Chapter 328: Chapter 328

Struggles within the Cao family also existed. Internal fighting was only more cruel than external fighting—this was an unchanging truth throughout history. Many heroes didn't die defending their homeland, but often died in internal strife.

Although Master Cao currently held the position of Cao family head, there were quite a few Cao family members who coveted this position, and some had considerable strength that couldn't be ignored. Therefore, his suspicion of internal Cao family involvement wasn't without reason.

Considering Master Cao's several suspicions, he felt the most important thing currently was to contact Black Wind Stronghold to see what was really going on, ideally to negotiate with Black Wind Stronghold and have them switch sides at the last moment.

Regarding switching sides, Black Wind Stronghold surely wouldn't stick to their position—as long as there were enough benefits, it could be done.

Therefore, regardless of Master Cao's considerations, contacting Black Wind Stronghold and meeting with their leader to sit down and talk was inevitably the choice to make.

Like Master Cao, when Black Wind Stronghold received this information, they also felt very confused. They didn't think someone was framing them—the first thing they thought was: who did this?

Although Black Wind Stronghold had always been mysterious, they weren't a very tight organization. They remained unknown only because they were protected by a group of people who wanted to use their identity.

Black Wind Stronghold's measures to remain unknown were that those below a certain level couldn't go out without orders unless led by a leader. These leaders never notified others when doing things—they would just do whatever needed doing. After all, Black Wind Stronghold was a bandit den, not an army, without such strict discipline.

However, they finally discovered this matter seemed unrelated to them. They asked everyone up and down—no one was outside. It happened to be the annual bonus meeting, the most important event of the year. Unless there were special reasons, no one would go out.

This year everyone was present without anyone away—more complete than previous years. Therefore, even suspicion was useless. This situation was one hundred percent certain—this matter wasn't done by Black Wind Stronghold people.

Then who could it be?

The Cao family's opponents?

After Black Wind Stronghold confirmed it wasn't their own doing, they reached a similar speculation to the Cao family—that this matter was done by the Cao family's opponents, with reasoning similar to what Master Cao thought.

Not only did Black Wind Stronghold and the Cao family think this way, other families in the Eastern European Kingdom also speculated similarly. They were all mutually suspicious, thinking about who was most likely responsible.

This created a very strange phenomenon. Although only the Cao family had trouble, at most involving Black Wind Stronghold, it had now become a matter affecting the entire Eastern European Kingdom. They were all monitoring their opponents, wanting to take advantage of the chaos.

These people wouldn't let such an opportunity pass.

Regardless of what they thought or did, they all did the same thing—inquiring everywhere about Xiaoyao's news. For a time, Xiaoyao became the focus of the Eastern European Kingdom. People named Xiaoyao in the Eastern European Kingdom were questioned one by one, even tortured by the Cao family.

For those Xiaoyaos, this was a disaster. After this incident, they changed their names—a result Xiaoyao hadn't expected. He had indirectly harmed people, though fortunately no one died because of it.

What Xiaoyao hadn't expected was that because these Eastern European Kingdom people were investigating him—though only his name—it caught the attention of other interested parties. These people were all well-informed, otherwise they wouldn't know.

People with information sources even in this Eastern European Kingdom were either those who paid attention to the Eastern European Kingdom or people with very extensive information networks.

For the former, there probably weren't many, because the Eastern European Kingdom had always been a tasteless existence—the kind of tasteless thing people least wanted to chew among tasteless things. Very few people paid attention to it, and among these people, none would care about Xiaoyao or had even heard of Xiaoyao's name.

Therefore, speculation about the former was already ruled out, leaving only the latter—people with powerful information networks. Having powerful information networks also represented their great strength—these were almost equivalent things.

There weren't many who could possess that level of capability on this continent, including the Demon Cult's Hei Xue and the Great Tang Empire military's Nangong Third Miss.

Regarding this information, Nangong Third Miss wasn't very surprised because she knew Xiaoyao was going to the Eastern European Kingdom. It was still relatively normal for him to cause some trouble there, though initially she didn't understand why Xiaoyao would do this.

