"The sudden change in topic caught Wu Jinliang off guard, but he quickly grasped the situation. His eyes lit up in an instant, "He's lost his cultivation, and in these wild mountains, even if they want to silence him, they wouldn't leave him unprotected. You're dreaming pretty, but either way they won't let us off. If there's a chance, we'll have to try and see, what if we succeed?"
Obviously, he was a desperado who didn't want to miss an opportunity to fight for his life.
"They've already sent a message. If nothing unexpected happens, people will arrive soon. Take a detour." Shi Chun pointed to the exit of the canyon, signaling to bypass it from the outside. He moved to the mouth of the canyon to peek outside as he spoke.
Wu Jinliang ripped off the clothes around his neck and stuffed them haphazardly into his pack. Glancing at the bodies on the ground, he hoisted his knife and ran over to Shi Chun to complain, "You, if you were returning, why bother taking their lives? Don't you find it tiring?"
"Their deaths here will prove even more that we've escaped." Shi Chun dropped these words and swiftly set off on the road.
Wu Jinliang was startled, then realized the logic; only by letting people mistakenly think they had fled could they safely sneak back. Even if they had no chance to strike, they could still slip away quietly.
He let out a heh-heh laugh and likewise darted after Shi Chun.
The two didn't take the same route they had come by. Shi Chun led the way, relying on the locations of the hidden personnel he had seen in the mysterious vision from his right eye, and they found a different route back. They were mainly afraid of running into enemy reinforcements who had received the message.
In fact, the enemy's aid arrived swiftly, already reaching the earlier ambush point of the two who had been killed.
Leading them was a sturdy masked man in full clothing, even wearing boots on his feet, followed by over a dozen masked figures.
Seeing no one around and after circling the site to spot fluorescent fingerprint markers, the group immediately gave chase.
The site of the murder wasn't far from there in reality; the key was Shi Chun had feared a prolonged night would lead to many dreams, so he acted close by without dragging out the time.
The dozen masked men arrived quickly at the scene of the crime in the canyon. They paused upon smelling the blood and then discovered the bodies.
The masked leader pulled out a dainty fire striker from his waist, lit it, and personally lifted the masks from two heads. After inspecting the faces of the dead, he exhaled deeply, checked the surrounding environment of the fight, then walked to the outside of the canyon and stared into the undulating wilderness of the night for a long while.
Unsure of the killer's whereabouts and knowing it was futile to chase blindly, he turned around and left a message before departing alone, "Deal with the aftermath."
Hurrying in a flying leap, he didn't go anywhere else but rushed directly to the mining area.
A bright moon shimmered brilliantly in the night sky, its cold light spilling like liquid mercury.
At the entrance to the mine, Qi Ziru sat on the lounge chair resting with his eyes closed, flanked by two sedan-bearers, while seven or eight Supervisors guarded the entrance.
Shen Youkun wasn't there; his uncle from outside the mine had sent him in to personally oversee the work.
A figure flew down directly from the mountain into the valley, and the guards at the entrance looked over, one of them shouting, "Who goes there?"
The guards drew their weapons one after another, and Qi Ziru opened his eyes to see a sturdy masked man walking unhurriedly towards them. He immediately spoke to reassure those by his side, "It's nothing, he's one of ours."
The masked man didn't approach; he stopped several yards away and nodded slightly to Qi Ziru.
Qi Ziru pushed himself to his feet, refusing the aid of the sedan-bearers, and also stopped them from following as he walked over to the masked man. The man immediately followed him.
The Supervisors at the entrance exchanged glances, sensing the formidable power of Shen Youkun's side and realized there were additional forces at play.
Qi Ziru stopped walking once they reached a spot that was likely safe from eavesdroppers, and without speaking, he waited.
The masked big man leaned in and reported in a low voice, "Someone has broken through our perimeter and killed two of our men."
"I thought you were coming with good news." Qi Ziru's face darkened, and he turned to look at him, "The 'Magical Treasure' I gave you couldn't subdue the opponent?"
The masked man said, "It wasn't of any use. The assailant was too quick, unnaturally so. I arrived as fast as I could and still, it was too late, I didn't catch a glimpse of the murderer, who or how many they were.
"Judging by the location of the incident, our men must have been close on the killer's heels when they were discovered. Moreover, the scene lacked even a single extra mark of struggle, indicating the fight ended very swiftly.
"Considering the manner of the killings, it seems they were done by the same person—one didn't even have time to draw their weapon. Thus, the assassin must be either so powerful that our men had no chance to fight back or escape, or it was an ambush. Regardless of which, this killer is not simple. Are they among those who escaped from here?"
He finished speaking and waited in silence.
Qi Ziru looked visibly displeased. He obviously knew who was responsible but hadn't expected his carefully arranged outer defenses to be so easily breached, and that person to have slipped away so readily, making them, uncle and nephew, look rather foolish.
He had been worried that his backup might not hold, and indeed, there had been a leak. It seemed this matter would have to be reported to the family.
He had considered concealing it, but then thought of the informed person who had fled, the Master, not knowing what he would do with the stolen 'Qiankun Bag,' not knowing if he would expose the secret one day. After weighing the options, he discarded the idea of covering it up.
After a few deep breaths to calm his emotions, he slowly said, "The business here is nearly concluded. Gather the men and have them stand by in this area."
"Alright," the masked man nodded in acknowledgment and then turned to leave, leaping up to the mountain peak and disappearing.
Hidden in the shadows of the nearby hillside, Shi Chun and Wu Jinliang clung to the mountain without daring to move, watching the masked man depart.
They had just arrived.
Indeed, the one who left earlier hadn't arrived before the masked man. The latter dared to race in a straight line at full speed, while they were more cautious.
