son. Is there something that you haven't told me?"
"..."
Xu Miao only glared back into Xu Xiuying's eyes, but he refused to utter a word. He knew that Xu Xiuying might have some abilities that could read his mind, so he stopped thinking.
"If you don't speak, I'll start cutting your limbs, one by one."
"Tsk!"
The interrogation skill and lie detection treasures of Xu Xiuying weren't something that Xu Miao could handle with his current strength. Thus, he came up with another TRUTH, which could hide the core information.
"Xie Tian's items, I lost them."
"Ho? Continue. Go on. How did you lose your items? What did you lose?"
"Xie Tian's medicines, demonic stones, and technique manuals, I lost them. My sentient sword ate them."
"What?"
"My sentient sword is a glutton. She ate all Xie Tian's medicines to increase her essence power."
"Including manuals?"
Xu Miao shrugged, but he didn't say anything.
Xu Xiuying could detect a partial lie within Xu Miao's words. But since some of his confession was real, it cleared a lot of suspicions.
In reality, KQ devoured some of the useless treasures, so it wasn't a complete lie. Again, Xu Miao didn't clarify the details.
"Fine. Let me change my question. Among the manuals that you've gotten from Jiang Lan, is there any technique relating to time-and-space?"
Xu Xiuying was more direct as she had pinpointed the culprit.
Unfortunately, her luck ended here.
"No."
"Really?"
"No. Xie Tian's technique BOOKS AND MANUALS are mediocre at best. They can be useful for 3rd-rated cultivators but they're useless to us."
Again, Xu Miao didn't lie. He had checked Xie Tian's skill manuals after he had received them from Jiang Lan, but he considered them subpar with his standard. Therefore, they were useless to him.
In fact, Xie Tian's books were useful cultivation techniques, which was suitable for anyone under the 3rd stage. Unfortunately, Xu Miao's Moon Meridian Scripture was much better than those common manuals.
However, Xu Miao hid the vital information about the useful skills of Xie Tian. The protagonist had good techniques relating to space-and-time. Still, they were not in the form of manuals, books, or scrolls.
The time-reversing technique secret came from written texts on a large ancient mural wall piece.
The [Return-to-Zero] was incomplete. Important details and the usage requirement parts were missing, so Xu Miao decided not to practice it. Yet, Xu Miao refused to reveal the mural piece since he could find the remaining portions somewhere in the future.
Xu Xiuying couldn't detect lies from Xu Miao's words this time. She nodded in satisfaction, thinking that she had solved the mystery.
"Where are all your items, then?"
Xu Miao shrugged and glanced at his left ring finger.
Xu Xiuying frowned and gazed at his fingers. She couldn't see anything, but she didn't detect any lie.
"Fine. I don't know what kind of magic you had used, but I'll leave it at that," Xu Xiuying turned to Xie Tian, "My boy, I'm gonna need you to stay here a bit longer."
The succubus waved her hand. Jiang Lan and Xu Miao were released, "You two can leave. Yao Lan, you too, leave."
Xie Tian opened his mouth as he wanted to snitch on Xu Miao to Xu Xiuying that anyone could learn the time-and-space technique from the mural wall piece.
Unfortunately, his timing was bad. Xu Xiuying's left hand seized Xie Tian's neck.
"Well, if I can't find the technique, I can just force you to write one, right? HAHAHAHA!!"