Righteousness and pure love, yet you ask me to spread demons throughout the world?

Page 14

Several more horses galloped in from the south gate of the county town, stopping only in front of the inn.

Chapter 24: Could it be a girl, or it might not be human?

Three people dismounted at the entrance of the inn.

The leader, dressed in black robes and carrying a goose-feather saber—a weapon typically used only by members of the Six Doors—was none other than Hu Tao, the chief constable of the Six Doors in this prefecture. Behind him followed two constables wielding broadswords.

"Oh, Miss Butterfly, you're here too?" Hu Tao entered the lobby, saw Murong Die at a glance, and smiled.

Murong Die said, "The Fei Hong Gang came to cause trouble early this morning. If I hadn't come, they probably would have smashed this place up. Those guys are too outrageous."

Hu Tao said, "There's nothing we can do. Zheng Lichuan just lost his precious son. He has a bad temper and is ordering his men to investigate everywhere. How could the Fei Hong Gang's men easily find out who could kill their young leader so quietly?"

"Desperate times call for desperate measures. Since Zheng Xiu happened to be here last night, some people are bound to cause trouble. Miss Die, it's perfect that you're here. Would you be interested in investigating this case with me?"

Murong Die said, "Zheng Lichuan has found the Six Doors? Heh, they've done countless underhanded things in secret, how come they didn't think of you?" Hu Tao said, "Well, there's nothing we can do. He reported it to the police, so we have no choice but to investigate."

"But don't worry, I'll go and put pressure on the Flying Flood Gang later, and they'll never dare to cause trouble here again." "Brother Fu, you can stay here in the shop. Come, come, just give me a statement."

“Just ask everyone Zheng Xiu met yesterday. Once you’ve asked them all, you’ll know for sure that it has nothing to do with you.” Fu Hai then stepped forward and chatted with Hu Tao for a while.

Hu Tao simply asked a few questions and made a brief note of them.

Then he asked Fu Hai if any suspicious people had come to the inn in the past few days. Fu Hai replied, "Let alone suspicious people, there haven't been many normal guests."

“Now everyone’s heading towards the East Gate, not the South Gate. You know that, Chief Constable.” Hu Tao nodded: “That’s true.”

He looked at Murong Die and said, "I don't know why, but the Fei Hong Gang refuses to say where Zheng Tao was killed. I have a feeling that there's something fishy going on, and things aren't as simple as they seem."

"Furthermore, I have examined Zheng Tao's head, and if I am not mistaken, it was probably killed by the same sword as the bandit leader who was killed in the old forest of Duanyun Mountain."

"I think that to find out who the murderer is, we must find out where Zheng Tao died. Would Miss Die be willing to go with me to Feihong?"

"Go help the gang?"

Murong Die pondered for a moment.

Fu Hai said, "Miss Die, you can go ahead. Everything will be fine here!" Murong Die was also quite curious about this case.

He stood up and said, "Very well! I'll see what secrets lie within."

Fu Hai stood up: "I'll go help Sister Die lead the horse out." He went out of the main hall and led the brown horse out of the stable.

Murong Die drifted over like a red cloud, glanced back, and then...

She touched his lower abdomen and chuckled softly, "Have you missed your sister these past few days?"

Being touched in broad daylight made Fu Hai somewhat embarrassed. But he wasn't the young Chu Nan anymore.

She also secretly touched Sister Die's chest and whispered, "Sister Die, are you thinking about me again?" After the glory of that afternoon, Murong Die had naturally tasted the sweetness of life.

Her face flushed with joy at his touch, and she whispered in his ear, "I'll come and keep you company again tonight." She then mounted her horse with a smile.

Murong Die caught up with the chief constable and two other constables on horseback, and they headed into the city together.

Fu Hai returned to the main hall and discussed the matter with Qiu Ying, Song Lingyue, and Xia Yuelan, but naturally, they couldn't come to any conclusions.

"You two didn't sleep well last night, did you?" Fu Hai looked at his two junior sisters, Lingyue and Yuelan. "Now that everything's alright, you two should go and catch up on your sleep." Xia Yuelan said, "Shi Ke, you slept soundly! I couldn't wake you up at all."

“Cough,” Fu Hai said, “Actually, I was listening to the sounds outside all night, but Guan Liang couldn’t hold on any longer.” In fact, he really slept very soundly.

Song Lingyue and Xia Yuelan were unaware that a powerful female demon from the Fourth Realm was protecting them, and they were on tenterhooks last night.

