"Sir, the three of them have already left."
The sharp-chinned, monkey-faced man who had repeatedly claimed not to know anything at the tavern had respectfully knelt three meters away from a man lounging leisurely beneath a grape trellis in the back courtyard of a fabric shop.
If it had been a few months later, the man might have looked like a local rich man of some stature.
Unfortunately, it was the bitter cold of midwinter.
Although there had been no snowfall recently, the grape trellis was still withered and barren.
The small flowerbed around the rocking chair was likewise glaringly conspicuous at the moment.
"They left so quickly? These people really came to scout ahead!"
The man on the rocking chair slowly sat up.
Dark clouds gathered across his handsome face, so gloomy it seemed as though water might drip from it.
If Qin Shaofeng had been here, he would definitely have been shocked at first sight.
Yan Tianming!
The Black Tortoise Vice Sect Master of the Four Symbols Sect.
After leading his men to wipe out the Seven Stars Sect completely, he had begun pursuing the alliance's forces.
Unfortunately.
Whether it was the slackness among the alliance troops that he had anticipated, or rebellions caused by fear and the lack of a goal, none of it had happened.
Instead, forces and cities belonging to the Four Symbols Sect had begun to be destroyed one after another, immediately making him realize that something was wrong.
Over the past ten-odd days.
He had led his men in ambushes against Qin Shaofeng's group a full seven times.
Every ambush had indeed inflicted considerable casualties on Qin Shaofeng and the others, reducing their original group of more than a hundred to just over seventy.
Yet every person they had killed had been severely