The little girl and her companions were the first to return, and as soon as they turned into the alley, they saw a crowd gathered outside the courtyard, pointing and gesturing inside.
This scene, if accompanied by police tape, would look exactly like a cri scene.
The four won exchanged glances, their eyebrows moving to the center at varying degrees.
"It seems soone has visited Xiao Feng's place as well," Lin Zhiyan said in a low voice.
The little girl hastily said, "Let's hurry back and check it out."
The group nodded unanimously and quickened their pace towards the courtyard.
Just as they reached the entrance, the little girl was stopped.
"Auntie?"
The one who stopped the little girl was the aunt from next door.
With a grocery basket on her arm, the aunt said nervously, "So you weren't ho, thank goodness. It's best not to go in now. If you're hungry, co over to my place for a bite."
"What's going on?" the little girl asked, confused.
"I heard there's a monster inside, a toad as big as a water tank, hopping around on the roof. It's terrifying!"
As she spoke, the aunt's expression was vivid, her tone low, giving the impression that there was sothing truly terrifying inside.
"A toad? As big as a water tank?"
Lin Zhiyan murmured, suddenly recalling the Red-eyed Toad they encountered in the cave, though that one was far bigger than a water tank.
Could it be an offspring or minion of the Red-eyed Toad, climbing out for revenge?
She didn't consider that the aunt was a typical "rumor monger."
The gist is that when a story gets passed around, it becos exaggerated, like this ti, where a toad the size of a head got exaggerated to the size of a water tank.
This is a common phenonon, even if the rumor monger has no ill intentions, the facts beco completely skewed from reality.
"Thank you, Auntie, but we have friends inside. You should go back and eat; don't worry about us," Lin Zhiyan smiled and said, then headed for the door.
The little girl and her companions naturally followed, while the onlookers at the door instinctively backed away as if so wild beast would burst out and devour everyone as soon as the door opened.
They pushed open the door, and the four won stepped inside. Lu Yao, who was last, closed the door behind them, and the scene before them left them at a loss for words.
In the courtyard, there were pits of various sizes everywhere as if it had been through a bombardnt of bullets and shells.
Xiao Feng sat in the courtyard, his face full of lancholy.
"Xiao Feng, what's going on?" the little girl asked with concern as she ran over. "You didn't get hurt, did you?"
"I'm fine, it's just that it turned out like this. I'll probably have to pay the landlord quite a bit," Xiao Feng said, visibly pained.
The four won were speechless. Even at a ti like this, only Xiao Feng would be worried about money.
"Who is this?" Lu Yao pointed to a middle-aged man lying in a pool of blood.
Xiao Feng replied casually, "Soone sent by Bi Quan, stabbed to death by Su Yuzhuo."
At the ntion of Su Yuzhuo, Lin Zhiyan's expression changed slightly, and she asked, "Where is Miss Su?"
"She ran away," Xiao Feng shrugged. "She killed soone, feared trouble, so she took off."
No one believed this, as everyone already knew Su Yuzhuo was planning to leave in the next few days, so it wasn't all that surprising.
After a while, Lin Jiaxuan looked around, frowning slightly, "Wasn't there supposed to be a toad?"
The others all looked at Xiao Feng, evidently perplexed by this question as well.
Xiao Feng sighed, "Jiaxuan, your two eyes are for nothing; the toad is right under your feet."
Lin Jiaxuan didn't have ti to feel angry and instinctively looked down, only to find she was standing on a black mark.
She squatted down and touched it, finding that the stain couldn't be wiped away, as if it had always been there.
At this mont, Ninth Lord, Sun Shijie, Zhao Guo'an, and Zhen Jinghan returned to the courtyard.
Seeing the situation in the courtyard left everyone dumbfounded.
"Now that everyone is back, there's no need to beat around the bush. Just tell us what happened in the courtyard," Lin Zhiyan patted Xiao Feng on the shoulder.
Xiao Feng looked up at her and almost asked: Are you trying to give a massage?
Of course, he only thought about saying it; actually saying it would just cause trouble.
Nodding, Xiao Feng explained what happened from the appearance of the middle-aged man to the toad being corroded.
Sun Shijie mused, "You an, the toad ca out of this person's mouth?"
"Is there sothing wrong with that?" Xiao Feng asked, frowning slightly, sensing Sun Shijie must have noticed sothing.
Sun Shijie didn't answer but walked over to the middle-aged man, turned him over, grabbed his jaw, and opened his mouth to find it empty without a tongue.
After doing this, Sun Shijie turned the man back over, face-down, then grabbed his collar, tugged down hard, exhaled, and said, "As expected."
Everyone exchanged glances and gathered around, seeing a tattoo on the back of the middle-aged man's neck.
The tattoo was simple, an incomplete circle, with no artistic value whatsoever, not even as good as a child's graffiti.
"Old Miao, think carefully, do you recognize this symbol?" Sun Shijie looked at Ninth Lord.
"It looks familiar, let think, this symbol represents..."
After pondering for a mont, Ninth Lord slapped his thigh, shocked, "Damn it, this is from the Celestial Defect Sect?"
The little girl stroked her chin, pacing back and forth, "I think I've heard of this Celestial Defect Sect sowhere."
"Stop thinking, it's not the Celestial Defect Sect from martial arts novels," Sun Shijie slowly stood up, his expression grave, "It's surprising that this sect still exists."
"Is this Celestial Defect Sect powerful?" Xiao Feng asked.
Sun Shijie pondered, "It's not a matter of being powerful. People from the Celestial Defect Sect are incredibly vicious, cruel to others and to themselves. Because they are few, they are unusually united.
In this aspect, Old Miao should know more than I do."
Everyone looked at Ninth Lord, waiting for him to speak.
"Old Sun's assessnt is quite objective," Ninth Lord organized his thoughts and said, "Years ago, when I was in the south, I ca across a few from the Celestial Defect Sect. They left a deep impression on .
The sect is said to trace back to the end of the Yuan Dynasty. At that ti, a soldier from a small country, after losing a leg on the battlefield, had to retire from the front lines.
However, when he returned ho, he was told that his wife had been taken by the local County Magistrate's son, and his only son had wandered off, long gone."
Upon hearing this, everyone was outraged.
A soldier who served his country and returned crippled deserves at least honor and praise, not such treatnt.
"So what happened next?" the little girl couldn't help but ask.
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