“Could he be faking his death to trick me?”
Zhuang Xun stared at the youth, who had an arrow in both his forehead and his chest. He rubbed the prickly stubble on his chin, a suspicious look on his face.
A moment later, as he looked at the youth whose head was now separated from his body, he stood with his hands on his hips, feeling a lot more at ease.
If he still wasn't dead after this, Zhuang Xun could only give him a thumbs-up and praise him: Nice trick, brother!
After all, how could a mere human possibly fight Xingtian?
After that, he began to clean up the scene.
He threw the bow and the blood-stained firewood cleaver onto the ground—and that was that.
Zhuang Xun had kept gloves on the Debt-Lending Bladesman the entire time, and this world had no means of checking fingerprints anyway.
He had bought the bow and cleaver this afternoon after creating a new clone, so they had no connection to his two permanent clones. There was no need to worry about exposure.
Furthermore, this served as a red herring.
His Debt-Lending Bladesman clone was quite famous around Zechuan City. Once the disciples of the Law Enforcement Hall saw the cleaver, they would immediately think of the culprit, preventing them from accidentally tracing it back to Yan Pingsheng.
As for the corpse, he just left it there.
The Outer Court disciples had morning training every day, so there was no point in hiding it.
If the youth failed to show up during the day, the martial academy would contact his family, and his family would immediately realize that something had happened to their child.
Zhuang Xun hadn't forgotten that the two parties on the note addressed each other as “my son” and “father.”
The youth's family—at least his father—was one of the masterminds behind the scheme to lure the martial academy disciples up the mountain.
Leaving the corpse here might even prompt the martial academy to cover it up for the sake of their reputation once they saw a disciple had died right inside their grounds.
Since the youth's family had a guilty conscience, they certainly wouldn't dare to ask too many questions.
Zhuang Xun took off his clothes and burned them in small batches to keep the smoke from becoming too conspicuous.
During this time, he even dug up the gyrfalcon, roasted it, and ate it, bones and all.
He checked the corpse once more to make sure no information was hidden on it.
Only then did he open the Character Creation Panel to convert the Debt-Lending Bladesman's flesh and blood into points. The young man's sturdy body withered away bit by bit until he was nothing but skin and bones, then turned into a puddle of mush, and finally disappeared completely.
——Character Creation Panel——
[Character 1: Yan Pingsheng (Expandable)]
[Character 2: Bai Yujing (Expandable)]
[Character 3: (To be created)]
【Current Points: 33】
...
Time passed. The moon set and the sun rose, sweeping away the night from the bamboo forest.
“Ah—!”
A disciple who had emulated Bai Yujing by coming to the bamboo forest early in the morning to cultivate saw the corpse. He let out a terrified shriek, startling the birds in the forest into flight.
Before long, the Law Enforcement disciples arrived and cordoned off the bamboo forest.
A crowd of bewildered disciples gathered outside to watch the commotion.
“What's going on? What happened inside?” Zhang Tie, wearing only his inner robes, squeezed his way to the front.
Zhuang Xun followed behind him, looking around unhurriedly.
It was quite a lively scene.
“Brother Yan! You're here too? Something big has happened!”
Hearing someone call his name, Zhuang Xun turned around. A handsome youth was walking over with large strides.
The newcomer was named Liu Xiangzhi, Zeng Yingcai's roommate. He was the person who had stood up to thank Zhuang Xun after being warned a few days ago.
Since then, he had often taken the initiative to make friends with Zhuang Xun.
“Brother Liu, what's wrong?” Zhuang Xun asked, playing dumb.
“Brother, what's this big news?” Zhang Tie also stopped advancing and looked at Liu Xiangzhi curiously.
“Someone died in the forest!”
“Ah?!” Zhang Tie's voice grew louder, filled with disbelief. “Someone died?! No... how did they die?”
I killed him. Isn't your Brother Zhuang amazing... Zhuang Xun wore an equally shocked expression on his face.
“According to the person who first saw the corpse,” Liu Xiangzhi lowered his voice, “it seems... their head was chopped off!”
Zhang Tie shuddered. “How creepy. Who died?”
“I don't know.”
...
“Senior Brother Yang, the deceased is named Zhong Youqi. The cause of death was an arrow to the chest.”
“The culprit was extremely cautious and cold-blooded. Afterward, they shot another arrow through the deceased's forehead and brutally severed his head...”
Inside the bamboo forest, a Law Enforcement disciple skilled in autopsy reported to Yang Ling.
Over a dozen Law Enforcement disciples were scattered around, carefully examining the scene.
Beneath a bamboo stalk about ten meters away from the corpse, a Law Enforcement disciple suddenly called out:
“Senior Brother Yang, a firewood cleaver and a bow were found here. There is blood on the cleaver, likely the weapon left behind by the culprit.”
