Chapter 305: A Smile While Holding the Paper

Duan Rong, Xiao Yu, and Ximen Kankan walked back to the Official Road.

Duan Rong's gaze swept over the few figures on the Official Road; the several Sect Emissaries were all there.

Duan Rong's gaze involuntarily turned toward Lv Qingzhu; noticing Duan Rong's gaze, Lv Qingzhu furrowed her brows, her expression icy.

As if pricked, Duan Rong immediately looked away...

Everyone present looked exhausted, and many still bore wounds.

Zhu Qunxiang said, "I know all fellow disciples have just been through a fierce and bitter battle and are very tired! But we must now clear the battlefield and investigate the dense forest to see if there are any surviving fellow disciples."

"Anyone from our Taiyi Sect must be accounted for, whether alive or dead! Otherwise, it will be hard for us to answer for it."

"My proposal is that we act together. After all, there may still be Tainted Blood Remnants lurking in the dense forest; acting alone could be dangerous."

"Do any fellow disciples have objections?"

After Zhu Qunxiang finished speaking, there was dead silence; not a single person made a sound.

Zhu Qunxiang's gaze shifted, looking past the others directly at A Mo by the side of the Official Road, and said, "A Mo, what is your opinion?"

Strictly speaking, A Mo was not a Sect Emissary at all; it was Lv Qingzhu who held the status of Sect Emissary.

A Mo was taken aback by Zhu Qunxiang's question. Whenever she was with Lv Qingzhu, she listened to Lv Qingzhu on all matters, big or small.

A Mo subconsciously looked at Lv Qingzhu beside her.

Lv Qingzhu gave a soft hum.

A Mo understood, looked at Zhu Qunxiang, and nodded.

Seeing A Mo nod, Zhu Qunxiang immediately felt reassured and said, "Then, let us go. We will start from the dense forest here."

As Zhu Qunxiang spoke, he headed toward the dense forest beside the Official Road.

The few people on the Official Road followed silently. Lv Qingzhu and A Mo also followed at the back of the group.

The few people walking all used their peripheral vision to watch A Mo, who was not far behind them.

There might be danger in the dense forest, and knowing A Mo was following behind made them feel much more at ease.

These few Martial Artists of the True Qi Realm were all somewhat exhausted. But A Mo's hard-body martial arts were almost unaffected by the constraints of True Qi, and her combat power had hardly diminished.

Even if there were any danger in the dense forest, with A Mo there, those Tainted Blood Remnants would not be able to gain any advantage.

This was also the reason Zhu Qunxiang had asked A Mo just now; although A Mo was not a Sect Emissary, on a real battlefield, only those with strength had the right to speak.

If A Mo had not nodded, he truly would not have dared to walk into the dense forest.

Just as the group stepped off the Official Road, a gust of wind suddenly rose, causing the shattered debris and sundries on the road to rattle.

Suddenly, a piece of paper was blown spinning into the air; Ximen Kankan caught sight of it, jumped up, and grabbed the paper in his hand.

He saw that the paper was covered in ink scribbles.

Seeing this, Ximen Kankan could not help but sigh; it seemed the few Spring Palace Paintings he had brought were completely destroyed.

In the past, Ximen Kankan would certainly have cried out in distress.

But this time, he himself had witnessed life and death.

Most importantly, he had also seen the naked corpse of Xia Shuangshuang.

Ximen Kankan did not realize that many of the obsessions originally in his heart had actually been released and dissolved before the corpse of Xia Shuangshuang.

This change in Ximen Kankan's experience roughly corresponded to the cultivation method of Bone Contemplation from the Western Region Buddhist Sect.

It was just that he was trapped within it and did not understand it himself.

Ximen Kankan smiled as he held the paper, loosened his fingers, and the paper was swept up by the wind, drifting off to who knows where...

The group walked to the edge of a dense forest and immediately saw a headless corpse not far away.

They walked over quickly, and upon seeing the person's build, clothing, and the weapon dropped not far away, Zhu Qunxiang recognized them immediately.

