Right at the moment Ji Qingcheng spoke and moved to leave, however, the big black cat stirred up a rush of wind and suddenly leaped from the roof of the inn across the way.
It landed directly in Ji Qingcheng's path, fixed her with a sharp look from its green eyes, then turned urgently toward Li Musheng and began meowing with great insistence, its nimble paws gesturing the whole time.
At the sight, Ji Qingcheng looked at the big black cat in front of her, and felt a sudden drop in her stomach.
"Perhaps I cannot leave after all?"
Ji Qingcheng drew a slow breath and looked at Li Musheng, "What does this mean?"
At that, Li Musheng managed to roughly work out what the big black cat was trying to convey.
It was clearly lodging a vigorous protest against Ji Qingcheng, urging Li Musheng not to let her go.
"What it is saying is that you lied just now, and that you are very likely from Falling God Peak."
Li Musheng explained this, then turned his gaze to study Ji Qingcheng.
If she were the only one lying, what was there to be afraid of?
Even so, on the surface Ji Qingcheng maintained her composure, meeting Li Musheng's eyes with a straight face, "I am not!"
Faced with such an outright denial, she had somehow even found a degree of conviction in the lie.
At those words, Li Musheng drew his gaze from Ji Qingcheng and simply waved a hand, "Do not be nervous. Even if the young woman is from Falling God Peak, it does not matter."
He then gestured for the big black cat to step aside, and left it entirely to Ji Qingcheng whether she wanted to go.
At the sight, Ji Qingcheng's cool eyes shifted slightly, as though confirming that Li Musheng truly had no other intention.
She remained covertly on guard for any move from him, while her entire figure suddenly vanished into thin air.
When Ji Qingcheng disappeared, the big black cat immediately rushed forward and swiped a paw through the empty air.
Then it turned and looked at Li Musheng, clearly puzzled as to why he would let a remnant of Falling God Peak simply walk away.
"Why are you always thinking about fighting and killing? Use your time to study the Hidden Kill Order around your neck."
Li Musheng glanced at the big black cat, then fixed his gaze on where Ji Qingcheng had disappeared, rubbing his chin, "The innate divine abilities of those with divine nature really are each quite distinctive."
Judging by the ability Ji Qingcheng had shown, if he did not lock onto her with his martial will or seal off the surrounding space entirely, it would actually be quite difficult to stop her from leaving.
If any other martial expert had encountered someone with an ability like this, they would likely have had absolutely no way to deal with her.
Even so, this made Li Musheng all the more eager for the people of the Divine Nature Sect to crack the secrets of the Divine Talent Stele sooner rather than later.
"All right. Let us go. Back to the inn."
Li Musheng called to the big black cat and vanished from where he stood.
The big black cat had no choice but to reluctantly follow along.
...
At the same time, about a hundred zhang from the Cloud Arrival Inn, Ji Qingcheng's figure reappeared in a narrow alley.
Even so, she showed no sign of relaxing, and her brow remained furrowed. Something still felt off.
Ji Qingcheng then looked back in the direction Li Musheng had been, and only when the invisible and nameless pressure that seemed to come from some unseen place slowly dissipated and finally vanished entirely did she finally let herself breathe.
Those cool eyes shifted through several expressions, and she thought privately, "Even my control-of-air ability, which stands near the top among all divine powers, was barely able to slip past his control."
"No wonder he was able to destroy Falling God Peak. His abilities are truly something to inspire awe."
Ji Qingcheng let out a quiet breath, then drew her gaze back.
It was fortunate she had never harbored any thought of striking at Li Musheng in revenge. If she had tried, that last encounter would have been the moment she followed her grandmaster-nephew into death.
With that thought, Ji Qingcheng had no desire to linger here. She thought briefly, then vanished from the spot once more.
Li Musheng was staying at the Cloud Arrival Inn right now, and if she went back into the inn to collect her gold, the disturbance would be considerable.
And so she decided it was better to find out where Second Young Master Wang's residence was first, and then go there in person to collect what she was owed. That would be far more straightforward.
Time passed as the sun sank fully in the west, and one by one the lights of Yun City came to life.
Yun City at night remained just as shrouded in mist as it had been during the day, if anything the fog growing thicker and heavier in the dark.
In the darkness, Ji Qingcheng's figure slowly materialized outside the gates of a large and extravagant residence.
She looked up. Before her stood vermilion double doors with bronze rings, and above them a large gilded plaque bearing two bold characters, "Wang Residence."
"This should be it."
