Chapter 180

Gu Yun successfully entered the post house. The courtyard was in a mess; the flowers and plants on the ground were mostly scorched black, and there were three large pits on the ground. Looking up, the seats in the front meeting hall were very neat, and there were quite a few people inside receiving treatment. Gu Yun guessed that the explosion site was in the courtyard.

Dan Yulan and Su Ling were standing in front of the door, listening to the yamen runner's report; Cheng Hang was squatting in front of a large pit, saying something to the yamen runner behind him who was frantically recording with a pen.

Gu Yun walked toward Cheng Hang. Su Ling saw Gu Yun's slender figure clearly, grabbed her sleeve, and said in a low voice: "Why are you here?" On second thought, it was the Haoyue post house that had the incident, so it was normal for her to be nervous.

Gu Yun lowered her head slightly to observe the several explosion points, not paying much attention to Su Ling's words, and just replied indifferently: "You busy yourself with your work, don't worry about me."

Su Ling frowned. What did she mean by "don't worry about her"? He felt a bit unhappy inside, but he did not make her go back.

Gu Yun walked to the first explosion point and was about to squat down to check when an uncertain male voice suddenly sounded behind her: "Miss Qing Mo? Is it really you?"

Gu Yun turned back and saw a man in his early thirties looking at her in surprise. Seeing his clothing and attire were similar to other Haoyue officials, Gu Yun guessed that he was also a Haoyue official. She stood up and nodded slightly. The man hurriedly cupped his hands and smiled ingratiatingly: "The Emperor has always been concerned about you sisters and specifically asked this humble official to send his regards to all the young ladies." Qing Ling married Lou Xiyan, and Qingfeng was a noble Qiongyue Imperial Concubine; although this Qing Mo had not yet received a formal title, he should have curried favor with her earlier.

Gu Yun was not Qing Mo; naturally, she had no feelings for Haoyue, nor did she want to entangle herself with him any further. She said thank you politely but distantly, then said to a soldier nearby: "Send him to rest."

After the night raid battle and the campaign to suppress the rebels, Qing Mo's reputation and status in the Su Family Army were extremely high. Hearing Gu Yun's instruction, the small general immediately replied loudly: "Yes."

Being led toward the inner hall by the small general, the man looked back from time to time at Qing Mo, who was once again squatting on the ground, earnest and focused. The Third Miss of the Qing family in his memory was a charming girl; how did she become an Ice Beauty after coming to Qiongyue? Just looking at the soldiers' attitude toward her, her status in the General's Mansion must not be low. The three Qing sisters truly each had their own methods!

"What exactly is going on?" Dan Yulan, who had always been calm and composed, could no longer remain calm in the face of this chaotic scene, coupled with the Haoyue officials who had died or been injured in the explosion.

On this late autumn night, beads of sweat also climbed onto the yamen runner's forehead. They hurriedly reported: "According to the Haoyue officials, they were discussing matters in the front hall. At the third quarter of the Hai hour, they heard movement in the courtyard and came out to take a look, but as soon as they walked into the courtyard, the explosion occurred. The Haoyue Vice Minister of Personnel, who was walking in the front—died."

Dan Yulan gritted his teeth and continued to ask: "Did they see any suspicious characters?"

"No, the explosion happened as soon as they reached the courtyard. Nothing special happened during the day either. The Haoyue officials arrived at the post house yesterday morning, and no one had come during that time."

During a special period like the celebration, there would be people patrolling near the post house. If suspicious characters had infiltrated, they should have been discovered. How did the killer manage to bury the explosives in the courtyard without anyone knowing?

"The killer did not place the explosives in the courtyard beforehand to detonate them, but threw the explosives directly in from outside the courtyard wall." A cold, clear female voice sounded indifferently. Dan Yulan and Su Ling were both stunned and looked together at Gu Yun, who was still half-squatting on the ground with her back to them.

Cheng Hang, who was squatting beside Gu Yun, asked urgently: "How do you know?"

"Judging from the traces left at the scene, there are three explosion points in total." Gu Yun stood up, walked to the center of the three explosion points, and explained, "To the southwest of all three explosion points, there are several shallow little pits, and the one furthest to the southwest is slightly deeper. There is quite a bit of gunpowder scattered near each shallow pit, which shows that these explosives must have been thrown from a high place and then bounced a few times before exploding." Cheng Hang looked closely and, sure enough, as she said, there were two or three shallow pits to the southwest of each crater. If one didn't look carefully, one wouldn't notice them at all. Cheng Hang looked up at Gu Yun with some admiration, only to see her sharp eyes narrowed slightly. She looked at the eaves in front of the courtyard for a long while, then suddenly her gaze fixed on a certain point, and the corners of her lips curved into a confident arc, very, very lightly, as she said: "Based on the positions of the three explosion points and the several bounce points, the place where the killer threw the explosives should be—there!"

Following the direction of Gu Yun's finger, Cheng Hang stood up nimbly, jumped onto the eaves, leaned down to examine it carefully, and said excitedly: "Reporting to my Lord, there are indeed some black powder and traces of being stepped on left here." Although the footprints were very light, they could still be vaguely seen.

"Draw the footprints to the original scale." Gu Yun grabbed the white paper from the yamen runner's hand, dipped the brush in ink, and tossed it gracefully toward Cheng Hang.

Cheng Hang hurriedly reached out to catch it; if his martial arts weren't strong, he would have either fallen to his death or had his face washed with ink! After finally catching the paper and brush, Cheng Hang stared with lingering fear at Gu Yun, who had already turned around; she hadn't even looked at him at all. Cheng Hang curled his lips and could only resign himself to drawing the diagram.

