Wen Xiaoqiao... has disappeared...
When Li Yuan heard this, he imdiately felt a chill run down his spine.
"How did she disappear?"
"Everything was fine the night she stood watch, nothing happened.
Yesterday, she was wandering around Central City as usual, but by dusk, she suddenly went missing.
The miscellaneous task workers looked everywhere for her but couldn’t find her."
Cai Ze still wore an expression of disbelief.
By now, he had also sensed the obvious oddity and abnormality.
Li Yuan asked again, "What about Master Li?"
Cai Ze replied, "Master Li is fine... but he hasn’t noticed anything unusual either."
The Blood Saber Sect disciple, disguised in governnt official clothing, suddenly gave Li Yuan a strange look and then lowered his voice to say, "Did you discover sothing, is that why you reported sick and stayed ho ahead of ti?"
Li Yuan replied with a wry smile, "How could that be... If even Master Li didn’t notice anything, how could I discover it?
My injury is real. Brother Cai, you can ask the people at the Little Ink Workshop or the doctor at Huichun Hall; they all know."
Cai Ze paused for a mont and then said, "Then what does Brother Li think is the problem?"
Li Yuan thought for a mont and suddenly said, "Yesterday, Brother Cai ntioned that those missing disciples might have been quietly killed. So... where are the bodies of these disciples? Where would the bodies be?"
Cai Ze was taken aback. He had ntioned "being killed" casually yesterday, but now, when Li Yuan brought it up, he realized it was indeed possible.
Previously, he hadn’t entertained such speculation because, first, there were no signs of a struggle at the scene,
and secondly, the Blood Saber Sect was like an emperor of the domain at Silver Creek, and no one had dared to provoke them there for a long ti.
Cai Ze’s eyes rolled a bit, and he handed over a basket of apples, hurriedly saying, "Brother Li, take good care of your injury. I’ll be heading back now."
Li Yuan accepted the apples, bowed, and offered, "Brother Cai, co in for a drink of water..."
"Next ti."
"Then... take care~~"
The dusk was like blood, stickily clinging to the narrow path outside the shelter area of Silver Creek Square, with a reddish hue that was sowhat unsettling.
It was only after Cai Ze left that Li Yuan closed the door.
The hand he held the apples with was trembling slightly.
Cai Ze wasn’t here to visit him at all! Soone had sent him to test him!
However, the matter of Wen Xiaoqiao’s disappearance seed to be true. A disappearance once or twice might be treated as ordinary by the Blood Saber Sect, but now that Wen Xiaoqiao had also disappeared, the matter had to be thoroughly investigated.
The Blood Saber Sect would not tolerate such a significant source of unease.
Hopefully... hopefully, it’s just killings, just social world sect violence...
And not...
Li Yuan slightly closed his eyes, and the decayed, cold image of a mountain manor like a giant corpse reappeared in his mind.
Along with it ca a series of terrifying mories.
"Husband, what’s wrong?"
A pair of soft hands wrapped around Li Yuan’s waist from behind, and Yan Yu’s gentle voice rang in his ear.
Li Yuan grasped that hand with his eyes closed, feeling the warmth transmitted from his wife’s hand, and finally exhaled slightly, saying in a deep voice, "Let’s eat. After eating, I’ll continue practicing my sword skill."
Before transmigrating, he had imrsed himself in the art of the slaughter knife for many years,
and recently, with persistent practice, he had vaguely grasped the thod of exerting force,
especially that feeling of "thrusting," which was very clear.
The so-called skill is the way to maximize the expression of one’s power.
He had a bow and arrow for long-range attacks, but for close combat, he had to have sothing as well, or he couldn’t feel at ease.
...
Night fell.
The moon was like frost and snow.
Li Yuan held a blade, slashing and thrusting in the moonlight of the backyard.
Warm currents surged between his muscles, becoming increasingly at ease.
Suddenly, Li Yuan seed to find the feeling, his eyes opened wide, like a flash of electricity.
Slash!
Slash!
Slash!
He thrust the blade three tis, producing a slightly tearing sound, which had never occurred before.
At the sa ti, a mysterious feeling surged in his heart.
He felt the flow of warmth, although rough, but if followed, it could exert stronger power than a normal strike.
Li Yuan closed his eyes for a long while, finally exhaling a breath, then glanced at the few changed columns in his information:
[Na: Li Yuan]
[Add Points: 159 Points]
[Skills: Basic Spear Skill (1/10)]
Li Yuan: ?????
Spear skill?
Practicing the blade resulted in a spear skill?
He glanced at the knife in his hand, turned his head to look, and saw that the original "12~13" was still "12~13."
"Add Points."
Li Yuan tentatively tapped the " " after "Basic Spear Skill (1/10)" ten tis.
