Chapter 235: Absolutely Cannot Give Up
"Sure, leave it to me," Mu Xiang agreed at once.
When a ritual was required, it was the duty of any practitioner from the Taoist School to assist or stand guard for their peers.
All preparations were complete.
Xiao Ye took a swig of liquor and spat it into the brazier before him.
The flames shot up, and the temperature rose with them.
He took out the yellow paper, dabbed it with blood from his fingertip, and tossed it into the brazier.
A plume of white smoke billowed out.
Xiao Ye watched the shape and direction of the smoke, his brow furrowing slightly.
A moment later, he extinguished the brazier.
"How did it go?" Mu Xiang asked.
"I managed to get a small lead."
Xiao Ye produced a sheet of paper he had placed under the brazier. It now bore a mark that resembled a faint scorch.
He pointed to a spot. "Here. The information I got points to this city, but that's all."
"To think the ritual would only give us this little."
Mu Xiang was surprised it was so difficult. She had watched the entire ritual; logically, it should have been far more precise.
Xiao Ye had someone clear everything away. "I'll have my people investigate this city tonight."
"First thing tomorrow, we're leaving!"
「The next morning.」
Lin Chuyue was in much better spirits, but a hint of sorrow now lingered in her expression, and she lacked her previous carefree air.
"My fever's gone. By the way, is there any news?"
Xiao Ye nodded. "I've already sent people to search. There's a high probability of finding them in one particular city."
He didn't dare promise they would definitely be found.
Sometimes, no expectations meant no disappointments.
Lin Chuyue said at once, "Then let's go now!"
The group informed Lin Aoshan, then set off together.
A hired driver took the wheel, with Mu Xiang in the passenger seat.
Lin Chuyue and Xiao Ye were in the back row.
Their packed luggage was in the trunk. Aside from a few changes of clothes, it consisted of the pile of Dharma Artifacts Mu Xiang had brought along.
The car headed toward the neighboring city.
Just two hours later, they arrived.
As it happened, the Lin Family owned a hotel there, and the three of them checked in immediately.
Lin Chuyue gazed out at the bustling street. "Could they really be somewhere this close?"
'It seems unlikely they'd be right next door to Jiangcheng,' Xiao Ye thought. 'Otherwise, how could Lin Aoshan have failed to find them all these years? Still, my ritual is never wrong. They must be here.'
"Regardless, we won't know until we look."
"Let's go. We'll grab some lunch first, and then my people will arrive."
The group found a fairly high-end restaurant, and just as they finished lunch, people from the Xiao Family arrived.
"Patriarch, we didn't find anything based on the information you gave us."
"That's right. There are quite a few people here with the surname Lin, but no one who matches the description."
"We also ran the photo through the Skynet surveillance system for comparison, but we couldn't find any matches either."
The implication was clear: they probably weren't here.
But Xiao Ye knew he couldn't be wrong. "Keep looking!"
「Two days passed in a flash.」
There was no news from Xiao Ye's side, nor from his subordinates.
The city wasn't very large, but it wasn't small either, with a resident population of over 500,000.
Trying to find a few people in it was like looking for a needle in a haystack.
Lin Chuyue's spirits grew worse by the day. She stared at the food in front of her without the slightest appetite.
"How could this be happening..."
Xiao Ye handed her a glass of juice with a helpless sigh. "It's perfectly normal that we can't find them. Think about it—if it were that easy, the old master wouldn't have been searching for eighteen years!"
"We've only been out for a few days. If we keep looking, we're sure to find them."
"If even you give up, what's the point of the rest of us carrying on?"
"You're right!" Lin Chuyue took a deep breath and began to eat. "I absolutely cannot give up!"
"If I can't find them, I'll just keep looking forever!"
She was even prepared to spend her entire life searching!
She hadn't been in love in over twenty years, and the only man she'd ever liked was her own sister's fiancé.
If they were destined to not be together, Lin Chuyue would never accept another man.
At worst, she would grow old and die alone.
After she finished eating, Lin Chuyue's spirits had improved considerably.
Seeing she was feeling better, Xiao Ye spoke up. "Before, Mu Xiang and I used a method from the Taoist School to find them, but in the end, it was still missing something."
"The people we're looking for are your immediate family. The success rate would be higher if we used your blood."
Hearing this, Lin Chuyue didn't hesitate for a second. She immediately held out her hand. "Why didn't you say so earlier? Take as much as you need!"
But Xiao Ye's heart ached at the sight. He hadn't wanted to ask Lin Chuyue to part with her essence blood, which was why he had held off on asking her.
'I can't believe it has to come to this.'
This time, it wasn't blood from her fingertip that was needed, but blood from the tip of her tongue.
A person's essence blood is finite. Every drop used is a drop lost, and it takes a very long time to replenish.
Therefore, unless it was for something of grave importance, no one would use their own essence blood.
With Lin Chuyue's blood, they did indeed receive a much more precise directive!
The blood landed on a factory on a map of the city.
"They're right here!"
"Let's go over there now!"
「Mao City.」
「Eastern Development Zone.」
There were many factories here.
Among them was a garment factory.
This garment factory primarily hired middle-aged people with sewing skills, and rarely took on younger workers.
It was just about time for the evening shift to end.
A crowd of middle-aged people, both men and women, walked out. Many of them were even married couples.
They worked here together and rented housing nearby, scrimping and saving just to send money back to their families in the countryside.
Lin Chuyue could no longer wait. She immediately stopped a worker who was walking out. "Excuse me, I'd like to ask if you know a person named Lin Chuxing."
"Lin Chuxing? Never heard of her."
"Then do you know a Lin Feng?"
"Never heard of the name. Kid, you need to step aside, I'm in a hurry to get home and cook! My son must be starving by now!"
Lin Chuyue could only step aside. She had assumed that since the factory wasn't large, she'd surely get information just by asking.
To her surprise, the worker had never even heard of the names.
Mu Xiang shot Lin Chuyue a look. "If you're really going to ask, just asking for the name is useless."
"If your father and sister are still alive after not being found for so many years, do you really think they'd still be using their old names?"
She snatched the photo from Lin Chuyue's hand and stopped another worker who was coming out.
"Excuse me, have you seen the people in this photo?"
"Never seen them."
"Excuse me..."
Not far away, a middle-aged couple was chatting. Hearing the commotion at the entrance, they glanced over.
The woman had excellent eyesight, and from that short distance, she recognized the people in the photo at a single glance.