He waited for several more hours, watching as the sky turned a deep red like fire on the horizon and gold spread across the land, signaling that the sun was setting in the west. But An Guo Xie still hadn't come to make his rounds, and his heart grew increasingly anxious, with a faint sense of unease.

  The fellow retreated into the shop and left by the back door, but had changed his attire to a white cloak and white turban, typical of a desert dweller.

  He walked extremely quickly through the town, around the small lake, and arrived at the area where the palace was originally located. Then, he stepped into the temple that Anguo Xie had entered last night.

  As soon as he entered the temple, his heart sank rapidly, and even after a long time had passed, the air was still filled with a faint smell of blood and an inexplicable, uncomfortable odor.

  Taking advantage of the sunset, he searched inch by inch for marks on the ground. Suddenly, his gaze froze in front of a broken stone statue, where there was a faint dark spot on the ground.

  Although it was clear that someone had dealt with the traces, this splattered blood was hidden extremely deeply. If it weren't for the fact that the sunset rays happened to shine on this spot at this time, revealing its uniqueness, I wouldn't have discovered it myself.

  This bandit, disguised as a partner, stood still, and without checking, he could guess that this was the blood of Master Anguo. He's probably no longer in this world. After all, if he killed someone else, why bother to deal with the traces? As long as he didn't kill the patriarch's relatives, the disciples favored by the ancestors of Xueshan, Jingang, Shura, and Huanxi temples, or important figures among the direct descendants, who could do anything to him?

  Things have gotten out of hand...... The horse bandit's spy let out a long sigh in his heart, this was no longer something he could handle on his own!

  One of the two disciples most valued by Lao Zu Zong, a great master with nine apertures open and a famous name on the people's list, was actually killed so silently?

  The murderer's strength is absolutely far beyond his own imagination!

  He searched carefully again for a while, didn't find any other clues, and not daring to delay, quietly went around the store, detailing what he saw and heard and his own speculations in a letter.

  At night, he sneaked to the edge of the forest by the small lake, pinched his lower lip and whistled. After three long and two short whistles, a strange bird with white top and black feathers flew out from the woods, happily landing on his shoulder, gently patting his head with its wings, extremely affectionate.

  The bandit exchanged emotions with the strange bird for a while, fed it several strips of fresh meat, and then tied the letter to its foot, letting it fly into the high sky.

  The horse thief stood there in a daze for a moment, let out a soft sigh, and quietly returned to the store.

  The next day, he was selling goods as usual. At dusk, when he was about to close the door under the boss's orders, a tall middle-aged man suddenly appeared in front of him. He had no hat on his head, wore a black robe, had short and coarse hair, a full beard, and a black eye patch over his left eye. A narrow and sinister-looking black saber hung at his waist.

  "Older brother." The bandit lowered his head, respectfully shouting in the Western Regions' language, rather than the unwritten Great Jin language of the trade routes.

  This person is Zhen Luoju, one of the three great horse bandits of Hanhai, a disciple of Crying Old Man, an expert in external scenery, nicknamed "Hanhai Evil Sword".

  "Zhiluo's voice was hoarse and had a special magnetism, and he said in the Western Regions language: 'Where is the temple?'"

  An Guo Xie was a master of the nine orifices, one of the most powerful among the Cry of the Old Men. His death was of great importance, so Zuo Rou Ju received a secret letter and rushed over personally.

  The bandit didn't dare say anything more, glanced at the shopkeeper and found him completely unaware, as if there was no Luo Ju standing by the door. A feeling of admiration suddenly arose in his heart - indeed worthy of being called the evil knife of Han Hai.

  He hastily closed the shop door and left from the back, taking Zhen Luo into the temple.

  Zeruoju gazed at the faint bloodstain on the ground, slowly removing his eye patch. The empty left eye socket suddenly lit up with a faint green glow, as if there were fish-like objects swimming and swirling inside. The temple was immediately filled with the sound of vengeful spirits, becoming dark and eerie.

  His left eye was dug out by the old man, but fortunately, he practiced a very difficult divine art - "Ghostly Evil Eye", which is also one of the origins of the nickname "Evil Knife".

  The faint green light grew brighter and brighter, the entire temple seemed to be illuminated with a pale glow, eerie and terrifying. The bandit's horse trembled with fear, its spirit shaken.

  Zeluoju looked for a while, turned around and walked out of the temple, stepped slowly to the edge of the small lake, then raised his hand, a strong wind rolled up, and the lake suddenly churned up a whirlpool.

  Whoosh! The whirlpool rapidly expanded and suddenly burst forth, with white waves shooting up into the sky. Two rocks were brought to the surface.

  And on the stones were tied a headless corpse and a shattered skull.

  Ma Fei's eyes narrowed as he took a look, and although the corpse's face had been bitten by fish in the lake until it was bloody and blurry, that distinctive white hair clearly proved that he was indeed An Guo Xie, who had really been killed!

  "Good kill. I've been wanting to get rid of this dog for a long time." Zhen Luo said in a calm and flat tone, "But even if it's right to kill, we're the only ones who can do it!"

  His "Yin and Yang Evil Eye" had no ability to identify wounds, so he put on his mask again and squatted beside the corpse for a closer examination.

  His eyebrows, heart, and cheeks all had scars, but they were intentionally destroyed, plus the fish had bitten and swallowed them, so it was impossible to confirm what kind of martial arts had caused them, nor could it be confirmed whether they were fatal... Luo Ju muttered to himself in a low voice, while the bandit Ma also wisely did not respond.

