Wu Jinliang quickly understood the abrupt turn in the conversation, his eyes lighting up as he spoke, "He's lost his cultivation. In these desolate mountains, even if someone wants to silence us, they won't leave without protection. Your plan is daring, but in any case, we won't escape their grasp. We should take the chance; what if it works?"
Clearly, he was a risk-taker, unwilling to miss out on any opportunity to fight for his life.
"They've already signaled, and expectedly, more will soon arrive. We should take a detour," Shi Chun suggested, pointing towards the exit of the valley, indicating the need to circumvent it.
As he spoke, he darted to the edge and peeked outside.
Wu Jinliang haphazardly shoved the scarf he had been wearing around his neck into his bag and looked at the corpses on the ground.
Carrying his blade, he ran over to Shi Chun and complained, "Why go through the trouble of killing them when we're returning anyway? Isn't it exhausting?"
"Killing them makes it look like we’ve successfully escaped," Shi Chun replied before swiftly heading out.
Wu Jinliang paused for a moment of realization; indeed, only by making their pursuers believe they had run away could they safely return.
Even if there was no chance to strike, they could quietly make their escape.
With a sly grin, he chased after Shi Chun.
The two did not take the path they had come from.
Shi Chun led, using images from his right eye’s inexplicable vision of the enemy’s positions, choosing a safer route to sneak back to avoid running into enemy reinforcements.
True enough, the enemy reinforcements arrived quickly, reaching the previous hiding spot of their fallen comrades.
The leader was a sturdy masked man, who wore a complete set of clothes, even boots, followed by over a dozen masked subordinates.
Upon finding no one at the scene, they caught sight of some glowing prints and immediately pursued in that direction.
The murder scene wasn't far, and the key point was that Shi Chun acted quickly to prevent complications from arising.
The masked group soon reached the valley of the incident and stopped upon smelling the stench of blood, before discovering the bodies.
The musclebound leader fished out a finely crafted fire starter from his waist and ignited it, personally removing the masks from the victims to reveal their faces, letting out a long breath as he checked the scene’s surroundings before gazing into the distance of the plains under the night sky.
With no trace of the killers, and knowing a blind chase was pointless, he turned back and left a message, "Clean up here," before departing alone.
His swift departure took him straight to the mines, not venturing elsewhere.
A bright moon glowed brilliantly in the night sky, casting its cold light like a silver sheen over the scene.
On a recliner outside the mine, Qi Ziru relaxed with closed eyes, flanked by two sedan bearers standing guard.
At the entrance, seven or eight overseers maintained a strict watch.
Shen Youkun wasn't present; he had been urged by his uncle outside to supervise inside the mine personally.
A figure suddenly leapt from the mountain into the valley below, drawing the attention of the guards at the entrance.
Someone shouted, "Who goes there?"
The guards all drew their weapons, and Qi Ziru also opened his eyes, seeing the bulky masked man walking towards them leisurely and assured them, "It's alright, he's one of our own."
The masked man didn't approach any closer, stopping several zhang away and nodding slightly at Qi Ziru.
Qi Ziru propped himself up, refusing assistance from his bearers, and prevented them from following, before walking alone to meet the masked man who immediately joined him.
The guards exchanged glances, realizing Shen Youkun's forces were formidable, yet there was another team at play.
Once they were at a spot safe from eavesdroppers, Qi Ziru finally stopped, remaining silent but attentive.
The masked man leaned in to speak in a low voice, "Someone broke through our perimeter and killed two of our men."
"I thought you came to deliver good news," Qi Ziru's expression turned grim, looking at him with displeasure.
"Even with what I gave you, you couldn't hold them at bay?"
The masked man replied, "I didn't get to use it. They acted too fast, faster than normal. Even though I rushed to the scene as fast as I could, I was too late. I didn’t see who did it or how many there were."
"From the marks at the scene, they barely got far before our men were killed. There weren't even signs of a struggle, showing how quickly it ended. From how they died, it was likely one person who killed them both. One of them didn't even have the chance to draw his weapon. So, the attacker was either too skilled for our men to fight back or escape, or it was an ambush. Either way, this perpetrator is no ordinary assassin. Did they escape from here?"
He waited patiently for a response.
Qi Ziru's face darkened as he knew who was responsible.
It was surprising how effortlessly that scoundrel managed to slip away despite their meticulously laid traps, making their efforts seem almost laughable.
He had worried earlier that their backup might not hold, and indeed, it failed.
This matter would have to be reported to the clan now.
He had hesitated to report initially, considering whether to hide the truth, but realizing the escaped Big Boss knew the details, he dropped the idea.
There was no telling what might come to light one day.
After calming himself a few breaths, Qi Ziru spoke, "Wrap things up here quickly and pull our forces close to this area to await further orders."
The masked man nodded slightly and turned to leave, leaping up the mountainside and disappearing out of sight.
Nearby in a mountain hollow, Shi Chun and Wu Jinliang laid low, afraid to move.
They watched the masked man's retreating silhouette.
They had only just arrived.
Indeed, they set out first but the masked man, undeterred, flew straight across at full speed, while they had been more cautious.
