Nonsense! How could my adopted son be a villain?

As if on cue, the man appeared. Just as the group was talking, a waiter came to announce that the owner of Snowland Manor was requesting an audience at the gate.

"The owner of Snowfield Manor?" Xu Lingguang raised an eyebrow in surprise.

The servant handed over the visiting card and said, "It is indeed Master Mei. He said that the disciples of the manor never recognized Mount Tai and offended the master at the city gate. He has come here to apologize."

Xu Lingguang took it, glanced at it, and handed it to Lan Jian, saying, "You're quite fast. It seems he guessed your identity."

Lan Jian tossed the visiting card aside and said, "Lead the person to the side hall."

The servant, having received the order, hurried out to deliver the message. Xu Lingguang glanced at Master Liuzhu and the children, and asked, "Are you going together, or would you like to rest first?"

Without hesitation, Liuzhu replied, "I'll go with you."

Seeing that she was going, the little ones naturally wanted to follow. Xu Lingguang tapped each of the little ones' heads and instructed them, "You can go watch the fun, but you have to stay behind the screen and don't make any noise."

The little ones licked his fingers affectionately, making repeated promises.

Xu Lingguang then led them to a side hall.

Just as the cubs were settled behind the screen, Mei Qing, the master of Snowfield Manor, was led in by a servant. Accompanying him were the white-bearded elder he had met at the city gate, and two young men.

Xu Lingguang glanced at the two young men and smiled meaningfully. It turned out that this was a gathering of acquaintances.

The two young people, a man and a woman, were none other than Mei Yu and Mei Lan, the brother and sister whom I had seen before on the snowy plains.

When Mei Yu and Mei Lan, the brother and sister, realized that the person sitting in the main seat was Xu Lingguang, they were also very shocked. They opened their mouths and stared at Xu Lingguang as if they had seen a ghost.

Xu Lingguang smiled at them, but did not give them a chance to speak. Instead, he turned his gaze to Mei Qing, the owner of Snowfield Manor.

Mei Qing, as expected of the master of Snowfield Manor, was dressed in white robes and looked like an immortal. His long beard did not make him look old, but rather made him look more transcendent and otherworldly. Although he came to apologize, he stood up straight, looked calm, and showed no sign of panic or humility.

Seeing Xu Lingguang looking at him, he cupped his hands and said, "Lord Lan, Alchemist Xu, today at the city gate, my disciples offended you both while investigating the hidden demons. After learning the news, I was really uneasy, so I brought Elder Tang and my two children to apologize on behalf of my disciples."

"They are young and inexperienced. When it comes to capturing demons, they lack flexibility. I will definitely teach them well in the future. I hope you two will be magnanimous and not hold it against them."

He immediately identified Xu Lingguang, clearly having deduced Lan Jian and Xu Lingguang's identities before even meeting them.

They claimed to be there to apologize, but every word they uttered was about capturing the demon race. On the surface, it was an apology, but in reality, it was a veiled criticism that their disciples had followed the rules, while Xu Lingguang and his group had failed to cooperate with the investigation and had broken the rules.

Xu Lingguang couldn't help but applaud him after hearing this. No wonder this guy arrived so quickly; he was up to something.

He secretly squeezed Lan Jian's fingers, signaling him not to speak and to let him do it.

Lan Jian received his signal, glanced at the people in front of him, picked up his teacup and took a sip, completely ignoring them.

The other three did not react, but Mei Lan was the most impatient, her face showing resentment, yet she dared not interrupt.

After taking in the expressions of the group, Xu Lingguang spoke slowly and deliberately: "Master Mei, you flatter me. It is understandable to capture demons and interrogate passersby. What is wrong with that?"

Before Mei Qing could even smile, Xu Lingguang continued, "However, the disciples of Snowfield Manor are far too arrogant. They claimed there was demonic energy in our carriage after only a brief encounter and insisted on forcing me to hand over the demons hidden inside."

Xu Lingguang looked at him with a half-smile: "I didn't hide any demons on this carriage, but I do have a few precious ancient god cubs. Although Master Mei is far away in the Northern Territory, you should have heard that Master Lan has raised a few cubs, right?"

"I don't know if it's because your demon-measuring compass is inaccurate, or if you have some other plan. I don't need to tell you how precious the cubs of ancient divine beasts are; Master Mei should know that too. Who was the last person to covet these cubs?"

Xu Lingguang looked at Lan Jian with feigned confusion. Lan Jian obediently dusted off non-existent dust from his clothes and said coldly, "Since you're already dead, why bother remembering your name?"

Xu Lingguang smiled and looked at Mei Qing: "I'm sorry, I really can't remember."

