bookpub Chapter 136 The Murderer
Chapter 136 The Murderer
Chapter 136 The Murderer
Lian Hongpei?
Standing in front of the cave, Luo Qingchen was shocked to see the blood-soaked corpse hanging on the stone door.
After looking at it carefully for a long time, it was indeed her.
He gripped the knife hilt tightly, his whole body tense, standing motionless.
The cold wind blows, cutting like a knife.
"flutter!"
Suddenly, a strange noise came from the dark woods not far behind them.
Turning my head, I saw a dark shadow flapping its wings in the forest, disappearing in a flash!
bat?
His pupils contracted slightly, and he glanced at the corpse on the stone door again, when suddenly he remembered something.
"Whoosh"
He immediately turned and sped down the mountain.
Speeding along!
"Senior Brother Luo————"
'
He encountered some disciples on the way, but before he could even greet them, he was seen disappearing in a gust of wind.
"Senior Brother Luo, why are you in such a hurry? Are you going to kill someone again?"
"I wonder which unlucky person it is this time?"
Some disciples secretly speculated.
Luo Qingchen quickly arrived at the main peak, and then went up to Hehuan Peak from there.
Night had fallen.
There were few people left on the white road, but there were more furtive figures in the dark woods on both sides.
The moans of some women echoed through the woods.
Several men even invited him, saying, "Hey senior, wanna come join us?"
Of course, some women also extended invitations.
As night fell, joyful sounds filled the air atop Hehuan Peak.
The cold night wind blowing through the forest gradually cleared his mind.
His hurried steps unconsciously slowed down.
Soon, he arrived at Lian Hongpei's cave.
The cave, which was intact during the day, has now collapsed, leaving only ruins.
The heavy stone door was also broken in two.
He walked into the ruins and, following the locations he remembered, carefully lifted up the broken rocks one by one.
Soon, he saw the ground and the curtain separating the outer room from the inner room.
Then, I saw a broken wooden bed.
There was no one in the bed, no blankets, nothing at all.
As for the pink embroidered shoes and stockings, they were also missing.
Following his memory, he turned over another pile of rubble.
A broken wooden bed appears.
There were curtains, blankets, and pillows above, but still no one was there.
"Junior Brother Luo, were you looking for me?"
Just then, a woman's voice suddenly rang out on the white road behind him.
Luo Qingchen got up and looked over.
The woman, dressed in a black dress and slender in figure, stood there, looking at him with a half-smile.
Her face, which had been pale and bloodless during the day, suddenly became rosy and charming.
In the darkness behind her stood several other figures.
The woman lifted her foot and walked closer to the ruins. Looking at the rubble with regret, she sighed softly and said, "What a pity. We were just one step away from seeing Junior Brother Luo and Junior Sister Lian in bed together. Junior Sister Lian seems very excited, and of course, I am too."
She looked at the young man before her, her expression still bearing a half-smile: "Junior Brother Luo, why did you have to leave during the day? Wouldn't it be better if we sisters served you together? Junior Brother Luo, you've probably never experienced the cultivation techniques of our Hehuan Peak, have you?"
Luo Qingchen narrowed her eyes and said, "You are not her sister."
The woman laughed and said, "Junior Brother Luo, you only just realized it? I thought you already knew when you entered the cave and found me. Otherwise, why would you have stood at the cave entrance the whole time, refusing to take another step in no matter how much Junior Sister Lian tempted you? I was originally planning to wait until you and Junior Sister Lian were having fun in bed before coming out."
He then sighed and said, "What a pity, such a beautiful girl as Junior Sister was killed by Junior Brother Luo."
Junior Brother Luo is truly ruthless; he has absolutely no sense of chivalry towards women.
Luo Qingchen stared intently at her and said, "I didn't kill her."
The woman looked surprised: "Oh? Wasn't it Junior Brother Luo who killed her? But I had only been gone a short while when I heard that Junior Sister's cave had been destroyed, and she had been killed, with her body even being taken away. Wasn't it Junior Brother Luo who discovered her betrayal of you and then came back to kill her?"
