Chapter 114: Clues

A small city in the Western Regions.

This small city near the border of Great Zhou was more prosperous than imagined. In fact, there were more merchants from Great Zhou here.

After entering the city, Lu Fang and the others found a Great Zhou native who spoke the local language and went around to various places holding the "scroll" to inquire.

This small city was not large, but the people were extremely dense.

A dozen Great Zhou natives dressed in Western Regions style were in the square holding scrolls, beginning to search for the person in the painting.

In a simple shop selling grilled meat naan.

"Young Master Fang, rest assured, as long as anyone in the city has seen the person in the painting, my men will definitely be able to find them."

A middle-aged man with a goatee wearing a Western Regions long gown said confidently.

This middle-aged man was named Hu Di, a famous local tour guide and a "know-it-all" in the city. Seven-tenths of the tour guides here were his subordinates.

"We need to continue our journey later, so try to be as fast as possible."

Lu Fang paused and continued, "However, rest assured, as long as your men can find the person in the painting or have other clues, even if we are no longer here, you can contact us via sound-transmission talisman, and I will reward you handsomely."

After speaking, he handed over a dozen silver banknotes.

Hu Di beamed with joy and cupped his hands, "Then Young Master Fang, please wait here. I will go and gather everyone in the city; I will definitely do my utmost to search."

Xiao Tao frowned slightly and said with a serious face:

"Young Master, you are too easy to trust people. What if this person takes the silver but doesn't put in the effort? In my opinion, it's better to get the job done before giving the silver."

Lu Ling laughed and shook her head, "Can't the lamb skewers plug your mouth? What do you know? This man named Hu Di, judging by his dress and speech, is a leader with a certain amount of influence here."

"For such a relatively large force, the most important thing is credibility."

"If they take the silver but don't do the work, not to mention that we can look around the city to see if they are putting in the effort, even just spreading the word would ruin their reputation."

"Once their reputation is ruined, the loss is far greater than earning some silver."

Lu Fang nodded in agreement and smiled, "The wind, sand, and sun here are truly intense. Later, I will go around the city to see the situation and buy some necessities by the way."

"You two must stay close to Fourth Senior Sister to avoid any complications."

Zhou Yi Yi, who was eating naan bread and meat skewers, heard this and said indistinctly, "Mm-hmm, if you see anything delicious, buy more, and drinks too."

Lu Fang nodded with a smile. This Fourth Senior Sister was satisfied as long as there was good food and drink; all things considered, she was quite easy to please.

He gave Lu Ling a few more instructions before heading towards the east side of the small city.

Along the way, there were caravans leading camels everywhere, as well as crowded stalls and shops with both Western Regions and Great Zhou characteristics.

Lu Fang had just walked past a street when he saw people holding scrolls, asking the merchants and vendors on both sides.

The information they were probing for was also extremely simple and crude; as long as they could provide clues, and as long as they were true, there was a high reward.

Only people with influence locally could do this kind of thing; only then would no one try to pass off fake news or provide various false clues.

Lu Fang bought some characteristic food that could be stored for a long time along the way. In fact, when he was at the border of Great Zhou, he had already purchased a large amount of daily necessities in many storage bags.

However, things like storage bags were still quite precious.

Take the camel caravan they joined; they probably only had five or six storage bags at most, and these storage bags were generally of the very small capacity type.

Therefore, many necessities for the journey were carried by camels.

Lu Fang walked quickly. Within an hour, he had roughly toured the small city. Seeing the whole city full of people holding scrolls and asking everywhere, he nodded with relief.

Like this, unless no one in the city knew the person in the painting, there would definitely be clues.

As of now, the situation did not look very optimistic.

But this was just a small city on the border of the Western Regions, and they were prepared to return empty-handed.

"Is it true that as long as you provide clues about the woman in the painting, your 'Shatuo Gang' will give a heavy reward of one thousand taels of silver?"

A drunken voice sounded, causing Lu Fang to stop his footsteps. He turned around to look at the source of the voice.

He saw a drunkard who looked like a mixed-race of Han and Western Regions, staggering and pulling on a person holding a scroll, staring with wide eyes and asking.

"Where did this drunkard come from?"

The person from the Shatuo Gang shook his hand violently, but the seemingly extremely weak old drunkard's body only swayed slightly.

After the old drunkard gulped down a few large mouthfuls of wine, he smiled and said, "What? Look down on this old monk? Back in the day, I was also a famous ascetic monk in the Buddha Kingdom."

"Let go of me!"

The young man from the Shatuo Gang said angrily, "A drunkard like you, still an ascetic monk of the Buddha Kingdom? Bah!"

The old drunkard still held his arm, smiling, "This old monk does not wish to argue with you. I already told you, I know clues about the woman in the painting you have in your hand. You just need to give me one thousand taels of silver."

The young man from the Shatuo Gang was furious and shook his hand several times, but couldn't shake him off. Just as he was about to get angry, a hand suddenly reached out and pressed on the back of the old drunkard's hand.

Before he could react, he had already been pushed away by that hand and retreated a few steps, finally getting rid of the old drunkard's entanglement.

"Old man! You wait for me."

The young man from the Shatuo Gang left a harsh word, thanked Lu Fang, and hurried away.

"Truly dog-eyed and looking down on people, bah!" The old drunkard spat out a mouthful of thick phlegm, his somewhat blurry drunken eyes suddenly becoming sharp as he sized up Lu Fang.

Lu Fang spread his hands and smiled, "Senior, to tell you the truth, the Shatuo Gang running around with the scrolls was entrusted by me. If you really have clues about the woman in the painting, I will definitely offer one thousand taels."

The old drunkard in front of him kept saying he was an ascetic monk of the Buddha Kingdom, but looking at his drunken state, no one would believe him.

However, Lu Fang could see that the aura on this old drunkard was that of a Sixth-Rank realm; perhaps he really was an ascetic monk unique to the Buddha Kingdom, who knows.

Anyway, listening wouldn't hurt.

This monk of the Sixth-Rank realm didn't look like someone who would deliberately find fault for the sake of one thousand taels.

What if it were true?

"Bring the one thousand taels of silver?"

The old drunkard gulped down a few mouthfuls of wine, rinsed his mouth, swallowed it, hiccuped, and stretched out his somewhat muddy palm.

Lu Fang raised an eyebrow and smiled, "If I give you the silver and your clue is fake, or you run away, wouldn't I become a sucker?"

The old drunkard's eyes became blurry again, and he spoke Chinese with a local accent:

"If I, this old monk, tell you the clues about the woman in the painting, and you run away later, taking my clues to exchange for silver, wouldn't I be the one suffering a huge loss?" ===== CHAPTER 115 =====