Ji Qingcheng nodded slowly, then looked around.
The gates of the Wang Residence were tightly shut, and the place was very quiet. There was no sign at all of anyone preparing to transport ten thousand taels of gold to the Cloud Arrival Inn.
"It seems they did not take my threat seriously. The gold will have to be collected in person."
Ji Qingcheng's eyes were cold, carrying that layer of ice that never melted.
She stepped forward and knocked on the door.
But in the next moment she realized the Wang Residence's gate did not appear to be locked. A few knocks made it swing open a narrow crack.
Ji Qingcheng's brow furrowed slightly, and she pushed the bronze-ringed door open with one hand.
Very quickly, she realized something was not quite right.
The entire Wang Residence was far too quiet. And drifting through the air was the faint but unmistakable scent of blood.
Ji Qingcheng's brow drew tighter. She stepped inside and moved quickly to go deeper in. After a brief investigation, what she found was exactly what she had sensed.
Every person in the entire Wang Residence had been slaughtered. Not a single one had survived.
"What do I do about this?"
Ji Qingcheng stood beside Second Young Master Wang's body. A single finger-hole had been driven clean through the man's forehead, and several servants lay nearby.
Even the elderly man she had seen earlier in the day, who had possessed respectable martial cultivation, was already stone cold.
Ji Qingcheng had come only to collect money. She had never intended to kill anyone, and she had completely not anticipated that everyone in the Wang Residence would end up dead.
She swept a look around. The deaths must have occurred not long ago, but whoever had done this had acted with extraordinary precision. Every single person in the Wang Residence had been killed with one strike, without exception, and the killer had long since left without a trace.
Ji Qingcheng stared at the bodies covering the floor, hesitated briefly, and in the end shook her head, "Never mind. Death cancels all debts. I will let the gold go. As a good deed, I will report this to the authorities on their behalf."
With that, Ji Qingcheng's figure vanished from the spot, and she headed in the direction of Yun City's government office.
Not long after Ji Qingcheng left, a figure in black night-traveling clothes emerged from the shadows within the residence, watched the space where Ji Qingcheng had disappeared, stood briefly in place, then moved and was gone.
...
Not long after, when Ji Qingcheng kindly arrived at the Yun City government office and was preparing to report what had happened at the Wang Residence, she found the situation was already somewhat unusual.
Two separate groups had already come to report cases before she arrived, though neither of them was reporting the Wang Residence. Instead they were reporting the Ye family and the Xiao family elsewhere in the city.
What was more, both the Ye and Xiao families, just like the Wang Residence, had been wiped out down to the last person.
And having just received reports of the Ye and Xiao families being massacred in a single night, the entire Yun City government office had descended into a state of considerable agitation. They had already ordered all constables to return, and were urgently notifying the Six Doors and the Tianjin Guards within the city.
Ji Qingcheng watched all of this and found herself hesitating as to whether adding the Wang Residence massacre to the pile would be throwing oil onto an already blazing fire.
Even so, she grabbed hold of a constable rushing past, and told him directly and plainly what had happened at the Wang Residence.
The constable who had been about to leave came to an abrupt halt at Ji Qingcheng's words, clearly taken aback.
"Three families... the Wang family too... can someone really be targeting the Martial Saint?"
The constable muttered this to himself with a shaken and uncertain expression, then abruptly fixed Ji Qingcheng with a sharp look and demanded, "Is what you are saying completely true? Falsely reporting a case is punishable by flogging."
At those words, Ji Qingcheng nodded, then said with some curiosity, "You just said someone is targeting the Martial Saint. What do you mean by that?"
The Martial Saint on Yuming Mountain was someone every person in Yun City knew, and Ji Qingcheng naturally also knew the man's standing in the martial world.
That someone would dare move against someone of his nearly unparalleled martial cultivation in all of Great Li seemed genuinely difficult to believe.
The constable seemed to catch her puzzlement, and simply shook his head with an unhappy expression, "The heads of the Ye family, the Xiao family, and the Wang family you mentioned are all disciples of the Martial Saint. If three families have all been wiped out in a single night, and this is not targeting Yuming Mountain, then who else could it possibly be targeting?"
As he said this, the constable noticed that Ji Qingcheng was only a young woman, and decided not to say more to her.
He directed her to find someone else in the office to report the Wang Residence matter, then rushed off urgently, clearly heading in the direction of Yuming Mountain.
Seeing this, Ji Qingcheng furrowed her brow.
If what the constable had just said was accurate, the three families being wiped out did very likely point to someone moving against Yuming Mountain.
