Intelligence Ultime

Chapitre 20

Zhu Huihui immediately put on a beaming smile: "Great hero, what are your orders?"

Feng Xuese asked, "Is this the place you're talking about?"

"It's right here!" Zhu Huihui said obsequiously. "Our boat was hiding in the reeds over there, and we could see everything clearly. Right where you were standing, a man in black stabbed a bearded man in the heart with a whip, and another man sliced off his head with a knife. When the head fell into the river, his eyes and lips were still moving, as if he wanted to say something..." He imitated the movement of the head falling into the river, his beard and eyebrows trembling, and couldn't help but shudder.

Feng Xuese frowned slightly. According to this rascal, the situation was extremely tragic, but... why were there no clues at all?

He had searched the riverbank twice, but apart from gravel, weeds, and animal remains, he could find no trace of the massacre.

There were no corpses, no bones, and certainly no blood or bits of flesh—only a month had passed since the killing. Could the great power of nature wash away all the evil so cleanly?

Moreover, this place is just sparsely populated, not uninhabited. As this rogue said, there were at least eighty or a hundred skeletons of men, women, and children on the riverbank at that time. Why has no one discovered or reported them for more than a month?

The Sky Over the Martial World is Clear - Part One: The Sky Over the Martial World is Clear - Chapter Six (3)

Moreover, who were those people who were massacred? Nearly a hundred people couldn't have appeared out of thin air at Longchou Rock on the Hulan River, but according to the news from Jietianshui Island, no one in the nearby prefectures and counties had ever seen such a group of people.

Right now, Nishino En is using the power of Blazing Sky to have people investigate the ships that have passed by over the past month. If they still can't find any clues, then they can only conclude that this scoundrel is lying again, or at least exaggerating...

Zhu Huihui, however, didn't think so much. With her hands on her hips, striking a poet's pose, she gazed at the surging river and exclaimed, "Confucius, standing by the river, said: 'How wonderful it would be to have a boat!'"

Despite being illiterate, he couldn't hide his ignorance and would ramble on and on every now and then! Feng Xuese glanced at him indifferently and said, "Imitate the way that black-clad assassin beheads people."

"Ah? Yes!" Zhu Huihui said respectfully, "At that time, he held the knife handle with both hands like this, turned his wrists like this, and slashed the blade like this, and the head flew off..." He bent his knees and twisted his body, his hands as if holding a knife, and slashed into the air.

Feng Xuese hummed in agreement. This was a move from the Yanmen Six Harmonies Saber Technique called "Unrecognizable to Family Members," not exactly a sect secret technique, but widely circulated in the martial arts world.

This rascal has a good memory. Even when he was scared out of his wits, he could still remember this move and imitate it with the correct movements and positions. Although it was a bit awkward, it was still quite an achievement.

Of course, someone who knows a half-baked light-foot skill called "Flowing Light and Regret" might also be half-baked at "Not Recognizing One's Family"—if that's the case, then it proves that this rascal has been lying all along, and he'll have to see what kind of tricks this kid is up to!

Zhu Huihui herself also felt something was wrong, and looked around on the riverbank: "Strange, why is there nothing here?"

Although he was terrified at the time, everything he saw was deeply etched in his mind. Now, being there in person, without the tension and fear of that day, all the details came to mind.

He parted a clump of tall wormwood and said in bewilderment, "There was clearly a woman's arm left in this ditch, with a jade bracelet on her wrist, but now it's gone!"

He kicked a tree twice: "I remember an ear flew up there, and the pearl pendant on the earring was hanging on a branch. Where did it go? Did a bird carry it away?"

He kicked away another stone: "There used to be a finger that fell into a crevice here, wearing a huge gold ring, but it's gone now!"

Feng Xuese had been watching him fussing around with indifference, but when she caught sight of the stones he had kicked aside, her expression suddenly changed slightly. She walked over and examined them carefully before instructing, "Turn over all the stones in this area!"

Zhu Huihui complained, "No way? Hero! There are stones everywhere here..." Then, with a cynical mind, he added, "Don't listen to my nonsense. Jade bracelets, pearl pendants, gold rings—they've all been stolen long ago. Look, I haven't found anything!"

