Clan Head Lu had been informed that Shirong was here to see him and he seemed to be agitated.

"Dammit! Did those granddaughters of mine do something to displease him? If they really did then, I'll skin them the moment they come here." Clan Head Lu muttered under his breath.

His son Lu Peng who was standing near him clearly heard it and felt sweat appearing on his forehead. Among the girls that had gone to attend to Shirong last night, two of them were his daughters. While he would be displeased with them too, he wouldn't want to punish them that harshly.

'Hopefully, it is something else…' Lu Peng thought to himself.

A minute later, Shirong came through the doors of the hall, a pissed expression on his face. Clan head Lu's face only fell further and started thinking of all ways he could compensate Young Master Shirong.

"Young Master Shirong, I…" Clan head Lu was just about to speak when he was interrupted.

"Where are my two followers Ye Dai and Bei Wen?" Shirong questioned straightaway.

"Huh?" Clan head was dumb stuck.

He had been expecting a lot of scenarios in his head and had thought up some solutions, be he had not expected that after spending a night with ten of his granddaughters, Shirong would ask this question as soon as meeting him.

"Why are you asking that to us, young master? You are the one that sent them off for a mission, didn't you?" Lu Peng answered for his father, seeing that he was in a confused state.

"What! I did no such thing!" Shirong replied.

Now the others in the hall were also getting anxious and were wondering what exactly the problem was.

"Servants, please bring some refreshments for Young master Shirong. Please Young master, let's go discuss this in the private chambers." Clan head Lu suggested, after recovering a bit.

Shirong was still displeased, but could see the reasoning behind it. He followed the pair of father and son to the private Chambers.

"Now then, young master. Please explain to us what the problem exactly is." Clan Head Lu asked.

Shirong then went on to explain how he went to look for his two followers and found them to be missing. Even the servants were unaware of it and thus he came to ask the Lu clan as they were apparently aware about it.

"Young master, according to what we know the two of them came to us with a letter and told us that they were going out for some kind of a mission that you assigned to them. Seeing that you were in seclusion, I didn't dare to disturb you either.

Besides, I checked the handwriting on the letter and found it to match yours." Clan Head Lu explained.

"That is absolutely impossible!" Shirong protested.

"But you didn't ask us about them during the banquet or after the appearance of the spatial rift either. Thus we just assumed that you knew about it and had ordered them to go out." Lu Peng replied.

"That's another thing I'm worried about. Why did I not think of them all these days? There is no way I would have forgotten about them." Shirong said with concern.

Clan head Lu's brows furrowed, thinking of all the possibilities.

"So the Young master thinks that someone impersonated your identity and forged a fake letter?" Clan Head Lu reiterated.

"Yes, and not only that, but they also did something to me… I don't know how or what but they definitely did something to make me forget about them all this time." Shirong added.

"Hmm… we can take poison or toxins off the list as I doubt Young master wouldn't detect them on his own." Lu Peng said.

"Yes, I do not think it's a poison either. I would have sensed it rather easily. Besides, no normal poison would work on me anyway." Shirong stated.

"That narrows down the possibilities and leaves us with, hypnotic techniques and skills." Clan Head Lu inferred.

Shirong thought over it and found that to be the most likely reason. Be he couldn't remember where he could have been hypnotized. And if he truly was hypnotized, then how did he realize it now and why were his memories not completely changed?

"This still leaves us with two more questions… who and why?" Lu Peng added.

All three of them fell silent and started to think of what could be the reason and the possible culprits.

"Hmm, perhaps if we figure out the method that was used to hypnotize Young master, we may be able to narrow down on the suspects. After all, there aren't many people that have good enough attainments in hypnotic skills to affect a late stage core condensation realm cultivator." Clan Head Lu suggested.

"Alright, we can try that approach. But how will you do that?" Shirong asked.

"Lu Peng, go call Miao'er. We will need her help in this." Clan Head Lu ordered.

"Yes, father." Lu Peng said and swiftly went away.

About five minutes later, he returned with a gorgeous woman in two. Shirong looked at her and could tell at one glance that she practiced seduction arts. There was no way that the charm she had was natural.

'Those concealed fluctuations of spirit qi… they are definitely meant to muddle a man's mind subtly.' Shirong analyzed the method of her skill in a single try.

~Phew~

"Oh boy! Now that is a mature beauty!" Lin Wu praised seeing Miao'er.

But just as Miao'er got close enough, Lin Wu heard the warning of the system.

~Ding~

——

WARNING!: Abnormal spirit qi fluctuations detected.

PRELIMINARILY ANALYSIS COMPLETE: The spirit qi fluctuation can be detrimental to the host's mental state.

SUGGESTION: The host should create a protective field of radiation immediately.

——

Lin Wu almost flinched on seeing the system's warning and activated his innate skill radiation manipulation. Thankfully, his proficiency with the skill had reached Expert and now he was able to contain it much better. Otherwise, he may have ended up burning everyone that was near him.

"Did it just get a bit warm?" Shirong muttered to himself.