Chapter 697: Sudden Incident

All the guards bowed to He Lingchuan and then mounted their horses to chase after them. Jiao Yu had no choice but to follow, looking back every step of the way.

On the ancient road, the setting sun was like blood, shining on its burnt-red fur as it slowly disappeared at the end of the road; the sound of the team's hooves grew distant, and soon they couldn't be heard anymore.

He Lingchuan watched their backs disappear. Compared to the impending changes at Mount Xushan, the actions of the Chiyan people in Lingxu City were at most just the prelude to a storm.

Fushan Yue leaving at this time was truly a wise move.

He let out a long sigh, rode his sheep back for two days, and went to stay at Qingshi Town in the suburbs of Lingxu City.

The inn room was small but clean enough.

Dong Rui was already waiting for him here. The Snail Toad had seized the time to eat quite a bit of Prunella vulgaris at Nian Zanli's warehouse, so they had two more days of leeway in their preparation time.

The two had a meal at a restaurant, not talking much, eating very meticulously and slowly, and returned to their rooms to rest after the meal.

Lingxu City, Nanmian Lane Patrol Office.

It would be dark in another hour and a half.

Hearing that the food tonight was good, with chicken legs added, the two night-shift patrol guards came over early. As a result, the chicken legs hadn't arrived yet, but Sister-in-law Liu came first.

She looked nervous: "Qinzi, I saw that wanted criminal again!"

The older patrol guard laughed and patted his young companion's shoulder: "Oh, your sister-in-law is going to perform a meritorious service!"

The young patrol guard rolled his eyes and asked Sister-in-law Liu: "Are you sure?"

Neither of them believed it.

"Let me see the wanted poster again."

Qinzi was reluctant, but the office's meal wasn't cooked yet, so he had to get up and say: "Follow me."

The two carried a fluorescent spore to the old case room and dug out a pile of old wanted posters.

Dust flew up, and Qinzi couldn't help but sneeze.

Sister-in-law Liu flipped through them one by one, then pointed to one and said: "It's this person!"

During the summer season, the house leaked, and damp air invaded, so the portrait on the wanted poster had become moldy.

"Still this one?" Qinzi pulled out the wanted poster and glanced at it. "Wanted Poster - Human Ranking 87, Tu Yangzhi, a disciple of the White Spirit Valley sect, killed two divine envoys in the Xulu Nation seven years ago and fled. Hmm, he does have a fierce look, are you sure it's this person?"

"Sure! I saw this portrait when it was posted a few years ago." Sister-in-law Liu nodded repeatedly. "I noticed this person three days ago; at that time, this person was eating noodles at the canned noodle stall at the west end of the street, sitting in the shed, and the mole on his temple was exactly the same as the one on this portrait. I just saw him again!"

"Where?"

"He just walked into the Chunhe Cloth Store, and I hurried to report it to you." Sister-in-law Liu asked him, "If the report is successful, is there a bonus?"

"If it really is Tu Yangzhi, the reward is fifty silver taels." Qinzi didn't think she had that kind of luck. "But there are at least thirty or forty sighting reports of wanted criminals every year, all of which are false reports. Sister-in-law, those major criminals rarely appear in public."

"Don't appear in public?" Sister-in-law Liu sneered. "They don't eat or poop, covering their faces all day? You come with me; I'm determined to earn this fifty silver taels!"

The two returned to the front, and the older patrol guard asked his companion: "How is it?"

He was holding a wait-and-see attitude, but Qinzi was holding the wanted poster and said: "My sister-in-law is convinced that what she saw is the fugitive Tu Yangzhi, and she insists on dragging me along."

According to regulations, patrol guards were in pairs and could not be alone without special circumstances.

The older patrol guard was also reluctant; what kind of eye for detail could this civilian woman have? It was ninety-nine percent likely she had misidentified him.

He had come early just wanting to gnaw on an extra chicken leg; more trouble was worse than less trouble.

But Sister-in-law Liu kept guaranteeing it, and her voice was so loud that people entering and leaving could hear it.

This woman was truly capable of finding trouble, so he said helplessly: "Fine, fine, keep your voice down; I'll go with you."

They reported it, and the two men and one woman headed toward the Chunhe Cloth Store.

On the way, Sister-in-law Liu introduced them: "This Chunhe Cloth Store has been an old shop for over ten years; several of us neighbors often go to support it. But ever since the proprietor changed a month ago, business has been slack. Other shops have good-looking and popular patterns, but they have none! Now there's hardly anyone going; I think they won't last half a year before they go bust. Aiyee, in this day and age, there are still people who dare to do business like this in Lingxu City!"

How expensive was the shop rent in Lingxu City? The Chunhe Cloth Store's shop was large, so doing business like this was a pure loss.

The patrol guards yawned.

Ahead was the Chunhe Cloth Store, and Qinzi muttered: "It's right next to the government office."

The government office was right next to the cloth store; what fugitive would specifically crowd over here?

Entering the cloth store, just as Sister-in-law Liu said, there were no customers inside, only two clerks sitting in the shop idling, one gnawing on melon seeds, the other holding his head and dozing off.

The one gnawing on melon seeds saw Qinzi and the others enter and immediately got up to welcome them: "Why have the two officers come?"

Qinzi was about to speak when Sister-in-law Liu smiled and said: "They are going to my house to eat, and they are accompanying me to buy a bolt of cloth first. Take down that Begonia Red one and let me see it."

The clerk went to fetch the cloth, while the patrol guards looked around the shop, and the other clerk nodded and bowed.

Front shop and back courtyard, with a wooden ladder leading to the attic in the middle. This layout was very common in shops in Lingxu City, and there was often a storage room under the stairs.