Feng Xuese didn't waste any words with him. He simply placed his hand on the sword at his waist, gently pushed the hilt with his thumb, and "Xuese" made a "clang" sound as it was drawn an inch from its sheath.

The sound was more effective than anything else, and Zhu Huihui immediately shut up, resignedly bending down to hug the stone.

The stones on the riverbank varied in size. He turned over about a hundred of them before Fengxuese finally said, "That's enough!"

Zhu Huihui straightened up, wiping his sweat and panting, "Look, hero! There's really nothing under the rock! We're too late; someone got there first! Alas! What a pity about those jewels and ornaments; we could have exchanged them for so many delicious things in the city!" Then he and Huahua could have eaten and bought whatever they wanted…

"Look at that pathetic little thing, all you know is eating. If a person spends too much time with pigs, will they become like a pig too?" Feng Xuese thought to herself, a small smile playing on her lips. "Who said no?" she said.

"Huh? Where is it?" Zhu Huihui looked around aimlessly.

“Those stones!” Feng Xuese said calmly.

Zhu Huihui stared wide-eyed incredulously: "What? Stones!" Stones can be exchanged for money? Has this old man suddenly gone mad?

The Sky Over the Martial World is Clear - Part One: The Sky Over the Martial World is Clear - Chapter Six (4)

Feng Xuese was too lazy to talk to him. This rascal used all his cleverness and cunning on crooked ways; he was incredibly stupid when it came to doing something worthwhile! He moved nearly a hundred stones without realizing that this area of stones had been deliberately turned over not long ago.

These stones have been by the river for countless years. Due to wind, sun, rain, and water erosion, the side touching the ground and the exposed side are different. Although the difference is not obvious, a careful person can tell at a glance.

If only one stone is flipped over, it might be unintentional, but since almost all the stones in this area have been flipped over, it must have been intentional. Moreover, among the stones that have been flipped over, some have marks from sharp tools, the cut surfaces are fresh, and there are small amounts of reddish-brown blood in the cracks of many pebbles.

Turning over stones with bloodstains and chop marks to the bottom is clearly an attempt to hide traces of murder; only the murderer would do such a thing.

It is normal to dispose of bodies after a large-scale massacre, but such meticulous handling of the scene only makes it more suspicious and suggests a hidden conspiracy.

"Who were the people on your boat?" This matter is of great importance, and this rogue's one-sided account is not enough to prove anything.

Zhu Huihui shook her head: "I don't know him."

"You haven't spoken to anyone?"

"They all ignored me. Hua Hua and I sat at the stern, far away from them." He was used to this treatment wherever he went!

"So, did you hear their conversation?"

Zhu Huihui understood what Feng Xuese meant. Sitting on the rock, she held her head and slowly recalled, "Besides Huahua and me, there were eleven other people on the boat: the boatman, a strange old man, a man with a knife, a fat woman, a young girl, a nun with a wrinkled face, a mother with her daughter, an accountant, and a scholar with a page..."

"Very good! Anything else?"

"Before I boarded the boat, I stole—uh, I mean bought—a big bag of shortbread and rice candy, but Hua Hua accidentally spilled it into the water. When I was hungry at noon, I had nothing to eat. The nun gave me a very sweet red bean paste bun, and then the mother with her daughter said, 'The nuns at Luomei Nunnery are so kind-hearted.'"

Luomei Hermitage! Fengxue Se memorized the name. It seems I'll have to make a trip there.

"Ah, and that man with the knife, he was the one who rowed the boat after the boatman died. I remember he had a blue tiger with long wings embroidered on his belt."

Feng Xuese fell silent. Donglin Escort Agency! This man with the knife was from the Donglin Escort Agency.

He was knowledgeable and experienced in the martial arts world. Upon hearing the name "blue-winged tiger," he immediately recognized it as the emblem of the Donglin Escort Agency in Guyuan Prefecture. Tang Lin, the chief escort of the Donglin Escort Agency, was nicknamed "Black Tiger Flying to the Sky" by people in the martial arts world. Therefore, the Donglin Escort Agency used the blue-winged tiger as its symbol, and it was embroidered on the escort flag!

However, the Donglin Escort Agency had ceased to exist a month ago!