Chapter 1327: Not human

The gray hat said "Oh" and didn't ask much about the patrol. These gate guards were full of nonsense and couldn't be trusted at all.

"What about the pattern on the gray wall?"

The waiter smacked his lips, rubbed his hands, and didn't make a sound.

The gray hat could only hand him a few more big coins, and only after the waiter collected them did he continue: "It appeared overnight. The night before, I had cleaned the horse trough, and there was nothing on the wall at that time; yesterday morning, the bandits were hung up, and this relief appeared."

"Did they appear together?"

"Which one was first, which one was after, I don't know." The waiter added, "The relief yesterday morning was majestic, but now it's blurred."

"Blurred?" The gray hat was surprised, "What do you mean by blurred?" 【

"When it first appeared, it looked incredibly real. I was carrying a bucket when I walked over, and it gave me such a fright, I thought a real monster had poked its head out from inside the wall." The clerk pointed at the dragon-head totem. "What you see now is already rough; it's not as... uh, not as detailed anymore."

"So you mean, this pattern is slowly degrading?"

The clerk didn't know what "degrading" meant. "Anyway, it's just gotten blurry."

The man in the gray hat pointed again at the blood-stained banner fluttering at the city gate. "Have you seen or heard of that dragon-head pattern on the banner?"

Clearly, it was a mark.

The clerk shook his head.

The man in the gray hat went into the city to find a place to stay, then went back out to scout for information.

After asking around, the residents all said much the same thing as the clerk.

But he met a runner in a tavern who had been to Mount Dai yesterday. The man in the gray hat bought him two cups of wine, and the runner started talking about what he had seen on the mountain.

This was first-hand information:

Only the bandit chief and his six brothers were hung at the Feng County city gate for public display; their nearly two hundred subordinates had died in their old lair on Mount Dai.

Most of the bandits had wounds on their backs, clearly indicating they had been killed while turning to flee.

The man in the gray hat asked, "Can you tell how many people were in the force that attacked them?"

"There was something strange on that mountain!" The runner gulped down more wine. "Have you ever been to Mount Dai? The bandits' lair was built halfway up the mountain; the paths are steep, there are many cliffs, and the woods are dense—you can't get up there on horseback at all. In the past, whenever the government organized a suppression campaign, we always had to leave our mounts halfway up and climb on foot. Sigh, if it weren't for that terrain, we could have wiped them out ten years ago."

"So what was the strange thing?"

"That's the strange part!" The runner looked mysterious. "Up on the summit, in the bandits' lair, we found a huge number of messy horse hoofprints!"

"..."

"They were very fresh, still stained with blood!"

So how did the attackers' mounts get up there? Did they fly?

"We also captured three prisoners." The runner continued. "They were shivering in the grass. When we found them, one was so scared he was delirious, and another confessed that..."

He paused to clear his throat, noticing that quite a few patrons had gathered around, listening intently. His enthusiasm grew, and his expression became even more mysterious. "This little thief said that the night before last, fog rose over the mountain stronghold, and it was dark and gloomy everywhere. He was woken up by a strange noise, like a hundred ghosts crying at night—it was chilling and terrifying. Then, he heard the sound of horse hooves outside. He thought he was hearing things, but when he ran out to look—"

"—dozens of black-armored cavalrymen charged out of the thick fog. They killed everyone they saw, with abnormal ferocity. The bandits were stunned, not knowing where they had popped out from, and didn't even have time to close the stronghold gates. The bandit chief led a few brothers out to meet them, shouting, 'Who goes there?' The leader of the black-armored cavalry pointed at them and said, 'Your sins are full, your time of death has arrived! I have come to send you to the Nine Netherworlds!'"

"That leader was covered in black fire, and ghost shadows were flying around him—it was terrifying just to look at. The bandit chief didn't believe in such things and charged up with his long saber, but he didn't last two exchanges before his brothers fell one after another, and even he didn't last a few rounds."

"The black-armored cavalry killed like they were chopping melons, one or two strikes per person. That little thief didn't have the guts to fight to the death, so he hid in the grass. A black knight was originally heading toward him, but a few bandits happened to flee past, so the black knight shifted his target to kill them instead." The runner licked his lips. "As a bandit made a desperate final stand, he happened to pull off the black knight's helmet. Do you know what that little thief in the grass saw?"

The listeners were enthralled and asked one after another, "What did he see? Tell us, tell us!"

"The black knight wasn't human at all!" The runner lowered his voice, looking mysterious. "He only had half a face of skin!"

The audience expressed dissatisfaction: "What do you mean half a face of skin!"

The runner held up his index finger, tracing from his left forehead to his right jaw: "This half had skin, the other half didn't—even the skull was exposed! And he had no eyelid; his right eye was just an eyeball rolling around looking at people!"

The crowd didn't believe it: "How could he still be alive?"

"That's why I said he wasn't human!" The runner continued. "The black knight grabbed that bandit, face to face, and sucked his soul out in one go! That man—that man went limp instantly."

"It even swept a glance toward the grass, and the little thief hiding there was scared into wetting himself on the spot. But the black knight didn't seem to see him; he just took back his helmet, put it on, and turned to go kill more people! Hey, you tell me, what living person looks like that?"

The listeners all found it unbelievable: "Could that little thief have made it up?"

"That little thief swore on his own manhood that it was absolutely what he saw with his own eyes, not a word of it was fake."

"And then?"

"He hid in the grass shivering, hearing his companions scream one after another. After about two quarters of an hour, there was no more sound." The runner continued. "He also saw the black-armored cavalry tie up the bandit chiefs and drag them to the back of the mountain."

"We followed the messy hoofprints to the back of the mountain and found the tracks only continued up to the bushes. So, the prisoner wasn't lying." He gulped down some wine. "But! Behind the bushes is a cliff! You tell me, how did these black-armored cavalrymen take the prisoners and horses and leave the cliff out of thin air?"

Everyone who heard this clicked their tongues in wonder.

Finally, someone cursed: "Divine retribution, this is divine retribution!"

The blood-stained banner on the city gate also said that retribution is never late.

"These black knights might really be evil spirits crawling up from the Nine Netherworlds to claim souls." Otherwise, how could ordinary living people do something like sucking out living souls?

Amidst the discussion, the man in the gray hat quietly left the tavern.

The next morning, the city gate officer's shout was full of vigor:

"Take them all down, take them down! They've been exposed for three days!"

(End of Chapter)