Luo Qingchen stared at her without saying anything more.
"Junior Brother Luo, you're quite skilled."
At this moment, a tall, burly, bald man wearing large gold earrings emerged from the darkness with several men, looking at him with cold eyes.
Luo Qingchen felt a chill run down her spine when she saw this person.
He had met the other person when he was preparing to go on his first hunting mission at Old Wang's tavern.
At the time, the other party was the captain of the first hunting team, named Fang Shi. After he paid, Fang Shi refused to let him join the team and kept mocking him.
"Let me introduce myself. I am Fang Shi, the senior disciple of Hehuan Peak."
A sinister smile appeared on the bald man's face. He pointed to the woman next to him who had pretended to be Lian Hongpei's sister during the day and said, "Her name is Fang Jiao. She's my sister and ranks second among the direct disciples of Hehuan Peak. As for the others behind her, you should have seen them at the tavern before."
Luo Qingchen glanced at the group, then looked at him and asked, "Senior Brother Fang, do we have any past grudges?"
Fang Shi smiled faintly and said, "It's nothing serious. It's just that, Junior Brother Luo, you killed many disciples of our Hehuan Peak. As the senior disciple of Hehuan Peak, seeing everyone so fearful and terrified made me very uncomfortable and I felt very ashamed. So, I wanted to find an opportunity to meet you. Coincidentally, this Junior Sister Lian seems to know you, so I asked her to invite you over for a chat. Alas, we were planning to wait until Junior Brother Luo was done having his fun before we went in, but who knew that Junior Brother Luo would be so disrespectful and just leave."
Luo Qingchen paused for a moment, then asked, "Was she forced by you?"
Fang Shi scoffed, seemingly uninterested in answering the question.
Fang Jiao chuckled, "Forced? Junior Brother Luo, we are direct disciples of Hehuan Peak, while she isn't even a core disciple. I only needed to come and talk to her, make some promises, and she would have agreed to anything. Was there any need to force her? Back when you were a red-named individual, it was she who led us to the place where you killed people. I thought that after you left during the day, you heard about this and that's why you came to kill her. Isn't that right?"
Luo Qingchen didn't say anything more and silently took out her knife.
Fang Shi carefully examined the horizontal sword in Luo's hand, his eyes flickering. He grinned and said, "Junior Brother Luo, don't be nervous. According to the sect rules, we wouldn't dare fight you here. If it were during the day in Junior Sister Lian's cave—hehe, I would be willing to spar with you, Junior Brother Luo. But it's alright. If Junior Brother Luo is willing, we can spar tomorrow on the Life and Death Platform on the main peak, in front of all the disciples of Hehuan Peak and all the disciples of Black Phoenix Peak. How about that? We don't need to sign a life-or-death contract, and we don't have to fight to the death. We'll just use—a few pieces of Xuan Iron as the wager, how about that?"
After saying that, he looked at him with a half-smile.
Luo Qingchen's pupils contracted. Without answering, she gripped the knife and walked out of the ruins step by step.
He kept a close eye on the group of people, then retreated step by step down the hillside.
Fang Shi squinted at him, but did not stop him. The greed deep in his pupils gleamed like that of a hungry wolf.
Luo Qingchen walked down the hillside and left quickly.
He only slowed down slightly when he walked out of Hehuan Peak and onto the white path of the main peak.
As he walked towards Black Phoenix Peak, he fell into deep thought.
I never imagined that after being so cautious for so long, taking each step with utmost care, climbing out of Medicine Man Town, I would almost stumble today.
Is he getting carried away by his breakthrough in the Qi Realm?
Or was he blinded by lust and lost his vigilance?
No, he never even considered having anything happen between himself and that junior sister Lian.
The reason for going to the other party's cave was also because—
In the past, under no circumstances would he have ever entered someone else's cave.
If he enters the cave today and fails to resist the temptation of that junior sister Lian, and ends up in bed with her...
It's estimated that he was already killed by Fang Jiao, who had the cultivation level of the Strength Realm, with a single strike while they were in bed.
