While Jinde and Leng Jin Yu had traveled to the dragon realm to check up on Qiu Ling and finally taken Xiang Yu along, Qiang Yan had gone to the Court of Justice to see Li Yin.

At this moment, the God of Justice was giving orders to the officials regarding a search of the city. Even though Qiang Yan had had one of his men inform him of Jing He’s disappearance, there was still a chance that he and that unknown man weren’t far. Thus, they had to search for them as long as not too much time had passed.

Qiang Yan waited at the side until Li Yin had finished and the officials had walked out. Then, he made his way over with a complicated expression. Originally, he hadn’t had much information so he had only been able to let Li Yin know that Jing He had been kidnapped. Now, he knew more but the content of that knowledge … well, it was awkward to bring up.

“Nothing yet?” Li Yin’s brows were tightly furrowed. He was usually a stern person and the current situation brought that out even more. A fallen god was bad enough but just thinking of the chaos the disappearance of the crown prince right after would cause … Well, it seemed he had his work cut out for him.

Qiang Yan shook his head. “We haven’t found him or any clues as to where they went. There is something though … Most likely, that man should be a fallen god. You … wouldn’t know where he might have gone, would you?”

Li Yin gave his friend a long look. “No. Why would I?”

“I mean …” Qiang Yan scratched his neck. He really didn’t want to bring up the past but his nephew’s life might rely on this. “Back then, where did he take you? Do you know? And did you see any other fallen gods?”

Li Yin gave a hum but turned away, and then returned to his study. This really wasn’t suitable to discuss outside. Seeing as there was no time to waste, he already spoke up on the way though. “There weren’t. It was just him and no, I don’t know where we were.”

Once upon a time, shortly after one of Li Yin’s own trials, a fallen god had appeared in the mortal realm, laying waste to one of its kingdoms as if he wanted to raze it from the face of the earth. At that time, he had been the young God of Justice and Qiang Yan had more or less taken over the role of God of War as well even though the ceremonies hadn’t happened yet.

The two of them went together with the standing armies of two of the Nine Heavens, intending to fight the fallen god in stead of the mortals and return peace to the realms. As a result … that fallen god grabbed Li Yin and disappeared very much in the same way as that man had with Jing He today.

Just thinking of that time, Qiang Yan felt worried because in the two weeks after Li Yin’s disappearance, while there was no news of the fallen god’s rampage, there was also no news of his friend’s whereabouts. In the end, Li Yin returned by himself but he never said much about what had happened. Nobody asked either, knowing that it couldn’t have been pleasant to be held captive by a fallen god.

Needless to say, the one who was a ‘fearsome fallen god’ in Qiang Yan’s eyes was actually no one but Leng Lu, Li Yin’s lover. So those two weeks … they hadn’t quite been spent in the way Qiang Yan expected.

Of course, they also weren’t any clue to go by to find the crown prince of the Nine Heavens. After all, Leng Lu definitely hadn’t wanted an audience so he never would have taken him to a place where other fallen gods were. Of course, that was under the assumption that he even knew a place where they gathered. So far, Li Yin still doubted that the fallen gods gathered at all. At the very least, Leng Lu seemed like a loner.

Li Yin naturally wouldn’t tell the ins and outs to Qiang Yan. This was his private matter and he knew that even his best friend wouldn’t understand his feelings for Leng Lu. He would only see a fallen god and regard him as a threat. Thus, he had never told him the truth and had hidden his relationship even from him.

To be honest, it wasn’t easy. Hiding Leng Lu had needed him to hide so many other things. After all, he could never tell anyone the truth about why he seemed to raise Ru Zhen by himself or where he sometimes took off to. Now, he couldn’t even offer any help with the search for the crown prince. Although … maybe that could be changed.

The two of them had already reached the study and Li Yin faintly cleared his throat. “I really don’t remember anything that could be useful but I’ll try to see if I can recall anything else that hadn’t registered before. It’s doubtful but I guess it’s still worth a try. Are there any other leads so far?”

Qiang Yan put on a troubled expression. “Well … someone from the dragon realm was visiting at the time and they got the news that apparently, the dragon king fell unconscious around the same time as Jing He returned to his palace. So it’s likely that the fallen god attacked him … or that something else happened to his soul.”

Li Yin gave Qiang Yan a close look. Obviously, he caught his drift. He also knew why he didn’t want to say it directly. If Jing He had indeed fallen, then that was it. He’d never see him again. To them, he would be as good as dead. “I’m sorry. I’ll try to see what I can do and maybe my court’s officials will be able to uncover something. It’s not a given yet that his soul was impacted that way.”

Qiang Yan nodded and then motioned outside. “Well, I should go and have my get up to date as well. They’re only searching for the fallen god right now.”

Li Yin nodded and waited for him to leave. Then, he immediately looked around. “Are you there?”

Unfortunately, he didn’t get a response.