When they quietly approached the edge of the valley and could view the situation within the valley and at the entrance of the mine, Qi Ziru had already laid back down in his chair.
"Why does it feel like there are no more guards on the mountain? They couldn't have been killed off so quickly, could they?" Wu Jinliang whispered curiously.
Shi Chun gestured to him to be silent and shut up, even though they were hiding further away, it was better to be safe.
What followed was a dull wait. Apart from observing the surroundings, Shi Chun also secretly used magic to inspect his own body and finally had some time to ponder the odd changes that happened when the Purple Shining Nebula entered his body.
As the stars shifted and the bright moon gradually moved to the other side, the time slowly reached the latter half of the night. Wu Jinliang, who was almost yawning, suddenly opened his eyes and gently nudged Shi Chun with his elbow.
Without needing the reminder, Shi Chun saw that Shen Youkun had come out from the cave, holding something in his hand that seemed to be glowing.
It was a lit incense stick. Shen Youkun approached the reclining chair, "Uncle, the work is complete, everything has been unearthed."
Qi Ziru glanced at the incense in his hand and asked, "Is it all lit?"
Shen Youkun nodded, casting a stealthy glance at the several guards stationed at the cave entrance.
Qi Ziru said to a sedan chair bearer beside him, "Call some people to carry the stuff."
Soon, a fiery trail burst forth from the hand of a sedan chair bearer, before exploding into fireworks in the sky.
Lying in the shadowy parts of the mountain, Shi Chun and Wu Jinliang both looked up.
Before long, a group of masked men rushed down from the side of the mine on the mountain, at least close to three hundred in number.
Wu Jinliang clenched his teeth and nudged Shi Chun again, making a gesture that indicated they were out of the game.
The masked brute leading the team stepped up to Qi Ziru to receive orders. Qi Ziru pulled a small black cloth pouch out of his sleeve and handed it to him, saying, "If it's hard to pack, tear it open and pack it. Not a single bone must be missed, load everything."
Most locals did not recognize this little black pouch, but Shen Youkun's eyes brightened. He knew what others did not, it was the magical treasure, the Qiankun Bag, with a not so small storage space inside. A magical treasure of this level was something he had never used before.
Unexpectedly, even this magical treasure had been brought into play, and now he understood how they planned to haul away such a large skeleton.
The masked brute took the pouch, nodded, and gestured for the men to head straight into the mine.
As a group of people passed by the seven or eight guards at the entrance, a flurry of cold light and shadows flashed by, followed by several screams of agony.
Upon entering the cave, the leading masked brute shouted, "Remember, leave no one alive!"
Immediately, a sound of weapons being drawn echoed behind him.
By the time the large group had all entered the cave, seven or eight bodies lay at its entrance.
Shen Youkun glanced at his uncle reclining on the lounge chair, eyes closed in meditation, then at the corpses in a pool of blood, smelling the thick stench of blood. Despite this, he couldn't help but twitch his lips—his fear of this uncle was not unfounded.
Hiding in the darkness, Shi Chun and Wu Jinliang exchanged glances. The latter whispered, "It's really started!"
The mine was filled with the smell of fireworks, with a thin mist floating around, and the occasional incense stick still burning on the cave walls.
Walking deeper into the mine, they began to see fallen individuals, more and more as they moved forward.
Someone crouched down to examine them and seeing each face blue with bulging eyes, speculated in confusion, "Have they been poisoned?"
No sooner had the words fallen than someone leaning against the wall gasped for air, "No, boss, there's something wrong with the smoke in this cave."
Similar reactions followed one after another, the scene quickly turning chaotic.
"Boss, we need to retreat, it's poisonous!"
But the leading masked brute ignored the commotion and continued on. As he moved farther away, he faintly responded, "Too late, you've been ingesting it for over a month, the primer has been activated."
The confused crowd didn't catch what he said, as people began to fall one after another.
Some tried to rush out of the cave but none made it, collapsing halfway.
At the end of the mine, at the "T" junction, the masked brute saw the Dragon Bone and unfurled the Qiankun Bag...
When he reappeared outside the cave, he was the only one walking out, and behind him in the mine, there was a thunderous rumbling sound.
Lying on the ground, Shi Chun and Wu Jinliang exchanged anxious glances, feeling the violent trembling emanating from the earth with each burst, uncertain of what was happening.
Boom! In the booming sound, a huge puff of smoke erupted from the mine, clearly visible in the moonlight, leaving the lone masked brute to face the impact on his back as his entire figure was swallowed by thick dust.
The two sedan chair bearers had already taken Qi Ziru to a safe distance and had also pulled along Shen Youkun.
Shi Chun muttered to himself with a look of shock, "It's collapsed!"
Wu Jinliang felt the same way, unsure of what method those people used to collapse the mine, letting only one person out?
Both were somewhat shaken; they had originally thought the plan was simply to silence the original inhabitants of the mine, and upon seeing the subsequent three hundred people committing murder, they thought their trip had been in vain, losing their chance to strike. However, they didn't expect the others to wipe out those three hundred as well.
It wasn't long before the masked brute walked out of the rolling smoke and offered the Qiankun Bag to Qi Ziru.
After checking it, Qi Ziru nodded with satisfaction and said, "Let's go."
The two sedan chair bearers lifted him up to depart, while the masked brute grabbed Shen Youkun's arm, both of them fleeing towards the mountain top.
Hiding in the shadows, Shi Chun's face flashed with ferocity as he grabbed Wu Jinliang's shoulder and said in a low voice, "Just kill those three, the other two are useless. Two against three, do you dare to go?"
"Hehe, my big blade has been thirsting for blood!" Wu Jinliang said with a sneer as he sprung up, dragged his large blade, and charged towards their target.