Or perhaps he was caught off guard and entered the cave, getting too far from the entrance, which would have meant his opponent would have attacked immediately, leaving him no chance to break out.
Outside the cave, Fang Shi and his group could rush in at any moment.
Thinking about it now sends chills down my spine.
"Just for a few pieces of black iron?"
No, he killed so many people, he has far more than just a few pieces of black iron on him.
Moreover, he casually produced three pieces of Xuan Iron, something many inner disciples might not even possess, and he likely had other treasures on him, perhaps even more Xuan Iron.
Therefore, it aroused the greed and covetousness of those people.
It seems we need to be careful at the general store as well.
Lost in thought, he soon returned to his cave on Black Phoenix Peak.
On the stone gate, the mangled corpse still hung there all alone, swaying gently in the cold night wind.
"How could there possibly be good people in a place like this?!"
Even good people sometimes have to compromise with reality.
He didn't blame her.
How could a mere Blood Exchange Realm disciple dare to disobey two disciples at the Strength Realm?
Moreover, one of the disciples who has reached the Qi Strength Realm is about to enter the inner sect.
Even he, if faced with this situation, might make the same choice as her.
After all, he and she weren't even really friends.
Everyone has gone through a difficult time to get to this point, and it's impossible to risk one's life and future for a stranger one has only met once.
Therefore, she was not wrong.
He stood at the cave entrance for a while, took out a black robe from his storage bag, wrapped her body in it, then lifted her off the door and headed towards the Ghostly Graveyard in the back mountain.
But who killed her?
If Fang Shi and his group were the ones who did the killings, they wouldn't need to hide it.
Moreover, she has already pledged allegiance to them. Although today's plan failed, they should still be able to use her in the future.
So they had no reason to kill her.
He killed her, skinned her, and hung her skin at the entrance of his cave.
Is it a threat? Intimidation? Or is it trying to express something else?
"Croak! Croak—"
—
As we passed through the dark woods behind the mountain, a black crow swooped down, emitting a hoarse and piercing caw.
In the woods, there were also calls of other birds, like the sinister laughter of ghosts.
The night sky was dark and the surroundings were also pitch black.
He felt no fear and quickly passed through the dark forest, arriving at a undulating graveyard that stretched as far as the eye could see.
Marked on the map, this is Ghost Graveyard, where countless bones are buried underground.
As for why there are so many graves here, and why so many bones are buried here, there are no records in the library.
Many disciples were unaware of this.
He didn't go deep inside, but found an open space on the outskirts, took out digging tools from his storage bag, and started digging a pit.
Digging holes was something he was already very skilled at.
Before long, he had dug a deep pit.
Then they put the body, wrapped in a black robe, into the pit and began filling it with soil.
As they were filling in the graves, a series of rustling footsteps and the voices of several women suddenly came from the cemetery in front of them.
"Strange, where did that little bitch hide?"
"Didn't someone see her earlier today, saying she carried a corpse back to Black Phoenix Peak? Could she still be hiding there?"
"Someone saw her come to the back mountain, and her cave has been destroyed. If she's on Black Phoenix Peak, where could she have gone?"
"Damn it! If I don't kill that little bitch, I'll—ah!"
"Senior Sister Wu, what's wrong?"
"Don't move, there are nails on the ground!"
Luo Qingchen hid behind a tomb and looked up. She could vaguely see several dark figures hovering between two tombs in front of her.
One of them was standing on one leg, holding his own foot, cursing and pulling at something under his foot.
"Oops! I stepped on it too!"
At that moment, another woman exclaimed in surprise.
"Damn it! How come there are nails here? Did some bastard nail a coffin here?"
The figures immediately stopped there, not daring to wander off again.
One of them quickly took out a lantern.
After lighting the fire, she was about to walk ahead to light the way when she suddenly saw a flash of cold light in the grass beside her. With a "whoosh," her head flew off.
"Snapped!"
The lantern in his hand, along with the severed head on his neck, fell to the ground.