Chapter 376 - 245: Everything Becomes Clear
Chapter 376: Chapter 245: Everything Becomes Clear
The night rain drifted down.
The roads were nearly empty.
Chen Yi silently trailed five li behind Ge Muxiao and Lv Jiunan. He infused his ears with True Essence, listening to their conversation from afar.
The Left King’s son?
The Left King...
Chen Yi knew of only one person who held the title of "Left King"—Left King Mu Hage of the Barbarian Race.
He was the one who had led the Barbarian army north to attack Mengshui Pass five years ago, causing the deaths of Xiao Fengchun, Fu Wanqing, and many others from the Xiao family.
’The Left King’s son is in Shu State?’
An image of the young barbarian he had seen on his last trip to the East Market immediately surfaced in Chen Yi’s mind.
He recalled that the young barbarian had been subtly protected by the other barbarian slaves, which did suggest he was a barbarian of noble status.
’But how could the son of Left King Mu Hage be abducted by people from Poshisu Country, brought to Shu State, and sold as a barbarian slave?’
’How strange.’
What Chen Yi found even stranger was—
Lv Jiunan and his companion were also horse bandits from Poshisu Country. If they wanted to rescue the Left King’s son, why not directly approach the people from Poshisu Country who were selling the barbarian slaves in the East Market?
Why would they instead choose to hire an Evil Demon from the Illusory Sound Sect in the Western State to rescue the barbarian slaves?
Unless... the Poshisu Country horse bandits who had abducted the Left King’s son were not part of the same group as Lv Jiunan.
As he thought, Chen Yi muttered to himself, ’Going through all this trouble seems unnecessarily complicated.’
After a moment of thought, he still had no leads, so he decided to stop overthinking it.
As long as he kept a close watch on Lv Jiunan and the others, he would eventually uncover the truth.
Just then, a golden light flashed before his eyes—
[Witnessed Hidden Guard Lady Tiger Lou Yuxue discussing important matters with horse bandits from Poshisu Country. Reward: Zither Score "Autumn Rain," Opportunity +63.]
[Evaluation: You arrived, you heard, you saw. You acted to intimidate Lv Jiunan and Ge Muxiao of Poshisu Country without arousing the Lady Tiger’s suspicion. Your performance was adequate.]
Chen Yi glanced at the notification and pursed his lips. He then used the cover of night to continue tailing Lv Jiunan and Ge Muxiao from a distance.
This Opportunity certainly made tonight’s risk worthwhile.
The surroundings were silent save for the clamor of the falling rain.
The bamboo hat on Chen Yi’s head was particularly noisy, the PATTER PATTER of the rain endless.
But with his full concentration, the sounds around him flowed into his ears, even clearer than the raindrops.
This was especially true for Lv Jiunan and Ge Muxiao’s conversation and footsteps.
"Tomorrow night, go to the Lin Family and investigate Bright Moon Building. See if you can find out who wants to see the king."
"Yes, General."
"Hmm?"
"Gen... Brother, I forgot..."
"We’re in Shu State now. You need to be careful with every word and action."
’General?’
Chen Yi frowned. ’It seems there’s more to this Lv Jiunan than meets the eye.’
He just didn’t know if this "General" was an official rank from Poshisu Country, or a self-appointed title among King Landu’s horse bandits.
About an hour passed.
Chen Yi followed Lv Jiunan and Ge Muxiao as they circled from South City to the West Market, and then from the West Market to North City.
At one point, they even scaled the city wall to venture outside.
After much weaving and winding, Chen Yi finally noticed that Lv Jiunan and Ge Muxiao had stopped.
Chen Yi zipped to the top of a nearby courtyard wall and looked out from a distance.
He saw Lv Jiunan and Ge Muxiao land on a Painted Boat on Quchi.
It was brightly lit.
Two other young men dressed in brocade came out and bowed. "Brother Lü, Brother Ge Mu."
Lv Jiunan nodded slightly. "Let’s talk inside."
"Please..."
Seeing them enter the Painted Boat, Chen Yi executed the Meteor Butterfly Step, silently closing the distance by two li and landing atop a three-story wooden building not far from Quchi.
He focused his gaze.
A flag hung from the Painted Boat—it was emblazoned with the character "Liu."
’Liu? As in Liu Hong?’
’Or Liu Si? Or maybe one of the other Liu Families in Shu State?’
’And those two young men...’
Chen Yi thought for a moment, but they didn’t seem familiar, so he put it out of his mind.
But at that moment, no sound came from the Painted Boat, which told him it must have a soundproofed room.
His brow furrowed, and he risked moving another two li closer.
It wasn’t until he reached the edge of Quchi that he could faintly hear some sounds coming from inside the Painted Boat.
The sounds weren’t clear, but they were enough for him to make out the gist of the conversation.
A strange voice said, "...after burning the Ji State Trading Company’s grain storehouse, did those barbarian slaves notice anything?"
Lv Jiunan replied in a low voice, "I don’t think so."
"This time, we came to rescue them at Lord Liu’s request, which already broke the rules of the Pirate Alliance. It’s impossible to send them back to barbarian territory via the detour on the Ancient Tea-Horse Road."
"This matter requires you to step in..."
The young voice chuckled. "Brother Lü, there’s an old saying in the Wei Dynasty: ’one task, one master.’ Since you’ve started the job, why not see it all the way through?"
Lv Jiunan didn’t reply.
But Ge Muxiao spoke up coldly. "My king has already made it clear: the Pirate Alliance must not be broken."
"If those human traffickers find out we were behind this, the newly stabilized Pirate Alliance will surely fall apart."
"With what could your father, Liu Hong, compensate the king for such a loss?"
Hearing this, Chen Yi raised an eyebrow. ’Liu Hong’s son?’
As he recalled, Liu Hong had only two sons.
The elder was Liu Taoyao, and the younger was Liu Taofang.
The former was a scholar who, though he passed the provincial exam, did not place in the top three of the final imperial examination. He had since become a government official.
He was a minor official, a Senior Seventh Grade tax collector at the Shu State Governor’s Office.
The latter was a good-for-nothing, idle scholar who was currently still studying at Guiyun Academy.
Given the situation, the man on the Painted Boat was likely Liu Taoyao.
’So, Lv Jiunan rescuing those barbarian slaves was at Liu Hong’s request?’
Chen Yi frowned slightly, replaying the events of that night in his mind.
First, after the barbarian slaves set fire to the East Market Grain Storehouse, they were rescued by Lv Jiunan.