Chapter 279: Chapter 279

"One person." the old man answered.

"What?. One person?" the young woman said in surprise. What kind of people were these today? How could they all be so bold and reckless, one person dared to break into Fang Family Fortress.

While thinking, the young woman also glanced at Xiaoyao beside her.

Is my hair messy? Xiaoyao tidied his hair...

The old man didn't notice their movements and just nodded, saying, "That's right, just one person. Or rather, only one person was discovered, whether there are others is unknown. Currently, the entire Fang family is searching. Any outsiders will be rooted out quickly."

Then the old man looked at Xiaoyao and asked, "Who are you?"

"Xiaoyao, a passerby." Xiaoyao smiled and said.

"A passerby?." Everyone looked at Xiaoyao with confusion. What did this mean? They hoped Xiaoyao or the young woman could provide an explanation.

"He says he came to pay respects to our ancestor Chen Shiru..." the young woman said, her tone seeming to carry a trace of strangeness. She still didn't quite believe this matter.

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Clearly, none of these people knew who Chen Shiru was. This was very normal, if they hadn't encountered her, how would anyone know?

"She's the wife of ancestor Fang Tianya. I was thinking of looking up her records. This kid says he was commissioned by an old friend of ancestor Chen Shiru to come here and pay respects," the young woman frowned. She still felt this needed investigation, it would be troublesome if they got it wrong.

"He's lying. He must be that grave robber, deliberately drawing you away," someone said with a cold snort, thinking they had easily exposed Xiaoyao's lie and feeling very pleased with themselves.

The old man nodded and said, "Mm, this should indeed be the case. Moreover, I seem to have seen this young man somewhere... let me think..."

The old man tried hard to recall. He felt he had definitely seen Xiaoyao somewhere because he had an impression of this face. But strangely, if he had seen him, he shouldn't have forgotten. He was still confident in his memory. Although he was old, his memory hadn't declined.

"I also feel like I've seen him somewhere." At the same time, another person also frowned in thought.

"??" The young woman was somewhat puzzled seeing this situation. Could this kid actually have connections with the Fang family? Had they all met before?

Xiaoyao was also puzzled. He wondered, "This is my first time coming to the Fang family. How could I have possibly seen you? You must be getting senile."

"I remember now. He's that young man who appeared before our things were stolen. We've been searching for him. I didn't expect him to appear here. No wonder, he used that item to discover our secrets and wants to steal our secrets," the old man looked at Xiaoyao, his gaze becoming sharp.

"What?. He's that young man?" The young woman also seemed to know about this matter and said in surprise.

"That's right, it's him." the old man nodded.

"If that's the case, then he's definitely lying to me. He's not here to pay respects but to divert the tiger from the mountain, giving his accomplices a chance to steal things. Kid, you're really bold enough. Speak quickly, what exactly is your purpose." the young woman looked at Xiaoyao and asked coldly.

At this moment, she had made her decision, feeling Xiaoyao had ulterior motives and wasn't here to pay respects to anyone. That old friend was just a smokescreen meant to delay her time.

Right, just to delay time. If she went to investigate, it would definitely take a long time. Figures from three thousand years ago would certainly require a long time to verify.

Thus, Xiaoyao was once again defined as a grave-robbing thief. Of course, this time the grave-robbing thief's purpose wasn't grave robbing but to draw others away.

However, as the person involved, Xiaoyao was very confused. What were they talking about?

"What things? What do you mean I'm that young man? What matter are you talking about?"

"You're still playing dumb. You're really bold enough, clearly your appearance was exposed, yet you still dare to come here ," the young woman looked at Xiaoyao with some admiration. She really hadn't seen someone like Xiaoyao before.

Of course, this "someone " was her own imagination and wasn't actually true. Xiaoyao knew nothing at all. His appearance was just a coincidence, and that previous time was also a coincidence.

"Do I look like I'm playing dumb? Please first explain what exactly happened." Xiaoyao said seriously. He also very much wanted to know how he had suddenly become the young man they were talking about.

"Three months ago, outside an unknown small county town, a group of merchants were robbed and all killed. Our item was stolen at that time. Nothing else was missing from the scene, only our item was gone. Clearly, they were targeting us." the old man said calmly. "Have you cracked the secret on that item?"

"Don't say 'you all', I'm just one person. Only you, not 'you all'." Xiaoyao first corrected, then continued, "Also, I don't know about any merchant robbery... eh, wait, this matter seems somewhat familiar. Three months ago..."

