The words sounded strange to say, but as Tang Ze said them out loud, the more he came to realize that it was the truth.
"Ah, so you're not as slow as I initially thought you were," Xian Yue said. "Yes, the Imperial Family would have coveted that book to use for their closest relatives, and would have the means to carry it out. Ties between family members are stronger than those between those of a sect meaning it would be far less likely to leak out to the public, and the grimoire would've been quite useful even for a select few members of the Imperial Family. They must have been planning this for several years if not decades."
The Imperial Family had both the means and the motivation to carry out something like this.
If Tang Ze could figure it out - it was likely that Elder He Xuan and Senior Elder Wang Zhen could as well.
And that was when he realized why Xian Yue hadn't bothered bringing it up.
Because though the answer was obvious, there was no solid evidence. And if there was no solid evidence, how could the Rising Phoenix sect go up against the Imperial Family? The other sects would not back them up on this matter.
If anything, had the theft succeeded, the other sects would've secretly smiled at the Rising Phoenix sect's misfortune. After all, anything that weakened another sect strengthened their own in a way.
Tang Ze had to admit that the plot had been carefully constructed to be nearly flawless. They had nearly gotten away with it - and even when they failed, there was no way to tie that dead body back to them.
One thing did make him wonder though - how were they so sure that the thief would kill himself instead of negotiating with them? They likely had something serious on him, but Tang Ze couldn't fathom what that was. Maybe they had kept his family hostage or something?
Anyway, even if he knew all of this, there was little he could do about that level of political machinations as a mere Initiate.
Yin Tiang did get his chance to use the book though, and managed to think of a new recipe for a medium-grade pill through what he was able to learn from it.
Although medium-grade pills at the Qi Condensation level were not that hard to get, the materials needed to make them were always in high demand. Having an alternative recipe for them meant that the strain on those resources could be lifted slightly as he could use different ingredients, and also that should something happen - like an ingredient going extinct or being unavailable due to logistical issues, there would be an alternative manufacturing process.
"But really, the best part is that I can get these ingredients for cheap," Yin Tiang said.
So long as he kept a monopoly on that recipe, he could make pills far cheaper than other people could as the ingredients he used wouldn't be in high demand, and would be able to take advantage of a greater profit margin.
Granted, this advantage would only last for a while before eventually, someone would take notice of what he could do and reverse engineer the recipe used for it.
However, for the time being, it could be quite lucrative for Yin Tiang. As it was, right now - he would be keeping the recipe for his own personal use.
Tang Ze decided to see if he could reap further benefits from using the Leonald the Lucky Leprechaun outfit. While the Grimoire of Heaven hadn't been as beneficial as he might've hoped, it wasn't like the luck hadn't been there. He had been able to win four winning tickets, though it was the aspect of actually using the Grimoire of Heaven which had failed to live up to expectations.
A rock gambling den would be the obvious place to target, but there were sadly none near the sect (actually, thinking about it, that was probably a good thing). Teleporting and swapping out his clothes could be an option, but it was cumbersome - as it was, Chen Yu had a different idea.
"So, what exactly do you think I can do here?" Tang Ze asked.
"Shh… let me see what's here," Chen Yu said.
The two of them had walked into a store that wasn't too far off at Chen Yu's insistence, and Tang Ze was dressed up like a leprechaun. That drew a bunch of strange glances towards his direction, though given he was walking with Chen Yu who was dressed in the Rising Phoenix sect's uniform, no one actually said anything.
Tang Ze had actually not really paid attention to it before, but he did now - people treated them quite nicely when they walked around in their sect uniforms. Normal people, that is.
Tang Ze didn't really have any prior experiences to compare this to, and Chen Yu likely just considered it part and parcel of being in the sect, but Tang Ze was beginning to see how differently they were treated compared to others. Restaurants which were full would suddenly have a table open for them, people standing in line would offer for them to cut ahead without them even having to ask, and sometimes random strangers walking on the street would bow to them.
Tang Ze spent most of his time within the sect division and didn't go out much, and when he did, he had chalked up things like these to people just being friendly and nice. But, as he got to observe the world a bit more and how the regular people interacted with each other compared to them, he saw that they were definitely getting special treatment.
The Rising Phoenix sect, after all, was more than a cultivation school. It was the governing body of this part of the Raswatian Empire, much like the Ecclesial Fiefs of the European middle ages.
And though the two of them were just Initiates, at the bottom of the sect totem pole, they must have seemed high and mighty to these average people.
Right now though, Tang Ze was out of uniform. Although they hadn't walked far from the sect, he wished that Chen Yu would hurry up regarding whatever this was.
