Tang Ze teleported back to his room. "Can you still hear me?" he asked the ring he was wearing on his finger.
"Yes I can," Xian Yue said in his mind.
"Sure we can hear you," Zhang Long said.
"Sorry, wasn't talking to you guys," Tang Ze said.
"We're not talking to you either so long as you're dressed like that."
Tang Ze went into his room to change.
"W-What are you doing? Shameless!" Xian Yue yelled.
"Ah - I didn't know that you could see!" Tang Ze quickly apologized.
"Why would I demand to give you this ring and come with you then?"
"Ah, sorry, anyway you can uh… close your eyes while you're in that ring?"
"Y-Yes! Now be quick about this!"
"Right," Tang Ze said.
He changed into the sect uniform and went to go see Elder He Xuan - Xian Yue told him that she had already solved the case, and that he should help her get to the scene of the crime.
"But you'll need to convince this elder first," Xian Yue said. "Just repeat what I say, and we will be fine."
It would normally be hard for someone like Tang Ze to get an audience with Elder He Xuan, but given the circumstances when Tang Ze said he might know what had happened to the Grimoire of Heaven, he was rushed in to see the man at once.
"So, you know what happened to the Grimoire of Heaven?" Elder He Xuan asked. He gently motioned for Tang Ze to sit, though the man was clearly on edge. "I will not mince words - please get to the point as soon as you can."
"Right," Tang Ze said. Xian Yue dictated the words into his head that Tang Ze relayed. "I think I know what happened and how the grimoire vanished like that. There's no one who could take it away from under Senior Elder Wang Zhen's nose while he's so deep within our sect's territory, so the reason it can't be found is because it's still in the same room… only it isn't."
"I don't follow?"
"I meant to say that someone made a secret realm inside of the safe," Tang Ze said. He really wished that Xian Yue would just get to the point - it was fine if she spoke in circles when it came to the two of them, but Elder He Xuan was not going to be so patient with a matter like this. "And they created this long ago before the grimoire was moved in there. Then, when the time came, they snatched the grimoire, moving it into the secret realm, and still have kept it in there. They would be stowing away for several months until a time would come when they could exit, later on when security would be less tight, and then escape with it."
Elder He Xuan traced his beard with his finger. Though he looked calm and composed, the gears in his head were whirring as they spun into overdrive. Tang Ze could almost hear them grinding in Elder He Xuan's head from where he was sitting. "Come with me."
Tang Ze didn't know whether or not this meant that Elder He Xuan believed him or not, but he grabbed what looked like a metal detector out of a cabinet in his room, and practically dragged Tang Ze to the scene of the crime.
Senior Elder Wang Zhen was there, and Elder He Xuan explained the situation to him in a few sentences.
Senior Elder Wang Zhen's eyes widened at the suggestion. "I would never have thought of that - but it's a possibility. Let us go and see."
The metal detector was actually a device that was specially made to detect secret realms, and as it was, Elder He Xuan had some experience when it came to secret realms.
He waved it around the room, until he stopped.
There, in the room, a small ball of light suddenly appeared as he waved the metal detector over it.
They had found it!
"Junior Tang Ze, stay here," Elder He Xuan said, as both he and Senior Elder Wang Zhen intended to invade this pocket dimension.
Tang Ze would've liked to go with them, but he didn't argue.
"Don't think of following them - what if there's a Nascent Soul cultivator inside? Can you fight someone like that? No! So don't do something so reckless!" Xian Yue reprimanded him, likely sensing what his intentions otherwise would have been.
After an hour, the two of them finally emerged from the secret realm, carrying the corpse of a third person, while Wang Zhen had the Grimoire of Heaven in his hands, clutching it like it was his newborn child.
"Ah - what happened?" Tang Ze asked.
The actual story was far less exciting than he'd expected - the two of them had found their way into the pocket realm, and ran into the supposed thief who turned out to be just a Golden Core cultivator. He didn't put up the slightest bit of a fight however, and simply took some kind of poison that ended his own life once he realized the jig was up.
There were no identifying markers on the thief that might let them know which sect he belonged to, but they did get the Grimoire of Heaven back.
The reason it felt like an hour had passed in real life was because time moved faster in that pocket realm - which was sort of understandable given the fact that the thief would've been required to wait in there for quite a while. Other than the thief and the Grimoire of Heaven, they found some supplies to last someone a few months if need be, but not much else.
"Ah, but the Grimoire of Heaven is now safe and sound," Senior Elder Wang Zhen said. He turned to Tang Ze and bowed deeply.
