Chapter 92: Towering Above All Living Beings

Ning Xiu shot out his right hand like lightning, seizing the inn boy’s arm. With a laugh, he said, “You haven’t told me the secret you know yet.”

The inn boy looked up at Ning Xiu and gave an awkward smile. Lowering his voice, he said, “I’ve got a relative who serves in the city guard. He told me that these village massacres weren’t the work of mountain bandits at all.”

“Then who did it?”

“Monsters,” the boy said solemnly.

Truth be told, even he only half believed it. He did not care in the least what the truth actually was; he merely wanted to wring some money from this sensational bit of news. In fact, he had used the same trick to frighten quite a few people already.

As Ning Xiu released his grip, he also swept up the broken silver on the table.

The inn boy could only watch the silver that had been within his grasp vanish away. A little anxious now, he asked, “Does the customer not believe what I said?”

Ning Xiu looked at him and smiled without speaking.

On the contrary, to Ning Xiu, what the boy had said was no secret at all.

He no longer paid the boy any mind and turned his attention to the wine and dishes before him.

Ning Xiu did not seem to eat very quickly, but the spread was gone in the blink of an eye. Rising, he set down a silver ingot and departed.

The inn boy stared at the ingot on the table, dumbfounded.

...

Almost everyone was pressing into the city, and Ning Xiu alone was walking against the current, heading out through the gates.

Among the crowd, he casually glanced back once.

Then he vanished completely into the vast sea of people.

After leaving the city gate, Ning Xiu unfurled his shifting footwork. His speed immediately surged, though it still fell short of his expectations.

He frowned. The two movement techniques he possessed were both only at the first star, and they were already struggling to keep pace with his present strength.

Truly, one only regrets the shortage of money when it is needed most. If he had a large sum of treasure coins on hand now, there would be no need to fret over such a problem.

The reason Ning Xiu had left the city was naturally to investigate the strange beings at Bull Family Village.

Yet for some reason, he did not head in that direction. Instead, he suddenly stopped before a stand of trees and quietly concealed himself in the darkness.

A moment later, two figures appeared where Ning Xiu had just stood.

By the moonlight, their appearance could be seen clearly.

They wore fish-dragon uniforms woven of cloud brocade, and at their waists hung elegant Wind Slicing sabers.

In the moonlight, the dragon head, fish body, and wings on their fish-dragon insignia seemed ready to come to life.

“Where did he go?” one of them asked.

“The trail vanishes here completely. Our movements must already have been exposed,” the other answered.

“Could it be the person we were looking for?”

“Very likely.”

“What should we do next?”

“Boss said we have seven days. We must bring back a living person or a corpse. Let’s send up a signal. He can’t have gone far. Even if we have to dig three feet into the ground, we must find him.”

With that, one of them reached for the signal arrow in his chest.

A cold voice suddenly rang out.

“Are you looking for me?”

The two constables from the Six Harmonies Office lifted their heads and saw Ning Xiu standing atop a tree branch at once.

One of the arresters first glanced at his companion, then looked up at Ning Xiu and said loudly, “I am Sun Zheng, a constable of the Six Harmonies Office. By order of our superior, I have come to bring you back to assist with an investigation.”

“And if I refuse?” Ning Xiu asked.

Truth be told, he did not trust an official court that allowed such horrors to run rampant. In the Great Harmony realm, no supreme expert had appeared in the martial world for several centuries, yet the government had always possessed the strength to contend with monsters. In other words, their source of power was not martial arts either.

Then the truth of the matter was all but self-evident. To Ning Xiu, the imperial court was the greatest aristocratic house in the entire Great Harmony Empire. Or rather, more precisely, it should be called the imperial clan.

Seeing Ning Xiu’s attitude, the constable’s expression changed drastically, and he was about to speak when his companion stopped him.

“We mean no harm. Since this brother does not wish to go, then we shall take our leave.” The older constable exchanged a look with his companion and was just about to depart.

A shadow flashed, and Ning Xiu had already appeared before them, blocking their path.

“In that case, what were you planning to do with that signal arrow?”

“Quickly notify the others! We have tracked him for so long; we must not let him escape this time!” the older constable shouted, having been exposed. Just as he was about to pull the signal arrow, he suddenly felt an incomparably dangerous aura sweeping toward him.

“Die!”

Ning Xiu threw a punch.

Infused with the force of the Golden Bell, the fist instantly tore through the air, its wind whistling like a gale.

The older constable’s head burst apart with a loud bang.

A peak first-grade expert, yet under Ning Xiu’s hand, he was as fragile as a child, utterly unable to withstand a single blow.

The remaining constable from the Six Harmonies Office, seeing this scene, seemed as though he had been struck by immobilizing sorcery. He stood there completely stunned. He could never have imagined that his colleague and senior would be killed so easily.

Only then did he realize what kind of person he had provoked.

He stared at the hand enlarging rapidly in his pupils, his face full of terror.

But by now, it was already far too late to run.

...

The air was thick with the stench of blood. Ning Xiu looked at the two bodies lying in the pool of gore, his expression unchanged.

These two had shown obvious hostility toward him, and from their earlier conversation, they had already been tracking him for days. In the city, Ning Xiu had long since sensed it, which was why he had deliberately lured them into showing themselves.

Yet even now, he still could not understand where that hostility, even that murderous intent, had come from. By rights, everything he had done so far had been to help the court. Was not the court only capable of protecting a county seat at best?

Could it be that in the days ahead, he would not only have to face monsters, but also the court?

Ning Xiu lifted his gaze to the pitch-black night. No one knew what was on his mind.

Deep in the mountains, the old Jia family estate lay in ruins.

A family that had flourished for nearly a thousand years had at last become dust in history.

Within the darkness, ghostly figures loomed.

Terrifying auras rose one after another from the shadows.

Those who could stand here were the backbone of the Nether Alliance, among them a white-haired old man.

“Elder Qi, the Jia family has fallen. At last we can step into the light,” someone said from the darkness.

The white-haired elder, addressed as Elder Qi, looked at the ruins before him and said, “Yes. At last we can step into the light! From this day onward, we need no longer hide in the world’s dark corners. We need no longer drift like wandering ghosts, evading the aristocratic houses’ hounds and claws. We need no longer live like dogs, surviving on the leftovers of those houses’ pity.”

“We can stand forth openly, and tower above all living things!”