Su Ling walked to Gu Yun's side and looked at the traces she mentioned, which were so faint they left no trail. On the battlefield, he could devise strategies and win battles from a thousand miles away, but in terms of this ability to observe minute details and analyze cases, she seemed to be even more skilled.

Dan Yulan had always known that Qing Mo possessed keen observation and analytical skills. Seeing that she seemed to have fallen into deep thought again, Dan Yulan hesitated for a moment and continued to ask: "Any other discoveries?"

Gu Yun's expression was somewhat grave, and she replied in a low voice: "The power of the explosives is not considered great. The killer chose to throw the explosives in the courtyard instead of burying them in an important location like the meeting hall, which shows that his goal was not to kill, but a kind of warning or provocation. However, after searching the entire scene, no letters of threat or negotiation left by the killer were found, which can only mean that this bombing case is just a beginning."

A beginning? The expressions of Dan Yulan and Su Ling stiffened at the same time. "You mean—the killer will attack other places too?"

Gu Yun nodded, but seeing their look of facing a formidable enemy, she immediately smiled and comforted them: "Su Ren has already sent more men to protect the post houses of various countries, so it should—"

Boom— Before Gu Yun finished speaking, a thunderous roar sounded in the silent night, making everyone present jump in fright. This area was surrounded by post houses; what this muffled sound meant was self-evident.

"Hurry and check what happened! Where did the sound come from?" Dan Yulan's complexion could already be described as alternating between pale and green.

"Yes!"

"Men. Order Han Shu to quickly take eight thousand elite soldiers to seal off every city gate and official road." Su Ling's deep eagle eyes also shot out cold, piercing light. It seemed that, just as she had said, this criminal was determined to provoke them!

"Yes."

Gu Yun's beautiful eyebrows were tightly knitted together. She had anticipated that the killer would continue to carry out terrorist attacks, but she hadn't expected them to come so quickly!

"Report—" The one who returned to report was not the yamen runner who had just left, but a small general in red who ran straight to Su Ling's side and said urgently, "An explosion occurred at the Beiqi post house. Commander Su was there at the time and was also injured."

Su Ren was injured?! The group hurried to the Beiqi post house. Outside the house, there were also three or four circles of soldiers. The post house door was wide open, and in the center of the courtyard facing the door, a large and deep pit indicated that the dosage of explosives this time was much larger than the last!

Gu Yun entered the courtyard first and saw a small general holding a cloth to help Su Ren bandage his arm. Gu Yun asked: "Su Ren, how are you?"

Su Ren smiled dismissively, "Just a minor injury." Seeing Su Ling and Dan Yulan following closely behind Gu Yun, Su Ren waved his hand at the small general beside him, stood up, and greeted them: "Big Brother, Lord Dan."

The courtyard was full of Su Family Army soldiers cleaning up the aftermath; there were no Beiqi officials to be seen. Dan Yulan asked with concern: "Commander Su, how is your injury? Are there any casualties among the people of Beiqi Kingdom?"

Su Ren shook his head and smiled: "Thank you for your concern, Lord Dan. I only suffered a minor injury. Fortunately, Sister-in-law just called for me to bring troops to rush over, and I happened to encounter the criminal committing the crime. The explosives exploded in the front courtyard; the Beiqi officials and envoys were not injured, and I had them all go to the back courtyard to rest."

So it was she who had dispatched Su Ren to come and guard! Su Ling and Dan Yulan were slightly startled, looking at Gu Yun, who was half-squatting on the ground. She was pinching the scorched black soil inside the large pit, her expression grave. They didn't know what she was thinking, but it made people afraid to disturb her.

With her back to Su Ren, Gu Yun asked in a low, indifferent voice: "Did you see the killer?"

It was only after Gu Yun asked this that Su Ling and Dan Yulan came back to their senses. Looking at Su Ren, Su Ren replied with some annoyance: "I only saw a red shadow, and the killer was also wearing a mask."

"Did he leave any words or items?" If not, it meant this game was not over yet! Su Ling and Dan Yulan also understood what Gu Yun meant by this question. Beiqi was already the second post house to be raided tonight; if there were a third... the two couldn't help but feel a headache coming on.

Su Ren nodded and replied: "Yes, after he threw the explosives from the courtyard wall, he ran away. The killer's martial arts were extremely high; in the blink of an eye, he was gone without a trace. He left this on the wall."

Dan Yulan breathed a sigh of relief, but upon seeing Su Ling take the note and look at it for only a second, his expression changed abruptly, his eyes filled with killing intent.

Gu Yun also noticed Su Ling's change and, along with Dan Yulan, leaned over to look. They saw that on the plain white silk, a few concise, large characters were written in blood red: "Release Ao Tian immediately, otherwise the celebration will be washed in blood—Ye Mei."

"Ye Mei?" Gu Yun murmured. Could the killer be that woman who was always silent but faintly exuded a sense of justice? Gu Yun didn't quite believe it. She looked at Su Ren and confirmed again: "Have you seen Ye Mei before? Is the killer really her?"

Su Ren replied somewhat helplessly: "I have seen Ye Mei once, but the killer was also wearing a golden mask and a crimson cloak, and didn't say a word. I couldn't see the appearance or hear the voice, so I cannot determine if it was a man or a woman."

Red clothes, golden mask! Again, the features were distinct, yet it was unclear if it was the person herself. How similar was it to Ao Tian's head of silver hair? Gu Yun suddenly had a premonition that everything tonight was a meticulously woven grand conspiracy. From the moment Ao Tian broke out of prison, things had developed step by step in the set direction. This note only pushed Ao Tian further into the abyss!

(End of chapter)