"It's Tao Rong!"

Tao Rong was at the Great Success Realm and was considered quite formidable among the Registered Disciples; he had not expected him to fail to escape the clutches of the Tainted Blood Demon.

After the group expressed their sentiments, they turned a corner at the edge of the dense forest and saw a ruined temple.

From the corner of the forest where they stood to the front of the temple, the vegetation along the way was broken and snapped; clearly, a fierce battle had occurred here, yet not a single corpse was to be seen.

Zhu Qunxiang's gaze flickered, and he lifted his feet to walk toward the ruined temple, with the others following closely behind.

As Lv Qingzhu approached the ruined temple again, her face flushed slightly.

As soon as the group entered the ruined temple, they were struck with horror.

They saw that inside the small ruined temple, many mangled corpses were scattered about; some were headless, some severed at the waist, and blood filaments were wriggling on the corpses, eerie and terrifying.

These corpses were clearly all Tainted Blood Demons!

"Good riddance!" Lu Qingfeng cursed through gritted teeth.

Zhu Qunxiang suddenly saw a strange mummified corpse; the mummy had turned a grayish-brown, and some blood filaments remained on its surface, wriggling...

Zhu Qunxiang walked over slowly, his gaze involuntarily flickering.

The clothing on the mummified corpse seemed somewhat familiar.

Zhu Qunxiang's scalp suddenly went numb, because he saw an iron fan lying on the ground beside the mummy, half-unfolded.

Lu Qingfeng walked behind Zhu Qunxiang and said, "Is it Fan Yuanhai?"

"Yes." Zhu Qunxiang's voice was low.

"When did he arrive?" Lu Qingfeng's gaze was puzzled.

Zhu Qunxiang said, "He must have arrived after the explosion and happened to run into the Tainted Blood Demons, meeting a tragic end."

Zhu Qunxiang and Lu Qingfeng both noticed that on Fan Yuanhai's mummified corpse, the entire left arm was missing from the shoulder, and the bone shards at the shoulder were clearly visible; it was evident that he had undergone an extremely brutal battle before his death.

Lv Qingzhu stood behind the group, looking at Fan Yuanhai's corpse with a suspicious gaze.

She knew very well that when she left, there was no corpse of Fan Yuanhai in this ruined temple, but now Fan Yuanhai was here, and he had become a mummified corpse.

Lv Qingzhu's gaze swept over Duan Rong's profile; she remembered that when she and A Mo walked to the Official Road, Fan Yuanhai had still been asking her about Duan Rong.

Lv Qingzhu had already guessed eight parts of the truth in her heart; Fan Yuanhai must have been killed by Duan Rong.

Duan Rong sensed Lv Qingzhu's gaze; he turned his head and his gaze collided with hers.

From the clear and firm look Lv Qingzhu gave him, Duan Rong understood immediately that she had already guessed he was the one who killed Fan Yuanhai.

Duan Rong's eyes were deep as he stared at Lv Qingzhu.

Lv Qingzhu pursed her lips and avoided Duan Rong's gaze. She was not a meddlesome person, and furthermore, she had no evidence.

Moreover, looking at the situation, it seemed Fan Yuanhai had sought out Duan Rong first, only to be killed by him in return.

Seeing Lv Qingzhu remain silent, Duan Rong felt slightly more at ease.

After all, if Lv Qingzhu wanted to expose him, she would have to explain what happened before and after in the ruined temple, and then, the fact that she and Duan Rong had spent a night of passion inside the temple naturally could not be hidden.

How could Lv Qingzhu possibly say that?

And Duan Rong could also sense that, in her heart, Lv Qingzhu had no intention of exposing him at all.

After the group finished counting the corpses in the ruined temple, they walked out to continue patrolling the dense forest.

By the time the group had finished patrolling the wilderness of the dense forest, the western sky was already stained with a blood-like glow, as if the sky there had been slashed open into a vivid wound.

Zhu Qunxiang led the group across the Official Road toward the dense forest on the other side.

