Back then, Lin Mu had been only at the First Tribulation Stage of the Immortal Realm, thus he hadn't done much during the battle other than trying his best to hide. Of course, even if he wished to he wouldn't do that as that would involve revealing himself when there was no reason to.

Niu Juo had questioned him about this too.

Due to that, Lin Mu had never gotten a proper look at the dagger that Cao Tianyi had used and neither had he had the chance to scan it with his immortal sense. This was why he didn't recognize it at a first glance. After all, this wouldn't be the only dagger that was black like this.

"How did you remember this?

" Crown Prince Feng Shun couldn't help but ask, as it was simply such an obscure bit of information to keep track off.

"I almost didn't.

" Qiao De replied.

"I only remembered the incident since the Steel Horned General Niu Juo had been involved in stopping it. We keep such information and sell it as part of our services at the Black Candle Pavilion. Luo Tu's assassination was a rather high profile for Skylark city as he was from an aristocratic clan. There were involvement of other nobles in it and their hands were dipping in various intelligence provider's pools. Thus to profit, we had also sold quite a few bits of information, including this one.

I oversaw the sale of this bit of information, along with several others, to the rival noble clans.

" The merchant explained.

Hearing that, the group finally understood how the merchant even recognized this.

"Well now, that we know that… how does this dagger actually fit in our current situation?

" Daoist Chu asked the question that was in the minds of almost everyone.

"Originally we had thought that the dagger and other weapons and tools used by Cao Tianyi were provided by his backers. But now it seems like there was a lot more to it than just that.

" Qiao De replied.

"If there are two such daggers, I'm sure there's more of them.

" He added.

"There are.

" Lady Kang replied.

"I killed three of them that were using such daggers.

" She revealed.

"Hm… then that means these were made by the Black Fin Island members themselves, or at least the Weapon refiner that works for them.

" Crown Prince Feng Shun stated after hearing all that.

"So the Black Fin Islands had involvement in the assassination of Luo Tu too?

" Crown Princess Shang stated.

"That Cao Tianyi was part of them?

"

"No, he was most certainly not.

" Qiao De shook his head.

"But it looks like the Black Fin Islands did end up supplying the tools for it, so their involvement was indirect.

" Lin Mu thought about it all, finding it a bit shocking that an incident he had witnessed back then was now linked to their current plight.

"Why would the Black Fin Islands do that, though?

" Ziran asked, finding it all too overreaching.

"Yeah, it's all long before the tournament too.

" Qiao De replied.

"Back then, the Black Fin Islands were still not doing anything and there were no movements from them too.

" He confirmed.

"It doesn't seem like there would be anything for them to gain from that.

" Monk Hushu couldn't see the value either.

"Perhaps… It was something a lot simpler than that.

" Lin Mu spoke up after thinking for a bit.

"I think it was mostly just a monetary thing for them. The Black Fin Island members might not have done anything or shown any movements, but what's to say Yao Changying wasn't doing anything. If she has been planning for all that she had done, she would certainly need a ton of funds for it. Even if she's the niece of the Holy Topaz Emperor and the daughter of a sect leader, there is a limit to the amount of funds she can mobilize without arousing suspicion.

Perhaps this was a way of gaining funds for them.

" He explained.

Hearing that, the others thought over it too and nodded after a couple minutes.

"I'm sure this isn't an isolated incident.

" Lady Kang said after several minutes of silence.

"Qiao De, do you have all the records of similar incidents of assassinations or just attempts?

" she questioned.

"Of course!

" Qiao De said, patting the register.

"This thing can cause a war if the things in it get out.

" He said proudly.

"You have qualms about showing us that?

" Crown Prince Feng Shun asked with a smirk.

"Of course not.

" Qiao De smiled.

"I know this is already worth it all.

" He said before tapping the register.

~SHUA~

The pages started to flip rapidly as Qiao De searched through it, filtering out all the relevant incidents. After about thirty minutes of this, a large formation screen was projected by the register, on which lines upon lines of information appeared.

All this was separated into several squares and neatly ordered according to Chronology.

To the immortals present here, reading them was no issue even if the letters were all small and they got to it.

"This, this and this… the weapons are similar.

" Elder Hu picked out.

"These talismans seemed to have weaker versions of the skills that the Black Fin Island members were using.

" Crown Princess Shang noticed.

One by one, everyone started to find out the incidents that now all seemed to be linked back to the Black Fin Islands.

In total, from the roughly seven hundred or so incidents that Qiao De had shown, at least two hundred had some kind of involvement from the Black Fin Islands.

They had either provided weapons, tools, strange talismans, poisons, or even their own members. Except in the last case, the members had not worn any of their usual clothing and had hid their identities a lot better.

By the time everyone was done analyzing it, they were utterly shocked.

"This is a conspiracy… one that has been in action for several years… possibly decades.

" Lin Mu finally spoke.