Mei Qing, who had maintained a calm and collected demeanor since entering, finally couldn't help but twitch his lips. He said stiffly, "Master Xu and Master Lan have misunderstood. We naturally wouldn't dare to covet the cub of the Divine Race. However, the demon race in the city is causing trouble and has already killed many people. We had no choice but to resort to this tactic."

Xu Lingguang nodded, looking like he understood and was easy to talk to, but his words were full of barbs: "Of course I don't misunderstand Master Mei, but a wise man doesn't stand under a dangerous wall, so it's best not to do anything that might cause a misunderstanding."

Mei Qing said stiffly, "Master Xu is right."

Xu Lingguang looked at him with a smile, seemingly oblivious to the stiffness on his face. Suddenly, he slapped his forehead and looked at Mei Yu and his sister standing behind him, saying, "These two must be Master Mei's children, right?"

Mei Qing was puzzled as to why he suddenly brought up his two children, and could only say, "Exactly."

Xu Lingguang smiled and took out the IOU that the brother and sister had previously written from his sleeve, saying, "I have a connection with Young Master Mei and Miss Mei. I was originally planning to visit them sometime, but this saves me the trouble. Since you two are here, why not settle the debts we owed earlier?"

Mei Yu and his sister never expected that this person would ask for the debt in person. When he agreed to exchange the treasure for the lives of the four of them, he never thought about repaying the debt.

If Xu Lingguang doesn't come to visit, that's fine, but if he dares to, he'll make sure he doesn't leave alive.

Some debts are not so easy to collect.

But now, facing Xu Lingguang's smiling eyes, Mei Yu dared not harbor any more illusions. He could only grit his teeth and whisper a brief account of what had happened on the snowfield, not saying anything too harsh, only that Xu Lingguang had saved the four of them, and this was the promised reward.

From the stiff and humiliated expressions on his children's faces, Mei Qing could easily tell that something was amiss. But now that he was under someone else's roof, he had no choice but to pretend he didn't know and said politely, "Since it is a life-saving grace, we should repay it tenfold."

He took out the apology gift he had prepared for today from his sleeve, and added a Qiankun bag, saying, "This box contains the apology gift I prepared, and this Qiankun bag contains my son's thank-you gift. Please do not refuse, Master Xu and Master Lan."

Xu Lingguang naturally did not refuse. He accepted the two gifts generously, opened them in front of everyone, and said with satisfaction, "Since that's the case, let's consider this matter over. Those disciples were just following the rules. Master Mei didn't really need to go to such lengths. Neither Master Lan nor I are narrow-minded people."

Meilan glared at him from behind, looking like she wanted to pounce on him and bite him.

He accepted the gift and said all the nice things, and now he's pretending not to be a narrow-minded person.

Xu Lingguang met her gaze and raised his eyebrows slightly.

Mei Lan dared not provoke him and could only quickly lower her head to hide the resentment in her eyes.

Mei Qing was quite capable; the apology gift suited Xu Lingguang's taste perfectly. He decided to let the other party off the hook for the time being, picked up his teacup, took a sip, and gently put it down, preparing to see the guest off.

Mei Qing could tell that he intended to see her out, but she had no choice but to stay, saying, "There is one more thing I would like to ask Master Xu to be lenient."

Xu Lingguang asked in surprise, "What is it?"

"Previously, the disciples of the manor offended Alchemist Xu and Master Lan. The mist released by Alchemist Xu sealed the spiritual veins of these disciples. Now they cannot use their spiritual power, let alone cultivate. I invited alchemists to treat them, but they were all helpless. I can only trouble Alchemist Xu to detoxify them."

Xu Lingguang had almost forgotten about this matter if he hadn't mentioned it. He said "Oh" and then said, "It's just a little bit of miasma. You can take these pills back and have them take them."

Xu Lingguang casually tossed him a small bottle of pills.

Mei Qing caught it and slowly breathed a sigh of relief.

There were at least twenty or thirty disciples affected by the poisonous fog, including some of the elite disciples from Snowfield Manor. It would be a real injustice if they were to perish so inexplicably.

After obtaining the antidote, Mei Qing took her leave.

Xu Lingguang gave a perfunctory bow and told the steward to deliver it.

After leaving Qianjin Tower, the four of them boarded a carriage. Elder Tang, who had remained silent until now, took out a pill and swallowed it to regulate his breathing. After a moment, he opened his eyes, and the solemn expression on his face dissipated.

"How was it? Did this pill work?"

Elder Tang said, "It is indeed the antidote."

He initially thought he had only suffered some external injuries from a shattered knee, but when he returned to heal and discovered that his spiritual energy was stagnant and difficult to mobilize, he realized that he had also been affected by the poisonous fog.