Shen Mizhi was hung in a certain part of the dense forest; watching the light fade away bit by bit, her heart was also submerged bit by bit in fear.

It was about to get dark...

She desperately wanted to call for help, but she dared not. She was afraid that her cries would attract people from the Filthy Blood Sect.

Just then, he heard a somewhat noisy sound of footsteps coming from behind; it was clearly not just one person.

Shen Mizhi's heart instantly rose to her throat, because the sound of footsteps was clearly getting closer and closer to her, like the drumbeats of a death knell.

Shen Mizhi prayed, and at that moment, she saw the person walking at the very front. It was Zhu Qunxiang!

Shen Mizhi's tears instantly gushed out.

The moment she saw Zhu Qunxiang, his figure clearly paused slightly; he had obviously seen her too.

Zhu Qunxiang had indeed seen Shen Mizhi from afar, but since she had not called out, he did not know for a moment whether the person hanging there was dead or alive.

Zhu Qunxiang scanned the surroundings with a vigilant gaze, and only after discovering that the wilderness was completely silent did he walk over slowly.

Halfway there, he heard the sound of suppressed sobbing coming from the large tree where the person was hung.

Zhu Qunxiang's heart stirred, and he walked over quickly, immediately seeing Shen Mizhi hanging there, covered in blood and filth, her face streaming with tears.

"Miss Shen!?" Zhu Qunxiang said in astonishment.

Shen Mizhi was in the tree's shadow, and Zhu Qunxiang had not recognized her from afar.

Zhu Qunxiang immediately leaped up, jumped onto the branches of the large tree, and crouched down to untie the python whip bound there.

As Zhu Qunxiang untied the python whip, Xiao Yu flashed over and caught Shen Mizhi.

Shen Mizhi's face was covered in tears; Xiao Yu took out a handkerchief and comforted her while wiping away her tears: "It's alright. It's alright."

Shen Mizhi was severely traumatized; she leaned on Xiao Yu's shoulder, and it took a long time for her emotions to calm down.

Once Shen Mizhi's emotions recovered, she looked at Xiao Yu with some embarrassment and said, "Thank you, Sister Xiao."

Xiao Yu was actually one year older than Shen Mizhi, but this was the first time the two had spoken.

Xiao Yu smiled and said with heartache, "Little Sister Shen, you have suffered."

Since Xiao Baijiao passed away, no one had called her 'sister' for a long time; Shen Mizhi's delicate, tear-streaked appearance and her address of 'Sister Xiao' made Xiao Yu very happy.

Shen Mizhi suddenly saw A Mo behind the group; her eyes froze, then rage erupted, and she strode over, pointing at A Mo, and said, "Why did you abandon me alone in this wilderness?"

A Mo looked at Shen Mizhi blankly, seemingly unable to understand the meaning of her words for a moment.

Shen Mizhi said, "Couldn't you have let me down before leaving?"

This time A Mo understood, and she replied indifferently, "I didn't have time."

"You..." Shen Mizhi was choked into silence by A Mo's matter-of-fact tone and expression.

However, from A Mo's perspective, she really didn't have time; she was in a hurry to find Lv Qingzhu at the time, so how could she have the heart to care about other things?

Shen Mizhi glanced at Lv Qingzhu beside A Mo and remarked sarcastically, "I wonder who taught her? To be so hard-hearted!?"

Seeing Shen Mizhi insinuating things about her young mistress, A Mo was instantly enraged and said, "I already saved you by killing the dwarf crawling on you! If you say one more word about my young mistress, I will slap your mouth to shreds!"

Shen Mizhi's face turned pale from A Mo's words, and furthermore, when the group heard A Mo say she had killed the dwarf crawling on her, they all looked at her with strange expressions.

Under the large tree not far away, there was indeed a bloody corpse of a dwarf with a ruined head.

Just as Shen Mizhi was feeling embarrassed and humiliated, Xiao Yu walked over with a smile, grabbed Shen Mizhi, and said, "Come here, let me see if you have any injuries on you."

