New Hidden Weapons

"Those are all... children's bones!" Liu Xu's eyes widened.

Inside the hidden compartment, the skeletons had been arranged in all manner of poses.

The skeletons were small; their ages were obvious at a glance.

Their sheer density made one's scalp tingle.

When she saw the wall filled with children's bones, Liu Xu recalled that there had been a man and a woman in this Blacksmith Shop, and suddenly remembered the identities of the pair.

A hundred schools of thought contended in the Great Chu Kingdom, with all kinds of factions rising and falling.

There had once been a married couple in the martial world who were still wanted by the authorities to this day.

The man was the Nether Blacksmith, and the woman was the Yin Chef.

These two inheritances were branches of spirit forging and spirit cooking, and were utterly wicked, intolerable to the world.

At the root of it lay the methods they used.

Things forged by the Nether Blacksmith needed to be quenched in fresh blood, while the ingredients in the Yin Chef's dishes were flesh and blood.

The flesh and blood they used had to come from children under five years old. As for the reason why, no one knew.

The two had abducted and slaughtered people wantonly, until they were wanted by both the authorities and the Bureau of Surveillance, fleeing in disgrace.

After they concealed their names and identities, the authorities had continued tracking their whereabouts, while the Bureau of Surveillance had been searching for them with all its might.

Who would have thought that the two had fled to Sheng County and committed so many murders here?

"Could the deaths from before have all been their doing?" Liu Xu guessed.

She began sorting through her thoughts.

"There were blade marks. The battle at the scene was fierce."

"According to the information released by the Bureau of Surveillance, the Nether Blacksmith's methods of attack were mostly related to forging. He covered his entire body in iron armor, and his defenses were extremely strong."

"But so much time has passed. That does not mean he only had one set of iron armor. The Nether Blacksmith can forge; perhaps he made mechanisms that fired hidden weapons, creating those densely packed wounds."

"And there were blade marks. Perhaps they came from specially forged weapons. Aside from a Bureau of Surveillance clerk, the other dead were members of the Extreme Life Sect. Could it be that this couple clashed with the Extreme Life Sect, leading to a conflict? Then, by chance, a Bureau of Surveillance clerk passed through this place, and the three sides broke into battle?"

"If that is really what happened, it does make sense, but I still feel that something is off." Liu Xu frowned deeply.

She still remembered that the yamen had said the blade marks were orderly, as though they came from a set of saber techniques.

There were three martial artists' corpses at the scene, but not one of them used a saber.

If the blade marks had been made by the Nether Blacksmith, why would they contain saber techniques? The Nether Blacksmith was no martial artist.

After turning it over and over in her mind, Liu Xu reached a conclusion.

Someone else had been involved.

"But who exactly was this person? And the Nether Blacksmith couple has vanished." Liu Xu thought for a long time, yet had no clue at all.

This matter should have been handled by the Bureau of Surveillance. It concerned the martial world, and a clerk had died as well. The Bureau of Surveillance had probably already received word and was on its way.

But Liu Xu wanted to stick her oar in.

She was a scholar, one who read the books of sages and believed in governing the country and bringing peace to the world.

Azure Cloud Academy had always taught the same, and every student of Azure Cloud Academy acted according to the academy's teachings.

But Liu Xu did not see it that way.

If one cannot sweep one room, how can one sweep the world?

Governing the country and bringing peace to the world was a lofty ideal; confronting injustice when one encountered it meant focusing on the present.

So many lives had been lost. Sheng County's safety had already been seriously threatened.

Before the Bureau of Surveillance arrived, she at least had to ensure that no further major incident occurred here.

"I'll leave first. Later, I'll look into these two." Liu Xu stopped dwelling on it and turned to leave.

The night grew ever darker, and her figure vanished into the darkness.

The next day.

Xu Bai rubbed his eyes, yawned, and climbed out of bed.

It was another calm and peaceful day. If not for what had happened last night, it would have been even calmer and more peaceful.

The first thing he did every morning was wash up, then head out for breakfast.

As usual, he went to the street stall today.

But when he arrived, he found no one in front of it.

The stall was empty, and Xiao Yue was nowhere to be seen.

"Not open today?"

Xu Bai waited where he was for a while, but no one came to set up the stall. He turned and left.

After finding another place and casually eating something, he did not go home. Instead, he went to the outskirts to look for materials to make hidden weapons.

Maple Leaves Like Rain was a good skill; he could not let it sit idle. Though the Iron Beads were gone, he could find another way.

The street in Sheng County sold nothing but little trinkets. When Xu Bai stopped before a small stall, its owner hurried over to greet him.

"Customer, what would you like to look at?"

Xu Bai squatted down and rummaged through the items at the stall. At last, he picked something out, placed it in his palm, and asked, "How much is this?"

Resting in his palm was an iron needle, marked with rust.

"Customer, that isn't worth anything. I just put it there casually, to sew things with now and then," the owner hurriedly explained.

A piece of clothing lay beside the stall, with several holes in it.

"I need one at home. The Blacksmith Shop seems to be closed, and I don't know what happened." Xu Bai looked through the other items again. "I don't need anything else."

Hearing that, the owner looked awkward and somewhat conflicted.

He had been running his stall all morning without selling a single thing. Now a customer had come, but he was not interested in anything else.

But how could he charge someone for a single needle?

The owner was an honest man. No matter how poor he was, he felt he could not cheat someone out of money over something like this.

After thinking it over, he said, "Customer, if you really want this needle, pick out something else. I'll give you the needle as a gift."

"Fine." Xu Bai did not waste words. He casually chose a Small Stool and asked, "How much?"

The Small Stool was woven from bamboo, clearly made by the owner himself.

The owner held up two fingers. "Two copper coins."

Xu Bai took out two copper coins from his waist and handed them to the owner.

After doing all this, he asked casually, as though it had just occurred to him.

"Boss, if I take this needle, what will you use yourself?"

Having made his first sale of the day, the owner was delighted.

Upon hearing Xu Bai's question, he answered instinctively, "It's fine, customer. I still have some at home. Once the Blacksmith Shop opens, I can have him make more."

Xu Bai stroked his chin. "There are no other Blacksmith Shops here?"

"There are, but ever since the last Blacksmith Shop in our county opened, all the other blacksmiths inexplicably left." The owner did not seem annoyed at all and answered swiftly.

"I see."

Having gotten what he wanted to know, Xu Bai prepared to leave.

"Take care, customer," the owner said with a nod and a bow.

Along the way, Xu Bai continued thinking about what he could use instead.

Needles would not work. He could not collect them in large quantities without drawing attention.

The Blacksmith Shop appeared to be closed, but in truth, everyone there had already been buried by him.

As for why there had only been one Blacksmith Shop, Xu Bai guessed that the couple had wanted a monopoly so they could make more money, which was why they had pulled such a stunt.

Otherwise, they would not have come looking for trouble with him over money.

But Maple Leaves Like Rain truly required hidden weapons.

What should I use?

Xu Bai swung the Small Stool in his hand, then suddenly stopped.