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Chapter 333 Tasteless

"What?! Is that so!" Yan Shu stared wide-eyed in surprise. She had been walking with her mind completely focused and hadn't looked back even once, so she naturally hadn't noticed the unusual situation behind her.

Lu Yan remained silent. He was more composed than Yan Shu, but you could tell from his eyes that he hadn't turned around at all. Like Yan Shu, he had no idea whether the road behind him was the same as before. He just didn't show it because of his pride.

On the contrary, Lu Zhang immediately nodded when he heard Zhu Yu's question, and then subconsciously looked at Lu Qing, as if waiting for his brother to answer his question.

Among the people present, it goes without saying who is the most composed and reliable in a critical moment.

“Indeed, as we walked along, it seemed that our sense of direction was somewhat different after each turn.” Lu Qing frowned. “At first, I thought this fortress was built according to an array, but after carefully observing the way the old steward walked and the route he took, it seems that we are not in any array.”

"That's also what I find a bit strange." Yan Daoxin had noticed this from the beginning. "I absolutely don't believe that the walls can move on their own or the paths can shrink on their own. Even if it's an illusion, it's not possible to make so many of us have the exact same illusion at the same time."

They must have used some method to prevent people from figuring out their way and thus prevent them from moving around freely.

The old steward just now made it very clear that we shouldn't leave this courtyard casually. It's obvious there's some secret in this fortress that they don't want outsiders to know!

Lu Qing nodded and said to Lu Yan, "There is indeed some mystery here."

I suspect that the reason the people you sent to collect the flower and grass tax disappeared wasn't because the people in this fortress refused to pay. After all, they didn't want to be spied on by outsiders, so paying the tax honestly would have avoided attracting attention and causing a lot of disturbance. There was no need to make them disappear, as that would have attracted your attention instead.

Therefore, the most likely explanation is that those individuals unfortunately encountered something that prevented them from reporting to the authorities after leaving, thus leaving them with no choice but to either imprison them or kill them to silence them.

Lu Yan's face darkened, and his fists clenched: "What audacity! They even dare to touch people from the imperial court. Once we find out what's going on here, I'll crush these bastards' bones!"

Lu Zhang opened his mouth, seemingly wanting to persuade Lu Yan not to act impulsively. But then he thought that if he spoke, Lu Yan would surely retort and mock him for being cowardly, so he closed his mouth again.

"Originally, we just felt that this place was strange and guessed that something was amiss, and we just wanted to find out."

"Now that the government is involved, it seems that the secrets behind this Immortal Fortress are deeper than we thought." Lu Qing nodded to Lu Yan, not objecting to his previous words, "But right now, we all need to be extra careful, not reckless, and certainly not act on our own."

The old shopkeeper wasn't surprised at all when we mentioned "Jie bandits," and as we've walked along, we've noticed that the closer we get to the Fairy Fortress, the less we see those people.

Therefore, I suspect that the so-called Jie bandits are very likely connected to this strange fairy fortress.

When Lu Yan heard Lu Qing say this, he initially felt that the words "don't be rash" and "don't act on your own" were somewhat directed at him, and he wanted to say something to defend himself. However, after hearing the rest, he didn't bother to argue and nodded repeatedly. "So that's really how it is!" he said to Lu Qing. "When we were suppressing bandits before, the people along the way suffered terribly, but they couldn't tell what kind of people those bandits were. They only thought that bandits were causing trouble and preying on the people. As for whether those people were Jie or Shuo people, or whether they came from the Brahma Kingdom or the Jin Kingdom, they couldn't tell at all."

If we hadn't captured a group of them who spoke fluent Jie language, wore Jie leather armor, and carried black iron swords forged by the Shuo Kingdom, we wouldn't have been able to determine that these people were connected with the Jie Kingdom.

But that old steward, the moment you mentioned the Jie bandits, he didn't even hesitate, immediately vouched for us, saying those people would absolutely not affect us. That's very strange.

Yan Shu, who had almost stood up when she heard Lu Qing mention "Jie bandits," quietly sat back down after hearing their conversation.

Zhu Yu pursed her lips to avoid accidentally laughing out loud.

Lu Yan's earlier self-identification wasn't entirely wrong, but Lu Qing reminded him not to be rash or impulsive, as the target wasn't just him, but also Yan Shu.

However, Lu Yan did not know that the Yan Wei brothers were Princess Yan Shu, the only daughter of the King of Jie, and naturally he would not realize this. He only thought that Lu Qing was worried about him alone.

While sipping tea, Zhu Yu carefully reviewed everything he had seen since entering the Immortal Fortress, going over all the memories he could recall.

After a while, a detail she hadn't noticed before suddenly came to mind. She practically jumped up from her chair, walked straight to Yan Daoxin, and asked him, "You didn't smell anything unusual on the way in, did you?"

Yan Daoxin was taken aback by her question and quickly tried to recall.

Given Zhu Yu's question, the answer should obviously be "yes" to be reasonable. However, Yan Daoxin carefully recalled and confirmed that he had indeed not smelled any strange odor, whether good or bad.

So he could only honestly shake his head: "I really didn't smell anything."

"Is there a spice in the world that is colorless and odorless?" Zhu Yu asked again.

"What kind of joke is Chief Secretary Yu telling?" Lu Yan, who was standing nearby, heard this and chimed in, "You yourself said it's a spice. Even if it can be colorless and smokeless, how could it be odorless?"

Yan Daoxin nodded in agreement: "The Third Prince is absolutely right about this. Whether it's a sleeping potion or something else, it's possible to produce very light smoke, but it's impossible to produce one without any smell at all."

Why do you have this question?

"Because you said there was nothing wrong with this tea, I sat here and drank it for a while, and inexplicably felt refreshed." Zhu Yu frowned, full of doubt. "If there were no comparison, the feeling might not be so obvious. It made me feel refreshed, and I realized that I had been somewhat dazed the whole way here."