Chapter 208: Shifting the Blame

After wasting so much time searching for clothes, the elder couldn’t even catch their shadows.

Under the illumination of the moonlight, the spirit ring flickered with a cold, white luster from time to time. Compared to the white glow of the ring, the elder’s face was even whiter. He truly had no way to explain this situation. The elder stared blankly into space and no one knew what he was thinking of. A breeze blew across the land, reminding him that he wasn’t wearing any underwear. At this point, he felt that he might as well return to the manor to start searching for clues.

By the time the elder returned to the manor, the sun was rising into the sky. All the outer valley disciples who had stronger cultivation were starting to open their eyes. Among them was the disciple who was stripped by the elder.

“Why am I sleeping here?” The disciples woke up and felt extremely confused. As the sun wasn’t completely up, the weather was rather chilly. As a comfortable gust of wind blew across his body, he felt a bone chilling sensation. Lowering his head to take a look, he realized that he wasn’t wearing any clothes. “God damn it! Which shameless bastard stripped me?!”

He didn’t expect for the bastard to return as he was screaming. The elder had a stomach full of anger and nowhere to vent it on. When he heard the outer valley disciples cursing at him, he was utterly enraged. He circulated his spirit qi and struck out at the disciple.

When the outer valley disciple was struck by the elder’s spirit qi, his knees went soft as he knelt on the ground. His spirit qi went into disarray and he started to gasp for air.

This disciple might seem like he was suffering, but he was totally fine. The Phoenix King Valley Elder might be scornful towards these outer valley disciples, but he still considered the severity of the consequences of his actions. The disciple was feeling uncomfortable as he was attacked from behind.

“God damn it, who is the one that actually dares to... Eld.. Elder, why is it you?” That outer valley disciple originally thought someone else had attacked him from behind. He cursed out loudly and even wanted to use the name of the Phoenix King Valley to intimidate his enemy. When he turned around, he realized that the assailant was none other than the elder.

“Why? Take a look at yourself. You are a disciple of the Phoenix King Valley! Why are you screaming vulgarities at the top of your lungs? Aren’t you a capable one to be cursing at me?”

“No Elder, I didn’t know that you are the one who hit me. I wouldn’t dare…” The disciple didn’t dare to look into the elder’s eyes. When he looked closely at the elder’s clothes, he realized that it looked rather familiar.

“Elder, why did you strip off my clothes?” He didn’t know what had happened and was utterly confused.

According to logic, the elder was at fault for stripping a disciple. It was also the reason why the elder was feeling a little embarrassed. However, due to his status as an elder, he didn’t explain too much as he coughed lightly to berate the disciple. “Cough cough. How dare you ask me that question! The whole lot of you allowed someone to sneak into the manor to steal my spirit ring. They threw my clothes away and by the time I found a set to give chase, they had already stolen everything! All of you had better come up with an explanation as to how an infiltrator knocked you out.”

Now that the effects were gradually dissipating, the outer valley disciples started waking up one after another. They didn’t have time to question the fact that they were sleeping outside when the elder’s question landed on their head.

A sense of fear swept through them as they knew they weren’t well liked by the elder. With the core disciples absent, they allowed a burglary to happen in the manor. It seemed like they would be in for a hard time after returning to the valley.

“Fragrance! That’s right, it is that fragrance.” One of the disciples muttered softly and came to a realization. He raised his head and said to the elder, “Elder, we have probably been targeted a long time ago. Before falling asleep, this disciples smelled a concentrated flowery fragrance. This disciple even wondered if the flowers around the manor started to blossom… Thinking about it now, it seemed as though it was a sleeping drug sent out by the thieves!”

The Phoenix King Valley Elder listened to the explanation and closed his eyes with despair. He had thought that one of the disciples used a fragrant incense in order to please him. It was indeed a deep scheme. He hadn’t even associated the smell to the incident.

As it stood, it was too late for the elder to do anything. However, he didn’t give up as he questioned the disciples, “Did any of you hear anything?”

The outer valley disciples looked at each other and none of them dared to open their mouth. They pushed the question around until one of them stammered, “Elder… none of us heard anything.”