Chapter 290: Return Journey (2/2)

The city guard mobilized in full force—they overturned Darkshore City as they searched for a full day and night, but to no avail. Naturally, an important area like the airship port was searched thoroughly many times over. Even the guests and their luggage were inspected stringently as were the goods in the cargo hold. It was just that no one thought to overturn and look through the pile of black stones in the fuel reservoir.

All of this torment only took place within Darkshore City region as external order had to be maintained. Otherwise, not to mention a mere captain, they would be rebuked by the Zhao clan even if it was the city lord who died.

As such, the centurion class dual-use airship carrying both passengers and goods took to the sky according to schedule and flew toward West Pole City.

Everything was normal within the Zhao clan residence in West Pole City, the only exception being the privately circulated news of Zhao Jundu’s imminent action.

This news astonished many people. Duke Chengen’s three highly ranked sons had just left for battle and hadn’t returned just yet. Zhao Ruoxi was also away from the city. There was no need to mention Zhao Weihuang himself—the man was with the Fire Beacon Corps all year round and would only return for major occasions and ceremonies.

There was a dedicated group of staff to operate the daily affairs of the Zhao clan and thus their absence wouldn’t cause any disturbance. However, the Duke Chengen lineage leaving no administrative character in the residence raised a fair number of eyebrows.

Soon, people from every residence became curious about this matter. However, Zhao Jundu had decided to set out alone this time—inquiring about his destination was out of the question since even his personal guards received no mobilization notice.

The folder related to the assassination of a city guard captain from Darkshore City arrived on Zhao Jundu’s desk the next day. The nature of this matter was relatively vile, but it couldn’t be considered too big a matter and was thus categorized as a third class document. This meant that the matter had already been handled, and Zhao Jundu needed only to know of it.

Zhao Jundu only glanced at the subject before tossing the folder onto the desk. He had been in a bad mood these days, and now after seeing that a stately guard captain had actually been assassinated within the city, he couldn’t help but feel enraged.

The file didn’t stop on the table. It slid off and landed on the floor with a bang, whereupon a loose sheet slowly fell out from it; it was a drawing. The conclusion of the search in Darkshore City was that this person had likely escaped and thus they were requesting the main branch to issue a wanted notice for him within the Zhao clan domain.

Zhao Jundu bent down to pick up the file and his expression changed slightly after glancing at the drawing. This was an ordinary-looking young man whose features couldn’t compare to that of the handsome youth in the other two drawings. But Zhao Jundu’s intuition was somehow making him associate the two.

He refocused his thoughts and went through the folder again. There wasn’t a lot of new content—this person had killed many soldiers in Darkshore City and had then assassinated the city guard captain for reasons unknown. Zhao Jundu picked up the drawing again and, after observing it for a while, suddenly noticed which part of it was similar to the other two.

The eyes! Both in the handsome drawing and the ordinary one, those eyes were too alike. Generally speaking, unless it was an overly complicated appearance alteration technique, one wouldn’t especially change the shape of the eyes.

Zhao Jundu couldn’t help but reach out to rub his forehead. He suddenly thought of Zhao Ruoxi and only then did he notice another issue. Regardless of who this person from Darkshore City was, the clear eyes of the youth in the drawing given to him by Uncle Wang actually bore a striking resemblance to his little sister.

Zhao Jundu gave it some thought before stamping some large characters on the file from Darkshore City: “Return for reinvestigation.”

Those from the Profound Library in charge of daily affairs couldn’t help but feel astonished after receiving this rejected folder. Zhao Jundu would usually only read through such cases and never take action. Could it be that there was more to the assassination in Darkshore City than it seemed on the surface?

The steward who had received the folder immediately understood something after he recalled the bedridden Darkshore City Lord and the ambiguity of this assassination case report. Several secret orders were dispatched toward Darkshore City before dusk that day. Soon, the secret agents who only answered to the main family were mobilized to further investigate the root of this matter.

While the Zhao clan headquarters and Darkshore City were busy with various things, the airship carrying Qianye finally arrived in West Pole City after two days and one night of flight.

The airship landed at a public airship port in the outskirts of West Pole City. There, Qianye waited until the dead of the night before emerging from the fuel chamber. It was quite fortunate that the Zhao clan was wealthy enough to stock enough fuel for a round trip, even for a public airship. The black stone reservoir was only half consumed, leaving Qianye with enough space to hide.

At this moment, the airship was completely empty and even the goods had been unloaded. Qianye made his way to the auxiliary door and left without leaving any traces just as he had done when he entered.

West Pole City was located in the hinterlands of the Western Continent and was also the heart of the Zhao clan’s four great provinces. In a grand display of their affluence, the city gates were kept open through the night and there was no tax for entry. Qianye discarded all the alterations in his appearance before entering West Pole City. That way, no one would be able to associate him with the incident in Darkshore City.

As expected of the number one city on the Western Continent, they also were quite efficient with news from the other continents. Naturally, Qianye paid the most attention to the war on Evernight Continent. From the current information he had obtained, it seemed the war was over—it was truly over.

The conflict had passed, and thus he didn’t need to hurry on his way back. However, he also couldn’t remain in the Zhao clan territory for too long since disguises weren’t omnipotent. True experts could utilize various unfathomable methods to lock onto a person’s whereabouts. It was best for him to leave the Western Continent as soon as possible.

Qianye booked a seat on the earliest public airship bound for Mount Taihang. His target was that small remote city. He would cross the Silentflame Steppes just as he did when he arrived and return to Evernight Continent via the grey channel.

Afterwards, Qianye lay low in West Pole City and almost never left the hotel room. Only when the scheduled time for his flight approached did he leave hurriedly for the airship port and boarded his airship.

Moments later, Qianye stood at the cabin window and watched as the ship gradually distanced itself from the ground. He felt much relieved as the airship sped into the distance, traversing over the mountains and rivers.

Zhao Jundu received news from the Sixth Elder not long after Qianye’s airship took to the skies.Previous ChapterNext Chapte