This costume was rather uncomfortable - it was hard to design costumes that were accurate and also easy to move about in. Tang Ze was only one person after all, and there was a limit to what he could accomplish.
The store they had walked into was filled with what Tang Ze could only describe as junk. Or at least, what he perceived to be junk. There were old teapots, paintings, accessories, and other random goods which might have slightly caught the eye, but didn't seem to be valuable in any significant way.
"So," Chen Yu said, whispering to him. "This is basically all just random junk that people have leftover, which this store buys and then resells. Most of it is worthless - but I've heard of people finding valuable relics or important works of art, you know? Do you think you can pick out anything like that?"
"Well, that's not how my skill works," Tang Ze told him. It wasn't like he had a sense for treasure, but on the flip side, if he were to treat this like picking lottery tickets, perhaps it would work?
He went around the place, seeing if anything happened to catch his eye.
There was a teapot that looked somewhat nice, and a ring whose gleam stood out to him, so he pointed to those two things and Chen Yu bought them.
Tang Ze watched with slight envy at the metal coins that Chen Yu had. One reason that Tang Ze didn't venture out much on his own was because he didn't have any real money with him - just the sect merit points which most merchants did not accept. However, someone like Chen Yu, although his family wasn't ultra-wealthy, would not have trouble getting his hands on some actual money.
Granted, if their little scheme panned out, they would split the share of profits, and Tang Ze would finally be able to get his hands on some cold, hard, cash.
As they went back to the sect, a small flaw in their plan became evident.
Once Tang Ze changed out of his clothes, their run of luck was over.
And would you know it, Yin Tiang was making a concoction which just had to burst into flames, causing Chen Yu to drop what they had purchased in shock.
A shame really, as both of them had turned out to be historic art pieces that were otherwise lost to time and that people had thought had been destroyed - now though, people were definitely sure that they had been destroyed.
A group of villagers heard the howling of wolves in the distance and shuddered.
Moonlight Wolves - a species of wolf that could absorb moonlight and weave it into their skin, making it much harder than normal wolf skin. On top of that, they could use moonlight to strengthen their fangs and claws.
They weren't that much stronger than normal wolves and Qi Refinement cultivators could take care of them with relative ease.
The issue was that this was a remote village, and they had the misfortune of attracting the attention of a pack of the creatures.
The wolf pack had harassed their village for a month by now. Every single day it seemed, at least one person would fall victim to the wolves.
They had sent word to the Rising Phoenix sect to ask for help, but help had not yet arrived.
For now, the villagers lived in constant fear of the wolves. The fields had been abandoned as no one dared to go near them, and the villagers had abandoned most of their houses for the night and were sleeping in extremely crowded conditions in the village chief's home.
They figured that there was great safety in numbers, and the village chief's house was the only one which was made of stone, making it a good deal safer than the mud huts most of them lived in.
Still, the howls of the wolves roused many of them as the noises came closer and closer…
Until someone saw something fly down from the sky from one of the windows.
Help had arrived!
Tang Ze landed lightly. This village was a ways away from the sect division, and was yet another solo mission he'd been handed. However, this was not a punishment, after hearing of the plight of the villagers, and that it would take time for the sect to form a strike force to strike at the wolf pack, he had volunteered his services as he could simply fly here.
The wolves took notice of him soon enough, and one leapt at him from the shadows.
Tang Ze turned to face the wolf, and let out a beam of energy from his eyes which cut the wolf in half.
Heat vision.
it was a skill he didn't use very often since he generally wasn't trying to kill his enemies, but it was perfect to use here.
As he charged into the wolf pack with supernatural speed, a part of him felt sorry for the creatures. The wolf pack was likely targeting this village because they had been driven from their usual hunting ground by a stronger predator. They were just trying to survive in this cold, harsh world, much like humans after all - but that pity did not translate to any mercy from his end as he knew that the villagers had been harassed for a long time by these things.
In the end, it was either the villagers or the wolves, and he would choose the villagers each time.
Once nine in ten of the wolves had been eliminated and the others ran into the wilderness, he considered his work done as he flew back to the sect.
The villagers were quite bewildered in the morning at seeing how many of the wolves were now dead. Some of them had seen a mysterious stranger emit flashes of light last night at the wolves, though this mysterious benefactor had flown away without even introducing himself.
Still, their bewilderment soon changed to joy as they realized that they no longer had to live in fear of the wolves. The few that had escaped did not have the numbers to threaten their village anymore - as a matter of fact the villagers themselves could easily take care of them by forming small hunting parties.
And so, life in the village began to finally return to normal.