Now that Lady Murong had spoken and the Six Doors had clearly stated they would warn the Flying Flood Gang, they felt relieved. They then went to wash up and catch up on sleep.

Fu Hai looked at Qiu Ying beside him: "Sister Qiu Ying, last night under the big tree on the west side, did you notice a girl?" Qiu Ying said calmly: "There was such a person, but she wasn't coming for us."

Fu Haifu said, "As expected of Sister Qiu Ying, she didn't even leave the main hall at the time, yet she knew the girl's figure under the tree like the back of her hand."

“She said she wasn’t after us; I guess the girl’s killing intent was directed at Zheng Xiu. Did she follow Zheng Xiu and his group to the inn?” Qiu Ying glanced at him again: “She might be a girl, but she might not be human. It’s better not to get close.”

Fu Hai was startled: "What? What do you mean, it could be a girl, or it could not be human?" Qiu Ying had already turned away, and said perfunctorily:

"I was just saying that casually. I think I saw someone, but then I thought I didn't, so it probably wasn't a person. Don't take it to heart, boss!"

However, Fu Hai knew that the earlier hints were the key. What did it mean to say "possibly not human"?

Is it really haunted?! I want to know for sure.

Qiu Ying, however, had already taken a rag and was wiping the eight-immortal tables, not giving him another glance. Fu Hai finished his tea, stood up, and went out the main door.

The pillar that was chopped down by Fei Hong's accomplices last night still has its lower half standing there.

This pillar was erected when this place was still a martial arts school, and a flag that read "Dragon Claw Sect" was hanging there at the time. He then looked at the large tree in the distance, but the area under the tree was empty.

"It seems like the weather is really getting cooler." He stretched out his hand and felt the wind blowing from afar.

At noon, he knocked on Yue Lan's door: "Yue Lan, get up and eat." He tried to push the door open, but found it locked from the inside.

Honestly, I'm the only man in the house, why would I lock the door?

After knocking several more times, Yue Lan's panicked voice finally came from inside: "Wait, wait." "What's wrong?" Fu Hai asked, puzzled.

In the past, Yue Lan would have always opened the door and let him in first. "I...I...I'll get dressed first! Senior brother, you go eat first."

"Oh!" Fu Hai tilted his head slightly. Dressing up?!

There are no outsiders here, so why did you think of getting dressed up first? Then you went to knock on Lingyue's door.

As a result, Lingyue's door opened easily, but there was no one inside.

He turned around and came out, just in time to see Junior Sister Lingyue walking towards the bamboo water tap in the distance, shaking her hands to make water droplets disappear. "Senior Brother?!" Song Lingyue, who had just finished washing her hands, looked at her senior brother in confusion when she saw him standing at the door of her room.

But then Shi Xian glanced at her wet hands, then moved them down to her lower abdomen, seemingly lost in thought. She hadn't wet the bed! Song Lingyue clenched her fists, inexplicably furious.

Chapter 25 The Legend of Night Fragrance

The atmosphere that afternoon was a bit strange compared to usual. Fu Hai noticed that his junior sister, Ling Yue, really didn't want to talk to him that day.

Junior Sister Yue Lan is fine when there are other people around, but she blushes and tries to run away whenever she's alone with him.

As night fell and darkness descended, the heroine Murong Die indeed arrived. Murong Die handed the brown horse's reins to Qiu Ying and stepped into the main hall.

Fu Hai said, "Miss Die, have you eaten? Would you like us to make you something to eat?"

“I’ve already eaten in the city,” Murong Die said. “I knew you didn’t usually prepare meals here, so I ate at a restaurant in the city first before coming over.”

"Sister Die, how's the case going?" Xia Yuelan pulled Murong Die to sit at the octagonal table near the counter. Although there were large candles burning in the four corners, making it bright enough, Fu Hai still placed a dish of candles on the table.

Murong Die said, "They used both persuasion and coercion, to the point that the Fei Hong Gang forced us to go to the place where Zheng Xiu died."

"But that place was clearly cleared out by the Flying Flood Gang once, and we don't know what it was originally for. Judging from the Flying Flood Gang's secrecy, it probably wasn't anything good." Zheng Xiu was beheaded with a single sword strike. As the young leader of the Flying Flood Gang, his strength wasn't too bad; he was a rank-level martial artist. To be beheaded with a single sword strike...

"The killer's strength is definitely not weak; probably above the seventh realm."

Xia Yuelan said, "Could it be that someone is acting out of chivalry?"