A surge of mories appeared; they were mories of many days of diligent practice and sweating.
As these mories settled, his muscles underwent subtle changes, making his arms slightly sturdier, though not noticeably so.
And so details of his muscles also changed, allowing him to better adjust his strength when striking.
Looking again.
"Basic Spear Skill (1/10)" had turned into "Interdiate Spear Skill (1/20)."
Li Yuan thought for a mont, hurriedly fetched an arrow, then took a hardwood rod previously a clothesline pole from the backyard, tied them tightly together, and weighed it in his hand, then turned his head to look, only to see the value change to "14~15."
He had to know that this was just a crude "spear" made of a broken bamboo pole and an arrow tip.
Yet holding such a weapon, the display showed numbers even stronger than wielding a fine steel blade.
"Husband, it’s getting dark."
The oiled paper window was opened slightly, revealing Lady Yan’s delicate face in the candlelight.
"I’ll practice sword... spear... for a while longer," Li Yuan replied.
This dangerous world filled him with a sense of urgency. Previously, he almost completely relied on adding points, but in the future... whenever he had the ti, he would use his own cultivation to save a few points, even if not many, every little bit helped.
Li Yuan gripped his spear, beginning to thrust forward fiercely.
The more he thrust, the more natural it felt, like a perfect fit.
...
Two days later, early morning.
On the cold Lake Heart Island, the black market was as bustling as ever, and a few corners of the island were anchored with several ships belonging to the Blood Saber Sect.
By the sides of these ships stood so people dressed in tight leather suits.
These people had ropes tied around their waists, with tin circular masks over their noses.
Plop! Plop! Plop!
The sounds of diving into the water were not particularly noticeable amidst the black market’s clamor.
Soon, the rope suddenly twitched.
The people on the ship understood tacitly, hurriedly pulling the rope to bring the person up.
These people were professional "divers," or rather "pearl gatherers."
After coming up, the pearl gatherers shook their heads.
The people on the boat handed over blankets and hot water to prevent the pearl gatherers from catching cold.
And the boats continued to move forward.
Once reaching a new location, the pearl gatherers undid the blankets and continued diving into the water.
Ripples spread across the water; soon it cald again. Then once more the rope was tugged, and the pearl gatherers returned to the ship.
"Any findings?" the people on the boat continued to ask.
The pearl gatherers still shook their heads.
And so... it repeated over and over.
The pearl gatherers and several boats patiently searched the area around Lake Heart Island until evening, when the sky darkened before they ended their search.
They were... searching for "bodies."
...
Nightfall.
Cai Ze, wearing plain clothes, arrived in front of a rather grand pavilion.
Hanging on the pavilion gate was a stack of pearl curtains, revealing the faint silhouette of beautiful girls amidst giggles and laughter.
Cai Ze did not dare to enter, rely standing in front of the stone steps.
After a while, a tipsy man’s voice ca from inside.
"Co in, co in."
Only then did Cai Ze step inside.
Upon entering, the warm air from the dragon stove rose, fully blocking out the cold from outside.
In tis of chaos outside the county, with starvation within, to have a dragon stove here was nothing short of extravagant.
Besides the heat, the spacious wooden pavilion was adorned with beautiful won wrapped in blankets, each exuding her own charm.
Cai Ze swallowed hard, walked to the end, and looked at a man in the darkness being attended to by two beauties, saying, "Black-faced Elder, today’s investigation yielded nothing."
The man addressed as the Black-faced Elder nodded, saying, "Then keep investigating.
If those three disciples weren’t missing but were killed, the one disposing of their bodies would surely toss them into the nearby lake.
Check and you’ll know."
Cai Ze respectfully replied "Yes," and was about to leave.
The Black-faced Elder said, "That young fellow who entered the rank is still recuperating?"
"Yes."
"He’s an interesting person, also soone with great fortune.
Find a chance to let him know, he could have beco an Outer Disciple directly, but our Vice Sect Leader didn’t think highly of him."
"Yes."
"You may go."
...
The next day.
The pearl gatherers continued exploring, to no avail.
...
On the third day.
Strong winds, paused.
...
On the fourth day.
Strong winds again, paused.
...
On the fifth day.
Resud searching, but still no results.
...
On the sixth day.
Continued searching, with no results.
...
On the seventh day.
When one pearl gatherer dived into a new water area for routine exploration, suddenly his body froze.
In the dim, distant-from-sunlight water, he vaguely saw a few sallow, swollen faces.
Those faces, twisted, grim, exuded a certain eeriness and fear.
The pearl gatherer who made the discovery imdiately shivered, goosebumps rising incessantly.
He hurriedly pulled the rope, desperately fleeing. Once on the boat, he breathlessly stamred, "F-found it..."
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