Hearing this, the others looked over.
A mature-looking disciple with a short beard thought for a moment and gasped in surprise, “Leaving a blade after killing... Could it be the Debt-Lending Bladesman, who has been notoriously famous over the past two years!”
“The Debt-Lending Bladesman?! If it's him, we're in trouble. It's said that this person possesses superb qinggong, coming and going like a ghost. To this day, no one has ever seen his face. Even the Crimson Robes of the City Lord's Manor set up an inescapable dragnet but failed to capture him.”
“But doesn't the Debt-Lending Bladesman usually only target gangs and bandits? Why would he kill an Outer Court disciple?”
“How could we possibly fathom a murderer's thoughts? The priority right now is to capture this thief and restore the face of our Wanxing Martial Academy!”
Ignoring the clamor around him, Yang Ling walked straight to the firewood cleaver and squatted down.
He first observed it intently, then closed his eyes, recalling the bloody cases the Debt-Lending Bladesman had committed in the past.
“The Debt-Lending Bladesman.”
He opened his eyes, a calm look in them, and instructed the Law Enforcement disciples behind him, “Split into two teams. One team will investigate if any unfamiliar faces have entered or left the market recently.”
“The other team will investigate what the deceased has been doing lately, and whether he or his family has any grudges with the Debt-Lending Bladesman.”
“Yes, sir!”
Yang Ling stood up, his cold gaze sweeping over the uneasy disciples who had been responsible for the patrol last night.
“Also, from now on, reinforce the patrols and security of the martial academy. Find out where the Debt-Lending Bladesman sneaked in from.”
“Yes, sir!” Seeing that they weren't being punished, those few people let out a sigh of relief.
Only a few people remained at the scene, while the rest of the Law Enforcement disciples followed Yang Ling out of the bamboo forest.
“Disperse, disperse!”
“There's nothing to see here. Go back and practice martial arts!”
A few Law Enforcement disciples stepped forward, shooing away the disciples gathered outside.
In the crowd, Zhuang Xun, completely lacking the self-awareness of a murderer, openly sized up the Law Enforcement disciples who were leaving with powerful strides.
“So impressive,” Zhang Tie sighed. “Once I get promoted to the Inner Court, I want to join the Law Enforcement Hall too.”
Didn't you say before that Law Enforcement disciples are all bastards? Zhuang Xun cast a glance at Zhang Tie.
Liu Xiangzhi shook his head. “The Law Enforcement Hall is tiring and dangerous... Uh, but it is indeed very impressive!”
He suddenly remembered that he wasn't very close to Zhang Tie and shouldn't say too much, so he turned to Yan Pingsheng and asked:
“Brother Yan, have you thought about where you want to go after getting promoted to the Inner Court?”
“Me? Probably the General Affairs Hall,” Zhuang Xun said after a brief thought, revealing his original plan.
He had originally planned to use his main character Bai Yujing's connections to find a leisurely, cushy job for Yan Pingsheng in the General Affairs Hall.
But now that he had money, who would want to work? Naturally, he would slack off as much as possible.
“Ah, Brother Yan, we think alike. I'm also thinking of entering the General Affairs Hall in the future. It's safe and free.”
“It's just that without connections, it's hard to find a good job. If you just go in directly, you'll mostly be assigned some hard and tiring chores,” Liu Xiangzhi said, feeling a bit discouraged.
The subsequent development of the situation was indeed as Zhuang Xun had expected. The martial academy chose to cover it up, strictly forbidding disciples from spreading or discussing the matter.
If the Zhong family wanted to know the news of Zhong Youqi's death, it would probably take a few days.
This gave Zhuang Xun ample time to prepare.
However, it wasn't all without bad news.
He was wanted by the martial academy—the Administrative Hall had issued a mission, rewarding five hundred taels of silver to any disciple who captured or killed the Debt-Lending Bladesman.
For a time, the Inner Court disciples were shaken and eager to try, and even some Outer Court disciples had ideas.
But this was of little consequence; it wasn't as if he hadn't been wanted before.
The City Lord's Manor had placed a bounty on his clone, the Debt-Lending Bladesman, for nearly two years, but to this day, they still didn't even know what the Debt-Lending Bladesman looked like.
The only few pieces of useful information had been provided by Zhuang Xun himself when he was short on money.
“Too low, too low. They don't realize how terrifying I am. They should at least offer a bounty of ten thousand taels,” Zhuang Xun shook his head and sighed.
If the martial academy really offered that much, there would be no need for anyone else to act; he would bring the Debt-Lending Bladesman's head over to collect the reward himself.
Rate on N.U.
