Investigation

"My lord, what is it?"

When Liu Song and the others saw Chen Mu emerge from the courtyard with an unusually grave expression, they all gathered around him.

Chen Mu said nothing more, only shook his head and led the group back to the City Guard, while sending someone to find Min Baoyi.

As it happened.

Min Baoyi had not gone drinking with anyone that day. He was listening to music at a teahouse on the back street. Upon learning that Chen Mu wished to see him, he smiled, casually tossed a few copper coins onto the table, and followed the runner who had delivered the message back to the City Guard.

The moment he arrived at the City Guard, he saw Chen Mu waiting at the entrance, his face solemn. Min Baoyi froze slightly, realizing that something major might truly have happened. He gave Chen Mu a small nod and, without asking directly at the door, led him straight into the City Guard Hall.

Before long.

After reaching the innermost part of the City Guard Hall and dismissing everyone else, Min Baoyi asked Chen Mu:

"What happened?"

"It was like this..."

Chen Mu swiftly reported his successive investigations and all the circumstances he had uncovered.

After hearing him out, Min Baoyi's expression also turned grave. "Guardian God..."

In truth, he knew perfectly well about both the disappearances and the appearance of the Gray-skinned Rats. After all, his eyes and ears were everywhere throughout Nine Stripes Ward. But a hundred or so people disappearing over several months had not seemed like a major matter to him, so he had not paid it much attention. As for the Gray-skinned Rats, he had cared even less.

But now, Chen Mu had brought him another piece of information: the Gray-skinned Rats and the disappearances were very likely both connected to the Black Crow Sect. That gave him a faint sense of foreboding.

After a brief silence.

Min Baoyi rose to his feet and said in a low voice, "This matter truly is no small thing. I must report it to Lord Xu first. Stay at the City Guard and wait for news."

With that, he hurried out.

With all those clues leading to the Black Crow Sect, this was not something he, a mere Runner Office chief, could decide alone. The Black Crow Sect's influence extended across several wards; it was not a local gang of Nine Stripes Ward. If it were merely a matter of mobilizing some men to investigate the Black Crow Sect, that would be fine. But if large-scale action was to be taken, the matter had to be reported upward.

After Min Baoyi left, Chen Mu remained sitting quietly in the hall. His gaze was sharp and cold. He could ignore ordinary matters, but if the Black Crow Sect truly harbored some mad and inhuman scheme, it had to be strangled in the cradle. Just imagining a few possible scenarios was terrifying enough; if any one of them came to pass, the entire Outer City might be turned into a living hell.

After waiting half a day.

Min Baoyi finally returned to the City Guard.

The news he brought Chen Mu was that Xu Hongyu took the matter quite seriously. However, she instructed Nine Stripes Ward not to make any major moves for the time being, only to keep an eye on the Black Crow Sect in secret. She would dispatch additional personnel to investigate the matter thoroughly.

Upon receiving those instructions, Chen Mu relaxed slightly. What he had feared most was that Xu Hongyu would not care about this matter and simply turn a blind eye to it. After all, people in this world might not react to disasters as strongly as he did.

Although Xu Hongyu had not immediately ordered the Nine Stripes Ward Guard Office to act, instead sending people to investigate first, as long as she was paying attention to the matter, it was not the same as letting it run its course.

This had long ceased to be a simple matter of Zhang Youying's disappearance.

Chen Mu's concern ran far deeper than usual.

"Don't worry. A little Black Crow Sect can't stir up much of a storm."

Seeing that Chen Mu still wore a solemn expression, Min Baoyi smiled and patted him on the shoulder. "As for that distant cousin of yours, I've had my men help look for her too. As long as she's within Nine Stripes Ward, she can't possibly vanish into thin air."

Chen Mu cupped his hands and thanked Min Baoyi. Min Baoyi merely waved dismissively. "Why thank me? When you have the time, just treat me to a drink."

Seeing that the sky was gradually darkening, Min Baoyi stood and spoke with Chen Mu for a while before the two left the City Guard together.

Chen Mu soon returned home.

Chen Hong was still waiting at his house. The moment she saw him return, she hurried forward to ask for news.

