Chapter 387: Li Xun

The night in Qingxi County seemed to be shrouded in a layer of invisible gauze.

Though the moonlight was bright, it carried an indescribable sense of oppression.

"Quick, quick, quick! Hurry and find out where those elites disappeared; the Master wants the first-hand news."

On the streets, those figures shuttled between the eaves and alley ends like ghosts.

Sometimes they vanished into the darkness, and sometimes they appeared abruptly in another spot, stirring up gusts of subtle yet hurried wind.

In the sounds carried by the wind, one could vaguely hear words like "Lin Family" and "Master."

The atmosphere, different from usual, made the commoners who hadn't fallen asleep in the middle of the night quickly pull their windows shut and close their doors, lest they be caught in the crossfire.

Meanwhile, at the inn, Inspector Li Xun, who was still preparing arrangements for tomorrow, also caught a whiff of the unusual atmosphere.

Inside the inn, the candlelight flickered, reflecting the tightly furrowed brows of Inspector Li Xun.

Li Xun stood before the inn window, his gaze like a torch, attempting to pierce the night and capture the traces of those figures in the darkness.

However, the night was too deep, and the men in black shuttled between the eaves and alley ends like ghosts, appearing and disappearing, making it difficult for Li Xun to pin them down.

A burst of hurried knocking broke the silence of the room; Li Xun quickly composed his mind and opened the door.

A scout dressed in night-traveling clothes stood outside the door with lowered head and submissive expression, clutching a secret letter tightly in his hand.

The scout's voice was low and hurried: "My Lord, this is urgent intelligence just sent from the family."

Li Xun took the secret letter and scanned it quickly; his heart felt as if it were being pressed by a giant boulder, heavy and difficult to breathe.

The matter described in the secret letter caused his expression to change abruptly—the Red Lotus Sect was about to invade Qingxi County!

The Red Lotus Sect's influence was vast, its followers numerous, and every one of them was highly skilled in martial arts.

If they really were to attack, Qingxi County would likely be unable to hold them off.

Only then did Li Xun realize with a start that he had been set up and brought to the front lines of a war.

This was undoubtedly a conspiracy by that old thing from the Gao Family.

"Gao Qiu, you want me dead!" Li Xun's anger burned, but panic at this moment would only make the situation worse.

He had to make a decision quickly if he were to have any chance of salvaging this situation.

Li Xun took a deep breath, struggling to calm himself down.

He looked at his personal guard Zhao Feng beside him and asked calmly, "What should we do?"

Zhao Feng's eyes were full of confidence as he replied, "My Lord, we must immediately gather all the men we can mobilize and scatter them all out; we need to know the first-hand news."

His strength at the Organ Refining Late Stage allowed Zhao Feng to be certain that he could ensure Li Xun's safety.

Hearing this, Li Xun nodded, his voice firm and powerful: "Good, go do it immediately!"

Upon hearing this, Zhao Feng turned and left at once to convey Li Xun's orders.

Li Xun returned to the table and began to formulate a retreat plan.

The rebels of the Red Lotus Sect would not give Qingxi County much time to prepare; they had to race against time.

However, Li Xun's heart was filled with worry.

The Red Lotus Sect's influence was too vast, and behind them, there were even famous experts of the Jianghu and long-renowned veterans providing support.

In fact, the Li Family's secret reports even speculated that legendary cultivators had been vaguely drawn into the Red Lotus Sect.

This was like a massive gunpowder barrel, ready to explode at any moment and drag the Great Zhou down with it to the grave.

And Li Xun had been pushed to the very front line of this storm.

The Li Family had been officials for generations and was one of the three great noble clans in the region of Wofeng Prefecture.

However, because they had offended the young patriarch of the Gao Family—a clan of equal standing that had climbed onto the thigh of the Zhennan Prince—the Li Family had been forced to endure a little.

Yet he had not expected the Gao Family's killing blow to be so vicious,

sending him to the very path the Red Lotus Sect was bound to march upon.

Li Xun understood in his heart that he was already in a desperate situation.

Those people from the Gao Family would absolutely not let him return alive so easily.

But he was unwilling to sit and wait for death; he began to think about how to preserve himself in this storm, and even seek an opportunity to strike back.

The night remained deep, but a seed of darkness had been planted in Li Xun's heart.

Was the situation set up by those bastards of the Gao Family really that simple?

Under the cover of the night, in a corner Li Xun had not noticed,

two groups of figures stood facing each other with blades drawn, the atmosphere tense to the extreme, like a string about to snap.

"Who are you people?" the Li Family's leader, Li Hu, demanded sternly.

His gaze was like a hawk in the night sky, sharp and cold, attempting to find a flaw in the other party's eyes.

"And who are you?" The Zhang Family's leader, Zhang Long, did not back down either; he likewise scrutinized the other party, attempting to judge their identity from their attire and temperament.

In the eyes of the two leaders meeting in the air, it was as if sparks were colliding, and the tense atmosphere reached its peak.

The situation at this moment allowed for not even the slightest negligence,

because they represented not just themselves,

but the honor and interests of their entire families.

Those sent out to act in the middle of the night were naturally not weak in their own martial prowess.

Li Hu pondered to himself; before setting out, the Patriarch had told him of the current sudden change in the situation,

and instructed him that there were no friends at this time, only enemies.

He even suspected that the other two families might have already joined forces, intending to act against the Li Family.

A slight misstep could trigger a bloody battle, with consequences too dire to contemplate.

However, when he scrutinized the other party, he felt the figures looked somewhat familiar.

He asked tentatively: "I know you, Zhang Long of the Zhang Family,"

"I am Li Hu of the Li Family, sent here under orders to search for the missing Li Family servants."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Long's voice was firm and powerful: "Li Hu of the Li Family? I have long heard of your name. However, I too have been sent out to search for the missing servants of the Zhang Family."

Once Li Hu heard this, his expression changed slightly, and a stormy sea surged in his heart: "You too?"

The two looked at each other, both realizing the gravity of the situation.

Who would dare to provoke the two great families of Qingxi County at the same time?

Is it a passing fierce tiger?

Or is it a stray rat?

After discussing for a few sentences, they realized that everyone's situation was about the same.

It turned out that both had planted pawns in the Lin Family.

They exchanged a look that said, "So you are that kind of family."

"It seems our goals are the same," Li Hu said in a deep voice.

"We must unite to find the truth, otherwise both our great families will face a catastrophe."

Zhang Long nodded in agreement: "Agreed, we cannot be picked off one by one by the Lin Family. We must join forces to confront this crisis together."

The two leaders reached a consensus in the dark night, deciding to temporarily set aside their mutual grievances to search for the missing servants together.

And the first to bear the brunt would be the Lin Family.

The root of everything started with the Lin Family.