“Like him, get close to him?” The Chief Manager showed a look of surprise, “I understand General Si Chen’s temperament quite well, ordinary people was simply ignored. What’s so special about this servant that he can actually obtain the favor of the Great General?”
Du Rufeng couldn’t help laughing, “This disciple doesn’t know, perhaps Great General has his own way of looking at people.”
“Let’s go down and take a look!” The Chief Manager’s interest was piqued, and with a wave of his hand, he led the group down.
When Yang Kai saw this scene, he suddenly had the urge to curse out loud. However, if it was a blessing, it wasn’t a curse; if it was a curse, it couldn’t be avoided. Seeing a group of people rush over, he had no choice but to brace himself and greet them, cupping his fists from afar, “Yang Kai greets the various Lords!”
The Chief Manager didn’t look at him, instead staring at General Si Chen who was standing above him with a smile on his face. He didn’t need to pay too much attention to a mere servant, the main reason he had come down was because of General Si Chen.
On the other hand, Du Rufeng, who was following behind, said, “Yang Kai, this is my Seven Skillful Land's Chief Manager, in charge of all matters related to the Seven Skillful Land's Gardens.” As he spoke, he gave Yang Kai a reassuring look.
Yang Kai bowed again, “Greetings, Chief Manager.” He thought to himself that it would be strange if he wasn’t nervous. There was a fruit missing from the fruit garden for no reason, so if he hadn’t found it, how could he explain it? If he said it was stolen, where was the evidence? If he couldn’t find the person who stole the fruit, he would have to bear the responsibility of losing the Fire Spirit Fruit, but he didn’t know if Du Rufeng would be able to protect him.
He wanted to send him a sound transmission to explain the situation, but this Chief Manager was obviously an Open Heaven Stage master, so how could there be any concealment in sending him a sound transmission?
Although he was depressed in his heart, he still maintained a calm expression on his face. Even when he saw the group of people who had come with the Chief Manager from the corner of his eyes spread out to investigate his fruit garden, his expression remained unchanged.
Now that things had come to this, he could only pray that these people wouldn’t carefully check the number of Fire Spirit Fruits. Only then would he be able to escape.
Unconsciously, when he saw Zhou Zheng’s faint smile, it seemed to contain a deeper meaning.
Before he had time to think about it, the Chief Manager in front of him asked, “How did you make General Si Chen so close to you?”
Yang Kai lowered his brow, “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?” The chief manager raised his brow.
Du Rufeng said from the side, “Yang Kai, if you have something to say, just say it. The Chief Manager is just casually asking, it’s nothing important.”
Yang Kai said with a bitter expression, “I really don’t know. A few months ago, when I first came to this fruit garden, the Grand General had somehow fallen from the sky and landed right in front of me. Perhaps the Great General thought I had done something to it and was so angry that he wanted to peck at the fruit in my fruit garden. How could this junior endure this? As a servant of the fruit garden, taking care of the fruit is my duty, so I fought it out of anger.”
“You fought with it?” The Chief Manager laughed, “You’re quite bold.”
Yang Kai said embarrassedly, “At that time, this junior had just arrived and didn’t know the Great General’s identity, so I dared to offend him. If it was today, I definitely wouldn’t have had the courage.”
Du Rufeng nodded and said, “Chief Manager, I know that this junior came to Fire Spiritual Land less than half a year ago and is indeed a newcomer, but he has already made a great contribution!”
“Oh?” The Chief Manager revealed a look of surprise before seriously sizing up Yang Kai. Without asking what kind of contribution he had made, he nodded and said, “Continue.”
Yang Kai shrugged, “Nothing else, ever since then, as long as I came to the fruit garden, Great General has been like this.”
“So it’s a friendship forged through fighting!” The Chief Manager smiled and nodded, “Interesting.”
This was the first time Du Rufeng had heard of such a thing, so he pointed at Yang Kai and said, “You little brat, you should be thankful that you didn’t do anything to Great General at that time, otherwise, the Venerable would have skinned you alive.”
Yang Kai let out a hollow laugh, thinking that the Great General’s feathers had fallen quite a bit.
At this moment, the people who had been scattered throughout the Fruit Garden returned one after another. One of them glanced at Yang Kai before handing a jade slip.
Yang Kai’s heart tightened as he faintly felt something was wrong.
The Chief Manager took the jade slip and scanned it with his Divine Sense before handing it over to Du Rufeng, “Take a look.”
Du Rufeng took it curiously and glanced over at Yang Kai, wondering if there was something wrong with this fruit garden. Otherwise, why would the Chief Manager ask him to look at it? This was not within his authority.
But what could happen to this fruit garden?
After a careful examination, Du Rufeng’s expression changed slightly as he stared coldly at Yang Kai, “Yang Kai, can you tell me why there is a Fire Spirit Fruit missing from your fruit garden?”
“Really?” Yang Kai was surprised.
“You know?” Du Rufeng frowned.
Yang Kai said, “Before all of you arrived, this junior was clearing out the number of Fire Spirit Fruits and discovered that there was a difference of one digit from the previous record before this juniour left. However, at that time, I couldn’t be certain, so just as I was about to carefully count them, all of you came over.” Yang Kai paused for a moment before continuing, “Now it seems that the previous count was correct, there was indeed one Fire Spirit Fruit missing.”
Du Rufeng said in a low voice, “As a servant, you should take care of everything in the fruit garden. Do you know what kind of punishment you will receive if you lack spirit fruits?”
