"You... how did you know?"
Zhou Hu's face was filled with terror. He had indeed lied just now, not wanting to implicate the City Lord's Estate.
Liu Wuxie's words completely shattered his confidence. He had never imagined that Qi Enshi had used him. Before he could even mention borrowing money, Qi Enshi had brought it up himself and helped him raise a sum of gold coins.
"It's simple. The Stone-Breaking Army rarely leaves its barracks, much less comes to a place like Canglan City, where not even birds bother to shit. Would a mere thousand-man commander be qualified to reminisce with a city lord? You were obviously lying. You have something on Qi Enshi, but he doesn't dare offend the Stone-Breaking Army."
"The only solution was to kill with a borrowed blade: lure you to Perching Wind Gorge to slaughter the Xu Household's guards, then use my father-in-law to kill you. Even if news leaked that members of the Stone-Breaking Army had been killed, it would have nothing to do with the City Lord's Estate. The Xu Household would be the culprit."
The first two times, they had only robbed without killing, intending to make the Xu Household take the matter seriously.
They lured them in step by step. With the Xu Household's weapon shops unable to open, Xu Yilin would surely grow anxious and personally escort the shipment. At that point, the Wan Household and Tian Household approached him, offering ten million gold coins to enlist the Stone-Breaking Army. Each link led into the next.
Zhou Hu and his men would kill the Xu Household's guards, Xu Yilin would appear, and then he would kill the Stone-Breaking Army men. What a perfect plan.
Holding the position of city lord, how could Qi Enshi willingly submit to threats? Although Zhou Hu's status was beneath his, he bore the title of a thousand-man commander of the Stone-Breaking Army. Qi Enshi dared not act against him openly, so he could only use the Xu Household and manipulate everything from the shadows.
The hidden hand stirring up the waves behind the scenes was none other than the City Lord's Estate.
Though Liu Wuxie had not personally been involved, his analysis was as though he had been there himself. His deductions about every detail, and even the contents of their conversations, were very close to the truth.
"Qi Enshi, you bastard! I treated you like a brother, yet you set me up and used someone else to silence me! I covered up your filthy deeds for over twenty years. I never thought you'd turn on me so heartlessly."
Instead, Zhou Hu found himself unable to hate Liu Wuxie. Qi Enshi had manipulated everything, and he, too, was a victim.
"What did Qi Enshi do back then that gave you something to hold over him?"
Liu Wuxie asked. This leverage might prove useful in the future. He could use it to pressure the City Lord's Estate into siding with the Xu Household at a critical moment.
At the mention of this matter, Zhou Hu's expression became hideously savage. Both his eyes were blind, blood seeping from them, making him look terrifying.
"Twenty-five years ago, we went out on a mission together. While passing through a small town, we happened upon a beautiful woman. Who knew that Qi Enshi had a beast's heart beneath a human face? After seeing her, his bestial nature erupted, and he raped and murdered her. To silence all witnesses, he slaughtered every resident in the town-a full ten thousand people-and made it look like a Demon Beast attack."
At the mention of this, Zhou Hu ground his teeth in hatred. Qi Enshi had pleaded with him for several days, offering a large sum of gold coins to seal his lips.
Over the next few years, Qi Enshi periodically gave Zhou Hu gold coins to squander.
Several years passed in the blink of an eye. With his extraordinary talent, Qi Enshi had risen from a lowly soldier to a city lord. Zhou Hu knew his own status was inferior, and since so much time had passed, there was no need to rake up old accounts.
Some days earlier, in Imperial Capital City, he had embezzled funds from the Stone-Breaking Army and gambled away ten million gold coins. Those coins were meant for military expenses. If he could not fill the hole, the outcome was easy to imagine: punishment under military law, with his head cut off for public display.
Finally, he had thought of Qi Enshi. As a city lord, he was surely dripping with wealth. Zhou Hu would first borrow ten million gold coins from him to plug the hole, then think of another solution.
"With only your one-sided account, even if you spoke out, Qi Enshi could simply deny everything. After all, so many years have passed. Not even the bones remain, and the dead cannot testify."
Liu Wuxie continued probing. More than twenty years had passed. How many people could still remember what had happened in that town?
"Back then, I deliberately took a precaution and made a copy of the town's records. When I came to Canglan City this time and mentioned the records, Qi Enshi didn't believe me at first. All information about the town had been erased. When I brought out the first set of records, he was surprisingly calm. Instead, he comforted me and said he'd help fill the hole. So that was it. He was killing with a borrowed blade."
Zhou Hu's eyes seemed ready to split with rage. From beginning to end, Qi Enshi had been running circles around him.
"Where are the records hidden now?"
Finding the records would mean gaining control over Qi Enshi. With that leverage in hand, he would obediently do as he was told from then on.
"If I tell you, will you spare my life?"
Guided by his senses, Zhou Hu directed his hollow eyes toward Liu Wuxie.
"No!"
The killing of the Stone-Breaking Army men absolutely could not be leaked. The answer made Zhou Hu shudder, before a bitter smile appeared on his face. Anyone else would probably have done the same. Only by cutting the grass out by its roots could future trouble be eliminated forever.
"I can agree to tell you where the records are kept, but you must agree to one condition as well. Otherwise, I'll bite off my tongue and kill myself right now. Don't even dream of getting those records."
Zhou Hu's heart had turned to cold ashes. In his current state, even if he were allowed to leave, where could he go? With his cultivation lost and both eyes blind, he was worse than a cripple.
"Go on. What's your condition?"
Deacon Qi had already moved away. What followed involved too many secrets, so he stood in the distance, keeping watch for them to prevent anything from leaking.
