The next day when the rain stopped, in the grand hall of the Xiaoyun County government office.
Hei Shanke sat upright in the main seat, while Lin Nu could only sit to the side, listening to the reports from the five assassins and some of the original government clerks of the county office.
Last night's heavy rain washed away all traces, so of course no one was found.
However, from the bloodstains on the road before the heavy rain, Hei Shanke was very sure that the white-clad masked man who rescued Xiu Wangchou had come to Xiaoyun County, and was also very sure that they were now hiding in Xiaoyun County.
And after sitting in the county office hall all night, Hei Shanke also figured out, or finally remembered, the true face of that "bizarre martial arts" that forcibly blocked his Dark Building black blade with flesh and blood.
Hei Shanke murmured: "It's not some bizarre martial arts, but the orthodox supreme arts from twenty years ago, which should have been lost now. I just don't know whether that person used 'Golden Bell Shield' or 'Iron Cloth Shirt'."
Although both were hard qigong, there were still big differences when examined closely.
Unfortunately, at that time Hei Shanke had consumed most of his inner strength, and the blade qi of the slash he unleashed only had about 40% of his inner power, not enough to force the man in white to use stronger moves. This way, he also couldn't distinguish which martial arts the man in white had practiced.
But apart from that, what was most deeply imprinted in Hei Shanke's memory was still that man in white’s qinggong.
Agile and light, yet as fast as lightning.
Especially the last scene where he flew up into the bamboo forest and walked on the bamboo leaves, which even made Hei Shanke sigh with admiration.
Although with full effort, he might also barely be able to perform that feat, the key was that the man in white was carrying Xiu Wangchou at the time, and the posture he displayed was obviously very relaxed!
Hei Shanke had already begun to suspect that it should be qinggong cultivated to the pinnacle of the earth phase, or even... celestial phase qinggong!
As for celestial phase martial arts, Hei Shanke was not too worried about it, because if the man in white had celestial phase martial arts, he could have easily killed everyone there including himself who had already consumed a lot of inner strength, in no time at all. There was no need to rescue someone under his blade.
Xiu Wangchou was a disciple of Star Sea Sect, undoubtedly of the orthodox path, and was able to cultivate such sword skills at just over thirty years old.
And Golden Bell Shield and Iron Cloth Shirt were undoubtedly also supreme arts of the orthodox path. Coupled with the suspected celestial phase peerless qinggong...
Hei Shanke murmured: "The decline of the orthodox path for twenty years, how could two such supreme masters suddenly appear, especially Star Sea Sect, my Dark Building killed the most people from their sect, it can be said to be a blood feud. Could it be that the orthodox path has begun to rise again from the ashes in secret?"
Hei Shanke's suspicions were also reasonable and well-grounded, and that suspected celestial phase qinggong was indeed not to be underestimated.
Plus although the last blade struck Xiu Wangchou in the chest, and Hei Shanke also thought it should have been a lethal blow, there is a saying in the underground world that you should never assume your opponent is dead until you see their corpse.
I still have to ask the leader to send someone again...
Thinking of this, Hei Shanke raised his head and said to the five assassins under the hall: "From now on, the mission has changed. An orthodox adept at the peak of the earth phase was fine, but now two have suddenly appeared, trained in the orthodox supreme arts, we can't underestimate this. You go and send a letter to the leader explaining the situation, and I will send word to Poison Valley that until we leave, this Xiaoyun County is included in our Dark Building's territory."
With just one sentence, he temporarily took over part of the territory of the second largest underground organization in Da Wu Kingdom, which certainly gave him the confidence to do so.
Moreover, Poison Valley is currently plagued by "Black Cloud", so they probably won't offend Dark Building at such a critical juncture either.
After he finished speaking, Hei Shanke turned to Lin Nu, who was still the county magistrate: "Boss Lin, I guess you want to see Xiu Wangchou's corpse even more than I do."
Lin Nu nodded.
Hei Shanke went on: “Well, since you're still the county magistrate, I'll have to trouble you to do something too."
...
...