"Ah - Senior Elder Wang Zhen please raise your head-"
"Junior, this elder is truly in your debt," Senior Elder Wang Zhen said. "If you had not helped me, who knows whether we would have figured out this act of trickery or not? Is there anything I can give you in exchange for your help?"
"Could I… get more time with the Grimoire of Heaven?" Tang Ze asked. He had felt that he had essentially wasted his first chance with it as he had not gotten anything which seemed to be useful from it, so maybe another pass at it and he would actually gain some enlightenment?
Based on the side-eye that Elder He Xuan was giving him, this was likely a situation where he was supposed to first decline the reward, but the words had already left his mouth.
"I'm afraid that is the one thing I cannot grant you," Senior Elder Whang Zhen said. "The rules set up by Song Xian are ironclad - it was to be based on luck solely and not even such a thing can change them."
"I understand, no issue," Tang Ze said. In that case, he would need to wait a few more years before he could get a shot at reading it again.
"With that said, I am curious," Elder He Xuan said. "How did you figure this out?"
"Well the thing is that-" Tang Ze began before Xian Yue screamed something into his mind.
"Tang Ze, do not let them know who I am!"
"-I uh, read a novel at one point where the thief used something like this," Tang Ze said.
"Is that so? I thought I had no time to spare for novels earlier, though maybe I should've taken some time if I could've benefited from them in such a way," Senior Elder Wang Zhen said. "What was the name of that book?"
"I uh - can't recall right now, I'm sorry, but if I find it, I'll let you know," Tang Ze said.
"Ah, all's well that end's well I guess," Senior Elder Wang Zhen said. "Though I will still have to live with my reputation besmirched by letting it fall into enemy hands in the first place…"
He trailed off, and the two elders dismissed Tang Ze, saying that he would get his reward later once they had thought of what would be appropriate.
They would be looking into who had caused the incident, however, it didn't look like they had any leads.
"Thanks for the help, Xian Yue," Tang Ze said when the two of them were alone.
"No problem, but take this chance to work harder on fixing the dress, won't you?"
"Sure, shame we don't know who the thief is," Tang Ze said.
"You haven't figured it out yet? I thought it was rather obvious," Xian Yue said. Then again, with her years of experience that stretched for over ten thousand years, many things were obvious to her that wouldn't be to other people. That was how she had figured out the root cause of this quagmire while even someone like Senior Elder Wang Zhen could not.
Tang Ze stopped in his tracks. "So you know - why didn't you say something earlier?"
He could almost imagine the woman sighing and shaking her head as she answered.
"Because it would not change anything," Xian Yue said. "Let me ask you this - do you really think that one of the other sects would steal the Grimoire of Heaven? It is an object that cannot be easily hidden. Sects are not based off of bloodlines or clan systems, so to actually benefit from stealing the grimoire; the secret would be leaked out eventually once it had passed through enough hands. As the Grimoire of Heaven would be made available to more and more sect members, it would be unavoidable that the secret would get out of whichever sect tried to steal it. And that would lead to a massive conflict. The Grimoire of Heaven is a unique treasure, but some things are still not worth fighting over - especially for the righteous sects. Not to mention there are even more powerful artifacts - it might be one of a kind but it is not peerless in ability, especially for training large numbers of recruits which is what the sects rely upon. But there is a group who could get its hands on it and would find it to be quite useful."
Tang Ze processed her words as the gears in his head started to turn.
He had a feeling she was testing him so that he would find the answer on his own - why all of this indirect talk instead of telling him who the culprit was?
Still, he figured that it was a worth a shot to try to figure it out on his own.
So… it was someone who was not affiliated with the sects, capable of not only hiring a Golden Core cultivator for the job but a Golden Core cultivator motivated enough to end themselves rather than risk exposing who they worked for, a group small enough to keep their possession of the Grimoire of Heaven secret, and who would even know about the Grimoire of Heaven in the first place.
Additionally, they would have enough people who could benefit from the grimoire to make the whole heist worthwhile in the first place.
Tang Ze stopped in his tracks the moment an answer came to him - it was so glaringly obvious that he was genuinely nearly face-palming at how he had missed it. But, was he right?
Now that he had the answer, he was almost scared to say it, thinking that it was too simple and that he might be scolded by Xian Yue for giving a stupid answer.
"It seems you've found the answer."
Tang Ze licked his lips, before deciding to say what was on his mind. If he turned out to be disastrously wrong, so be it!
"The Imperial Family. The Imperial Family were the ones who tried to steal the Grimoire of Heaven," Tang Ze said.