He hadn't expected that just a few poison pills would be so potent, that even a cultivator at the late stage of the Divine Integration Realm like him could be affected without realizing it. That's why he panicked and sought out Mei Qing to come with him.

Now that the poison in his body has been neutralized, his heart finally settled down, and he said in a deep voice, "The sudden appearance of these two in Xiliang City is truly strange."

"And what happened to you in the snowfield?"

Mei Qing was also puzzled, and upon hearing this, she looked at the brother and sister: "Why didn't you mention it when we came back?"

Mei Yu lowered his eyes and said, "I originally thought it was a small matter that we could handle ourselves, and I didn't intend to trouble Father."

No one knows a son better than his father. Mei Qing guessed his plan as soon as she heard his tone of voice.

If Xu Lingguang were just an ordinary cultivator, it would be fine, but unexpectedly, the other party was the alchemist who had a close relationship with the owner of Qianjin Tower.

Mei Qing frowned, more concerned about why they were in the snowfield: "Why did Xu Lingguang and the owner of Qianjin Tower suddenly go to the snowfield?"

Mei Lan said, "The owner of Qianjin Tower did not go with us. If he had gone, we wouldn't have been foolish enough to provoke them."

Mei Yu also said, "He was accompanied by a giant beast whose origins were unknown at the time. Our initial conflict was also due to the struggle for the Snow Marrow Worm. Xu Lingguang is an alchemist, so he must have heard that the snowfield was rich in resources during the Snow Tornado, which is why he went there."

Mei Qing, however, still frowned and asked, "Do they have any dealings with the demons of Wujian City?"

Mei Yu said uncertainly, "It shouldn't be. When we met, we were quite far from Wujian City. Besides, he was alone. Even if he had that giant beast protecting him, there was no need for him to go to Wujian City."

Mei Qing's brows furrowed slightly: "It's best if there's no contact. If he makes contact with the demons of Wujian City, it might hinder our plans."

Elder Tang's expression immediately hardened, and he hesitated, saying, "Ge Wenhu has no connection with Qianjinlou. Even if they have noticed something, they probably wouldn't interfere."

Mei Qing looked grave and shook his head, saying, "It's hard to say. Let someone keep an eye on things from a distance and report back if there are any developments."

Elder Tang asked, "Then what is our plan...?"

Mei Qing said, "Send a message to them to wait a little longer. They should not cause any more trouble in the city recently. Let them leave before making any further decisions, so as to avoid any unforeseen complications."

Xu Lingguang didn't know what these people were discussing. After they left, he and Lan Jian went behind the screen and chatted with the children while playing with them: "Don't you think Mei Qing's aura is a bit strange?"

Lan Jian nodded: "His aura is very mixed, as if it has been mixed with many other auras, as if it was plundered from elsewhere. It is somewhat similar to the path of evil cultivators, but there is no bloody aura. I can't see it clearly for the time being."

If it is a method of evil cultivation, it is inevitable to kill and harm people, and the bloody aura on their bodies will be very strong.

However, Mei Qing's aura was mixed, yet very peaceful, unlike that of evil cultivators.

Liu Zhu suddenly said, "When I was in the Ge family, I never heard of Ge Wenhu having any dealings with Snowland Manor. The arrival of Snowland Manor is rather suspicious."

Both Ge Wenhu and Madam Ge tried their best to squeeze every last drop of value out of her. So when Liuzhu was still in the Ge family, she met quite a few people with them. Most of these people were from prominent families that were on good terms with the Ge family. They were bound together by interests and had close relationships.

But she had never met anyone from Snow Mountain Villa.

Not only had they never met, Ge Wenhu and his wife had never even mentioned Snowland Manor.

"When Ge Wenhu got into trouble, instead of seeking help from other well-connected families, he went to great lengths to invite people from Snowfield Manor. I always felt something was amiss."

"Moreover, Ge Wenhu is a suspicious and domineering man. Even if he were only seriously injured and had only one breath left, he would not easily hand over the power of Xiliang City."

Xu Lingguang's expression shifted slightly: "You mean, Ge Wenhu is being controlled by the people of Snowfield Manor? The people of Snowfield Manor want to seize power from him?"

Liu Zhu said, "It's not impossible."

"But if Snowfield Manor openly seizes power, even if they silence the Ge family, there are still so many relatives by marriage and other aristocratic families under the Ge family. They can't keep these people quiet, can they? Can they get past the imperial court?"

Although Xiliang City is far from the emperor's reach, its geographical location is extremely important. The general guarding the city is to enter Fufeng City to receive the emperor's investiture.

It's easy to seize power in Snowfield Manor through murder, but getting a formal appointment in Fufeng City is not so easy. The imperial court does not encourage infighting and killing among aristocratic families and sects.