Chapter 1137 - 943: Investigating

The onlookers on the other mountain peaks, as well as the people from Ten Thousand Laws Cave Heaven at the foot of the mountain, also hadn't clearly seen who exactly the Heavenly Court group had taken from the mountain. Everyone's gaze followed those Heavenly Court troops as their figures flew farther and farther away.

The headquarters of Wuyu Trading House within the Heavenly Court's territory was naturally set in the Heavenly Capital. The hurried Shi Chun and Wu Jinliang barged straight in. Huang Yingying and Yu Xuanbing did not follow; if anything went wrong, they were responsible for responding from outside.

Even though they were both in disguise, their behavior still carried a sense of recklessness, which truly was because they were anxious.

Right now, Shi Chun wasn't afraid of being exposed. He was, after all, a Heavenly Court Official. In the resplendent Heavenly Capital, if anything happened and he made a big show of revealing his identity, no one would dare openly act against him.

This was not the time to dawdle. The most urgent matter now was to rescue Young Master Nan. For every moment they delayed, Young Master Nan might be that much more in danger.

It couldn't exactly be called a forced entry. Back when Dingnan Prefecture first brought in a large population, they had no experience. In order to maintain order and prevent incidents, Wu Jinliang had personally led people here to sit in town, so he'd worked with the person in charge of the trading house here, Mei Huan, and they could be considered familiar.

After sending word ahead, Mei Huan personally waited at the back of a small path, and as soon as they met, he quietly led them into the trading house.

When the group entered the secret room, Young Master Nan's bodyguard captain, Ai Erlang, was already waiting there.

This was Young Master Nan's bodyguard captain; they had seen him who knew how many times. Shi Chun and Wu Jinliang naturally recognized him.

As soon as Shi Chun saw him, he asked, "What exactly is going on?"

Ai Erlang immediately recounted how the situation began, starting with Young Master Nan's sudden abnormal reaction, and quickly but thoroughly went over the course of events.

It was also from his mouth that Shi Chun and Wu Jinliang learned of another secret instruction from Young Master Nan: if they could not contact him within a set period of time, they were to go ask the Dongsheng Right Minister Jia Huan to go to Minister Nanshan, Gong Xuan, and demand the person back.

The two, Shi and Wu, looked at each other, realizing that something had already gone wrong with the borrowing money matter.

Shi Chun said in a low voice, "So you're saying it's the Gong family of Nanshan making a move?"

Ai Erlang shook his head. "I don't know. That's probably what he meant between the lines, but the Dong Family didn't clearly explain it to us. However, he can mobilize forces wherever he is at any time to intervene and assist, can even make the guards in front of the Heavenly Court's Xun Gate step aside at a word, especially here in the Heavenly Capital—there's no way an ordinary person could do that."

Shi Chun asked again, "Where do you think your Dong Family head is now?"

Ai Erlang still shook his head. "I don't know. But since he arranged for us to come report to you two Commanders, he wouldn't want you to search blindly. He should be hiding somewhere within the Tiandu Domain."

Seeing that this coincided with his own thinking, Shi Chun asked again, "Can you contact him right now?"

Ai Erlang shook his head once more. The already aged Mei Huan said, "We're waiting for news from the Dong Family head. If he doesn't send word, we don't know what's going on, and it wouldn't be good to disturb him rashly."

Shi Chun frowned and said immediately, "He's lost contact. We can't reach him from our side. You immediately contact him right now and try."

The two, who had long been itching to act, immediately did as told, both taking out Mother-child Talismans to make contact.

The result held no surprises—they waited for a long time without receiving a response.

Shi Chun didn't want to waste time waiting any longer and said decisively, "No need to wait. As long as he's still within the Tiandu Domain, there's an eighty to ninety percent chance something has already happened. Now, whether something has happened or not, we need to prepare for the worst." He raised his hand and pointed at Mei Huan's nose. "You're familiar with the Heavenly Capital. The fact that Brother Nan entrusted you to sit here shows he trusts you; conversely, you must also have a certain understanding of him. Think carefully right now: if he were avoiding pursuit, based on your understanding of him, where in the Heavenly Capital would he likely hide?"

This was exactly why he had come to find him. Taking this route to search was a last resort.

"This…" Mei Huan fell into deep thought. After a moment, he took out a detailed map of the Heavenly Capital, spread it out on a nearby desk, and, pointing to the areas around the capital, pondered aloud, "The Dong Family head doesn't really like being alone. As he used to say, how miserable would it be to die with money in some place where no one knows… So the likelihood of him going off alone to hide in some remote wilderness is low. These places, these, and these are all possible."

He successively pointed out many locations within the Heavenly Domain, among which was the location of "Ten Thousand Laws Cave Heaven."

Shi Chun didn't know whether his judgment was correct, but the reason he had come was precisely to use the other's familiarity to make up for his own shortcomings, to let the other's knowledge play its role. His finger tapped on the map. "All right, let's assume he's hiding in the places you mentioned. Manager Mei, you've been operating in the Tiandu Domain for many years. These named places that you can casually mention—don't tell me you don't have ways to contact them."

Mei Huan looked at him in puzzlement. "I do. What does Lord Shi mean?"

Shi Chun spoke quickly, "We don't know where he is right now. Taking the worst-case scenario, let's assume something has already happened to him. You're going to contact these places one by one and ask if anything has happened in their area. If Brother Nan ran into trouble in any of these places, as long as he wasn't secretly assassinated without a trace, there must have been some commotion when it happened!"

At this point, there was no other way. They could only use a cumbersome method to filter.

Wu Jinliang let out a heavy "Mm" to show his approval.

Mei Huan suddenly understood, slapped his forehead, then, facing the map, took out the corresponding Mother-child Talismans and contacted them one by one. The messages he sent were largely similar, all asking the same question: Have you heard of anything happening over there?

Replies came back one after another, and they quickly screened out a suspicious response. It came from the person in charge over at "Ten Thousand Laws Cave Heaven," who said Mei Huan's information was impressively up to date, that he already knew about something that had just happened, and asked whether Mei Huan had planted eyes and ears on his side.