Chapter 996: Just where is Gu Qishao? (2/2)

“Not yet, but don’t worry, princess. Heaven helps the worthy like Master Gu. Unless he ran into some poisons expert, it’s unlikely they’ll get the best of him. Tomorrow morning, this subordinate will order men to ambush themselves at the eight city gates. As long as Master Gu’s still in the city, we’ll find him for sure!” Xu Donglin comforted.

“Add more men to the search party,” Han Yunxi could only pin her hopes there. “Don’t make a scene in case it exposes our actions”

Xu Donglin left while exhaling in relief. He almost exposed himself just then because all of his dealings with the government officials had been taught to him by Chu Xifeng. Ever since Ning Cheng exposed the enmity between East and West Qin as one big misunderstanding, Xu Donglin had written a letter to his former head. Unfortunately, Chu Xifeng had never replied him. In Xu Donglin’s mind, Head Commander Chu probably needed more time to digest the news.

Now that the fire was under control, Long Feiye said, “Go back and rest. We’ll have to get up early tomorrow.”

Han Yunxi was in no mood to sleep, however. “Gu Qishao, that guy...do you think he could have ran off to the justice department and saw the culprit last night?” She’d been considering the possibility all day and that seemed the most likely reason.

It would be great if he did, Long Feiye thought silently before nodding perfunctorily at Han Yunxi.

If Gu Qishao was here, Han Yunxi wouldn’t bother showing that she cared at all. Even with him gone, she knew her limits. In some areas, Long Feiye would grow unhappy immediately. Han Yunxi would never forget how Long Feiye had supported both her weight and Gu Qishao’s when the man went looking for Earth of Ten-Thousand Poisons in the Poison Sect. All of them had been trapped by the fires in that abyss. When their lives had been in danger, Gu Qishao had lost his temper at her for the first time and demanded that she let him go.

She had told him that since they were all together, they wouldn’t abandon each other!

After going through all that, Gu Qishao was now not only their friend, but family. Like comrades-in-arms, it was impossible to abandon him. Some feelings weren’t ambiguous at all, but still hard to put into words.

Han Yunxi changed the subject and asked, “Why did the culprit continuously target six women? How many women does he or she want?”

This case had to be related to that of the attacks. She had seen similar cases in the past when the culprit had deviant tendencies or some fetish to attack the same way over and over again towards the same kind of women. Either he or she harbored a motive or needed to kill a certain number to gain a certain item.

Long Feiye’s gaze was complex. He had never thought he’d ended up lying to Han Yunxi for the sake of somebody else. But he’d promised Gu Qishao not to share his secret, so he didn’t now even when he had a chance. His thoughts on the case were brimming as well. “It’s been five days since the culprit killed the last victim. If he or she still wants to kill, then it should be within these next two days.”

That reminded Han Yunxi. “Long Feiye, find someone to go to the lake and lure the snake out of its haunts!”

All of the previous victims had met their ends by Yinyang Lake, which meant the culprit preferred to do his or her deeds there. If the murders continued, then the lake would be the best place to track them down. Long Feiye nodded, and Han Yunxi went to find a shadow guard to call over the female mercenaries she’d arranged for this trip. While Long Feiye was used to shadow guards, Han Yunxi preferring bringing along female poison guards and mercenaries. Inexplicably, her own strength had grown. The female mercenaries of the City of Daughters were now even learning poison skills on the side. She was waiting for the day they could stand out independently so she could give all her poison guards to Long Feiye. His shadow guards didn’t know anything about poisons, so the poison guards could supplement their weakness.

It was uncertain whether her ploy would lure out the culprit or whether the burned ruins would give Han Yunxi clues to the Metal of Ten-Thousand Poisons. Long Feiye and Han Yunxi kept on chatting until they fell asleep. Early next morning, they rose from bed and dressed up as laborers in torn clothing before dirtying their hands. Still, it was impossible to hide the noble air emanating from their forms. After all, Cloud Realm Continent’s most distinguished bloodlines flowed in their veins.

Xu Donglin and Baili Mingxiang only felt that the two of them looked off. In the end, he added a beard to Long Feiye’s getup while Baili Mingxiang simply disguised Han Yunxi as a man and gave some her stubble. In this way, the two of them barely managed to pass as poor, downtrodden types. When they arrived at the ruins, Old Sixth Chai’s crew had just shown up as well. The old man glanced at Xu Donglin before tossing baskets to Han Yunxi and Long Feiye without a word.

As Long Feiye couldn’t recognize poisons, he stuck by Han Yunxi’s side. She carefully began to scan the ruins as she stepped in, seemingly searching for bones while actually activating her detox system. Poisons that could seep into the bones was very toxic. Even if the corpses hadn’t been poisoned by Metal of Ten-Thousand Poisons, the detox system could analyze poisonous remains all the same. If the murderous dagger really was Metal of Ten-Thousand Poisons, then its toxicity would be even stronger. Back during the search for Water and Earth of Ten-Thousand Poisons, the detox system had been able to pick out traces of toxins even if it couldn’t understand the poison as a whole.

Han Yunxi carefully picked out two instances of poisoned bone fragments, both of which she abandoned because they were only common toxins. Such poisons wouldn’t be enough to cause such severe bleeding. There were so many bodies stored here that it wasn’t strange for a few to be poisoned.

Curiously enough, Han Yunxi didn’t find any traces of the poisons she was looking for even after scanning through all the bones!

What was going on?

While she was discussing this with Long Feiye, a shadow guard hastened over to report, “Your Highness, princess, something big happened at the lake!”