“Disciple doesn’t know!”
“At best, cripple your cultivation and expel you from the Seven Skillful Land. At worst, kill you on the spot!”
Yang Kai was shocked, this was simply not giving him a way out. Shocked, he cried out, “Sir Du, junior has been wrongly accused! A few days ago, when I left, I checked the number of Spirit Fruits and found that none of them were missing. I didn’t even have time to do anything today, so the lack of these Spirit Fruits has nothing to do with me. Please understand, Sir Du.”
“How could it be none of your business?” Du Rufeng’s expression became solemn, “Since you’re the caretaker of this fruit garden, then everything here is closely related to you. The loss of the Spirit Fruit is because you didn’t manage it well, unless you reported it to the manager here before.” Saying so, he turned to Zhou Zheng, “Zhou Zheng, did Yang Kai report it to you?”
Zhou Zheng stepped forward, took out a jade slip, and carefully examined it. After a moment, he cupped his hands and said, “This subordinate has not found any records!”
Du Rufeng looked at him deeply before turning to Yang Kai and asking, “What else do you have to say?”
“I refuse to accept this!” Yang Kai straightened his neck, “The loss of the Spirit Fruit is not because i did not take good care of it. If it were to be lost, someone stole it. The one who should be punished is the one who stole it.”
Du Rufeng’s expression changed drastically as he immediately shouted, “Don’t make irresponsible remarks, who dares steal Spirit Fruits in this Seven Skillful Land?”
Yang Kai snorted, “If someone hadn’t stolen it, how could this fruit have been lost for no reason?”
“Did you see that?” The Chief Manager, who had been silent all this time, suddenly asked in a low voice. Losing a Spirit Fruit wasn’t a big deal, whoever took care of it would be punished, but now that someone dared to steal a Spirit Fruit, he had to make an example out of them and let everyone in the Seven Skillful Land know the consequences of stealing a Spirit Fruit.
“I didn’t see anything, but I have some suspicions!” Yang Kai shook his head, “The Chief Manager has reached the Open Heaven Stage, so he should be proficient in some soul searching techniques. As long as we capture those people and interrogate them, the truth will be revealed.”
The Chief Manager smiled when he heard this, “What if I can’t?”
Yang Kai said, “Then it’s all on me. When the time comes, I’ll follow your decision.”
“You really have a good plan!” The Chief Manager snorted lightly, “But who knows if you’re trying to drag someone down with you? If you really want to search someone’s soul and force them to confess, you should be the first to do so!”
When Yang Kai heard this, he nearly vomited blood. This was like shooting himself in the foot. If he was really forced to confess by someone else’s Soul Search, wouldn’t he lose all his secrets? If he wasn’t careful, his Soul might even be damaged, causing him to lose consciousness.
But today’s matter couldn’t be explained in just a few words, and he didn’t have the strength to resist. The Chief Manager was at least a Fourth Order Open Heaven Stage master, so killing him was as easy as crushing a bug.
Unable to escape and unable to fight back, he could only turn to look at Du Rufeng.
Du Rufeng didn’t disappoint and cupped his hands, “Chief Manager, since this matter happened in the Fire Spiritual Land, the Fire Spiritual Land will take full responsibility for it. I’ll bring him back and give Chief Manager an explanation.”
The Chief Manager shook his head, “Rufeng, since you have spoken, logically speaking, I should give you some face, but today’s matter is no longer as simple as just losing the Spirit Fruit, it involves someone stealing it. You should also know that the Spirit Fruits of various places are the foundation of my Seven Skillful Land, so there is no room for carelessness. Now, a servant actually dared to touch the foundation of my Seven Skillful Land. This matter is not to give me an explanation, but to give the Heavenly Monarch an explanation.”
Du Rufeng’s heart went cold. Since the Chief Manager had even dragged out the Heavenly Monarch, he had completely lost his right to speak. He stared at Yang Kai with a speechless expression, thinking to himself, 'What nonsense are you talking about? Why did you mention that someone stole the Spirit Fruit?' Now he couldn’t help even if he wanted to.
Yang Kai was also a bit dumbfounded, never having thought that his original intention to cause trouble would be to end his own life. Listening to the Chief Manager’s words, as long as it wasn’t some random servant stealing, it wouldn’t be a big deal. After all, the Fire Spirit Fruit was something that had been damaged to begin with, so there should have been some shortcomings. However, when it came to a servant stealing, it was a completely different matter.
“Capture him!”
As soon as the Chief Manager gave the order, two people walked out from the left and right, heading towards Yang Kai.
Yang Kai’s entire body tensed up as his strength quietly condensed, wavering between surrendering and risking his life.
At this moment, the Great General Si Chen on top of his head flapped his wings and a golden light flew out from his mouth.
Yang Kai reached out his hand out of habit and the golden light dissipated. What appeared in his palm was not the Open Heaven Pill he was used to, but a fruit core the size of a dragon eye…
Fruit core? Yang Kai was stunned!
Du Rufeng was also stunned for a moment, but quickly recovered, “Wait.”
The two Seven Skillful Land Disciples who were closing in on Yang Kai immediately stopped. Du Rufeng quickly arrived in front of Yang Kai and picked up the fruit core in his hand. After examining it for a moment, he couldn’t help laughing, “Chief Manager, that thief seems to have confessed. The loss of the Spirit Fruit shouldn’t have anything to do with the servant here.”
Saying so, he handed over the fruit core in his hand.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Martial Peak