On a rather tall tree outside the government building, Zhang San carefully observed the five men in black walking out of the hall.
Last night, Zhang San had put himself in Hei Shanke's position and thought carefully.
So Zhang San was very clear that as assassins of Dark Building, they would not easily give up before seeing their target's corpse.
Moreover, whether intentionally or not, he had after all revealed some of his martial arts cultivation yesterday, and Dark Building would never have any good intentions towards those who opposed them, especially masters. They would definitely find ways to eliminate them, to prevent such masters from becoming trouble for the organization in the future.
Therefore, judging comprehensively, Zhang San determined that Dark Building’s people should want to find Xiu Wangchou or Xiu Wangchou’s corpse, as well as yesterday's man in white who made a move. Thus, they would definitely stay in Xiaoyun County.
Zhang San had even anticipated that Dark Building’s people would take advantage of Lin Nu's current authority as county magistrate to seal off the county, such as not allowing people to enter or leave, and then send out those government clerks from the county office, or even requisition the martial arts practitioners from the martial arts schools, and even the local gangsters on the streets, to guard the four directions of the county day and night.
Of course, Zhang San himself quite admired this kind of ruthless style of killing decisively and eliminating the root.
But at this moment, Zhang San was even more gratified by Dark Building’s style, because...
How could I exterminate all of you if you returned to Dark Building?
With this thought, Zhang San dashed forward with his qinggong to follow those several assassins.
But he didn't plan to kill them, but to probe their depth, because even if he killed these five people now, apart from making Hei Shanke wary, or even scaring Lin Nu away, there wasn't much other significance.
...
...
In the evening, after returning to the backyard of the painting and calligraphy store, Zhang San heard some news from Wang Xiaoer.
Everything was as Zhang San had expected – the county was sealed off.
And there really were several groups of men, led by those men in black, searching around.
But Zhang San didn't care about these things that met his expectations. He had made preparations early on.
And Zhang San could also confirm from this that Dark Building’s people probably wouldn't leave the county city in the short term, unless they were certain that he had already escaped with Xiu Wangchou.
After all, sealing off a county was also dependent on who was doing it.
If all the exits from the county were manned by Dark Building’s experts, even Zhang San wouldn't dare say he could definitely leave Xiaoyun County unnoticed. But unfortunately, Dark Building didn’t seem to be able to summon so many experts at this time with just those nine people present.
But Zhang San really didn't plan on leaving at all.
Going into the secret room, Zhang San took out a black knife blade from the bottom of a box.
It was just a blade.
There was no hilt, the blade body was thin like a sheet of paper, jet black throughout, and very short, probably only one finger in length, even less than a dagger.
Zhang San's master's family heirlooms totaled two items. One was this black knife blade, and the other was that fake immortal art, the "Great Dao Heavenly Song Jue".
The reason why Zhang San had practiced that fake immortal art for twenty years, apart from confirming the existence of immortals in the world when he was young, was mainly because of this little knife blade.
Because this knife blade was the only blade Zhang San had seen that could cut through his master's mid-earth phase Iron Cloth Shirt without adding inner strength. This was undoubtedly a treasure. And Zhang San as a child also believed that the immortal art that came with this treasure might really be genuine.
Although after twenty years, the immortal art was confirmed to be fake, and although the knife blade was extremely sharp, because it was too thin and short, and had no hilt, it was not suitable as a weapon. Zhang San did not carry the blade with him, but he still kept it very well preserved.
Zhang San named this little knife, or rather knife blade, "A Small Night Knife".
After putting away the blade, Zhang San walked to the long table covered with a white cloth in the secret room. He said in a low voice: "Xiu Wangchou, it may be disrespectful to you to do this, but in order to kill them, I need to thoroughly study and understand the slash with which Hei Shanke killed you."
Without a doubt, Xiu Wangchou was a top tier swordsman at peak earth phase. Even facing him, if Hei Shanke didn't unleash his strongest slash, it would be extremely difficult to sever all of Xiu Wangchou’s lifelines in a single slash.
What Zhang San wanted to see was Hei Shanke’s strongest slash – Tiger Bite Style.