“Green Stair and Blue Stair assassin of the Unrelenting Tower?” Shi Xiaoxiu blurted out, trembling as she displayed her shock its entirety.
Shi Xiaodang, Housekeeper Zhou and the Elder who was an Exterior master shared her reaction. Even though Ling Yue did not show his fright, he flew up with the bamboo stick across his chest, looking around with his ferocious eyes. His stance of alertness represented the severity of the situation.
Rumor had it that the headquarters of Unrelenting Tower was in the North Zhou Dynasty, where top-tier assassins appeared more frequently than in the Great Jin Dynasty. Thus, Ling Yue and the rest had a deep understanding of the different type of assassins. The more they knew of the organization, the more they were aware and the more they dared not provoke them.
The tower’s assassinations had a near 90% success rate and tasks would be abandoned after three failed attempts, with a full refund. There wouldn’t be any retaliation due to the headquarters being mysterious. These facts about the Unrelenting Tower painted a cold, tough, and emotionless impression of the harshly rational assassin sect.
These rules kept the Unrelenting Tower going for thousands of years, making sure they outlived numerous other assassination organizations.
Ling Yue and co. were also aware of the power level system of the assassins, which was based on the colors of the rainbow. Different colors represented not a particular realm but what level of opponent one can assassinate. Red Stair assassins could kill those at Half-step Exterior Scenery, Orange Stair and Yellow Stair assassins could deal with weak and strong Top Class Master Pros respectively, while Green Stair assassins were tasked to deal with Peerless Master Pros.
However, everyone was extremely skilled at grandmaster level, each having their own supreme art. Other than a few terrifying monsters, the rest could not be looked down upon as well. Furthermore, the Unrelenting Tower only had few of such top-tier assassins despite their deep foundation. Thus, only Blue Stair assassins were tasked with killing grandmasters.
Only one or two Purple Stair assassins appeared in every generation. They were usually the Tower Lord of the Unrelenting Tower, capable of murdering Half-Step to Dharkamaya masters. There was also the Assassin of the Summit, a rank that had only appeared three times in the tower’s entire history!
At this moment, Shi Xiaoxiu and co. were naturally frightened after hearing that a Green Stair assassin, who could kill almost all Peerless Master Pros, or a Blue Stair assassin, who could frighten even grandmasters, was eavesdropping on them. They were so focused on that they ignored the latter half of Meng Qi’s sentence.
“Mendicant of the Manic Staff” Ling Yue was the first to react. “There are still clues left?”
“In the style of the Unrelenting Tower, the assassin will escape immediately after his job and would not linger around for an accident to happen, much less eavesdrop. That means that even though the killing was done, the job was incomplete as important information still lingered here.” As Meng Qi explained, he took out his Heaven Inflicted Pain, giving off the calm and brave aura of a swordsman.
Seeing that Meng Qi was not afraid and did not overreact, the rest relaxed a bit too. They quietly praised Killing Blade for detecting the presence of top-tier assassins while keeping calm in the face of such a terrible enemy.
No wonder everyone called him the future 1st rank of Terrestrial Rankings!
Meng Qi’s Heaven Inflicted Pain was an exquisite weapon with a better perception ability than his Eight Nine Mysteries. Thus, he used the saber as his eyes and ears to re-examine the scene of Shi Tianqi’s death.
“Are the dead trees around here the work of Fort Master Shi?” Meng Qi seemed to ask randomly.
“Yes, it’s father’s Coup De Grace.” Even though Shi Xiaodang was young, he knew all of his father’s martial art techniques.
Meng Qi nodded. “Judging from the wound, there seems to be only one assassin around. The two corpses were close together and didn’t seem to have been moved. If your father was assassinated first, the spy would have definitely tried to escape, increasing the distance between the two bodies. Thus, we can deduce that it was the spy who was killed first. After your father arrived, he must have tried to help but the assassin ambushed him from behind and stabbed his Yuzhen meridian point.”
“That is natural. After all, Lone Wolf carries important information that the assassin wanted.” Housekeeper Zhou frowned.
“That’s not right.” Ling Yue understood Meng Qi’s explanation. “Would the assassin be sure that killing Lone Wolf and Elder Shi meant getting rid of all clues? That would not be true unless he was sure that Lone Wolf left no clues behind at other places and had no friends hiding. However, if he was sure of that, he would completely know of Lone Wolf’s movements and would have acted sooner. Elder Shi wouldn’t be involved then.”
Meng Qi added, “Thus, the correct situation should be that the assassin tried to capture Lone Wolf by using his swordwill to seal his Vital Spirit before killing Fort Master Shi. Unfortunately, even though Lone Wolf was unable to defend himself from the assassin, he could self-destruct and turn himself into dust. This created an opportunity for Fort Master Shi and made the assassin certain that he had a backup plan. Thus, the assassin stayed to monitor the situation.”
“But we let him down. We know nothing!” Shi Xiaoxiu smiled wryly.
No wonder the assassin did not strike just now!
Ling Yue was still on alert. “What kind of clues are we looking for? How do we find them?”
“The information must be extremely important for Lone Wolf to risk his life and travel south. However, I’m curious why he didn’t spread the information while he was hidden in the dark. If the information had become widespread, he would have been in much less danger and faced retaliation instead of assassination,” Meng Qi said doubtfully.
