Chapter 23: The Mysterious Murderer

  "Uh-huh." Long Qi nodded: "Let me introduce her. Her surname is Wen, and her name is Wen Xiang. This is Su Tang. She will be taking over for me later on."

  "Why are you advising me like that? You're not listening anyway?" Wen Xiang said: "Why bother? Do you really care about her opinion?"

  Xiang Ming was obviously talking about Long Qi, and Long Qi smiled and replied, "I owe her."

  "No wonder others say that those who are in power are confused, while those who observe from the side are clear." Wen Xiang let out a soft sigh: "You think I don't need to continue staying here, and I also think you don't need to sacrifice too much for her."

  "This is not sacrifice, but..."

  "I won't argue with you about this." Wen Xiang turned to Su Tang and smiled sweetly: "Sit down."

  "Don't be deceived by her appearance." Long Qi said: "The people here have given them three nicknames, and once they are spread, they will be called out. Tong Fei is called the Fierce Hammer, Xiao Bu Hui is called the Bone Thief, and she..."

  "Shut up!" Xiang leaned in close to Su Tang, one of her white and smooth hands still resting on his shoulder. Because they were so close, Su Tang could clearly smell the fragrance of orchids emanating from her breath: "We'll naturally..."

  "He is the one personally chosen by Da Zun." Long Qi said in a low voice.

  "Who is Da Zun?" Wen Xiang's expression stiffened, and her sweet smile vanished into thin air.

  "Who else could it be?" Long Qi replied calmly.

  Smelling the fragrance, he slowly straightened his body and a smile reappeared at the corner of his mouth: "Mr. Su, you two chat slowly, I'll go brew some tea for you."

  Su Tang looked at Long Qi with inquiring eyes, seeing Tong Fei and Xiao Buwu, why didn't Long Qi mention Da Zun before, but now he did?

  "It can only be like this." Long Qi said: "Otherwise I'm afraid you won't be able to subdue her."

  Su Tang almost fell over, he really couldn't understand Long Qi at all. If it was for Su Tang's own good, could they quietly tell him when leaving? The room was small and pitiful, Wen Xiang was just on the other side of the screen, definitely able to hear clearly. Did Da Zun's reputation still have any meaning? Others might even suspect the authenticity of this matter, wouldn't that make it even harder to calm down?!

  "Her nickname is Mó Kuī, the maggot of the maggots, taking the meaning of the maggot that takes the heel bone." said Lóng Qí Dào.

  Sniffing the fragrance, she walked back with her mouth pursed, heavily placing the teacup and teapot on the table, and stared at Long Qi with a huff.

  "She rose to fame three years ago, when she first killed..."

  "I've never killed anyone!" Wen Xiang argued.

  "Wait until I finish speaking before you speak!" Long Qi said sternly.

  Smelling the fragrance, she closed her mouth and gazed at the dragon flag with a melancholic look in her eyes.

  Longqi continued, "She killed one person, and it was almost three hundred days before the case shook the entire Changshan County. It was a real sensation! A martial artist named Tian Fengyang would mysteriously disappear from time to time, only to reappear in a garbage heap, covered in wounds all over his body. Once or twice wasn't a big deal, but as it happened more often, it attracted attention from many people, even the Tie, Bai, Cheng, and Mu families were startled."

  Many people have asked Tian Fengyang, but he himself can't explain what's going on. He only knows that he will inexplicably faint and when he wakes up, he finds himself in a gloomy and dark room. Then someone appears with a small knife and starts cutting his body.

  "Are the Tie, Bai, Cheng and Mu families all cultivator families? Would they care about the life or death of a warrior?" Su Tang asked, remembering that the Iron Canopy he had killed in the Dark Forest was the elder of the Tie family.

  "They wouldn't mind, of course." Long Qi chuckled: "The problem is, the four major families' people examined Tian Fengyang's injuries and found that many of them were fatal. Once, a small piece of his skull was missing, and you could see the membrane inside from the outside... Heh heh, yet he didn't die. And no one knows what kind of medicine the murderer gave Tian Fengyang, but after just one day, or at most two days, his injuries would completely heal! Do you know what this medical skill means for cultivators?!"