Soon, Nangong Third Miss seemed to specifically have people collect intelligence to understand why Xiaoyao had become someone everyone in the Eastern European Kingdom wanted. She could quickly guess why—though not certain, she at least knew Xiaoyao definitely wanted to know where Black Wind Stronghold was. So she used her information network to help search, believing that with the Great Tang Empire's military information network, it wouldn't take too long to find, possibly faster than Xiaoyao having the Cao family lead the way.

Xiaoyao might know about this too. He could achieve this just by asking people for help—he had thought about it then but ultimately rejected it because he felt this wouldn't be much faster and didn't need to specifically trouble others. New ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄhapters are published on NoveI~Fire.net

Xiaoyao's personality was such—if he could avoid troubling others, he wouldn't, especially for things he could solve himself with similar efficiency.

Of course, if someone actively offered help, he wouldn't mind or try to stop them.

Unlike Nangong Third Miss, when Hei Xue received news of Xiaoyao being in the Eastern European Kingdom, she felt somewhat strange. She had just updated information about Xiaoyao from Prince Li Cheng, knowing Xiaoyao had returned to the Heavenly Wind Kingdom. She was just preparing to have people investigate what Xiaoyao was doing when news about Xiaoyao came.

Hei Xue didn't understand why Xiaoyao would go to the Eastern European Kingdom, but she seemed able to connect some information—it might be related to Xiaoyao's background. Her understanding of Xiaoyao was extraordinary—she had investigated almost all of Xiaoyao's big and small matters.

The matter of Xiaoyao being adopted was also public knowledge. Anyone with the heart to investigate could find out. The Mo family wouldn't keep secrets for Xiaoyao, and Xiaoyao himself didn't think this needed to be secret.

Whether or not it was to help Xiaoyao, Hei Xue also used the Demon Cult's resources to find Black Wind Stronghold. The Demon Cult's resources seemed somewhat better in this regard, requiring less time.

This wasn't just in this type of matter—even in other things, the Demon Cult's information was somewhat stronger. "Penetrating everywhere" might explain this point well.

Regardless of these people's reactions, Xiaoyao had undoubtedly become a focus in the Eastern European Kingdom, but the kind where you heard the voice but didn't see the person—which was also what gave these Eastern European Kingdom people headaches.

Xiaoyao naturally didn't know others were getting headaches over him. He was still doing his own business, going to North Ming City to collect information, then returning to East Sea City—a place others would never think he'd appear. This was actually the safest place, though he still needed to disguise himself or someone would see him.

As for the information Xiaoyao collected, although he was just one person, he had turned up everything related. He had a set of intelligence-gathering abilities. In three days in North Ming City, he had already found much about events from twenty years ago.

If this were placed on some people, they might not find anything even searching a lifetime. After all, these were events from twenty years ago—it would be very troublesome to search at this time. But Xiaoyao was different—he had great skill in collecting intelligence. Except for things that really couldn't be found, he had already found everything.

Collecting intelligence information was also a skill. Some people might not find anything in a lifetime, while others might find clues just by talking and chatting. Xiaoyao had once researched this area to obtain resources, so this was easy for him.

Based on the news Xiaoyao collected, he could find some information. That year, a group of mysterious people came to North Ming City, and at the same time, a young couple who had been living there disappeared. Xiaoyao had asked neighbors of that young couple from that time—the wife was Fang Chunxue, and Fang Chunxue had given birth to a baby boy then.

This neighbor was the only one remaining from that time. Others had either moved away immediately afterward or disappeared. Only he had left because of some matters at that time and had been away for over ten years. Almost no one knew about this neighbor, so naturally no one could learn anything through him.

The jade pendant matter? Of course this wasn't known. No one would notice this ordinary jade pendant. Even if they knew, they couldn't confirm if it was that piece from back then. So in this regard, Xiaoyao had no information—he only confirmed that Fang Chunxue had indeed lived there and had given birth to a baby boy. The timing seemed about right.

However, from this neighbor's mouth, Xiaoyao got one piece of information—Fang Chunxue called that man "Brother Jiang." This left Xiaoyao very confused. Brother Jiang—what was this "Jiang" about? Wasn't Fang Chunxue's lover originally called Qi Bupo? These three characters had no similar pronunciation to "Jiang."

Could it be that Qi Bupo was just a false name? Come to think of it, Qi Bupo's identity had never been clarified. If this were a false name, then having Hei Xue investigate Qi Bupo seemed like a waste of effort. He'd need to tell Hei Xue about this later.