After all, given Martial Saint Mu Tianxing's reputation in the Great Li martial world, even someone with a profound grievance would not ordinarily do something as extreme as killing off three disciples' entire families as a provocation.
"It has barely been any time since Falling God Peak fell, and now trouble is already coming to Yuming Mountain. It seems the Great Li martial world is truly about to descend into chaos."
Ji Qingcheng thought this privately, then shook her head again.
Perhaps from the very moment Li Musheng led the Tianjin Guards to destroy Falling God Peak, the entire martial world had already been set on a course with no return to peace.
After that, Ji Qingcheng found another constable in the Yun City office and told him about the Wang Residence massacre, then left without waiting to be asked further questions.
After all, she had only come to report the matter. She had no desire to get tangled up in this kind of life-and-death martial world feud.
And besides, she had had a run-in with Second Young Master Wang during the day. If she stayed and someone mistook her for the killer, she would be bringing disaster on herself, and no amount of arguing would clear her name.
About an hour after Ji Qingcheng left, the constable who had gone to report returned in a rush, bringing with him a deeply alarming piece of news for the government office, the Six Doors, and the Tianjin Guards of Yun City.
"The Martial Saint was ambushed while in closed-door cultivation on Yuming Mountain and has sustained grievous injuries. He is now at death's door, and it is expected that Yuming Mountain will shortly issue a mourning announcement to the entire martial world."
The constable's face was white as paper. After receiving this news from Yuming Mountain and passing along the report about the three massacred families, he had hurried straight back.
The death of the Martial Saint was an event of undeniable significance for Yun City. It was not only a matter that touched all the factions within the city.
The fall of one of only two Martial Saints in the Great Li martial world would inevitably send shockwaves through the entire martial world beyond imagining.
And then there was the question of whoever had been able to ambush and mortally wound Martial Saint Mu Tianxing.
Generally speaking, even with the advantage of a sneak attack, how many people in the entire martial world could kill a Martial Saint through assassination?
Clearly the killer's own martial cultivation must be of an unfathomable depth.
And with such a dangerous individual now somewhere in Yun City, every person who learned of this would inevitably feel their own life was at risk.
…
Yun City, main hall of the government office.
"For the time being, the matter of the Yuming Mountain Martial Saint must be kept under strict lock and key. Under no circumstances allow it to leak out. Our immediate focus should be on investigating the massacres of the Ye, Xiao, and Wang families."
The official overseeing Yun City's government office spoke, consulting with a Gold Badge Constable of the Six Doors and a Tianjin Guards Commissioner on what to do next.
At those words, the Gold Badge Constable, whose expression was not particularly good, shook his head, "The news of what happened to the Martial Saint is not something we can contain simply by wishing to. If Yuming Mountain sends word to the martial world, it will spread through Yun City very quickly."
As he said this, he looked at the Commissioner of the Tianjin Guards beside him, who wore an expression of strict seriousness, and clasped his hands in inquiry, "I wonder what the Commissioner thinks of this matter?"
Since the news of the Tianjin Guards destroying Falling God Peak overnight had come out, the standing of Tianjin Guards posts throughout the provinces had risen considerably within the court's hierarchy.
At that moment, even the Six Doors was taking a step back in deference.
The Commissioner, whose expression was grave, shook his head and said, "That is difficult to say. But I believe we should avoid involving ourselves even in the Ye, Xiao, and Wang family matter for the time being."
"Looking at the situation as it stands, the three families being wiped out and the Martial Saint being ambushed were very likely carried out by the same person or group. If we move rashly, we could easily get ourselves killed."
At those words, the several people in the main hall all considered briefly, then one by one gave a nod.
"In that case, let us hold our position for now. Temporarily seal off the three residences, then report upward and wait for developments from Yuming Mountain before making any decisions."
The Gold Badge Constable of the Six Doors was the one to speak, reaching the final conclusion.
Yun City was a martial city, full of gathered martial world figures from every direction, and even the Six Doors and the Tianjin Guards had to tread very carefully here.
...
The following morning.
Li Musheng and his group, after a proper night's rest, ate breakfast at the Cloud Arrival Inn and then set out to leave Yun City.
That day, however, the city seemed to be in the midst of something significant. Martial world figures were hurrying back and forth throughout the streets.
Right as Li Musheng's group was leaving the Cloud Arrival Inn, several armed martial world figures burst in without a word of explanation and dragged away the server who had given Ji Qingcheng such trouble the day before.