When they stealthily reached the valley’s edge and could observe the mine entrance and valley, Qi Ziru was already resting in his recliner.
"It seems like all the guards on the mountain are gone. Have they already silenced everyone?" Wu Jinliang mused in a whisper.
Shi Chun gestured for him to remain silent, even at a distance it was better to be cautious.
They waited patiently, as Shi Chun quietly cast spells within himself, finally having time to ponder the strange occurrence of the purple sparkling nebula within him.
The celestial bodies began to shift as the bright moon moved across the sky.
Eventually, in the latter half of the night, as they both were nearly yawning, Wu Jinliang's eyes suddenly widened.
He nudged Shi Chun with his elbow.
Even without the warning, Shi Chun saw it too.
Shen Youkun emerged from the cave, something glowing in his hand.
It was a burning incense stick.
Shen Youkun approached the recliner, speaking, "Uncle, it’s done. We've dug it all out."
Qi Ziru glanced at the incense in his hand, asking, "Did you light them all?"
Shen Youkun nodded, sneaking a glance at the guards at the cave entrance.
Qi Ziru instructed one of the sedan bearers, "Call them over to carry the items."
Quickly, a flare was launched from the bearer's hand, exploding into fireworks overhead.
From their shadowy perch, Shi Chun and Wu Jinliang watched the display above.
Soon, a group of masked individuals rushed down from a mountainside beside the cave, nearly three hundred strong.
Wu Jinliang bared his teeth, nudging Shi Chun and gesturing that it was beyond them.
The masked man in charge came directly before Qi Ziru for instructions.
Qi Ziru reached into his sleeve, pulling out a small black fabric pouch and handed it over, saying, "If it doesn't fit, dismantle it. Not a single bone is to be left behind; collect them all."
Local people generally couldn't recognize the small black pouch, but Shen Youkun did, his eyes lighting up.
Others might not know, but he recognized it as the Universe Pouch, a spatial treasure with substantial storage.
He'd never had the chance to use such a high-level treasure himself.
To his surprise, even a spatial treasure had been brought in.
Now, he finally understood how they planned to move such a massive skeleton away.
The masked leader took the pouch, nodded, and signaled his men to head straight into the cave.
As the group passed by the cave entrance’s guards, a burst of cold light flashed, and screams of agony rang out.
Leading from the front, the masked man yelled, "Remember, leave no one alive!"
The clattering of weapons being drawn echoed behind him.
Once the large group had all gone in, seven or eight corpulent bodies lay dead at the entrance.
Shen Youkun looked at his uncle resting with closed eyes, then at the corpses in the pool of blood, his lip curling despite himself.
His fear of this uncle wasn’t unfounded.
In the darkness, Shi Chun and Wu Jinliang exchanged glances.
Wu Jinliang murmured, "It's really starting!"
Inside the mine, the air was filled with smoke, and within the dim haze, incense sticks still burned on the walls.
At the mine's depths, fallen bodies began appearing, more as they moved forward.
Someone squatted to check, noticing each face was ashen with wide-open eyes, exclaiming in surprise, "They were poisoned?"
As the words fell, another leaned against a wall, gasping, "No, boss, there’s something with the smoke here."
Such reactions began appearing rapidly, throwing the scene into chaos.
"Boss, retreat, it's poisoned!"
The leading masked man, seemingly uncaring, continued onward until a faint voice responded, "Too late, you’ve been consuming it for over a month, the catalyst has been triggered."
The chaotic scene didn't catch what he muttered, as bodies fell one after another.
People rushed towards the cave entrance, only to collapse halfway there.
At the mine’s end, at a T-intersection, the masked leader found the dragon bone, shaking open the Universe Pouch in his hand...
Reemerging from the cave later, he was alone, as a massive rumble resounded from within.
Hidden on the mountain, Shi Chun and Wu Jinliang exchanged confused glances; they could feel the ground trembling beneath them repeatedly, uncertain of the situation.
Boom! Explosions sent massive smoke jets shooting from the cave.
Clearly visible under the moonlit night, the lone figure of the masked man was engulfed by the dense cloud.
The sedan bearers had already spirited Qi Ziru away to a safer distance, bringing Shen Youkun along as well.
With bewilderment on his face, Shi Chun muttered, "Collapsed!"
Wu Jinliang shared the sentiment; they had no idea what method had been used to collapse the mine, with only one person emerging.
Both were rather shaken, having initially believed those three hundred people were merely silenced alongside the original occupants of the mine.
They thought the opportunity to act had slipped, not expecting that all three hundred had also been neutralized.
Before long, the masked man emerged from the swirling smoke again and offered the Universe Pouch to Qi Ziru.
Upon inspection, Qi Ziru nodded satisfactorily, "Let's leave."
The sedan bearers carried him away, as the masked man seized Shen Youkun’s arm, gliding towards the mountaintop.
In the shadows, a grim expression crossed Shi Chun’s face as he seized Wu Jinliang’s shoulder, growling, "If we take down those three, the remaining two are useless. Two against three, dare to try?"
"Heh, my blade’s been itching for a fight!" With a fierce grin, Wu Jinliang bolted, dragging his massive blade as they charged at their targets' path.
(The chapter ends here)