"Is there anything we can do?"
Xue Wu gritted her teeth. "Dad, the man is already dead. We need to dispose of the body quickly, before Spirit Hall finds this place."
Listening to them talk over one another, Si Long's face went pale, then green. In the end, he sighed.
"Don't touch anything else for now. Close the warehouse early tonight. I'll think of something."
Afterward, Si Long arranged for people to hastily clear away the bloodstains and body, then had his trusted men shut the warehouse doors, claiming only that the upper floor had leaked and needed repairs.
He then led Xue Li, Wu Changkong, and the others through the warehouse's back entrance and into the Blacksmith Association's upper-level council chamber.
Inside the council chamber, a heavy long table stood in the center, with several lamps illuminating the room.
Three people were already seated around the table.
One had a calm expression, while another had thick brows and a square face, his posture tense.
The last looked the youngest, with refined features.
The three were all Lou Gao's personal disciples: Si Di, Si Yu, and Si Kai.
They all wore the Blacksmith Association's gray-blue short robes, with hammer patterns embroidered on their cuffs.
"What exactly happened? Why did you summon all of us here in the middle of the night?" Si Kai was the first to ask.
Si Di looked toward Wu Changkong and the others. "And who are these children?"
Si Long shut the door, sat beside Si Di, and recounted everything that had happened in the warehouse from beginning to end.
He neither concealed anything nor embellished it.
He explained how Miles had failed to buy on credit, how he had provoked them, how he had demanded that Wu Changkong kneel and apologize, and how Wu Changkong