  "There are hidden scars, severe poisoning, and the heart is severely damaged, which should be one of the main causes of death. The remaining toxic gas marks in the meridians and the signs of internal energy dissipation before death..." Luo Ju said, half lost in thought and half observing.

  "The skeleton is completely softened, it should be done when avoiding swords, and can make the puppy do this, either by completely suppressing his strength or coming hastily, reacting not in time... The Crazy Sand Divine Art has a reverse operation sign, combined with the previous one, it should be used to counteract the toxin and dispel the poisonous gas. If his strength can suppress him, there is no need to go through so much trouble..."

  Then Luo patted his hands, stood up and said to the horse bandit: "The murderer's strength does not exceed six holes, good at using poison, good at launching hidden weapons, being a reserved person, knife and sword skills should be very good. An Guo's mistake was that he himself made a mistake, didn't guard against it, was smoked by scattered work poisonous gas, and took advantage of his unpreparedness to launch a surprise attack, the knife and sword were just a cover, the hidden weapon was the real cause of death, however, from his deliberate destruction of the knife and sword wounds, he must have had some ultimate moves in terms of knives and swords, can't be ignored."

  "Big brother, it should be that little monk. At his age, he's probably just opened his eyes to the world, what should we do?" Ma asked.

  "Don't underestimate, I will pass the order down, within the vast ocean, all brothers will kill this villain together." Luo Ju wanted to handle many things in the vast ocean, seeing that the murderer's strength was not as strong as he had imagined, and it was only by relying on many clever tricks that he killed An Guo Xie, so he did not have the idea of pursuing and killing him personally.

  It's also true that within the vast ocean, one-third of the pirates are being searched and hunted down, surrounded and killed, which is a very terrifying thing!

  Among these bandits, there are countless masters of escape, all of whom are fugitives familiar with the terrain, gathering and calling out to each other, connecting with one another. If caught by a group of bandits, they cannot escape in time or hide their tracks. Even if they have opened nine apertures, they may still meet their demise here.

  "Yes, boss." The bandit didn't dare look directly at Zhen Luo's sharp right eye that was as keen as a knife.

  …………

  Liusha Ji, Meng Qi in white Confucian robes and Gu Zhangqing, who looks like a weak scholar, return on horseback, as if two traveling scholars.

  "Finally arrived." Gu Changqing let out a sigh of relief.

  On the way, he made several wrong turns and arrived at Liusha a day later than expected.

  Meng Qi's mouth twitched, this guy seemed a bit unreliable, would he be able to find his younger brother in the vast ocean or would he bring disaster upon himself?

  "Hmm, finally arrived." Meng Qi no longer spoke in a monk's tone.

  Hearing Meng Qi's response, Gu Changqing looked embarrassed and said with a smile: "I have limited experience, it's not that I don't understand the terrain, look, didn't we end up at Liusha Village after all?"

  "Yes." Meng Qi nodded with a smile to save his face.

  Populus euphratica trees stand in various poses along the road, and the sand dunes seem to have shaken off the influence of the great battle between Xuanbi and Laolao, and have regained a lot of charm.

  Meng Qi and Gu Changqing entered the "First House of Hanhai" together, and at first, they saw the counter on the side, or saw Qu Jiu Niang, who was beautiful and mature in appearance but extremely vicious in character.

  Jiuniang loved to tidy up or not, lying on the counter with a lazy and seductive appearance, many passing customers swallowed their saliva but didn't dare look more.

  "Shopkeeper, I'd like to ask for some information." Meng Qi wore a silk hat, covering up the fact that he had no hair.

  "No news." Qu Jiu Niang said concisely and didn't want to say more, this is a place for eating and lodging, not a place for inquiring about news!

  Meng Qi had the urge to teach her a lesson again, it was too despicable. However, thinking that she might be an expert in outdoor scenes, he still held back his temper and took out an emerald: "Shopkeeper, I'm willing to pay a high price."

  As soon as she saw this extraordinary emerald, Qu Jiu's eyes lit up and her whole person suddenly became spirited, becoming even more charming and captivating.

  "Get it out earlier, money talks!" Qiuniang said with a scowl.

  This was the first time she looked straight at Meng Qi after entering, as soon as she finished speaking, her face changed slightly, and she carefully sized up Meng Qi from head to toe, looking at his eyes, his ears, his skin, his hands, and the dark red dagger hanging from his waist and the long sword wrapped in a light gold scabbard, making Meng Qi feel uneasy, what was she looking at?

  Then, Qu Jiu Niang's complexion recovered, and she said indifferently: "Since you want to gather information, go inside the house, lest someone overhear."

  Meng Qi had no opinion on this, and the information he had inquired about might have exposed his identity. There were probably horse bandit spies around here.

  Jiuniang came out from behind the counter and walked upstairs first, her waist was slender, her back was elegant, she walked slowly, like a gentle breeze swaying willows. Meng Qi and Gu Changqing hurried to follow behind her.

  Some guests whispered and laughed: "When did you go to the house to inquire about the news? I remember that Jiuniang has never had such a rule?"

  "It turns out that Jiuniang likes this kind of pretty boy, clean and refreshing, the most nourishing, hehe." They laughed with great obscenity.

  Jiuniang heard that, her eyebrows turned upside down, she picked up the small wooden basin that Xiao Er was using to wipe the table and splashed it over: "Nourish your mother and go!"