Xiaoyao recalled and suddenly remembered something he had almost forgotten, because it originally had nothing to do with him, he was just passing by. Now it seemed this matter had follow-up consequences, and very unfortunately, he had run into them.

"It's those merchants killed by the Qin family's Five Tigers Gate-Breaking Blade. I remember, I happened to pass by at that time... How could it be such a coincidence? You had items among them? No wonder, no wonder it was arranged this way, trying to incite conflict between your Fang family and the Qin family. I understand." Xiaoyao looked enlightened, but soon his thoughts turned elsewhere. No matter what, this matter still seemed unrelated to him. What he needed to face now was this coincidence within coincidences.

He had appeared there at that time as one of the passersby, and now appeared here as another passerby. Such coincidences stacked together made it very difficult for people to believe this was merely coincidence, so the other party would definitely think he was connected to this matter.

"Another case of 'just happened to pass by'? Are there such coincidences?" the young woman smiled, her eyes narrowing to slits, with an expression of "continue making up stories, let me see what you can come up with."

As for the Qin family matter, the Fang family had discovered problems with it from the start, but they still pressured the Qin family a bit and gained some benefits. Such blackmail opportunities were generally not passed up by families.

"It's just that coincidental. Even saying it, no one believes... clearly you don't believe it, but that's the truth." Xiaoyao waved his hand.

"Right, I don't believe it. Unless you can bring that ancestor's old friend here." the young woman said with a smile.

"If he could come, I wouldn't need to come." Xiaoyao shook his head.

"Then take me to find him." the young woman said again.

Xiaoyao wanted to nod but couldn't, because he believed Chen Xi wouldn't agree to this. Chen Xi wouldn't like being disturbed by people, unless...

"Are you a descendant of Chen Shiru?" Xiaoyao asked.

"Ancestor Chen Shiru?"

"That is, from Fang Tianya's line," Xiaoyao said, changing his phrasing to make it easier to understand.

"No. Ancestor Fang Tianya's bloodline has become very distant, I don't know if there are still people from it. Why are you asking this?" the young woman shook her head and answered, then asked Xiaoyao for his reason.

"If you were Chen Shiru's descendant, then he might see you. But if not, then he definitely wouldn't want to be disturbed. So I still can't agree to this matter," Xiaoyao said with a bitter smile. This matter became very helpless, there was a solution, but this solution couldn't be used.

Forget it, better wait for a chance to escape.

"Keep pretending. You're just a little thief. A lying little thief." the young woman said somewhat contemptuously.

"Fine, think what you want. I'm too lazy to say anything more," Xiaoyao shook his head. Regarding this matter, he didn't want to waste any more words and decided to directly look for a chance to escape.

"You have nothing more to say, right." the young woman was even happier, seemingly feeling she had won.

"..." Xiaoyao decided to remain silent.

"Young Miss, have you searched him?" At this moment, someone spoke up, apparently not wanting to let Xiaoyao remain silent to the end and still wanting to force him to speak.

"Not yet. Someone come search him."

"..." Xiaoyao frowned. He didn't want to be searched, he had quite a few secrets on him. Helplessly, he could only speak up, "Could you not search me? Whatever you want to find, let me see if I have it..."

"Do you think that's possible?" the young woman looked at Xiaoyao. Did he think this was playing house?

"Seems somewhat impossible." Xiaoyao understood. He was now a prisoner, what right did he have to say no?

"Search him, there's definitely something wrong." Seeing Xiaoyao's performance, the young woman felt he definitely had secrets on him, which excited her greatly.

Xiaoyao spread his hands, deciding to accept this fate and let them search him. After all, others might not necessarily discover what some things were.

The searcher found a strange item on Xiaoyao that he couldn't immediately understand. This was just the beginning, soon he found item after item from various places on Xiaoyao's body.

A pile of miscellaneous objects began accumulating in front of Xiaoyao. If not seen with their own eyes, no one would believe a person could hide so many things on their body while showing no signs of being different from others.

"These seem to be mechanisms, quite intricate ones too. Don't know what they're for, but someone carrying so many mechanisms on their body definitely isn't a good person." the young woman looked at some items. These were all things Xiaoyao had designed for self-defense that only he could activate. In others' hands, they were just useless mechanisms, so naturally no one knew what they were for.