Chapter 9 - Speculation

Su Mo did not even know the real name of the person who claimed to be surnamed Xu. After he stabilized himself, he immediately sat up.

The other party's originally elegant and graceful appearance was now completely changed.

The continuous rolling on the ground was naturally not gentle. Not only was his face bruised and swollen, but blood was also flowing down the corner of his mouth. He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could say anything, he spat out a large mouthful of blood.

When he looked up again, Su Mo was already in front of him.

"This is… impossible…"

He said with difficulty, "You, you… Unless your internal energy has reached the Transcendent State, it's impossible for you to be oblivious to this Bone Eroding Incense!"

Bone Eroding Incense?

Su Mo nodded. "Let's not talk about the Bone Eroding Incense and my internal energy for now. How could you be so sure that I was poisoned?"

???

The person who fell to the ground widened his eyes in disbelief.

Su Mo said with a smile, "It's said that when a medical expert uses poison, there are many unpredictable changes. One or two completely non-toxic items can form the world's ultimate poison if placed in the same environment. Since you said that I'm cautious, how can I merely be careful of the content in this cup? The zither and the cauldron of incense look elegant, but with your malicious intent, I naturally have to be wary of the knife hidden under your zither, the arrow hidden in your sleeve, and the poison hidden within the incense!"

"Truth be told, before I stepped foot into this Falling Flower Pavilion and saw that cauldron of incense, I didn't take a single breath."

"In terms of internal energy, I can barely be considered to have some attainments. I can only hold my breath for a while."

All the blood drained from the face of the person in front of him. He thought of Su Mo being careful, but he did not expect him to be more than just wary of that cup of tea.

He was careful in all aspects!

Su Mo was highly skilled in martial arts and was extremely cautious. It was no wonder that the other party lost today.

He laughed bitterly. "You… How did you know I was harboring evil intentions?"

"Guess if I'd tell you or not?"

Su Mo said with a smile, "Alright, let's not talk about this nonsense anymore. I only want to ask you one thing. Other than you guys, does anyone else know about this Mysterious Principles Clasp and the Great Black Tortoise Cache?"

That person was stunned and his thoughts were clearly in a mess. He did not catch the information that Su Mo had revealed and only smiled sadly.

"If you want to kill me, then kill me. Why speak so much!?"

"Fine."

The moment Su Mo finished speaking, he struck the top of his head with his palm.

With a cracking sound, that person's eyes lost focus in an instant. There was no more divine light in them as he fell to the ground dead.

At this point, Su Mo was naturally ruthless.

On the one hand, he didn't think that he had any charisma that could make his opponents bow down to him and work for him wholeheartedly.

On the other hand, the meridians in this person's body had already been severed during the exchange of palms. Even if he was not given a quick death, he would only be struggling at death's door for a moment. In the end, he would still die.

Finally and most importantly…

Even with the chaos here, the people hiding outside did not make any move at all.

With a flick of his sleeve, Su Mo turned around and left.

After looking around, he stopped.

A person was leaning against the peach tree in front of him. That person had a knife stabbed into his heart. The blade was nailed to the tree trunk and pierced through it. Blood dripped from the tip of the knife onto the ground, mixing with the soil.

Su Mo also knew this person…

It was this young man who brought him to the Falling Flower Pavilion from Village View Restaurant.

A moment ago, this person was still alive and kicking, but now, he was dead on the spot.

He was not the only one. While walking around the peach blossom forest, he saw corpses either lying down or leaning against each other. They were all well settled. The only thing was that they were all dead.

That person and I were scheming against each other in the Falling Flower Pavilion, but there was a massacre outside…

From the looks of it, this method of killing was exactly the same as the one in the teahouse.

Su Mo turned around and walked towards the Falling Flower Pavilion again. As he walked, he thought to himself, Today's meeting was indeed because the other party wanted to capture me and obtain the brocade box and my martial arts. However, I was also using this to inquire about secrets from the other party. That person did not say much and most of what he said were lies.

However, after revealing his true intentions, he said a few words of truth.

Chef Zhou should be the one who died in the teahouse. As for Hu Piaopiao… She should be the only woman among them. Unless a man also has such a name…

What they are after is the mysterious clasp in this brocade box. For this, they are decisive and ruthless. They will not tolerate any negligence.

Only, judging from their way of doing things, they are fighting on their own. It is clear that they have other intentions.

However, the most important matter has yet to be answered.

Su Mo's last question was related to Chef Zhou's death.

Chef Zhou was dead, and Su Mo had easily passed Chef Zhou's trial. Now that he had come to this Falling Flower Pavilion and solved the biggest problem, the small hidden troubles had also been destroyed.

Obviously, there was someone else who was trying to pry into this matter.

The two people last night?

Su Mo once again came to the corpse whose meridians had been severed by him. He stared at the corpse and raised his eyebrows. It doesn't seem like it. One of the two used a rod and the other used a sword. The person who used the sword was like an unsheathed sword even when he was sitting or walking. He was obviously someone who was extremely skilled with the sword. It's not impossible for such a person to be killed with a sword, but the possibility of it is definitely not high.

No one should underestimate a swordsman's obsession with swords.

As for the one who used the rod… there was a strong smell of alcohol around him. These people had just died a while ago, and there was no smell of alcohol. It should not have much to do with these two people.

Those people killed Chef Zhou and then killed people in this peach blossom forest consecutively. Could it really be Wang Xianglin's people?

Or perhaps… there's another reason?

By the way, who is this Wang Xianglin?

Su Mo suddenly thought of something as he stared at the corpse.

He immediately put on his deerskin gloves and squatted down to rummage through the corpse. Moments later, his face lit up with joy.

"This is the real reward."

There was now a stack of banknotes in his hands which amounted to about a hundred taels.

"You brought so much money when you went out to kill people. Serves you right for being killed and having your corpse searched…"

Su Mo examined the banknotes carefully before keeping them in his luggage.

As for the other items on this person's body, he did not touch them at all. The poison and antidote were not marked, and they were differentiated by color. Su Mo did not know what they were either. If he took them rashly, he would not know how to use them and might harm himself.