Chapter 348 - 214: Sword and Lute 3

Chapter 348: Chapter 214: Sword and Lute 3

The leader’s forehead beaded with sweat.

"Well... Sir, we never actually saw them run out. A whole group of our brothers over here went down, and then the room was empty..."

The surrounding Ship Gang members all nodded repeatedly. The man raised an eyebrow and looked at the leader.

"You were guarding the door. Your chief is dead. Why aren’t you?"

The leader was actually the deputy chief, the Ship Gang’s other Qi and Blood Metamorphosis Realm expert. Hearing this, his expression changed instantly.

"I-I had no idea they were so strong. I was just trying to block the door and keep them from getting out. But like I just said, none of us saw which way they slipped out..."

"Are you suggesting they ran past me?"

The man snorted coldly.

"Yes, yes, I misspoke! It was my incompetence. I failed to stop them here."

The deputy chief apologized profusely, his heart pounding with fear as he looked at the bodies littering the floor.

’It’s a good thing we couldn’t even catch a shadow of them,’ he thought. ’Otherwise, I’d be one of the dead today.’

The deputy chief was now terrified in hindsight, but also incredibly relieved. Especially with the chief dead, he... was even more relieved.

The man walked out of the room. He saw several more bodies of Ship Gang members in the main hall, while the startled innkeeper and guests huddled together in a corner, trembling.

They had long wanted to flee the inn, which had suddenly turned into a living Purgatory, but Ship Gang disciples were guarding the exit, letting no one leave.

The Shopkeeper’s face was chalk-white. He looked at the middle-aged man on the second floor, who clearly had an extraordinary presence, and forced a pained smile as his lips trembled.

"Sir, from the Ship Gang... I run an honest business. I’ve never once missed a quarterly payment for your gang’s troubles!"

The Shopkeeper had overheard people amidst the chaos saying that Meng Hesheng was dead. His eyelid twitched. ’What kind of huge mess is this?’ he thought. ’And of all the bad luck, it had to happen in my inn!’

He instantly thought of those two young men from the Justice Sect. ’They must have come for them, and so quickly, too...’ he worried. ’I just hope they got away.’

The middle-aged man’s face was impassive. He pointed behind the Shopkeeper and asked:

"Who were the guests staying in that room? What do you know about them?"

’Just as I thought...’

The Shopkeeper sighed inwardly and said nervously:

"Those two guests only checked in yesterday. They said they were from Nanshan County, south of Yunzhou. It’s their first time here. I don’t know them well! I don’t know them at all!"

"Is that so? But someone saw you eating at the same table with them, getting along splendidly,"

the middle-aged man said flatly.

The Shopkeeper’s face tightened, and he hurriedly said:

"I saw they were new faces, looked like greenhorns who weren’t short on cash, so I just wanted to sell them some extra food and drinks. That large roasted fish from the Wu River? It costs twenty copper cash to make. I charged them eight taels and eight mace for it!"

The Shopkeeper had greeted and seen off countless people in his time, but he had rarely met anyone with an aura as oppressive as this middle-aged man’s.

He was getting nervous. He didn’t know who this man was—he’d never seen him with the Ship Gang or anywhere in Wu River County—but judging by his presence, he was far stronger than even Meng Hesheng.

The middle-aged man was noncommittal and continued his questioning:

"Did they say anything noteworthy? Did they... ask about things they shouldn’t have?"

The Shopkeeper’s face grew paler, and he stammered:

"I just thought they were a couple of normal young wandering heroes. I was only thinking about making money off them. I didn’t hear them say anything they shouldn’t have, and I didn’t say anything I shouldn’t have."

The middle-aged man stared at the Shopkeeper and said coolly:

"You’re lying."

The Shopkeeper instantly felt an immense pressure. His expression changed drastically, and he rushed to say:

"They did ask! They asked if there were any cases in our county, anything about helping the weak and punishing the strong... I didn’t dare say anything! I just told them to leave quickly and not cause trouble here!"

He had a sinking suspicion that the man before him was one of the sources of Wu River’s deep-seated corruption. He started stuttering, not daring to speak carelessly.

At the same time, he thought, ’So those two really did escape! They escaped from a man who is clearly powerful and unfathomable!’

’Maybe Younger Brother Shi and his friend really do have some skill?’

A flicker of hope rose in the Shopkeeper’s heart, and he spoke with even greater caution.

He was still thinking that he was telling the truth, not offending either side and making trouble for no one, when he heard the middle-aged man say softly:

"Such a kind-hearted Shopkeeper. Those two... they wouldn’t have come for the missing persons cases in our Wu River County, would they?"

When the Shopkeeper heard this, his heart slowly sank. His face turned whiter than the wall, and he said, trembling:

"What... what missing persons cases? I-I don’t know anything about that."

The middle-aged man looked at him and said no more. With a wave of his hand, the Ship Gang disciples silently carried all the bodies outside. They then stood guard, quietly watching the inn.

The Shopkeeper watched as the middle-aged man picked up an oil lamp from behind the counter and slowly walked towards the exit, his body trembling.

He stammered:

"Sir, if there’s nothing else, may I... may I leave?"

The middle-aged man stood at the door, turned his head, and smiled.

"This is your inn. Where do you think you’re going?"

The Shopkeeper’s face was ashen. He saw the Ship Gang disciples silently pouring something around the outside of the inn. The sky was faintly whitening in the distance, but this was the deepest dark before the dawn.

He bit his lip, shaking so hard he could barely stand, but he still managed to force out the words:

"Sir, please, at least let... let my guests go. They’re just ordinary travelers passing through by chance. They have no complicated backgrounds, and they don’t know... they don’t know about what’s going on in the county."

The middle-aged man leaned on a door plank and chuckled.

"You do business in Wu River, yet you’re so naive? It is precisely because they have no background that they should all stay here together."

After saying this, the middle-aged man personally shut the door plank, sealing the inn’s last path to the outside world.