As Ye Tiancheng was on his way to the location of the next fragment of the Fuxi Qin, Long Miaomiao suddenly spoke to him, stating that she could confirm that the ones he had rescued were indeed his wife and daughter. Ye Tiancheng was somewhat surprised by this.
He himself had not harbored much doubt about this matter, as he had already verified it and was quite certain that his wife and daughter were the real Hou Mingzhu and Ye Qingcheng. Therefore, he had not intended to investigate further.
It was only after Long Miaomiao explained herself that Ye Tiancheng understood. Long Miaomiao was simply more cautious than he was.
After all, Long Miaomiao did not know Hou Mingzhu and Ye Qingcheng as well as Ye Tiancheng did.
Therefore, Long Miaomiao had to resort to other means to verify the truth.
At that time, when Long Miaomiao agreed to help Ye Tiancheng rescue his daughter, she had impersonated Hou Mingzhu and gone to the place where those people were temporarily residing, and then rescued Ye Qingcheng.
However, this was still not entirely foolproof, as Long Miaomiao did not know what the real Ye Qingcheng looked like.
Even if Ye Tiancheng met Ye Qingcheng and believed her to be his real daughter, Long Miaomiao could not be completely at ease.
After all, if she could transform into Hou Mingzhu, could other things not transform into Hou Mingzhu and Ye Qingcheng? If they were deceived, it would be a great disadvantage to them.
Therefore, before taking Ye Qingcheng away, Long Miaomiao had left behind a strand of spiritual sense, hidden in that place, to observe the reactions of Fatty and the others, in order to determine whether the person she had rescued was the one she was supposed to rescue.
Achieving this was relatively easy for Long Miaomiao.
She was also very confident that her strand of spiritual sense would not be easily discovered by any entity. Long Miaomiao believed in her own strength.
After rescuing Ye Qingcheng, their group left that place overnight. Long Miaomiao had not fully believed the reactions of Fatty and the others immediately after rescuing Ye Qingcheng. What if Fatty and the others were putting on a show for them?
After all, in such a situation, any normal person would confirm whether they had rescued the wrong person, wouldn't they?
Moreover, the operation to rescue Hou Mingzhu and Ye Qingcheng this time was too simple and easy. Fatty and the others had not kept Hou Mingzhu and Ye Qingcheng under strict guard. From Long Miaomiao's experience, everything felt too effortless, which made her uneasy and uncertain.
Long Miaomiao had not mentioned these doubts to Ye Tiancheng. After all, it seemed that Ye Tiancheng had no doubts about the rescued Hou Mingzhu and Ye Qingcheng. If the rescued individuals were indeed fake, and she mentioned it to Ye Tiancheng, what if those two fakes discovered it?
Furthermore, if they were real, and she spoke to Ye Tiancheng about it without being able to verify the truth, it would also be inappropriate.
Overall, Long Miaomiao was reasonably cautious.
If not for this, Long Miaomiao would not have been able to cultivate for so many years, successfully leap over the dragon gate to become a dragon, nor would she possess such profound cultivation.
During the time she followed Ye Tiancheng back to the village, Long Miaomiao had been keeping an eye on Fatty's situation, and the strand of spiritual sense she had left behind had been following Fatty and the others.
After many days passed, Long Miaomiao found no flaws in Fatty and the others, and only then did she truly relax, confirming that there were no problems, and then withdrew her spiritual sense.
When Long Miaomiao informed Ye Tiancheng of these circumstances, Ye Tiancheng did not blame her in any way. After all, from any perspective, Long Miaomiao's actions were very normal and well-intentioned, leaving no room for criticism.
Ye Tiancheng expressed his gratitude to Long Miaomiao. With Long Miaomiao's assurance, he was actually much more at ease. At the very least, this proved that he had truly rescued Hou Mingzhu and Ye Qingcheng, and he no longer had to worry.
However, they were unaware that, thousands of miles away, the situation on Fatty's side had undergone a new change.
After Hou Mingzhu and Ye Qingcheng were rescued, Fatty had been very unwilling and had been planning how to recapture Hou Mingzhu and the others, to regain the leverage in his hands, and thus threaten Ye Tiancheng.
Unfortunately, his arrangements had not gone smoothly.
As he failed in another attempt and was still thinking of ways, the man in the black cloak appeared before him again and said, "You don't need to do any more useless things. You don't need to pursue Ye Tiancheng's whereabouts anymore."
Fatty was extremely shocked to hear the man say this.
He immediately became angry and, with great unwillingness, argued with the man, saying, "Why shouldn't we pursue them? Are we just going to let him rescue Hou Mingzhu and the others like this? Then how can we threaten him?"
"Ye Tiancheng is not someone easy to deal with. If we don't hold Hou Mingzhu and the others, we cannot easily harm Ye Tiancheng!"
The man chuckled.
He said to Fatty, "Of course, I have my reasons for saying this. You don't need to ask too many questions. Just do as I say. Maintain the pretense of continuing to search for clues. As for other matters, I have my own arrangements."
Since betraying Ye Tiancheng, Fatty's mind had, for some unknown reason, become much sharper.
