Quick Transmigration: Irresistible Beauty
Chapter 348 - 348: Blackened Junior Sister (53)

Hai Bing Tu forced herself to calm her seemingly out of control emotions. Even the hands that were stroking the walls were put down to her sides. Yue Ran paused, turned around, and silently gave Hai Bing Tu a pat on the shoulder to comfort her. It was also at this time that the lengthy staircase happened to come to an end.

…

In spite of the fact that a century of silence has passed, the underground sight is still well preserved. Yue Ran summoned a few more floating fire spirits to scatter them around for greater lighting, revealing the full view of the underground space.

In the center of the room was a spiritual array with blue fluorescence that was slowly rotating. The corners and ceilings were covered with winding snow lotuses. Lan Jin, who had been quietly following the three before, leaped into the snow lotus pile as if he had found his new favorite toy after playing about with the little creatures above ground.

There were four wooden bookshelves on both sides of the wall, with various books and scrolls placed on them in different categories. There was also a desk placed on the side and back, which seemed to be used as a place for reading and writing.

Shu Ye lifted the corner of his mouth and gave her an innocent wave as Yue Ran looked at him. Then, he found the nearest bookshelf and took down a book to flip through it.

Yue Ran and Hai Bing Tu also decided to take a book and read them respectively. The books and scrolls surprisingly had little to no dust on them, even with the long passing of time. It must have something to do with the rotating spiritual array with blue fluorescence at the heart of the room.

The books mostly recorded miscellaneous things, just as Hai Bing Tu said: the monthly expenditure of the sect. It is important to note that the cost of the Exalted Sea Sect to build temples, houses, and farmland for the people accounted for the largest proportion of the monthly expenses.

"August 13, 8 children."

After flipping through a few books for a while, Yue Ran suddenly caught a glimpse of some content that caught her attention.

"August 13, 8 children?" Yue Ran echoed the written words out loud in question. She turned her head to Hai Bing Tu and asked, "Hai Bing Tu, does the Exalted Sea Sect take in children?"

"About this... If the Exalted Sea Sect were to find any abandoned children, they would generally send them to towns with good relationships and find people to adopt them," Hai Bing Tu said. "If they come across someone with a talent for cultivation, they will bring them back to the Exalted Sea Sect to nurture as future talents, and that is also according to the process of recruiting disciples."

Yue Ran raised her brows. "Oh? Is that so..."

The young woman then frowned. She recalled that Hai Bing Tu had stated that several demon beast cubs were found in the Exalted Sea Sect. Could it be that...

A conjecture appeared in her mind, but Yue Ran did not say anything and continued to flip through the pages of the same book. Except for a minor increase in daily expenses, the things inside were no different from usual. When the date reached September, there was another record that read, "September 18, 12 children."

Reading this, Yue Ran could not help but ask, "Hai Bing Tu, do you remember anything unusual that happened in the Exalted Sea Sect in September?"

"In September?" Hai Bing Tu frowned and recalled seriously. She had been sleeping in the ice room for so long and could hardly remember many events that had happened in the past. Even if she tried to think hard right now, her past memories were still clumpy and fuzzy.

"Then, did you feel that there was a sudden increase in the number of children?" Yue Ran inquired.

"The increase in the number of children… Hmm…" Hai Bing Tu thought hard. "I only remember that during the Mid-Autumn Festival, my senior sister made a lot of sweet mooncakes and dumplings with meat fillings," she started saying. "I remember this memory deeply because I was greedy for good food at that time and wanted to steal some mooncakes from the warehouse," she admitted with a subtle embarrassment in her tone. "It was then that I saw a lot of meat. Most of the sect elders were vegetarians, and we have never seen so much meat-filling food present, even during festivals. Not to mention that the weather was not even cold in September. If there were so many piles of meat around, it would not take long for that meat to spoil and smell. It would be a waste just to have them around, really."

Hai Bing Tu seemed to be stimulated by the memory and spoke to Yue Ran slowly.

"Meat?" Yue Ran repeated this one word in thought.

Suddenly, Yue Ran's eyes lit up, seemingly to have come to an answer in her mind. She gave a nod and resumed to look through the book again.

The young woman looked through the page but did not see any more worthwhile information on the paper. It was not until she turned to the following page that she found something. The rows and columns on the page seem to be used to record some major events, such as the year, month, and day in which the Exalted Sea Sect participated in a martial arts conference and which disciples won what place; or which disciple did something good in a certain year and month was also noted down.

Most of the formats documented what the accomplishments that an individual achieved were, writing down when someone did something at a certain time and place, followed by a line of results. It was a very clean record and easily understandable.

There was one line, however, that claimed...