Chapter 409

Zhang Fang carefully recalled, then shook his head.

"My lord, Xie Antu's cultivation is merely Post-Heaven Late Stage, but he has abundant martial world experience; he survives by taking on escort missions and trading trivial gossip."

"Though he likes to boast, he knows his limits—he never touches what he shouldn't, and avoids offending those he shouldn't."

"According to my knowledge, his recent assignments were all ordinary: escorting common goods, helping locate people or items—low pay, no real risk."

"As for making enemies… a seasoned veteran like him might get into verbal squabbles, but he'd never draw a Pre-Heaven expert to kill him in broad daylight."

This matched Chen Mu's own observations.

Xie Antu was a typical cultivator at the bottom of the martial ladder, surviving on martial world experience and connections—he shouldn't have been dragged into a killing of this caliber.

So his death likely had to do with what he "knew."

Considering his last known location—the Xicheng Gate—and his desperate run toward it, he was probably fleeing for his life, trying to seek help from the city guards or deliver some message!

The killer chose to eliminate him at the gate precisely to silence him!

"It seems the key lies in what Xie Antu encountered and learned just before his death."

Chen Mu thought to himself.

"Zhang Siwei, was Xie Antu's corpse thoroughly examined?" Chen Mu asked.

"My lord, aside from the fatal branch wound to his chest and some abrasions and bruises from his escape, no other obvious injuries or signs of poisoning were found."

Zhang Fang laid out everything he knew: "The branch was checked too—it's an ordinary branch from the woods outside the city, nothing special, except it was infused with extremely potent Yin-Ruinous force."

Ordinary branch, Yin-Ruinous force…

This resembled a spontaneous, offhand killing method, indicating the killer's strength vastly surpassed Xie Antu's—he killed him like crushing an ant, even too lazy to use a weapon or secret projectile.

"I understand. Keep an eye on this matter. If the Prefecture or Zhenwu Corps uncover anything new, find a way to notify me."

Chen Mu gave the approximate location of his rented courtyard, "Be discreet—don't draw attention."

"Your servant obeys!"

Zhang Fang bowed again, then wisely withdrew, returning to the funeral hall to assist, as if the conversation had never occurred.

After Zhang Fang left, Chen Mu lingered briefly in the courtyard, exchanged a few words of comfort with Xie Antu's nephew, left some silver as funeral tribute, then departed the Xie household.

Back at his residence.

Closing the door, Chen Mu activated his memory card.

It began with Xie Antu sprinting.

Sprinting toward the Xicheng Gate of Wulong Prefecture.

According to Xie Antu's memories, he had taken a routine reconnaissance mission.

Strange martial artists had recently appeared near Heifeng Ao, thirty li outside the city—suspected Mo Sect activity. Since Xie Antu knew the terrain well, he was sent to observe from afar and confirm.

The pay was high.

But he saw something he shouldn't have.

It was a hidden, hastily dug entrance to an underground cavern.

As Xie Antu crouched behind a massive boulder, hesitating whether to approach or return immediately to report, two figures emerged from the cavern.

A man and a woman, dressed like ordinary mountain folk, but their eyes glowed with an eerie bluish-red hue under the twilight.

Shishen Sect!

Upon seeing them, Xie Antu nearly cried out, then retreated.

At first, he secretly rejoiced—he hadn't been spotted.

But less than ten li from the site, he was caught—and then a branch pierced his chest.

Xie Antu's final lingering sensation was his body collapsing forward, and the cold ground…

"Heifeng Ao? A secret Shishen Sect base?"

Xie Antu was killed because he stumbled upon the Shishen Sect's secret base outside the city!

No wonder the killer was willing to murder him publicly at the gate—to silence him!

The Shishen Sect's activities near Wulong Prefecture were no petty affair—they were a deliberate, organized infiltration.

That cavern base was likely one of their key nests in the northern Shannan Circuit.

Though Xie Antu wasn't close to Chen Mu, he was still a human life, and he died investigating Mo Sect traces.

Publicly and privately, Chen Mu could not ignore this.

More importantly, the Shishen Sect's hidden presence near Wulong Prefecture meant their ambitions were far greater than anyone suspected.

This intelligence must be transmitted quickly—and ideally, Chen Mu should personally investigate Heifeng Ao to confirm the details.

…

Dusk deepened, shrouding Wulong Prefecture in a thin veil of bluish-gray mist.

The city's tension had not eased with nightfall; instead, the presence of the Shishen Sect and Xie Antu's public murder had intensified the atmosphere with greater solemnity and unease.

Streets were nearly empty, but patrol squads were denser than by day; torchlight flickered through alleys, casting shifting shadows.

Inside Chen Mu's rented courtyard, silence reigned.

Dressed in a dark blue martial suit suited for night movement, Chen Mu suppressed all outward aura, blending into the room's shadows.

Releasing his spiritual sense to confirm no one was nearby, he shifted—becoming a faint blue shadow nearly invisible in the night, leaping over the wall and swiftly darting toward the Ximen.

The Ximen was already closed, heavily guarded.

Chen Mu did not force entry; at a distance from the gate, he turned down an alley and activated Earth Submersion Technique, his body slowly sinking beneath the ground.

Since entering Jian Shen Bu Huai, his control over true qi had grown more refined, greatly enhancing the speed and stealth of Earth Submersion.

Soon, he silently emerged beyond the city walls, reappearing in the dense forest beside the highway.

After confirming direction, Chen Mu no longer held back—he accelerated, his form a gust of wind racing along the mountain forest beside the highway toward Heifeng Ao.

Night wind howled past his ears; the mountain scenery blurred and receded.

About two watch-hours later, a desolate, jagged hillside appeared ahead, stark against the night.

This was Hei Feng Ao.

Even by day, its complex terrain and occasional eerie winds kept travelers away; at night, it grew utterly chilling and terrifying.

When Lin Mu was still several li from the edge of Hei Feng Ao, he slowed his pace, suppressing his Qi to the utmost, becoming a lifeless shadow that crept forward, shielded by the jagged rocks and sparse trees.

His spiritual sense spread like invisible tendrils, slowly extending toward the rocky outcrop, carefully sensing any abnormal Qi, sound, or energy fluctuation.

The air carried the fresh scents of soil, stone, and night-blooming vegetation, but beneath this freshness, Lin Mu soon caught a faint, utterly out-of-place anomaly—

A thin, elusive odor, tinged with sweetness and decay.

The scent was so faint it was scattered by the night wind; had Lin Mu not possessed the ability of Tianlang Xue Yue, he would have barely noticed it.

Following this odor, Lin Mu slipped soundlessly deeper into the rocky outcrop.

Soon, in a dull, shadowed spot half-buried by several massive weathered rocks, he found the anomaly.

The ground there showed signs of recent disturbance; beneath the rocks' shadow, a narrow, slanting entrance—just wide enough for one person—led downward!

Fresh soil lined the entrance's edge, cleverly disguised with scattered stones and dry grass; unless deliberately sought, it was nearly impossible to spot.

Near the entrance, the sweet-rotten odor grew noticeably stronger.

What made Lin Mu's eyes narrow was that his spiritual sense detected, on the ground near the entrance, an extremely faint pulse-like energy fluctuation—and from deep underground, a faint, skittering rustle, like insects crawling.

This was it!