21 Slaughter

On the bed, Su Qing only moved upon being addressed, and slowly raised his hand to untie the white handkerchief around his eyes. The red spider lily at the corner of his eye was revealed, looking even more enrapturing than before. His dark eyelashes and half-lidded eyes hid the emotions in his eyes, making it hard to guess what he was thinking. Su Qing studied the white handkerchief between his fingers, as if he just received something amusing. It was only after a while that he asked coolly, "How did it go?"

Fei Chen, who was kneeling at the forefront, rose to his feet. In contrast to the other two, his peasant clothing was squeaky-clean and devoid of blood stains. Walking up to the bed, he quietly said, "According to that woman named Su Ruoruo, the spirit stone can be found in the governor's manor."

It was through sheer coincidence that their chieftain fell into the forests surrounding Mystic Moon City, and then arrived here. They did not expect to run into a certain carriage on the way either, which had been carrying a noisy woman screaming her heart out. In the end, her carriage had crashed, slamming directly into the chieftain's litter as she yelled hysterically, "Su Ye would never help me out of kindness, this is definitely a trap! She always bullied me after consuming the spirit stone! There's no way she deserves Father's affection!"

That woman deserved death at the hands of the men carrying the litter for her impudence, but she had also mentioned the spirit stone. Curing the chieftain's poison was not something that could be done overnight, but the spirit stone could mitigate it. Their sect had been searching for it all this while, but to no avail.

Naturally, they did not expect to obtain information from a remote place like Mystic Moon City.

As such, that woman was rescued, and they learned about the full story as well as the whereabouts of the spirit stone. The woman begged the chieftain to avenge her, pledging her life in return. He naturally agreed to such an offer, and thus returned to the same spot after many detours. Nonetheless, on the way back to the city, the chieftain returned to the forest that he had inadvertently fallen before, and forbade anyone from following him. After they had finished with recon, they had not been able to find their chieftain at all.

They certainly did not expect him to be captured, put in a cage, and sold in the red-light district. Still, it was fortunate that they made it in time. 

Fei Chen quickly studied the chieftain to ensure that he was alright, and breathed a sigh of relief. Lowering his head and offering a fist-palm salute, he said, "Here's your change of clothes, chieftain."

At his words, a black-clad shadow guard presented a set of red robes, embroidered in golden threads. It was identical to the set that Su Qing was wearing.

Su Qing's gaze was lowered and he was still fiddling with the white handkerchief, and it took a while before he finally spoke: "It's fine."

The room at the end of the long walkway was silent. Outside, however, was hell on earth.

The platform where Su Qing had been auctioned was piled with corpses. Fresh blood coated the entire platform, and its thick coppery scent was stomach-churning.

If Su Ye was here, she would be able to identify that the corpses were those who had been competing against her in the auction. The auctioneer himself was laying at the bottom of the pile, his throat slit and eyes wide open. 

Meanwhile, black-clad assassins darted across the compound silently. Before them, the people there fell in panic, reduced to ice-cold corpses.

A man dressed in blue watched them. His eyes had no warmth, and a murderous aura was emanating from him. There was a booklet in his hand, and he was fiercely slashing name after name with a black ink brush.