After Jiang Moran returned, Fengqingzi called out to invite him to eat the white flour steamed buns.
“Senior, did you find any open food stalls? Would you like to try some of these white flour steamed buns?”
Facing the invitation, he smacked his lips. Although he was indeed feeling very hungry right now, he wanted to save room in his stomach for the breakfast the girl was going to make tomorrow.
In the end, the white flour steamed buns all ended up in Fengqingzi's stomach.
The next morning.
Fengqingzi and Jiang Moran walked out of the inn, the former looking at him with some surprise.
“Senior, why did you wake up so early today?” he asked, somewhat astonished. One had to know that the senior usually slept until he woke up naturally.
“To eat breakfast, of course. I didn't eat anything yesterday,” Jiang Moran said with a yawn, wondering what breakfast that little girl had prepared.
Seeing that the path they were taking was growing narrower and their surroundings increasingly dilapidated, Fengqingzi couldn't help but speak up. “But there are no teahouses here, just some rundown shacks.”
“I saved a little girl yesterday; she lives here,” Jiang Moran explained slowly, his eyes scanning around constantly as he searched for the house with a willow tree that the girl had described.
Finally, he found the house.
It wasn't particularly eye-catching among the crowd of dilapidated buildings, but the willow tree at its entrance was growing beautifully, clearly having been meticulously cared for.
The long willow branches swayed freely in the wind, presenting quite a lovely sight.
Jiang Moran walked to the entrance, his hand pausing just as he was about to knock.
Only when he reached the door did he notice that the house was terrifyingly silent. The doors of these old buildings offered absolutely no soundproofing.
The willow branches were very long, gently brushing against Jiang Moran's cheek, yet his heart could not find peace.
His knuckle tapped against the wood, producing a crisp thud.
The door creaked open, leaving a crack...
There was no expression on his face, but his hand froze in midair. The willow branches danced even more wildly, and the door he had not fully opened was gradually blown wider by the wind.
The wind rushed into the house and then swirled back out, carrying with it a faint, lingering scent of blood.
Seeing the senior standing at the doorway without going in, Fengqingzi couldn't help but walk up curiously.
“Senior, why aren't you—” The words caught in his throat halfway. Peering past the senior's body, he saw the horrific, devastating scene inside the room.
A young boy, barely six years old, was pinned to the wall by a long wooden spike driven straight through his abdomen. The blood that had run down the wall had long since dried.
All that remained was a thick, dark streak of blood—a testament to the tears he had shed until they ran dry.
Inside, there was a table. The girl who had been full of smiles last night now lay naked upon it, her body covered in the dark bruises of torment. Her torn clothes lay scattered across the floor, everything testifying to the horrors that had transpired the previous night.
The scent of blood in the room, mingled with a nauseating stench, assaulted his senses in tandem with the visual shock.
Fengqingzi's heart skipped a beat. It wasn't hard to guess that the girl on the table was the person the senior had mentioned. He hadn't expected her to die in such a brutally violated state.
Suddenly, he felt the surrounding air grow exceptionally still. He slowly turned his head to look at the somewhat strange Jiang Moran beside him.
Yet, with just one glance, he subconsciously took three steps back.
This was a purely visceral instinct that required no thought. Even Fengqingzi himself didn't fully comprehend it; he simply felt it was what he had to do.
Jiang Moran's usually lazy eyes now held absolutely no emotion. There was none of the expected rage; Fengqingzi saw only a deep calmness, a stillness so profound it was terrifying...
The instinct for survival in the jianghu told him: Do not get close!
Suddenly, an object gleaming in the sunlight flew toward him. He subconsciously reached out and caught it, its heavy weight startling him.
Looking down, he saw a silver ingot resting in his palm.
“Go straight out for four hundred meters and you will find an alley. Turn into it, and knock on a window inside.”
“Ask them what happened here last night.”
Fengqingzi nodded, turning around and leaving without a moment's hesitation. He moved as swiftly as if the wind itself were carrying his feet. He knew very well that the senior was currently furious.
After the time it took for an incense stick to burn, Fengqingzi returned.
Jiang Moran was standing beneath the willow tree. The boy inside the house had already been taken down from the wall, now lying on the ground alongside the girl, whose body was covered with a tattered cloth.
This tattered cloth was something he had found inside the house. It was very thin, yet it was the girl's final dignity.
“Senior.” Fengqingzi stepped forward. Hearing the sound, Jiang Moran fixed his gaze upon him.
Even though he had prepared himself mentally, Fengqingzi still felt as though he were being stared down by some primordial beast, a chill rising up his spine.
“The people who came here last night were several servants from Prince Ning's Residence. Supposedly, it's because a manager of the Prince's Residence died in an alley last night, and the household offered a hefty reward for information on the killer. They eventually obtained a clue from a boy.”
Hearing this, a change finally flickered in Jiang Moran's eyes, his pitch-black pupils constricting slightly...
【Benefactor, you saved my life, and I haven't been able to help you with anything. I... I feel a bit bad about it.】
【If you don't mind, benefactor, would you like to come to my house for breakfast tomorrow? My cooking isn't exceptionally elite, but it's definitely delicious!】
【She just gave me her home address like that; she really isn't afraid of me at all...】
Under the moonlight, the girl's eyes had crinkled into lovely crescents, blooming with the vitality that uniquely belonged to her age.