"Help me kill Qi Enshi and avenge me."
The veins on Zhou Hu's face bulged one by one. All of this had been the scheme of that despicable villain, Qi Enshi.
"I can't promise you outright, but I'll do my best. You understand what I mean."
Liu Wuxie did not explicitly agree. Zhou Hu was no fool and heard the meaning between his words. The City Lord's Estate had already waded into these muddy waters. Clearly, it could not simply withdraw.
Sooner or later, it would have to fight the Xu Household. Who would live and who would die remained unknown.
With the crisis at the Xu Household's purple gold mine resolved, the Wan Household and Tian Household's plan had failed. With the Stone-Breaking Army men's whereabouts and fate unknown, Qi Enshi would surely be sitting on a bed of needles, trying every possible way to uncover the reason, find the hidden records Zhou Hu had mentioned, and destroy them.
The breakthrough still lay with the Xu Household. Only the Xu Household knew best about the Stone-Breaking Army men's mysterious disappearance. Qi Enshi did not dare act openly, so he would use every means at his disposal in secret to destroy the Xu Household.
"Even in Imperial Capital City, your strength would rank among the very best. Sooner or later, Canglan City won't be able to contain you. I believe you can kill Qi Enshi. I brought three volumes of records, hidden in Courtyard D of the Yuelai Inn. Once you enter, they're beneath the tenth brick. Lift it and you'll see them. The remaining records are hidden in the courtyard of one of my concubines in Imperial Capital City."
Zhou Hu told Liu Wuxie both places where the records were hidden, a trace of desolation appearing on his face.
"Safe travels."
The short saber left its sheath, and Zhou Hu's body shriveled bit by bit. A Spirit Cleansing Realm body possessed a great quantity of essence Qi.
He turned into a sheet of human skin, and a Storage Bag fell to the ground. A powerful surging came from Liu Wuxie's Dantian. He was drawing ever closer to the third layer of Innate, only one step away.
The rest was left to Deacon Qi, who would ensure that not a single trace of the fight remained at the scene.
All fifteen guards gathered in one place, looking at Liu Wuxie with reverence, a trace of fear deep in their eyes.
"I don't want a single word about what happened today to leave your mouths. If I find out who leaked it, don't blame me for being ruthless."
As soon as Liu Wuxie finished speaking, a terrifying killing aura enveloped all sixteen of them, Deacon Qi included.
They had all witnessed him interrogating Zhou Hu. Even a dignified Spirit Cleansing Realm cultivator had lasted only five breaths. Used on them, it would kill them with pain in a single breath.
"Rest assured, young master. We won't breathe a single word of it."
Deacon Qi patted his chest in assurance, and all fifteen guards pledged together that they would never reveal what had happened today.
They understood better than anyone that killing members of the Stone-Breaking Army was a grave crime. If word got out, they would not merely lose their own heads; their families would be exterminated to the ninth degree of kinship. Only a fool would leak it.
The party continued on its way. Once they left Phoenix Roosting Gorge, they were more or less safe. They encountered no further trouble along the road, and half a day later, the exit from the Sunset Mountain Range came into view.
"Young master, aren't you coming back with us?"
Deacon Qi asked. They could reach Canglan City in another half day, so why was the young master not returning?
"I need to visit the mine. More experts from the Wan Household and Tian Household have come, intending to seize the purple gold mine. Get the ore back to the weapon shops as soon as possible."
With that, Liu Wuxie plunged into the Sunset Mountain Range, rushing toward the purple gold mine, hoping nothing unexpected would happen.
The Tian Household!
"Patriarch, Xu Yilin hasn't left Canglan City. He's still guarding the Xu Household and inspects the five weapon shops every day."
The scouts had remained around the Xu Household for the past few days, watching its every move clearly. Xu Yilin went out every morning and returned at night.
"Can they really bear to watch their weapon shops close?"
Tian Qisha's expression was gloomy. They had put considerable thought into this plan, intending to lure Xu Yilin out of Canglan City and use him to wipe out the Stone-Breaking Army men, while they seized the Xu Household's businesses in Canglan City.
"Patriarch, bad news! The Xu Household has brought back ten carts of purple gold ore. They've already entered the city!"
A scout hurried inside, panting, bringing the news back at the earliest opportunity.
"Impossible. Did they fail?" Tian Qisha muttered to himself. "Keep watching the Xu Household's every move. I'm going to the Wan Household."
With that, he rose and left the main hall, heading straight for the Wan Household.
Meanwhile!
Liu Wuxie returned to the Sunset Mountain Range and pressed onward at full speed, heading straight for the Xu Household's purple gold mine, roughly a day and a half's journey away.
The dozens of experts sent in by the Tian Household had already spent a day roaming the Sunset Mountain Range, yet still had found no sign of Liu Wuxie. They howled in fury.
This party contained not only Tian Household experts, but Wan Household experts as well.
"Elder, where did that brat run off to? We've searched practically the entire outer region of the Sunset Mountain Range, but there's no trace of him."
The Tian Household disciples lit a campfire and pitched camp. A full day's search had yielded no clues.
"No hurry. That brat won't get away."
The Tian Household elder entered his tent and sat cross-legged to rest. The other disciples patrolled the surroundings to guard against attacks by profound beasts.
A black silhouette approached without a sound, a sinister smile curling his lips.
"You're still too green to kill me."
When he entered yesterday, Liu Wuxie had known someone was following him, but deliberately pretended otherwise. With the matter of transporting the goods settled, it was time to deal with them.
The campfire crackled, its noise particularly piercing in the still night.
A patrolling disciple was just about to turn around when he suddenly felt a chill across his neck.