Xiao Yu pulled Shen Mizhi to the side; Shen Mizhi knew Xiao Yu was helping her out of a tight spot and gave her a grateful look.

At this time, the twilight in the dense forest had gradually risen.

Zhu Qunxiang and the others found some dry branches, lit them with a Fire Folder, and made torches. They held the torches and continued to investigate in the dense forest.

They had just walked a distance when they suddenly saw a huge black shadow in a place obscured by trees, looking like a small mountain hidden in the dense forest.

However, in this dense forest, a small mountain would absolutely not appear for no reason.

"What on earth is that?"

In this dense forest where twilight was gathering, everyone was astonished; they had just experienced a cruel, chaotic battle, making them even more prone to being suspicious of every bush and tree.

Zhu Qunxiang glanced at A Mo not far behind him and said, "A Mo, please go over and take a look."

A Mo looked at Lv Qingzhu with an inquiring gaze.

Lv Qingzhu's eyes flashed, and she said, "Go, be careful."

A Mo nodded, took the torch from Zhu Qunxiang's hand, and walked slowly toward the black shadow in the dense forest ahead.

That black shadow was so huge that it could absolutely not be a person; A Mo's stature already far exceeded that of an ordinary person, and the stature of that black shadow was several times that of A Mo.

A Mo walked close to the black shadow, her eyes flickering slightly; under the illumination of the torchlight, she saw that the dense forest there was piled full of horse corpses.

More than a dozen horse corpses were piled together, just like a small mountain.

A Mo turned around and walked back, looked at Zhu Qunxiang, and said, "It is a pile of horse corpses!"

Upon hearing this, Zhu Qunxiang felt a sense of relief in his heart.

The few of them finished searching the dense forests on both sides of the Official Road, and all the corpses that were to be found had been found.

Lu Qingfeng and Wang Shanshan went to a nearby village and obtained three ox carts.

They moved all the found corpses onto the ox carts.

Ximen Kankan took off his outer garment and put it on Xia Shuangshuang's corpse. Jiang Qingyu's corpse and severed head were placed together in one spot.

Tao Rong only had a headless corpse, but his severed head was nowhere to be found.

Beside Fan Yuanhai's mummified corpse lay a shriveled head.

As for the other ox cart, it was piled full of the corpses of the Tainted Blood Demon; those corpses were all covered in floating and wriggling blood threads, which made one's heart hair-raising in the night as the moonlight flickered, and since no one was willing to drive this ox cart, Zhu Qunxiang had to do it himself.

Lu Qingfeng drove the first ox cart carrying the corpses.

As for the last ox cart, Wang Shanshan drove it, and Duan Rong, Xiao Yu, Shen Mizhi, Ximen Kankan, and Lv Qingzhu were all squeezed together sitting on that last ox cart.

A Mo was too large in stature, so she could not sit on the ox cart at all.

Zhu Qunxiang lashed the ox with a whip, the old yellow ox let out a moo, and then it slowly walked along the road where the moonlight flickered.

A Mo followed the ox cart that Lv Qingzhu was on, walking slowly...

The direction they were traveling in was the road back to Xiangu County.

This was Zhu Qunxiang's intention.

They had encountered an ambush by the Filthy Blood Sect, which was a major case.

Both the target of the attack and the location where it occurred fell under the jurisdiction of Xiangu County.

All the evidence for this major case, which was essentially the corpses of those Tainted Blood Remnant, had to be handed over to the Xiangu County Yamen.

Furthermore, he also needed to write a detailed report on this case in Xiangu County, have all the Sect Emissary sign it jointly, and then submit it to the Sect.

As Sect Emissary, they had the responsibility to protect this group of Registered Disciple; this time, with Tao Rong, Jiang Qingyu, and Xia Shuangshuang dead, there had to be an explanation.

Moreover, these three were all children of noble families and had some background at home. If this case could not be handled properly, it would bring them a lot of trouble and many future complications.

Therefore, they had to return to Xiangu County.

(End of this chapter)