“I’m not quite sure!” Murong Die said. “That place is almost a sealed room, and there are many guards protecting him. I don’t know how the murderer sneaked in. I checked it out. Although there are some ventilation holes and such, it’s impossible for a person of normal size to enter, not even the two of you.” She looked at Lingyue and Yuelan.

He added, "But the murderer went in silently and came out with a severed head. If there's anything unusual, it's that there's a lingering fragrance there, but when we asked the Fei Hong Gang, they said it wasn't there originally."

"It's not sandalwood, nor is it any other fragrance used to repel mosquitoes and insects, which is very strange!"

Fu Hai deliberately feigned a thoughtful expression: "She's petite compared to Lingyue and Yuelan, uses a sword, enjoys beheading people, might even be a chivalrous hero, kills at night, and likes to leave a fragrance behind."

Is there such a person in the martial arts world?

Murong Die raised her head: "If you put it that way, I feel like I've remembered something, but subconsciously I feel it's impossible... It's very strange."

Qiu Ying lit some incense to repel mosquitoes and said calmly, "When I was little, my mother told me, while lulling me to sleep, about a very powerful female swordsman in the martial arts world."

Murong Die was suddenly moved: "The chivalrous thief Ye Liuxiang?"

"If that's the case, it is indeed the method of the legendary chivalrous thief Ye Liuxiang."

"But does such a person as Ye Liuxiang really exist? Besides, if Ye Liuxiang were really alive today, she would be seventy or eighty years old, right? Her legend started quite early!"

Fu Haicuo: "Seventy or eighty years old?" He glanced at the system notification bar.

He was certain that the petite figure he saw under the tree last night was "Night Fragrance." Was she an old woman in her seventies or eighties?

"It's hard to say," Murong Die said. "The legend of Night Fragrance has indeed been circulating in the Duanyun Mountains and its surrounding areas for a long time."

"It is said that she was a chivalrous person who often robbed the rich to help the poor and punished the wicked in that chaotic era. Her legendary strength should be around the sixth or seventh realm, which is not particularly strong, but she can appear and disappear without a trace."

"During the years she appeared, countless corrupt officials and tyrants lived in fear, always worried that she would suddenly appear at night."

"But she doesn't appear often. Each time she appears, she'll be there for three or four years, and then she'll disappear for more than ten years. Just when everyone thinks she's dead, she'll suddenly reappear."

"Thinking back now, it seems like the last time she appeared was thirty years ago. At that time, the Empress had just begun to unify the world, and the world was still very..."

The chaos lasted for about four years before disappearing.

"More than ten years ago, I had never heard of her. Even if she were just a legend, she should have died by now, right?"

Song Lingyue pondered, "She appears in the world for about three years each time, then disappears for about ten years before reappearing. But she appeared thirty years ago, and there was no news of her reappearing more than ten years ago. Is that right?"

Fu Hai's thoughts stirred slightly: "I was just born more than ten years ago and don't know much about it, but at that time the Empress had only been in power for ten years, and people longed for stability after the great chaos."

"Back then, the court was just and honest, and people didn't pick up lost items on the road. There shouldn't have been any need for chivalrous thieves to come out and do anything, right?"

Murong Die thought for a long time, and finally shook her head: "I still think it shouldn't be the real Ye Liuxiang."

"Or rather, there was never such a person as Ye Liuxiang at all. In the end, it was just a legend that spread among the common people in the chaotic times of the past, out of their yearning for chivalry."

Fu Hai saw that the female knight-errant did not believe him, and there was nothing he could do.

In this era, there are neither photographs nor the internet; things from ten years ago can become legends.

Besides, the last time that "heroic thief" Ye Liuxiang appeared was more than thirty years ago. At that time, Miss Die hadn't even been born yet.

Murong Die added, "However, Zheng Xiu is already dead. Although we will definitely investigate, the most important thing now is the serial murder case that has already occurred many times."

"The Lantern Festival is just around the corner. I hope we can catch the mastermind behind the mummified corpse case as soon as possible, and I hope nothing bad happens during the festival." That night, Lingyue and Yuelan no longer needed to stay at the inn.

Fu Haixian accompanied them up the mountain. Once back in the mountains, he took a bath and changed his clothes. Knowing that Miss Die was waiting for him, he quietly went back down the mountain.

As soon as he opened the back gate and entered, he saw Murong Die gracefully enter his arms, laughing softly, "Little shopkeeper, did you come to see me?" Fu Hai held the female knight and looked towards the main hall.

The female knight chuckled softly, "Don't worry, your inn's doors were closed a long time ago, and that Ying girl is already asleep. She didn't even know I just quietly passed by her."