The passage in front of the stairs was blocked by a half-curtain.

At this moment, a light creak came from behind the curtain, and someone walked out of the storage room, intending to go to the second floor.

Qinzi made a big jump, directly lifting the curtain to look up.

This person climbed two steps, heard the strange noise, and turned back, happening to meet his eyes.

Qinzi was shocked.

This person, this face!

That's right, it looked exactly like the portrait on the wanted poster, even the mole on the temple was the same! This person even asked him in a deep voice: "What are you doing?"

Seeing the fierce light in his eyes, Qinzi's heart pounded, and he forced himself to stay calm: "Internal urgency, can I borrow a place?"

This person pointed to the back courtyard.

At this time, the clerk in the shop also walked over: "Officer, the back is the warehouse; is there something you need?"

"I'm just borrowing the pit."

The older patrol guard also came over: "Did you eat something bad?"

Tu Yangzhi had already walked up to the attic, and Qinzi glanced at the stairs, giving his companion a look: "My stomach doesn't seem to hurt that much anymore; I can still endure it."

The older patrol guard was stunned and understood: "Then let's go back; why are you still standing here?"

No way, did they really find the real person?

The one surnamed Tu had cultivation, and the two of them might not be able to handle it; they had to go back and ask for support.

The two were about to walk out when the clerk outside happened to block the doorway: "Are the two lords not going to relieve yourselves?"

Qinzi waved his hand: "Move aside."

The stairs suddenly made a clattering sound, and someone was coming down.

The two patrol guards subconsciously turned their heads to look, not expecting a cold light to flash in front, and the clerk used a water-splitting thorn in his hand to directly pierce through the older patrol guard's throat.

In and out, poking a transparent blood hole.

This act of killing while chatting had no warning; Qinzi was standing behind his companion and suddenly saw a thorn tip emerge from the back of his neck, so he couldn't help but scream and draw his sword.

The sound of wind moved behind him, and Qinzi slashed back, but his leg was kicked hard, and he was in so much pain he half-crouched down.

Before his eyes, a large bird appeared out of nowhere, shaped like a stork, with a high crown; it was the one that kicked Qinzi, breaking his leg bone.

Someone strangled his neck from behind, a naked choke.

Qinzi watched with his own eyes as the fugitive Tu Yangzhi walked down from upstairs, watching him say: "Don't ask, kill directly."

With a crack, Qinzi's neck broke.

The patrol guard's half-scream startled Sister-in-law Liu in the front shop. She was quite alert, looked around twice, and turned to run.

But before she could reach the door, her collar was lifted by someone, and just as her mouth opened, it was blocked by a cloth ball.

She was carried to the back of the shop, and a clerk went to the door to look around, finding no one paying attention here—very good.

Tu Yangzhi interrogated Sister-in-law Liu.

The latter saw the two corpses on the ground and was so scared she trembled all over, telling everything without anyone needing to force a confession.

Everyone in the shop was present, a total of four sturdy men, each with a solemn expression. Someone said to Tu Yangzhi: "Old Tu, you've been exposed."

"It's we who have been exposed." Tu Yangzhi hadn't expected that he had been living in seclusion in Lingxu City, only to have his whereabouts discovered by a street woman. "These two patrol guards just took the night shift; if they don't return tomorrow morning, it will definitely arouse suspicion. Besides, before they came to the Chunhe Cloth Store, they had already reported it; the Patrol Office will definitely come to check here tomorrow. Even if we empty the cellar, I'm afraid there are still monsters that can smell the scent of gunpowder barrels."

Another person said: "Not long ago, something happened at the post house, and the patrol in the south of the city was temporarily taken over by the Tongxin Guard. The Tongxin Guard is much stricter than the ordinary Patrol Office; they dig to the bottom of even the smallest matter. The brothers at Jixin Ridge almost got exposed a few days ago too."

"Then what should we do?"

Tu Yangzhi slapped his hand, shattering Sister-in-law Liu's skull. "We can't make the decision; let's ask for instructions from above."

Soon, a bat flew out of the Chunhe Cloth Store, heading toward the Dun Garden direction.

The sound of flapping wings came from the night.

Hearing the sound coming this way, He Lingchuan opened his eyes, got out of bed, and pushed open the wooden window.

A gorgeous figure jumped into the window and landed on He Lingchuan's shoulder.

A large parrot, red-crowned and blue-backed, with gorgeous colors, one arm long from head to tail.

Such a magnificent bird monster was too conspicuous and really not suitable for transmitting messages.

He Lingchuan propped up this familiar bird: "You are...?"

Fang Canran had mentioned to him that there was a parrot in his family that was nearly two hundred years old.

Years ago, it was saved by the ancestor Shao Jian, and later it transmitted the sad news of Shao Jian to his daughter Shao Yingying. In order to get a free meal—no, in order to repay the kindness, this bird monster stayed at the Shao family. When Shao Yingying married into the Fang family, it became the Fang family's heirloom bird.

The past events of Shao Jian that Fang Canran heard were not passed down from generation to generation of ancestors, but were personally experienced and narrated by this large parrot.

No wonder it had details when it needed details and sentiment when it needed sentiment.

"I am Ling Bo!" The parrot spoke in human language. "There is an emergency!"

"Ling Bo" was indeed the name of Fang Canran's heirloom parrot; He Lingchuan had to have it say it itself.

It whispered in He Lingchuan's ear: "The arrangements we made were accidentally exposed tonight! The patrol guards who came to snoop were silenced by us, but it won't delay for long, and there might be others outside who heard the strange noise. For the past month, the patrol control in the south of the city has been the strictest. I'm afraid that after dawn, Lingxu City will sense the abnormality and start investigating!"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 698 =====