Hearing the man say this, a thought struck him, and he hesitantly asked the man, "You mean... is it possible that the ones Ye Tiancheng and the others rescued were not the real Hou Mingzhu and Ye Qingcheng?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Fatty felt a chill run through his body.
The man's cold gaze fell upon him, making Fatty's hair stand on end, and he immediately dared not say anything more.
"This is not your concern. As long as you do as I command, it is enough. If you continue to ask, I will have to suspect that you have other motives!"
The man warned Fatty in this manner.
Fatty shivered and quickly defended himself, his tone filled with indignation, "My only purpose is to get revenge on Ye Tiancheng and Little Fox. That is why I must hold Hou Mingzhu and Ye Qingcheng in my hands. Otherwise, I can never get revenge!"
"You also promised me that you would let me take revenge with my own hands. Are you going back on your word and deceiving me!"
The man sized Fatty up and down. Fatty felt as if he were being stared at by a venomous snake, his cold gaze sweeping over him repeatedly.
Finally, the man snorted coldly and said, "What I promised you, I will naturally not go back on. Once Ye Tiancheng is truly captured, I will give you this opportunity, but there are some things I will no longer entrust to you."
"You did not satisfy me with this matter. You are incompetent and only cause trouble. If you are dissatisfied, then do a few things that satisfy me to prove your ability, and then talk about other things!"
With the man saying this much, Fatty felt somewhat wronged and wanted to argue further, but he had nothing to say. In the end, he opened his mouth but said nothing, and could only reluctantly agree.
Fatty bowed his head to the man and said, "Yes, I understand. I will prove myself."
The man then stopped talking to him and left.
It was only after confirming that Long Miaomiao's spiritual sense was no longer present that the man appeared to speak to Fatty.
The man could indeed sense the location of Long Miaomiao's spiritual sense, which was why he went along with the plan and put on such a show, not even revealing the truth to Fatty, although this was partly because he did not fully trust Fatty.
The result was very successful. Long Miaomiao's spiritual sense was withdrawn, which meant that Long Miaomiao had believed the "truth" she had seen.
This was enough.
As long as Long Miaomiao believed it, it meant that Ye Tiancheng also believed it, and his plan was half successful. What was the use of simply kidnapping Hou Mingzhu and Ye Qingcheng? To deal with Ye Tiancheng, these simple methods would not be enough to achieve his desired outcome.
To achieve the outcome he desired, it would take more effort.
What was a moment of pain? Repeated torment was what made life worse than death. Gaining hope and then losing it, repeating this several times, would break even the most steadfast person.
It could be said that he had this intention from the very beginning.
Furthermore, it would allow him to conveniently test and observe Fatty, to confirm whether Fatty had truly joined his subordinates, rather than feigning betrayal of Ye Tiancheng while actually trying to probe his secrets.
Or perhaps he was worried that Fatty's heart was not ruthless enough, and when facing Ye Tiancheng, he would not be able to truly act decisively, and would fail at the last moment.
Although the stab Fatty inflicted on Ye Tiancheng at the time had, to a certain extent, served as a sufficient stepping stone, making the man willing to appear before Fatty and cooperate with him, it was not so simple for the man to fully trust Fatty.
They were all cunning foxes. Just as Long Miaomiao would keep a watchful eye and leave a strand of spiritual sense to monitor Fatty, to confirm the authenticity of Hou Mingzhu and Ye Qingcheng, so too would the man be extremely cautious in executing his plan.
What made the man somewhat dissatisfied was that he had indeed underestimated the situation and allowed Ye Tiancheng to actually rescue Ye Qingcheng.
Originally, he was worried that if both Hou Mingzhu and Ye Qingcheng were fake, Ye Tiancheng would not take the bait, which was why he had kept Ye Qingcheng. Ye Qingcheng was left in the house and was almost impossible to go out. The difficulty for Ye Tiancheng to rescue her would be greater, with Fatty and another subordinate of his guarding her, it would not be so simple for Ye Tiancheng to rescue her.
However, he had overlooked the existence of Long Miaomiao.
Thinking back now, seeing Long Miaomiao following Ye Tiancheng and even helping him rescue his daughter Ye Qingcheng, it was likely that Ye Tiancheng's rapid recovery after being stabbed by Fatty was also due to Long Miaomiao's help.
The man had not expected Ye Tiancheng to be killed on the spot at that time. Although he had hoped for it, he did not hope for Ye Tiancheng to die so easily, and he knew that Ye Tiancheng would not die so easily.
But he also did not expect Ye Tiancheng to gain such a powerful ally as Long Miaomiao.
If Long Miaomiao had not revealed herself during this operation, the man would not have discovered this so quickly.
He felt some resentment, blaming Long Miaomiao for meddling, but he had no better solution. The matter had already happened, so he had to make contingency plans to prevent his plan from failing due to the emergence of a variable like Long Miaomiao.
As for how the man discovered the existence of Long Miaomiao's spiritual sense, there were also some reasons for this.
After all, Long Miaomiao was a powerful Dragon God. To discover the existence of Long Miaomiao's spiritual sense, unless one was much more powerful than Long Miaomiao, it would be very difficult to do so. Therefore, Long Miaomiao had sufficient confidence, but the man's ability to discover this and sense spiritual sense was also the result of a coincidence.