Naturally, the matter of the Black Crow Sect was not suitable to discuss in detail. Chen Mu only told her that he had found a few leads and had already asked the Runner Office to investigate. For now, they could only wait for news. After comforting Chen Hong for a while, he sent her home.

That night.

A black curtain shrouded the sky, and the moonlight was dim.

The Black Crow Sect Headquarters lay in pitch-black gloom, without the faintest trace of candlelight. It seemed everyone had already gone to sleep.

A shadow silently appeared outside the cluster of buildings. Under the cover of night, it was almost impossible to make out any trace of him. The figure moved nimbly, coming and going across eaves and wall corners with ease as he examined every building in the area.

"Strange."

Chen Mu stopped on an eave and looked over the dark Black Crow Sect Headquarters, a flicker of doubt passing through his eyes.

With his current strength, the person he trusted most was naturally himself. After nightfall, he had quietly made his way to the Black Crow Sect Headquarters to investigate. Yet after circling the place once, he had found no sign of anything unusual.

It was not that he distrusted Xu Hongyu's actions. Rather, the Black Crow Sect had territory in several wards, and its entanglements ran deep. He did not know which part Xu Hongyu was investigating, so he might as well conduct his own secret investigation.

The entire area was dim and dark, as though everyone had long since gone to sleep. Compared with gangs that operated at night, the Black Crow Sect did not even have sentries. It truly seemed to be nothing more than an ordinary sect that prayed during the day.

Chen Mu's hearing and sight were now exceptionally keen. He could hear the slightest movement. Crouching at the corner of an eave, he could almost hear the breathing of someone sleeping soundly in the room below.

After a brief moment of thought.

Chen Mu flashed away several times and found a relatively secluded room. With a slight exertion of his palm, he shook open the window and flipped directly inside. There was only a bed in the room, upon which slept a Black Crow Sect follower.

Chen Mu seized the man by the throat, jolting him awake from his dream while preventing him from making any sound.

Without asking anything, Chen Mu grabbed the man and flipped back out through the window. He swiftly left the Black Crow Sect Headquarters, only stopping after reaching a secluded alley. Then he threw the man down and said coldly, "I ask, you answer. Otherwise, you die."

The Black Crow Sect follower was already drenched in cold sweat, his face deathly pale. When Chen Mu had carried him across the eaves, he had realized that this man was at least a Martial Warrior at the Flesh Tempering stage. Within the Black Crow Sect, such a person would at minimum be a branch master, perhaps even someone on the level of the Vice Leader. He was utterly beyond the follower's ability to resist.

"Y-yes... yes..."

He answered in a trembling whisper.

Chen Mu asked in a deep voice, "The people you captured, where did you take them?"

"W-what people captured?"

The follower replied fearfully, his face full of confusion.

Chen Mu frowned. Seeing that the man did not seem to be playing dumb, he continued, "What are you trying to do by producing so many Gray-skinned Rats?"

"Gray-skinned Rats?"

The follower looked even more confused, utterly blank. His voice trembled as he said, "There have been lots of gray-skinned rats these past few days. Wang Liu next door even killed and ate one."

Chen Mu grew calmer instead after hearing that. He continued, "I heard that besides the Black Crow God, your Black Crow Sect also worships some Guardian God?"

At Chen Mu's words, the follower became even more bewildered, as if lost in a fog. He had no idea what Guardian God Chen Mu was talking about.

As expected, an ordinary sect follower knew nothing when asked.

Chen Mu was not particularly surprised by his reaction. Yin Hong could not possibly have fabricated a Guardian God out of thin air; there would have been no point. Since she had been able to reveal such information, it had to be real.

And now that an ordinary Black Crow Sect follower knew nothing when questioned, it only further proved that matters involving the so-called Guardian God belonged to a relatively secretive level within the Black Crow Sect, making them all the more suspicious.

"T-this, sir, I... urgh."

The follower looked at Chen Mu, trembling. But his words came to an abrupt halt halfway through, his throat already crushed.

Chen Mu coldly flung out his hand.

Another nameless corpse lay in the roadside ditch.

Once, he had been responsible for handling corpses like this every day. Now, he had become a maker of nameless corpses himself. Yet he did not know who would come to clean it up tomorrow morning, or who would dispose of it.