Chapter 88 Underground Pursuit (Part 1)

  "What exactly happened, Gu Da Ren?" Lu Qing asked in puzzlement. The wine party just now had brought the relationships between everyone much closer.

  His brow furrowed, Gujian Feng said: "This has been happening over the past month, almost every two or three days, a member of the Zong people would mysteriously disappear from their own homes. However, the city guards found no signs of resistance in their homes, and they just vanished without a trace."

  "Could it be that a master of swordsmanship did this?" Luo Xin Yu asked in doubt.

  He shook his head, Gu Jianfeng said: "Originally I also thought it was a swordsmanship expert from another sect who wanted to ruin my sect's livelihood, but in the past month, the city guards have been patrolling day and night, and I have also been patrolling inside the city every night, but I haven't sensed any strong aura."

  Indeed, a strong sword master like Gu Jianfeng, if there is anyone of the same rank or close to it in the same city, as long as they make a move and trigger the sword yuan fluctuation, he will be aware of it. However, a sword dao master above the sword soul realm would never do such a thing, the absolute gap in strength allows them to easily get what they want without having to lower themselves to take action.

  "That is——" Lu Qing's gaze passed over Gu Jianfeng and landed on the large black iron sword with a wide blade beside him. If he remembered correctly, this sword was one of the two swords wielded by the two down-on-their-luck swordsmen they had met in front of the wine shop earlier today. The hilt of the sword was wrapped in a layer of white hemp cloth that had turned grey. Lu Qing had seen it clearly earlier because he had been drawn to their conversation.

  At this time, the sword had already been broken into two pieces. Around the broken sword, there was a pool of blood that had coagulated halfway. It was clear that not more than two incense sticks' worth of time had passed. It was likely that during the previous process, when being held captive, there had been resistance and struggle with the captor. Looking at the current situation, it was clear that things were looking grim.

  He nodded, and Gujian Feng said: "They are a pair of well-known fallen brothers in this area. Although they are both sword attendants, because their ancestors were lucky enough to get a two-sword array that the two of them happened to learn, ordinary swordsmen do not dare to provoke them. They make a living by working as guards for some shops in the market, and have a considerable income. However, both of them are addicted to gambling, so they have always been quite down on their luck, and can only live in this ordinary area."

  "But just now, the hijackers may have underestimated their strength and allowed them to resist," Gujian said firmly, but immediately his face showed extreme anger. "This guy is despicable, he specifically targets ordinary sect members who are weak in strength, and his movements are mysterious, leaving no flaws at all."

  At this moment, another team of city guards came and dispersed the surrounding crowd. The middle-aged city guard captain with the surname of Sutou, who had just reported, walked in.

  "How is it?" Gu Jianfeng asked aloud.

  He shook his head, and the man said with a bitter face: "No, all the people hiding in the ordinary religious district have been mobilized, nothing has been found, and the people at the four city gates have not found any suspicious characters, just like before."

  "What did Wu Xiong discover?" Gu Jianfeng turned his gaze towards Wu Tie, the master of Sword God Temple, who had just come out from the stone house.

  He shook his head again, and Wu Tie smiled bitterly: "No, except for some mess, there's nothing else. Such an unbelievable thing is really the only one I've seen in decades."

  With a wave of his hand, Wū Tiě let out a sigh: "Let's go back. Since Peak Master didn't make any move, that means no swordsmanship master above the Sword Soul Realm has appeared."

  "But, Lord, the entire city is now in a state of panic and unease. Many ordinary citizens have already begun to flee, and even those who remain are starting to lose faith in the City Lord's Manor. If this continues, Luori City will completely collapse."

  His face as dark as ink, Gujian Feng opened his mouth and said: "How many people have gone missing already?"

  "If you include today's, there are a total of 97 households and 306 people."

  "Give me a curfew for the entire city starting now, close the city gates, and without the permission of the City Lord's Manor, no one is allowed to leave the city. Have the city guards patrol the entire city, and without my orders, no one is allowed to return home to rest. Also, notify the head of the Situ family, Situ Haoming, to mobilize half of his family's forces to participate in the patrol. I won't say more, but I believe you also understand."

  "Yes, Lord, rest assured that our family, the Sits, will not stand idly by." A man with the surname Sit hastily spoke up.

  The Situ family, Lu Qing's heart moved slightly. The forces that can make Gujian Feng, the master of this city, attach importance to it are probably only the five major families: the Huangfu family in Chaoyang City, the Ximen family in Miandui City, the Ye family in Yunwu City, the Yue family in Zixia City, and now in Luojiao City, it's the Situ family.

  "If the master of the ancient city doesn't mind, my fellow disciple and I are willing to participate in the patrol. We believe we can still contribute some trivial efforts." At this time, Luoxin Yu suddenly spoke up from the side.

