162: So it was them?

"Untraceable."

Ye Xiao was rarely stunned upon hearing Zhou Yi's reply.

Zhou Yi didn't keep him in suspense. Without waiting for Ye Xiao to ask, he directly said, "Night Shadow Brother, don't misunderstand. It's not that I want to hide anything from you. It's that we can't find any clues about those buyers from back then. Those people seemed to appear out of thin air and then vanish into thin air. The only buyer we can confirm is Zhi Mingyue."

Ye Xiao fell silent after hearing this.

Listening to Zhou Yi's explanation, Ye Xiao's vigilance heightened a bit.

According to Zhou Yi, apart from Zhi Mingyue, who bought a godforged stone from him today, all previous buyers of godforged stones left no trace.

This was quite bizarre.

He had never imagined that selling a godforged stone would involve him in such an unknown vortex.

Even with Ye Xiao's current immense combat power, he had to be cautious.

At this moment, Zhou Yi, seeing Ye Xiao's expression, spoke again: "Night Shadow Brother, you don't need to worry. Although we can't trace the identities of those people, through years of secret observation, my Zhou Family has actually discovered a hint of something."

This time, Zhou Yi didn't keep him in suspense. Without waiting for Ye Xiao to ask, he directly said:

"In fact, it's not a huge secret; it's just that everyone isn't aware of the intricacies involved, so they subconsciously overlooked the unusual behavior of those people."

Upon hearing Zhou Yi's words, a thought flashed through Ye Xiao's mind, and he blurted out:

"The Eight Great Families?"

Zhou Yi praised with a chuckle, "Night Shadow Brother, your mind is quick, and your reaction is truly fast."

After a pause, Zhou Yi continued, "That's right, it's the Eight Great Families."

That's it! He should have thought of them sooner.

Ye Xiao quickly recalled everything in the Miasma Hidden Forest.

He had snatched his godforged stone from Zhao Xue, and Zhao Xue was a member of the Zhao Family.

Also, the first time he met Remi, Remi had mistakenly thought Ye Xiao was from the Qin Family.

In their subsequent conversation, Ye Xiao also confirmed from Remi's description that the Qin Family he spoke of was the Qin Family, one of the Eight Great Families.

And over the past few decades, although the Eight Great Families had been extremely low-key about the godforged stones.

However, there were too many descendants of the Eight Great Families, and gradually, the fact that the Eight Great Families possessed godforged stones spread.

However, before this, regarding the Eight Great Families possessing godforged stones, people didn't have many other thoughts beyond envy.

After all, these eight families could be considered the top powers on Blue Star.

It wouldn't be surprising for them to possess godforged stones.

But now it was different. With his previous encounters, coupled with Zhou Yi's years of investigation and analysis, everything now made sense.

In the blink of an eye, Ye Xiao's thoughts became incredibly clear.

godforged stones are products of NPCs; this is almost beyond doubt.

And now, NPCs haven't all been wiped out as the outside world claims; according to Remi, the surviving NPCs have all hidden in the Unowned Secret Realm.

This was also why Ye Xiao wasn't shocked when Zhou Yi previously mentioned encountering NPCs in the Forest of Curses.

And during the Extinguish Yuan Battle, the Eight Great Families were the main force.

They clearly understood more about NPCs than others, so it was not surprising that they knew NPCs had not all died out.

In other words, the Eight Great Families had a much greater and more convenient chance of engaging in unknown transactions with these surviving NPCs than anyone else.

Ye Xiao even wondered if these NPCs who fled into the Unowned Secret Realm were intentionally allowed to do so by the Eight Great Families.

The purpose was to exchange for godforged stones, which greatly enhance Professionals?

This was not impossible.

Otherwise, how could one explain the continuous emergence of various powerhouses from the Eight Great Families over the past century?

In contrast, other forces found it difficult to maintain a large number of descendants becoming powerhouses in each generation, unlike the Eight Great Families.

The gap between them was not small at all.

At this point, Ye Xiao suddenly thought of something else.

Perhaps not every family among the Eight Great Families knew about this.

Take the Zhi Family, which occupies Liyue City, for example; they don't seem to have acquired many godforged stones.

Otherwise, they wouldn't have continuously declined over the past hundred years.

If it weren't for their strong foundation and their sudden allegiance to the Qin Family thirty years ago, willingly becoming their vassal...

The Zhi Family would probably have been removed from the Eight Great Families by now.

At the same time, Zhi Mingyue directly revealed her identity and spent 500 million to buy a godforged stone from him, indirectly proving this point.

After sorting out the cause and effect, Ye Xiao let out a long breath.

He was indeed a bit worried originally.

But after knowing that all of this might be related to the Eight Great Families, he felt a great sense of relief instead.

After all, he was already in an antagonistic relationship with the Eight Great Families.

At least the Zhao Family and he had irreconcilable differences, and their conflict had now reached a point of no return.

Since that was the case, there was nothing to be afraid of.

What he feared most were unseen enemies, as that would put him at a great disadvantage.

After collecting his scattered thoughts, Ye Xiao shook his head and then asked Zhou Yi, "So, what do you hope to gain by having me explore that Unowned Secret Realm?"

Zhou Yi was overjoyed to see Ye Xiao finally relent.

He had said so much, wasted so much breath, and all for this one sentence from Ye Xiao.

"It's simple, my Zhou Family also wants godforged stones."

Ye Xiao looked at him with a half-smile.

"Your ambition is not small. Aren't you afraid the Eight Great Families will find out?"