The fragments of memory fast-forwarded.
Like a revolving lantern of final moments, they flashed by, yet remained exceptionally clear.
In the end, they froze on the expression of sheer, petrified despair upon the girl's face.
——In an instant, that deathly calm transformed into a towering wave of killing intent!
Fengqingzi's face changed drastically. The horrifying killing intent caused his heart to stop for a fraction of a second, and his body trembled slightly in instinctual fear.
This kind of killing intent was entirely unprecedented!
This was the first time he truly felt the senior's power. A killing intent of this level could probably only be built upon a mountain of countless lives.
If a chill had merely risen up his spine earlier, now his entire back was completely drenched. Fengqingzi swallowed hard.
Prince Ning's Residence... was probably going to be utterly annihilated.
...
Prince Ning's Residence. A gold-plated plaque hung above the entrance, with those three large characters carved into it, fully showing off its noble status.
Inside the estate, Prince Ning, his Princess Consort, and his Second Madam were enjoying breakfast. However, bloodshot streaks still lingered in the Second Madam's eyes.
Ever since her son was assassinated, she had been depressed for the past two years, refusing to eat or drink.
On the contrary, the Princess Consort was quite pleased to see this, and never missed an opportunity to needle her in her presence.
Placing a piece of shark fin into Prince Ning's bowl, the Princess Consort asked, “Husband, why do you always wear such a frown?”
Looking at the shark fin in his bowl, Prince Ning sighed softly. “Last night, a manager of our residence was killed in an alley outside. I suspect this is a warning from either the Second Prince or the Eldest Prince.”
“But... wasn't there someone who witnessed the situation firsthand?”
Prince Ning nodded. “Precisely because of that, I suspect this matter is not simple.”
“According to the address provided by that boy, the servants of the residence went there only to find a highly dilapidated shack containing nothing but two lowly commoners.”
Seeing Prince Ning's frown deepen, the Princess Consort was about to offer more words of comfort...
——Bang!
A deafening blast echoed through the entirety of Prince Ning's Residence, causing ripples to wave through the tea on the table.
At the gates of Prince Ning's Residence.
The gold-plated plaque lay shattered all over the ground, and the heavy gates had been blasted flying by a sheer, titanic force. The entrance that represented the dignity of Prince Ning was completely reduced to scrap in an instant.
“Who goes there?!”
The guards who heard the commotion rushed over in successive waves. Seeing this disastrous scene, all of them were greatly shocked. After all, these gates represented Prince Ning's dignity.
Now that it had been turned into a pile of junk, they could already picture Prince Ning's towering rage.
Two figures slowly emerged from the dense smoke. The guards quickly dispersed, forming a semi-circular formation.
The dust and smoke gradually dissipated in the air. Dozens of eyes stared intently at the two figures growing clearer before them, hands gripping the sabers at their waists tightly.
As the dust cleared completely, everyone's bodies stiffened, their gazes collectively locking onto the hands of the leading newcomer.
The two guards who had been standing at the gate were currently being gripped by their throats in the hands of the black-robed figure leading the way. Judging by the limp hang of their heads, they were already dead.
The two corpses were tossed aside by the black-robed figure, crashing heavily before the crowd, allowing them to clearly see the sheer terror etched onto the corpses' faces.
This sent a sharp jolt through their hearts as panic began to spread.
“Senior!”
“The situation in Fengcheng has been very chaotic lately. This action of yours will definitely draw a lot of attention, especially with the current Emperor still bedridden. Doing this is no different from an open provocation!”
Fengqingzi desperately lowered his voice, trying to explain the gravity of the situation and pull Jiang Moran back.
However...
“I have a habit when I do things,” Jiang Moran said. “And that is, I never care about what others think.”
The moment the words fell, Fengqingzi only felt his scabbard lighten slightly. The figure in front of him moved.
A ringing sounded in his ears. Before his eyes was a sky composed of red and blue, with specks of crimson blossoming across the blue canvas, exceptionally striking to the eye.
——Ching!
A sudden weight returned to his waist. The sound of a longsword sliding back into its scabbard pulled his thoughts back. Right then, drops of rain fell upon his face.
He stared blankly at the sky. The sky was cloudless, and the sunlight was exceptionally gentle and bright. He lightly brushed a finger against the rain on his face.
It was warm.
Looking at the sticky, crimson liquid on his finger, he realized this was no rain—it was fresh blood that had just spurted from human bodies.
Before him, over a dozen headless corpses slumped to the ground. Blood spilled from their necks, pooling together and slowly creeping toward his feet.
And the culprit behind all of this had seemingly not even moved from his original spot.
Three seconds? No, no, no... it couldn't have been that long. One second? No, not even a second.
Fengqingzi's head buzzed. From the moment he felt his scabbard lighten to when the sword was returned to it, less than a single second had passed!
He stared blankly at the black robe before him. It seemed to have caught some blood, giving off a faint, elusive metallic scent.
When blood splattered onto black clothing, it could only be seen as darkened patches when tilted under the sunlight over time; a closer look would reveal a faint, dusty ochre undertone.
Only now did Fengqingzi realize that under the sun's glare, this black robe was covered in a dense, endless expanse of ochre-red stains...
...
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