Ling Yue shook his head. “It won’t work. Numerous rumors spread from the grassland every year, from Gu Erduo having a breakthrough to Earth Immortal, awakening Heaven-Killing Axe and attacking down south to him suffering Qi-deviancy Derangement and getting killed by the people around him, creating a good opportunity for us to strike. There are also rumors on the Clan of Ge, Xiahou, Shangguan and Cao secretly hooking up with the Golden Camp to change the power landscape of the land around us. At first, we still investigated the situation. But now, we treat all unreliable information as a joke.”
“With the trusted nickname of ‘Lone Wolf’, it was much quicker for him to come here and inform us.”
Meng Qi looked at Housekeeper Zhou and asked, “Does Lone Wolf have any relatives?”
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“A wife and a son. But I’m not sure if he brought them south,” Housekeeper Zhou replied honestly.
“Perhaps he left them somewhere else and told them to spread the information if he went missing for a few days. Or perhaps he left the information with someone else. There are too many possibilities for me to guess accurately. Unless the other party comes and find us, we cannot do much,” Meng Qi mused. “How about we bring Fort Master Shi’s body back to the Shi Clan Citadel first?”
Ling Yue sensed the surroundings but found nothing. Thus, he brought Housekeeper Zhou and the rest back to the citadel.
As soon as Meng Qi entered the Shi Clan Citadel, he suggested, “Activate the protective spell to prevent the assassin from spying.”
Shi Xiaoxiu agreed and immediately went to the center of the castle.
Later on, all of them met again at the study.
Meng Qi stood near the window, with his hands behind his back, seemingly enjoying the scenery. Shi Xiaoxiu and Housekeeper Zhou looked at each other, confused as to why Meng Qi called them here.
Suddenly, Meng Qi turned around and walked toward Housekeeper Zhou. “Other than you three, who else knows about the relationship between Fort Master Shi and Lone Wolf?”
“How can others know?” Housekeeper Zhou shook his head in denial. “Even the tribal head that sent Lone Wolf to the Golden Camp knew nothing of the matter as he was passed through various sources. Some clues are already missing as such it is impossible to find out that he was from us.”
“Fort Master was always cautious. He would never make such silly mistakes.”
Shi Xiaoxiu and Ling Yue nodded in agreement as that was like Shi Tianqi indeed.
Meng Qi nodded slowly. “Lone Wolf traveled south knowing how dangerous it was. Thus, he must have traveled secretly and had not been discovered by the assassins, or he would have died long ago without leaving a backup plan, and we would know nothing of this information.”
“Yes. If the assassin discovered Lone Wolf long ago, Elder Shi wouldn’t have been involved at all.” Ling Yue spoke with a burst of indignation. He had a hot temper and spoke directly and did not like to think. He did not understand why Meng Qi repeatedly mentioned these obvious facts.
Meng Qi sighed and continued, “That raises the question: If the assassin hadn’t found Lone Wolf, why would he lie in ambush at the Brook of the Fallen Souls?”
The same meaning explained in a different perspective shocked the rest as they vaguely grasped a key to the issue.
“Basically, we can be sure that the assassin followed Fort Master Shi all these days and found Lone Wolf through him,” Meng Qi walked in circles, staring at all. “Lone Wolf is a spy that ventured south after getting the information. Who would have thought of following Fort Master Shi to get to Lone Wolf if not someone here?”
Suddenly, he stared straight at Housekeeper Zhou. “Housekeeper Zhou, you told me that only the three of you knew the inside story. Can you answer my doubt?”
Housekeeper Zhou’s face turned pale as his teeth clattered. His eyes turned dead when lightning struck his body and sealed his Vital Spirit, preventing him from swallowing poison.
“Housekeeper Zhou, it’s you!” Shi Xiaoxiu and Shi Xiaodang were surprised and angry. They could not believe that Housekeeper Zhou, who had accompanied their father for a longer time than they had, would betray him.
At this moment, the Elder pointed at Housekeeper Zhou and uttered in shock, “No wonder you sent your son to a school in Changle that day!”
“You had Aunt Zhou accompany him too!” Shi Xiaoxiu understood what was happening and tears fell from her eyes. “Housekeeper Zhou, my father treated you like family but you murdered him! You colluded with those grassland savages!”
Ling Yue could not help looking at Meng Qi. “Have you been suspecting him all this while?”
“Ever since we went to the Brook of the Fallen Souls but the Blue Stair assassin was present there. If I had spoken right then, we would have gotten killed. Now that we are safe within the protective spell, we can interrogate this man,” Meng Qi explained calmly.
“No wonder he suggested coming back! No wonder he suggested activating the protective spell!” Shi Xiaoxu and Shi Xiaodang stared at Meng Qi in shock and disbelief as they refused to believe that Meng Qi was of the same generation as them, and not some senior or martial art legend!
Furthermore, there was a terrifying Blue Stair assassin from the Unrelenting Tower outside!
Housekeeper Zhou was devastated. His eyes darted from left to right and he opened his mouth, ready to speak.
Suddenly, a dark fire burnt in his body. Meng Qi failed to save Housekeeper Zhou as the latter was reduced to ashes in an instant!
“Seems like the Dominator’s work…” Meng Qi frowned.