  A smile appeared on his face, and Gu Jianfeng said: "Then I'll have to trouble you two."

  On the other side, Lu Qing and others also spoke up to help, making Gu Jianfeng extremely delighted. Of course, he could see that Lu Qing's group had a strong cultivation base, almost all of them were outstanding figures in this generation of the sect. With their help, they would be able to take action even if they encountered any sudden situations.

  Finally, except for Ming Xue'er who was persuaded to return, the crowd dispersed in ten directions with a sword aura as a signal, led by Cheng Wei to the ten ordinary Zongmin districts of Luoshen City. At the same time, Wu Tie, who had left, returned to the Sword God Temple to dispatch the temple guards. For a while, the atmosphere of the entire Luoshen City became solemn.

  Lu Qing happened to be left in this district by Gu Jianfeng for patrol, and this ordinary religious district was not large, only about a few dozen acres. Lu Qing walked along the quiet alleys, while the religious residents had all returned home due to curfew, leaving only Lu Qing and a team of ten city guards here.

  At this moment, Lu Qing's eyebrows were tightly locked, and his thoughts flowed with deep doubts.

  "What did the little one discover?" Suddenly, Ye Lao's voice echoed in Lu Qing's mind.

  "Old Ye, are you better?" Lu Qing's heart was delighted. From this morning until now, Old Ye hadn't made a sound, and had also told Lu Qing not to disturb him, saying he needed to recover his lost strength. Now that he suddenly spoke up, it was clear there had been some progress.

  "Hmph, Ye Lao said: "It's not that simple, you think it's just an ordinary injury from a fall. This time, I was successfully set up by that crazy woman with the Evil Sword Array, and I couldn't retrieve the Wheel of Rebirth's original sword source. If I want to recover, even if everything goes smoothly, it will take decades. For now, I can only say that I've managed to catch my breath."

  Lu Qing was taken aback by the words, and then sincerely said: "Ye Lao saved me from danger, if there is anything that can help you recover as soon as possible, please feel free to say it out, Lu Qing will do his best."

  Heaving a sigh, Ye Lao said: "Young one, you having this heart means I didn't misjudge you initially. However, for now, you can't help me with anything. What you need to do is focus on improving your cultivation; other matters will be discussed later. At least, with my current attachment to the Heart Refining Sword, safety-wise, there shouldn't be any issues."

  He paused for a moment, and then Ye Lao said again: "Little one, you divert that group of people, go back to the stone house where we were before. I seem to have caught a whiff of a familiar scent there."

  He nodded, and Lu Qing didn't say anything else. He turned around to face the city guards following behind him: "You patrol along here, I'll go take a look over there." Pointing to an alleyway, Lu Qing walked into it.

  The city guards did not dare to slack off in the face of Lu Qing's orders, they clearly saw how Lu Qing and his group had arrived earlier, those were big shots from the inner sect, especially with Lu Qing now wearing a cyan grey martial attire, although it was hard for them to believe due to his age, but the facts were right before their eyes, plus the implicit momentum of thunder and wind that Lu Qing brought with him when he came, they couldn't help but believe.

  After entering the alley and separating, Lu Qing's body suddenly transformed into a phantom, retracted the sword yuan force on his body surface, and quickly returned to the stone house of the fallen brother at the beginning.

  At this moment, the bloodstain in front of the stone house had almost completely coagulated, and the broken sword was still left on the ground, with no one willing to pick it up. Lu Qing shook his head, apparently these two brothers didn't have good relationships with others either.

  "What did you find?" Ye Lao asked at this time.

  "Ah," nodded Lu Qing, "my family has a rare book on sword casting, called 'The Broken Sword Classic', which details the various reasons for sword damage and breakage, including this situation."

  Lu Qing continued, "Although the broken edge of this sword is smooth and appears to have been cut off by a sharp sword of higher quality, it's actually not. The texture near the break is twisted, and upon closer inspection, the fracture surface is not on the same line, which can only be caused by one thing: this sword was completely snapped in two by brute force."

  "Not bad, you're absolutely right. I didn't expect that the Lu family would have such a rare casting technique. Now take a closer look at its current fracture surface." Ye Lao praised and then instructed.

  "What's this?" Lu Qing picked up the broken sword and looked at it, only to find that the black iron part of the broken edge, which was originally completely black, was now making a faint hissing sound. If it weren't for the fact that it was late at night and very quiet, he wouldn't have been able to hear it. As the hissing sound continued, the broken edge seemed to be corroded, slowly sinking in, and a faint white ash floated out from the sunken area with the sound.

  "How could this be?" Lu Qing was stunned.

  "Ah——" At this time, Ye Lao suddenly let out a deep sigh, "It's really that group of beasts, I didn't think they still existed."

  Thrilling battles and discoveries are coming soon.