  Su Tang was stunned for a moment: "Did Tian Fengyang never think of a way to escape?"

  "Do you think he's stupid?" Longqi said, "He has tried many times, crawling out of the city from the sewer ditch, hiding under a horse carriage, disguising himself as a beggar, and even breaking into Miaodao Pavilion, asking me to send someone to escort him out of the city. But every time, he would be caught again and end up in the trash heap."

  "As the situation became more and more sensational, more and more people came to watch the excitement. Later, no matter day or night, Tian Fengyang was always surrounded by many people, but... he still disappeared regularly." Long Qi said: "In the end, the White family sent an elder to monitor Tian Fengyang. They didn't have any malicious intentions, nor did they care about Tian Fengyang's life or death. They just wanted to find the murderer and establish a relationship before others did. As a result, Tian Fengyang disappeared right under his nose."

  "This time, the four major families were getting restless. They collectively mobilized over 300 warriors and dozens of elders, surrounding the garbage heap so tightly that not even water could seep through. This was because the legend had already tarnished the reputation of their cultivator families. Until dawn, nothing happened, and the people from the four families let out a sigh of relief, thinking that the legendary story would come to an end there. However, someone discovered that the garbage heap was moving, and then Tian Fengyang crawled out of the garbage heap with injuries all over his body and only one breath left."

  Su Tang was stunned, such a bizarre thing, was it really done by this sweet and beautiful girl in front of him? Not to mention her, even that great master couldn't do it, right?

  If it's about defeating the warriors of the four major families and making them fall apart, Su Tang believes there's still a chance, but to deceive hundreds of eyes and secretly hide someone away, that would be extremely difficult.

  "Longqi asked, his gaze shifted onto Wenxiang."

  "What's going on? What are you talking about?" Wen Xiang widened her eyes in confusion, looking utterly perplexed: "I don't understand a single word!"

  "I've asked her for three years, but she never told me." Longqi smiled helplessly at Su Tang: "I only ask you one thing, if she confesses to you in the future, be sure to let me know."

  "Dragon Brother, what was Miaodao Pavilion doing at that time?" Su Tang suddenly asked. With such a big commotion, Miaodao Pavilion would not have stood idly by.

  "Cough..." Longqi's face immediately became awkward: "This... you'll have a chance to ask Xiao Bu later, but I'll tell you, after that, both Tong Fei and Xiao Bu were somewhat afraid of her."

  "How did you find her?" Su Tang asked, he understood that three years ago, Wen Xiang was not a person of the Miao Dao Pavilion, there must have been a process of searching for her, and the four major families had been searching for so long without finding her, was the potential strength of the Miao Dao Pavilion so powerful?

  "Good things don't happen to those who are not diligent." As soon as he mentioned this matter, Long Qi's face broke into a smile, clearly his proud work: "Two years before Tian Fengyang's incident, I had killed a girl by the trash heap. Did you see a cripple brush past us just now? He is that girl's father, living less than 100 meters away from here."

  Su Tang suddenly understood why Tian Fengyang had suffered such a vicious ordeal, and why the murderer had risked everything to throw him into that specific dumpster. The thread that connected all these questions was how Long Qi could find the mysterious killer.

  "What happened to Tian Fengyang in the end?" Su Tang asked.

  "He died, he got drunk in the tavern, suddenly burst into a loud curse, saying that the pain of being disembowelled and having his tendons and flesh cut was unbearable for humans, and even if there really was a hell, it would be thousands and tens of thousands of times more comfortable than this world, then he went home and killed himself."

  Su Tang slowly let out a breath, to be honest, Tian Fengyang's will was also unusually tenacious, and he could actually persist for so long. Of course, the murderer's will was even more tenacious, and they must have used that unbelievable method to torture Tian Fengyang.

  "Smelling fragrance, don't you want to say something to Su Tang?" Long Qi said.

  "I'm so sorry... it's our first meeting, how can I be so presumptuous." Xiang Wen blushed and turned her head to the side, saying in a low voice: "Mr. Su, please come over and sit with us often from now on."

  Su Tang smiled, he didn't know how to respond.

  "Let's go then." Longqi stood up.